How it Feels to Be Replaced

Chapter 7

Gyuchan woke up with the feeling of soft porcelain skin pressed against his bare chest. He sat up, rubbing one of his shoulders as it ached from sleeping so awkwardly on the black velvet modern couch. Looking down, he saw his wife peacefully sleeping with a soft smile on her face. Instead of returning her content, tranquil smile as he usually would, GyuChan's face twisted with uneasiness. He felt exposed—like he shouldn't be seeing this or be seen like this.

Maneuvering around the delicate woman as to not wake her, Gyuchan got up off the couch gracefully, before quickly headed to a bathroom down the hall. Locking the door behind him, he leaned on the granite-top sink and looked at himself in the large mirror in front of him. Silver locks were tousled, and sweat stained his face and his neck from last night. He looked down at himself for just a moment, before shaking his head and looking himself in the eyes again. Gyuchan's usual dull gaze had returned since the previous day, but nothing he did seemed to be enough to keep him from thinking about it or feeling uneasy.

You're just tired. Get over it.

Gyuchan heaved a heavy sigh at himself before deciding to shower himself down to wash away the vulgar night. Something in him just felt ashamed, and he couldn't tell for himself what was wrong.

He finished washing himself, and patted himself down with a towel before leaving the bathroom, looking to his left and right before darting down the hallway to the spacious bedroom. Looking through his clothing neatly tucked away in the walk-in closet, he found something casual, but professional, settling on a black, plain long-sleeved tee with matching black jeans. There was no need to dress up at all since he wouldn't be going anywhere.

Rolling his sleeves up, he walked back into the living room to pick up his clothes that were strewn about, only to find his wife had woken up and gotten dressed again. She sat with her legs folded off to the side, leaning on the arm of the couch. One small hand delicately brushed itself through her jet black hair, while the other hand was focused on scrolling through Gyuchan's phone. Calmly, he walked over and took it from her, even though he felt anxious with the dainty woman holding it, looking anything but happy with what she was seeing.

"What are you doing...?" He lifted the phone from her grip, and she just pouted at Gyuchan, crossing her arms over her chest. Her husband ruffled his silver hair with his free hand and turned the phone around, dismayed. On the little screen was the message he'd sent to a familiar old friend over Instagram after the pretty young woman had fallen asleep.

~

"01X 0000 0000. Call me at 3. I need to talk to you."

Jinho blankly stared at the message on his screen, cocking his head to the side. Bewilderment glazed his soft, pale face as he read it over again, making sure what he was seeing was real. After he was sure it was, he rolled his eyes and sighed, turning his phone off before flopping back down in his bed.

It can't be important after what happened yesterday. If he wanted to speak to me, he would have stopped.

Just as he closed his eyes again, not quite ready to wake up, another notification appeared on Jinho's phone. He groaned at it and reluctantly picked it up, cursing at himself as he saw a message from Seunghee, reminding himself of Gyuchan once again. Everything he did seemed to come back around to the topic of him, no matter how much Jinho wanted to forget him right now.

"Sorry, I was really busy with a lot of things yesterday... it would be better if I didn't specify... but why do you want to know?"

Jinho just stared at the message, recalling when he'd asked Seunghee how he knew if Seungho liked him, and shook his head, feeling like he spoke too soon.