Kiss Me Like You’re Not Married.

The clinking of cutlery echoed faintly from the kitchen, mixed with the low laughter of their wives as they cleared dishes and debated over desserts. The children's giggles came from the nearby playroom, innocent and loud, as blocks and toys clattered to the floor in a joyous mess.

But here, in the living room.. it was quiet.

Too quiet.

Tae-hyun sat back against the couch, one leg crossed over the other, arm resting lazily along the back cushion. He held his wine glass like he had no real intention of drinking it.. just letting the rim graze his lips now and then while his eyes stayed on Joon-won.

"You and Ha-eun," he started after a while of silence, voice casual as if he wasn't debating if he should even open a conversation or not. "Been married long?"

Joon-won, who had been adjusting his cuffs for the third time, didn't look at him right away. "Six years," he replied. "Eight if you count the dating."

Tae-hyun hummed, tilting his glass. "So you met her when you were… twenty-five?"

"Twenty-four," Joon-won corrected. His hazel eyes lifted to meet Tae-hyun's, unreadable but sharp still. "You and Seo-yeon?"

"Nine years," Tae-hyun said. "I was twenty-eight. She was twenty-three." He paused. Then a faint smirk tugged at his lips as he realized that Joon-won was younger than him. "So I guess I'm the older one here."

Joon-won mirrored the smirk, but his was smaller. "By how much?"

"I'm thirty-seven."

There was a subtle twitch in Joon-won's brow, not quite surprise, but something like reevaluation. He let his gaze clearly scan Tae-hyun face as if to take his features in all over again before he start rolling up his sleeves slowly with a hum. "Hm.. You don't look it."

"You do," Tae-hyun shot back smoothly, and Joon-won let out a breath, was that almost a laugh?

Tension pulled tight between them again like a thread stretched too far but not yet snapped. There was no hostility in it like at the start of this evening. Just something unreadable.

"Do you like being married?" Tae-hyun asked suddenly after a while, voice softer this time. The question felt too raw for a dinner conversation between two almost-strangers, but he didn't take it back.

Joon-won didn't answer right away at the sudden question and shift in Tae-hyun softer voice. 'This is.. sudden.' He thought with a slight frown.

He shifted his posture, eyes falling briefly to his ring before he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees as he try to come up with an answer.

"I'm good at it," he said finally in a calm voice. "At being dependable. Responsible. She trusts me. I take care of my family."

Tae-hyun stared at him quietly, his eyes locked onto Joon-won as if trying to read him before he sighs softly and look down at his untouched glass of wine. "That's not what I asked," He murmured.

Joon-won glanced at him.

And it hung there.

Like a door left half open between them.

"…It's complicated," Joon-won finally said, voice quiet but still deep. "But I think anyone who tells you it isn't, is lying."

Tae-hyun smiled faintly, and this time he really did take a sip of the wine.

"My wife said that your wife has told her you were the 'cool-headed type.' Quiet. Reserved. Obsessive with detail."

At the sudden change of the subject, Joon-won raised a brow but didn't push further. Humming in agreement at his wife statement instead as an answer before adding. "She say anything else?"

"She also said that you dress like someone about to fire an entire boardroom," Tae-hyun chuckled as he looked at the other guy through the rim of his wine glass.

Joon-won huffed, straightening his gray button up shirt like he owned the room. "Good to know I make a strong impression."

Tae-hyun tilted his head slightly as he let his eyes glance down at the way joon-won's hands straighten his shirt. "She also said you don't talk much. But I'm starting to think that's not true."

Joon-won's gaze sharpened, a flicker of something warmer in his stare as he shrug nonchalantly. "Maybe you bring out the worst in me."

Tae-hyun held his stare. "Or the most honest."

Another silence. It wasn't awkward. It was deliberate.

Then Tae-hyun's voice dropped a notch lower. "You know, I didn't expect you to be younger."

"Disappointed?"

"No," Tae-hyun said, slow and deliberate. "Just surprised. You carry yourself like a man who's used to being in charge."

