IMB 2011: Locked Memories
Title: Locked Memories
Pairing/Focus: Sunggyu/Myungsoo, hints of Woohyun/Howon
Rating: PG -13
Current word count: 5635
Summary: > Sunggyu falls in love all over again with someone who looks and acts exactly like his dead ex-boyfriend. Exactly.
Many people say that one can get delusional after someone close to them passes away.
Perhaps that’s what was happening to him right now?
As the other passed by him without a second glance, the doubt in his heart started to grow; he was gone, yet he was there in front of his eyes? What kind of logic is that?
He was delusional. It was a hallucination.
That was it.
Definitely.
It was just by pure coincidence that the boy he saw in the streets today looked a bit like Myungsoo.
Okay fine, he looked exactly like him.
----
“I’m telling you, Woohyun! He looked exactly like him!” Sunggyu threw up his hands, clearly exasperated.
“Hyung, face it. He’s gone.”
“I know, but how do you know he’s actually gone? I mean they never found his-“
“Hyung. It’s been more than a month okay?” The younger patted his best friend on the shoulder with a look of understanding.
Sunggyu chose to stay silent and just leaned back on the couch they were sitting on, closing his eyes and letting out a small sigh.
He figured that he probably missed him more than he should.
----
The next day, Sunggyu woke up to two people (or should he call them monkeys?) jumping on his bed and shouting at the top of their lungs. He cursed quietly to himself for giving Woohyun the keys to his apartment before pulling up the covers over his face.
“Wake up!” Woohyun’s voice reached his ears and Sunggyu cringed at the sudden loud noise, followed by a groan when his best friend’s boyfriend’s voice came right after.
“Rise and shiiiiiiine~” Howon said in a sing song voice.
Sunggyu grabbed the nearest thing to him - that is, the pillow next to his head - and whipped it blindly towards the source of the two voices, smiling a bit to himself when he heard a soft thud, signaling a well aimed shot.
“Yah. Get up!” Woohyun’s voice reached his ears again, and Sunggyu felt a hand close around his wrist as his head was pulled up away from the comfort of his pillow along with the top half of his body.
“Ow, ow ,ow, Woohyun that hurts, let go!”
“Wake up!” Howon took the chance to scream in the older boy’s ear and Sunggyu flinched away from the loud shout, mumbling something incoherent, but probably something along the lines of “I’m up, now can you monkeys get off my bed?”
Sunggyu sat up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes to grow more awake.
“Hyung, we’re going to take you out today!” Woohyun said as he sat down on the bed beside him.
“Aish, why?”
“Just ‘cause. All you’ve been doing is being cooped up inside this house or that café of yours. It’s time to have some fun!” Howon piped up from beside him.
Knowing that he’d probably never win against the nagging duo, Sunggyu reluctantly got up and headed towards the bathroom to wash up.
From behind him, Woohyun cast a knowing glance towards his boyfriend.
“Time for plan “Take-Sunggyu’s-Mind-Off-Myungsoo!” He whispered not-so-quietly.
Howon simply rolled his eyes as Sunggyu cast the two of them a weird look from the doorway to the bathroom.
“Oh, and hyung! I’ve already placed a “Closed” sign at the door of your café! So not to worry! Everything’s been taken care of!”
Now Sunggyu regretted giving Woohyun keys to his café as well.
----
Kim Sunggyu was a regular 23 year old man; he lived a normal life that consisted of owning a café downtown. He used to be a co-owner; the café had belonged to him and Myungsoo before the… incident. To say he earned a lot of money would be a bit of an overstatement, but he did earn more than enough to get by. The café was medium sized and quite cozy, with large almost floor to ceiling windows lining the walls and large comfy couches with a fireplace, complete with a wind chime that sounded whenever a customer would enter - a small finishing touch that had been Myungsoo’s idea.
----
Sunggyu let himself be pulled towards the amusement park. He wondered why Woohyun thought coming here was a good idea, because it was a frequent location for his dates with Myungsoo. Those thoughts were washed away when he caught sight of Woohyun’s excited face as he pulled the older one along, shouthing things like, “Hyung! Hyung! Let’s go on this ride, okay?” and “Come on hyung! Let’s get cotton candy!”. Sometimes he wondered how Howon could put up with such a childish boyfriend. Shaking his head, he let himself get lost in the multiple thrill rides, roller coasters, and sweet tasting cotton candy that they shared amongst the three of them. That is, until he caught sight of him again while he took a bite out of the hot dog in his hands.
He was there, but then gone in a flash. Sunggyu stood there, shocked and with his mouth ajar, only looking around when the hot dog piece fell out of his mouth and onto the pavement. He flinched and blinked a few times when Woohyun and Howon started waving their hands in front of his face.
“H-huh?” He managed to blurt out, mind still reeling at the second sighting of the look-alike of his ex-boyfriend.
“Hey, what happened?” Woohyun inquired while staring at him. “You totally blanked out for like, 5 seconds.”
“I saw him.” Sunggyu raised up a finger to point to the pathway in front of them that was crowded with people, where he had sworn he saw Myungsoo’s face in a sea of the many others walking along.
It took a moment before the other two understood what Sunggyu was talking about. Howon was the first to speak up.
“Sunggyu-hyung… are you sure? I mean-“
“Nevermind.” Sunggyu interrupted the other, thinking that he didn’t want to hear them say anything about Myungsoo, and that the other two probably wouldn’t believe him anyway.
“I was probably just seeing things.”
“Yeah…”
“Anyway! Let’s go have more fun!” Woohyun spoke up in a cheery voice, pulling Sunggyu along once again to whatever ride was closest as a way to prevent him from thinking about anything else.
Howon followed along, rolling his eyes in the process. Why did he fall in love with this childish idiot, anyway?
----
It was a slow day at the café today, and Sunggyu stood at the barista counter with a bored look on his face, hand propping up his head on the counter. His eyes started to droop close and he was about to fall asleep when the wind chime jingled, signaling that the door had been opened by a customer. He immediately put on his best eye smile to greet the impending customer.
“Hello! How may I help … you…”
His voice faded off as the boy with the extremely familiar face walked inside and up to the barista counter.
”Myungsoo…”
However, it couldn’t be him, it just couldn’t. Besides, the other didn’t seem to recognize him.
“Double cream mocha latte please.”
The familiar smile.
The familiar voice.
Myungsoo’s favourite drink.
“Myungsoo…” Sunggyu didn’t even realize that he had been mumbling until the other spoke up.
“Oh? How’d you know my name?”
Sunggyu looked up, astounded and speechless.
“I-I..”
“Oh, right. I have my nametag on me, don’t I?”
Sunggyu’s eyes flickered down to where the other’s name tag was pinned onto the shirt of the familiar uniform of the ice-cream shop down the street. “Myungsoo” probably was taking a break from his job. At least he wouldn’t be seen as a creepy stalker who knew a stranger’s name.
And then it hit him. The name tag didn’t say “Kim Myungsoo”; it said “Park Myungsoo”. A different last name meant that it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Kim Myungsoo. It wasn’t the boy he loved so dearly. Sunggyu felt his heart wrench in sadness but regained his smiling composure towards the customer.
