“Hot chick, second row from the front.”

I don’t offer Henry so much as a glance, because then he knows he’s captivated my attention. Instead, I keep my eyes lightly closed and hands firmly clasped together in prayer. Bringing Henry to Sunday morning mass was… admittedly, not one of my most brilliant plans. He’s like an attention starved child at the best of times, but, that’s probably our only similar characteristics.

His elbow softly collides into my ribcage and he speaks again, his tone less hushed and more irate. “Hae, you’re totally missing the hot chick with the amazing .”

I can hear the disgusted sneers of the old women behind us, I’m pretty disgusted myself. Opening my eyes into my sternest of gazes, I peer round to Henry. “Henry, you’re supposed to praying… not preying.”

“But we’ve been here for, like, an hour,” he whines, resting his head upon my shoulder, “How do you do this every single Sunday?!”

“Because I love God and I’m devoted to the things I love,” I tell him truthfully, “If you’re bored play games on your phone, just don’t bother me.”

He doesn’t pester me again after that, leaving me to listen to Father Kang in peace. I recite my prayers and sing my hymns with a gracious smile on my face. Coming to church, for me, is like a short trip away from reality. I tend to forget my troubles and focus all my attention on God.

I’ve been coming to mass every Sunday since I was a toddler. My dad would wake me, my mother and my brother and sing hymns while we sleepily got our church clothes on. Then, he’d take us for a Sunday lunch afterwards. If my father had passed anything down to me, I hope it’s his devotion to his faith.

Once mass is over I make my way down the aisle to thank Father Kang for today’s service, I don’t stop to chat however because I can feel Henry’s preying gaze bearing down on the girl from the second row. As usual, Father thanks me for my presence and tells me I’m welcome any time, he also offers Henry a look of feigned annoyance and pats him on the shoulder.

“So, now that we’re free from the clutches of Christianity…” Henry chortles, earning him a glare from me, “Can we do something?”

We reach the church grounds and I look up into the grey, overcast sky; perfect weather for doing absolutely nothing. “I’m having a cosy, indoor afternoon movie session today, if you’re interested?”

I can practically see Henry’s tail wagging at the invite, however, he seems hesitant. “Will Jongwoon be there?”

Ah yes, I tend to forget about Henry’s irrational fear of my roommate. Jongwoon mocked Henry’s clumsy use of the Korean language about 6 months ago and Henry’s been avoiding him ever since. Most people who know Jongwoon fear him in some way. Hyukjae had never really grown to like him. I doubt even Jongwoon’s friends like him that much. I’m an optimist though, and I prefer to focus on his appealing qualities rather than his intimidating ones.

“Well, he’s freelancing right now so sometimes he’s home and sometimes he isn’t.”

“I’ll pass,” he sighs, wafting a dismissive hand in my face, “The guy gives me the creeps.”

I’m sad to see Henry go but even if he could look past Jongwoon’s presence, I certainly wasn’t convincing him to overlook my guest of the hour, Heechul.

I adopted Heechul as an elder brother figure once Donghwa, my real brother, moved away to study abroad. Heechul didn’t mind; he’s kind, caring and very selfless – not to mention a little bit transgendered and extremely odd. Maybe I just attracted strange people – excluding Hyukjae – he had about as much quirk in him as a plank of wood.

When I arrive at my apartment building, Heechul is already waiting in the lobby talking to a neighbourhood cat. It comes sniffing around often, looking for food. Jongwoon scolds me for giving food to the feline though, “if you feed them they come back!” he yells. He’s also allergic to cats, so I guess I can’t grumble too much.

“Sorry I’m late,” I greet Heechul, joining him in the cat, “Have you been waiting long?”

Heechul shakes his head and coos at the feline. He has a thing for cats. Especially his cats. All seven of them. “Let’s get inside before I steal this cat.”

Knowing that Heechul is extremely serious when it comes to cats, I loop my arm through his and pull him to mine and Jongwoon’s front door, leading him inside the apartment. He surveys his surroundings before daintily sitting down on the sofa.

“Nice place you have here… let me guess, you didn’t decorate it.” Heechul chuckles, carding his slender fingers through his long, black hair.

“Very funny,” I grumble, taking the seat next to him, “Jongwoon is an interior designer, he designed it all.”

“Fancy.”

People tend to avoid Heechul. He’s aloof and always honest, even if you don’t appreciate honesty, he’ll let you know his exact feelings. I go to him with all my worries and he appeases my concerns with wise words and a scalp massage. My mother wasn’t too fond of him when Heechul first decided to befriend me. I was a 13 year old goody-two-shoes and Heechul was 17 year old bad boy who smoked and didn’t conform to our schools uniform policy. She adores him now though, they’re even friends on Facebook.

I shove my cherished copy of Titanic in the DVD player and kicked my shoes into a corner of the room, mentally noting to move them before Jongwoon got home. Heechul pats his lap, signalling for me to rest my head on him – he says it makes him feel like he’s still at home with his cats.

