After multiple cups of coffee the morning came and Sunggyu’s shift was ending. They had spent most of their time talking about stupid things like school and work. Sunggyu found out that Woohyun worked at a local record shop, which he made a mental note to visit, because vinyl was the best.

Woohyun learned about Sunggyu’s terrible sleeping habits but didn’t elaborate on his own. He still wasn’t sure about this random person who suddenly decided to take interest in him.

The restaurant did end up getting busy with a crowd of inebriated college kids coming in after a night of partying. Woohyun watched as Sunggyu went to work laughing and chatting with the people easily. It was so natural to him. He hurried around never missing a beat, a smile plastered on his face.

This harsh guy with piercings and red hair was good at these things. Socializing was natural for him, so was that all this was? Woohyun was just an attempt to make a friend? Woohyun decided to slip out while Sunggyu was preoccupied. Sunggyu was sad to see him go but knew there was nothing he could do about the strange kid.

Woohyun came home to passed out roommates and was surprisingly tired himself. It was three in the morning. He didn’t realize how long they had been talking for, and he completely forgot about who he was even meeting in the first place.

Maybe this whole making friends thing was a good idea; and with that thought he curled up in bed and slept all through the next day.

It was Monday again. Class came and went. Woohyun was sad to have an empty seat next to him but he understood why Sunggyu wasn’t there, why he wouldn’t be there anymore. They spoke about it at the diner that night. Sunggyu just really can’t sleep at night. Woohyun didn’t have that problem. Woohyun just doesn’t sleep at all. He rested his head in his hands staring out the window again. The sky was grey and it was misting. Tiny drops of water were collecting on the window distorting his view. The conversation was so easy and the guy was kind of funny he had to admit. Maybe it was because he was always surrounded by the same type of people but there was something about Sunggyu that had him so intrigued. He had a lot on his mind and needed to let it out. Paper wasn’t cutting it any more.

Later that night Woohyun went out as he usually did sneaking out of the house and into the dark quietly avoiding his roommates. He took a late bus to the campus communications center and pulled his badge from his inner pocket swiping into the large building. The door unlocked with a beep. He walked inside.

The building was mostly empty except for a few students in the audio editing room. He headed up to the studio on the second floor. He all the audio equipment, little red, yellow and green lights here and there. This was the schools broadcasting station and he was the overnight DJ. No one new about this minus a few audio geeks who agreed to set him up at the beginning of the year.

His segment was actually one of the most listened to during the week. Students studying or kids just hanging out at a party, they always had the colleges alternative station on. His time was usually spent playing songs full of emotion reading anonymous letters from other students about love. It was all a good inspiration for his writing. He was here five days a week pouring his heart out to the entire metropolitan area.

The studio was pretty much self-sufficient, with an ever expanding library of music known and not. It was almost time for his spot. The On-Air light lit up and the music was cued.

“Good evening my fellow night owls. How are we doing?” He breathed into the microphone. Unintentionally of course, but still managing to cause all the females within a ten mile radius to drop their . “Tonight I have a few juicy emails for you. Love, friendship, maybe so much more… You’ll just have to find out. I’m your DJ, your last Romeo, your knight in shining armor, a prince in disguise! Throwing hearts from here to Timbuctoo or at least as far as this signal reaches.” He laughed at himself. “Here is a little something to get you all started. It’s called Friday I’m in Love by one of my favorite bands, The Cure.”

He clicked on the song he had already preselected and spun around in his chair to pull up the first email of the night. His heart was already beating like crazy. Although there was no one in his presence he still felt like he had an audience he needed to capture and that was enough to put him on edge. He couldn’t even imagine having to face a real crowd of real people. He read the first note up on his screen and sympathized.

This girl was finally being noticed by a guy for the first time in her life. She was unsure of how to handle the situation. The fact was she was confused about his true feelings. Did he like her as more than a friend? To her it seemed like it but how could she really know? He pondered for a moment rereading his written response before the song came to an end. How was he able to give this kind of advice when he never even followed it himself? But the people get what the people want and the people wanted him.

“Okay, our first letter of the night is from Jumpy Jenna. Hey Jenna, I understand that you are new to this whole relationship thing but, there are a few rules. Never jump into anything. If you aren’t sure about this guy take your time. Feel him out, and not literally, unless you really want to. He may just want to be friends. The best thing to do would be to ask. See how he feels… hang out… be friends. There is nothing wrong with that. If he doesn’t like like you well then you have a new friend. Guys as friends aren’t so bad. Heck I’ll be your friend. Hope this helps and here is a song for you and your new man friend!”