“One double cream mocha latte coming right up.”
Sunggyu decided to make some conversation to try and find out more about the other. To tell the truth, he was still perplexed at the similar, if not exact same features to his Myungsoo.
“So… Myungsoo-sshi? Where do you work?” Immediately after that was said, Sunggyu mentally face-palmed himself. Why did he ask such a stupid question?
However, the other didn’t seem fazed by the question as he watched Sunggyu busying himself to make his latte.
“The ice-cream shop down the street.” He answered simply.
“Oh I love ice-cream!” Sunggyu said, possibly a bit too happily. The statement was not a lie in itself, though.
“Hm, well, come over when you have time; I’ll give you a discount.” Myunsoo said with a wink and a smile that Sunggyu swore made him go weak in the knees.
“I have time now!” Sunggyu forced a smile, wondering in his mind how many times he had made himself facepalm today.
With a chuckle, Myungsoo replied, “Oh? It looks like you’re busy though.” He turned to look around the café.
“No, I’ll be fine.” He handed Myungsoo his cup of latte, warning him that it would be hot, and took off his barista apron. He turned to the employee he trusted most, Sungyeol, and explained that he would be taking a short break, telling him that he was to be in charge while he was gone. With a last glare and a warning, (“I better not find my café in shambles when I come back.”) Sunggyu turned back to Myungsoo with a smile.
“Let’s go!”
Sunggyu mentally cursed himself for being so childish.
What he didn’t know was that Myungsoo thought it really was quite cute.
----
The two boys got closer, talking over ice-cream at a small table in the ice-cream shop. They clicked pretty well. Sunggyu found out that Myungsoo just recently moved to the city from a fishing village on one of the islands off the coast. (So it turns out, he most definitely could not be his Myungsoo after all.) After many laughs, and two bowls of vanilla bean ice-cream (on Sunggyu’s part, that is), Myungsoo finally surrendered to the glares of his angry manager and reluctantly got back to work, bidding Sunggyu good-bye.
However, as Sunggyu had one hand reached out to push open the door of the ice-cream shop, a shout of his name made him halt. He turned to see Myungsoo running up to him with one of his gorgeous smiles, slipping a small piece of paper into his hand. The touch between the two made chills go up Sunggyu’s spine.
“Call me sometime to hang out, alright?”
And with that, Myungsoo turned to go back to be stationed at the counter behind all the tubs of ice-cream, acting as if nothing happened. In a daze, Sunggyu turned only to bump into the glass door with a thud. Some chuckling could be heard from behind him, undoubtedly from Myungsoo, and Sunggyu got out of there before he could die of embarrassment, and before the other could see the deep blush in his face.
Back at the café, Sunggyu was staring absentmindedly at the small piece of paper in his hand. Myungsoo’s messy writing was scrawled across what seemed to be paper ripped from a notebook.
“Hyung, I didn’t know you had that big of a sweet tooth.”
Sunggyu jumped at the voice of his best friend and dropped the spoon in his other hand, scattering sugar all over the counter.
“Huh? What?”
Woohyun pointed at the dropped spoon, the sugar, then at the cup of coffee in front of Sunggyu which caused him to look down at where Woohyun was pointing.
“You’ve been adding sugar to the cup of coffee for the past five minutes.”
“Oh…” Sunggyu retrieved a damp towel from the sink and started cleaning up, putting the spoon back in the sugar container.
“You okay, hyung?” Woohyun looked at Sunggyu worriedly when the other didn’t reply. “… Oh hey. What’s this?” He snatched the piece of paper away from Sunggyu’s hand and stared at it curiously, stepping back to avoid his complaints and attempts to get back the piece of paper.
“Did you manage to get a girl’s number?” Woohyun winked knowingly at him.
“Well… not exactly…”
Woohyun raised an eyebrow at him.
“Is he cute?”
“He looks like Myungsoo.”
“So you like him because of that?”
“You don’t understand. He’s actually a splitting image of Myungsoo!”
“… So it wasn’t a hallucination before?”
“There’s only one explanation for this.” Woohyun stared into the eyes of Sunggyu seriously.
“What?”
“Zombie!” And with that, Woohyun ran out of the café, laughing.
----
Easter soon rolled by, the days in between filled with Sunggyu often going to treat himself to ice-cream at the shop down the street. Easter morning, Sunggyu found himself rolling around in bed and the sunlight from the blinds hit his face. The café was closed today because of the public holiday and Sunggyu realized that he had absolutely nothing to do for his day off. As he turned on his side to face the night table beside his bed, he caught sight a piece of paper sticking out from under his phone. After contemplating for a moment, Sunggyu reached out for it and held it close to his face. He inspected Myungsoo’s messy scrawl once again, his eyes wandering off to the phone on the night table. Another five minutes of laying there and Sunggyu found himself pounding in the numbers to his phone’s keypad and pressing the green “call” button before he could regret anything he was about to do.
It took a while to find his own voice when a soft “Hello?” drifted out from the other line.
“O-oh hello! It’s Sunggyu.”
“Oh hi Sunggyu-hyung! What’s up?”
It hit him just now that it might have been too early to call the other. He turned over to take a quick peek at the clock radio. It read “11:00AM”. So he wasn’t too early after all.
“Well, I have a day off from the café today, so I was wondering if you wanted to hang out… or something? Maybe eat dinner together?” Sunggyu couldn’t deny that he was in fact quite nervous; it was the first time he had call the other after all. Luckily though, the two had grown a bit closer due to the countless times Sunggyu decided his sweet tooth was craving some vanilla bean ice-cream.
There was a short silence on the other end and when Myungsoo’s voice could be heard again, Sunggyu found himself letting out a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding.
“Sure! I don’t have anything to do today anyway. What would you like to do?”
And then it dawned on Sunggyu. He didn’t even think of something to do before he had called the other.
“Uhm… well I know this… restaurant near my cafe… I’ve heard nothing but good things about it… so…” Sunggyu didn’t like how he always tripped upon his words when he was nervous.
“Dinner date sounds good! I’ll meet you in front of your café?”
Sunggyu’s flinched a bit when the other referred to it as a date.
“Okay then. See you!”
“See you~ Bye!” A dial tone was heard before Sunggyu ended the call and set down his phone on the night table again.
----
Sunggyu had spent forever going through his closet and he was still 10 minutes early. He spent his time pacing back and forth in front of the doors of his café, often glancing at the watch on his wrist. Why did time go by so slowly?
Sunggyu breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Myungsoo jogging up to him.
“I hope I’m not late!” The younger said with a smile.
“Nope. You’re just on time!” Sunggyu would know. He had just checked his watch a mere five seconds ago.
“Well then, lead the way, Sunggyu.” Myungsoo gave him another one of his smiles. Sunggyu swore to himself that Myungsoo really needed to stop giving him those smiles or one day he would really fall in love with him… or did he already unknowingly?
He was jerked from his thoughts as he felt a hand close around his arm and pull him off to the side. He looked at Myungsoo in surprise.
“You almost crashed into someone, hyung.” Myungsoo told him along with a chuckle.
