Work of Art || Luwoo

41

||Lucas||

"I'm quitting."
"You're what?" It's a good thing that we're sitting on the couch.
Jungwoo's hands stiffen in mine and his whole body visibly tenses. "No you're not."
"Yes. I am. I don't want to keep living with this looming set of rules controlling my life. I can't date? Are you kidding?" I probably should've planned my grand speech a little better.
Instead, I'm spilling out my thoughts in a jumbled mess.
"You can't do that, Lucas." Jungwoo closes his eyes and shakes his head.
He pulls his hands out of mine and places them in his lap with his fingers tightly woven together.
"Why not?" I ask.
"Because. I can't be the one that makes you lose your job." Woo's eyes are still pressed tightly shut and he doesn't open them when I pull his hands back toward me and hold his face close. He doesn't pull away when I kiss him. He's no longer that shy boy when he's around me. He sighs before kissing me back. His muscles relax beneath my hands and I pull away.
"I don't need that job. I'll hand in my portfolio somewhere else." He nods.

~~Jungwoo~~

"So how are you?" Haechan asks me as I'm being pulled into yet another clothing store.
"Good."
"Even with Lucas gone?" He quiets a little, afraid he's landed on a touchy subject.
"We're still together. We cleared things up the other night." Haechan tries to look surprised but I'm pretty sure he already knew.
"So you know Yuta and Sicheng?" I don't know how to bring them up so I just decide to throw it out there.
Haechan blinks at me for a few seconds before returning to the clothing rack he's currently raiding.
"Oh, yeah. Turns out Sicheng is recording at Mark's studio. The two of them ran into each other by accident." I nod. "You're not angry about it, right?"
"No! I have no reason to be angry." I smile and laugh a little. "I just think Lucas has too much pride." I can feel the heat creep up my neck and redden my ears. I do this now whenever I start talking about Lucas. Ever since he came over. Ever since we...
I try to brush my hair in a way that covers my burning cheeks and bright neck, but unfortunately, short blue hair isn't going to cover up very much.
"Did Lucas come over?" Haechan wiggles his eyebrows at me and I pretend not to notice, picking up a light brown sweater from a rack.
"Yeah, and?" I can feel Haechan's stare.
"Did you... y'know?" He shrugs and rocks back on his heels, looking innocent as ever.
"What? No, oh my god!" I try to sound convincing but I know that I've just gotten redder than humanly possible.
"You did too! Well, how was it? Is he good? No i shouldn't be asking... well..." Haechan starts jumping around so I have no choice other than to watch and wait for him to finish, even though I'm pretty sure the whole store can hear him and I want to do nothing more than strangle him.
"Shut. Up?" I finally take his shoulders and clamp my hand over his mouth. His eyes squish into a smile.

||Lucas||

Okay. This is fine. I'll be fine.
I keep wiping my hands against my pants, but my palms are still clammy. I'm just quitting. Leaving a job isn't that big of a deal right? Even if you are the face of the company and everybody relies on you.
I've been standing outside the doors of Natasha's office for a few seconds so I decide to finally knock.
"Hello?" Her voice echoes through the door and I twist the handle, swallowing all my guilt.
I don't say anything when I enter the room and instead sit down in silence. Natasha watches me the whole time.
"Is everything okay?" She asks, looking at me blankly.
"I want to give you my two weeks." I can't bring myself to look at her, so I stare at the ledge of the table instead.
"Pardon?" My mouth feels dry and the short one minute that we've been talking for, feels closer to an hour.
"I'm leaving. Quitting." I close my eyes when I say those words. I still haven't looked at Natasha.
"Okay." She says it definitively. Nodding as she speaks. "Thank you for letting me know, Lucas." I finally decide to look at her and the look in her face makes me wish I could reverse time and return to the days where my dating was a secret and my job wasn't under fire.
"Thank you for everything." I say before walking out.
"Lucas?" She says as I'm about to leave.
"Yeah?"
"Don't worry about the two weeks. Don't come back." And that's how I know I really did fuck up.

Leaving the building is more painful than telling my boss that I'm quitting. Nobody knows what I've done yet so the smiles I get as I leave almost make me flinch. I still smile back anyway and act as though I'll be back everyday.
I let some of my stress leave when I see Jungwoo waiting in the passenger's seat. He gets out when I round the corner and before I know it, he's wrapped me in a hug, his head buried in my neck, wisps of hair brushing against my nose.
"Well?" He looks up at me with those innocent eyes that I know all too well.
"They know now. I can't stop whatever happens next." Jungwoo nods before kissing me and returning to the car.
I don't want to go home. Not with all the news reports that I'm sure are about to arise. I continue to drive in the direction of Jungwoo's home and groan internally at the thought of leaving.

|||

I walk with Woo to his apartment and make sure that he's inside. He takes off his shoes and coat, then turns back to me. I catch myself looking over his shoulder at the home that often comforts me.
"Do you want to stay?" I look back at him and plead with my eyes. He giggles.
"Come on, then."  I put my shoes and coat with his and plant myself on the couch while Jungwoo heads for the kitchen behind me and takes a bag of candies from the cupboards. He looks like an excited kid when he rests against my side and holds his bag of goodies to his chest.
"So what do you want to do?" I stop fluffing his curls when he looks up at me.
"Can we just sit here for a bit?" I close my eyes and rest my head against the back of the couch.
"Mmhm" Jungwoo mumbles before popping a candy in his mouth, putting the bag on the table and laying his head on my chest. He rises and falls with my breathing and the motion calms me down. I didn't realize how quick my heart was beating.

|||

It's so easy to fall asleep here. I have no worries when I'm in this apartment and once my stress has left me, I'm nothing more than a tired mess. I don't know how long Jungwoo let me sleep, but when I wake up, my neck is cramped from the awkward angle and my lap feels cold without Jungwoo's weight. I can hear him talking in the other room. His soft voice echoes through the walls, but he's too quiet to make out any words. I don't bother getting up to find him, all I want to do is enjoy this. Cars pass below and the breeze outside pushes the curtains and brushes them against the walls. I think this is the most quiet I've had in a long time. I stare at the speckled ceiling and find shapes in the rough paint. Jungwoo walks so quietly that if I'm honest, it scares me sometimes. I don't hear him come back until he's laughing.
"What are you doing?" He says. I peel my eyes from the ceiling.
"Looking for pictures in the ceiling." I say, a little embarrassed. Woo giggles and comes to the couch so he can pull my hair back and plant a kiss on my forehead. I feel his smile as he does it and I still feel like his hands are cupping my head when he sits across the couch. I move my feet so he has space, but he tugs on the cuff of my pants and rests my legs on his lap. I'm so much taller than him, in surprised I'm not crushing him right now.
"Who were you talking to?" I ask. "I didn't hear anything, but it sounded really serious."
"Oh, work stuff." He shrugs.
I hope he's not worrying about me.