Tender Affection

JiYong always knew how it started and how it finished.

He remembered the cheerful yet slightly intense meeting they had when their eyes first landed on one another. He remembered the heart felt goodbye that ended their relationship.

But he didn't remember the time they spent together in-between those memorable moments. Occasionally he would have a flashback of their fingers laced together, their hearts beating as their kisses grew more passionate, the smile he would seldom see from the other, and the horrid dancing the other would do in rare occasions.

These thoughts would come by in fast flashes.

He choose not to remember their full relationship,  

For it only brought him pain.

And so the barely legal Kwon JiYong let himself forget, he let his mind wander off to other things that mattered very little to their romance. To their tender romance that could easily be broken. He refused to pick up on his studies; instead his let himself be engorged in his music. In music that was only his escape.

JiYong grew in years with knowledge of music, hoping to have his name known across the globe. That was all he wanted. He wanted every one of all different types of races to whisper his name just once- just once.

It was after his twenty third birthdays did he finally remember the man who went by the name of Choi Seung Hyun. He was alone in the studio, deciding on the tempo of the beat when the other man's name flashed before his eyes.

Tempo

JiYong's soft lips then said the word only a second later, "Tempo,". And with his soft whisper, it all came back to him.

The tender crush that had appeared as if out of nowhere when Seung Hyun stood before him in his school's cafeteria. The tender confession of his that took place over the phone that made Seung Hyun laugh for five minutes straight, yet he accepted the confession. The tender moment Seung Hyun had said he loved JiYong replayed in his mind. The perfect moment before the sun rose, when Seung Hyun has sneaked out of his home to see the sunrise with JiYong. JiYong never got to see the sunrise, he was too busy staring at Seung Hyun. And then the heartbreaking yet somehow tender moment when the two broke up, when their tender romance was broken into pieces. When Seung Hyun called JiYong childish, when JiYong called Seung Hyun a horrid word for staring at other people, the heartbreaking moment came back.

All these thoughts that he had spent years trying to forget where finally back and he could do nothing but sob. JiYong stopped caring about the mess of unfinished music sheets before him, he stood up and exited the studio car keys in hand not giving a fuck  that he would probably be given a mouthful for not finishing his work. He didn't care, his tender heart was breaking all over again.

In full honesty, JiYong had forgotten what bar he had waddled into to. All he knew was that he had visited a bouncy club beforehand and the fruity drinks were getting to him. He pushed past the dancing women and men as he made his way to the bar.

Oh, the bar.

The bar where he desired to forget all of his memories of Seung Hyun. He welcomed the burn of alcohol down his  throat as another blue shot presented itself before him. His long fingers took the glass and drank it down swiftly, ignoring the look the bartender gave him when he slurred out, "Another,"

And another it was. It was another until he felt the presence of someone sitting next to him. JiYong didn't care and that moment he didn't about anything. The blue shot stared back at him as he once again reached for the glass. He wanted  to taste the burn, he lusted for it. That was all he wanted. For he knew it could stop the flash backs of Seung Hyun's smiling face.

But someone just had to stop JiYong.

The figure sitting next to him, who was calmly drinking a beer without even blinking had to stand in JiYong's way. "Man, are you trying to drink yourself to death?" The figure stated, their deep voice booming over the bar's music and into JiYong's ears.

JiYong smirked, "I guess you could say that,"

"Well, don't. Someone who loves you doesn't want you to waste away in alcohol." The unknown man stated as his large hand caught JiYong's hand which reached for the gleaming blue shot.

"The man who loved me left me years ago. He said I was a childish kid who should get its thoughts figured out. He left me with a smile saying to forget about him. And I did, until his stupid ass nickname had to appear again. And everything I had forgotten suddenly seemed real again."

The unknown man said nothing back to JiYong, only stared at him with wide eyes. JiYong felt something stir in him, something clicked. Something that was telling him to remember those intense dark eyes. But he couldn't. The alcohol had taken control.

"And so that is why, I'm going to drink another one of these little blue shots until I wake up in some guy's bed without pants on. Because I remembered."

JiYong was expecting the man to laugh and pay for another round of shots. He was expecting the man to do nothing and turn away. But he did nothing of the sort.

Instead the man leaned into JiYong, his soft lips grazing his own. A wave of panic swarmed JiYong, but then somehow it settled. As if JiYong was used to this man's lips on his. As if it was normal, as if it was meant to be. JiYong's tender lips melted into the other man's lips and with that wave of perfection he knew who he was kissing.

The one who he had once loved, the one who had never stopped loving.

Choi Seung Hyun.

The elder pulled back, his nose brushing JiYong's.

"I forgot how tender your heart was. How tender our love was."

And then Kwon JiYong remembered everything and refused to forget.