Junho watched the large figure in front of him stir his food continuously without actually eating for nearly ten minutes. Taecyeon was being mopey, and he had a feeling he already knew the reason why. He had honestly considered retracting his resignation a few times in the last week, but the closer it came to his final day working in an office that confined him to a desk where every day blurred into one, the more excited he became at finally pursuing his dream career.

  His only foreseeable downside was the giant in front of him, who was obviously taking his upcoming absence harder than expected. “Taec,” He said, gaining the attention of his beloved boyfriend. “Our break is over in fifteen minutes . . . You still haven’t eaten.”

  The larger man slid his bowl away from him. “I’m not actually hungry.”

  That was most definitely a first, since the giant was usually never one to turn down food. Waiving their waiter over, Junho watched as Taecyeon slipped a black credit card into the billfold with the check and handed it back to the man. His lover’s gaze was stoic, but still tender. It made Junho fear that he had actually caused damage to the larger, sophisticated male before him.

  “Do you remember our first trip together?” Junho asked suddenly, after realizing that if he couldn’t be tenacious enough to talk about his feelings, then what value did they truly hold to him?

  Taec raised his eyebrow before his face softened. “We became partners in healing.”

  Junho blushed fondly at the memories of the beginning of their relationship. Nothing could’ve prepared them for the venture they had unknowingly started, and nothing could’ve changed his mind about his decision to love Taecyeon more than anything in the world. Which is why he so desperately needed the elder to understand why this career change was so important. Junho loved Taecyeon, like the way you see in old movies, and he knew that the man loved him back. And, if Taecyeon ever asked it, Junho knew that he would sacrifice every dream he’d ever have to give the other male exactly what he wanted.

  Because of that, he wished Taecyeon would be okay.

  “I wasn’t just broken because of love, Taecyeon.” The younger one admitted. “Life started to break me along time ago, and with you in my life . . . I feel like I can fix myself. I feel like I can still work, even with all the damage . . . I feel like my dreams are reachable.”

  “Please stop.” Taecyeon sighed, reaching across the table to grab Junho’s hands. “You don’t need to go through all that, it’s like you’re trying to convince me to let you be you . . . That’s all I ever want for you anyway.” The elder paused, shrugging slightly and then looking back into his eyes. “Yeah, I’m pouting because I’m gonna miss you like hell ‒ not having you around me all the time is gonna . . . But I’ll be okay.”

  Junho almost felt his eyes watering.

  What had he ever done to deserve such a loving guy as Taec?

  The tall man stood up, after receiving his card back from the waiter, extending a warm hand with a smirk. “Stop looking like that,” The cocky businessman was back. “You should already know these things about me, Mr. Lee.”

  Junho took the outstretched hand and stood up, following the older male out of the restaurant as he fixed his suit.

Nichkhun worried his bottom lip, trying everything in his power to focus solely on driving, rather than the quiet boy sitting beside him in the almost-silent car.

  The events of the morning flooded his mind mercilessly, and he still wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. Gripping the steering wheel, he drove in silence, sparing only a few looks at Wooyoung as the smaller one stared intently at a cell phone screen.

  He couldn’t stop from thinking about how perfect Wooyoung’s body fight against his, how good it felt to have those pouting lips around his hard length that morning, and how beautiful it was to watch the smaller male . He was almost in a trance, thinking about the they had and he was battling a sudden insecurity in his brain that he couldn’t quite understand.

   with women, it was normal. You eat, you drink, you , you say goodbye. End of the story. But this, this was new territory, unventured waters that were deep enough to drown him and make it so that every bit of his existence was lost forever, at the bottom of an ocean of feelings.

  Wooyoung, not only was a man, but also his friend.

  Now what would happen between them?

  He had already thought to end their friendship before, for this very reason. Because Wooyoung was dangerous, Nichkhun had decided. The beautiful fox was sly and deceptive and emotionally dangerous.

  And he was leaving, in just a couple of hours.

  Khun hadn’t expected it to bother him, but it did. For some underlying factor, Nichkhun couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed at the fact that Wooyoung was going home and then he would be alone in this foreign city once again.

