Sungyeol is tired of the heartache and the late nights staying up and wondering about the one that got away. It’s been a year and four months since he last said “I love you” to him and two months since he last exchanged words with him. It was his birthday and he figured it wouldn’t be too strange to text someone that you can’t seem to get over. When he texts him, there’s the spark of hope that maybe the other will cave in and realize how much he misses Sungyeol. The hope that he’ll be so glad that Sungyeol messaged him and then he’ll profess his undying love for him and then the two will pick up from where they left off.

 

But all he gets in return is two words; thank you.

 

It’s finally time to move on.

 

He wants to find a new love. It’s been a year and four months since his last love and there were multiple times when he thought he needed a new love to fill the void, but each time was shot down with the thought of “what if he still wants to get back together?” How foolish is Sungyeol to think that for a whole year and four months. But right now, that thought doesn’t occur to him, only one does.

 

“I want to have a refreshing new start at love. To find someone who isn’t perfect for me and to slowly realize they are and then to have a puppy crush - innocent and sweet. And then develop deeper feelings and it’ll be mutual or not. I don’t care. I don’t care if they actually like me back, I just want the feeling of a new love to resurface in what can be called my desperate and misplaced life.”

 

“Desperate?” Woohyun quirks an eyebrow, “I wouldn’t call it desperate yet. All the times I’ve tried to set you up and you just push them aside and say ‘nah’.”

 

“I wasn’t ready then. Or interested, really now, I thought you knew my tastes better than that.”

 

“Lee Howon was ing hot, okay? I thought you only liked hot guys.”

 

“Lee Howon isn’t even his real name,” Sungyeol sighs and waves the argument about Lee Howon away, “Besides, that’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t want a new love that involves my friend hooking me up with someone. It’s all about chance encounters, you know?”

 

“Like in the movies and dramas? Sungyeol, that stuff doesn’t happen in real life.”

 

“Yes it does. Where do you think they come up with that crap? It happens and people copyright it and turn it into money making films. One day you’re going to see the story of me and my future husband all over South Korea as a box office hit.”

 

“That’s unlikely considering it’s going to be about two homouals.”

 

“It’s 2014, Nam. Get with the times, here.”

 

Woohyun furrows his brow in a crinkling laugh before patting Sungyeol’s back in sympathy, “Good luck finding your chance encounter then.”

 

Approximately fourteen days later, he runs into his ex-boyfriend’s best friend.

 

“Sungyeol-ssi?”

 

Myungsoo is his name if Sungyeol can remember correctly. He’s got funky hair and dresses like he’s going to a funeral all the time, but other than that, Sungyeol is aware that his face is no less than that of a Greek God. Or at least a Korean one.

 

“Hey,” Sungyeol smiles back wrly and recalls the stories of Myungsoo.

 

The boy who supposedly ed thirteen girls in his last year of highschool and believes his looks will get him all the he could possibly want without so much as lifting a finger.

 

“I didn’t know you shop here,” Myungsoo says, his eyes drifting down to look at the current ensemble of fruity colors that Sungyeol is sporting.

 

“Yeah, well, you know. I have a job interview coming up and I need something with a little less color.”

 

“Oh, what kind of job?”

 

“Intern for an entertainment company.”

 

“Hm,” Myungsoo purses his lips and eyes the vest in Sungyeol’s hand, “You won’t want that then. That shade doesn’t do your skin any justice.”

 

Sungyeol looks down at the article of clothing and wonders why this shade of black wouldn’t work on him.

 

“Here, I’ll help you. Come on,” Myungsoo takes the horrid vest out of Sungyeol’s hand and returns it to the rack before gesturing the other to follow him.

 

Three hours and seven different stores later, Sungyeol finds himself with a current balance of negative 800,000 won.

 

“Shopping with you is very expensive,” Sungyeol whines as he goes over all his receipts.

 

Myungsoo shrugs but offers Sungyeol a grin, “It was fun though, right? And you got all the clothes you’ll need.”

 

“Yeah but…” Sungyeol sighs as he scans over a receipt, “At what cost?”

 

Myungsoo shrugs again, “Let me see those receipts, I bet it isn’t as bad as you think.”

 

“Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be in a debt that’s worse than my student loans.”

 

The younger male scoffs before taking the receipts and going over them himself, “It isn’t even that bad. My dad could make this in two days.”

 

“I’m sorry that I was not born a rich heir like you.”

 

“You could have said something,” Myungsoo taps on his chin before placing the receipts in one of Sungyeol’s shopping bag, “I could have paid and written you a nice i.o.u.”

 

Sungyeol chuckles bitterly, “I don’t want to owe you anything.”

 

“You sure about that?” Myungsoo’s smile is anything but sweet or innocent. It’s almost as if he’s trying to flirt with Sungyeol. It’s almost as if he’ll think it’ll work. Gross.

