When Taekwoon arrives home, all he really wants is a hot shower. He enters the flat and kicks his black Oxfords (polished: yesterday, stepped on: this morning) off, hangs his coat and scarf on the rag and shuffles into the living room, throwing his backpack on the couch and looking around for Hakyeon. He can hear the water running in the bathroom, so Hakyeon must be there which is pretty nice, considering just how much Taekwoon doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

He proceeds into the bedroom and unceremoniously flops down on the bed face first, still wearing his suit. He wishes he could disappear from Earth right then and there—just become mist or explode into millions of tiny molecules.

“Taekwoon-ah, is that you?” Hakyeon yells from the bathroom and Taekwoon thinks the boy is the perfect material for a victim of burglary with the unlocked door, his loud showering and yelling and all. Taekwoon grunts into the sheets in response.

He soon hears Hakyeon walk out of the bathroom, approaching the bed with steps similar to that of a monster rather than the bird-boned, small guy he is.

Taekwoon grunts again, this time from the heavy weight that falls on his back—Hakyeon may not be as bird-boned as he looks after all.

“How was your day?” Hakyeon asks, rolling off Taekwoon and nuzzling close to Taekwoon's neck until Taekwoon can hardly breathe anymore. “Are you tired? Gosh, I had such a day at the studio today; Minah told me she was pregnant and one of the boys sprained his ankle, and we have this show coming up next week, so I…”

And that was all Taekwoon heard.

He is honestly, deeply, madly in love with Hakyeon, but at the moment, he hates life, hates everything and everyone in the world, even— no, he doesn’t hate Hakyeon, but he does hate the fact that Hakyeon is buzzing around him like an annoying fly, asking him what’s wrong and how he could help when Taekwoon doesn’t reply. Taekwoon usually calms himself down by thinking Hakyeon means well, that he is just trying to help, but this time… this time he just wants to hate the world, so he allows himself to wish Hakyeon would leave home and go somewhere far away.

“Okay, cool,” Hakyeon says after a while, sniffling angrily. “It’s not like a relationship should be based on communication anyway.”

Taekwoon tries to take a deep breath, but all he manages to inhale is some lint from the bedsheets.

Hakyeon gets up from the bed, walking out of the bedroom, his murmurs about Taekwoon being rude following him outside. Taekwoon just really can’t apologize right now.

He pushes himself up from the mattress and drags his tired body into the bathroom, inspecting the hole in his suit jacket where it got caught on that ing nail at the office—it seems irreparable like Taekwoon's entire life. He tosses it in the laundry basket along with the rest of his clothes, and a few minutes later he’s crouching in the corner of the shower with barely lukewarm water pouring over his head as he hugs his knees and tries to push back frustrated tears into his eyes with the heels of his palms. He soon stands up, shaking a bit with suppressed anger. The water has gone cold. that ty water heater.

After his very refreshing shower, Taekwoon shambles into the kitchen to get a glass of water, noticing a pan of kimchi fried rice on the stove—his favourite, and it’s still hot. He glances into the direction of the living room where Hakyeon is sitting stiffly on the couch, watching a sitcom in which people laugh every five seconds, but he won’t even budge. He doesn’t even blink.

Taekwoon bites his lower lip to hide his fond smile as he walks into the living room, giving up on drinking water.

“Hakyeon,” he says and Hakyeon jerks, standing up immediately. “Hakyeon,” Taekwoon says again and grabs his wrist, tugging Hakyeon back down on the couch, scooting as close to him as possible and laying his head on Hakyeon's shoulder. While Taekwoon snakes his arms around Hakyeon's middle, his boyfriend just sits there, soft and unmoving like a dead fish.

“I ripped my favourite suit,” Taekwoon murmurs, closing his eyes. “On some stupid nail at the office.”

“I know someone who can probably reweave it if you want,” Hakyeon replies, tone still upset.

“I also poured hot coffee on Jaehwan's hand,” Taekwoon continues.

“Oh boy, was it—”

“It was bad. I had to drive him to the hospital to get it treated.”

“Oh honey…”

“When we got back, the new manager warned me that my part of the company’s gross profit hasn’t gone up for two months and I might not be there to see next month’s results if this tendency continues.”

“But you already work overtime almost every day!” Hakyeon gasps and puts a hand on Taekwoon's arm on his stomach, squeezing it in sympathy.

“And then someone bumped into my car on the way home and they just left when I wanted to pull over to talk about the damage,” Taekwoon sighs.

“What?! You just got the bumper fixed after the garage wall incident!”

“Yeah, well, it’s broken again.”

“Oh Taekwoon,” Hakyeon says, now hugging Taekwoon with both of his arms, kissing the top of his head, “if only I’d known you had such a horrible day, I would’ve shut the up.”

“You used up all the hot water,” Taekwoon finishes the list of awful mishaps of the day, just because he can, just because it’s his time complaining now and Hakyeon needs to know that he should consider the fact that he doesn’t live alone next time he decides to perform an entire Broadway show in the bathroom. “And I want to die,” he adds, for good measure.

“Okay,” Hakyeon says, pulling away and cupping Taekwoon's cheeks to make Taekwoon open his eyes and look at him, “you should eat first and then get some rest, and in approximately 80 years, you can die, okay?”

Taekwoon nods slowly and Hakyeon presses a warm, soothing kiss on his mouth that successfully puts the first smile of the day on Taekwoon's face. He watches Hakyeon stand up from the couch and go to the kitchen, opening a cupboard to take out a bowl to fill with some kimchi fried rice, delivering it to Taekwoon in the living room and sitting down next to him again.

“Thanks,” Taekwoon says as he pulls up his knees to his chest, resting his head on Hakyeon's shoulder once more and struggling to swallow each bite from such a weird angle. He doesn’t really want to move away from the only one who can make the worst day of his life feel like it’s the best.

He doesn’t really want to die yet.