Work Text:
“have you seen my boyfriend? about this height, big puppy-like eyes, he looks like a poodle."
“no, sorry.”
“it’s okay. thank you.”
after the longest sigh known to mankind, wonjin walked out of the eleventh store he had walked in during the last hour. he leaned against the brick wall to rest for a minute, dropping all of his stuff on the ground surrounding his feet to rub his poor hands against each other to feel, at least, some relief. red, swollen stripes went down both his arms, making more and more every time he switched his numerous bags from one to the other.
it wouldn’t be that hard if hyeongjun was there to help him.
of course, he wouldn’t let his beloved do the hard work. he would give him the lightest bag, the one filled with toilet paper and sponges, perhaps even the one with cereal boxes and bottled milk. no, wonjin would never expose hyeongjun’s delicate hands to all that weight. or anything, for that matter. what if he broke a nail? what if he cut himself while chopping vegetables? god, what if he burnt himself? wonjin would never forgive himself if something happened to hyeongjun. his chest felt tight, too tight, and a drip of cold sweat went down his back.
maybe he spoiled him too much, but he had no regrets.
the thought of something happened to hyeongjun, to his precious angel, was driving him crazy. the worst possible scenarios went by. he felt guilty. “the row is too long,” he told him in the market that afternoon, noticing how bored he was, to the point he was checking the expiration dates on all yogurt cups, individually. “go wait for me outside. get yourself some ice cream,” he had said. yet, when he finally came out of the crowd, carrying more bags than a man his size could possibly hold, the younger boy was nowhere to be found. maybe he was in the restroom? he waited for ten minutes, but he was nowhere to be found. he had been asking in the nearby stores since then, hating himself for leaving his boyfriend alone in a town he wasn’t familiar with.
wonjin got up again after a minute or two, taking all of his bags with him before asking in a twelfth store. he thought about calling him, only to remember hyeongjun pouting for five whole minutes when he realized he had left his phone on his bed earlier that day. he pouted every two sentences, but that day he was genuinely bored. he had no way to reach him, at all.
the cold spring sun rays illuminated his bare face as he walked down the street, but the young man is too busy thinking about his loved one’s whereabouts. the sun reminded him of hyeongjun, in some ways. he filled his life with light and happiness, he made him feel warm even in the coolest evenings. as he went by, images of their last days showed up in his imagination as if they were clips of an old movie. he remembered inviting him to spend the last week of their spring break at his grandparents’ home in a small town, far away from the city noise his boyfriend hated him so much. the confusion in his face whenever they drove by a field and his gorgeous brown eyes tried to tell horses apart from cows. the joy he felt when he met his grandfather’s labrador.
hyeongjun was made of love, and that made wonjin love him even more.
what time was it? judging by what he had learned in his boy scouts meeting as a child, probably around six in the afternoon. their first kiss happened at half-past six.
after wandering around for what seemed like an hour but probably was no more than ten minutes, the idea of hyeongjun just going home appeared in his mind. of course! if he were bored of waiting, he would just look for something to do. and for hyeongjun, who was a shy teenager who would never talk to strangers, his only means of recreation were at wonjin’s family’s house. he would dance, listen to music, maybe he would pick up the watercolor pans he carried everywhere but never used for other than swatching and he would actually paint something for once. but, whatever he did, he would do it at home.
thus, taking forces from god knows where to carry all those heavy bags, wonjin started his way back home.
as he marched, wonjin paid attention to his surroundings. he tried to play a game: what would hyeongjun notice? first, he would stop by the bakery down the street, memorizing its name to tell him all about it, convincing him to buy whatever sweet treats they had the next time they made their way downtown. he would notice that one baguette in the basket by the front door, the one that was shorter than the other four, and call it “baby baguette”.
hyeongjun would, for sure, notice the dog paws imprinted on the concrete nearby the chapel. the heart with two names belonging to a couple that probably didn’t last for more than a few months, not so much.
oh, he would not be able to ignore the little tree growing by the end of the pavemented road. his beloved always repaired on the smallest things.
the road home was long, but wonjin was used to it. hyeongjun, however, would have complained for the whole thirty minutes it took them to arrive. that he was tired, that he didn’t like dirt roads, that he hated himself for choosing the worst possible kind of shoes to take such a walk. wonjin wasn’t a fool, he recognized the typical triangle-shaped imprints of the converse brand on the soil, and he also considered the several stops on the way. silly hyeongjun, oh, silly hyeongjun. his heart jumped whenever he thought of that name.
as he got closer and closer, wonjin’s attention focused on his neighbors’ houses. hyeongjun would’ve loved the house with the lemon tree and the cats sitting by the window; but the one on the front of it, with the big weathercock and the dark stone walls, would’ve scared him and he would leave fast. but, oh, the pretty house with all these flowers that smelled like pumpkin pie would, most definitely, be his favorite.
and there he was.
although his main preoccupation was the fact that hyeongjun had just decided to hang out in a garden that didn’t belong to him, wonjin couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful his boyfriend looked, curling up between the grass blades as if he were a baby deer waiting for its mother to arrive. he had taken off his canvas sneakers, and his short overalls showed grass stains on both his knees and his white socks. the sun rays leaked in between the wrenches of a bush, little circles of light sparkling all over his torso. the boy’s dark brown hair was everywhere, and wonjin could swear to see at least one dandelion tangled in between. his naturality and his clumsiness made him as beautiful as a boy can be.
“having fun, baby?” he asked, not bothering to drop all of his bags when he squatted next to hyeongjun. they needed to leave fast, anyway. now that he was closer, he could note a faint pinkish tint on his cheeks due to the long time spent under the sun, how heavy his eyelids were, and the ladybug crawling over his ring finger. “i was worried. please don’t ever disappear again, okay?”
hyeongjun didn’t give him a verbal response, but he nodded. fair enough.
“what are you doing, anyway? why didn’t you go home? you know it isn’t far away.”
“they’re cute,” hyeongjun said as he pointed at the daisies, barely even lifting his hand from its place. he pouted once again when the ladybug, bothered by his moves, left. “wanted to pick some for you… i forgot. it’s warm here.”
“that’s nice, we’ll get you some daisies tomorrow. now get up. let’s go home, okay?” wonjin proposed, his knuckles brushing hyeongjun’s reddish cheek. he always got surprised at the softness of his skin.
“don’t wanna. carry me?” hyeongjun slurred his words, not really focusing on anything. he was probably too sleepy to have a concrete thought in mind.
“come here, little fawn,” wonjin sighed as he, inevitably, rearranged his bags once again to pick hyeongjun from the ground. he let the younger boy wrap his legs around his slender waist and his arms around his shoulders, sliding one of his own arms underneath his thighs to secure him in place. carrying all these bags and an average-sized seventeen-year-old boy was hard, but hyeongjun always felt light in his arms. his embrace gave him an unknown strength.
during the first minute or two, he heard hyeongjun tell him a story about the ladybugs he was seeing before he arrived. his words lost coherence as he kept dozing off, and, by the time wonjin walked into his house, the younger one was asleep. he hoped he was having the best dreams ever.
wonjin feels like he shed a few pounds that day.