#상자 안의 남자|Man In The Box. | Gayeon

MITB. | 10

THIS  CHAPTER CONTAINS MATURE & TRIGGERING THEMES LIKE:
sexual themes. depictions of ptsd, manic depression & depression, domestic violence, extreme violence, murder.
mentions of mental disorders, medicinal drugs, paraphernalia, domestic violence, mental & verbal abuse, mpreg/miscarriage.

The next morning, everything went back to normal, at least that's how it needed to seem. Jooyeon woke up in Yeonjun's arms as per usual.

He looked over at the boy laying beside him, seeing his eyes still closed tightly.

Jooyeon carefully reached over to grab his phone off the nightstand, opening the settings to turn off his iCloud backup. He and Jiseok would have to exchange messages later which had to be deleted of course, but he couldn't risk any trace of it.
He changed Jiseok's contact to a more feminine name before turning his phone off and sliding under the pillow.

A few minutes passed as he laid there in silence. There was nothing exactly wrong with it but he felt so uncomfortable.

Yeonjun finally woke up with a groggy groan, sitting up to stretch his body.

"Morning.." He muttered sleepily to the boy who was laying wide awake beside him. He was none surprised. Since they lost Cyrus, Jooyeon had numerous sleepless nights. His mind still hadn't completely processed it so he had many dreams of what he thought his life would be like after they had Cyrus and the dream always ended with him losing the stroller in a crowded mall and waking up in a cold sweat.

Most times, Yeonjun would be awake and he'd frantically bombard his fiancé with questions of their son's whereabouts before reality set in and he realized what was going on.

It was scary at first but Jooyeon had bigger things to worry about today, his fever dreams were the least of his problems.
The couple started their day like normal, getting dressed and having coffee together.. a routine they were able to fall back into now that Jooyeon was no longer pregnant.

"I.. Um.. I have to take the baby stuff to the shelter and then I'm going to meet a friend," Jooyeon explained as he set his empty mug back down against the table, avoiding looking at Yeonjun sitting across.

Yeonjun just sighed as he set his mug down as well. "Today? I have off, you're gonna ditch me?" He complained like a child. "Who are you even going to see?" The older scoffed as he lifted his coffee back up to take a sip.

"Maria" Jooyeon simply answered, Yeonjun quirking a brow in pure curiosity. He'd never heard of said friend before. "I went to high school with her," Jooyeon explained, pursing his lips as he could just tell that Yeonjun was jealous by the look on his face.

Yeonjun's expression suddenly dropped when he heard this friend was a girl. "Alright.." He hummed as he finished his coffee.

They managed to find something in the kitchen to have for breakfast and after that, Jooyeon took the bags of the baby stuff to the shelter not too far away from their apartment.

"Yeonjun and I made dinner plans, I told him I'd be busy all day," He texted Jiseok, erasing the conversation afterwards.

He took a deep breath, watching the conversation disappear from his message history before calling Maria.

"Hey, you got plans today?" Jooyeon questioned nervously into the phone. Nothing nerve wracking would even be happening until later that evening but the anticipation that sat in his chest was just so thick as he waited to pass the time until then.
The small 'no,' he received on the other end of the call made him feel slightly better. Somewhat at ease.

Jooyeon and Maria met up behind her workplace like the last time, sitting down against the concrete steps behind the building.

A small joint burned slowly between Jooyeon's lips, the only things holding it up as he had his arms tucked tightly away across his chest. He was very obviously anxious since he arrived, barely even making eye contact with his friend even once.