Kyuhyun blinked a few times, groaning and pushing himself up. Rubbing his head, he slowly looked around, trying to figure out where he was. It definitely wasn’t his apartment and it didn’t look like any place he had ever been to be before.

The walls were dark brick with other random people passed out on dirty furniture and tables. He coughed a few times, getting to his feet groggily. Seeing his jacket lying in a heap on the bar, Kyuhyun reached for it, but stopped when he smelled an odor rising from the fabric. Cringing away, he stumbled towards the red exit sign.

He dragged himself up the concrete steps, emerging into an alley at daybreak. There was barely anyone on the roads and stores were just beginning to make noise. Kyuhyun yawned, flinching against the brightness of the upper world.

His phone vibrated inside his pants pocket and he pulled it out, grunting out an answer.

“Mr. Cho, you haven’t been to work in three days,” Ryeowook stated calmly.

Kyuhyun knocked a trash can over accidentally, growling at the loud noise it made. “Ugh, shut up,” he snarled, “I’m taking the week off. Fix my appointments.” And then he hung up.

The phone rang again though.

“What now?!” he nearly screamed.

“Guessing you just woke up, Kyubaby?”

Kyuhyun leaned back against a wall, trying to still his dizzying vision. “Where the , am I, Siwon?”

“Hell if I know. We lost track of you last night at the club. At least you’re still alive.”

He glowered at the sky. “You’re such an .”

“Maybe next time you won’t drink like you’re a dying man.”

“Whatever.” Kyuhyun ended the call, chucking and effectively smashing the device with an alley wall. Slowly, he stepped onto the sidewalk, hailing a cab and making his way home.

It didn’t take more than five minutes to get there with so little traffic, and then Kyuhyun was trudging through a lobby, up an elevator and towards his apartment.

He slowed to a stop.

Ryeowook leaned against the wall, a gorgeous grey suit hitting every slight curve of his body. His hair was a glossy dark brown, not one lock out of place. Kyuhyun wanted to admire him longer – wanted to feel more of that desperate ache, but he was already deeply convinced.

A week and a half with Siwon was like a lifetime of lessons. His headache grew worse as he approached the beautiful vision standing outside of his apartment door.

“You remember now?” Siwon whispered in his ear as he took him for possibly the hundredth time that day.

Kyuhyun’s voice was muffled by the pillows, sweat racing down his glowing skin, nails clawing at the blankets. “God yes,” he whimpered, “please...stop.”

“I’ve known you for how many years and love has never developed between us. Love isn’t defined by time, because love doesn’t exist at all. There’s nothing that can control a false idea.” He dug his fingers into the male’s bruised hips. “Besides, if you want it to stop all you have to do is look inside yourself, Kyuhyun, and see what’s wrong with your ed up brain.”

He turned his head to one side, panting hard as he tried to make sense through the haze of pain and pleasure. His chest stung with every word Siwon uttered and even worse, panic strummed through his body at the undoubted embedding of his whispered taunts.

“What happened to the boy who understood such simple concepts? You’re in and out, you break ties and you keep the ones that benefit you.” Siwon tangled fingers in Kyuhyun’s hair, ripping his head backwards to expose his neck. “So tell me – ing tell me – that you’re done falling all over that little . He’s worthless. Get it through your head already.”

“I…I get it,” Kyuhyun gasped, jaw tightening at the teeth dragging across his sensitive flesh. The fingers disentangled from his hair and he dropped to the mattress again, breathing heavily. “Ryeowook is a waste of time…things are over…I know that.” And he wasn’t just saying it this time.

They were over. Whatever could’ve been…well, it ended in Paris with that horrible proposal. Kyuhyun thought he had been sincere at the time, but maybe he hadn’t been. He knew that Ryeowook would reject him, yet he still went through with it anyway. What was the reason for that?

Had he really just wanted a convenient way out of a relationship that was far too committed for his tastes? After all, Siwon had been oh-so ready to pick him up and help him retreat from his game of house. No, Kyuhyun had wanted to have the back-up plan.

Proposals weren’t supposed to be done with a back-up plan – not now, not ever.

Kyuhyun smirked to himself, closing his eyes and waiting for Siwon to finish. His body had gone numb some rounds ago.

The haze was clearing. He could see clearly again. How could he have ever thought life began and ended with just one person? That was a pathetic view on anything, especially life.

