Wednesday, evening

Minseok elbows the door shut, kicking off his shoes at the same time. He almost makes it in without dropping any of the grocery bags wrapped around his wrists and fingers, but a single onion escapes anyway. He watches it roll across the tile floor and disappear under a side table with two many stacks of mail. 

“Errr…. I’ll get it later. Lu Han?” He shouts into the din of the apartment. There’s no answer and no obvious signs of life either. Just a single lamp set by timer in the corner of the living room. The clock on the microwave reads 6:43 PM. Still perhaps a bit too early for Lu Han if it’s been a bad day at work. 

He flips on the switch in the kitchen, shoves the bags into the counter, and spends an ungodly amount of time cleaning out the fridge just so he can put the new groceries away. Two half-eaten containers of rotten strawberries join a tub of exploding sour cream in the trash can, along with the remnants of some leftover meal Lu Han promised he would take with his for lunch. 

“Waste of food, what a waste,” Minseok mutters under his breath, determined to remind Lu Han later. 

In the hour he spends cooking dinner and then cleaning it up, and then packing away the leftovers again, he forgets all about it. 

 

Thursday, morning

“What did you get home last night?” Minseok yawns as he moves around the bed, looking for his slippers and a robe. 

Lu Han grunts. He’s still half-buried under the blankets, a cat asleep on his head. 

“Eleven something?”

“Hmm.”

“What time are you getting home tonight?” 

It takes Lu Han half a minute to remember he’s even been asked a question. Minseok walks by again, pokes him in the head, and Lu Han says, “Huhh? Uh, dunno. Earlier than last night, hopefully.”

Minseok hums again and disappears into the bathroom. It’s been days of this. Minseok’s also busy at work. He can’t complain. 

But sometimes, it does get lonely.

 

Friday, afternoon

To: Minseok

Did you ever call the insurance about that double payment they charged this month?

 

From: Minseok

Uhhh

Negative..

 

To: Minseok

Okay i’ll try to do it if I have a break this afternoon

 

From: Minseok

I can do it now

nevermind client just came in

 

To: Minseok

Right. Guess I’ll do it this afternoon 

 

Saturday, morning

Minseok stares at the back of Lu Han’s phone. Lu Han squints over the screen, his glasses nowhere in sight. 

“You’re gonna go blind at this rate.”

It takes a couple of minutes for Lu Han to respond, speaking like there’d been no break at all. He’s still typing as he says, “I couldn’t find my glasses.”

“They’re in the bathroom. Next to the sink.”

Another minute goes by. “Oh? Thanks.”

Ten minutes go by. Lu Han says, “Is that an onion under the table over there?”

Minseok looks up from where he’s been playing a game on his phone. “Oh. Right. I forgot.”

 

Saturday, night

Minseok dives headfirst under the covers, sending a cat flying off the bed in fear of her life. 

“God, this feels so good.”

Beside him, Lu Han isn’t nearly in such a rush. He calmly pulls back the top blanket, straightens out his pillow, spends a few seconds trying to coax the cat back onto the bed, successfully too. 

“You act like you didn’t have a nap earlier,” he says, chuckling. 

“Naps aren’t the same as sleeping at night. They don’t count.”

“Mmm, not as good as sleeping in either. If I wake up before the sun tomorrow, I’m going to murder something.”

“Not me, I hope?” laughs Minseok. 

“Depends,” says Lu Han. He’s still fixing the twisted pillow sheet, courtesy of Minseok’s tossed sleep from earlier in the afternoon. “Might just be the first thing I see.”

“Let’s hope it’s your mirror image then.”

“I don’t know, at this rate it'll be the cat.”

By the time Lu Han does join him under the covers, Minseok barely budges. It’s been fifteen years. He’s long gotten used to sharing a bed. Moreover, he’s long gotten used to sharing a bed as one who is like the dead. Lu Han shifts quite a bit while he finds a comfortable spot, jabbing Minseok with his elbow once, kicking his ankle twice. 

Before sleep overtakes him, Minseok reaches out, a soft caress on Lu Han’s shoulder.

“Goodnight,” he says. “Love you.”

Lu Han’s reply is soft, almost lost in the blankets. “Love you too.”

 

Everyone said they got married too young, that couples like them were never going to work out. But they loved each other, and they were already roommates anyway. Several months after college they walked down the courthouse, a couple of good friends in tow and Minseok’s mother and father, the only people who cared enough to support them. They had dinner at a small little pub afterward in celebration, and the next day began their life together as a married couple. 

 

Sunday, afternoon

“You think we should do something for our anniversary?”

Minseok’s been trying to read a book for the last hour. He’s accomplished barely five pages, reading some of the paragraphs twice over. His eyes are glazed. He’s been thinking more about tomorrow’s workday and all the things he has to do, all the mess he’ll have to clean up from the weekend. 