Scrolling through his list he pulled up the next song by Incubus called Friends and Lovers, clicking and letting it play.

While the song played he contemplated what he would talk about next he kind of just wanted to get out all out there and talk about how he really felt which was very rare for him and scary. Maye be he would take some callers. He had never tried that either. It seemed that he was going to be turning over a new leaf and stepping way out of his comfort zone. There was only one person he could blame. In all his life not even his best friend couldn’t bring him out like this and they knew everything about each other, literally everything.

The song ended and he cleared his throat adjusting the microphone. “And we are back. So tonight we will be trying something new. I will be asking our listeners to call or text in. I have a question for you all… Well let me tell you a story first. There is a boy who is trapped in another universe and he is completely new to this whole world of making friends and let’s say he met someone, someone very interesting and he is starting to feel things he had never felt before. He is very secluded and scared.” He cringed at the words but sometimes the truth hurts. “This person is beautiful and strong and outgoing, different from what this guy is used to. So now listeners here is the question… What should he do?”

He sat back in his chair and muted his microphone playing the next song on his list as he waited for the calls to come in. He was nervous and it was showing. He couldn’t keep still, bouncing his knee in anticipation. The first message dinged. He read it. “Tell us more.” Then another. “Is this about you Mr. DJ? I thought you were supposed to know…” and another and another. The messages were pouring in. Then phone rang. He was regretting his decision.

“Hello your late night DJ here.” He pressed record and lined up another song to play while he answered calls.

“Hey man, I think this dude should just go for it.” Woohyun held the phone away from his ear. There was obvious slurring, was this guy drunk? “I mean I say jump, do it man. You only live once am I right?”

“You have a point there. Thanks for calling.” He hung up. That was enough of that. So he went to the next call. “Late night DJ at your service…”

“Hey.” There was a long pause. “You sound like you are really hot.”

“Thank you.” He chuckled. “So, do you have any suggestions for our friend lost in outer space?”

“Well I think he should just do what he feels is right and you should just open a phone line so I can call more oft-“ He hung up again. What is the world coming to? Next call.

“DJ late night.” Short and sweet this time.

“I think you need to tell us more about this person that is apparently intriguing enough to have the late night LOVE DJ asking for our help.” The person on the other end of the line laughed and then the line went dead. How had people seen through him so easily?

He continued to read the messages popping up like wild fire. They were all screaming “Tell us more!”

If that’s what they wanted. The last song came to an end and he flipped on his mic again.

“Hello, hello. So the mutual consensus is you all want to hear more. Am I right? Is it just my voice? Actually that makes me sad. Aren’t you guys here for the love and support of your fellow listeners and my awesome music taste?” He paused putting on some cheesy lovey sounding background music letting out a long sigh as he settled into his chair resting his elbows on the counter in front of him. “If this is what you really want… here goes nothing.”

He told them everything. He told them about the first time they met and how his heart almost exploded out of his chest. How he was afraid to feel anything, because people weren’t all good. He explained that he was perfectly fine alone, but this person made him want to step out into the light. He told them his story of monotony, living in a constant circle.

The person who had him so distracted was rare and breathtaking. They lived on the other side of the line, taking chances. At least as far as he could see. This person pushed through and persevered, unlike himself who had a bad habit of running away.

As he spoke the phone stopped ringing and the messages started to slow down to a trickle of encouraging words. He played songs of love and loss in between the webs of words he was weaving. His voice rang out into the balmy night on radios across the campus and the city. He hummed along to the tunes and pictured that resilient gaze looking back at him from across the room.

He told them all about the god of fire, the child of Aries, Kim Sunggyu. How he had woken him up and settled him down. And as he spoke he came to his own realization. On the days that he had more than a five second conversation with Sunggyu he slept, and he slept through the entire night. The red head seemed to have some sort of calming effect on him, even though they initially butted heads.

Woohyun liked to stick to what he knew and he knew words and he knew all the things books told him. Although he liked to drift off into romantic fairytales he never believed in them. If anything seemed too good to be true it usually was. Right now he was thankful Sunggyu had no way of contacting him. It was all too much. And he wasn’t even thinking about this in a romantic way, maybe he had it all wrong maybe Sunggyu was the bad guy. Maybe this was a tragic tale from the Grimm brothers and not some Disney-fied story of how talking cats can somehow miraculously become best friends with talking dogs.

