【Ａｓｐｈｙｘｉａ】 seongjoong

Truth

The sound of a beautiful piano melody filled the area as small hands with a painted pinky ran over ivory keys. The melody flowed out effortlessly before the clanging of a sour chord rang out, ruining the tranquil moment. There was a pause before the melody started again.  The moment was sullied once more by an off color note.

"Dammit!" Hongjoong cursed, slamming his hands down on the piano in frustration. He just couldn't work out this transition. He knew the song needed a key change there but everything he tried just didn't sound right. The red-head kicked off his shoes and placed his feet in his chair in some sort of squat or ball as he plucked at middle C several times. He hoped the monotonous note would spark some sort of revelation.

It had been a week. Seven whole days since he had last seen Seonghwa at the movies. Come to think of it, that morning had also been the last time he had seen Mingi as well. He hadn't managed to get a hold of his tall friend at all. He tried not to think of it too much. It was exam season and the red-head knew how stressed his composition class made him. He probably had holed himself up in his room to focus on his work. Hongjoong could be that way sometimes. Who knew how often Mingi had to pull him out of his studio to eat or sleep. He didn't want to disrupt any creative processes.

On the other hand, where as he and Mingi weren't talking at all, he and Seonghwa haven't been able to stop talking. The agent had told the other that he would be busy in the office for a while and apologized that they couldn't hang out for the time being. Hongjoong knew that he was prepping for whatever mission he had overheard him talking about that day in his apartment but Seonghwa was keeping any details under wraps, which made sense.

Despite working, however, he still managed to find time to text the student back and did so often. Hongjoong had loosened up in his messages as he found texting much less nerve wracking than hanging out together. He felt himself, unknowingly, opening up and sharing more and more about himself and the agent doing the same. Now they joked with one another often, sending memes and amusing anecdotes about their day.

Hongjoong hadn't noticed it but he had unconsciously stopped beating up the keys on his keyboard and a smile had unknowingly formed on his face. He was snapped out of his thoughts by his phone buzzing on his desk. He picked it up and the small smile morphed into a full grin. 'Speak of the devil.'

"Please save me" The message was accompanied by an eyeroll emoji to know he was joking. Hongjoong chuckled.

"They at it again?" he typed back.

"YES!" came back the automatic response. "I swear if Yeosang and Xion don't stop bickering with one another, I'm going to lose it."

The red-head had bit his lip to keep his smile from growing further. For the past few days, Seonghwa had been sharing his woes and frustrations about two of his subordinates always fighting with one another. He had described it as two cats in a bag hissing back and forth at one another. The worst part is, they were cooped up all together so it felt like there was no escape.

"Maybe they are just pent up?"

The response was instantaneous. "I just choked." Another one followed immediately. "My poor innocent eyes. They shall never recover. They are youngsters under my care and I would rather not think about things like that."

Hongjoong couldn't take it anymore and fully laughed out loud. This was another thing he had discovered about Seonghwa over their seven day correspondence, he was unbelievably innocent and caring. A fact that both surprised the student and found mildly endearing. Despite his intimidating and tough exterior, deep down he was a big baby with motherly instincts and Hongjoong loved to tease him about it. As soon as he had confirmed this little tidbit, he couldn't resist taking every opportunity to fluster the other.