“Is this seat taken?” Jaehwan asked, his sudden appearance causing Hoya to jump slightly.

“Um,” he blinked, “yeah. I mean, no. no it’s not taken.”

“You’re Hoya, right?” Jaehwan smiled, “one of the Infinite boys?”

“That’s me,” Hoya smiled slightly, “and you’re Mercy – I mean Hongbin’s cousin, right?”

“That’s me,” Jaehwan laughed, “Lee Jaehwan.” He smiled sympathetically, “still getting used to calling everyone by their real name, huh?”

“It’s just so hard sometimes,” Hoya sighed, “I’ve looked up to them all for ages. I’m used to thinking of them as Mercy and Lab Monkey and Flashback.” He gave another sigh, “and Shownu and Wonho and everyone else who goes by their codenames don’t really help.”

“I went through the same thing when I joined,” Jaehwan said, “took a little bit to get everything straight. But then I did have the major advantage of only having a few people show up at a time. You’ve got everyone who came back all at once.”

“I’ll get it eventually,” Hoya shrugged.

The pair fell into an easy conversation after that, sharing memories and jokes. Their conversation paused when Hakyeon and Sanghyuk entered the lunch room. Jaehwan watched Hoya with a knowing look as the other young man watched Sanghyuk fall into a seat between Shownu and Hakyeon, laughing about something the others at the table were talking about.

“Bet that isn’t easy either,” Jaehwan remarked, “actually, I know it isn’t.”

“What?” Hoya blinked, face heating up in embarrassment as he tried to deny what Jaehwan had said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You like Sanghyuk,” Jaehwan said in a matter of fact tone of voice, “you really like him.”

“Seriously,” Hoya grumbled, looking away, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I like him a lot, too,” Jaehwan pressed, tone cautious like he was worried that if he pushed too hard Hoya would run off and they would never be able to finish this conversation. And this was a conversation that they needed to finish.

“You do?” Hoya asked, glancing between Sanghyuk and Jaehwan, “really?”

“Yeah,” Jaehwan nodded, a sad smile on his face, “since I first saw him, back when I only knew him as Flashback. Even when he and Hakyeon got married, I still liked him so much. I felt horrible for it. For being in love with a married man. But, well, you’ve met Sanghyuk.”

“He’s kind of perfect,” Hoya nodded in understanding.

“I decided it was ok to have feeling for him,” Jaehwan said, “just so long as I didn’t act on them, it was ok. I just kept telling myself that one day I would move on, I’d find someone who’d look at me the way they look at each other.” Jaehwan’s smiled turned hopeful, “I still tell myself that.”

“Do you really believe that?” Hoya questioned, “because it sure feels like I’m never going to stop loving him.”

“Wonho got over Sanghyuk,” Jaehwan replied, “he loves him like a brother now.”

“Wonho?” Hoya blinked, looking over to Sanghyuk’s table and easily finding the man in question sitting across from Sanghyuk. The pair were laughing about something that had Shownu pouting, the rest of the table watching everything with amused expressions.

“Wonsik got over Sanghyuk as well,” Jaehwan added, “they were boyfriends back before Overwatch, back before Sanghyuk got his powers. Hongbin told me that it took Wonsik a while to move on, that he held out hope that Sanghyuk would come back to him for a long time. But now he’s with Taekwoon and they’re happy and in love.”

“Really?” Hoya looked to the end of the table were Wonsik and Taekwoon were sitting, watching their friends laughing and joking. Taekwoon had one arm wrapped around Wonsik’s shoulders and Wonsik was curled up comfortably against Taekwoon’s side. They looked beyond happy and in love.

“Really,” Jaehwan smiled, “so if they can both move on, then I can too. It might take a while, but it will happen.” His smile grew, “and I know the same thing will happen to you.”

Hoya didn’t know exactly what to say to that, so he just smiled at Jaehwan. He hoped that his smile conveyed just how much the other man’s words meant to him. Maybe…..maybe he would move on one day. Maybe he would move on from his love for Sanghyuk.

Until then, though, at least he had Jaehwan. Someone who shared his feelings of heart break.

A/N:poor Hoya. I feel so mean doing this to him. But at least he isn’t alone, right? He’s got Jaehwan there to share his pain.