A week passed and Sunggyu kept himself busy with work. He had his eye on a promotion but was afraid that he might not get it. After all, there were better contenders than he who did excellent work, without having to work overtime like Sunggyu tended to do.

It was another late night and Sunggyu was just leaving the office building with three of his co-workers who also worked overtime. It had been quite an exhausting day and he was ready to go home and relax with a bottle of soju and Park Bo Gum’s new drama.

“Bye, Sunggyu-shii.”

He waved, tiredly. “See you tomorrow.”

He took no more than five steps when someone else came into view. Someone familiar: Woohyun.

At once, Sunggyu stopped in his tracks, his heart suddenly hammering against his chest. Woohyun was dressed in a suit, his usual lawyer attire, with his hair disheveled and clear dark circles under his eyes. He flashed a strained smile at Sunggyu.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hi,” Sunggyu replied.

They stood there in front of the building, staring at each other. Sunggyu couldn’t meet his eyes. He had kind of been avoiding Woohyun the last week and it was the first time the lawyer had come by his work. Then again, he never had a reason to visit Sunggyu at work.

“Do you wanna get dinner?” Woohyun finally asked.

Sunggyu swallowed the lump in his throat. “Um… actually… I ate already.”

He and his co-workers had ordered takeout earlier, knowing they were going to be staying after hours.

“Oh…” The lawyer looked disappointed, but he didn’t appear to back down. “Then… dessert?” Woohyun was pleading with his eyes.

Sunggyu couldn’t say “no”.

They ended up going to a corner store and buying ice cream before settling on a bench at a nearby park. Quietly sitting side-by-side, they ate their ice cream. When they were finished, they just… sat there.

“I missed you,” Woohyun suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Sunggyu blushed but his heart skipped a beat at the sweet words.

“You didn’t answer my calls or respond to my texts,” the lawyer continued.

Sunggyu felt a prick of guilt stab him. “S-Sorry… Things have been busy.”

He wasn’t lying. He really had been busy.

But, Woohyun could tell that he wasn’t completely honest, based on his attempt to smile that ended up being a flinch. He swallowed, nervously.

“Did I do something?” he asked in a quiet voice.

He sounded so sorry and resigned that it filled Sunggyu with regret at his childish action just because he was confused at the sudden influx of feelings. Which was why he didn’t answer Woohyun’s question. He couldn’t. He didn’t know what to say.

But, it appeared at Woohyun took his silence as an affirmative.

“Was it because I asked you on a date?”

Swallowing, Sunggyu honestly responded with a nod.

“Is it really that bad if I ask you out?”

Turning his head to finally look at the other, Sunggyu fumbled to answer, “Woohyun… It’s not… bad… It’s just… I… I’m not ready for anything… to change between us… And a date is kind of… Well, it’s like a label… And…”

At that point, he didn’t really know what he was saying anymore.

Woohyun tilted his head to the side. “Sunggyu, what am I to you?”

“You’re… a friend.”

“Just a friend?”

“What else could you be?”

Woohyun scooted closer, his hand creeping towards the editor’s fingers. “What if… I’d like us to be more?”

Sunggyu’s eyes widened. The pounding of his heart against his chest was so hard and loud that he could practically hear it and hoped that Woohyun couldn’t.

The lawyer smiled adoringly at him. “I like you,” he confessed with a twinkle in his eyes.

Sunggyu was ready to melt away right there and then.

“And I really want to give us a shot.”

But then there was that niggling voice in the back of Sunggyu’s mind. Woohyun’s voice from years ago.

“I’m sorry. You’re a great guy, you really are. But, no. I’m not looking for anything serious, right now. And I don’t really see us being anything more.”

Fear gripped his heart along with the pain of rejection. He couldn’t do it.

“I… I don’t think I can.”

Woohyun’s smile disappeared as quickly as the shine in his eyes dimmed. “Oh…”

The lawyer seemed at a loss for words.

“Woohyun.”

The other suddenly looked hopeful.

Sunggyu nervously bit his lip. “Why do you want to go on a date so much? We already do things together.”

“I told you, it’s because I like you,” Woohyun answered. “Don’t you believe me?”

At Sunggyu’s hesitation, something appeared to dawn on the lawyer’s face. He swallowed again, looking guiltily at his hand on the bench, so close to Sunggyu’s own.

“I know that I haven’t exactly given you a reason to trust me,” he said, softly. “I know what I did in the past was wrong… that I hurt you. And I’m really sorry for that.” He looked up at Sunggyu with sad eyes. “But, I’ve changed, I swear. I’m serious about you.”

“Why do you even like me?”

