parallel universe

three

dark brown orbs bored into light grey ones as silence enveloped the cafe. the barista halted her actions, customers stopped to stare at the scene unfolding before them. everything around them blurred, seemingly moving in slo-mo as two pairs of eyes met for the first time. it was plausible to say that they were in a world of their own. 

just then, firm, long, milky arms fisted into jeongguk's coat, in an attempt to prevent him from falling backwards. 

"i am so sorry, i should've been more careful" the brunette apologized, being the first to break the stance, after what seemed like forever. the other man stood rooted to the ground, orbs staring intently into the brunette's, his arms still fisting jeongguk's coat.

jeongguk never knew he could reach this state of embarrassment, not till this moment. seeing how the blonde guy froze, jeongguk started retrieving napkins from his pockets, trying to clean up the mess he made, muttering apologies as he did so. 

"sss" the blonde man hissed and jerked his arm, finally snapping back into reality when jeongguk rubbed on the sensitive spot that had a minor burn, formed by his piping hot latte which was now splattered all over the blonde man's shirt, as well as the marble tiles of bonjour. 

"i'm so-"

"it's alright, i can handle this myself" the blonde man gave jeongguk a curt nod and headed to the washroom, located at the back end of the cafe. 

jeongguk apologized to the staff repeatedly and helped to clean up the mess he created, grabbing tissues from the counter to clear the remnants of the mishap, then advancing towards the washroom to check on the blonde-haired man. 

the younger was greeted by the topless man back facing him, arms busy scrubbing his white, stained pullover, in efforts to wash off the remains of jeongguk's mishap. blonde reflected in his eyes as he stared the man down. said man had broad, muscular shoulders and jeongguk watched as the muscles clench and un-clench whilst the man continued scrubbing hard on the stained piece of cloth. what brought jeongguk's lingering eyes to a stop though, was the ink on the man's right shoulder blade. 

the piece had pinkish bleeding out from the sides, a piece of transparent plastic film still wrapped around the area, an indicator that it was still fresh from the tattoo pa-lour. it looked awfully familiar but the brunette couldn't seem to wrap his finger around it. noticing jeongguk's stare, toned, lean arms halted as those grey eyes adjusted its gaze, in search for brown ones through the reflection in the mirror. 

"anything the matter?"

the taller blinked twice and snapped out of his thoughts.

"s-sorry, how rude of me to stare. i-i was just wondering if you need any help?" jeongguk offered. 

"it's fine, just a stain, you really don't need to worry" he gave a small smile and resumed scrubbing his pullover under running water. 

jeongguk couldn't help but to stare at the piece on his back, eyebrows creasing, wrinkles forming on his forehead. he swore he had seen it somewhere, the piece looked too familiar. he's not sure if he'll come out as rude by prying but does it anyway. 

"if you don't mind, may i ask.. where did you get that tattoo?" 

the blonde-haired man gave a questioning look but made a decision to answer anyway.

"just down the corner of this street, just had it done. this piece took hours to complete." 

allowing his words to seep in, jeongguk pondered for a moment while another voice interrupted his train of thought. the door swung open, revealing another brunette. he was a tad bit shorter than jeongguk and he had a pointy nose instead of a sharp one, features similar to the blonde guy standing right before him.