He was depressing himself. This was such a bad idea.

One last message popped up on his screen. “You have to live in order to learn. We all have our stories, but you can create your own.”

He played a few more songs and concluded his night with the last message sent to him. He read it out loud and added, “We do need to live, live and learn. So I take it all back, Jenna go all in, jump. Do whatever you feel is right. Take chances be brave, dive in head first. We only live once right?” He played some more cheesy background music and bid farewell because it was almost morning and his time had come to an end.

Tomorrow he would go out, and he would start to live.

Or so he thought. There was some very loud banging at his door. He had just come home less then three hours ago and he was trying to get some sleep, even if it was impossible.

“Fire!” Someone was screaming and there was more banging.

Fire?! Oh hell. Woohyun grabbed his notebook and some pants running out his door. Unfortunately he was met with a wall of plastic wrap, and being that he ran at it full force it sent him flying backwards hand over foot.

A loud roar of laughter filled his ears before he could come too. There in his doorway was Lee Sungyeol doubled over in pain from laughing so hard.

“Dude,” Sungyeol finally calmed down enough to speak. “I think I cracked a rib laughing. You looked hilarious!”

Woohyun didn’t respond, instead just he stepped into his sweat pants. He grabbed a pen from his desk and walked towards the doorway. Sungyeol was standing close and he flinched when Woohyun stabbed the plastic slicing it down the middle, stepping out into the hall way. He did not have the patience for this right now. Last night was especially draining. He chucked the pen at Sungyeol and adjusted his pants as he walked down the stairs.

Sungyeol was one of the frat mates here too. He was tall and annoying but really funny and a great friend. He knew when to keep to himself and when to step in. Woohyun didn’t mind him at all though because Sungyeol was clean like really clean. He made things sparkle. Something Woohyun couldn’t get over though was the noise. Sungyeol was the house DJ for their parties so he was always practicing, testing out his new beats on anyone who would give him the time of day. He also played the drums. He had an electronic set of drum pads but refused saying it just wasn’t the same as the real deal. His drums were his babies. On another note Woohyun did notice that the kid had a tendency to follow him around always looking over his shoulder. Sungyeol would deny it if asked.

A disgruntled ‘hey’ was all he heard from Sungyeol when he reached the kitchen.

It smelled good, like bacon. Dongwoo was cooking. He was only in his boxers and a pink frilly apron his long-time girlfriend had bought him. They had such a weird relationship, but even weirder was Dongwoo and Hoya.

Hoya was the head of the frat. What he says goes. It was a pretty relaxed environment but they sure as hell knew how to party. If you didn’t know Lee Howon, or as he liked to be called Hoya, then you must be living under a damn boulder that never made it out of the Paleolithic era. He was the jock, the typical handsome nice guy who would help old ladies carry their groceries and then plow their granddaughters in the back seat after grandma cleared out.

Right then Hoya was leaning over the counter as Dongwoo fed him spoonfuls of the blueberry honey yogurt he had been working on. They were ‘work out’ buddies, living on organic health foods and a 24 hour gym membership. Woohyun didn’t see anything wrong with their relationship, sometimes they were just a little too close for his comfort.

Hoya just eyed Woohyun as he his lips walking away from the counter taking  a seat at the breakfast bar that divided the kitchen from their enormous, what some would call,  living room. Woohyun assumed this place must have been the house of a wealthy land owner back in the early eighteen hundreds but now it was usually full of frat boys and red solo cups.

Woohyun also sat at the bar with Hoya who seemed to be enthralled with his cell phone at the moment, and now smelling the food Woohyun was hungry.

“Good morning my little baby muffin.” Dongwoo smiled cheerfully at the fluffy haired kid in his banana patterned pajama pants.

“Save that crap for your girlfriend, and just pass me the bacon.” Woohyun rubbed his eyes and held out his hands.

“You really are a baby. Here. Don’t eat it all.” Dongwoo passed him the plate almost stabbing Woohyun with the tongs he had in his hand.

“Yeah like I could eat all of this anyway. Its like the damn Leaning Tower of Pisa.”

“Yo, is it pepperoni?” Sungyeol made it downstairs, probably only following the delicious trail of crispy pig flesh.

