NIGHT SONGS TO APHRODITE

13

How does one solve a problem? Easy. Bring another problem to the surface, and there you go. A shitty solution to a shitty challenge. 

That's how it's worked for Jeongguk. Still does. Whenever he finds himself in the middle of a dilemma, the first thing that comes into his mind is to find something else to worry about. His hyungs told him that this was an unhealthy and worrying, but this is the way how he copes with things. Pile them into one hell of a mess. Wait until it comes back to bite his ass. 

It works. Most of the time. 

So when Jeongguk barges into Hwayoung's apartment at fuck o'clock in the AM, he doesn't wait for anything else and proceeds to kiss the living daylights out of her. No questions asked. 

Hwayoung, as per usual, takes it like a champ. 

The door remains open but he doesn't give a single fuck. Not right now when his emotional state is disastrous heap, pickled with bits and pieces of a familiar black-haired girl. He continues peppering kisses to Hwayoung's jaw nonetheless. Sucks the spot behind her ear a little too harshly. Squeezes her waist so tight that she gasps. 

"Gguk," a breathless moan. Hwayoung starts to grip his forearms. 

He doesn't stop his ministrations. 

Black hair. Round eyes. Plump lips. Fuck. One of his hands come up to Hwayoung's neck. Neck... the soft lines of her neck, her collarbone, her shoulders. The body suit. He closes his hand around it, slowly. Testing. 

Hwayoung sighs in content.

He squeezes a bit more. 

But then. 

Star eyes. Warm lips. The feeling after he missed his cheek... 

Fuck. Jeongguk is so fucked. 

He pulls away, lips red and raw and bitten. He leans his forehead to her shoulder, breaths hard and long. "I can't--" he whispers, "Hwayoung, I can't... I can't do this." 

Jeongguk hears her let out a small noise. He can't look at her right now. Not when all he sees is Lisa's eyes. "What do you mean? What--" 

"I can't... I can't have..." he releases her and steps back. He just can't. "I can't do this. I can't have... have this." 

It takes a little while for Hwayoung to follow, but she does and he hopes she understands. "Oh," she murmurs. Evident confusion bleeds into that small sound. "But you... you were the one who contacted me? Then what...?" 

From the corner of his eye, he sees her fixing the rumpled silk robe that's hanging from her shoulders. "I just. I don't know. I can't." 

Silence blankets the entire apartment. Jeongguk could hear the faint hum of the fridge, the small sounds emitted by the AC, but none of them say anything. He knows Hwayoung is thinking, feels her scrutizining him from his feet to his head. 

"Okay," is all that comes out from her mouth. "Okay, something is wrong here. Something is wrong with you," she emphasises, he swallows, "and whatever it is we need to talk about it. Now." 

"Hwayoungie--" 

The woman pulls him until his ass lands on the soft cushion of her couch, and Jeongguk has no choice but to sit back and gather his thoughts as she observes him like a hawk. 

"Spill," she says, as if it's that easy to pinpoint each of his thoughts and collect them until he forms them comprehensible sentences. Yet Hwayoung looks at him, waiting. Not rushing. Just there, so Jeongguk takes his sweet time and thinks about it--really thinks about it.