He was exhausted, drained, physically and mentally. Pressure about his choice of career from his family was too great for his shoulders to carry on which caused him to always be on edge. With him normally felt irritated by little things, now he would snap even easier. Most of his colleagues were already scared of him, and it got worse because of the gloomy aura he donned every now and then.

He could only sing sad songs, heartbroken songs, angry songs, all sorts of songs people wouldn’t want to hear when they dined out in a nice romantic restaurant that he worked for. For god’s sake, even when he tried to sing a sweet love song it sounded depressed!

Hyesung sighed as he dragged his heavy legs that carried his even heavier body out of the restaurant at its closing hours.

“Take a day off to recover, my !” He grumbled out of annoyance from his employer who is also a good friend of his’ request. And what would they do when they don’t have their singer to perform? Gonna played some CDs or would they replace him permanently? Didn’t want to think about that anymore, Hyesung kicked a stone in front of him to release some anger. He needed a drink and he needed it now.

With a can of beer in his hand and some in a plastic bag, Hyesung took a sip while walking aimlessly. He didn’t want to go home now, he let his legs take him wherever they wanted. Due to his low tolerance to alcohol, a few cans of beer could make him feel dizzy. So Hyesung sat down on a bench nearby. Wanted to drink his frustration off, he gulped down his third can which he knew he would regret in the morning.

A laugh made Hyesung look up from the floor, a group of people were talking under the lamppost. He scoffed and decided to escape from the bright atmosphere to drown in misery. As he was getting up to his full height that he saw the group leaving, maybe he didn’t have to move away at all. But there was one person left, a man with a huge sign hung from his neck. Hyesung squinted his eyes in attempt to read what was written there.

“F…Free…H…u…Free Hug?” He muttered the word thinking the man must be crazy or he was some kind of a ert. Trying to mind his own business and stay away from the weird man by getting up and leaving, his drunk--self decided to stumble and kicked an empty can in the process. Hyesung cursed under his breath as that weird man looked at his direction and was walking closer.

“Sir, are you alright?” Great, now he was talking to him. Hyesung put on his smile and waved the man who tried to help him off.

“’M alright. Just gonna go home now.”

“Oh, but you seem dizzy? Maybe you should sit down a bit.” Shaking his head to indicate he was peachy, but the action made him want to puke. Damn himself for being a lightweight! Hyesung sat down on the same bench he just got up in the end. He glanced to his side and saw that weird man sat beside him, patting his back lightly.

“There, there. Here’s water, drink it. You will feel better.” He took the offered water bottle and drank it up, too drunk to consider anything at all.

“Thanks.” And that man flashed a bright smile at him.

“You’re welcome! My name is Dongwan by the way.” Hyesung didn’t even want to know that but it was better than calling the man “the man” right?

“Hyesung.” He didn’t know why he bother to introduce himself at all, guess even in his drunk and pissed state he was still polite enough.

“Nice to meet you, Hyesung. You seem upset? Drink down your emotions, huh?” Ouch, no need to be so straight forward. “It’s alright though, everyone has their rough day anyway.” He decided not to answer in hope to bore Dongwan enough that he left eventually.

“So…do you want a hug.” Hyesung coughed in shock, he must be so drunk he started to hear things but then he saw Dongwan already spread out his arms with a wide grin plastered on his lips.

“W—what!?”

“A hug. See, I have this sign that said Free Hug here. “

“Yeah, I notice that…”

“So?”

“No! Why would I want to hug you? And why would you do that!?” Hyesung got up abruptly, his hands flying in directions.

“Hey hey calm down. No need to be flustered.” Dongwan stood up, put his hand on Hyesung’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t force you into it! Don’t worry, consent comes first. I just think you might want one.”

“And why would I want one. I’m perfectly fine. A little drunk and depressed and pissed but fine.” As words left his mouth, he didn’t think he sound fine at all.

“Why don’t we sit down, okay?” He nodded and sat down, head bowed low and slumped forward. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

No words were spoken since. So silent that Hyesung felt the urge to say something. Ugh that was why he hated meeting new people, as he was not that talkative and it would be awkward. Today he finally figured out what kind of a drunk he was, he was a depressed drunk.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Question?”

