“Insu!” Shihwan called out, running out into the hallway, only to find it empty.

“Hold on, handsome,” said a voice as a hand grabbed his arm, halting his steps.

Shihwan turned to meet the eyes of the man he had bumped into. He was several inches shorter than Shihwan, wore mascara, and his nails were a bright red. But beyond that, he looked like any other guy.

“Did you say ‘Insu’?” the man asked, flashing pearly white teeth through a charming smile.

Shihwan briefly turned back to the hallway before turning back to the man, whose hand gripped his arm tightly to surprise him, though not enough to hurt.

“Do you know him?” Shihwan asked, trying hard to tamp down the desire to throw this stranger off of him and run after his friend.

“Know him?” the man said with a click of his tongue and a tilt of his head. “I think of myself more like his brother.”

“What?” Shihwan blinked and turned his attention fully to the man. He had known Insu nearly all his life, and Insu had never once mentioned this man. “Who are you?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me what your relationship to Insu is, why you’re here, and why Insu was running away from you,” the man replied with an almost imperceptible tightening of his grip.

Shihwan blinked. Never had anyone ever questioned his relationship with Insu. “I— I’m his friend.”

“His friend?” the man repeated, his brows scrunching up in confusion as he tapped his index finger against his lips. “I know all of Insu’s friends; they are all mine. Except…” He paused, then looked at Shihwan more closely and pointed his index finger at him. “You’re Kang Shihwan.”

Insu’s friend’s eyes suddenly brightened with understanding before finally releasing his arm. “You are! I can see it so easily now — the kind but oblivious type.”

“Oblivious?” Shihwan asked, his brows knotted in question.

“Definitely him, you even stopped to pick up the wine bottle. But why—” the man tilted his head with a thoughtful gaze, “—was Insu running away from you?”

Shihwan met his eyes but did not reply. It was between him and Insu, and knowing Insu, he knew that he wouldn’t want outsiders involved in a situation between them. “Sorry, you said you were like his brother. But I never heard of you.”

The man shrugged. “Of course not. Insu likes to keep his life neatly compartmentalized. But fate has intervened, it seems, so let’s be friends,” he said with a grin and a wink. “You can call me JoonSeo."

Shihwan stared at the stranger blankly for a long moment, wondering why the situation did not sit well with him, before the realization struck him.

This man was a part of Insu’s life that Shihwan knew nothing about, a part that Insu had kept from him.

He blinked. He didn’t understand. Why hadn’t Insu told him? Even if Insu was private about his affairs, Shihwan had always believed that Insu would tell him something so important as this. After all, Shihwan had been the only person Insu had turned to when his father had passed in an accident during their middle school years.

It had been over eight years, but Shihwan still remembered the day his mother had pulled him from school to tell him the news. Then Insu shut himself away, refusing to eat, sleep, or speak with anyone. 

Perhaps it was simply his persistence. Shihwan had camped outside of his room for twenty-four hours before Insu let him in. They had sat in silence on Insu’s bed before Insu had laid his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes, falling asleep. They hadn’t exchanged a single word that night, but then for a good two months, Insu had continuously relied on him and only him. And eventually, slowly, he had resumed his daily life with Shihwan by his side. 

Which was why learning about a side of Insu Shihwan did not know was so shocking.

Insu being gay was not the problem; it was the fact that he had not trusted Shihwan enough to tell him something so important about himself. 

“I’ve known him our entire lives. Why couldn’t he tell me about this?” Shihwan asked softly to no one in particular.

“You really don’t know?” the man who claimed to be Insu’s friend asked, and Shihwan turned to him.

But JoonSeo did not elaborate. Instead, he popped open the bottle of wine he had brought and poured it into the two glasses before handing one to Shihwan. “Perhaps he’s too embarrassed to talk to you about his unrequited love,” he said casually before taking a sip.

Shihwan froze.

What? Insu… is in love?

He looked up and met the man’s gaze. “Who… Who is he?”

JoonSeo smirked, then shrugged. “Insu should tell you.”

But that was the problem… Insu wasn’t telling him anything.

“How—How did you meet him?” Shihwan asked, trying to work his way through the haze that had formed in his head.

“Who?” asked JoonSeo after taking a long sip. “Oh, Insu? Probably since your last year of high school.”

That long? And Insu hadn’t said a word…

“Had he always—” Shihwan asked, then stopped when Insu’s words suddenly repeated in his mind.

—You told me not to go smelling like other guys… But do you know what I was doing that day?

He felt his fingers grow cold.

“Was Insu seeing someone recently?” Shihwan asked.

JoonSeo, who had been cleaning out his nails, looked up with a slightly bored expression. “Seeing someone? Hmm, no,” he replied casually as he wiped his fingers on a napkin. “But he did have a guy he’d meet up every so often for sex.”

Shihwan suddenly heard the sounds of his blood pounding in his ears. “W-Who?”

JoonSeo shrugged. “Just some guy, though I don’t think it lasted very long. Insu doesn’t sleep around a lot, but he doesn’t like sticking to one person for too long either. That’s why they call him the heartbreaker.”

Badump. Badump.

Shihwan gulped. He didn’t know why, but his body was tense, and he suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

“He was really only sleeping with those guys to deal with his unrequited love anyways,” JoonSeo continued. He then opened his locker and pulled out a purse. He rummaged around for a moment before removing a mirror and what looked like a small vial of lipgloss.

Shihwan watched Insu’s friend blankly as he applied the shiny, glittery gloss upon his lips before the realization hit him again.

Insu was in love with someone…

Who?

What type of person was he? Just how much did the guy mean to him? And did Insu perhaps value him more than he did Shihwan?

Shihwan felt his hands clench into fists at his sides.

He… hated the idea.

Insu was his number one and had been for as long as he could remember. Even more than his parents, even more than his grandmother, even more than his younger brother, and even more than Boram… He was a constant in his life that Shihwan always tried not to take for granted. He had shared every major memory with Insu, had tried to keep him involved in every major decision. It was why he had told Insu first about Boram.

But he had never before thought about what it would mean if Insu fell in love…

His stomach twisted into knots. 

There was a part of Insu’s life that he was not a part of, that he knew nothing about…

Had he simply been delusional? Was Shihwan not as important to Insu as Insu was to him?

Badump. Badump.

He had to know.

“I have to go,” Shihwan said suddenly, and JoonSeo looked up to stare at him through the mirror. He shrugged as though he had not just tossed Shihwan a bombshell that was slowly driving him crazy. 

Shihwan quickly began to make his way through the door once more when he heard JoonSeo’s voice trailing after him with a detail that he knew would haunt his future dreams. “Oh, can you ask him to test out the pair of silk panties I gave him? I’m sure his partner will be thrilled to see him in them.”

.