Andy's sleep was interrupted by the feel of feverishly warm hands slipping under his shirt and a soft voice in his ear.

“Sunho….. oh Sunho.” He felt warm breath ghost over his skin and he shivered.

The feel of soft lips on his neck made his eyes fly open and in the moonlight that came in through his bedroom window, he saw a tall, slim form hovering over him. The person was sitting on his hips, their hands under his shirt.

“What the….Hyesung?”, Andy said in a startled voice. He gripped Hyesung’s wrists and pulled the man’s hands away from his skin.

“What are you doing, Hyesung?”, he said and reached over to turn his bedside lamp on.

Hyesung blinked in the brightness and tried to scramble of of Andy but his wrists were held tightly.

“I asked you what you are doing, Hyesung?”, Andy asked again, more forcefully this time. His voice shook a little from shock and a tiny bit of fear.

Hyesung’s cheeks went bright red and his face scrunched up like he was searching for a lie to tell the man under him.

“I...I….I woke up and needed to pee. Where is your bathroom?”, he stuttered as he struggled to break free of Andy’s grip.

Andy’s eyes narrowed as he released his grip,”It’s the second door on the left in the hallway.” His tone showed that he didn’t believe the man but was willing to let it slide for the moment. Hyesung slipped off the bed and ran out of the room without even thanking Andy, shutting the door behind him.

“The bathroom? Yeah right. No one looks for the bathroom with their hands under someone else’s shirt”, Andy muttered to himself as he got out of bed and locked his bedroom door. He checked the time and saw that he hadn’t been asleep long. After he turned the lap off, he got back into bed and fell asleep. He fell immediately into a dream where he was caressed by hands that felt like the softest silk.

In the bathroom, Hyesung stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked at his reflection.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid”, he admonished himself in a whisper. True, he was still a little tipsy but that was no excuse for what he had done to Andy. He just couldn’t resist the chance to touch Andy, it was something he used to dream about all the time. When sober, he could control himself, but with as much as he’d had to drink, his inhibitions has disappeared completely. Had Andy not woken up, there is no telling how far he would have gone.

As much as he wanted to hide in the bathroom all night, he knew he should go back out and get some sleep, they both had work in the morning. Being as quiet as possible, Hyesung the water and scooped some into his hands, splashed it on his face and dried off with a hand towel that hung beside the sink.

Exiting the bathroom, he tiptoed past Andy’s room and made his way back to the couch, where he flopped down, pulled the blanket over his head and tried not to think about the way Andy’s skin had felt and smelled in the darkness.

******

The next few days passed with both men avoiding each other at work.

If Andy went into the break room to get coffee and Hyesung was there, one of them would inevitably scurry away. There had been an office birthday party for one of their female co-workers and Andy had decided to stay at his desk once he saw Hyesung among the crowd in the break room. The cake was chocolate and he could smell it all the way to his desk. Someone, he figured it had been Minwoo, had left a piece of the cake on his desk and he devoured it quickly, grateful his boss had been thinking of him.

But the most awkward encounter, one that would stick with Hyesung forever, was when he had been in the bathroom, taking care of business. He had come of of the stall, the door flying open and hitting the frame hard enough that Andy, relieving himself in the urinal, had turned around, flashing Hyesung and peeing on the floor a little.

Hyesung’s face went bright red and as he ran out of the bathroom, someone ran into him and he had fallen right on his . He ended up crawling out on all fours and taking the rest of the day off. He swore that from now on he would use the restroom on the second floor where he wasn’t likely to run into Andy.

Minwoo watched their dance of awkward avoidance and when he couldn’t take it anymore he called Andy into his office during his lunch break.

As the younger man sat down in a chair across from his boss, there was a knock on the door.

“Come on in”, Minwoo called out and the man that Andy had seen him with opened the door and came in.

“Minbong, you forgot your lunch”, the tall handsome man said and went over to Minwoo and handed him a bright orange stackable lunch box. “I spent an hour making it and you ran off and left it at home. Thank god I noticed it before I headed out the door after you left this morning.” He handed the lunch box to Minwoo and kissed him on the head with a smile.