“I asked why you would do that.” He didn’t have to look up to see a confused look on Dongwan’s face. “The Free Hug thing.”

“Oh, about that.” He heard a chuckle and some rustles as Dongwan seemed to be moving to get into a comfortable position.

“Why I give Free Hug to people is my business.” Silence then…

“Okay, sorry for being nosy.” Hyesung cursed himself as the answer came, he shouldn’t have paid attention to it in the first place. And this guy was rude.

“I’m sorry, please don’t take it seriously. I’m just joking!” A laugh accompanied, so he was just messing with a drunk man, still rude.

“Haha very funny.”

“It’s just…not many people care about the reason why I’m doing it, you know. They just assume I want to give people comfort or I’m a ert, which is true.”

“You being a ert?”

“No! I wouldn’t take advantage of people by doing the good deeds!” He could feel that Dongwan was really unnerved, and he must admit, it was quite fun.

“Now you understand my feeling ealier, huh”

“Unfortunately, I apologize to you again.” Hyesung waved him off and signaled him to continue the story.

“Well, I did it to give people comfort as the world nowadays is a crazy place and we become stress so easily. And did you know that human contact really help with destressing? A little hug is always better that drinking or drug you see, oh no offense there.”

“None taken. Go on” And he went on about the benefits of hug , even some studies to prove his point.

“Yeah, but where is the real motive here. I mean all those are just one of the assumptions people give, so where is your reason.” That did shut Dongwan up. Hyesung looked up from the floor to study the man who seemed to be deep in thoughts. The light from the lamppost in the dark night illuminated his features to be sharper, this man’s jaw could really cut someone. Considering the sharpness of him, yet the eyes are soft and warm. Eyes full of sparkles and life, the lines at the end indicated the smiley personality. He had pretty deer-like eyes, kinda sweet. Shaking his head to chase away those thoughts, Hyesung might be drunker that he thought he was.

“Hm, let’s say it helps me too.”

“Huh?”

“Hugging people.”

“Oh, that.” It looked like he lost his ability to form an understandable sentence in response now, great.

“You see…look I’ve never told anyone before and you probably won’t remember our conversation tonight anyway so…I guess I could just vent out for once?” Dongwan’s fast speaking left Hyesung with daze that he could only reply with a hum.

“Gosh, it’s a lot harder than I thought.” He heard a nervous chuckle and that made him look up because the uneasiness didn’t suit Dongwan’s bubbly personality. Hyesung’s hand moved without his command to pat the man’s back in a form of encouragement. He could feel Dongwan’s took a deep breath before he started.

“I’m actually craving human contact. Not in the creepy way though, I just…maybe…want to hold people’s hand or hug or just caress someone.”

“Then you must be in a relationship often, huh.”

“How could you know? Yeah, I do. But they ended pretty quickly and one day I thought I can’t just keep changing lovers, but I can’t seem to find the one yet.”

“That’s when you decided to do…this?” He pointed at the sign hanging from his neck.

“It’s a bit later. I start living by myself far from the city and find lots of hobbies, so I won’t feel lonely. Then it hit me, I should do the Free Hug campaign. There must be people who seek comfort from human contact but there is no one for them!” Dongwan’s voice raised as he got more excited. Hyesung nodded along with the story of a lonely man who wanted to be there for others. Then suddenly he got up from the bench they shared. He looked down and found a confused gaze, so Hyesung opened his arms wide.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? Let’s hug.” Puzzled Dongwan was quite a funny sight to see, he must admit.

“But I thought you don’t want a hug?”

“Now I do, get up!” Finally, Dongwan also got up on his feet. Hyesung put his arms around the man before him, crushing him to his chest tightly. “Let me just hug you instead.” He could hear a sigh of relief from the man before him who also put his arms around him as well. They stayed that way for a while then Hyesung put his arms down and moved back a bit.

“Thank you. Even if you might not remember this but truly thank you, Hyesung.” Dongwan’s sincere smile warmed up his heart and face. Hyesung could only nod. He wasn’t sure if he will know if this event is a dream or not after he woke up tomorrow, but for now it was real enough to make Hyesung forget his stress for a bit.