penumbra

Chap. 3 - 1 Banana, 3 Eggs and 1 Bag of Chips

"You locked me in" Hongjoong whined as soon as Seonghwa stepped inside. "How could you be so cruel?"

The apartment was completely dark apart from the beam from the streetlights outside coming through the balcony glass door. The younger was laying on the couch, upper back on the armrest and head dangling off, staring upside down at the visibly stunned blonde by the door with a cheshire-like grin on his face. Seonghwa was obviously taken aback by the scene and the comments, especially because he did not expect this kind of energy from the other at all after what had happened that morning.

Seonghwa stuttered for a bit, struggling to find words to properly answer.

"Cat got your tongue?" Hongjoong giggled before getting up in one swift motion. He nonchalantly walked closer to Seonghwa, eyes digging holes all over the disoriented blonde's figure, practically scanning him up and down. "What do you have back there?" he pointed at the paper bags the other was holding.

That seemed to snap Seonghwa back into proper thoughts and he looked at the bags quickly before turning to the raven-haired in front of him to finally speak up.

"Nevermind, just take off your shoes and come in" Hongjoong waved dismissively, already with his back turned. "You can just show me at once, right?" He merrily sat on the table, resting his face on both hands expectantly.

That was the guy that Seonghwa had found freezing and incapacitated and spent hours wailing and screaming bloody murder in his arms. What the hell? He seemed very much fine, as if none of that had ever happened, as if he hadn't just reappeared in Seonghwa's life after five years for less than twenty four hours.

Anyways, Seonghwa did take off his shoes and walked over to sit on the table across from him.

"I had a terrible migraine today so I didn't turn any of the lights on" Hongjoong pouted, eyes snapping from the paper bags to the other. "Hope you don't mind."

"It's fine" Seonghwa almost whispered, voice struggling to come out under the unreadable gaze from the shorter man. "I brought us sandwiches."

"You did? Aw..." the raven-haired sang, grin widening until his eyes turned into little crescents. "Look at you, all sweet and thoughtful. I could just eat you up!"

That sent an almost painful shiver down Seonghwa's spine. For some reason the comment really didn't sit well.

"Cute" Seonghwa's hands tensed under the table at the strange tone used. "But that's not all, is it?" The blonde struggled like hell to keep up with the other bombarding him with his accelerated train of thought. "The muffin, silly. Strawberry? I can smell it, you know."

'Smell it'? Well...sure. He could argue that the sweet scent was actually quite strong.

"Someone gave it to you right?" one of his hands darted forward to play with the tip of the paper bag. "And you love strawberries... Kinda romantic, not gonna lie."

"She's my coworker," Seonghwa managed to reply. "It's not like that."

"Sure" the younger giggled. "I'm not hungry, though."

Hongjoong suddenly got up.

Seonghwa blinked at the unexpected action, only processing reality again when he heard the other flop down on the couch. Dumbfounded, the blonde looked over and saw the younger staring right back at him. There was that unreadable glint in his eyes again.

"I already ate" Hongjoong batted his eyes with a sickly sweet expression. "I'm sorry, Hwa. I didn't know you were bringing us food..."

That stung a little. That silly little sting you get when you miss a chance to share some time with your silly little crush. Didn't make any sense, though. Hongjoong wasn't supposed to affect Seonghwa like that. For all intents and purposes, his crush was no more. The feelings were gone, for crying out loud. Gone, right?