 

“You’re gross,” Sungyeol says bluntly before standing to leave, “See you around.”

 

“Call me,” is the only response he gets.

 

Later that night, Sungyeol finds Myungsoo’s number written sloppily on a receipt and he immediately throws it into the wastebin. There’s no reason to keep people like Myungsoo around, Sungyeol thinks. People like Myungsoo are bad news.

 

“I remember him,” Woohyun muses, “We slept together once. He was amazing.”

 

“That’s just,” Sungyeol scrunches up his nose and shakes his head, “I can’t even word what it is.”

 

“I’m just kidding,” Woohyun laughs, “He isn’t gay, Sungyeol. Why else would he only bang girls?”

 

“Doesn’t excuse the fact that my gaydar was going off the charts last weekend.”

 

“Your gaydar might be broken from too much neglect though, it can’t be trusted.”

 

“He gave me his number!”

 

“And did you call him!?” Woohyun’s mouth falls open in disbelief.

 

“What- ew. No. I threw it away.”

 

“Lee Sungyeol, you ignorant . You could have given it to me!”

 

“You were the one saying he isn’t into male body parts.”

 

“I didn’t say that. I only said he wasn’t gay. He could be bi curious or something.”

 

“You’re so annoying,” Sungyeol sighs into his hands and wonders when did things with Woohyun get so weird or if they were always just like this.

 

Three days later and Sungyeol gets an unexpected text from the last person he’d want to talk to right now.

 

From: unknown number

Can we meet at XXX?

 

“Hey.”

 

“Hey,” Sungyeol begrudgingly greets back and regrets coming here immediately.

 

“I know this was pretty sudden but I needed a guest for this event.”

 

“It’s fine,” Sungyeol tries his best to sound calm, “I just hope I’m dressed for the occasion.”

 

“You are. You look really handsome tonight.”

 

Sungyeol inwardly cringes at that because this is the last person he wants to hear a compliment from. Instead he fakes a grin and walks into the building, fully aware that this is a wedding and he is participating as someone’s guest.

 

“Oh, Sunggyu. Is this your friend? He’s so handsome!” A woman with long black hair and a pretty eye smile compliments as Sungyeol walks in behind Sunggyu.

 

“My friend? Nope, he’s my date!” Sunggyu laughs and the woman follows suit.

 

Obviously, it’s a joke. Sungyeol rolls his eyes at the two and wishes he could just have stayed home tonight.

 

“I didn’t know you swung that way,” Another woman says. She has dyed brown hair and a very thin figure, “But I guess taller was always your type.”

 

Sunggyu grins sheepishly at the woman and Sungyeol catches every bit of it. “Actually, he’s my brother. Don’t get so jealous over him, Sooyoung.”

 

Sooyoung just scoffs playfully before swirling the drink her hands, “I’m Choi Sooyoung, you are?”

 

“Kim Sungyeol,” he admits and doesn’t enjoy addressing himself as such. He’s always preferred ‘Lee’.

 

“I’m Hwang Miyoung,” the first woman introduces and she begins to pull Sooyoung by the arm, “We’ve got a busy agenda tonight. Lots of people to meet. See you two later!”

 

Sungyeol purses his lips as he watches the two disappear into a crowd of fancily dressed people. The walls are white and pristine and the floor is marble and there’s a glass chandelier hanging just above the dance floor and Sungyeol has never felt so out of place before.

 

“You should have brought a girl if you were trying to get that Sooyoung chick jealous,” Sungyeol scrunches his nose as a man dressed in a black tux holding a tray of hors d'oeuvres passes by, “A really really high class type of girl.”

 

“I’m not trying to get anyone jealous,” Sunggyu defends, “Besides. This was more a less a favor from umma, so behave.”

 

“My mom put you up to this?” Sungyeol asks, “Unbelievable.”

 

It’s been fifteen years since she remarried and five years since she disowned him for coming out as gay.

 

“She just wants you to get out more,” Sunggyu says with a sigh, “It’d be nice to see your face once in a while you know.”

 

“This family is so ed up, why would I want to show my face around here?” Sungyeol says half heartedly as he continues to scan the area and take in all the expensive sights and sounds.

 

“Drink champagne, meet a handsome dude. Just stick around, please?”

 

And in all the years that Sungyeol has known Sunggyu, he’s never heard the other ever say please. So he stays, not for his mother and not for the sake of ‘getting out’. He stays because Sunggyu is such a piece of .

 

To: Woohyun

can u believe him? he ditched me for a group of girls! this douche.

 

From: Woohyun

y dont u jus leave then?

 

To: Woohyun

no money for a cab home

 

From: Woohyun

i pity ur life.

