“So where are you guys going tonight?”

Howon closed the fridge door with his foot as he pulled out a carton of milk. Dongwoo watched in amusement as Howon reached for a cup in a higher cupboard whilst reaching for a pot a couple cupboards below. 

“Howon, you’re gonna drop everything!” 

There was a loud clatter and Dongwoo winced before he started laughing while Howon held his milk carton in one hand and the mug in the other, while staring at the fallen pot on the kitchen floor. 

“You could have helped!”

Dongwoo was still laughing as Howon put down everything and picked up the pot. 

“So, as I was asking, where are you guys going tonight?”

He resumed what he was doing, which was rearranging the bouquet of flowers he had gotten from the florist. He liked all the flowers that were in the bouquet, he just didn’t like how they were arranged to give a heart out of the yellow daisies. Instead, he rearranged and used the daisies and created a smiley face. He was seeing Amy again tonight, and this was going to be their 6th official date since their first. 

“We’re going to that new restaurant Amy was talking about.” 

“Ah, Yejin mentioned that they do good steaks.” 

Howon was busy making hot chocolate for himself, heating up the milk as he spoke. Although Howon had long ago admitted to himself that he was completely head over heels in love with the older man, he was still trying hard to come to terms with the fact that he would probably never be able to confess to Dongwoo. But he was sort of okay with it. Somehow, it didn’t feel as if it was the end of the world whenever Dongwoo went out with Yejin, or spoke about her. It wasn’t the same type of hurt Howon used to feel when Dongwoo mentioned Sunggyu. 

Howon said goodbye as Dongwoo hugged Howon goodbye, grabbing his bouquet of flowers on the way out the door. 

Amy was seated at the window, and Dongwoo saw her staring out before he was escorted to their reserved table by the Maitre’ d. Like the first time they had met, she seemed to sense his presence before Dongwoo even said anything. She smiled brightly, and Dongwoo noted how flattering the restaurant’s lighting was. 

Dongwoo grinned, while brandishing the bouquet of flowers from behind him. She giggled in that half- y- half- innocent way of hers and Dongwoo giggled with her. Leaning down, he pecked her on the cheek and took a seat, laying the napkin on his lap. Amy immediately asked about Dongwoo’s day as a waiter appeared to take the bouquet of flowers and place it into a temporary vase.

Dinner was uneventful and they mostly spent the night talking about their day. Dongwoo was currently holding her hand on the table, their fingers interlocked beside their glasses of water. They were waiting for their dessert to be served and they were seated in comfortable silence. It felt like they’d been dating for a long time, although it had only been a few weeks.

All in all, Dongwoo thought he was doing a pretty good job of moving on from Sunggyu. He wasn’t sure if he was the type to hallucinate but he was almost sure that dating Sunggyu hadn’t been this comfortable. Maybe they’d never been right for each other all along. When Dongwoo had first met Sunggyu, his heart had raced so uncomfortably quickly and even his stomach quaked. Sunggyu was just that good looking. True, when he had first seen Amy, he was sure his heart beat faster too. 

But everything seemed to have calmed down, by a lot. He no longer felt anything around Amy and he was pretty sure most couples were supposed to be this comfortable around their significant others. 

Briefly, Dongwoo looked up when he felt his fingers being squeezed by Amy. 

She was looking at something behind him and Dongwoo released her hand to turn around. Behind him, he saw a very handsome Korean man. He was uncomfortably tall and he was dressed like an actor, and he looked extremely awkward to be standing where he was. When Dongwoo turned back to look at Amy, her hand was gone from the table and was instead gripping onto the edge of it. 

“Amy? Do you know him?” 

Her lips parted to speak and Dongwoo was about to wave a hand in front of her eyes to see if she was still conscious when someone said Amy’s Korean name loudly. 

Dongwoo had guessed it was the man behind him in the brief moment he heard the man’s voice. And true to his guess, the man walked up to their table and completely disregarded Dongwoo. 

“Yejin.” 

