Puzzle

Chapter Five

~In which they find the missing piece~

When Jongdae wakes up the next morning his pillow is on the floor and his arm is draped over Minseok's body. Luckily Minseok is still asleep, his breath is slow and steady and he doesn't even flinch when Jongdae carefully pulls his arm back.

Jongdae's mind is racing like crazy but he tries to stay as calm and composed as he possibly could in this situation. He doesn't want to wake Minseok up. Not only because he doesn't want to disturb his sleep but also because he doesn't know how to explain the position they are in. Jongdae tries to bring a little more distance between the two and the mattress squeaks underneath him. Immediately he holds his breath. Minseok is rolling over and turns around to face Jongdae. His eyes slowly flutter open and for a moment he just looks at Jongdae with a drowsy and also somewhat confused smile. It probably takes him a moment to realise where he even is. Or why there is another boy sharing a bed with him.

"Where is your pillow?", Minseok asks, rubbing his eyes. A few strands of his hair stand up and Jongdae has the unbearable wish to reach out a hand to run it through Minseok's hair and smooth it.

"On the floor", he replies, running his fingers through his own hair to keep them occupied. Minseok slowly turns around to look at the floor. Luckily the pillow only landed on the puzzle and didn't mess anything up.

"How did it get there?", Minseok asks while he turns back around to face Jongdae again.

"I honestly don't know. I move around a lot in my sleep", Jongdae replies. He has decided to leave out the detail that him moving around in his sleep also involved wrapping an arm around Minseok. Minseok gives him another slightly drowsy smile.

"I didn't even notice. I slept like a rock."

Once both of them climbed out of the bed they get started on the puzzle almost right away. There are only a few gaps left and if they stick to it they will probably be able to finish it today. Jongdae should feel excited about it but at the same time, the thought of completing the puzzle makes him sad. Because once the puzzle is done his excuse to spend time with Minseok is gone. Of course, they can just do another puzzle or something but somehow that won't be the same. This is their puzzle. Their damn ten thousand piece puzzle. Ten thousand really is a ridiculous number to start at. Going back to something smaller after that would feel weird. Yet Jongdae is sure that he won't be able to do something like that again anytime soon. Not even if he does it together with Minseok.

The conversation also flows a little slower today. Maybe they have just run out of things to talk about and maybe it's also because Jongdae feels awkward around Minseok. Minseok acts like everything is the same and maybe to him, it is. He didn't wake up with his arm wrapped around another boy. A boy he happens to have the silliest crush on. But Jongdae did, so he is a lot quieter than usual. Still, the silence doesn't feel too awkward. It's almost a comfortable silence.

At first, Jongdae put on another playlist and hummed along to the songs to fill the silence but by the time the playlist had run out he was already so immersed in the puzzle that he didn't even notice the silence that followed after the last song faded out.

Jongdae usually can't stand silence and he always has the urge to fill it with a noise of some sort but right now this is okay. Being silent together with Minseok feels comfortable.

They continue to idly puzzle, the holes on the puzzle becoming smaller and fewer with every passing minute and the number of pieces scattered across the floor reducing constantly. And when there is only about a handful of them left Jongdae suddenly feels like he understands why people like to do puzzles. This really feels amazing and he's starting to see the picture. He wants to finish it. He wants to put in that last piece and stare at this unbelievably huge thing they build together.