When I accustom myself to comfortable position and lay my head on his knees he immediately entangles his fingers in my hair and my scalp.

“Missing Hyukjae?” He asks, with the epitome of a soothing tone.

“I’m dying without him,” I mumble, leaning into Heechul’s gentle touch. The days without Hyukjae just seem to be getting longer and more testing. Work drags on and on, because I know that at the end of my shift I can’t skip round to Hyukjae’s house with leftover cakes and tell him all about the English curse words that Henry taught me. Sleeping doesn’t even pacify the feelings, because I know that I’ll be waking up feeling even emptier. I’m struggling.

“You’re not dying… let’s not worsen the situation by making unnecessary exaggerations,” he tells me, “You miss him, he misses you – it’s a struggle, I understand. Time apart might do you both some good, teach you both that being apart sometimes isn’t the end of the world.”

“Sure as hell feels like the end of the world.”

Heechul sighs, “Donghae, you’re acting like a lovesick teenager – which you basically are.”

“Titanic sure isn’t helping.”

“Then why did you put it on?”

“I usually watch it with Hyukjae.”

My grasp of time and consciousness seems to slip from me while I’m under the gentle ministrations of Heechul’s hands, I nod off into a shallow sleep and have dreams about large ships and icebergs, yikes – that’ll be my irrational fear of ocean liners creeping up on me.

I’m awoken later by the chattering of two hushed voices at the other side of the lounge. They’re easily identifiable as Heechul and Jongwoon; they seem to be getting on fairly well for two people who had never met before.

Going into spy mode, I slowly and slightly open one of my eyes enough to give me a blurry view of two figures sitting on the opposite couch. Jongwoon looks strange, even to my imprecise vision… I think he’s smiling. A rare sighting. Heechul is twirling strands of his hair around his index finger and their gazes seem locked to each other, absolutely unwavering.

What have I done?

In a confused flurry I bolt upright, staring at them perplexedly with wide eyes.

“Oh, look who decided to wake up,” Heechul laughs, placing a hand on Jongwoon’s thigh.

“Did baby Donghae enjoy his wittle nap?” Jongwoon mocks, his thumb in a babyish style.

Forever being treated like a child… but I shrug it off. “I see you two are… getting along.”

They both nod and exchange a flirtatious look before returning to their previous conversation. Jongwoon – as far as I knew – wasn’t gay, but the possibility of him believing Heechul is a woman is very real, Heechul has gotten himself into some very sticky situations that way.

Either way, Heechul is my friend and Jongwoon is my roommate, so I refuse to be excluded from this happy-go-lucky equation they have going on here.

With stomping steps I make my way over to the DVD shelves and pick out a different film. I stick it in the DVD player and scoot over to the couch where my two friends sit, and without hesitation I wedge myself in between the small gap between them.

“I put another film on,” I say, nonchalantly, kicking back and looking to both of them with a smug expression.

Haekdonghaek: I invited Heechul over to watch a movie and him and Jongwoon are totally eye ing each other… help me… ㅠㅠ

Eunhyukkie: You introduced them?! Damn I can hardly deal with one of them… good luck ㅋㅋㅋ

Eunhyukkie: And say hello from me… ^^

Haekdonghaek: Yeah, I didn’t think they’d get along at all but here we are… they both said hi though ^^

Eunhyukkie: Hmm, the homesickness is really starting to kick in now ㅠㅠ I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve seen everyone.

Haekdonghaek: But you’re in New York! Amazing NYC! Go do American things and forget all about it~

Eunhyukkie: Hey don’t get me wrong, it’s great here! I mean, the course is hard as hell and Kyu still throws stuff at me if I come into his room while he’s gaming… but other than that I love it ^^ I just miss everybody. I miss you.

Haekdonghaek: I miss you too, stupid… but! Hey! Don’t be all depressing when you’re not here to cheer me up ^^

Eunhyukkie: Sorry, sorry! You want me to tell you a funny story then? ;)

Haekdonghaek: Yeah! ㅋㅋㅋ

Eunhyukkie: There’s this Korean girl in my math class, and she was talking on the phone the other day, ing about everyone in the class in Korean… she thought no one could understand her and she said I was hot ㅋㅋㅋ I said thanks in Korean and she went bright red!

Haekdonghaek: Lee Hyukjae~ I always knew you were a ladies man! I’ve finally been proven right, haha.

Eunhyukkie: I wish ㅠㅠ I haven’t been able to look at her without blushing since then, you know me~ What about you? Any cute girls I should know about?

Haekdonghaek: Nope, none for me.

Eunhyukkie: Oh! Donghae, I gotta go, Kyu is making me go to this dumb nightclub again. Speak to you soon, have fun with Heechul and Jongwoon!

Haekdonghaek: Oh… talk to you later.

A/N: Apologies for the delay, I have no excuses, writers block stops for no one. Sorry~