Joon-won's eyes glinted with interest at the mention of being in charge, watching the man intensely.. to say he wasn't impressed with how much Tae-hyun has figured out just by staring at him would be a lie but he tried not to mention it.

"Do you always study people this much?"

Suddenly, Tae-hyun leaned in, not breaking eye contact. "Only when I'm interested." He said in a low raspy tone, his statement was short but it had hit Joon-won a little to hard since he wasn't expecting such an answer.

That word hung between them like a lit match.

Joon-won's breath caught in the slightest way.. barely there, but Tae-hyun noticed. He was good at noticing.

There was something different in Joon-won's silence now. He didn't look away, but his posture changed, straighter, tenser. Like he suddenly felt his own skin too closely.

And Tae-hyun.. well, he had no shame in pressing further. Especially when Joon-won's reactions were this good.

"My wife said yours mentioned you were a bit… traditional. The responsible one. Very straight-laced."

There was a beat.

"Ironic choice of words," Joon-won said quietly.

Tae-hyun's mouth curled into a subtle smile.

"So what about you?" Joon-won asked, voice a little lower now, laced with curiosity that wasn't there when they've first met a few hours ago. "Married young. Family man. Two dogs in the yard. Everything wrapped in a perfect bow. What does someone like you want?"

Tae-hyun tilted his head. His gaze lingered on Joon-won's face for.. too long before he slowly placed his now empty cup down onto the table.

"I like…" he trailed off in a slightly teasing tone, maybe he was using the alcohol in his system as an excuse to push further slowly, "control. But not the kind you'd expect."

Joon-won's eyes narrowed faintly. 'What is he hinting at?' He wondered as he slowly placed his leg onto his knee and relaxed more into the couch. "Meaning?"

Tae-hyun gave a lazy shrug with a small playful hum. "I like when people think they've figured me out. When they assume I'm just this nice guy with a kid and a backyard. Then they realize I'm not."

The pause stretched between them again, longer, weightier this time as the implications were more clear to Joon-won.

Then, he added, voice like silk, "And I like people who don't fall into neat categories."

Joon-won's throat moved with a swallow, his eyes locked onto Tae-hyun glinted with slight interest without him even feeling himself.

"You're married," he said simply.

"So are you," Tae-hyun countered.

Their voices were quiet now. Low and deep.

Joon-won sat back slightly, like he needed more space to breathe, but didn't want to make it obvious.

And yet he didn't break the gaze.

"You always flirt like this?" he asked, trying to keep his tone dry, disbelieving.. but it didn't land. His voice was laced with interest despite himself.

Tae-hyun didn't even blink. "Only when someone flirts first."

And there it was.

Whatever this thing between them was.. it shifted. Became real. Heavy. Too suddenly. Too quickly even. What the fuck was happening?

Not physical, not yet. But psychological. Something neither of them asked for, something they couldn't explain.

Tae-Hyun shifted in his seat slightly, posture no longer quite so relaxed. There was a flash of something in his eyes, not discomfort, but intrigue and clear interest.

Like he'd just discovered another layer beneath the image he'd built of Joon-Won from this whole conversation.

A different kind of man than expected.

Before either could speak again, the sound of plates clinking signaled the end of the cleanup. The wives reentered the room, Ha-eun with a folded dish towel in her hands, Seo-Yeon holding a second bottle of wine happily as she sat herself next to her husband with a kiss to his cheek.

"Boys behaving?" Seo-Yeon teased, setting the bottle on the table.

Joon-Won stood smoothly, offering to open it as his wife sat down by him on the couch. His hand brushed Tae-Hyun's as he reached for the corkscrew.

Just a touch.

But neither of them looked at the bottle.

Their eyes met again.. and something passed between them in that instant.

No words.

Just heat.

Just confusion.

And something that felt like the beginning of a fracture.

.

.

.

Joon-won had been pressured by his wife and Seo-yeon to have at least one cup of wine with the rest of them, so he was now sipping some delightfully while his wife and Seo-yen was telling him about how he should try and give himself a break sometimes. He simply smiled at both of them as he listened and kept taking small sips, nodding at them every now and then.