“Not pizza you idiot.” Woohyun shook his head before taking a few strips of bacon. “Anyway, why so much bacon?”

“There is nothing else in the house.” Dongwoo turned back around to finish frying up the rest.

“Um, what about that yogurt?” Sungyeol made the mistake of questioning Dongwoo, who was second in command. Well, to Hoya.

“That is mine. Don’t worry about it.” Hoya sneered at Sungyeol mumbling something under his breath.

“Oh sorry grumpy pants.” Sungeyol shoved a fist full of bacon in his mouth. “Hey Hoya, you know that guy… the one you hate with a passion…Red hair.” Sungyeol looked around the room like he was trying to hide something from someone, but there was no one there except the four of them. “Why do you hate him so much? I think he goes to our school.”

Hoya put his phone down. This caught Woohyun’s attention. Either Sungyeol actually said something of interest or someone was about to get pummeled. Woohyun was hoping for the latter.

“Were you listening to my conversation? Do you want me to kill you?” Hoya seemed annoyed but not at Sungyeol directly, almost like he was thinking about something else entirely. “And what do you know anyway?”

The red head… That caught Woohyun’s attention. Red hair, goes to our school. He didn’t see many red heads walking around campus, but they couldn’t be talking about Sunggyu right?

“I have my sources. How did you not notice before?”

“He’s a ing loser. You better be wrong, I swear.”

“Who are you talking about?” Woohyun hated to pry but if it was Sunggyu he would have to reconsider some of the choices he was about to make.

Hoya looked at Woohyun with some sympathy. “No one you need to worry about. Just some guy that likes to piss people off.”

Woohyun wanted to know but was also afraid of the answer so he let it go. Hoya walked away to make a phone another phone call and Sungyeol continued to shovel bacon into his face.

Sunggyu woke up and it was mid-afternoon. There were arms wrapped around his waist and he had to admit it wasn’t uncomfortable. He stayed like that for a moment turning over on his back thinking about the night before. Everything he heard sounded like too much of a coincidence.

Before he had gone to bed the night before, he his radio as usual to that voice, the only thing that could lull him to sleep. He was in the bathroom with bleach in his hair when suddenly the station turned off. It was dead silent in his apartment and last he knew his cat didn’t have opposable thumbs. He peaked through the crack in the bathroom door too scared to see what actually happened.

Someone dressed in all black came around the corner fast.

“!” He yelled slamming the door shut. He was freaking out. He had bleach in his hair and didn’t have his phone to call 911 if necessary. It was tossed somewhere in the mess of his sheets. Who the hell was out there?

“What are you doing?” There was a tap on the door and a familiar voice.

“You ! Why didn’t you tell me you were gonna be here tonight? Sunggyu opened the door slowly and there was his roommate Myungsoo dressed like some kind of ninja with a six-pack in one hand and an open beer in the other.

“Why do I have to tell you anything? I live here too.” He walked away as Sunggyu followed him into the bedroom. Being that it was a loft the whole thing was technically the bedroom, living room and dining room.

Myungsoo sat on the couch kicking his boots off reclining into the red sued cushions. Sunggyu dug through his bed to find his phone, there were no messages.

“It’s not that hard to text.” He shook his phone in Myungsoo’s direction.

“Whatever, I lost my phone.” Myungsoo rolled his eyes and pulled his hood up over his head stretching out taking up the whole couch.

Sunggyu eyed him not convinced at his words. He pushed a few numbers into his phone and pressed send. A lovely tune started to ring from Myungsoo’s pocket. Myungsoo didn’t even flinch pretending he heard nothing as he continued to sip his beer. He had his eyes closed now with one hand behind his head, lounging comfortably. Sunggyu just stared. The nerve of this kid, he lets him stay here rent free and he comes and goes as he pleases.

Sunggyu wasn’t a push over and he didn’t like to be lied to. He stomped over to Myungsoo and towered over him glaring at his stupid face. He kicked him lightly in the side. No response, so he sat on him instead, full body weight. Myungsoo cringed trying to keep his face straight. Sunggyu stayed where he was and reached down next to the kid dressed in all black taking a bottle from the unopened six-pack. He opened the bottle almost downing it all at once before the fizz got to him.

“Okay, okay get off. My ribs. Oh my god. Did you get fatter?” Myungsoo reached up poking Sunggyu in the stomach.