Suddenly, Dongwoo was aware of the whole restaurant watching their table. In fact, Dongwoo was watching his own table. The atmosphere wasn’t unlike those during the romantic es in movies or dramas. Dongwoo watched as the man dropped to his knees. Holding back a gasp, Dongwoo felt anticipation rise up in him, again, not unlike the feeling he felt when watching dramas. 

“Yejin, I love you.” 

If Dongwoo could see his own face, he was sure he’d see himself wide- eyed and slack jawed. Who was this guy and why did Amy look so taken by him?

“Kiwoong, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in New York by now?” 

“No, listen, Yejin, I know it’s been a month but I can’t stop thinking about you and I know I’m not the only one feeling this way.” 

Dongwoo felt his anticipation rising again, wondering what Amy’s answer would be. He knew there was something out of place here. He should be feeling jealous, anxious instead of excited for Amy’s answer, and that little tuft of relief at the back of his mind should definitely not be there. But Dongwoo doesn’t really do anything, he just watches the mini- drama unfold in front of his eyes. 

“This doesn’t make sense, you said-“ 

The guy, whom Dongwoo safely assumed was Kiwoong, took her hand from where she was still gripping onto the side of the table. He held it with both hands, and Dongwoo was sure his eyes were glassy. 

“I know what I said, Yejin. But I was wrong. I was totally and completely wrong. You were right, I can’t throw away our relationship like this.” 

The two were staring into each other’s eyes and Dongwoo unconsciously leaned closer, waiting for Amy’s answer. It was an intense moment and Dongwoo was almost picking out suitable music in his mind to play for this exact moment. 

“What are you trying to say?” 

“Marry me, Yejin. Marry me and I’ll stay here in Seoul, we’ll meet your whole family and you can meet mine. We’ll start the life we always wanted.”

Kiwoong had stood up by now, and Dongwoo watched- even more amazed than before- as he fumbled around before fishing out a classic, deep blue suede box from his blazer’s chest pocket. 

“Please, Yejin. Let’s start again, properly. Like we were meant to, like we planned to.” 

If Dongwoo was watching with Woohyun- which he usually did, the younger man liked to watch dramas- Dongwoo was sure Woohyun would have squealed and hit Dongwoo repeatedly at this point.

Amy was barely moving as she seemed to just watch Kiwoong open the ring box and uncover a perfectly normal looking silver band with some precious stone encrusted in the centre. Kiwoong was shaking, Dongwoo realised, as he took Amy’s hand and slid the ring onto her middle finger. 

There was a nod from Amy, that Dongwoo almost missed, on account of how focused he was on the action of Kiwoong sliding the ring down Amy’s finger, and then a bark of laughter from Kiwoong. 

Amy stood and Kiwoong wasted no time as he pulled her in by the back of her waist and kissed her. 

Dongwoo watched, still in awe. The scene was perfect for a drama and Dongwoo was barely even concerned by the fact that Amy had just gotten engaged to some guy he had never heard of, on their date. 

After a couple of moments, the restaurant seemed to continue normally, waiters were serving and moving again and the diners had torn their gaze away from his table. However, Amy and Kiwoong were still in their own world, as Dongwoo felt more and more awkward as the minutes passed. They were hugging now, and Amy had her face buried in Kiwoong’s shoulder. 

Only a few seconds later though, Amy lifted her head and Dongwoo just smiled at her as she met his eyes. She must have realised that Dongwoo was still there. Amy pulled herself away from Kiwoong, who only watched her walk back to Dongwoo’s side. She smiled sheepishly down at him, pulling her chair so she could sit right next to him. 

“I’m sorry Dongwoo but-“ 

Dongwoo lifted up a hand to stop her, then he dropped it atop her hand that was resting on her lap. 

“It’s okay. You can explain tomorrow, I’m sure you’ve got a lot to celebrate now.” 

He gave her a big grin and leaned forward to hug her as he congratulated her. After leaving a few bills on the table, Dongwoo congratulated Kiwoong as well, clapping him on the back and leaving the restaurant, not bothering to turn around. 

When he got back to his apartment, he knew that it was empty. Howon had already returned home, which he had expected. He had left the flowers at the restaurant, because even though their relationship had clearly ended, it would be weird and awkward to take them back. Though, he didn’t think Kiwoong would appreciate the flowers. 

