Tally Marks- soulmate au

Chapter 27: Back again

The morning sun hadn't risen yet and Junhui was already up and getting ready for the day. He hadn't gotten any good sleep recently, and when he did end up sleeping, he'd wake up almost every half hour. Chan had been doing better to where he could go back home and he didn't need people watching over him 24/7. Wonwoo went back to work 3 days ago, but Junhui just couldn't get himself to go. However, this morning he just couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take being alone in his big empty house with just his thoughts occupying him. He needed a distraction. He needed to do something. So that's how he found himself up at 4:30am pulling on a pair of slacks and skipping breakfast. He grabbed his keys after slipping on a coat and a pair of shoes and began his walk to work.

Once he got there, he unlocked the doors, because no one else was supposed to be in yet and immediately went up to his office. When he walked in and turned the lights on, the first thing he saw was a vase filled with slightly wilting flowers. The flowers on his desk looked as if they had been there for a day or two, they looked like they could have been really beautiful when they were first placed there. They weren't quite dead, but they definitely weren't as lively as they seemed to have been. He walked up to them and found no note attached, nothing that might have indicated who it might have come from, just a vase of once beautiful flowers. Junhui smiled slightly at the sweet gesture and moved the flowers aside a bit. He wanted to care for them, but there's only so much you can do for flowers. So, he decided to get them some fresh water and clean up a bit. After he replaced their water he finally got a good look at the rest of his office. Everything had been left exactly the way he left it, except everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. And that's what set him on his cleaning spree.

Everything had been dusted, wiped down, the floors had been swept, he even went about to clean off the windows with glass cleaner. After all of that it had only been 6:00 and he slumped down in his chair for a moment to see all the work he had accomplished. The flowers had ended up back in the center of his desk and they looked a bit brighter, as if the cleaning spree had somehow helped them. The sun was now rising and some people had begun to enter the building to start their day at work, but it wasn't people who he usually interacted with so he stayed up in his office. He ended up alphabetizing all his files and was in the process of alphabetizing his books when his office door abruptly opened. Junhui quickly spun around and his heart slightly picked up as he made eye contact with none other than Xu Minghao. And in his hands was a small piece of paper.

"Oh, I uh, didn't know you were back." Minghao stammered.

"What are you doing here?" Junhui asked.

"Oh," Minghao said, without hesitation, "I work here."

Junhui chuckled a little bit and Minghao smiled. "No, I meant, here as in my office." he said with a smile.

"I didn't think you'd be in today."

"So you decided that because your boss wasn't gonna be at work today you were just gonna barge into his office and do what exactly?" Junhui said with a smile.

"Well now I'm embarrassed to say, but I guess I didn't come up here for nothing. Here." He said, handing Junhui the piece of paper that was in his hand. "Don't read it now. I might actually die of embarrassment.

"Well now I'm even more tempted to read it. I might just have to keep you here till I'm done."

"I guess I better start running then. You can't keep me here if you can't catch me." Minghao said despite not looking like he had any intentions to leave.

"What makes you think I can't catch you."

"I don't know, I'm pretty fast."

"But in all seriousness, you came here just to leave a little note for me?"

"No, well, yes and no. To be completely honest with you, I just realized I forgot to leave it with the flowers. But now that I look at them, kinda seems weird. They're dying. Should have gone with something else. I didn't know when you would be back."

"Those are from you?"

"Yeah, you'd been gone for a while. I, um I heard what happened. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and then I thought flowers would be good, but I didn't know how to get them to you and then Mr. Jeon came back and you still weren't here and I just thought that um- Oh, I'm rambling."

"It's okay," Junhui said still smiling, "I'm as fine as I can be. Thank you. And I appreciate the flowers. I won't read your note in front of you, but in return, you have to accept something from me, and not read it while I'm here."

Minghao looked at him confused but then nodded and Junhui walked over to his desk. He took out a small piece of paper, wrote something down that Minghao couldn't see, and folded it p. He then walked over to Minghao and handed him the paper.

"Don't read this till you leave. I think you and I both have jobs we need to get to."

"Okay, I'll see you around then?"

"Definitely."

Minghao took that as his cue to leave and left Junhui's office. As soon as he left the office he unfolded the small paper and only saw a set of numbers a small note.

Here's my number, call me. -W.J.

As soon as the door closed behind Minghao Junhui opened the paper Minghao had given him.

I hope you're doing okay. I also hope the flowers aren't too much. Maybe one day we'll be able to give each other gifts in person rather than in secret. -X.M.

a/n Sorry i've been gone. This doesn't mean I'm back, but I'm trying. i miss you guys.