#the show deprived us of a scene of Dongsik and Hyeok ever meeting face to face

[vindicated-truth]

“Here you go, Lee Dongsik-ssi."

Dongsik looks up and smiles sunnily at Joowon, who has returned to their table with their order.

"Thank you, Joowon-ah,” he tells him earnestly as he gratefully accepts the bowl of fresh noodles and fish soup that Joowon has handed to him.

Joowon merely inclines his head, but there’s a soft upturning of the corners of his lips that Dongsik doesn’t miss.

He then watches as Joowon turns to their other companion at their table.

“Hyung.”

Hyeok beams as Joowon hands him his own meal. “Thanks, Joowon-ah.”

Dongsik scowls as Hyeok digs into his pretentious plate of steak and fries. He’s pretty sure Jaeyi serves better quality meat than that.

Joowon sits beside his precious hyung across from Dongsik with his own meal of rice topped with stewed pork and vegetables—a sort of middle ground between Dongsik’s traditional Korean cuisine and Hyeok’s Western fare.

“I can’t believe you,” Dongsik grumbles at Joowon, who daintily starts eating. “You’re ‘Joowon-ah’ to both of us, but he’s already your ‘hyung’.”

He juts his chin towards Hyeok, who merely smirks as he pops a fry into his mouth.

“Why am I still honest to god ‘Lee Dongsik-ssi’?”

“Of course you are,” Joowon says airily as Dongsik’s scowl deepens. “You will never be hyung to me.”

Hyeok grins, and Dongsik wants to punch him. “‘Cause that’s always gonna be me.”

“But why?” Dongsik all but whines. “What makes him so special?”

“Yeah, Joowon-ah.” Hyeok dabs at his mouth with a napkin and turns to Joowon; Dongsik swears the prat is preening. “What makes me so special?”

Joowon chews his food thoughtfully and swallows before answering with a completely straight face: “Because no one else in my life is more annoying than you.”

It’s Hyeok’s turn to scowl as Dongsik lets out a big belly laugh. “Yah,” Hyeok grouses, “isn’t the old man more annoying than me?”

“I’m only six years older than you, punk,” Dongsik smiles winningly, grinning when Hyeok all but sticks his tongue out at him.

“Lee Dongsik-ssi is indeed also annoying,” Joowon cuts through the conversation sagely. Hyeok straightens, looking smug. “However, his type of annoyance is—of a different sort.”

“Oh?” Hyeok’s interest is piqued now. “What sort?”

At this point, as if by some unspoken connection, both Dongsik and Joowon turn to Hyeok in unison. Hyeok blinks when Joowon merely arches an eyebrow at him, as if wordlessly asking: ‘Do you really want to know?’

Hyeok then turns to Dongsik—who grins and waggles his eyebrows at him lasciviously.

“No,” Hyeok states in horror as realization abruptly dawns on him—why Joowon pulls out the chair for Dongsik’s seat and serves him, why Dongsik’s hand is always on the small of Joowon’s back.

Why the two of them had looked rumpled and out of breath when they reappeared after a “bathroom break”—together.

“No,” Hyeok repeats vehemently as he squeezes his eyes shut amidst Dongsik’s peal of laughter. “Don’t ever tell me. Not even on my deathbed.”