The clock struck midnight just as Jiyong finished loading the dishwasher. The sound of the bell chiming out twelve was the only sound in the entire house until the brunette the machine and it started whirring to life. With a heavy sigh, he turned around and leaned on the island counter, looking out into the empty, open apartment.

A chill, comfortable breeze swept through through the open balcony door, bringing with it the melancholy scent of fresh rain. It had been a few hours since the rain had stopped, but it still left a scent that Jiyong adored. 

Reaching out. He grabbed a glass of coke that he had poured himself several hours before, taking a sip. He turned his nose up at it and grimaced.

“Flat..” He sighed and dumped it down the sink.

He glanced at the clock again. His husband should have been home several hours ago, but like every other night that week, he had stayed out late. Seunghyun had been making a habit the last few months of staying late at work, or going drinking with coworkers.

Jiyong walked into the living area and snuggled into the couch, pulling his sweater tighter around himself. He pulled his phone out of the pocket and checked, seeing that he still didn't have any messages.

He pulled open the text function on his phone and went to his recent messages. T.O.P. <3 was the first name on the list. He opened the messages and Reread few some of them, frowning. He had sent his husband several messages that day, long ones. The responses he had received were never more than a few words long. Even the last message he’d sent. ’Yeobo, I love you.’ There had been no reply to it.

He pushed the new message button and started typing. ’hyung..will you be home soon?’ He shook his head and erased that message, typing in again. ’it's late, are you ok?’

Erasing that. He tried typing in a few other messages before giving up and tossing his phone to the other side of the couch. He whined and kicked his feet and curled up again, deciding to wait.

Somewhere along the way, he had fallen asleep. He only realized when the sound of a slamming door jolted him awake. He sat up and looked towards the door to see his husband, taking off his shoes.

Jiyong smiled for a moment as he watched the man. He was tall and lean, with a strong jaw and intense eyes. He was the most beautiful man that Jiyong had ever seen, but his smile faded as he realized that there were no longer butterflies in his stomach the way it used to be.

“Oh, you're up?” The deep baritone voice startled him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Seunghyun standing in front of him now.

“Oh...yeah..” Jiyong bit his lip and looked down at his hands, not watching as Seunghyun started to his shirt, his tie hanging over his shoulders. “I thought I'd get some cleaning done before you got home, but I guess I fell asleep..what time is it?”

“Three.” Seunghyun responded, tugging his shirt down and walking back into the bedroom. Jiyong got up to follow him, stepping into the bedroom just as Seunghyun the shower and got in.

Jiyong sighed, picking up the dirty clothes his husband had left in a trail on the floor. He chucked them into the empty dirty clothes bin and pulled out some clean clothes to have ready for Seunghyun. He walked back out into the living room and picked his phone up while he waited.

A while later, his husband appeared back in the doorway wearing a dark shirt and a grey sweatshirt over it. Jiyong frowned.

“Did you not see the clothes I pulled out for you?”

Seunghyun shrugged. “I like these better.”

“Aish..” Jiyong groaned. “You're always doing that. Ignoring everything I try to do for you.”

“Yah! I'm not ignoring you. I just didn't want to wear that.”

Jiyong shot a glare at Seunghyun, but said nothing. Jiyong flopped back down on the couch and stared out the open doors, out towards the city in the distance.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Seunghyun fixed himself something to eat and sat at the kitchen counter, playing on his phone.

“You should go to bed, it's late.” Seunghyun told him, not looking away from his phone as he shoveled some food into his mouth.

“I'm not that sleepy anymore. I'm just going to sit outside for a while.” Jiyong told him, shooting his husband an unnoticed sad look before walking outside.

He leaned over the balcony and looked up at the stars blinking in the sky. It had been a starry night like that when Seunghyun had first asked Jiyong to be his boyfriend, so many years ago when things had been so different. Standing on a rooftop in Los Angeles, drinking champagne from crystal glasses, looking up to see the stars that shone through the cloud of city lights. 

Jiyong wiped a tear from his face and shook his head. His heart was beating painfully in his chest, his breath coming in short, ragged spurts. He leaned over the railing, looking down at the ground below and out at the city, begging his body not to begin breaking down. He wouldn't cry, not in front of Seunghyun.

He was waiting for it when he heard Seunghyun get up from his chair. He counted in his head each step. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

 Clatter rang from the house, seunghyun’s bowl hitting the floor. Jiyong flinched. Papers rustled. He found them then, Jiyong groaned inwardly. Another tear spilled and he wiped it away.

“Jiyong-ah..” Seunghyun’s voice called from right behind of him, sounding as if all the wind had been knocked out of him. “These..these are...are these real?”

Jiyong nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Why?” Seunghyun asked again. “These...they're divorce papers, Jiyong...”

“Yeah.” The only word he said, and it wavered off his tongue with a sickening thud.

There was a long silence that followed. Jiyong held onto the balcony railing until his knuckles turned white, doing his best not to tremble and begin to cry. Seunghyun stood behind him in the doorway, staring down blankly at the divorce papers in his hand.

“I thought it would be best.” Jiyong finally spoke, after a very long time. His voice trembled, but he took a deep breath and continued. “I'm getting tired. You're bored, I know you are. It's been seven years, Seunghyun. I'm just not enough for you anymore. You never come home and stay out into the morning with others, drinking...sometimes you don't come home at all.”

Seunghyun reached up with one hand to touch Jiyong, but the other boy just pulled away from him, wrapping his arms around himself. “Jiyong, how can you think that?”