“Oh… right. Sorry.” Sunggyu tried clearing his thoughts and continued walking forward, smile coming to his face as the restaurant they were heading for came into view.
Sunggyu led the way in to the cozy little restaurant (which, weirdly enough, was open on the holiday), and one of the waitresses showed them to a seat next to the window. The two sat down, and after ordering their food (they both had the chef’s special), Sunggyu looked over to the other with a slightly nervous smile and decided to start a conversation.
“So… what was your old town like?”
“Oh, I was really only there for about a month, as far as my memory goes, so I don’t really know it that well. An… incident happened and well, I lost all my memories from before a month ago up until my childhood.” A sad smile appeared on Myungsoo’s face, and Sunggyu was immediately slightly startled that he had brought up a sad memory.
“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to-“
“It’s alright, really. It’s not good to keep it all in anyway.” The smile was back on Myungsoo’s face, but not as bright as before. “What about the city? I haven’t really gotten a chance to explore it yet, so yeah.”
“Hm. Busy, crowded. I guess there’s a lot of good food around, lots of shopping, if you like that.”
“Good food, like your café?”
Sunggyu chuckled. “I’m glad you think the food at my café is that delicious.”
“I guess I haven’t told you this, but the reason why I went into your café before is not because of it’s food.”
“Oh?” Sunggyu looked up in curiousity.
“There was something about it that was so familiar… I just had to go inside and check it out. It made me feel… at home?”
Sunggyu’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. “That’s interesting.”
An awkward silence ensued before it was interrupted by the waitress bringing in their food, which looked delicious so they both dug right in.
----
The sun had started to set after the end of dinner, and the yellows, oranges and reds painted across the sky made it look beautiful. While walking down the sidewalk, Sunggyu turned to Myungsoo, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he did so,
“So, is there anywhere else you’d like to go?”
Myungsoo had been staring at the sky and a short moment of silence followed before his reply floated through the breezes, just as soft,
“Is there a beach around here?”
Sunggyu blinked at him for a moment, wondering why in the world he would want to go to the beach of all places, before nodding and pointing eastwards.
“It’s small though.”
“That’s fine.”
The two ended up at the beach after a short walk, and Myungsoo was first to take a seat in the white sand with a sigh, closing his eyes. Sunggyu followed him, taking a seat next to the other as he too closed his eyes, taking in the comforting sound of the soft crashing of the waves of the ocean. Since it wasn’t summer yet and the sun was already setting, there was virtually no one along the sandy stretch of the beach.
“I like the sound of the waves. It calms me. Funny isn’t it?” Myungsoo’s voice was just barely audible above the sounds of the rolling waves, and sounded like music to Sunggyu’s ears.
“Yeah.”
Truthfully, Sunggyu didn’t know what else to say, or rather, his brain couldn’t think of any answer to Myungsoo’s question that wouldn’t make him look stupid in any way.
The comforting silence between them stretched on once again for quite a while after, until the sun was just barely peeking out of the horizon.
“I wonder…” Sunggyu started, his voice quiet. Myungsoo turned to look at Sunggyu, his eyes reflecting the beautiful orange of the sun, the black of his eyes swimming with curiousity.
“…Why do people like taking walks along the beach anyway?”
Myungsoo kept quiet for a bit before speaking up.
“Let’s try it.”
“W-what?” Sunggyu turned to look at Myungsoo, eyes widening.
“Wait. Take off your shoes first.”
“W-what, why?” Sunggyu exclaimed, eyes widening even more, if that was even possible (as if Myungsoo could even tell, since his eyes were so small).
Rolling his eyes, Myungsoo proceeded to grab at Sunggyu’s sneaker, succeeding in pulling it clean off his foot before Sunggyu grabbed at the other’s wrist, stopping him as he had tried to pull of the other sneaker.
“I’ll do it myself.” He stated, sounding defeated.
“Well, we have to be barefoot so we can feel the sand under our feet.” Myungsoo said with a straight face as if he was stating a fact.
It was Sunggyu’s turn to roll his eyes now, and he did so while pulling off his socks and stuffing them into his sneakers. He watched Myungsoo take off his own shoes and when they were both barefoot, Myungsoo stood up and grabbed hold of Sunggyu’s hand and pulled him up from his sitting position on the sand.
Sunggyu had no choice but to follow along, and as he felt his cheeks heat up , his eyes lingered on the other’s face. Myungsoo had on the most blinding smile; Sunggyu didn’t even think that he noticed they were still holding hands.
Somewhere in the atmosphere between the ebb and flow of the tide, the setting sun, and the silence except for the sounds of the water and their breathing, Sunggyu found himself walking along solemnly beside Myungsoo, fingers entwined perfectly with the younger’s, their hands molded together as if they were meant to be.
Sunggyu didn’t know whether he should be happy or not; for one, he was happy because he felt the same warmth in his heart when he had been with his Myungsoo. However, he was trying his best to will that feeling away. It wasn’t right; it just wasn’t. He felt bad for falling in love with this Myungsoo just for that single reason.
“… your question?” Myungsoo’s voice cut through his thoughts and Sunggyu looked up from where he was staring at his feet to stare at the other as the two stopped to face each other.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“I said, does this answer your question?”
“Oh.”
“It’s romantic, isn’t it?” Sunggyu could feel the other’s grip on his hand tighten ever so slightly. He could feel Myungsoo’s gaze upon him, and he couldn’t help but turn to look into the other’s eyes. The sun’s setting rays cast some sort of a deep orange spotlight on the younger, and made his face look even more beautiful than Sunggyu thought it could ever be. He spent some time trying to find some difference between this Myungsoo and his Myungsoo, but he as far as comparing the face in front of him to the face in his memory went, he couldn’t find any difference or flaw in both perfect faces.
He continued staring- no, observing- as he noticed the other’s face was closer than before. His eyes trailed down from those dark almond shaped eyes, to the perfectly shaped nose, down to the rosy plump lips the other possessed.
Sunggyu swallowed and promptly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and leaning towards the other . Then soft lips met with his own, and Sunggyu felt a rush of emotion within him. Love, happiness, joy… It was just all so familiar; and then he knew. He knew that this Myungsoo could be the one to help him. He could be the one to prevent him from crumbling away into nothingness. He-
Suddenly, Myungsoo pulled away, confusion and pain swimming clearly in his eyes, and Sunggyu felt himself wake up from his dream back into reality. He barely had enough time to blink before Myungsoo mumbled a quick sorry and turned away to leave. Sunggyu had to will his tears away as he left, taking away with him the warmth of his hand and smile.
Although his legs refused to move, he tried to call out to the other, but his voice got stuck in his throat and didn’t decide to come back to him until Myungsoo was just a speck in the distance.
----
After that, Myungsoo virtually disappeared off the face of the earth.
Well, maybe not exactly. But Sunggyu did try calling him all night, as well as the next day. He even went to the ice-cream shop that Myungsoo worked at, only to find out that he was on “vacation” or something.
And just like that, Sunggyu lost his second Myungsoo. If that even made any sense.
Frustrated, Sunggyu proceeded to lock himself in his apartment, refusing to come out until Myungsoo showed himself. Somehow, it was his logic that if he spammed Myungsoo’s phone enough, he would come back.
