Chapter Text
(Wanna Be Café)
Wanna Be Café is a humble but cosy café, and the aromas of pastries linger in the air. It is also one of the boy’s favourite hangout place and he always frequent it with his other half. The boy sat at his usual spot at the innermost corner, looking around as the clock ticked with the passing seconds.
“Hey buddy! This is for you and your friends, on the house.” The café owner placed a plate of freshly baked cakes on the small boy’s table and ruffled through the younger’s soft brown locks. He wanted to ask him who the lady at his table was but his instinct told him not to.
“Thanks Minhyun hyung, you’re the best!” The boy responded with his killing cute wink and his hyung gave him a doting smile before he returning to the kitchen. One of the reasons why the boy frequented this café was because of the café owner, the hyung who always treated him like his little dongsaeng and made him feel at home.
The boy continued to look at the customers, his mesmerising eyes observing their every move, keeping his mind occupied as the silence at his table ensued. The young boy may look small due to his build but he was already a busy working professional, and had specially forked out some time for this meeting.
Boy: (Sigh… Why is no one talking…)
He thought to himself.
Another fifteen minutes passed and the boy finally braced himself and took a nervous glance at the unknown lady opposite him.
Boy: (This lady is breathtakingly beautiful.)
No doubt, she was the most beautiful lady he ever met. Her eyes seemed to glister under the light as she fluttered her long eyelashes innocently at him.
Boy: (Wow, her eyes are definitely prettier than mine, I wonder who is lucky enough to capture her heart.)
He peeked at the lady again.
Boy: (Well, definitely not me. Maybe in my next lifetime, who knows?)
“Jihoonie”
Just when he thought no one saw him giggling to himself like an idiot, the taller man finally spoke up and snapped him out of his silly thoughts.
“Yes, hyung? Took you long time to speak up?”
Jihoon replied in a teasing manner as he smiled shyly at the man just like he always would. The man who would never fail to contact Jihoon every day and talk about anything and everything. The man whom Jihoon had been yearning to see for the past few weeks but was unable to due to the man’s "busy schedule". Jihoon did not sense anything amiss then.
Now that he thinks back, he should have.
“Suji...”
The man finally spoke again as he looked into the Jihoon’s eyes with nothing but absolute gentleness.
The same pair of eyes that the man said he loved looking into because it reminded him of the universe.
Jihoon can’t fight the sudden shiver as he saw the man briefly touched and held the lady’s hand before he continued his sentence.
“… Suji and I are getting married”
The man’s eyes darted away from Jihoon’s as he felt the pain and loss in Jihoon’s eyes burning into him.
Yet another silence. A knife-cutting one this time.
Then, the man heard muffled sobs and felt his heart’s instant constriction at the sight before him. Almost like a built-in response, the man swiftly let go of his fiancé’s hand, missing (or rather, could not be bothered with) the angry frown that creased Suji’s forehead.
“Daniel oppa… oppa?”
Suji pouted cutely and tugged Daniel’s left arm to get his attention back, only to be met with an ice-cold dagger stare.
Daniel: (Fuck, can this woman stop her aegyo shit!!)
Oblivious to her fiancé’s inner plea, Suji pressed her lips together to form a thin line, expressing her slight dismay at what she seemed like Daniel’s pity for his ex-boyfriend.
Strictly speaking, Jihoon was still Daniel’s boyfriend then. Unless she considered the weeks of Daniel’s silence as an... indirect breakup?
“Wait… What? Hyung? This is a joke… Right?”
The silence pierced Jihoon’s heart further.
“Why… Why!! Tell me why!!”
The voices in the café halted to a stop as sharp sounds of glass shattering filled the air. Jihoon thought smashing the glass cup would ease his pain but he was so wrong.
All he felt was more pain. A sharp stinging pain in his right hand that threw the cup.
All he saw was blood.
“Jihoon! What the fuck!”
Daniel freed himself from Suji and ran towards Jihoon, grabbing the boy’s trembling hand.
“Let me go… Kang Daniel…”
Jihoon said in the most composed tone he could manage as he attempted to regain some of his sanity. But his request was ignored by Daniel who continued to hold his hand as he started picking out the pieces of glass from his wounds. More blood oozed from the cuts as Jihoon slowly clenched his hand into a tight fist.
“I said… LET… ME… GO!! Don’t fucking touch me!!”
Jihoon felt the painful mix of anger and confusion as he glared at the man whom he loved the most.
Jihoon: (Never again... Don’t ever touch me again…)
The couple had been together for five years since their university days and the younger was always the calm and mature one. This was the first time Daniel saw this side of Jihoon. He could only stare at Jihoon’s lonely back as the latter desperately broke free from his touch and escaped out of the café, out of his vision into the pouring rain.
Daniel: (What should I do now…)
(No… No, he must not come to any harm...)
With these thoughts, Daniel quickly recovered from his shock and swung the café’s door open to chase after his boyfriend.
“Daniel oppa!! Kang Daniel!!! Get the hell back here!!” Almost everyone in the café, including Minhyung, turned their heads to see a beautiful lady cursing and storming her feet as the man left the cafe.
“Jihoonie! Stop right there!”
“Just listen to me! Please!”
“Park Jihoon!!”
Daniel shouted what seemed like fruitless calls as he ran after the boy who was sprinting across the busy road with his head down.
Jihoon: (Don’t let him catch you. Don’t let him see your broken state.)
Jihoon ran as fast as he could with his little energy left.
(You have to preserve your last pitiful bit of self-esteem. You have to, Park Jihoon, you have to…)
The inner voices bombarded Jihoon’s mind and before he realised, a car was driving into his direction. He was engulfed by so much pain that all his senses were blocked. His eyes were blinded by the overflowing tears, his ears were deafened by the burst of outcry in his heart and he did not hear the car horns.
(Keep running, you can do it…)
But the moment Jihoon saw the incoming car from the corner of his eye, his stubborn body decided to stop running and stood still instead.
As if he was waiting for it to knock him down, to break his body into pieces like his heart just did.
“NOOOO!!”
Daniel saw the car colliding into Jihoon’s small body before his eyes. The sheer force propelled his boyfriend into a long distance away from where he originally stood rooted.
“Jihoonie??”
“No… Please…”
“No fucking way…”
Daniel’s mumbles turned into what sounded like helpless sobs as he dashed towards Jihoon, clutching his lifeless body and attempting to shake him back to consciousness.
The driver rushed out of his car and pulled out his phone to call for the ambulance. He glanced anxiously at the unconscious boy and the man. The man who looked like a frightened puppy stuck in a fully-grown body, crying as he held the boy in his arms.
“You don’t deserve this... I am wrong… “
“Jihoonie, I am wrong…”
“Please… please don’t leave me...”
Daniel tightened his grip as he frantically placed quivering light pecks on Jihoon’s cold ones.
“I love you…”
“I love you Jihoonie…”
“Only you… I swear…”
It was the truth that his boyfriend needed to hear but he could not hear it anymore.
I loved you but I guess it’s goodbye, Daniel hyung...