so i changed the ending because it was too cruel. and since i can't write a lot yet, it might seem awkward to read. sorry
 

It’s known that lies live very short lives. They are like birds that fly way too high through a thunderstorm, barely escaping hits of reality to bring them down. Lies have short wings, and can fly so much before they are caught.

It’s the feeling of paranoia that had started drowning Minseok with every passing day. Kris and his newly crowned wife had left, Jitae sending them off with his best wishes. Luhan, however, had extended his stay and it was just the three of them left, and the servants. The silence had filled the mansion again, and Minseok had forgotten how it felt after a month of feeling watched and as if he had to keep a mask on the whole time he was outside his and Jitae’s bedroom. It was refreshing, to say the least.

However, Minseok tried to minimize his interactions with Luhan. In this mansion, the walls had ears, and despite it looking quiet and private, there were still workers roaming about. It was the couple hours at morning that they’d meet in the garden by the growing black roses. It’d become a part of routine that Minseok looked forward to. Because apart from those two hours, Minseok avoided Luhan in fear of being suspected.

Luhan tried persuading him that no one actually paid attention to them, but Minseok had eyes, and he’d seen the glances servants would send their ways whenever they’d see them together. It didn’t take an idiot, and a wrong move could reach Jitae’s ears, and god forbid Minseok’s skin then.

Luhan also tried persuading him to escape and go far away—together. But Minseok did not agree, even if Luhan could see he was clearly tempted by the proposal. So, Luhan promised him he’d put an end to everything. Minseok only smiled it off, knowing it was yet another empty promise whose only purpose was to give him another reason to hope.

It was one early morning when Minseok slipped past the back door and stepped on the patio, when he also heard Luhan call his name. With a fast blur, Luhan tugged him along by the wrist. Everything happened so fast and Minseok suddenly found his back against the wooden side of the small storage room that held all of the gardening tools. The darkness in there was deafening and despite it being the early of the day, barely any sunlight reached its insides through a small window placed way too high over his head.

Minseok could feel Luhan’s unsure breath ghost over his cheek and he in a heavy gasp. It’s been days since they’d been this close and Minseok would be lying if he said he wasn’t giddy at such a small proximity. There were butterflies in his stomach and his eyes widened in the darkness when he felt Luhan leaning even closer.

It was chaste, soft, the kiss Luhan’s lips placed upon his. Gentle just like Luhan’s nature, yet heavy of all these words and promises he’d told, and it somehow overwhelmed Minseok. But he let Luhan’s hands on him, welcoming the hesitant touch. It was awkward because it was pure darkness, but when Luhan’s fingers found his skin, Minseok felt as if electrocution went through his whole body.

It was foreign, so forbidden and wrong that it made it right, and Minseok found himself melt under Luhan’s hands and accept a couple more just as gentle kisses.

And there was something romantic in this little getaway, something that slowly built a stable foundation of secret meetings and kisses stolen in the dark. Minseok knew it had the potential of becoming something great, maybe even the happy ending he’d always dreamed of. But he also feared that this paradise wouldn’t last, and that they were merely playing with their luck and fates.

And their fates were not meant to cross, as much Minseok dreamed otherwise at night, lying next to a presence he despised with all his might, but had become very fond of his son’s.

***

As much as Minseok had gotten used to the routine, there’d still be parts of it he loathed with his whole heart. Just when he thought he had a good reason to wake up the next morning, he would be reminded of what the night awaited, and as much time as he spent with Luhan during the hours the sun was up, nothing changed the end of the day.

Jitae would come, cause ruckus only by his presence alone, demand food and Minseok. Sometimes it ended fast—those were the times Minseok called himself lucky for. Sometimes it didn’t, and Minseok suffered for a couple hours on hold. Sometimes Jitae would come in angry, and god forbid he had lost yet another fortune on poker matches. Sometimes he would come back home drunk, looking for a fast to put him to sleep. Some other times, he was neither, just in his right mind to cause the most extreme torture upon Minseok’s body just to please his ears with his screams.

And half of those times, he’d leave to who knew where in the middle of the night, leaving a crying Minseok behind, never faltering his proud stance as he exited the mansion.

Those were also the nights Luhan would take Sohyun’s, the female servant’s, place. He would be the one to find Minseok on the edge of his sanity and calm him back to reality. He would hold his wrists away from his body, where his nails would scratch on his skin as if he wanted to tear the organ from his body. As if he wanted to remove what hurt him the most, and all of the traces.

But Luhan would rock him to quietness, back and forth from dreamland and he would wipe the tears away from his face all the while keeping his eyes away from the buttered skin. He didn’t want to know what was written all over it, and he knew that Minseok appreciate him not looking.

It was hard to watch him like this every other night, especially when they both knew Luhan was good for nothing. He never came to save Minseok before everything started, he would only show up after Minseok was hurt. And as much as he loved the way Minseok would calm down the second he hid him in his embrace, he knew he loathed him for not taking action. He was only a spectator to a tragedy, first seat too.

But Minseok would still smile at him in the morning, and talk to him as much as he did. Even if it was mainly simple conversations, Luhan cherished the sound of his soft voice. And maybe he’d be able to steal a kiss here and there. Maybe also touch him for a couple seconds more, if he was lucky.

However, before morning broke, Luhan would have calmed Minseok down and put him to sleep, promising to meet him in the garden at the break of the day.