Dongwoo freshened up and got ready for bed, knowing he’d see Howon for breakfast tomorrow. 

Just as Dongwoo was brushing his teeth, after having changed and only a few minutes from leaving the apartment, he heard his phone ring. With the toothbrush between his teeth, he picked up the phone without bothering to look at the caller ID.  Amy’s confident voice powered through the receiver. 

“Dongwoo?” 

He took the toothbrush out of this mouth and wiped at the corners of his lips, not bothering to spit out the mess of spit and toothpaste in his mouth. 

“Good morning, Amy.” 

“Listen, Dongwoo, you seem fine with what happened last night but I owe you an explanation at the very least. I don’t want to make anything worse and I don’t think I will, but I always thought we didn’t have much of a future together. I mean, you’re an amazing person, probably better than Kiwoong but we just didn’t… click.” 

She paused and Dongwoo took the opportunity to throw in his thoughts. 

“I would actually love to hear about you and Kiwoong. But you don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings or anything. To be honest, I did see a future for the two of us but it wouldn’t have been as meaningful as the future I'm sure you will have with Kiwoong.” 

“Thanks, Dongwoo. God, you’re so thoughtful and nice, I can’t believe we actually dated,’ she laughed before clearing and continuing, “I want to tell you everything about Kiwoong and I but I know you’re probably busy cause you start class soon. How about lunch today?” 

Dongwoo agreed and hung up. Even though he usually had lunch with Howon on weekdays, he didn’t think Howon would mind if he cancelled. This was definitely a one- time thing after all. It wasn’t as if Dongwoo was expecting to have another potential partner have to explain a man proposing to her during one of their dates. 

Checking the time on his phone, he saw that their conversation only took up 10 minutes. Dongwoo was about to pick up his toothbrush to continue brushing his teeth before he realised that he and swallowed the toothpaste sometime during his conversation with Amy. Frowning in slight disgust, Dongwoo just rinsed his toothbrush and picked up his bag. 

Calling Howon on the way to the studio, he didn’t give Howon much information, knowing that he would probably be in his apartment for dinner anyways. He just told the younger man that he would have to take a rain check for lunch today because Amy had something important to tell him. 

Dongwoo started his class with a clear mind, pushing everything away and trying his best to focus completely on the class. 

Howon honestly wasn’t even bothered. Sure, the only time they missed having lunch with each other was when either one of them got dragged off to another lunch by Sungyeol and Myungsoo, or Woohyun, or even Sungjong, in Howon’s case. So hearing Dongwoo tell him that he would miss lunch to have lunch with Yejin instead didn’t bother him. He guessed he would just have to get used to it, after all, if Dongwoo had already had 6 official dates, which probably meant it was getting serious. 

Sure, Howon was definitely lying to himself and all these thoughts had been thought with a pinch of bitterness and that little kid who had been sitting in the table opposite had run over to his mother after seeing what was sure to be an awful expression on Howon’s face. But it was okay. After all, Howon had never meant to fall in love with Dongwoo, he wasn’t supposed to. Especially after he’d first met the older man and was so startled to hear Dongwoo even talking to him. He could lie to anyone but himself, but after meeting him, he had fantasised about so many possibilities. Then he had found out that Dongwoo was married. 

It wasn’t a happy marriage, from what he heard and Howon would have loved to nudge Dongwoo away from Sunggyu but it had felt wrong even though Howon didn’t think he was the most morally conscious person. Since getting to know the beautiful man, Howon had promised himself daily not to do anything stupid with Dongwoo and the more Dongwoo referred to Howon as his best friend, the more Howon was adamant on his promise. 

So he definitely wasn’t going to even allow himself to feel or have any thoughts on this. Howon scooped the remaining spoonful of rice into his mouth and swallowed, washing it all down with a tall glass of iced tea. Inhaling and exhaling with his nostrils flaring, Howon got up to pay the bill. 

As usual, Dongwoo has asked Howon over for dinner. Although it was a little weird, to have two grown men be so attached to each other- having breakfast, lunch and dinner more than twice a week- neither of them seemed to mind. And obviously, Howon didn’t mind spending his time with Dongwoo at all. 