“Eric, what would I do without you?”, Minwoo said in a cute voice as he carded his fingers through Eric’s soft thick hair.

“Starve”, Eric said with a laugh. “I’ll leave you alone now. It was nice to see you again, Andy”, Eric said after he ruffled Minwoo’s hair and left the office, shutting the door behind him firmly.

Minwoo opened his lunch and spread it out his desk,”Pull up and share this with me, he always sends too much”, Minwoo said as he pulled an extra set of chopsticks rolled into a napkin out of one of his desk drawers. Andy took it and bit his lip as he watched Minwoo start to eat.

“So what did you want to talk about, boss?”, Andy said as he reached for one of the containers and found it filled with chunks of steak mixed with stir-fried eggplant and kimchi. He ate a few pieces and waited for his boss to answer.

“Well Andy, I’ve noticed how strained the atmosphere has been at work lately and I wanted to see if you knew what was going on”, Minwoo said and gave Andy a shrewd look. “You and Hyesung were getting along so well and then suddenly you avoid each other like the plague.”

Andy choked on his food and Minwoo got up and went over to a pitcher of water on a table in a corner of the room and came back with a filled cup and handed it to Andy. Andy gulped it gratefully and when he set it down, his face was bright red, not just from the lack of air, though. He had no idea that anyone had noticed the way he and Hyesung had been acting.

Minwoo continued to eat as he waited for Andy to say something but the man in front of him seemed struck silent.

“I know things were strange when he first started. I had hoped you guys would settle in and work out your differences. When you started to get along I was relieved. Don’t think it had escaped my attention that you were hoping I would give Mrs. Choi’s position to you.” Minwoo watched as Andy’s ears went red and his eyes lowered to focus on the floor.

“I did notice all your hard work, Andy. But I also felt like we could use some new blood and fresh ideas in the workplace. I did consider you at first but then a colleague in another company introduced me to Hyesung at a business dinner. I felt like he would be a good fit so I arranged an interview. I wish you had felt like you could talk to me about how you felt”, Minwoo said, his voice going from a business like tone to one that reflected the five years they had spent working together, the friendship that had grown between.

Andy felt a rush of shame and looked up at Minwoo,”I…I didn’t….. I guess I just assumed that you would give me the position. I wasn’t very nice to Hyesung at first but….. we worked out our differences.”

“Then what happened?”, Minwoo said and set his chopsticks down and clasped his hands on his desk.

Andy swallowed, his eyes flicking left to right rapidly as he decided to only tell Minwoo about the class reunion. After he relayed the events of the reunion, changing the part where he took Hyesung back to his place to him sending Hyesung home in a cab, he let out a sigh.

“That’s the reason? Because he didn’t tell you that he knew you?”, Minwoo chuckled and shook his head. Andy flushed bright red and nodded, relieved that his boss believed him.

“I’ll talk to him today….. get things worked out okay. There’s no need to talk to him, okay?”, Andy said, forcing a smile.

Minwoo returned his smile,”By the end of the day, Andy. I want this resolved as soon as possible. We have a huge project coming up and I don’t want the two of you tiptoeing around each other”, he said with a nod, declaring the conversation over as he picked up his chopsticks and started to eat again.

Andy choked down a little more food before he thanked his boss for lunch and excused himself.

“Thank god he call me in instead of Hyesung”, Andy muttered to himself as he made his way back to his desk and flopped back in his chair. Reluctantly he pulled out his phone and tapped out a message to Hyesung.

A: We need to talk. Meet me out front when you get off work.

The reply was almost instantaneous.

H: Okay

Andy put his phone away and buried himself in his work until a glance at the clock on the wall told him that it was time to go home. He shut his computer down and gathered his things into the black leather backpack he used in lieu of a briefcase and trudged out to the main entrance where he saw that Hyesung already waited for him.

He took a deep breath and exhaled as he walked towards the taller man, his blood pressure spiking as he dreaded the conversation that was to come.

(Hello!!!! I've been working on this chapter since I put the last one up, trying to get it done before I leave on a trip this week to see a great friend and awesome cowriter lol

Not sure if I'll have time to do any writing while I'm gone but i do have a 14 hour round trip train trip ahead of me so anything is possible.