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Today, June 17th 2025, marks Jongseong’s most stress inducing day so far regarding his new restaurant. Scratch that, he knows it’s not about his restaurant and rather something else. Someone else. But it’s not as if he’s ready to admit it. Here he lies in the storage room of his kitchen, everyone is mostly gone at this point. At least he hopes.
“Jesus Christ..” Jongseong mutters with his head in hands, trying to really evaluate what he’s gotten himself into these past few months.
He ran into him, Heeseung, a few months ago. By complete accident. He was running to the grocery story to pick up a few ingredients for Sunghoon and his testing menu, for their restaurant. It should’ve been Jongseongs complete focus really.
Heeseung and him talked. They got closer and closer, reminiscing on old memories as it was the main fuel on their relationship. Well not completely but in a way that kept Jongseong engaged, whether he knew it would’ve backfired on him sooner or later. And as months passed as quick as they came, they’ve become official, Heeseung and Jongseong. You’d think that Jongseong would’ve been over the moon really, someone he’s liked during his childhood years, someone who’s seen him at day one, someone that knows him. But it all felt so suffocating. It was as if he was drowning trying to swim his way to the top for a breath of fresh air but was continually failing.
And there he felt it, the whole weight of why he was feeling this crashing down right in the storage room. It’s as if now that he acknowledged that getting together with a childhood friend had its faults. His own reminders of his family dysfunctionality. Fuck.
And as he finally gave into thoughts he put in the back of his head, the real reason why he felt the uneasiness in his gut while going on his dates with his hyung, the more panic started to bubble up in his chest, the heavier breathes he started to take, the suffocation he started to feel in the once large storage room that felt it was starting to close in on him.
Then it came, the thoughts of failure with his restaurant, the idea that he, Park Jongseong, possibly shut down a his uncle’s restaurant so dear to him for his own desires, the responsibility that came with owning a restaurant, the underlying guilt if he genuinely did have feelings for Heeseung.
Then another thought. Park Sunghoon.
Thoughts replaying in his head of Sunghoon’s soft smile when first introducing himself.
“Ah..Hi. Hello. Park Jongseong? I’m Park Sunghoon. I’ve called about sous chef position?” He greeted with the unsure smile, looking at Jongseong as he knew it was truly him but questioning why he was in a run down shit hole of all places.
Jongseong feels himself start to unwind, taking in a deep breath, slowly trying to steady himself.
“Oh um..shit. Sorry. Yes, yes. I’m Jongseong.” He stutters while putting out a shaky hand for Sunghoon to shake.
Sunghoon just looked at him for a moment. He was staring at him, then his shaking hand that was reached out for him, like he was trying to read Jongseong’s thoughts.
“Ah..I know, I just asked who you were.” Sunghoon said with an easier smile compared to earlier.
Jongseong felt his mind more in order, feeling his thoughts get more together by the second. Expect he only has a new problem.
What the fuck was he doing thinking about Sunghoon.
“No..no fucking way.” Jongseong says out loud his with head still in his hands, afraid it’s too loud at the same time. As if someone is going to hear him, take one look at him, and know what’s up. Like he isn’t in a storage room right now past closing.
“Okay.” He says taking another deep breathe and finally making a sliding motion of his hands through his face as he puts his hands on the edge of the stool as a way to stabilize his body and most importantly, his thoughts. Right when he’s going to try and get his thoughts in order and say something out loud again like that’ll get his brain thinking, he’s interrupted by his breath of fresh air.
“Jjongsaeng, staring at those cleaning products won’t help us decide what we should be adding to our menu. I get that what we have right now seems like enough but we both know it isn’t.” Sunghoon sighed, looking quietly concerned but didn’t say anything. If Jongseong wanted to tell him something, he would.
“Hoon..” Jay muttered. Looking at him with a little bit of disbelief. “What are you still doing here? it’s way past closing and..” as he was about to keep going, the look on Sunghoon’s face screamed like we was going to ask him the exact same thing.
“Don’t give me that. You of all people know not to give me that lecture, it never works when we both do it, alright?” Sunghoon sighed. “I know it’s late and I don’t want to be lectured by anyone in a storage closet but I stayed back because I had ideas. I even drew them out.” He said holding up his notebook for Jongseong to see.
“It doesn’t have to be long, just come outside with me and we could look and talk about it. Okay?” Sunghoon smiled while already walking to the kitchen.
“Fuck..Hoon?” Jongseong called out, wincing at the desperation seeping into his voice.
He heard Sunghoon’s footsteps stop. He also could feel like he could hear Sunghoon’s internal dialogue, probably trying to dissect Jongseong’s thoughts just from those two words with his tone. Hell he probably could.
“Mhm?” Sunghoon called out. Unsure if he should be going back to check on Jongseong.
“Can you please just..” A pause, unsure if Jongseong was ready to be at least a vulnerable with Sunghoon. Sure, he’s seen an emotional side of him, which just consisted of him yelling and throwing a sharpie but again that was just a side, not this unconfident, uneasy Jongseong. But that was until Sunghoon responded with a,
“Jjongsaeng..what can i do, hmm?”
and there he was, Sunghoon standing infront of the storage room, looking at him with such attentive eyes along with his tone, his responsiveness. Jongseong felt himself almost unable to physically stop himself from reaching out to him for a hug. Feeling as if physical contact with Sunghoon would solve all of his problems and have his anxiety wash away in a second.
“Let’s..not stay back completely. Walk with me to the train station. We could walk and talk..you know?” Jongseong suggested, already worrying that Sunghoon stayed back quite late already.
Sunghoon looked at him again, with those eyes like he was trying to study him, like the first time he met him.
“Okay..I’ll go get my stuff, you better pack up too okay?” Sunghoon said with such..fondness? seeping into his voice.
“Okay.” Jongseong said, mustering up the best smile he could give him at the moment.