Woohyun came by, dragging Howon along by the hand cautiously into Sunggyu’s apartment. He found Sunggyu half conscious on the couch in the living room. His eyes widened in surprise when he spotted a few crushed beer cans on the coffee table.
“Beer? BEER?” Woohyun stalked up to Sunggyu, pointing to the cans. “Sunggyu, you never ever drink! Besides, your alcohol tolerance is literally zero!”
Sunggyu promptly ignored him, simply shooing them away with the wave of his hand.
“Sunggyu! Stop being like this, please!” Woohyun pulled him up by the collar, only to be pushed away by being kicked in the stomach.
Howon, not wanting to see his boyfriend get beat up by none other than his best friend, stepped in, slightly fuming.
“Kim Sunggyu! Your life is not over if ONE guy walks away from your life. It’s ONE guy.”
“Well, technically it was two.” Woohyun said from the sidelines, earning a glare from Howon.
“I-I’ll… just go get Sunggyu a cup of water…” And with that he was off to the kitchen.
“Leave, please.” Sunggyu said, voice wavering and laced with fatigue. It was clear he hadn’t slept in days.
“I don’t get you, Sunggyu. How can you be like this just because he disappeared? He’s probably just on vacation and doesn’t want anybody to bother him.”
Of course Sunggyu hadn’t told those two about what had happened at the beach, and right now, he didn’t really have the strength to.
“It’s… complicated.”
“Did something happen?”
“Maybe.”
“Sunggyu, look at you. You’re a wreck! Just tell me what happened!”
“Just leave. Now.”
“Sunggyu.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” Sunggyu got up, staggering a bit and red in the face, his voice seeming to be angry. “Please leave.”
Howon simply rolled his eyes, giving up on the stubborn Sunggyu and going into the kitchen to drag his boyfriend away. Woohyun left the glass of water on the coffee table, casting a worried glance at Sunggyu before leaving out the door.
After they left, Sunggyu let out a frustrated yell, knocking over the glass of water and falling back on the couch, closing his eyes.
----
It’s been a week longer and Sunggyu had still locked himself up in his apartment. Woohyun gave up on checking up on his best friend ever since the incident of the throwing of the lamp from last time he came to visit. Howon had almost beat Sunggyu up to pieces when he saw the scratches from the glass across Woohyun’s left cheek. Sunggyu’s phone had long ran out of batteries, with him neglecting to charge it, and it seemed as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth as well.
Luckily, since he refused to take even a step outside his apartment, he couldn’t get any more beer. Many thoughts were running through his now sober mind, such as why he was this depressed anyway. Howon was right. It really was just one guy. However, that one guy was Myungsoo for god’s sake and no matter what, Sunggyu couldn’t get him out of his head. He loved him, that was for sure; but which one did he love? Old Myungsoo, new Myungsoo, or both?
With a loud sigh, Sunggyu reached for his wallet sitting on the coffee table from where he was, opening it to reveal a sticker photo wedged behind the clear pocket. He ran his thumb over the smiling face of Myungsoo - Kim Myungsoo, his Myungsoo - and a small smile formed on his own face.
Suddenly, the lock of his door could be heard, turning, and Sunggyu dropped his wallet back on the low table before sitting up and staring at the door. Could it be Woohyun, actually checking up on him again?
He was sort of certain the other wanted nothing to do with him after Sunggyu threw the lamp from beside his couch at him in anger.
The door slowly creaked open, and the face that revealed himself was not Woohyun.
The face had Myungsoo’s eyes, Myungsoo’s nose, and Myungsoo’s mouth, and Myungsoo’s hair, and -
Oh god, it actually was Myungsoo.
“Myungsoo.”
Although Sunggyu had intended for it to be a statement, his quivering voice and uncertainty made it sound like a slight question.
“Gyubear, I’m back.” Myungsoo closed the door behind him and took a few strides up to the couch. It took a few moments before realization hit Sunggyu.
He hadn’t heard that nickname in a while, and when it dawned on him who was the only single person who even called that name, Sunggyu almost fell out of the couch in surprise.
“W-what? But… how?”
Myungsoo simply continued smiling and walked around to the front of the couch to sit beside Sunggyu, pulling him into a warm and tight embrace. After a long moment of silence, he pulled back from the hug to stare intently into the older’s eyes. Myungsoo took a deep breath and started on his story.
Myungsoo had actually come to Seoul in search of someone; a faceless, nameless, person that had been floating around in his memories somewhere. When Sunggyu had kissed him that day, he had been overwhelmed with all the feelings that seemed so familiar. Suddenly he could see flashes of Sunggyu in his mind; the two of them in places he’s never been to before, doing things he simply has no memory of. Being scared and confused, Myungsoo did the only thing he could think of; he ran away.
When his head had started to hurt and it seemed as if his head was about to explode with lost memories trying to barge their way back into his mind, Myungsoo knew that he had to find out what really happened that day out at sea. So he went back to his “hometown”, back to the couple that took him in and after much research, questions and explaining, he finally understood.
While Sunggyu had luckily survived the shipwreck that had occurred that day they went sailing, Myungsoo was not as lucky. He was unconscious when they found him, and he woke up in a hospital a few days later with a big chunk of his memories wiped out. The doctors claimed it was probably because of excess water, or perhaps a blow to his head. He might regain his memories in the future, he might not.
Sadly enough, no ID or anything was found on him so the police had no idea who he was. Myungsoo himself, only knew that his name was Myungsoo and that was it; he didn’t even have any memory of his last name at all. (Which is why the couple that took him in lent him their last name, “Park”.) His wallet was completely emptied because of the rolling and rushing of the waves, leaving only one thing inside; a photograph. Myungsoo could see that there were supposed to be two people in the photograph, but unfortunately, the part of the photograph that included the face of the boy next to Myungsoo had been destroyed by the water. Staring at the half mangled photograph, Myungsoo could feel strong feelings towards the mysterious boy in the photograph and determined him as the key to finding his lost memories.
“Somehow…” Myungsoo started, voice slightly unsure, “that kiss we shared seemed to be, let’s say, the key to my memories that were somehow locked up.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a washed out photo and placed it on the coffee table, a photo that seemed all too familiar to Sunggyu.
Eyes widening, Sunggyu grabbed his wallet off the coffee table, opening it and taking out the photo he was staring at before and placing it next to the one Myungsoo had pulled out. Although the one Myungsoo had was partly destroyed, anyone could tell that they were actually the same picture.
Thoughts were running at a hundred miles per hour through Sunggyu’s mind. So new Myungsoo and old Myungsoo were actually the same person. There was a reason why the subtle touches, the other’s smile and attitude felt all too similar.
The concept was hard for Sunggyu to grasp and he sat there, trying to let everything sink in. Myungsoo thought that his concentrating face with his eyebrows furrowed was adorable, and leaned forward to press his forehead against Sunggyu’s, smiling lightly.
“Thank you.”
It was quiet, but Sunggyu heard him. He most definitely did.
“For what?” He whispered back.
“For keeping my heart with you even when you thought I was gone.”
