“Iced Americano please” Jooyoung said to the cashier. He’d been trying to stop himself from going there for days,but his curiosity got the best of him.

“Here’s your change.” She said. Her voice is pretty, he thought to himself. Their hands brushed as she handed him his change. He took his seat in a corner of the small café.

This is creepy, why am I even here?

Jooyoung was curious about his friend’s girlfriend ever since he’d mentioned her casually, as if he’d already told him about her. What did she look like? Was she nice? Was she pretty? Until finally he found himself in the creepy situation he’s in now. 

He sighed before taking a sip of his coffee. “She is pretty and she seems nice.” He said to himself as he watched her smile brightly at each customer.

Suddenly his phone rang. His heart almost jumped out of his chest when he saw “TRBL” flash across the screen.

“Hello!” Jooyoung said frantically as if he’d been caught.

“Hey man! Whatcha doin’?”

“Oh me? I’m at the café not too far from my house, why?”

“Oh really? I was on my way to your house, which one?” Dean said happily on the other line.

Jooyoung hopped out of his seat bumping his knee on the table. “OW!” He yelled as he scrambled to rub his knee with his other hand.

“Hello? Hyung, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I’m leaving now so I’ll just meet you at the house, okay?”

“Ummm. Sure, that’s fine. I’ll see you then.” 

Jooyoung didn’t even respond before he ended the call and quickly started to make his way back to the house.

It took Jooyoung about ten minutes to get there, he walked since the café was so close. When he’d finally arrived, Dean was waiting in front of his door.

“Hey man, are you okay?” He said laying the back of his hand on Jooyoung’s forehead. “Your cheeks are all red and you feel a little warm.”

Jooyoung swatted his hand away. “That’s because I walked here, I rushed over since I knew you would be waiting.

Dean smiled brightly. “Aaww. You didn’t have to, I didn’t wait long.” Jooyoung walked around him so he could put his passcode in. Dean following behind him as he entered his home.

“So, uhmm. What made you drop by?” Jooyoung said nervously. 
He felt ridiculous getting shy and anxious around this man who was a year younger than him, but he couldn’t help himself. That’s just the way he feels about the guy. 

“I just wanted to. I finally have some time on my hands, so why not?” Dean said making his way over to the kitchen. He peaked his head in the fridge looking for something to eat as Jooyoung watched him lovingly.

He is so gorgeous, seriously. Everything he does is gorgeous. Jooyoung let out a small sigh. It would be great if we could be togeth-

He stopped himself when the image of his crushes girlfriend raided his brain.

“Yah! What the hell have you been eating?” Dean yelled from the kitchen.

“I’ve been busy too ya know, I’ve been ordering a lot of takeout lately.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Dean his teeth while shaking his head. “Well, jangjamyeon it is.” Dean said grabbing the menu off the side of the refrigerator. “Should I get two?”

“Sure.” Jooyoung said flopping down on the couch. He grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels.He could hear Dean in the background ordering and he felt his heart rate speed up. He loved the way his voice sounded whether it be singing, talking or laughing, to Jooyoung his voice was one of his most attractive traits.

“So, how have you been man?” Dean says flopping down beside him. Jooyoung scooted over, resting his arm on the edge of the sofa.

“Oh, nothing much. Just working on a few tracks here and there. I’m not too serious right now.”

“Why not? Are you distracted or something?”

Jooyoung shifted his body to look him in the eye. “So, you don’t get distracted?”

Dean scratched his head as he processed the question. “Hmmm, sometimes.”

“So, now you’re not distracted?” Jooyoung asked beating around the bush. He wanted to flat out ask him if his girlfriend was distracting him from making music but he was too nervous to do so. 

Dean furrowed his eyebrows, then chuckled. “What are you trying to say?”

“It was just a question.”

“Yeah, but you meant something by it.”

“No, I just wanted to know if you get distracted too. I don’t know why you’re being so serious.” Jooyoung said curling his knees up to his chest.

Dean raised an eyebrow, “Hyung, if you want to say something just say it.” Dean said inching closer toward him. Jooyoung’s heart began to race again when the doorbell rang. Jooyoung let out a sigh and let his feet hang off the side of the couch. Dean got up slowly and went to pay the delivery man.

Jooyoung got up and followed Dean into the kitchen.

