Ryeowook woke before Kyuhyun who was passed out, facing away from him.  Immediately, he recalled last night’s exchange but had no clue where it came from.  He hadn’t thought Kyuhyun had drunk much but since they weren’t in the same area of the apartment most of the night, he couldn’t guarantee that he wasn’t somewhat influenced by drink.  All he knew was that Kyuhyun wasn’t nearly as drunk as he’d been.

            Kyuhyun never would have managed to goad Ryeowook into kissing him if he’d been sober.  Ryeowook valued their friendship too much to take chances.  What was he going to think of kissing him once he woke up?  Would he regret it?  Worse than never getting the chance to kiss Kyuhyun, would be to kiss him once and then never again.  Especially when Kyuhyun poured all his passion into it as he had last night.  Now he knew what he was missing.  Ryeowook wanted him more now than he’d ever wanted anything in his life, he was certain of it.  If Kyuhyun woke and told him it was just a mistake, he was certain never to be happy again.  He had perhaps destroyed everything in one night.

            As much as he wanted to wrap his arms around his best friend and hope that Kyuhyun wanted the same, he didn’t dare take that gamble and carefully slipped out of bed, taking care not to make any noise or wiggle the mattress.  He immediately sought out Sungmin, who he thankfully found in the kitchen alone, and gripped his shoulders tight.

            “Oh, good morning, Ryeowook,” Sungmin said, more chipper than usual.  “You’re up early.”

            “Min, something big has happened and I don’t know what to do,” Ryeowook said, tightening his hold on Sungmin.

            Sungmin suddenly seemed worried.  “What’s the matter?”

            “Kyuhyun kissed me last night.”

            Sungmin gasped and covered his mouth with his hand, staring at Ryeowook.

            “No, actually, I kissed him—we were arguing over who kissed better—and then he kissed me back.”

            “Oh my God!”

            “Minnie, I don’t know what to think of it.  Do you think he was drunk last night?”

            “No,” Sungmin said.  “When he’s trying to win money off of everyone he usually doesn’t drink anything.  I maybe saw him drink one or two glasses of wine.  He couldn’t have been drunk.  You were, but you were starting to sober up a bit when I last saw you.”

            Ryeowook covered his face with his hands and leaned into Sungmin.  “Do you think he did it to prove he’s a better kisser than me?”

            “Why were you two arguing about that?”

            “Because he says that Victoria claimed he was better at kissing than I was and I told him it wasn’t true.  Then he kept on about me trying to prove him wrong…so I kissed him,” he said, his face warming up.

            “And then Kyuhyun kissed you back?  What do you mean?”

            “I mean, he was completely making out with me,” he said, still hiding behind his hands as he recalled the kiss.  “If I didn’t stop when I did, I think I would have tried to…never mind…I just can’t talk about it.  It was so damn good, Minnie, I don’t think I’m ever going to recover from it.  I want him so bad!”

            “And you think he did all that just to prove he was a better kisser?”

            “I can’t put it past him—you know how he is when it comes to competitions and games—he just can’t stand losing to anyone.”

            “Well…I suppose—”

            “You two have got to be kidding me,” Jongwoon said, leaning against the doorframe looking at them.  “You’ve gone completely mental if you think a completely straight guy is going to make out with his best friend just to prove a point.  The only way a guy would do that is if he was an actor and was getting paid big money to pucker up.  He’d probably kiss anyone then.”

            “Good morning, Jongwoon,” Sungmin said, biting his lip and blushing.

            Ryeowook had to wonder just what Jongwoon had done to make his boyfriend of several years turn red the moment he saw him.  No wonder he was in a good mood.  Unfortunately, Ryeowook hadn’t banked on telling everyone about the incident last night and he felt uneasy speaking about it to Jongwoon.

            “Perhaps he was just looking for an excuse to kiss you and you finally provided it,” Jongwoon suggested, walking up to Sungmin and wrapping his arms around him, kissing him briefly before heading to the refrigerator. 

            “That can’t be true.  If that was the case, he’d have done it years ago,” Ryeowook argued, feeling more depressed because Jongwoon clearly wasn’t right…although he wanted him to be.