----
fin.
Pairing/Focus: Sunggyu/Myungsoo, hints of Woohyun/Howon
Rating: PG -13
Current word count: 5635
Summary: > Sunggyu falls in love all over again with someone who looks and acts exactly like his dead ex-boyfriend. Exactly.
Many people say that one can get delusional after someone close to them passes away.
Perhaps that’s what was happening to him right now?
As the other passed by him without a second glance, the doubt in his heart started to grow; he was gone, yet he was there in front of his eyes? What kind of logic is that?
He was delusional. It was a hallucination.
That was it.
Definitely.
It was just by pure coincidence that the boy he saw in the streets today looked a bit like Myungsoo.
Okay fine, he looked exactly like him.
----
“I’m telling you, Woohyun! He looked exactly like him!” Sunggyu threw up his hands, clearly exasperated.
“Hyung, face it. He’s gone.”
“I know, but how do you know he’s actually gone? I mean they never found his-“
“Hyung. It’s been more than a month okay?” The younger patted his best friend on the shoulder with a look of understanding.
Sunggyu chose to stay silent and just leaned back on the couch they were sitting on, closing his eyes and letting out a small sigh.
He figured that he probably missed him more than he should.
----
The next day, Sunggyu woke up to two people (or should he call them monkeys?) jumping on his bed and shouting at the top of their lungs. He cursed quietly to himself for giving Woohyun the keys to his apartment before pulling up the covers over his face.
“Wake up!” Woohyun’s voice reached his ears and Sunggyu cringed at the sudden loud noise, followed by a groan when his best friend’s boyfriend’s voice came right after.
“Rise and shiiiiiiine~” Howon said in a sing song voice.
Sunggyu grabbed the nearest thing to him - that is, the pillow next to his head - and whipped it blindly towards the source of the two voices, smiling a bit to himself when he heard a soft thud, signaling a well aimed shot.
“Yah. Get up!” Woohyun’s voice reached his ears again, and Sunggyu felt a hand close around his wrist as his head was pulled up away from the comfort of his pillow along with the top half of his body.
“Ow, ow ,ow, Woohyun that hurts, let go!”
“Wake up!” Howon took the chance to scream in the older boy’s ear and Sunggyu flinched away from the loud shout, mumbling something incoherent, but probably something along the lines of “I’m up, now can you monkeys get off my bed?”
Sunggyu sat up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes to grow more awake.
“Hyung, we’re going to take you out today!” Woohyun said as he sat down on the bed beside him.
“Aish, why?”
“Just ‘cause. All you’ve been doing is being cooped up inside this house or that café of yours. It’s time to have some fun!” Howon piped up from beside him.
Knowing that he’d probably never win against the nagging duo, Sunggyu reluctantly got up and headed towards the bathroom to wash up.
From behind him, Woohyun cast a knowing glance towards his boyfriend.
“Time for plan “Take-Sunggyu’s-Mind-Off-Myungsoo!” He whispered not-so-quietly.
Howon simply rolled his eyes as Sunggyu cast the two of them a weird look from the doorway to the bathroom.
“Oh, and hyung! I’ve already placed a “Closed” sign at the door of your café! So not to worry! Everything’s been taken care of!”
Now Sunggyu regretted giving Woohyun keys to his café as well.
----
Kim Sunggyu was a regular 23 year old man; he lived a normal life that consisted of owning a café downtown. He used to be a co-owner; the café had belonged to him and Myungsoo before the… incident. To say he earned a lot of money would be a bit of an overstatement, but he did earn more than enough to get by. The café was medium sized and quite cozy, with large almost floor to ceiling windows lining the walls and large comfy couches with a fireplace, complete with a wind chime that sounded whenever a customer would enter - a small finishing touch that had been Myungsoo’s idea.
----
Sunggyu let himself be pulled towards the amusement park. He wondered why Woohyun thought coming here was a good idea, because it was a frequent location for his dates with Myungsoo. Those thoughts were washed away when he caught sight of Woohyun’s excited face as he pulled the older one along, shouthing things like, “Hyung! Hyung! Let’s go on this ride, okay?” and “Come on hyung! Let’s get cotton candy!”. Sometimes he wondered how Howon could put up with such a childish boyfriend. Shaking his head, he let himself get lost in the multiple thrill rides, roller coasters, and sweet tasting cotton candy that they shared amongst the three of them. That is, until he caught sight of him again while he took a bite out of the hot dog in his hands.
He was there, but then gone in a flash. Sunggyu stood there, shocked and with his mouth ajar, only looking around when the hot dog piece fell out of his mouth and onto the pavement. He flinched and blinked a few times when Woohyun and Howon started waving their hands in front of his face.
“H-huh?” He managed to blurt out, mind still reeling at the second sighting of the look-alike of his ex-boyfriend.
“Hey, what happened?” Woohyun inquired while staring at him. “You totally blanked out for like, 5 seconds.”
“I saw him.” Sunggyu raised up a finger to point to the pathway in front of them that was crowded with people, where he had sworn he saw Myungsoo’s face in a sea of the many others walking along.
It took a moment before the other two understood what Sunggyu was talking about. Howon was the first to speak up.
“Sunggyu-hyung… are you sure? I mean-“
“Nevermind.” Sunggyu interrupted the other, thinking that he didn’t want to hear them say anything about Myungsoo, and that the other two probably wouldn’t believe him anyway.
“I was probably just seeing things.”
“Yeah…”
“Anyway! Let’s go have more fun!” Woohyun spoke up in a cheery voice, pulling Sunggyu along once again to whatever ride was closest as a way to prevent him from thinking about anything else.
Howon followed along, rolling his eyes in the process. Why did he fall in love with this childish idiot, anyway?
----
It was a slow day at the café today, and Sunggyu stood at the barista counter with a bored look on his face, hand propping up his head on the counter. His eyes started to droop close and he was about to fall asleep when the wind chime jingled, signaling that the door had been opened by a customer. He immediately put on his best eye smile to greet the impending customer.
“Hello! How may I help … you…”
His voice faded off as the boy with the extremely familiar face walked inside and up to the barista counter.
”Myungsoo…”
However, it couldn’t be him, it just couldn’t. Besides, the other didn’t seem to recognize him.
“Double cream mocha latte please.”
The familiar smile.
The familiar voice.
Myungsoo’s favourite drink.
“Myungsoo…” Sunggyu didn’t even realize that he had been mumbling until the other spoke up.
“Oh? How’d you know my name?”
Sunggyu looked up, astounded and speechless.
“I-I..”
“Oh, right. I have my nametag on me, don’t I?”
Sunggyu’s eyes flickered down to where the other’s name tag was pinned onto the shirt of the familiar uniform of the ice-cream shop down the street. “Myungsoo” probably was taking a break from his job. At least he wouldn’t be seen as a creepy stalker who knew a stranger’s name.
And then it hit him. The name tag didn’t say “Kim Myungsoo”; it said “Park Myungsoo”. A different last name meant that it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Kim Myungsoo. It wasn’t the boy he loved so dearly. Sunggyu felt his heart wrench in sadness but regained his smiling composure towards the customer.