  It was a blessing in the first place, running into the smaller male in that bar just a few days ago. Granted, he wasn’t necessarily planning on crashing in Woo’s hotel the light night of the man’s trip, yet alone having spontaneous with him, however amazing it may have been. No. that definitely was not planned. But it happened.

  And now, the tsunami that destroyed everything in Nichkhun’s life was just going to leave him to clean up all the mess from the mayhem?

  Not if he could help it.

Wooyoung settled into the seat of the airplane, holding his shoulder bag in his lap and looking around as the plane slowly filled with more and more people.

  He felt his previous anxiety slowly fading away as everything settled down.

  The ride to the airport ‒ which Nichkhun had practically forced him to accept ‒ was deathly quiet in a forced, uncomfortable way.

  If he would’ve known that the Thai would respond so awkwardly, Wooyoung would have thought twice about engaging in their ual activities that morning. It’s too late for that, now. The petite male thought to himself with a disapproving sigh.

  For the first time in his life, Wooyoung was completely and utterly smitten.

  “Ugh, this is so ing stupid.” He grumbled to himself, reaching up and rubbing his tired eyes. He should have known better than this. He should have known that crossing that line with Nichkhun would inevitably be the start of something horrendously perfect that it was doomed to fail. Which is why he was so utterly shocked when a shadow loomed over him and a husky voice scolded him from above.

  “Excuse me, but I believe my seat is the one next to yours.”

  Peeking up with one eye at first, then staring at Nichkhun’s stupid smile, Wooyoung scoffed. “How the hell did you get on this plane?”

  The thai held up a boarding pass. “I bought a ticket.”

  Wooyoung mumbled. “How did you know where my seat was?”

  Nichkhun’s infuriating smirk widened. “I have a way with flight attendants.” He winked and Wooyoung glared in return, crossing his arms.

  “I’m not moving.”

  “Fine then.”

  Nichkhun had no luggage, and Wooyoung watched as the larger man merely stepped over his legs, holding the back of the seat as he scooted his way to the window seat next to him. Wooyoung blushed when Nichkhun’s crotch passed right by his face, and after looking at the Thai as he plopped down in the seat, he could tell that action was most definitely intentional. You’re an . He wanted to say, but instead, settled with. “Why are you following me?”

  “Because I didn’t want to leave things unfinished.” Nichkhun answered him logically.

  He detested that. “What are you talking about?”

  “I think you know.”

  “I think you should remind me.”

  Giving in, Nichkhun caved first and sighed. Wooyoung smirked at his minor victory over the beastly man next to him. “You know I can’t do that right now.”

  “How sad.” Wooyoung mused.

  Nichkhun grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at those rich brown eyes that threatened to turn every part of him into jelly. “You really expect me to just brush away what happened between us like it was nothing?”

  “Unhand me.”

  “Not until you admit that you liked being with me.” Nichkhun demanded himself, and Wooyoung felt his cheeks getting hot.

  Reaching up, he pushed the larger hand away from his face with a deep blush. “Yah!” He snapped, reminding himself that they were very much in a confined space with little to no privacy. “Of course I liked it . . . So what?!” Wooyoung whispered. “It’s not like you’re going to just come out as suddenly gay and start treating me like your boyfriend.”

  The fact that Nichkhun retreated from him only further fueled his reservations. “Is that what you want?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” Wooyoung looked down, away from the face that caused such a ruckus in his heart every time he looked at it. He wanted to believe that something good would come of their predicament.

  “I could do that.” Wooyoung looked up when Nichkhun said that, making sure that he actually heard correctly. “I could!” Nichkhun defended himself from the look of disbelief Wooyoung gave him. “I could . . . be a boyfriend, and stuff . . . I bet you I’d be good at it.”

  “Have you ever even been in an exclusive relationship?”

  Nichkhun’s silence was the only answer he received.

  “And you expect me to trust that you’re gonna to start with me?”

