angel baby || seongjoong

desire

“Hongjoong. I won’t ask you since when you were gay, but just note, I don’t care if you’re in love with someone else. If my role is the one you covet, then this is what you have to do. I will not have my successor be gay.”

Seonghwa pressed his palms against his ears, shaking his head. Those words had not left his ears since he left the office. The weight of every word was on him, and he found himself replaying the speech over and over again.

He tried not to think of this as a goodbye, but he wasn’t doing anything to help that. Was he not, in fact, severing all ties with him? He knew that if he remained by Hongjoong’s side, he would never get what he wanted.

The night was silent. As cars sped by, he could only think of that night when he met Hongjoong for the very first time. This goodbye was painful, but to Seonghwa, it was not at all unexpected. He knew. He knew that it just wouldn’t work out.

How would it?

He was broken, and not worthy of Hongjoong at all. Even if he were rich, handsome, and perfect, their relationship would still be frowned upon. It was obvious. Korea wasn’t as open about same-sex couples as other countries.

The odds were all stacked against them. Nothing would work out.

Seonghwa sighed deeply as he collapsed onto his bed. His freshly showered hair was still wet, and the water slowly dripped down his towel as he looked at his phone. He was trying to clear some storage as apparently, the photos he had were taking up all his space.

Scrolling through his gallery, he started deleting those that he didn’t want, until he got to one. “What…?” he gasped, clicking on the photo.

“Who sent this?” he wondered, remembering that day.

The photo showed him eating ice cream with Hongjoong on the park bench, the same day that Hongjoong had first confessed to him. He looked so happy, and Hongjoong’s eyes were sparkling so radiantly.

“Sent by… Yunho?” Seonghwa muttered, looking at his messages. “Yunho saw that?”

He contemplated deleting it, but couldn’t bear to in the end. That was his only memory of Hongjoong left, and he wasn’t to strip himself of this one item. Pressing the heart button, he continued to sort through his other photos.

“I should print it…” he thought, looking at his empty wall.

||

“What?”

Hongjoong and Mingi were in his office, looking at the 2 envelopes that had been addressed to them. Mingi had recognised it as Seonghwa’s handwriting and had brought it to Hongjoong, only to realise that he had one too.

“Hyung, I think he resigned.” Mingi stated, looking around worriedly.

“Why would he-” Hongjoong started, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come in,” he instructed, looking up to find the receptionist at his door.

“Good morning, I was told by Manager Park to give this to you. Have a nice day,” she said, handing the letter over to Hongjoong. He took it, opening it immediately to see what it was about.

“Letter of… resignation?” Hongjoong muttered, reading the title. Mingi stood beside him, reading the letter together. It wasn’t anything, just a normal letter of resignation.

“He… he resigned?” Hongjoong gasped, not daring to believe his eyes. “Why… why would he?”

Mingi held the other letter in front of Hongjoong’s face. “Hyung… I think the reason's here…”