“Minseok?”

“I’m listening.”

“So, what do you think?”

Minseok grins, setting aside his book for good. “Do you think we should celebrate, or are you asking for something more specific?”

Lu Han, who has been channel surfing for longer than Minseok’s been trying to read, changes the channel once more. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s only our fifteen-year anniversary. Or should we skip the fives? Save it for our twentieth or something.”

Minseok scoffs. “You’re stupid. I was thinking we might as well wait for the golden anniversary. Who wants to waste money at a mere fifteen.” He yawns theatrically. Lu Han, for all that he’s not looking at Minseok, cracks a smile. 

“We could… go out of town. Do a Bnb or… maybe camping?”

Minseok dearly hates camping. “You’re gonna kill me.”

“What, it wasn’t me who almost started a fire in the tent the last time we went camping.” 

Minseok picks up his book again, reads the jacket sleeve while Lu Han flips through several more channels, foregoing some crime drama for a cooking program. He can’t cook to save his life. 

“BnB then?” says Lu Han, five minutes later.

“Sounds good. Want to make the reservations, or should I?”

“You do it. You’re way pickier than me with those kinds of things.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

Ten minutes later. 

“Did you ever call the insurance company?”

Lu Han, his fingers paused over the remote, says, “. No,” and then changes the channel again. 

 

It was easy at first. So easy to be young and in love. They were defying the world, the people who said they wouldn’t work out, that they were too naive. And it was fun, to deny that. To live in the face of the naysayers and be that couple who knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were smart and intelligent and had more wisdom than all the sages of the world. 

It wasn’t easy though. It never really is.

Five years in, with their friends around them falling apart left and right, couples as much as love as they’d been, as they were, breaking up and going their separate ways. 

People turned their eyes on them. They’d be next, wouldn’t they?

 

Monday, evening

“Hey, are you home yet?” Minseok doesn’t even start with a hello. 

“No. You?” Lu Han sounds tired. They haven’t spoken since Sunday night, too busy in the morning to do more than rush around one another in the bathroom, each of them on their way out the door. 

“I think you might beat me home though,” says Minseok.

“You serious? What’s up?” 

“I don’t even want to go into right now. Pick up some take-out though? I’ll eat it when I get home.”

“Sure, want anything in particular?”

“You pick.”

Lu Han scoffs. “Me pick? Last time I picked, you wouldn’t eat it.”

“Did I? Well, I promise I’ll be hungry when I get home. Ok gotta go. Thanks bye I love you!”

 

 

 

Once, a ‘friend’ insisted Lu Han was cheating on him. Minseok laughed himself silly. He didn’t entirely disbelieve it though. At seven years of marriage, it was the season of doubts. And Lu Han worked long days, sometimes staying late, sometimes disappearing on a weekend afternoon to go ‘take care of crap’. Minseok doubted, and he wondered. If this was the beginning of the end. 

At seven years of marriage, he knew they were both wondering if things were becoming stale. There was no longer the same spark of life, they slept together less and less frequently. Mornings were a breeze of who could eat the fastest and get out the door. Phone calls because text messages and ‘messages’ became one message, sometimes left on read. 

That’s when Minseok went out one day and got a cat. It was a challenge of sorts. Would Lu Han say something rude. Would they fight over the expense of the all the inevitable vet bills, of who would clean the litter box, pick up its hairballs and wet-vac the carpet when it threw up?

But Lu Han loved the cat. It didn’t exactly revitalize their lives together. They just, kept on. Day after day. Eight years of marriage, nine years of marriage, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, approaching fifteen.

 

Wednesday, night

“My sister’s having another baby. A girl.”

“Oh? When?” Minseok’s halfway asleep, but he supposes this is important news. It’s her third child, but the first girl. 

“January.”

“That’s nice.”

They haven’t talked about kids in a long time. Back then they decided against adoption. Minseok doesn’t feel like he’s the kind of dad kids should have. Lu Han disagrees on that subject, but he’s also been favorable to letting it be just them, together, two against the world. He loves his nephews though. Minseok loves them too. They’re both sweet, angelic things. To their uncles if not to their parents. Minseok dotes on them. He has a feeling this new little girl is going to be spoiled out of her mind, with her uncle Lu Han being first in line. 

It’s a good feeling. Breaks the monotony, but doesn’t disturb the status quo. 

Would it be different if they had taken another route? Waited a few years, aligned with their careers differently. If they’d adopted a kid instead of a cat? Sure, it would have been different. 

“I can go online tomorrow,” says Minseok. “Send your sister some baby gifts.”

“She’d like that.” 

“Hmmm.”

Minseok leans over, brushes his fingers against Lu Han’s shoulder. He whispers, “Love you.”

And Lu Han, a cat on his head, whispers back, “Love you too.”