Chapter Text
Kang Hyunggu is living a life half of this world’s population wishes it had. He has everything he could possibly wish for, except freedom. With his wings tucked neatly in his shoulder blades, he feels suffocated in his fitted suit. Today is another one of those exhausting days where he’ll be left drained by the end, only saved by the softness of his king-sized bed.
“Come one, we have just three more meetings left,” his PA hands him a giant of coffee, setting a pile of files on his table for him to sign in between.
‘Yeah, so little,’ he murmurs, eyeing the files and taking a huge gulp of his coffee. Its bitter, just the way he likes it. Soon it’ll send his system into overdrive, and he’ll manage to power-work through his day, and have a tiny seizure when he retires to bed. Only then will sleep come to him, and then it’ll be morning again. Rinse and repeat. That is his punishment, and he has no choice but to accept it.
‘This project is nearly completed,’ Changgu informs, ‘then we can take easier ones for this time. You and everyone else have worked too hard this time.’
‘Thank you,’ he gives a tired smile, and gets to reading and signing the files.
‘Oh, and I’ve found a new housekeeper for you. He’s agreed to live in the mansion. Cooking too, the whole deal,” he informs in broken sentences, main focus on furiously typing something on his computer.
How come he’s doing the almost the same amount of work as Hyunggu daily and doesn’t want to drop everything and run away to a far-off island like he does?
Hyunggu narrows his eyes. ‘Workaholic,’ he tosses at Changgu and he snorts in reply.
‘Someone has to do the work here, you know. I need the company to function to keep my job.’
‘You say that like I’m bad at my job,’ he frowns, peeking at him through the mountain of documents.
‘I mean,’ he turns around in rotatable chair to explain. ‘You’re not terrible at it, but you and I both know you’d be fired a long time ago if it wasn’t for nepotism.’
The sentence hangs in the air for a while, and then Hyunggu hurls his pen at him.
‘I’m gonna fire you, asshole. I’m still the boss here.’
Changgu catches then pen in mid air with perfect grace, and gets up to put it back on his table. ‘You can’t do that. I love you’, accompanied with a very elaborate kissy face.
Hyunggu snorts, pushing him away. The bickering continues until it’s time for their next meeting, and the day is over before he knows it. The sky is twinkling from the bridge he’s passing on his way home. He opens the window and takes a deep breathe. Cold, clean wind fills his lungs, fondling with the hair on his temples. But that’s as close to the sky as he can get. Barely above the surface, still such a long way to go. Heaving a deep sigh, he closes the window.
The rest of the ride is a blur. He drives from muscle memory, and he would’ve showered and gone to bed from muscle memory too if wasn’t for this.
There he is. In all his doom. Just like Hyunggu remembers.
“Hello, Mr. Kang,” he says in his pillow-soft voice and it is him. This is an extremely cruel punishment.