Chansik first meets Dongwoo after listening to Sunwoo, his roommate, talk about him for weeks.  

Sunwoo met Dongwoo last month and, from what Chansik can tell, Dongwoo has taken over every waking thought that Sunwoo has possessed since then.  It had been amusing at first, a bit annoying as the first week passed, and then a bit of a cause for concern.  It can’t be healthy to be that absorbed in someone.

“But he’s just so – “ Sunwoo trails off, possibly because he’s used to being told to shut up before can go on to list  Dongwoo’s various charms.  Chansik looks at him expectantly instead, single eyebrow quirked.  He just wants to know if the laundry list of sparkling qualities has changed at all since last week.

“He’s so cute,” Sunwoo breathes, practically gushing.  It’s kind of anticlimactic.

The first time Sunwoo had gone over the list he’d included everything from his sense of humour, adorable eye smile, soothing voice – everything – right down to his pretty fingers.  Maybe he’s cooling down, Chansik dares to hope, even if he’s still going on about this guy with the same stupid look as last week.  

“You know when someone is so cute you just want to push them down and them until they cry?  Not bad crying but like, you know.”

“…no, I really don’t.”

Chansik is pretty sure no one can be as perfect as the Shin Dongwoo that Sunwoo describes.  He sounds like a perfectly bizarre combination of that young teacher everyone has a crush on, the best friend a guy could ever have, and a pretty fairy tale princess.  

Then he meets Dongwoo – and the first thing that hits Chansik is the mental image of Sunwoo ing him until he cries.  Chansik really hates Sunwoo sometimes.  It takes him a moment to blink away the inappropriate image, but once does he’s struck by the endearingly self-conscious smile, the warm handshake, and the way a strand of hair slip from behind his ear when he bows his head.

So no, Shin Dongwoo isn’t perfect, but Chansik can kind of see where Sunwoo is coming from.  




Sunwoo makes it very hard to not stare at Dongwoo.  He’s told Chansik way too much, way crossed the line of oversharing.  Chansik finds his eyes automatically drifting to Dongwoo, making note of every little thing.

Like how he sneaks looks at Sunwoo.  

Like how he smiles or laughs whenever Sunwoo does, regardless of why.

Like how he bites his lip when his hand bumps against Sunwoo’s.  

Chansik notices all of this while beating them both at cards.  It proves to him that Sunwoo is indeed stupid to not notice something so obvious.  Then again it’s not like Sunwoo is subtle about his attraction either so, Chansik concludes, they must both be pretty stupid.  Or maybe they’re just completely and utterly blinded by their (very mutual) infatuation.

He’s not really sure what to do.  He’s not sure he should do something, but they’re both impossibly dense and watching the two of them go at it with their shy, secret glances, watching them laugh obnoxiously at each other’s lame jokes, and all the jumpy ‘accidental’ touches – it’s pretty nauseating.  Chansik isn’t sure he can take weeks or months of them dancing around each other in his apartment.

 But then at least they’re not ing in his apartment, so maybe he should just leave it. (He doesn’t.)




“I think he wants to you until you cry too,” Chansik tells Sunwoo in an even voice after Dongwoo leaves.  Sunwoo holds up a finger and shushes him violently, as if Dongwoo might hear him through doors and floors and elevators.




Dongwoo hangs out with Sunwoo once or twice a week and Chansik is dragged along because Sunwoo apparently loses his balls when faced with his epic crush.  He seems to think he’ll give himself away if the two of them are alone, unfortunately Dongwoo has yet to catch on since he’s busy nursing his own ridiculous crush.

But Chansik actually doesn’t complain, he enjoys hanging out with them in spite of the situation.  It gets to a point that Chansik starts to think of Dongwoo as his friend as much as he thinks of him as Sunwoo’s.  He likes Dongwoo enough that they even go grab drinks together (because Sunwoo is busy).

“So…do you think he’s on a date today?”  Dongwoo asks, voice too quiet to be normal, as he fiddles with the rim of his straw.

Chansik shrugs.  “I don’t know.  He didn’t say.”