  “Please, Woo~” The older man begged, and Wooyoung tried to pull his hand away but the Thai grabbed it, holding it close as he pleaded. “This is a lot harder for me to do than it looks, so please let me try. That’s all I ask.”

  Now how the hell do you say no to a confession like that?

Taecyeon sat in his office, throwing a green tennis ball at the wall and catching it repeatedly. There was nothing for him to do for the next hour and Junho was busy with some boring report, so he kept throwing the soft ball at the same spot on the wall over and over.

  “Stop throwing that ball!” Jo Kwon startled him over the intercom just as he went to throw it again, causing his aim to curve just enough to where the ball flew into his bookshelf and knocked over the line of trophies with a loud crash. “. . . You have a visitor.”

  Closing his eyes in frustration, Taec reached over and held down the button on his phone. “Thank you, Kwonnie . . . Send them in, please.”

  Not long afterwards, the door opened and Taec was met with a familiar face that he hadn’t seen in months. He grinned as he stood up and walked over to pull Nichkhun into a hug. “Dude, I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

  “What, did ya’ miss me?” His best friend smirked, pretending to act all emotional. “Because I’ve missed you just so much~” Nichkhun’s fake tears made Taec flick the other guy in the forehead, both of them laughing.

  “You want a drink?” Taec motioned to the crystal bottle of scotch, an offer that Nichkhun gladly accepted. Once he poured them both glasses, he leaned against his desk, in front of the couch that Nichkhun was sitting at and handed one of the tumblers to his friend. “Seriously, though . . . you here for business or pleasure?”

  Nichkhun took a sip of the alcohol, his eyes suddenly changing to a mischievous grin that Taecyeon recognized all too well. “This, my dear comrade, would most definitely fall under the category of pleasure.”

  “Who is she, Buck?”

  Nichkhun scoffed at Taecyeon’s use of his middle name. “What makes you think it’s a woman?”

  “Because I know you,” Taec couldn’t help smiling as he took another sip of his scotch. “It’s either money or a woman, and since you already have money . . .” He shrugged the rest off, feeling no need to explain further.

  “I hate that your assessment of me is so simplified, yet so accurate.” The other sighed. “However, this particular time, you’re dead wrong.”

  “Then enlighten me.” Taec laughed at Nichkhun’s charade, wondering how long the elder guy could keep this up.

  “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s kind of a big deal, you might want to sit down.”

  Taecyeon rolled his eyes. “Dude, just ing say it!”

  “I slept with a man and it didn’t scare me right back into heterouality.”

  He choked on the brown liquid he was attempting to drink, feeling the burn in his throat as it went into his trachea.

  “I warned you.” Khun huffed, leaning back on the couch and watching him as he regained his composure, slowly. “Anyway, you’re the only person that knows right now . . . I think Wooyoung is gonna tell Junho soon, though.” Nichkhun looked as if he was seeing right through everything as he added. “Women sure do love to gossip about . . . I guess it’s men too . . . huh, go figure.”

  Taecyeon couldn’t hear anything else, as his mind was focused on one thing. “I’m sorry . . . did you say Wooyoung?”

  “Oh, did I not mention that?”

  Blinking at the utter shock, Taec cleared his throat, sitting his almost empty scotch glass down on the desk behind him. “So what, you’ve just realized you’re gay now?”

  Nichkhun’s eyes narrowed, and his lips jutted out in a pout. “You sound like you’re judging me, Ok.”

  “I’m not judging!” He defended himself. “I’m just . . . seriously confused.”

  “How the hell do you think I feel?” The honey blonde male sprawled out across his couch and whined like a gigantic child. “Just a few days ago, I was fine - then I ran into Wooyoung at this bar and then . . . I couldn’t get him out of my head, and . . . now we’re kinda dating.”

  Taec pressed his fingers to his temples with a frustrated sigh. “You have to remember that Wooyoung is a person, not an object . . . And if you end up hurting him, Junho is going to kill you and I can’t promise that I’ll be able to stop him.”

  Nichkhun looked up at him, huffing his cheeks and mumbling. “He’s already got me whipped.”

  “Don’t let him know that.”

  “Never.”

To be continued