Chapter Text
I guess you could say he had known it for a while now. The smiles didn’t quite reach his eyes the same way it used to. The late-night waiting seemed to lengthen every day, from 10 minutes to hours and hours. Watching the heat from his home-cooked meal slowly dissipate wasn’t fun anymore. It was draining. And what was Haechan meant to do but to accept it? Accept the fact that his husband, his soulmate, was slowly falling from his hands only to fall in love with another. He hates the guilty look he gets when Mark tells him he's not coming home early tonight. Because he knows his office hours don’t last that long, and there is no ethical amount of work the company can give to make him work till 2 am.
It hits him the most when he’s washing the clothes and there a mocking red smear staring back at him on one of Mark’s unfamiliar office shirts. Could you at least be a little less obvious Mark? There’s a tiny crack in Haechan’s heart but he refuses to let it get the best of him. He scrubs and scrubs trying to forget about it that by the time he looks down the threads are undone and there’s a big gaping hole in cloth within his hands that compare nothing to the one in his heart. When Mark finds it later he frowns deeply and asks Haechan to be more careful with his shirts.
“There’s plenty in your closet,” Haechan says, handing him one he had bought for his birthday.
“No, It’s not the same… that was my favourite one”, Mark murmurs. If only Mark had looked to see the expression on his husband’s face. Maybe he would’ve realised the deafening shatter of his husband’s heart.
“Anyway, I-” Mark begins.
“won’t be coming home early so don’t bother cooking dinner” Donghyuck cuts in with his trembling voice. It only then does Mark look into his eyes. He’s on the verge of crying.
“Hyuck..look you know work has been hard lately”, Mark starts, as he walking towards Donghyuck and pulling him into his arms.
“You’re always busy”, Donghyuck sighs.
“I know, I know, but I promise tomorrow. This Friday. It’ll just be you and I”, Mark convinces.
“Really?” Donghyuck says, looking into the brown eyes of his lover and falling completely head over heels in love once again.
“Really.” Mark confirms, he glances down and at wristwatch before saying “I gotta go, love you!” and in a blink of an eye, he’s rushing out the door for work not without saving a chaste kiss for Donghyuck.
“I love you too”, Donghyuck says teary-eyed. Mark made it so easy for him to fall in love. To forget about his mistakes. To be pulled along by the red string that connected them both.
But when he smells the awful sweet perfume coming from his blazer and glimpses the light marks on his neck, he decides it’s time to let go.
So that very next day, Haechan goes to buy the very same shirt. He spends the whole day cooking all of Mark’s favourite meals, packing them into boxes and placing them neatly into the fridge. He stuffs his belonging from their room that has now become solely his, considering Mark hasn’t slept there in weeks. Once he’s erased his existence from their house, He spends the rest of his evening in a position he’s grown familiar to. Sitting in the living room glancing down the hallway to the door and the clock. When the clock strikes twelve, he calls Mark. One last chance he tells himself.
Ring... Ring... Ring...Where did they go so wrong?
When the telltale automated message begins, he hangs up and slides to power off. God, he’s so tired. His hands were bruised and cut with his day in the kitchen. His back aching from standing for so long. Bruises from packing their pictures and stubbing his toe as he was blinded from his tears. Willing himself to stand up, he glances at the packaged shirt beside him and grabs the suitcases next to him. His gentle footsteps echo through the doorway and he heads towards the door. He grips the cold handle and pushes it open, letting in the frigid winter night air into the warmth of their house. It probably didn’t make much of a difference. Their love had burnt out a while ago.