Dongwoo had bought take- out into his apartment and Howon could smell the Thai- style dishes as soon as he stepped in. He walked into the kitchen and watched Dongwoo wrapping up and disposing the takeout containers into their paper bags. After tying a knot 3 times, he dropped them by the trash and probably had a heart attack as he noticed Howon standing by the wall. 

“Oh my god!” 

Howon only laughed and went to help Dongwoo with placing the plates and cutlery on the dining table.

“Shouldn’t you be used to this by now?”

“Well, nobody would be used to someone breaking into their house and joining them for dinner, Howon.” 

Howon shoved a spoonful of oyster omelette into the older’s mouth to shut him up. 

They were a few minutes into their quiet meal when Howon decided to speak up. Just, casually. 

“So, what did you do with Yejin today?” 

Dongwoo was still chewing when he looked up. He swallowed before replying. 

“Oh, about that. We broke up. Actually,” Dongwoo laughed, “It’s more like I got dumped. I just met up with her today so she could tell me the full story.” 

Gaining control of his motor functions before he dropped his chopsticks, Howon decided instead to open and close his mouth like a fish. 

“What do you mean you guys broke up?”

Honestly, Howon was just happy that Dongwoo was single again. Of course he cared about why they broke up, Yejin seemed important to Dongwoo after all. But lets be honest, Howon was as selfish as they came. 

“We broke up. On our date yesterday. Wait, I’ll tell you exactly what she said to me today.” 

Dongwoo took a sip of water and a deep breath before he spoke. He put on a droll expression as he probably repeated everything Yejin had said. 

“Just a couple months before I met you, I was in a serious relationship with Kiwoong. We’d been together since our junior year of university and we’d always planned to get married. Even though we never said anything out loud, we had always known we’d spend our lives together. Then, just before I met you, Kiwoong was promoted at his job. He worked at this massive trade centre and his promotion meant moving all the way to New York, to make use of his English degree. Of course, I didn’t want to be uprooted from my life here so I refused to go anywhere. We discussed it and in the end, we thought it was best if we just broke up. Maybe we would get back together, maybe not, but we both knew we’d never be able to sustain a long- distance relationship.” 

Howon hmmed as Dongwoo ate some food.

“Then when he interrupted our dinner last night-“ 

“Wait, this Kiwoon guy interrupted you guys’ dinner?” 

Dongwoo nodded. 

“Let me finish! Then when he interrupted our dinner last night, he was supposed to be in New York by then. I wasn’t expecting to see him for another few years, to be honest. Although I was still heart broken by Kiwoong, I accepted that I might never get back together with him. And having you, Dongowo, by my side only helped me accept it better. When he’d asked me to marry him, I didn’t feel any hesitation and even though I’d entertained the idea of marrying someone else, be it you or some other guy, as soon as he said those words, I knew I would never be as happy with anyone else. Kiwoong had declined his promotion at the last minute and moved back to Seoul. Anyway, Dongwoo, we’re a good pair and you’ve made me very happy but we aren’t meant to be. I know there’s someone else out there for you.” 

Howon’s heart pretty much soared and he placed a hand over his chest. Maybe, Dongwoo would realise his someone else was Howon. But he was shook back into the present as Dongwoo sighed and then giggled. 

“It was such a fairytale, drama- ending, Howon. I wish you were there to see Kiwoong propose to her. It was so sweet.” 

“Wait, so you aren’t bothered by Yejin leaving you at all?” 

“Well, Howon, Amy was right. We made a good pair and we probably would have made each other happy had we decided to have a long relationship but it wouldn’t have been as good as a relationship that she has with Kiwoong. Don’t worry, I’ll find my prince or princess charming soon!” 

Howon didn’t reply and only watched as Dongwoo continued to eat. There was a smile hinting on his lips but he tried not to let it show. He didn’t want Dongwoo to know he was happy or something about him breaking up with Yejin, even though the older man didn’t seem upset over it in the slightest.

_{guys don't hate me (also i do enjoy comments but please think about what you're saying about a fictional story with fictional characters before getting upset)}