A/N - Hi~

Photos. All over the news and papers.

The internet is no different.

Lee Hyukjae, dancer and rapper, seen dining with Cho Kyuhyun, modern day musical genius

It wasn’t all that much of a photo really but it still spoke volumes. There they sat, in a private exclusive restaurant in Japan when Hyukjae had held a concert in Tokyo and Kyuhyun had flown there behind him to surprise him. It had been after the event had been over and Hyukjae had snuck out of the after-party at almost 1am after getting a call from Kyuhyun. His boyfriend had reserved a private room in a traditional Japanese seafood restaurant and as they enjoyed the snow crabs and sushi, Hyukjae leans over a little bit because he is just so happy.

Happy that his concert is over and that his fans love him so much

Content that the forecast problems of the organizers were proven wrong and he was able to thank them all at the after-party

Blissful that the love of his life had flown all the way to Japan just to be with him on the last leg of his tour, to support him, to be his pillar, to keep him standing.

He had never thought that he would ever be able to love like this and to be loved in return. Being gay isn’t something one wants but rather something one hopes never to be labeled as, much less to be it. South Korea was a country saturated with the old and ancient ways and beliefs of what was right and who one should belong with. Loving a man while being a man…it’s like begging for an social execution.

However, there in front of him sat Cho Kyuhyun, a musical actor, who he had met by accident at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Hyukjae didn’t know what had come over him that night but he had drank a lot of alcohol and in that state of intoxication, both had become fast friends and later stumbled together out of Heechul’s penthouse apartment and into the streets of Seoul singing pop songs in an old folk tune and laughing as though they had no worries in the world. They had somehow ended up by the Han River and in a fit of freedom and lapse of judgment, both had confessed to being gay and feeling lost because they felt that they would never be able to love, that they will never be able to experience the wonder of love. That they will either die alone or with a woman who they could never be able to give their heart to…in an empty relationship, existing only to show the world that they were indeed following the rules set by society.

When morning came, both woke up in their respective apartments, and in the midst of a killer headache and a hangover to kneel over an Ox, they realized what they had said, and to a complete stranger nonetheless, and both had called Heechul in sheer panic asking for the others phone number, ready to beg if needed for their secret to remain just that….a secret.

Hyukjae had made it first apparently because the moment Kyuhyun picked up, he blurted out, “”Please don’t tell anyone. I’ll do whatever you want. Just please…don’t tell anyone,” the last three words a whisper of dread and apprehension at what the other might say. You could feel the magnitude of the fear radiating through the phone, so profound in its intensity.

Kyuhyun, who was supposed to be in the same state as Hyukjae, calms down at the panicked plea and knowing exactly who it is even without an introduction. He waits a few seconds to get his wits in order, hand