The Hideout I Need

Chapter 18: How did I even manage to be so lucky to meet someone like you?

Tae-young came walking down the street, a bouquet in his hand. It was almost completely dark outside, only the street lights illuminating the road. The streets were surprisingly empty, maybe it was because it was a weekday. He was actually surprised it would be so dark at this time, seeing as it was the middle of summer; but on this late-July day, the sun was nearly gone at 11:30 PM. Why in the world was he out at this time? Well, Hyeong-jun asked him if he wanted to come by the convenience store.

When the six boys came home from the summer trip, they all went on to live pretty calm summers. Hyeong-jun started working full-time for the summer so he would be able to earn some more money for him and Hyeon-ah, and so did she. The Song household was barely at home, the siblings only met and greeted each other when they got home from work late. Tae-young took studying quite seriously again, doing the homework assigned over the summer break, unlike Hyeong-jun who planned to do everything the day before. Se-kwon and Se-rim pretty much did the same as Tae-young. Won-jin and Jung-mo pretty much did the opposite. Let's just say the internet cafe must've been earning quite a lot on those two kids alone.

The summer trip was also quite important in the sense that they didn't see each other that much during the summer break as a group. Or individually, for that matter. Hyeong-jun and Tae-young had actually only met up in person the day they got boba. There just wasn't a lot of time to hang out when you're working all day, Hyeong-jun would often think.

Tae-young started calling him at night, often just asking about his day. The voice calls quickly turned to FaceTime calls, Hyeong-jun always feeling a little nervous about how he was looking as soon as he saw Tae-young's name on the caller-ID. But the fear would always go away as soon as he picked up the phone. It was nice just seeing Tae-young's face again. They would talk for hours sometimes, once they even fell asleep during a FaceTime call. The call ended when Tae-young's phone died at around 5 AM, Hyeong-jun waking up momentarily as he heard the beep of a disconnected phone call. Then he'd sleep again since he still had a while before needing to go to work. As he fell back asleep, a smile crept upon his face as he realized they fell asleep on the call.

But all this FaceTiming maybe just caused them to miss each other more. So today, when Hyeong-jun wondered if Tae-young wanted to come by before they closed to keep him a little company and maybe eat some nighttime snacks, Tae-young of course said yes.

Tae-young let out a little smile as he saw the store's light-up sign in the distance. He jogged towards the store, careful as to not rustle the flowers too hard, and quickly arrived in front of the store. His brows furrowed as he saw the closed sign hanging on the door. The store still had its lights on, so why was the door locked?

He quickly spotted Hyeong-jun through the window, his face falling to a soft smile as he noticed him sitting with his phone by the counter. It had been maybe 2 weeks since he last saw him. It felt like longer, he had to admit. It was nice seeing him again. He softly knocked on the glass, trying to get Hyeong-jun's attention.

Hyeong-jun quickly looked up from his phone and noticed Tae-young. Just at the sight of him, Hyeong-jun's face lit up and he ran over to the door to unlock it. Tae-young walked in, still a little confused as to why the store was closed. As Hyeong-jun started locking the door once again, Tae-young walked over to one of the tables and put down his jacket and the bouquet.

"Why's it so empty around here?" Tae-young chuckled, walking back over to Hyeong-jun, "I thought you only close at midnight."

"Mm-mm," Hyeong-jun shook his head with a little smile on his face, "We closed early today. I asked my manager, and she said that it was okay for us to have the store for ourselves as long as I just lock up properly when we leave."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Tae-young let out a flustered smile.

"But I wanted to!" Hyeong-jun smiled widely, moving around lively, "I actually have a surprise for you."