“He probably spoke all of 10 words of Korean. I was studying in the courtyard when I saw him standing around, looking terribly lost.”

Jongwoon looked around. The other students didn’t seem to notice the confused looking man.
He sighed. He really needed to learn these lyrics.
He stuffed his papers into his bag and stood up, brushing himself off.

He tapped the man’s shoulder, “Do you need some help?”
The other man turned to Yesung and smiled shyly, “… h-help?”
“Yes- do you… are you lost?”
“…” the other man smiled.
Then he opened his mouth and said something rapidly that Jongwoon didn’t understand.

“Later, I found out he said ‘I don’t know any Korean.’”

“Ah.” Jongwoon said, “You’re not from around here.”
The other man continued to smile bemusedly.
Jongwoon had to laugh. He gestured to himself, “Kim Jongwoon. Jong. Woon.”
Then he pointed to the man.

“Ah!” The man gestured to himself, “Han Geng”
They bowed to each other.

Jongwoon thought for a moment. He gestured to himself and cleared his throat and hummed a few bars of the song he was learning the lyrics for.
Then he gestured to Han Geng.
Han Geng cocked his head to one side for a moment, before understanding blossomed on his face.
“Oh!” He gestured to himself and said clearly in Korean, “Dance.”

Then he held up a sheet of paper, mumbling something that Jongwoon couldn’t understand.
Jongwoon looked at the paper.
It was a schedule and according to it, Han Geng was due to be at the dance studio in about 10 minutes.
“You’re going to be late!” Jongwoon reached out, took Han Geng’s free hand and pulled him behind him.

As the two ran through the halls and courtyards of the university, Han Geng squeezed Jongwoon’s hand.

“I think he was lonely at first. I taught him some Korean. He picked it up pretty fast. After a few weeks, he was pretty popular amongst everyone. He stuck with me and Kibum though, I think he felt obligated because I was his first friend. Kibum was always at a workshop, Han Geng and I spent a lot of time together and alone. It sort of… just… happened.”
“You just tripped and fell into bed with him?”

Jongwoon snorted, “No. I mean, we spent all our free time together. We worked on his Korean, he taught me some Mandarin. As a stupid joke we started teaching each other some… rather… impolite words. We may have had a tiny little bit to drink. The next thing I knew, he had me pinned to the floor-“
“AISH! I don’t need every detail!”
“He was my first.”
“Not Kibum?”
“No… is that what you’re so worried about?”

“I’m not worried about anything.”
“Uh huh. Well… rest assured, Kibum and I only ever kissed and… explored but Han Geng and I-“
“Okay, okay!”
“I told you this was a bad idea.”
“No, no, it’s not a bad idea! I just don’t want to hear what my boyfriend did with his ex in bed. His really y, talented, famous, interesting ex.”

“You’re really y, talented and interesting!” Jongwoon protested, “Besides, it was just physical with Han Geng. We weren’t in love. We just liked each other’s-“
“Aaaaa-“
Jongwoon laughed, “Okay, I’m finished. I’m sorry.”
“Mm. So, you two ended things amicably as well?”
“Yeah, pretty much. He went back to China to start his career but we kept in touch. Oh, that reminds me. He did offer me some tickets to his show. You want to go, right?”
“Not so sure anymore.”

Jongwoon grinned, “What’s wrong? Afraid he’ll see me in the crowd and be overcome with passion? He’ll dance over to me, hips ing alluringly.”
“Jongwoon.”
“I’ll be unable to resist his charms. So famous… so talented…”
“Kim Jongwoon.”
“Ah- the full name. Am I in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“I told you this was a bad idea. It only gets worse from here, you know. I was in love with Kyuhyun.”

Sungmin tapped his fingers on the table, “I want to know.”
“Why?”
“Curious. Why did you two break it off?”
“It wasn’t pretty. Kyuhyun and I were so different from each other… when we were in sync, it was… almost perfect. That was ridiculously rare, though. We fought probably 90 percent of the time. I… I don’t regret it though. If I had never been with Kyuhyun, I’d have never met you.”

-----

TBC