“Yah!” Sunggyu was ticklish and hated people making fun of his weight. He was always sensitive about his stomach. So what if he didn’t have abs. “My hair!” He started to pout saying something about ruining the couch with bleach.

“Good excuse.” Myungsoo laughed shoving Sunggyu onto the floor. “How much longer is that crap supposed to be in your hair?”

“Oh . It needs to come out now.” He stood up awkwardly almost tripping over his own feet running towards the bathroom. Half way there he turned back and switched his radio back on. “Don’t you dare touch that.” Sunggyu glared and finished off his beer.

He rinsed his hair out and it was some shade of terrible copper orange which didn’t look too bad. Maybe he would go this light someday, but he already had his convenience store box of fire engine red hair dye. Sunggyu hummed along to the songs on the radio, nodding in agreement with the late night DJ. This guy was great. He seemed to be having a little problem keeping the dye on his hair though so he wound up calling his derelict roommate in for reinforcement. He wasn’t any better, somehow managing to get hair dye all over the front of his shirt, but he was wearing all black so it was okay. Sunggyu assured him.

While waiting for the dye to develop they finished off the beer Myungsoo had brought home along with whatever they already had in the fridge.  Myungsoo helped Sunggyu rinse out his hair because it was too difficult for one person after consuming a little too much alcohol, so they put their heads together and managed to wash and dry Sunggyu.

After a few failed attempts and lots of water being splashed everywhere they were next to each other on the couch with the window cracked behind them. Whenever Myungsoo came home this was usually how they ended most of their nights with long conversation and a nicely rolled blunt, Sunggyu had the fingers for it, they came out perfect every time.

Sunggyu turned up the radio bobbing his head a little feeling good and buzzed. He listened to that calming voice and wondered how such a person could exist. He was completely tuned in hanging on every word that flowed through him. He could feel the emotion building in his chest. There was a certain tightness that he couldn’t exactly place. He started to breathe a little more heavy then usual. He could hear his own pulse in his ears. He blamed it on the drugs.

Myungsoo noticed his red headed friend was in distress and pulled him into a small hug. He took one last drag of the tiny roach they had left and flicked it out the window; the cat had a bad habit of eating anything left in the ashtray for too long. Sunggyu didn’t mind being held like this so he stayed.

“Hey, you should go to sleep, yeah?” Myungsoo didn’t want Sunggyu to think it was a bother because he would stay like that all night, with his fingers in that bright red hair and shallow breathing on his neck.

Sunggyu only hummed in response and Myungsoo sat them up leading Sunggyu to the bed pulling back the covers for his tired friend. He pushed him into bed but when he tried to walk away the fingers wrapped around his wrist refused to let go.

“Come on Gyu, go to sleep. Do you want the cat?” Myungsoo looked around hoping the cat was near by and he could be freed from Sunggyu’s grasp.

“No. Just stay.” He was mumbling and Myungsoo couldn’t help but roll his eyes again. This guy was supposed to be older then him.

He managed to pull away and turn off all the lights then the radio. Sunggyu turned over and opened his eyes looking directly at Myungsoo who was actually kind of shocked. Sunggyu was fast asleep seconds ago.

“Leave it on.” Sunggyu continued to stare into those dark eyes.

Myungsoo hated the guy on the radio and figured he could use this as a bargaining chip, because he also hated sleeping on the couch.

“Let me sleep with you.” He smirked at Sunggyu who just huffed and turned back over mumbling some sort of yeah sure whatever. 

The fact was Sunggyu was almost asleep a few seconds ago but then he heard something that had him fully awake. The DJ on the radio was in the middle of pouring out his heart to the entire city which was interesting in itself, but what caught him was the very specific description of this inspiring person. He didn’t want to seem vain but there could not be another, guitar toting, red haired, leather jacket, eye liner wearing singer song writer within a five hundred mile radius. If there was he wanted to meet this person, because how dare they steal his style.

Myungsoo turned the radio back on and Sunggyu pulled the blankets up to his neck curling up in a ball. Myungsoo crawled into the other side throwing his shirt somewhere before stealing a pillow and falling asleep.

So, when Sunggyu woke up in the morning he wasn’t surprised at his position, but he almost wished he was sleeping with someone else.

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AN: Hellooooooooooooo chapter 4 up yay! um not really much to say buuuut THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND SUBSCRIBING. It really means so much to me. See you in 2 weeks!!