To his surprise, Woohyun chuckled as a genuine smile finally made its way to his lips. “The same reason I impulsively kissed you back then.” This time, he succeeded in taking Sunggyu’s hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You’re cute. And you make me laugh. And when you talk about things you love, you get this sparkle in your eyes that makes me want to keep looking at you. And right now, seeing you again, getting to know you again, I just… I can’t let the chance pass, Sunggyu.”

By the time he was finished talking, Sunggyu’s cheeks were stained with red and his heart was beating so fast that he felt like it might jump out and run away.

But, there was still a wall around his heart. He didn’t want to give in so easily to this charming man who knew how to spin words and make him feel like he was important and wanted. He learned the hard way the consequences when you quickly believe in words that wrapped around you like a warm blanket on a cold day. That was what Woohyun’s words felt like.

“I can’t…” he said for the second time and feeling a prick of guilt at seeing Woohyun’s face fall. “I like what we have now,” he quickly added. “I don’t want to ruin it. Can we just… keep doing what we’ve been doing?”

He never thought he would say those words in his entire life. Wasn’t the reason why he ended things with Woohyun in the first place was because the latter didn’t see them as being more than just playmates? Why was he doing the same thing now? Was there some bitter part of him that wanted revenge? Maybe that was why.

Woohyun looked unhappy but resigned. “Alright,” he said with a small nod. “We can stay like this. But… I can’t guarantee that I won’t ask you again later. If I end up liking you more and more, I might not be able to stop myself from trying to capture your heart. So if you want to end this now, we can, if it makes you happy. But I’m not giving up on you.”

Right then and there, Sunggyu should have agreed to end it. If he was sane, he would have walked away.

Instead, he nodded and accepted the happy kiss Woohyun planted on his lips right after.

“I missed you,” he whispered to him.

“I missed you too,” Sunggyu replied and found that he meant it.

“I’m an idiot, aren’t I? Why did I say that? I should have walked away. What the hell was I thinking?!”

Dongwoo and Ailee looked up from the cake samples they were concentrating heavily on. Sunggyu had been a little gloomy in the last week, so they figured a day out with them sampling various flavors for their wedding cake might cheer him up.

Sunggyu appreciated the gesture but the amount of sugar he was consuming on his friends’ behalf weren’t helping his mood.

“You’re not an idiot, oppa,” Ailee said, kindly.

Dongwoo's fiancée, Lee Ailee, was a Korean-American, who moved to Seoul for University. Both were teachers – Dongwoo for physical education and Ailee for music. She and Sunggyu were the same age and she was only a few months younger than he was, but she called him "oppa " since Dongwoo called him "hyung ".

“You’re just afraid to lose Woohyun,” Dongwoo piped, before being elbowed on the side by his fiancée.

“What Woo meant to say is that you probably just don’t want to lose him as a friend,” Ailee said.

The words didn’t make him feel better, but he appreciated their effort.

“And, hyung, there’s no harm in giving him a shot,” Dongwoo said. “Isn’t life and love all about taking risks? I mean, if I hadn’t taken the risk and asked out my princess, we wouldn’t be getting married!”

The teacher smiled adoringly at his fiancée, who blushed deeply. It took everything in Sunggyu not to roll his eyes at his friend making google-y eyes at her.

“But, you two are different,” he explained, stabbing into a cake with his dessert fork. “It was practically love at first sight for you two.”

The two met at the beginning of Sunggyu’s sophomore year. He had just met Dongwoo the week prior and accompanied him to a street carnival meant to welcome freshmen into the University. The younger dragged him to it. They were watching a performance by the University Acapella group when Dongwoo saw Ailee for the first time during her solo.

Suffice to say, he was mesmerized and right then and there, he said, “I think I found my soulmate, hyung.”

With a little encouragement, the younger approached her after the performance to tell her how great she was. A week later, he asked her out. Another week later, they were officially boyfriend-girlfriend.

It was a fairytale story that everyone and their mother would envy.

“You’re made for each other,” Sunggyu continued with a small pout. “Woohyun and I… I don’t even know what we were… We weren’t anything at all. We’re nothing like you guys.”

“You never know, oppa,” Ailee said, sporting a bright smile. “That nothing could become something.”

Goodness, she and Dongwoo were a perfect pair.

With a silent shrug in response, he dug into the cake in front of him, his thoughts running a million miles a minute. Realizing that he was in no mood to talk further, the couple in front of him turned their attention back to the cake samples.

Sunggyu watched them from the corner of his eye as they fed each other cake and seriously discussed the flavors.

As much as he adored them, sometimes, he envied how love was so easy for them.

Two weeks passed with no other incident. True to his word, Woohyun refrained from asking Sunggyu out and the latter felt both relieved and annoyed. Relief because he wasn’t freaking out about the potential meaning of a date. Annoyed because was it really that easy for Woohyun to just forget about it?

His own feelings really confused him. He wished he could just ball them up and lock them in a chest somewhere, out of sight and out of mind.