“One double cream mocha latte coming right up.”
Sunggyu decided to make some conversation to try and find out more about the other. To tell the truth, he was still perplexed at the similar, if not exact same features to his Myungsoo.
“So… Myungsoo-sshi? Where do you work?” Immediately after that was said, Sunggyu mentally face-palmed himself. Why did he ask such a stupid question?
However, the other didn’t seem fazed by the question as he watched Sunggyu busying himself to make his latte.
“The ice-cream shop down the street.” He answered simply.
“Oh I love ice-cream!” Sunggyu said, possibly a bit too happily. The statement was not a lie in itself, though.
“Hm, well, come over when you have time; I’ll give you a discount.” Myunsoo said with a wink and a smile that Sunggyu swore made him go weak in the knees.
“I have time now!” Sunggyu forced a smile, wondering in his mind how many times he had made himself facepalm today.
With a chuckle, Myungsoo replied, “Oh? It looks like you’re busy though.” He turned to look around the café.
“No, I’ll be fine.” He handed Myungsoo his cup of latte, warning him that it would be hot, and took off his barista apron. He turned to the employee he trusted most, Sungyeol, and explained that he would be taking a short break, telling him that he was to be in charge while he was gone. With a last glare and a warning, (“I better not find my café in shambles when I come back.”) Sunggyu turned back to Myungsoo with a smile.
“Let’s go!”
Sunggyu mentally cursed himself for being so childish.
What he didn’t know was that Myungsoo thought it really was quite cute.
----
The two boys got closer, talking over ice-cream at a small table in the ice-cream shop. They clicked pretty well. Sunggyu found out that Myungsoo just recently moved to the city from a fishing village on one of the islands off the coast. (So it turns out, he most definitely could not be his Myungsoo after all.) After many laughs, and two bowls of vanilla bean ice-cream (on Sunggyu’s part, that is), Myungsoo finally surrendered to the glares of his angry manager and reluctantly got back to work, bidding Sunggyu good-bye.
However, as Sunggyu had one hand reached out to push open the door of the ice-cream shop, a shout of his name made him halt. He turned to see Myungsoo running up to him with one of his gorgeous smiles, slipping a small piece of paper into his hand. The touch between the two made chills go up Sunggyu’s spine.
“Call me sometime to hang out, alright?”
And with that, Myungsoo turned to go back to be stationed at the counter behind all the tubs of ice-cream, acting as if nothing happened. In a daze, Sunggyu turned only to bump into the glass door with a thud. Some chuckling could be heard from behind him, undoubtedly from Myungsoo, and Sunggyu got out of there before he could die of embarrassment, and before the other could see the deep blush in his face.
Back at the café, Sunggyu was staring absentmindedly at the small piece of paper in his hand. Myungsoo’s messy writing was scrawled across what seemed to be paper ripped from a notebook.
“Hyung, I didn’t know you had that big of a sweet tooth.”
Sunggyu jumped at the voice of his best friend and dropped the spoon in his other hand, scattering sugar all over the counter.
“Huh? What?”
Woohyun pointed at the dropped spoon, the sugar, then at the cup of coffee in front of Sunggyu which caused him to look down at where Woohyun was pointing.
“You’ve been adding sugar to the cup of coffee for the past five minutes.”
“Oh…” Sunggyu retrieved a damp towel from the sink and started cleaning up, putting the spoon back in the sugar container.
“You okay, hyung?” Woohyun looked at Sunggyu worriedly when the other didn’t reply. “… Oh hey. What’s this?” He snatched the piece of paper away from Sunggyu’s hand and stared at it curiously, stepping back to avoid his complaints and attempts to get back the piece of paper.
“Did you manage to get a girl’s number?” Woohyun winked knowingly at him.
“Well… not exactly…”
Woohyun raised an eyebrow at him.
“Is he cute?”
“He looks like Myungsoo.”
“So you like him because of that?”
“You don’t understand. He’s actually a splitting image of Myungsoo!”
“… So it wasn’t a hallucination before?”
“There’s only one explanation for this.” Woohyun stared into the eyes of Sunggyu seriously.
“What?”
“Zombie!” And with that, Woohyun ran out of the café, laughing.
----
Easter soon rolled by, the days in between filled with Sunggyu often going to treat himself to ice-cream at the shop down the street. Easter morning, Sunggyu found himself rolling around in bed and the sunlight from the blinds hit his face. The café was closed today because of the public holiday and Sunggyu realized that he had absolutely nothing to do for his day off. As he turned on his side to face the night table beside his bed, he caught sight a piece of paper sticking out from under his phone. After contemplating for a moment, Sunggyu reached out for it and held it close to his face. He inspected Myungsoo’s messy scrawl once again, his eyes wandering off to the phone on the night table. Another five minutes of laying there and Sunggyu found himself pounding in the numbers to his phone’s keypad and pressing the green “call” button before he could regret anything he was about to do.
It took a while to find his own voice when a soft “Hello?” drifted out from the other line.
“O-oh hello! It’s Sunggyu.”
“Oh hi Sunggyu-hyung! What’s up?”
It hit him just now that it might have been too early to call the other. He turned over to take a quick peek at the clock radio. It read “11:00AM”. So he wasn’t too early after all.
“Well, I have a day off from the café today, so I was wondering if you wanted to hang out… or something? Maybe eat dinner together?” Sunggyu couldn’t deny that he was in fact quite nervous; it was the first time he had call the other after all. Luckily though, the two had grown a bit closer due to the countless times Sunggyu decided his sweet tooth was craving some vanilla bean ice-cream.
There was a short silence on the other end and when Myungsoo’s voice could be heard again, Sunggyu found himself letting out a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding.
“Sure! I don’t have anything to do today anyway. What would you like to do?”
And then it dawned on Sunggyu. He didn’t even think of something to do before he had called the other.
“Uhm… well I know this… restaurant near my cafe… I’ve heard nothing but good things about it… so…” Sunggyu didn’t like how he always tripped upon his words when he was nervous.
“Dinner date sounds good! I’ll meet you in front of your café?”
Sunggyu’s flinched a bit when the other referred to it as a date.
“Okay then. See you!”
“See you~ Bye!” A dial tone was heard before Sunggyu ended the call and set down his phone on the night table again.
----
Sunggyu had spent forever going through his closet and he was still 10 minutes early. He spent his time pacing back and forth in front of the doors of his café, often glancing at the watch on his wrist. Why did time go by so slowly?
Sunggyu breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Myungsoo jogging up to him.
“I hope I’m not late!” The younger said with a smile.
“Nope. You’re just on time!” Sunggyu would know. He had just checked his watch a mere five seconds ago.
“Well then, lead the way, Sunggyu.” Myungsoo gave him another one of his smiles. Sunggyu swore to himself that Myungsoo really needed to stop giving him those smiles or one day he would really fall in love with him… or did he already unknowingly?
He was jerked from his thoughts as he felt a hand close around his arm and pull him off to the side. He looked at Myungsoo in surprise.
“You almost crashed into someone, hyung.” Myungsoo told him along with a chuckle.