 

Sungyeol doesn’t even remember why he texted Woohyun in the first place so he shoves his cell phone back into his pocket before kicking an expensive looking plant pot and stalking off towards the restroom. It’s on his way there that he runs into the bride or rather, Sunggyu’s birth mother.

 

“Sungyeol-ah, you came!” She says before enveloping him a tight embrace, “I was so sad when your mother told me you couldn’t make it.”

 

Sungyeol almosts lets an ironic laugh slip out because his mother (actually no one) even mentioned this wedding to him until Sunggyu practically begged him to come.

 

“It’s always nice to see family,” She smiles and Sungyeol can see the soft wrinkles on her face. He sort of hates how she puts it that way though, because Sungyeol has only ever seen her a handful of times during her visits to see Sunggyu and he’s never considered her as family. The fact that she even invited her ex-husband and his wife is still appalling.

 

“Thank you,” Sungyeol says respectfully though, “And congratulations too.”

 

“Ah,” her face melts at Sungyeol’s words and he figures she may be a little buzzed, “They do say the third time’s a charm.”

 

“There you are, Sunmi-yah-”

 

Sungyeol glances over her shoulder and finds Myungsoo all clad in black and with his hair actually styled nice for once. He too is paused and he tilts his head before clearing his throat and walking over to the two.

 

“Oh, Myungsoo-yah!” She smiles and pulls him into an embrace too, “I’ve told you. Just call me umma from now on.”

 

Myungsoo lets out a light chuckle and wraps his arms around the traditional wedding dress she’s clothed in before pulling back and nodding, “Yes. Umma, they’re looking for you out in the garden. Appa wants to take photos with the lights on before it gets too late.”

 

She gasps before nodding and slurring incoherent words as she picks up her gown and begins to run off down the hall. Before Sungyeol can even slip away, Myungsoo is wrapping cool fingers around his wrist.

 

“And where do you think you’re off to?” He tugs lightly on Sungyeol’s wrist, making the other turn and face him.

 

“Bathroom,” Sungyeol slips his hand away and is thankful that Myungsoo’s grip wasn’t tight to begin with, “I’ve had one too many glasses of bubbly.”

 

Myungsoo’s laugh is light and his face contorts slightly into that of a child’s, “Bathroom’s just over there. I’ll take you.”

 

“No, that’s fi-”

 

“Come on,” Myungsoo says and gestures for Sungyeol to follow and this all seems much too familiar to Sungyeol, especially the part where Sungyeol actually does follow.

 

“So, I guess we’re family now?” Myungsoo asks after Sungyeol’s done and they’re back in the ballroom, sitting across from each other at a vacant table.

 

“I pray we are not,” Sungyeol scrunches his face up in disgust, “I’m not blood related to anyone here anyways.”

 

“Ah, here I was thinking you’d be my new brother. I haven’t met him yet. I just remember it was Kim Sung-thing.”

 

“Sunggyu. Sunggyu hyung. The douche with no eyes and an uncontrollable libido for tall girls.”

 

Myungsoo tilts his head and chuckles, “What?”

 

“Nothing,” Sungyeol cracks a smile, “You’ll meet him and fall in love with his older brother personality, I’m sure of it.”

 

“My, this seems like quite the ed up family that my dad married into.”

 

The corner of Sungyeol’s lips quirk into a smirk, “You don’t even know the half it.”

 

Myungsoo chuckles before leaning across the table and dropping his eyes, “So, why haven’t you called me yet? We have fully passed the three day waiting period.”

 

“I think we require a fifty year and forever waiting requirement though.”

 

Myungsoo laughs again and Sungyeol sort of enjoys making him laugh like this, “I’m serious. Am I not handsome enough for you?”

 

“Why do you need to be handsome for me?” Sungyeol inquires, pulling against the hem of the tablecloth, “It’s not like you’re actually interested, right?”

 

“Maybe I am?”

 

Sungyeol scoffs, “I’m not an experiment for your uality, Myungsoo.”

 

“Who says it’s an experiment? Why can’t I genuinely be interested in you?”

 

“Because you’re not gay.”

 

“That’s why I said you. I’m interested in you.”

 

Sungyeol chews the inside of his mouth and sighs deeply, “That’s not even funny.”

 

“I’m not trying to be funny,” Myungsoo grins, “Why aren’t my charms working on you?”

 

And Sungyeol shrugs, “Maybe cause it only works on girls? In fact, you should try it over there.”

 

He points to the crowd of young teens all looking over at their table and whispering in tones they think can’t be heard, but obviously their high frequency voices are much too loud for Sungyeol’s liking.

 

“Nah,” Myungsoo grins and returns his gaze to Sungyeol, “I prefer your whiny voice much more.”

