Payback AU: What If

Act 2.10 - A Spring Lingering

[Don't contact me for a while]

Jay stared dumbfoundedly at his phone screen. What is this? He felt this since a while ago, but Yoohan had been treating him coldly lately. To be exact, it was since that birthday night.

When people thought about spring, they tend to associate it with blossoming love and a couple busy being horny around each other, as if the scattering pollens were laced with an aphrodisiac. In truth, spring is one of the busiest times, with school going full force on OT, clubs, and mid-term exam preparation. The industry was packed with concern about summer blockbusters, from the entertainment company that handled talents, to the production company churning out summer projects, and the commercial company handling sponsorship movement...spring was hell.

Forget about dating and blossoming flowers. People were gunned on their social obligation and lethargy that came from exhaustion. Lovers who had time frolicking beneath cherry blossoms were either romanticists or had way too much free time. Unfortunately, neither Yoon Jay nor Yoohan were both.

But was it really enough to warrant such a cold message? Jay had been bored his eyes into his phone as if doing so could somehow change the nuance of that single sentence.

After that day, Jay had refrained from teasing Yoohan the next day, just to be careful. He had waited until Yoohan contacted him first, like how people waited for a cat to come at them first before petting and caressing. It took three days of practiced patience before Jay relented to his own greed and called Yoohan.

Turned out the younger man was in the middle of an OT.

Jay had slammed the desk so hard that day, manager Park spent the rest of the day shivering like a scared mouse. He started to regret not extending that working contract for Yoohan. At least, with that, there was a guarantee they could meet every day, so long as Jay spared some time from work. But Yoohan refused that, saying that it would make him uncomfortable. Also, now that he got into college, that old professor took the young man under his wings and put Yoohan directly into his research team. Jay was peeved, but Yoohan was right. At this point of their relationship, a connection built atop a working contract filled with ulterior motives would just be detrimental. He understood that, which was why he didn't force Yoohan for it.

But that didn't mean Jay would be absolutely carefree about the matter. He couldn't, especially when he heard all those voices coming from the call; students getting wild on drinks, pushing couples to bloom, flirting among peers...thinking about Yoohan in the middle of all that activities made him boil with rage—with jealousy and anxiety. He had called Yoohan again after the event, and they had argued when Yoohan got upset with Jay's interrogation.

Their exchange through texts and calls after that was rather curt and short, but Jay just thought Yoohan was sulking. However, as if it was pouring when it was raining, they also didn't have much time to meet. The influx of investment proposals rooted Jay to his desk, rendering him unable to come into Yoohan. And between Yoohan's unwillingness to move first, and the young man's tendency to cut all conversation short for the last week, Jay was seething inside. Their meeting was down to a short dinner on the weekend, which Yoohan spend avoiding Jay's gaze for the most part.

And then, as April slid by, Yoohan started to stop accepting his calls. The younger man also took quite some time before replying to Jay's texts. The anxiety piled up inside his mind, gnawing at his heart, and Jay started to feel a shadow from his past chasing him. An image of a dark room and dark thoughts. Of white space and strait jacket...

And then the text came, that put his mind into a frozen icicle.

Jay's immediate response, of course, was to call Yoohan, repeatedly. He called again and again for hours until finally, the call went through, and Yoohan's low, stern voice came from the other side.