the one that got away | seongjoong (✓)

• VIII •

seonghwa groaned when he woke up, realizing for the nth day in a row that he had missed his chance at reconnecting with hongjoong. yeosang seemed to rub it in his face daily by talking about jongho, as the two had been in contact a lot lately and had even been making plans to hang out on yeosang's next day off.

"thinking about hongjoong again, hwa?" yeosang asked as he stood in the doorway.

"shut up!" seonghwa muttered, throwing a pillow at the boy.

"i'm going to work. am i meeting you at the cafe tonight?"

"sure. i might end up leaving early though, not sure yet. minhee can handle closing with the other two but if it ends up being busy today i'll hang back and help out," seonghwa shrugged.

"he's a good employee, hm?"

"he was also my first. i've never seen a kid his age so excited to work for a brand new business that has literally no foundation to it."

"maybe he wants to own a business someday too."

seonghwa shrugged again, nodding.

"maybe."

"i gotta go, see you later?"

"yeah... see you later."

yeosang left quickly for work, leaving seonghwa lost in his own thoughts. he quickly realized what time it was and rushed out of bed, getting ready for the day and heading over to the cafe.

he ran inside, surprised when the door was unlocked, then looked around, confused.

"good morning, hyung," hyeongjun said softly, waving as he got up from stocking the fridge.

"good morning... h-how'd you get in?"

"yeosang hyung said you might be late and used his key to let me in so i could start stocking for the day."

"i always forget he has a key," seonghwa chuckled.

hyeongjun laughed too, nodding a bit as he continued his work. seonghwa sighed in relief, making his way to his office to drop off his things before he got to work. almost as soon as they officially opened, san entered the building, appearing stressed and frantic.

"hyung..."

"san? what are you doing here?"

"i-i woke up really early... i realized how much of an idiot i am for not telling wooyoung i'm home..."

"so invite him here."

"why would he accept my invite? i-i ran away..."

"how? didn't you go to america to be with ella?"

san nodded, a frown glued to his face.

"i thought you were staying with hongjoong... couldn't he help you with this?"

"i left... i felt bad for taking up his space."

"san..."

"i've been okay, hwa. i'm staying in a hotel right now and i'm probably going to go back to namhae in a few days."

"what about woo?"

"that's why i came here... h-have you seen him recently?"

"no, not really... it's been a couple months. he's been working at his mom's daycare though, so he hasn't really had the time to come visit."

"c-can you come with me? i-i want to see him..."

seonghwa sighed, then nodded.

"i need to wait until my other employees are here though. if you'd like, you can wait for me in my office. i'll bring you an iced americano and something to eat."