But, other than his stormy feelings, Sunggyu and Woohyun continued to see each other, both inside and outside the bedroom. Life was back to normal.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

Sunggyu’s thoughts were interrupted by Woohyun’s whisper in his ears. He turned his head to meet the other’s curious eyes and realized that he had missed out on a good 15 minutes of the movie they were watching.

“Nothing,” he quickly answered, shifting a little on Woohyun’s couch.

“Seems to be too deep to be nothing,” Woohyun said, eyebrow raised.

Sunggyu glared at him. “Fine. I was thinking about that pasta you made for dinner. I think I’m in love with it.”

With his answer, Woohyun barked out a laugh. “Is that so? Do you like it more than me?”

Sunggyu shrugged. “About the same level.”

“That’s not good. I need to be better.”

“Maybe if you layer yourself in more cheese,” Sunggyu joked.

Woohyun smirked. “Didn’t know you were into food play. We can try it next time if you want.”

Blushing red up to the tip of his nose, Sunggyu childishly stuck his tongue out at him and turned his attention back to the movie. He was pretty sure someone had just died but he wasn’t sure who. He hoped it wasn’t the feisty mother – he liked her.

Lips pressed against his cheek and his earlier blush immediately returned. Woohyun had been affectionate lately – sweet little kisses, longer hugs, and even more flirtatious words. They made his heart flutter.

“What was that for?” he asked, unable to keep himself from smiling.

Instead of answering, Woohyun leaned forward and captured his lips. All thoughts of wanting to find out who just died in the movie flew out of Sunggyu’s head as he allowed himself to drown in the passionate kiss. He felt his hands move to the lawyer's collar, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. The other always managed to render him unable to think about coherent thoughts with every touch.

Woohyun pulled away and Sunggyu subconsciously moved forward, not wanting the kiss to end. But, he was stopped in his tracks at the other’s next words.

“Will you go on a date with me?”

Sunggyu went cold, the fire of Woohyun’s touch extinguishing. He could only blink at the other man, who was looking at him with serious eyes.

“I meant what I said to you,” the lawyer continued. “If I end up liking you more and more, I might not be able to stop myself.” He took Sunggyu’s hands in his. “Gyu-ah, I’m not satisfied with just… this… anymore. I want to be with you… I want… to do all that couple-y we make fun of other people for – the flowers, chocolate, the corny poetry. I want to fall asleep knowing you’re thinking of me as much as I think of you. And I want to wake up with the thought that… you’re mine and only mine… Will you go out with me? Please?”

The movie was now long-forgotten as Sunggyu’s mind swirled with Woohyun’s words. His heart was thumping dangerously hard and painful against his chest. He suddenly couldn’t breathe.

“I… I can’t…”

Woohyun frowned. “But… why not? Why won’t you take a chance on me?”

“I…”

“I know you’re scared. I am too. I haven’t felt this strongly about someone for so long. I’m scared to hurt you because you don’t deserve that. Not again. But, I swear to you, if you give me a chance, I’ll be better than I was back then. I’ll treat you the right way and in the way you deserve.”

“Stop!” Sunggyu pulled away from him and stood up, running a nervous hand through his hair. “I can’t do this right now, Woohyun-.”

“Then when? When, Sunggyu?” Woohyun’s voice sounded hurt and desperate behind him. “When will you finally open your heart to me?”

It was like those words were a rock thrown at an already damaged reservoir of emotions.

Feeling a burst of anger, Sunggyu whirled around to glare at the lawyer. “My heart?!” he spat out, bitterly. “The same heart you played with and left in the dirt?! That heart?! What makes you think you deserve my heart?!”

Woohyun took a step back, like he had been slapped. A clear expression of guilt marred his handsome face, making him look even older than he actually was.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, the tone of his voice broken.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Sunggyu wiped the tears away from his cheeks. Tears? When did he start crying?

“I-I don’t want to get hurt again,” he said, shakily. “The first time with you was bad enough. The second time with Heechul was worse. I don’t want there to be a third time.”

Turning around, he grabbed his coat from the coat rack, put on his shoes, and headed out the door without as much as a good-bye.

Woohyun didn’t chase after him.

A/N: These stubborn fools! Ugh, they make me frustrated while writing. Lol.

Now, we get a glimpse of Woohyun's feelings, but Sunggyu doesn't seem to buy it. What about you guys? What do you think?

And.. apologies that this was a little delayed but there's a good reason for it.

And, it's because... I got promoted at work! **confetti** I'm officially an Assistant Editor! I've been wanting this promotion since last year and I've lost almost all hope of ever getting it. But... finally! All my hard work and blood, sweat, and tears paid off! And dreams really do come true if you work hard for it! 

These last few months have been rough, but thank you guys so much for always reminding me why I love to write and why I love what I do! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

'Til the next one!