After dishing up the food they sat in silence for a few minutes when Dean couldn’t take it anymore. “Why’d you ask me that?”

“Huh? Ask you what?” Jooyoung said playing dumb.

“If you wanted to know about Hyojin and I, you could have just asked.”

Hyojin was her name. She probably was wearing a name tag when he saw her earlier but he was too focused on her beauty and his envy. Jooyoung laughed nervously. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be in your business. I apologize if I overstepped.

“No, it’s cool. You’re my friend, right?” Dean said as he slurped a string of noodles into his mouth. “You shouldn’t be afraid to ask me anything, bro. Since what you wanted to say was so obvious, I’ll answer your question. No, I don’t get distracted by Hyojin. If anything, I feel more inspired because of her.”

Jooyoung laughed nervously, mostly out of embarrassment. “Oh.” Jooyoung said awkwardly before he began eating. 

Dean stared at him for a moment “Yah, you’ve been acting a little weird lately. Has anything been bothering you?”
“No, n-nah. No” He cleared his throat hoping to sound like less of an idiot. Oh, I don’t know maybe it’s the fact that I’m madly in love with you and you have a GIRLFRIEND!  “Nothing’s been bothering me.” Jooyoung said instead.

Dean squinted at him and continued eating.

They continued to eat while catching up on what each other had been up to in the last couple of weeks. After a few hours, Dean helped Jooyoung wash the dishes and left.

“Alright hyung. It was nice catching up with you, and remember you can talk to me about anything.” Dean said before hugging him. Jooyoung sniffed his neck before he pulled away. Jooyoung watched as he made his way down the hall toward the elevator. When he was out of view Jooyoung closed the door. He let out a deep breath and leaned against the door.

“You idiot.” He says to himself before going to his room and calling it a night.

 Twenty minutes later Jooyoung was lying in bed unable to fall asleep. “Ugh!” He yelled before throwing the covers off himself and sitting on the edge of the bed. He reached over and grabbed his phone off his dresser.

“Hello?”

“Yah! Wake up!”

“I wasn’t asleep ! What do you want?” Giriboy exclaimed.

“Dean thinks I’m acting weird.”

“Uh-Oh. Hold on.”

Jooyoung got back in bed and leaned against the headboard while he waited for Giriboy to get back on the line.

“Okay, I’m back. I was just leaving the club when you called.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t worry about it, I’m fi-“

“It’s okay, I’m in the car now. What happened?”

“I don’t know we were talking and I wanted to ask him about his girlfriend but it wasn’t coming out right. So, it sounded like I was asking if he was distracted by having a girlfriend.” Jooyoung ran his fingers through his hair.

“Hmmm. Okay, so from what you’re telling me. It sounds like you wanted to ask about his relationship and by not saying what was on your mind, it caused him to draw his own conclusion which was that you wondered if he was distracted professionally by his girlfriend. Am I right?”

Jooyoung sighed, “Yeah, that’s it. But really, I didn’t mean to offend him or anything. I just wanted to know if his relationship was affecting his work in any way.”
“But why did you want to know that? Yah, let me ask you something. Are you being affected professionally because of your love for him?”

Jooyoung inhaled deeply and thought about the question, after a few seconds of nothing but the sound of Giriboy’s car on the road Jooyoung replied. “Yes, it does. I hadn’t given it much thought until now. I’m constantly thinking about him and it’s not just thinking of him like I used to. I’m thinking about his relationship all the time now. Do you know what I did today?”

“Oh God, what did you do?”

“I went to her job, just so I could see what she looked like. I was that curious. It was eating me up inside, and now that I’ve seen her I feel even worse.”

“Dude, you have got to say something to him. You can’t let this continue, this isn’t healthy! You can either say something to him, get your heart broken and know for a fact that he’s not into you or forever wonder what it would have been like had you let him know. Because, I’m not going to be by your side when he asks you to be his best man when he marries that girl.”

Jooyoung’s heart dropped at the thought of it. “Do you think he would?”

“I don’t know man, but that wasn’t the damn point! Grow a pair and tell him how you feel! And if he turns you down then I’ll be by your side to pick up the pieces, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks man.” Jooyoung said before yawning.

“Alright. I’m always here for you and let me know how it goes. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight” Jooyoung replied before plugging his phone back into the charger and laid down.