mute ; junhao

TWENTY-TWO

For a few seconds, they stared at each other until Junhui softly cleared his throat and sat at the table opposite Minghao.
His boss wouldn't mind taking a quarter-hour break to talk to an old friend.

Junhui was looking forward to seeing the smaller one again somehow, but he was extremely embarrassed to meet him at work.
During his shifts in the café he had to wear an apron that was really embarrassing for him, because such an apron wasn't very masculine.

Minghao once looked at his counterpart from top to bottom, the apron poking right into his eye...If he was honest, it was pretty cute.
He couldn't take his eyes off the bigger one anymore, which he probably noticed, because he blushed and looked embarrassed at his hands.

"Cute," the younger even said and smiled at him, which only made him redder.

In former times Minghao himself had been the one who was constantly red and embarrassed, but now he had become more self-confident and courageous. Junhui had become extremely shy and insecure because he had no contact with others except in his job.

"A-Also...Why are you here again?", the older one tried to build up a conversation and hesitantly raised his gaze, smiled slightly shyly.
"I'm taking a few weeks vacation here," Minghao replied and slightly crooked his head. "How are you doing?" he asked, but didn't get an answer at first.

Should Junhui really tell the truth?  Because the truth was that he was not well. He was lonely, even his family had let him down and so he had to work in this café, because otherwise he wouldn't have any money.

"I'm fine," he simply lied, but Minghao noticed immediately that it was a lie.
"And now the truth," he demanded, but the taller one just stood up and wanted to leave.

But he didn't get far, because he was held by the younger one and simply pulled onto his lap.
The older one made a frightened sound and wanted to get up, but was detained.
It was a bit strange for him to sit on Minghao's lap, but he still let it go and stayed seated.

"Come on, tell me the truth," he repeated once more and looked at the boy on his lap forcefully and Junhui actually came out with the truth:
"I'm not feeling well...I'm alone. I have no one left. Jeonghan is gone and my parents don't want anything to do with me anymore because...Because they found out that I was gay and they don't tolerate it. I have hardly any money left and have to leave my apartment if I can't pay the rent until the end of the month. That's why I do this job, but I hate it. And you were gone too...Minghao, I missed you. Without you I feel so empty...  " he said and then leaned against the chest of the smaller one.

Minghao had listened the whole time and now put his arms around him to give him the feeling of closeness. How could it happen that Junhui slipped down like that? He didn't deserve something like that.
Junhui was one of the greatest, nicest and most helpful people he knew, why did this happen to him of all people?

Sometimes life really wasn't fair.

Minghao tried to cheer him up and stroked his hair.
They ignored that they were still in the café and that the older one had to work.

Compared to him, Minghao was doing really well because he got almost everything from his parents.

Maybe he should just take Junhui with him to China, to his home...But his parents would definitely be against it, so he would have to think of something else.