“We do to have it anymore,  Seunghyun..” Jiyong ignored the question and continued to speak. “The way you used to look at me could set the world on fire, but now you barely glance my way...I always feel as if I'm running around in circles trying to hold onto a relationship that's already ended.”

“Jiyong-ah..” Seunghyun’s voice was barely a whisper. He stepped forward, leaning over the balcony with the papers in his hand. “We've been married for seven years, and we dated four years before that...so we’ve been together for eleven years, side by side, everyday. There is no one in the world I am more comfortable with than you...and at the same time there’s no one who makes me as uncomfortable as you.”

At this, Jiyong glanced sideway at his husband, Seunghyun looking back at him in the same way, his lips before he spoke again.

“To this day, when I look at you, even for just a moment, I feel as if my heart can't stay in my chest any longer. These days, even when I'm laying next to you in bed...sleeping so peacefully...my heart hurts. I can't say I'm not surprised. But Jiyong..”

Seunghyun turned to the silent man. Jiyong was shocked to see the tears in his eyes. One fell loose and made a trail down his cheek. “Does this really have to be the end?”

A tear escaped Jiyong’s own eyes and slid down. He reached up to wipe it away and then reached over to Seunghyun. He  cupped the other man’s face in his hand, using his thumb to dry the tears.

“Seunghyun..my Seunghyun...” He whispered the words. “I would give anything to get back what we had...but it's too late.”

Seunghyun shook his head, placing his hand over jiyong’s. Thier wedding rings clicked against each other with a soft sound, the gold glittering in the moonlight. “It's never too late. I promise. One more chance..”

Jiyong sighed, pulling his hand away. He turned back to the skyline, gripping the railing. “If I told you I was leaving tonight...what would you do?”

“Are you planning on leaving?” Seunghyun asked, ignoring the question.

“Answer the question.”

“I'd die.” Seunghyun responded, then, without missing a beat. “If I didn't have you to come home to and hold every night then I would just sit down and die. So no. We will never get a divorce. I will never let that happen.” With those words, he ripped the papers in half and chucked them over the railing, watching them float down into the water below. “I love you. I know I haven't really been showing it lately, but Jiyong...I love you..tonight..tomorrow morning..next week..when we are eighty years old sitting in rockers in the country..I will always love you, and I'll never let you go.”

Jiyong had begun to cry, even as Seunghyun wrapped his arms around the other man. Jiyong buried his head in Seunghyuns chest and cried until he could no longer cry.

It was a long time until the tears finally stopped. When they did, Jiyong looked up and Seunghyun pressed a gentle kiss to his husband’s lips. Jiyong kissed back right away, his fists clenching into seunghyun’s sweater. The kiss deepened and when they pulled away, Seunghyun smiled.

“I've been scared to do that for a month..” He admitted.

“Wae?” Jiyong couldn't believe the words, but Seunghyun chuckled.

“I've been thinking you didn't love me anymore...I thought that you didn't want me...I've been trying to give you space so that I wouldn't be a burden..” Jiyong interrupted him by pulling him down into a long kiss.

When they pulled away again, Jiyong was smiling. The tears in his eyes were from happiness this time. He pulled away from Seunghyun, the smile still on his face. “It's late, we should get to bed.”

“Ani.” Seunghyun stopped him, pulling him back so that they were both looking out at the stars, Jiyong held tightly in Seunghyun’s arms. Seunghyun rested his cheek against Jiyong’s soft hair. “Let’s stay out here for a while. It's been a really long time since we’ve looked at the stars together.”

Jiyong smiled, holding onto Seunghyun’s arms, snuggling back into his chest. “You’ll be home early tomorrow. Right?”

Seunghyun nodded. “Of course I will...it's our anniversary, after all.” He pressed a kiss to the side of Jiyong’s head.

The smaller boy just smiled holding tightly to his husband. They looked out at the stars and smiled and talked in a way that they hadn't done in so long of a time.

Jiyong looked back at the taller man. Seunghyun smiled, and Jiyong returned it with long forgotten butterflies returning to his stomach.

“Yah..yeobo..you know what else we haven't done in a long time?” Seunghyun grinned devilishly, only causing Jiyong to reach back and take a playful swing at him.

“You ert!” He laughed and hit Seunghyun on the shoulder. Seunghyun grinned and took off into the living room, Jiyong short on his heels. “Get back here so I can hit you again, you idiot!”

Seunghyun laughed running around the couch. Jiyong jumped, tackling him to the couch as they both laughed. Jiyong leaned down and pressed their lips together again the rested his head on seunghyun’s chest.

“Seunghyun...let's sleep just like this tonight..” He muttered, his eyes starting to flutter shut. His energy from moment ago drained away.

“Mmm.” Seunghyun grunted, reaching up to run his fingers through Jiyong’s hair. He closed his own eyes, a smile on his face. 

Together, like that, they both fell asleep. Two hearts pressed together, beating in time. With the door still open, both of them would wake up with a cold the next morning, but neither would care. Jiyong would put out a suit for Seunghyun to wear and he would put it on, even though he didn't like the tie Jiyong had picked. They would share sniffles as they sat at thier table to eat breakfast together, and Seunghyun would come home early from work only to sit on the couch watching old movies under a blanket together. Divorce would never be brought up again,never thought about. And the two men who were so afraid to lose the love they had would grow old side by side, all because of this one night. Because of tonight.