 

Sungyeol smacks the side of his head and the two just giggle like hyenas for the rest of the night - much of it that Sungyeol doesn’t even bother to remember the next day when he’s nursing a hangover.

 

Woohyun is anything but gracious about it as he’s all loud hollers and annoying whines of why didn’t you tell me your hyung was so cute? But Sungyeol has to remind him multiple times that Sunggyu is only interested in girls (just like Myungsoo is) and that he’s currently vying for the attention of a girl with more s and less than Woohyun has.

 

They just end up spending the day doing absolutely nothing, Sungyeol can’t remember because he’s asleep for most of it and Woohyun’s playing Persona 4 on the PS3.

 

“Hey Yeol,” he prods at Sungyeol’s thigh an hour after Sungyeol falls back asleep on the couch.

 

“Whaaat?” Sungyeol whines and rubs his eyes. He hates that he’ll wake up from even the drop of a pin.

 

“So, like. In this game I’m playing, there’s something called the Midnight Channel and supposedly if you look at the blank television screen on a raining night at midnight exactly, it’ll show your soulmate. I think you should try it, especially considering how obsessed you are with finding your true love or some .”

 

“New love. Not true love. I could care less about my soulmate, all I want is something fresh.” Sungyeol groans into his arm and shoves Woohyun away, “Let me sleep now.”

 

The next week, Sungyeol is once again invited (begged) by Sunggyu to come to a family outing, some sort of park event that his birth mom’s company is holding.

 

Of course, that means Sungyeol’s real mom is there and so is Sunggyu’s real dad and yeah, Myungsoo is there too. They’re sort of all like brothers or something now, Sungyeol isn’t sure. It’s complicated. His parents divorced and his mom married Sunggyu’s dad (and he had to take on the ‘Kim’ surname) and Sunggyu’s mom married Myungsoo’s dad. Something like that, Sungyeol tries hard to remember it, he at least isn’t blood related to anyone aside from his birth parents at least, thank God.

 

“Are you sure you’re not my hyung?” Myungsoo asks with a teasing grin when the two are isolated by the park bench, everyone else involving themselves with the event’s activities.

 

“Positive,” Sungyeol sighs and looks at the watch on his wrist. Time couldn’t be ticking any slower.

 

Suddenly, Myungsoo’s standing so close to him that Sungyeol thinks what the ? And he’s staring so hard that Sungyeol is afraid the guy might go cross-eyed.

 

“You should sell hot dogs.” He randomly says while looking deep into Sungyeol’s soul.

 

“What?” Sungyeol blinks and thinks Myungsoo is slightly retarded.

 

“Because you already know how to make a wiener stand.” He says it with all seriousness and Sungyeol freezes.

 

“You need to leave.”

 

But it doesn’t end there. For the next month Sungyeol gets texts (that Sunggyu gave his number to Myungsoo) and calls and weird messages scrawled out on colorful post it notes with really gross pick up lines that somehow either make him double over in laughter or feel really sorry for Kim Myungsoo’s existence.

 

The saddest one he’s got to date is; I’d hide all the chairs in the world just so that you’d have to sit on my face.

Sungyeol has no ing clue what kind of weed Myungsoo smokes, but he still deals with it all because yeah, he’ll admit it. Myungsoo is sort of strangely cute. Especially with the way he’ll follow Sungyeol around any chance he can get (like some sort of blind puppy) and how his eyes will light up each time Sungyeol agrees to do anything with him and he’s particularly enjoyed a certain bit where Myungsoo presented him with a bouquet of carnations and somehow ended up on his face through the whole endeavor.

 

“You really should invest all this time in actually courting a girl,” Sungyeol muses as Myungsoo slides into the bus seat beside him.

 

“Nah,” Myungsoo grins and he sticks a bright orange post-it note to Sungyeol’s forearm. “Girls and I don’t actually mix very well.”

 

Sungyeol furrows his brow in question but ignores it when he reads the post-it and laughs out loudly.

 

Did you sit in a pile of sugar? Because you have a pretty sweet !

 

Myungsoo’s ducking his head in embarrassment with a shy grin, watching Sungyeol laugh beside him.

 

“Why do you even write me these?” He asks, crumpling up the post-it note and sliding the trash into his front pocket. “You always get all embarrassed afterwards.”

 

“They’re more for your entertainment I guess,” Myungsoo says and glances out the window, “I’m not a very funny person.”

 

“Yeah you are,” Sungyeol nods and then wonders why he’s even saying these things. “Your snarky comments usually make me laugh.”

 

Myungsoo grins sheepishly and looks away but Sungyeol catches the look of pure happiness on the younger’s face and then something happens to his heart.

It beats a little quicker than usual.

---

a/n: myungsoo is actually really cute and stupid and sungyeol should not believe any rumors he hears cause we all know how cuddly and sweet myung actually is.