So what if Ryeowook didn’t love him – couldn’t love him? It was his loss. Kyuhyun shuddered at the thought that he might have just given up his entire future so carefully created in those first years of college freedom. Everything had been set at that time.

He would gain his win and individual existence from Siwon.

Then he would find a good business partner to expand.

He’d marry a trophy wife for the newspapers.

And then he would spend the rest of his days doing what every rich, successful man in their world does: party, , and live.

“I feel sick. Take care of me,” Kyuhyun demanded, snatching Ryeowook’s wrist and dragging him into the apartment.

The door slammed shut behind them and inside the hired maid was just finishing clean up from what appeared to be a party from the previous night. Kyuhyun passed her a few bills before leading a silently confused Ryeowook to the bedroom.

Somewhere in the distance, the cleaning woman closed the front door and the apartment was silent again.

Kyuhyun turned around, gripping Ryeowook by his collar and crushing their lips together roughly. It was a kiss that Ryeowook had never experienced before and he wasn’t sure what he thought of it.

Cold.

Angry.

Dark.

Shoving away from his boss, Ryeowook tried to wipe his mouth, but then Kyuhyun’s hand coiled around his wrist, prying his arm away and attacking his mouth in a hurry again. A tongue forced its way into Ryeowook’s mouth and he hysterically bit down.

Kyuhyun jerked back, tasting blood in his mouth.

“I-I’m sorry,” Ryeowook bowed his head, heart racing. “But I don’t know why you’re doing this. We aren’t—”

“—yeah, I got that part already,” Kyuhyun dismissed tersely, black eyes boring down into the slender male. “Just because we ended things doesn’t mean I can’t have your body anymore.” His lips tugged up in a lazy, hung-over smirk. One hand rose up, pushing Ryeowook back against the closed bedroom door. “You’re supposed to make my life as easy as possible and when I need, I can’t help it.” Kyuhyun shrugged. “So what are you going to say?”

“…what happened?” Ryeowook asked quietly, eyes filled with concern.

“Y’know, in some ways, it might seem like not much time has passed,” Kyuhyun chuckled, “but I think you’ve proven enough that time really doesn’t affect a person.”

Ryeowook flinched.

He could feel venom pouring out of his heart, infecting his veins and feeding the polluted wires Siwon rearranged in his mind. The desperation had morphed into pain and anger and a whole load of bitterness. Siwon saw those emotions as key pawns to winning any game. Without those, you were lost in a bundle of whiteness and illusion.

“It’s a simple request,” Kyuhyun stated, slowly sobering, “you don’t have to worry about emotions anymore – not that you ever shared any.” He glanced down at the silver chain still around his neck. “Even this thing is just a fake.”

Ryeowook’s hand flew out, stopping Kyuhyun before he could tear it. “P-Please…please don’t do that,” he swallowed painfully.

The taller male slammed his hand against the door and the smaller figure jumped and released him. “Don’t ing touch me,” Kyuhyun whispered coldly.

“Then don’t break it,” Ryeowook responded nearly inaudibly.

“Why?” he sneered, getting closer until there was barely an inch between their faces. “Is it because it reminds you of your precious dead man?” Kyuhyun curled his fingers around the fake chain, tearing it free from the lighter, longer necklace. Holding it up, he let it hand between them. “Well I’m not him and I never will be. I don’t want a token like this. It just reminds me how little I compare to him. Thanks anyway.”

He tossed it into the trash.

Ryeowook didn’t dare break eye contact, lips frozen and pressed together.

“All I want is your body,” Kyuhyun spoke slowly, carefully, “give me it, and I’ll make sure your life is easy.” He chuckled, “Then again, even if you said no, I wonder where you would ever work. I control this city. I have friends who control the rest of the world. Just tell me how you could escape if I wasn’t the one who allowed it?”

“…I’m sorry for letting this happen to you,” Ryeowook murmured, dropping his head, shoulders slumped.

“Nothing happened. I’m just finally back to normal,” Kyuhyun stated, pushing the bedroom door open and shoving Ryeowook out.

The slender man stumbled backwards, crashing to the ground. Somewhere deep down, locked inside, Kyuhyun was watching and screaming helplessly. On the surface, that dark, dangerously handsome face was unmoving. “Get out.”

And then the bedroom door shut.