Work Text:
sohee has never done anything bad in his life.
he never cheated on a test, never talked back to his parents, never drove over the speed limit, and never lied to his boyfriend.
he supposed that’s why he was on his way to tell him they needed to take a break. he couldn’t lie to the person who loved him the most. he couldn’t lie to the person he loved the most.
he could never lie to seunghan.
sohee clutched his leather jacket around his arms tightly, feeling insecure. the pit in his stomach grew with each step.
each step forward took him closer to the hardest conversation of his life, but he couldn’t slow down.
he could feel the presence several steps away. it matched his pace alarmingly well. it hid in the shadows when sohee dared a glance over his shoulder. it whispered strange words in the wind.
sohee pleaded with his own mind to ignore it. nothing was there. who would want anything to do with him?
he picked up his boyfriend from classes, played games with his roommate, cooked for the three of them, took the trash out, and never missed a phone call from his mom.
sohee had never done anything bad in his life, so why was someone following him?
“my boyfriend will come looking for me,” sohee stopped suddenly at a street corner, backing up against the wall to feel a sense of protection.
the stalker didn’t need to know he was on his way to break up with said boyfriend. it was only to keep him safe. once sohee figured out who this mysterious person was, he'd be able to be honest with seunghan again.
the footsteps stalled and sohee looked back. the sidewalk behind him was empty, save for a small red puddle. the color drained from sohee’s face when he realized it was a puddle of blood. not a melted slushie or cherry-flavored popsicle. but blood. he ran as fast as he could to the cafe where he was meeting seunghan.
“hi, love bug,” seunghan smiled, but his smile quickly turned into concern as he saw sohee’s distraught expression, “are you okay?”
sohee hated the sincerity in seunghan’s face. the way he insisted on calling sohee the sweetest nicknames, even in bed when sohee insisted he be referred to as handsome. seunghan would boop his nose and say he could be both sexy and cute.
sohee hated how madly in love he was with seunghan, yet he was breaking up with him and he couldn’t even begin to explain why.
“no,” sohee said shakily, standing frozen in front of the table seunghan was sitting at.
“c’mere,” seunghan grabbed sohee’s hands and pulled him to sit down in the seat across from him, “tell me what’s wrong.”
seunghan held sohee’s hands carefully in his own as if the younger was a doll. he pressed kisses to sohee’s knuckles, trying to ground him. he wasn’t worried about the looks from the girls in the cafe who had been checking him out and were now disappointed to see he was taken.
“i need us to take a break,” sohee announced.
in any other instance, seunghan would have thought sohee meant from their jobs, but the look on his face and the shy way that his hands retreated away from seunghan’s and into his pockets told him that wasn’t the case.
“sohee, what’s going on?” seunghan was already starting to tear up, “you’re behaving erratically lately. it’s scaring me and anton.”
“it’s nothing,” sohee wasn’t exactly lying, “i just- can’t do this right now.”
“love-“ seunghan cut himself off, “what is this about? please.”
sohee wanted to cry. he balled his hands into fists in his pockets. he needed seunghan to be safe.
“i’m really sorry, hanie,” sohee’s voice trembled, “i didn’t want to tell you but i couldn’t lie… i need space to see if i like eunseok-hyung.”
it was mostly a lie. eunseok is hot and has had his eyes on sohee for a while, that’s what makes this whole thing so believable to seunghan. sohee feels wretched. he doesn’t deserve him. seunghan is too good to be true and sohee’s throwing it all away.
“i’m really sorry you feel that i’m inadequate,” seunghan stood up from the table, leaving behind his half-drank coffee and sohee’s favorite dessert he’d bought for them to share.
he didn’t want to cry in front of sohee. he made his way home quickly, sobbing into anton’s shoulder when he made it through the door.
that night would haunt seunghan forever. if he could have just begged sohee to stay…