Hybrid

Happiness

11th April 2017

It was the light coming through the window that woke Junhwe up. He slowly rubbed at his heavy eyelids, trying to blink the sleep away as he sat up in his bed.

The first thing he did was to look around him, feeling relief wash over him as he noticed the mop of orange hair poking out from under the blanket.

When Junhwe had accepted for Jinhwan to sleep over, he had forgotten to think through what it meant. Junhwe didn't really want anybody to sleep in his mother's bed, but he couldn't really let Jinhwan sleep on the couch downstairs on his own.

Junhwe would have let Jinhwan use his bed and he would have slept on the couch instead, but he knew very well how utterly uncomfortable that couch was. He had slept on it a few times where he had been to lazy to crawl up the steps to his room and he had bitterly regretted that choice.

And so, they had decided to sleep together. After all, even if Junhwe's face had turned crimson at Jinwhan's offer, they were a couple and it was only normal for them to share a bed.

Yet, Junhwe had remained awake for a few hours, feeling all giddy at the warmth next to him. At last, exhaustion had forced him into a dream-less sleep, but he had enjoyed every single second he had had to listen to Jinhwan's even breathing and look at his cute sleeping face.

Junhwe knew that he was far too gone.

Slowly, he sat up, trying not to wake Jinhwan who was still sleeping soundly. He stretched out his arms above his head, feeling content when he heard the satisfying pop of bones. A quick look at his phone on the bedside table told Junhwe that it was only 7am and that he still had a bit of time left before waking Jinhwan up.

Junhwe knew that they both started at 9 on Tuesdays and the last bus that they could take to arrive on time was at 8:30.

Junhwe put his phone back on the bedside table, before turning around and looking at Jinhwan. The older man's face was covered by the blanket and Junhwe was suddenly remembered of the day on which he had tried to take a look at the man's sleeping face. He hadn't succeeded.

With a small smile, Junhwe gently uncovered the elder's face, pushing the white blanket away.

Jinhwan's eyes were tightly closed, his small hands curled up into tiny fists. The older man's breathing was even, his chest slowly raising and falling steadily. The faint light from the morning sun coming through the window was illuminating Jinhwan's face gently, making his pale skin glow even more than what it usually did. The man's pink lips were slightly puckered and Junhwe almost kissed the pout away.

Without making any sound, Junhwe slowly crawled out of the bed and left the room, closing the door as gently as he could.

Junhwe was feeling pretty kind and unusually caring and so he decided to set up a whole breakfast for Jinhwan.

Just as he was about to walk down the stairs, Junhwe stopped in his tracks and looked back at the door next to his own – his mother's bedroom. With a small smile, Junhwe made his way towards the room,

As he stood in the middle of the room in silence, Junhwe felt his heart beat pick up. He missed his mother, he missed her a lot, but at least the pain wasn't so strong any more. He had managed, over the past weeks to put her stuff away into crate boxes.

He had considered Jinhwan's offer through, and even if he wasn't exactly ready to leave his childhood house, he knew he was going to, at some point.

The house was way too big for him to live in it alone and he knew that never ever would he have the courage to clean the whole thing. Junhwe wasn't very fond of spiders.