LULLABY - TAEGYU ✔️

forty-five: BLACKOUT

"Really?? You won't listen to him?" Yeonjun asks as he crosses his arms over his chest, sitting across his best friend at his office.

Beomgyu shrugs his shoulders as one hand plays with his shoulder length mullet while the other holds the cigarette between his finger.

He blows out the puff of smoke, intentionally hitting Yeonjun's face, earning an eye roll from him.
Yes, Beomgyu smokes. He started three years ago or so, when Haneul and Byeol had merged into one company.

He isn't a heavy smoker. He'd smoke when he's too stressed. He didn't have a particular reason, but whenever he didn't feel like having sex, he'd take a cigar instead.

"Why me? It's not like he wanted to speak or talk about it too." Beomgyu snaps back.
"Or maybe you just didn't want to listen." Yeonjun says, pulling out the cigarette from Beomgyu's lips and putting it off before tossing it into the trash can.

"And then what? You decide to harass him? You expect him to talk to you after you harassed him??" Yeonjun asks.
"And?" Beomgyu glares back.

"You scared the shit out of him." Yeonjun looks at his friend in disbelief.
"It's not like it's his first time being harassed by me anyway. Heck, we had sex five years ago, hyung-"
"I don't need to know the details."

"Well whatever. Look at him now, he's saying that he'll win my heart. I admit that he's been pulling on my heart strings but it just feels like the other way round-"

"So you still have feelings for him?" Yeonjun asks, cutting his friend off.
Beomgyu bites his lower lip. There's no point in denying anyway, he's always had a soft spot for Taehyun and ever since Taehyun worked under him, even if he despised him to the core, old feelings for him resurfaced.

That's why Beomgyu initially wanted him gone. He didn't want to experience the same pain again.
"Even if I'm chasing him, Heeseung had always been chasing Taehyun. Some day or any day now, he'd leave me for good and go to Heeseung." Beomgyu says.

"And why do you think so?"

"I admit, he treats Taehyun way better than how I treat him. They'd make a disgusting pair though."
"That's your jealousy speaking."
"It isn't. I'm just spitting facts."

"So? If you know you still have feelings for him, then why do you still treat him like trash?"
Because he's scared.

Beomgyu sighs, running his fingers through his hair in frustration and when Yeonjun notices, he gulps, knowing he hit a nerve.

And that's because Beomgyu never really opened up to him about Taehyun despite being five years. He had always been discrete and even if Yeonjun brought up the name, Beomgyu would shrug it off.

Just by that Yeonjun could tell the amount of damage Taehyun had done to him and he was mad. Mad that someone could change Beomgyu into his worst form yet, he can't blame Taehyun.

He's sure Taehyun had a reason, he would never believe a second Taehyun would play with Beomgyu's feelings.

"Because it hurts-" Beomgyu speaks, his voice coming off shaky, eyes wavering.
"Because I'm scared to know the truth. Why he left." Beomgyu continues.

Yeonjun's eyes soften as he watches his friend hold in tears, pretending to be strong but even his strong facade couldn't fool him. He knows Beomgyu too well.

Under all those layers of arrogance, anger and his fuck boy image, Beomgyu has always been a softie.
And only one person could bring out that side of him.

Yeonjun left after leaving the conversation hanging. While Yeonjun felt frustrated he couldn't get anything out of his friend, Beomgyu on the other hand felt relief that he wouldn't be interrogated more despite his heart heavy.

Speaking of heavy, it's currently raining heavily outside too.

Beomgyu turns his chair around to look at his huge window, admiring the droplets of rain hitting his window although the skies had turned darker as usual.

Beomgyu loves the rain. It's calm and always helps soothes his mind. He especially loves the smell of the after rain and maybe after the rains stops, he'd take a walk outside to enjoy it.

But for now, Beomgyu's got a ton of work to be completed and therefore he immerses himself in his pile of work for the next few hours as he listens to the pitter patter of the rain against his window.

The rain continued for a while, from the evening until it sets at night.
And suddenly-
The lights go off.

Beomgyu hears sudden chatters from outside and a few people walking out to check the power supply.
He sighs, leaning against his chair. He needed the light to complete his tasks.

"Shit. Why out of all times??" Beomgyu asks himself as he takes his blazer off because of the growing heat.
Beomgyu eyes the dark room, unsure where to look since it looked like a pit of black. It was dark, too-
Dark... DARK?

"Taehyun-" Beomgyu blurts out and his eyes widen.
He take his phone and turns on its flashlight before getting up from his chair and rushing out from his office.

He does bump into a few people because of how dark it is but his eyes remain focus to search for Taehyun's office and when he does, he abruptly pushes the door open, meeting yet another pit of darkness.

But in that empty darkness, Beomgyu can hear soft sobs and sniffles coming from behind the desk.
"Taehyun?" Beomgyu class out as he rushes behind the desk.

His eyes soften as he finds the younger below the space of the desk, knees curled up to his chest as he buries his face in it. His small frame trembled in fear.
He was still scared of the dark and thunder.

Without hesitating, Beomgyu pulls Taehyun into a hug, catching the younger boy in shock as the older leans against the desk and rests Taehyun's head in his chest.

"It's okay. I'm here. You're alright..." Beomgyu whispers softly, caressing Taehyun's back.
"It's d-dark..." Taehyun mumbles.

"M-Mom..." Taehyun whispers as he cries into Beomgyu's chest.
Beomgyu's heart ache at that as he remembers the constant nightmares Taehyun would have of witnessing his mom being killed in front of his own eyes.

He's also not sure if Taehyun realizes that it's him who's hugging him because he knows that the younger tend to have a fuzzy memory when he's in the dark.
Taehyun feels trapped.

"They won't hurt you. You're alright." Beomgyu says.

He envelopes Taehyun in his arms tighter until he feels Taehyun's body relax in his. Beomgyu then grabs Taehyun's blazer that he had noticed hanging on his chair and puts it over Taehyun's head as he presses Taehyun's head further into his chest, hoping the sound of thunder would be muffled. He then takes his phone and turns on the flashlight again and places it beside them so that Taehyun would see the light.

"You're okay." Beomgyu says.

Taehyun might still be in daze because of his fear but when he registers who he's with, he can't help but feel his heart beat faster and it wasn't because of the thunder, it was because of the boy who's chest he's resting on.

He instantly calms himself while he hears Beomgyu's heart beat against his ear.
Taehyun smiles as he notices that aside from his racing heart, he can feel Beomgyu's heart the exact same too.

Taehyun knows that when the light goes on, they'll be in awkward silence again, but for now, he just wants to cherish what they're having right now and so he snuggles further into Beomgyu's chest, unconscious about the growing red shade on the older's cheeks.

And for once, after five years, Taehyun once again finds himself protected by his fears by none other than Beomgyu.