To be honest it gets a bit awkward sometimes, even when Sunwoo isn’t here the conversation naturally flows towards him.  It makes Chansik feel like the third wheel, even when it’s just the two of them.  It’s exactly the same when he’s with Sunwoo.

Dongwoo chews at the inside of his cheek and stares at his hands; Chansik can’t help but notice, of course.  

“Probably not,” he adds on, not at all desperate to smooth the furrow between Dongwoo’s brows.  “I mean he…he’d probably tell me if he were.”

 “That’s true.”  Dongwoo smiles gently, hopefully, face lighting up.  And it’s like Chansik’s face has developed an annoying muscle twitch, he smiles back automatically.

Maybe he has a little bit of a thing for Dongwoo as well, but it’s practically microscopic compared to Sunwoo’s thing.  And if he has some dirty thoughts about Dongwoo he blames them mostly on Sunwoo.

(He feels a little bit guilty, lusting after his friend, lusting after his friend’s crush.  But imagining things never hurt anyone, so Chansik just closes his eyes and imagines Dongwoo gnawing on his lower lip as Sunwoo pounds into him, all enthusiasm and no rhythm.)




Sometimes Sunwoo sits around and stares at his phone for minutes, pokes at the screen every time it dims and keeps staring.  It’s stupid, he looks stupid.

“Are you going to call him?”

Sunwoo jumps, almost drops his phone as he snaps his gaze to Chansik.  

“Why do you assume it’s him?  Maybe I’m just thinking about calling my mom,” Sunwoo says with a frown, as if offended.  (But they don’t need to clarify who they mean by ‘him’ because their conversations only go one way lately. Or maybe it’s been like this for some time.  Chansik isn’t sure if it’s all Sunwoo’s fault at this point.)




“You should tell him that you like him.”

Dongwoo sputters but, thankfully, doesn’t spray tea all over Chansik’s face.  He should probably have waited until he’d swallowed.  

“What?  Who?”  Dongwoo asks desperately, eyes suddenly as wide as they’ll open.  

Chansik gives him a look because, really, who else could they be talking about.  But Dongwoo is every bit as stupid as Sunwoo.  It’s been months and they haven’t gotten anywhere at all, it leaves Chansik feeling restless just watching them.

“You like Sunwoo,” Chansik says flatly.  Dongwoo tenses in response, looking around frantically even though they both know there’s no way Sunwoo would be here.  Dongwoo looks at everything but Chansik, but at least he doesn’t deny it.  

He doesn’t tell Sunwoo, no one ever takes Chansik’s advice.  What he does is tell Chansik how great Sunwoo is, as if it’s breaking news.  But at least Dongwoo doesn’t share graphic fantasies.  (Unfortunately that means Chansik has no one to blame but himself when he ends up imagining Dongwoo pushing his down Sunwoo’s throat, apologising in a flustered stutter when Sunwoo chokes a little.)




“Why do you want me to tell him so badly?  I’m perfectly okay with how things are right now.”

How things are involves Chansik watching the two of them peek at each other through their eyelashes.  It involves Sunwoo and Dongwoo both talking about each other to Chansik so much that he should be charging them by the hour.  It involves Chansik’s every waking thought being swallowed up by Sunwoo or Dongwoo – it’s driving him insane.  He’s doing this for their sake and for his own too.

“Because it’s ridiculous.  He likes you, I know he likes you.  He told me.”

Sunwoo looks caught between being terrified and elated.  Chansik wants to shake him or drag him by the wrist to Dongwoo and throw him into his arms.  

“Did he really?” Sunwoo asks, voice uncharacteristically quiet and small.  It takes another few seconds for a creepily sweet smile to break across his features.  

“He did.” (Chansik smiles too, like it’s only natural.)




And from that point it’s out of his hands.  

Chansik thinks maybe they really are hopeless when nothing changes after a week.  But another week after that he comes home to them making out on the couch, Sunwoo mostly in Dongwoo’s lap.  He’s about to backtrack the out of there when Sunwoo peeks at him with one eye and beckons him over with the hand that’s not tangled in Dongwoo’s hair.

Chansik walks over to join them, because he’s not stupid.