He was distracted now and Tae-hyun was sitting there quitely with a third cup of wine in hand, observing. He exhaled after a while when he was finally left unoticed by Joon-wo. A breath that felt heavier than it should have.

He ran a hand through his hair, gaze distant for a moment before he was dragged into the conversation by his wife.

.

.

.

The night had grown quieter. Warmer somehow, despite the hour.

The conversation had slowed. The wine glasses were emptied, laughter softened. The tension that had pulsed through the air earlier now hummed deeper, quieter, tucked just beneath the surface.

The children had long since dozed off onto their fathers laps when they were in the middle of talking earlier.

Now, Joon-won's son was curled against his chest, breathing deeply, one small hand fisted in his shirt collar. Tae-hyun held his own son similarly, the boy's cheek resting on his father's shoulder, legs limp with sleep, eyelashes brushing the collar of Tae-hyun's shirt.

It was time.

"We should head out," Joon-won murmured, his voice low so as not to wake the child in his arms.

"Of course," Seo-yeon said gently. "Let me help you with his shoes—"

"No need," Ha-eun smiled, already gathering their things with a practiced ease. "He'll be out till morning."

Tae-hyun walked with them to the door, adjusting his son gently against his side. His palm cradled the boy's back, broad fingers spread protectively, almost instinctively, like muscle memory. Beside him, Joon-won's hold mirrored his.

Same posture. Same expression. Same quiet kind of tenderness rarely seen on men like them.

The hallway light was soft above them, pale and golden shining on their features softly. They stood there, the four of them, trading parting words and tired smiles. Ha-eun gave Seo-yeon a warm hug. The two women murmured something about doing this again soon. But the men were quiet.

Joon-won's gaze briefly flicked to Tae-hyun.

A glance. Nothing more.

But in the silence… something passed.

And it brought both of them back—briefly—to a moment from earlier.

——

Flashback.

——

It had been mid-evening. A fourth glass of wine passed around. The children were still awake then, playing in the hallway with scattered toys and giggles.

They had been talking about relationships.

Ha-eun had said something like, "I think what matters most is feeling seen. You can love someone and still go years without really seeing them."

Joon-won had chuckled lightly. Almost defensively. "That sounds depressing."

"Not depressing," Seo-yeon replied instead with a slight smile and a tilt of her head, "just… true." Before she turned to face his wife and went on about the subject.

And then it happened.

The smallest thing.

He felt it.. not in the words, but in the air.

A pause. A shift.

He turned his head. Tae-hyun was already looking at him.

No expression.

No smile.

Just… the quiet ache of recognition.

Something flickered in both of them. Just a second. A brief snap of contact under the noise.

A feeling they couldn't name. A jolt in the center of their chest. Not desire, not affection, not resentment. Something more dangerous.

Understanding.

And then someone had changed the topic, and the moment passed.

——

Back at the door.

——

Now, at the front door, Joon-won adjusted his son in his arms. The porch light buzzed faintly behind him. Ha-eun with one last wave had stepped down toward the car.

Seo-yeon said something again, but Joon didn't catch it. He was staring right at her husband instead.

Tae-hyun hadn't looked away either.

They stood facing each other in that soft space between night and the goodbye.

Another man's child in their arms. Another woman's voice in the background.

But only one gaze locked.

Joon-won felt the corner of his mouth twitch, unsure if it was a smirk or something darker. The warmth of his son curled in his chest, and yet… the weight of something else pressed in his throat.

With a small nod from each of them they turned on their heel and left, joon walked over to his car to place his sleeping son down and get into the driver seat. He was deep in his thoughts as he started the car and drove right away.

'He's going to be a problem.' he thought.

'But so am I.' He couldn't help but place a hand under his chin and hold back the smirk he felt was trying to appear on his face. Why was he even feeling that way? He didn't feel like thinking about it deeper at the moment.

While Tae-hyun on the other hand, after closing the door he had went to his sons room to put him to bed gently. But his own mind was clouded with confusion about what had happened today and Joon-won who's a mystery. the echo of that glance trailed with him all the way to his bedroom where he had finally laid down with a sigh.

This was going to be a rollercoaster, but he was ready to ride it.