The smell of dark coffee always brought him the same memories. Memories of expensive suits, black specs and tidy hair. Of clean sheets, fancy wine and rain. Those times when he was almost thirty years old and ignorant, he had just been promoted and he was ready to take over the world. For the first time his company was sending him on business trips, he got to see the most beautiful countries, to eat the most exotic foods, to visit the most expensive places and meet the most important, spoiled and corrupted people.

Then he met him.

And he was simply gorgeous.

The first time Sungmin saw him they were on a coffee shop in the center of Paris. Sungmin was lost in thoughts, playing with a spoon inside of a half-drunk cold coffee and his eyes just found his flawless figure. And he couldn’t take them off him. On the way the smoke of his cigarette caressed his mouth and how his thick tongue would dampen his cracked lips. He unconsciously touched his own lips with the tip of his tongue and he realized then that he hadn’t blinked for an insane amount of time.

And the man was smiling.

He later learnt that the man was a traveler, just like him. Sungmin couldn’t remember if working on Business Sales or something else. Both were born in the same country and both worked for different companies located in the streets of Seoul, but they would only meet in Paris. They would never contact each other, Sungmin would pretend to forget about the existence of this man and his own desires once back in his country, and will suppress the need for finding him like it wasn’t there, like it didn’t actually deprive him from sleep. Because there was no place for their love in Korea.

Love.

Sungmin didn’t know if there was a name for what they shared. Lust. Passion. Lazy kisses and quiet laughs on rainy mornings. Strawberry flavoured cakes and Dry Martinis. The scent of autum, mixed with and the expensive cologne from the curve of his neck. And even when only seeing each other once every two, three months, sometimes if they were lucky they would manage to meet twice on October, and then twice again on March, the intimacy and the trust would grow between them through the years. And Sungmin felt like he could reach happiness with both hands. And happiness had the sound of his laugh.

And one night he heard “I love you” from the lips that tasting smoke had made him fall in love at first sight. The same night that he woke up to the silent cry of the gorgeous man lying next to him. And they hugged. And they kissed. And Sungmin never saw him again.

He still waited. Like every 23rd of every month for the past eight years. Sitting on the fifth table of the small café, until the half-drunk coffee was cold and there were no more tears to shed.

x x x

N/A: I have been thinking about going on details with this story. Let me know if you would like to read it. ♥

PS. Also you can see the AU edit for this story here.