“Oh… right. Sorry.” Sunggyu tried clearing his thoughts and continued walking forward, smile coming to his face as the restaurant they were heading for came into view.
Sunggyu led the way in to the cozy little restaurant (which, weirdly enough, was open on the holiday), and one of the waitresses showed them to a seat next to the window. The two sat down, and after ordering their food (they both had the chef’s special), Sunggyu looked over to the other with a slightly nervous smile and decided to start a conversation.
“So… what was your old town like?”
“Oh, I was really only there for about a month, as far as my memory goes, so I don’t really know it that well. An… incident happened and well, I lost all my memories from before a month ago up until my childhood.” A sad smile appeared on Myungsoo’s face, and Sunggyu was immediately slightly startled that he had brought up a sad memory.
“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to-“
“It’s alright, really. It’s not good to keep it all in anyway.” The smile was back on Myungsoo’s face, but not as bright as before. “What about the city? I haven’t really gotten a chance to explore it yet, so yeah.”
“Hm. Busy, crowded. I guess there’s a lot of good food around, lots of shopping, if you like that.”
“Good food, like your café?”
Sunggyu chuckled. “I’m glad you think the food at my café is that delicious.”
“I guess I haven’t told you this, but the reason why I went into your café before is not because of it’s food.”
“Oh?” Sunggyu looked up in curiousity.
“There was something about it that was so familiar… I just had to go inside and check it out. It made me feel… at home?”
Sunggyu’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. “That’s interesting.”
An awkward silence ensued before it was interrupted by the waitress bringing in their food, which looked delicious so they both dug right in.
----
The sun had started to set after the end of dinner, and the yellows, oranges and reds painted across the sky made it look beautiful. While walking down the sidewalk, Sunggyu turned to Myungsoo, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he did so,
“So, is there anywhere else you’d like to go?”
Myungsoo had been staring at the sky and a short moment of silence followed before his reply floated through the breezes, just as soft,
“Is there a beach around here?”
Sunggyu blinked at him for a moment, wondering why in the world he would want to go to the beach of all places, before nodding and pointing eastwards.
“It’s small though.”
“That’s fine.”
The two ended up at the beach after a short walk, and Myungsoo was first to take a seat in the white sand with a sigh, closing his eyes. Sunggyu followed him, taking a seat next to the other as he too closed his eyes, taking in the comforting sound of the soft crashing of the waves of the ocean. Since it wasn’t summer yet and the sun was already setting, there was virtually no one along the sandy stretch of the beach.
“I like the sound of the waves. It calms me. Funny isn’t it?” Myungsoo’s voice was just barely audible above the sounds of the rolling waves, and sounded like music to Sunggyu’s ears.
“Yeah.”
Truthfully, Sunggyu didn’t know what else to say, or rather, his brain couldn’t think of any answer to Myungsoo’s question that wouldn’t make him look stupid in any way.
The comforting silence between them stretched on once again for quite a while after, until the sun was just barely peeking out of the horizon.
“I wonder…” Sunggyu started, his voice quiet. Myungsoo turned to look at Sunggyu, his eyes reflecting the beautiful orange of the sun, the black of his eyes swimming with curiousity.
“…Why do people like taking walks along the beach anyway?”
Myungsoo kept quiet for a bit before speaking up.
“Let’s try it.”
“W-what?” Sunggyu turned to look at Myungsoo, eyes widening.
“Wait. Take off your shoes first.”
“W-what, why?” Sunggyu exclaimed, eyes widening even more, if that was even possible (as if Myungsoo could even tell, since his eyes were so small).
Rolling his eyes, Myungsoo proceeded to grab at Sunggyu’s sneaker, succeeding in pulling it clean off his foot before Sunggyu grabbed at the other’s wrist, stopping him as he had tried to pull of the other sneaker.
“I’ll do it myself.” He stated, sounding defeated.
“Well, we have to be barefoot so we can feel the sand under our feet.” Myungsoo said with a straight face as if he was stating a fact.
It was Sunggyu’s turn to roll his eyes now, and he did so while pulling off his socks and stuffing them into his sneakers. He watched Myungsoo take off his own shoes and when they were both barefoot, Myungsoo stood up and grabbed hold of Sunggyu’s hand and pulled him up from his sitting position on the sand.
Sunggyu had no choice but to follow along, and as he felt his cheeks heat up , his eyes lingered on the other’s face. Myungsoo had on the most blinding smile; Sunggyu didn’t even think that he noticed they were still holding hands.
Somewhere in the atmosphere between the ebb and flow of the tide, the setting sun, and the silence except for the sounds of the water and their breathing, Sunggyu found himself walking along solemnly beside Myungsoo, fingers entwined perfectly with the younger’s, their hands molded together as if they were meant to be.
Sunggyu didn’t know whether he should be happy or not; for one, he was happy because he felt the same warmth in his heart when he had been with his Myungsoo. However, he was trying his best to will that feeling away. It wasn’t right; it just wasn’t. He felt bad for falling in love with this Myungsoo just for that single reason.
“… your question?” Myungsoo’s voice cut through his thoughts and Sunggyu looked up from where he was staring at his feet to stare at the other as the two stopped to face each other.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“I said, does this answer your question?”
“Oh.”
“It’s romantic, isn’t it?” Sunggyu could feel the other’s grip on his hand tighten ever so slightly. He could feel Myungsoo’s gaze upon him, and he couldn’t help but turn to look into the other’s eyes. The sun’s setting rays cast some sort of a deep orange spotlight on the younger, and made his face look even more beautiful than Sunggyu thought it could ever be. He spent some time trying to find some difference between this Myungsoo and his Myungsoo, but he as far as comparing the face in front of him to the face in his memory went, he couldn’t find any difference or flaw in both perfect faces.
He continued staring- no, observing- as he noticed the other’s face was closer than before. His eyes trailed down from those dark almond shaped eyes, to the perfectly shaped nose, down to the rosy plump lips the other possessed.
Sunggyu swallowed and promptly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and leaning towards the other . Then soft lips met with his own, and Sunggyu felt a rush of emotion within him. Love, happiness, joy… It was just all so familiar; and then he knew. He knew that this Myungsoo could be the one to help him. He could be the one to prevent him from crumbling away into nothingness. He-
Suddenly, Myungsoo pulled away, confusion and pain swimming clearly in his eyes, and Sunggyu felt himself wake up from his dream back into reality. He barely had enough time to blink before Myungsoo mumbled a quick sorry and turned away to leave. Sunggyu had to will his tears away as he left, taking away with him the warmth of his hand and smile.
Although his legs refused to move, he tried to call out to the other, but his voice got stuck in his throat and didn’t decide to come back to him until Myungsoo was just a speck in the distance.
----
After that, Myungsoo virtually disappeared off the face of the earth.
Well, maybe not exactly. But Sunggyu did try calling him all night, as well as the next day. He even went to the ice-cream shop that Myungsoo worked at, only to find out that he was on “vacation” or something.
And just like that, Sunggyu lost his second Myungsoo. If that even made any sense.
Frustrated, Sunggyu proceeded to lock himself in his apartment, refusing to come out until Myungsoo showed himself. Somehow, it was his logic that if he spammed Myungsoo’s phone enough, he would come back.
