Jiyong sighed looking at Seunghyun. He had his eyes closed, allowing noona to do her work. She was doing his haircut, his new military hairstyle. And Jiyong was smiling, but just to prevent him from crying. He had been smiling the whole day because he didn’t want to worry Seunghyun, but Jiyong knew that in the moment his boyfriend left his apartment to go to the camp… he wasn’t going to be able to stop crying. He could feel it already. How much his eyes were burning, how much he wanted to scream “please don’t go”… but he also knew he couldn’t. Seunghyun had to do it. He had to go to the army… but still it was so painful.

“Jiyongie?” Jiyong blinked and suddenly Seunghyun was just in front of him. When did noona finish? When did Seunghyun get up and walked towards him? “Are you alright?”

“Sure I am.” He smiled. Seunghyun looked as handsome as always with his new hairstyle.

“Want to take a photo together?”

“Yes!”

Jiyong was lying on his bed. He pressed “Share” on his phone and not two seconds passed when his picture gained more than 1000 likes. He smiled sadly looking at the photo. Tomorrow was the day. His hyung was going to leave him for 21 months, and not only that, but later Jiyong himself would had to go too, then how much time will pass until they could be together again? Jiyong didn’t know.

The past few days he wished so much they weren’t Koreans. He was proud to be one of course, he loved his country, it was just that he also loved his hyung. He didn’t want to be apart from him. If they weren’t Koreans, maybe they wouldn’t need to do military service. If they weren’t famous maybe they could be a little bit freer, they wouldn’t need to hide their love…

And of course Jiyong was committed to his country, he knew this was something Seunghyun had to do, and he would have to do it soon too, and after that he was going to be proud to say he completed his training for his country. But right now, he only wished they didn’t have to do it.

“Don’t be sad…” Seunghyun’s voice came from the door frame. Jiyong turned his head and saw his handsome boyfriend standing there, a little smile on his lips.

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry,” Seunghyun walked towards the bed and lied next to him. Dami had acceded to leave the apartment that day so they could be together the last night before Seunghyun enlists. “I just don’t want you to be sad.” Jiyong didn’t answer. He just looked at his phone, seeing the likes on his picture increasing second by second. “I like that picture. By the way, I used your printer.”

“Yeah? What did you print?”

Seunghyun took out from nowhere two printed pictures and gave them to Jiyong. The first one was a shot of them together for the “Extraordinary 20’s” photoshoot. Jiyong smiled and felt his cheeks blushing. Seunghyun had told him before that he liked that photoshoot because they kind of looked like a couple. Actually they were already a couple back then, but nobody knew it.

The second one was a big shoot of Jiyong’s smiling face. And he felt his whole face going red. It was a photo taken by one of his fansites, he could see the little watermark right next to his hair.

“I still can’t believe how they can take photos like this in concerts…”

“They’re amazing,” Seunghyun rested his head on Jiyong’s shoulder, so both were looking at the printed pictures. Then he pointed at Jiyong’s smile in the second one. “This… this is the most beautiful photo I’ve seen in the past 30 minutes. Though I saw like ten more photos… they have a bunch of them did you know? It took me another 30 minutes to choose just one to print…”

Jiyong’s blush deepened, if that was even possible. Seunghyun was being too sweet.

“Why did you print this?”

“I’m going to take this to the army with me. So every time I feel like I want to give up… I will just need to look at these photos to remember why I need to keep pushing ahead until the end. Just to come back to you.”

Jiyong bitted his lower lip, holding back tears. Instead of crying he let out a forced giggle.

“What’s going on with you now?”

“I miss you already…”

Both kept silent after that. But Jiyong couldn’t hold it anymore and he let out a sob, quickly wiping away the tears that went down his cheeks with his hand. Then Seunghyun got up and took the photos from Jiyong. He left them on the night stand next to the bed and, slowly, positioned himself over Jiyong, putting both his arms at each side of Jiyong’s head and not crushing him at all.

They stared at each other for some seconds, until Seunghyun raised his left hand and caressed Jiyong’s cheek.

“You are so beautiful. I don’t want to leave you yet…”

“But you have to…”

“I know…”

Seunghyun started leaning in and Jiyong closed his eyes, waiting for the kiss.

When Jiyong opened his eyes in the morning, the first thing he noticed was that Seunghyun’s arms weren’t around him. According to the light in his room, it must be like 10 am already. He closed his eyes and tried to feel Seunghyun’s presence… but it was useless. Usually when they slept together, Jiyong always woke up between Seunghyun’s arms. And now those arms weren’t around his waist. The bed was cold. He didn’t want to turn around just to see the bed empty.

He moved a little and felt the soft sheets touching his skin. They made love last night, and it had been bittersweet. Of course it had been beautiful too, full of love, Jiyong could feel how much Seunghyun loved him… but so bittersweet. Jiyong remembered that Seunghyun hugged him, he remembered his arms around his body, the soft words of love he mumbled into his ear… and that’s how he fell asleep. But now… now Jiyong was alone, Seunghyun was gone.

He sighed and gathered all his mental strength to get up and sit on his bed. Anyway, he didn’t look to the space next to him. He could see sideway that it was empty. His Seunghyun was really gone… gone for 21 months.

Jiyong looked to the ceiling, biting his lower lip. He could feel the burning in his eyes, but he didn’t want to cry. It was going to be ok… it was not like Seunghyun died, he was going to be back, soon…

Finally, ready to see only the sheets, Jiyong turned his head to the side.

Inevitably the tears started to go down his face when his eyes caught sight of what was on his bed, in Seunghyun’s side.

It was a rose. A beautiful red rose, placed there by Seunghyun for him. Jiyong knew it.

And when he lifted his head searching for the printed photos Seunghyun left on the night stand last night, he didn’t find them there; instead he saw a little paper piece with that weird but cute handwriting of his boyfriend:

“I love you so much Jiyong. Wait for me, my love.”

Hope you liked it! :)

There might be a second chapter though... ;)