            “Maybe something happened recently to make him decide to take action.”

            “Like finding out I kissed Victoria?” he asked. 

            “You don’t really think he’s jealous, do you?” Sungmin asked his boyfriend.

            “Well, maybe.  I can’t be sure about how he feels about you kissing a girl when he knows you aren’t interested in her.  I think he’d be madder if you kissed Hyungsik, actually,” Jongwoon said, pouring some juice.  “I wouldn’t recommend trying it just to find out though.”

            “That’s true,” thought Sungmin.  “He was acting a little jealous of Hyungsik, wasn’t he?”

            “He’s never liked Hyungsik, that’s nothing new.  I don’t think that has anything to do with the kiss last night.”

            “Well, aside from the Victoria kiss and getting upset over Hyungsik, I can’t think of any other reason that Kyuhyun would be acting so different around you suddenly,” Sungmin said, frowning.

            “I thought that maybe I’d done something in my sleep on the night he went out drinking with Woonie, but I kind of doubt it,” Ryeowook points out.  “Sometimes I wonder if he doesn’t already know how I feel about him.”

            “On the night he went out with Jongwoon?” Sungmin questioned, thinking hard.

            Ryeowook nodded.

            Sungmin looked from Ryeowook to Jongwoon.  “Hey, honey?”

            “Hmmm?” Jongwoon asked, again digging around in the refrigerator.

            “Why did you go out drinking with Kyuhyun?”

            “Just to chat,” he said, peeking out at them.  “Why?”

            “Jongwoon…”

            Jongwoon, startled by the serious tone, looked suspiciously on guard.

            “You told him, didn’t you?” Sungmin realized, his eyes going wide.

            “Ah, what?  Told him what?” Jongwoon asked, panicking. 

            “About Ryeowook!”

            Jongwoon looked from Sungmin to Ryeowook without saying a word and then bolted out of the room and out the apartment door.  “That—seriously—dumb !” Sungmin called out, not bothering to chase after him.

            Ryeowook felt dizzy.  If Jongwoon didn’t contradict Sungmin’s words, then there had to be some truth in them.  Did he really tell Kyuhyun that he loved him?  And Kyuhyun reacted by avoiding him.  No…wait…he first spent the night in his bed.  This wasn’t making any sense.

            “I’m sorry, Ryeowook,” Sungmin said, hugging his friend.  “I feel this is partially my fault, since after our discussion about you trying to get over Kyuhyun and move on, I complained to Jongwoon about it.  I think he may have tried to handle the matter himself.  And God only knows what he said.”

            “Kyuhyun knows,” Ryeowook said to himself.  “None of this makes sense though.  First he sleeps in my room when he’s drunk, then he ignores me, then he goes out with Victoria, and then this.”

            “You don’t think he was mocking you by kissing you back, do you?” Sungmin asked.

            The thought made Ryeowook sick.  He reached out and grabbed the back of one of the kitchen chairs to steady himself.  Would Kyuhyun really about something like that?  He was capable enough of making light of serious situations and loved a good prank, but he’d never completely crushed Ryeowook’s emotions before.  But how do you explain Kyuhyun avoiding him and getting mad at him one day and then kissing him the next? 

            “I need to get out of here,” Ryeowook said, heading for the door and slipping on his shoes.  He grabbed his coat and was already down the hall when Sungmin caught up to him.

            “Wookie,” Sungmin said, stopping in front of him.  “I really think you ought to ask Kyuhyun what’s going on.”

            “I can’t,” Ryeowook insisted, walking around his friend. “I need to think.”

            “Give Kyuhyun the chance to explain himself!”

            Ryeowook made it into the elevator as his tears began to fall.  How could he face Kyuhyun now?  Wasn’t Kyuhyun’s actions a clear indicator of how he felt?  He’d tried to let his friend down gently by keeping his distance and pretending to be interested in someone else.  And the kiss…was Kyuhyun just humoring him? 

            Ryeowook dried his face before heading outside into the cold morning air.