Woohyun came by, dragging Howon along by the hand cautiously into Sunggyu’s apartment. He found Sunggyu half conscious on the couch in the living room. His eyes widened in surprise when he spotted a few crushed beer cans on the coffee table.
“Beer? BEER?” Woohyun stalked up to Sunggyu, pointing to the cans. “Sunggyu, you never ever drink! Besides, your alcohol tolerance is literally zero!”
Sunggyu promptly ignored him, simply shooing them away with the wave of his hand.
“Sunggyu! Stop being like this, please!” Woohyun pulled him up by the collar, only to be pushed away by being kicked in the stomach.
Howon, not wanting to see his boyfriend get beat up by none other than his best friend, stepped in, slightly fuming.
“Kim Sunggyu! Your life is not over if ONE guy walks away from your life. It’s ONE guy.”
“Well, technically it was two.” Woohyun said from the sidelines, earning a glare from Howon.
“I-I’ll… just go get Sunggyu a cup of water…” And with that he was off to the kitchen.
“Leave, please.” Sunggyu said, voice wavering and laced with fatigue. It was clear he hadn’t slept in days.
“I don’t get you, Sunggyu. How can you be like this just because he disappeared? He’s probably just on vacation and doesn’t want anybody to bother him.”
Of course Sunggyu hadn’t told those two about what had happened at the beach, and right now, he didn’t really have the strength to.
“It’s… complicated.”
“Did something happen?”
“Maybe.”
“Sunggyu, look at you. You’re a wreck! Just tell me what happened!”
“Just leave. Now.”
“Sunggyu.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” Sunggyu got up, staggering a bit and red in the face, his voice seeming to be angry. “Please leave.”
Howon simply rolled his eyes, giving up on the stubborn Sunggyu and going into the kitchen to drag his boyfriend away. Woohyun left the glass of water on the coffee table, casting a worried glance at Sunggyu before leaving out the door.
After they left, Sunggyu let out a frustrated yell, knocking over the glass of water and falling back on the couch, closing his eyes.
----
It’s been a week longer and Sunggyu had still locked himself up in his apartment. Woohyun gave up on checking up on his best friend ever since the incident of the throwing of the lamp from last time he came to visit. Howon had almost beat Sunggyu up to pieces when he saw the scratches from the glass across Woohyun’s left cheek. Sunggyu’s phone had long ran out of batteries, with him neglecting to charge it, and it seemed as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth as well.
Luckily, since he refused to take even a step outside his apartment, he couldn’t get any more beer. Many thoughts were running through his now sober mind, such as why he was this depressed anyway. Howon was right. It really was just one guy. However, that one guy was Myungsoo for god’s sake and no matter what, Sunggyu couldn’t get him out of his head. He loved him, that was for sure; but which one did he love? Old Myungsoo, new Myungsoo, or both?
With a loud sigh, Sunggyu reached for his wallet sitting on the coffee table from where he was, opening it to reveal a sticker photo wedged behind the clear pocket. He ran his thumb over the smiling face of Myungsoo - Kim Myungsoo, his Myungsoo - and a small smile formed on his own face.
Suddenly, the lock of his door could be heard, turning, and Sunggyu dropped his wallet back on the low table before sitting up and staring at the door. Could it be Woohyun, actually checking up on him again?
He was sort of certain the other wanted nothing to do with him after Sunggyu threw the lamp from beside his couch at him in anger.
The door slowly creaked open, and the face that revealed himself was not Woohyun.
The face had Myungsoo’s eyes, Myungsoo’s nose, and Myungsoo’s mouth, and Myungsoo’s hair, and -
Oh god, it actually was Myungsoo.
“Myungsoo.”
Although Sunggyu had intended for it to be a statement, his quivering voice and uncertainty made it sound like a slight question.
“Gyubear, I’m back.” Myungsoo closed the door behind him and took a few strides up to the couch. It took a few moments before realization hit Sunggyu.
He hadn’t heard that nickname in a while, and when it dawned on him who was the only single person who even called that name, Sunggyu almost fell out of the couch in surprise.
“W-what? But… how?”
Myungsoo simply continued smiling and walked around to the front of the couch to sit beside Sunggyu, pulling him into a warm and tight embrace. After a long moment of silence, he pulled back from the hug to stare intently into the older’s eyes. Myungsoo took a deep breath and started on his story.
Myungsoo had actually come to Seoul in search of someone; a faceless, nameless, person that had been floating around in his memories somewhere. When Sunggyu had kissed him that day, he had been overwhelmed with all the feelings that seemed so familiar. Suddenly he could see flashes of Sunggyu in his mind; the two of them in places he’s never been to before, doing things he simply has no memory of. Being scared and confused, Myungsoo did the only thing he could think of; he ran away.
When his head had started to hurt and it seemed as if his head was about to explode with lost memories trying to barge their way back into his mind, Myungsoo knew that he had to find out what really happened that day out at sea. So he went back to his “hometown”, back to the couple that took him in and after much research, questions and explaining, he finally understood.
While Sunggyu had luckily survived the shipwreck that had occurred that day they went sailing, Myungsoo was not as lucky. He was unconscious when they found him, and he woke up in a hospital a few days later with a big chunk of his memories wiped out. The doctors claimed it was probably because of excess water, or perhaps a blow to his head. He might regain his memories in the future, he might not.
Sadly enough, no ID or anything was found on him so the police had no idea who he was. Myungsoo himself, only knew that his name was Myungsoo and that was it; he didn’t even have any memory of his last name at all. (Which is why the couple that took him in lent him their last name, “Park”.) His wallet was completely emptied because of the rolling and rushing of the waves, leaving only one thing inside; a photograph. Myungsoo could see that there were supposed to be two people in the photograph, but unfortunately, the part of the photograph that included the face of the boy next to Myungsoo had been destroyed by the water. Staring at the half mangled photograph, Myungsoo could feel strong feelings towards the mysterious boy in the photograph and determined him as the key to finding his lost memories.
“Somehow…” Myungsoo started, voice slightly unsure, “that kiss we shared seemed to be, let’s say, the key to my memories that were somehow locked up.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a washed out photo and placed it on the coffee table, a photo that seemed all too familiar to Sunggyu.
Eyes widening, Sunggyu grabbed his wallet off the coffee table, opening it and taking out the photo he was staring at before and placing it next to the one Myungsoo had pulled out. Although the one Myungsoo had was partly destroyed, anyone could tell that they were actually the same picture.
Thoughts were running at a hundred miles per hour through Sunggyu’s mind. So new Myungsoo and old Myungsoo were actually the same person. There was a reason why the subtle touches, the other’s smile and attitude felt all too similar.
The concept was hard for Sunggyu to grasp and he sat there, trying to let everything sink in. Myungsoo thought that his concentrating face with his eyebrows furrowed was adorable, and leaned forward to press his forehead against Sunggyu’s, smiling lightly.
“Thank you.”
It was quiet, but Sunggyu heard him. He most definitely did.
“For what?” He whispered back.
“For keeping my heart with you even when you thought I was gone.”
----
fin.