Seonghwa was sitting in the kitchen, he had a lot on his mind, it was already late and as far as he knew Hongjoong and the girls were all asleep, so he tried to keep quiet so he wouldn’t bother them.

 

He wanted to yell at himself because he found himself thinking about the past again and the whole reason for his trip in the first place was to try and get over everything, to get through it to learn to accept it but in the end, it seemed like it didn’t work.

 

He let out a sigh and looked at the empty cup that contained coffee just a while ago.

 

“You know coffee will keep you awake right?” A voice suddenly spoke, catching Seonghwa’s attention, he looked over to the door and saw Hongjoong leaning against the doorframe with a teasing smile on his face.

 

“I won’t be sleeping anyway so I didn’t think it would matter” Seonghwa mumbled but Hongjoong could still hear him.

 

“Let me guess, the reasons to why are running away from home are finally driving you insane huh?” Hongjoong asked as he took a seat next to Seonghwa.

 

“How did you know?” Seonghwa asked, surprised.

 

“Because I feel the same way, so it’s easy to tell,” Hongjoong said with a shrug.

 

“Should we finally take one another up on that promise? Because I really don’t want to bother my friends back home with this, they had to hear it continuously before I left” Seonghwa offered, Hongjoong nodded a bit.

 

“Sure, but can you start ‘cause mine isn’t the best thing,” Hongjoong asked Seonghwa.

 

“If you want then sure, hmmm let’s see, my passion and job is photography and it has been something I liked since high school, I was president of our club and the vice pres was my best friend, someone I relied on a lot, once we finished high school we took a course together for photography and everything was going well, our friendship evolved to dating and eventually we got engaged and opened our own studio” Seonghwa started off.

 

“It was great, the studio was doing well and we started planning our wedding but the thing is the more progress we made the more distant she got, and I found it weird at first but then my mother told me brides usually have a lot of stress when it comes to weddings so I let her be, but I should have seen the red flags then already” Seonghwa laughed a little.

 

“I had a photoshoot out of town but because of heavy rain my client and I decided to cancel to shoot, for the time being, I didn’t call her because I wanted to surprise her but when I got home I caught her in bed with someone she has been claiming for months is her best friend, we broke our engagement after that, she didn’t want anything, our apartment, our studio she just wanted to have nothing to do with me so I closed the studio and after closing it I haven’t been home much, I travel around because just being there is suffocating all those memories that are there” Seonghwa finished off with a sigh.

 

“I feel it’s dumb that I keep thinking about this I mean I should get over it, she is the one that cheated, it wasn’t me so why am I still dwelling on it?” Hongjoong asked Hongjoong.

 

“Because you loved her, because you trusted her with your all and in return she broke it all and getting over that, processing that makes it harder than you would like to admit, you also never want to talk about it because you’re scared of what others will think and interpret it as so you never truly learn to move on from it” Hongjoong told him in a comforting tone.

 

“It sounds like you speak from experience, is that why you ran away as well?” 

 

“I have experience with that, but the reason I ran away is different” Hongjoong said and looked out the door almost as if making sure the girls weren’t listening in.

 

“My best friend got pregnant and her boyfriend at that time wasn’t the best person, in the end he didn’t want anything to do with her and he disappeared. I couldn’t let her deal with it alone so I moved in with her, at that time I ran a bakery so I was busy since early in the morning until late at night, so I wasn’t there very often but I still helped where I could, Seola and Siyeon was born after a long wait and I am the only dad they know, although their mother and I had nothing to do with one another romanticly we raised them as if we did” Hongjoong told him with a small smile.

 

“Things were going well honestly, her parents were thankful to have me help her since they said they were too old to be able to help much, time passed quite quick after their birth and before I knew it they already turned 2 and I loved them so so much, at that time my friend started getting sick, she was really tired and after a lot of examinations they found that she had problems with her heart” 

 

“The one day she was going for a check up at the doctor and although I insisted on taking her since she was feeling really sick that day but she told me to stay at home and to look after the twins, and so i did, but I honestly didn’t expect the phone to ring and I didn’t expect for it to be her mother who was in tears, I didn’t expect to lose my best friend that day” Hongjoong said his voice cracking a little.

 

“When she got to the hospital she collapsed outside the entrance and they rushed her into the emergency room, they tried everything but they couldn’t get her heart to beat again, she was gone and nothing could bring her back, I had to tell those little girls that their mother wasn’t coming back and it was the worst feeling I had ever experienced” Hongjoong said, his tears were escaping from his eyes, and running down his cheeks.

 

Seonghwa stared at the boy with a small frown on his face, he could only imagine what that could feel like if he had to lose Jongho, San or Wooyoung he wasn’t sure how he would react or what would happen to him, it must have been very painful especially because they were a family.

 

“It must be hard for you, you are really strong” Seonghwa said placing a hand on Hongjoongs arm, “You are raising those two little girls with everything in you, you came out here to deal with the loss, I don’t think you are running away, you just need time to get through it, and if being here helps then embrace it and follow what you want to do here” Seonghwa told him.

 

Hongjoong looked at him for a bit, he wasn’t sure how to respond really, he never told any that he met in the town the reason he moved there well aside from the Inn belonging to his grandparents and him inheriting it from them but still the only people he talked to about it was his friends parents.

 

“Thanks, I actually don’t talk about it a lot because I’m not okay with it yet and I also don’t want to make the girls sad but I need to tell them about her you know, I need to let them know what an amazing person she was and how much she loved them” 

 

“And once your ready you can tell them, there is no need to push yourself to be ready, and I am sure the girls will be ready to listen when you are ready to talk about it” 

 

“You think?”

 

“100% sure”

 

The two shared a look for a bit and smiled.

 

“So any other stories you want to share?” Hongjoong asked, and so started their night flew by like it was nothing they shared a lot of stories, talking about their lives, their passions, friends as well as old relationships, when the topic of relationships came up Seonghwa learned that Hongjoong was gay and he was proud of it, and Seonghwa found it quite admriable that he was proud of himself because he saw how Wooyoung struggled when he first realized it, he hoped that one day he could bring his friends so they could all meet.

 

“Hey Hongjoong, can I help you restore this place?” Seonghwa asked suddenly.

 

“Why would you want to though? It isn’t something that should worry you” 

 

“Well, I’m not really sure but for some reason I found myself being excited over fixing this place up and it was the first time I felt like that since the whole thing that happened”

 

“Well if it will make you feel better sure, but just know my budget it really limited” 

 

“I have my savings from the studio, from the wedding money, I have nothing to do with all that money, it’s too much for me so I’d rather use it for something good” Seonghwa said with a smile.

 

“If you are sure you want to use it for this, I will take it as an investment and once this place is up and running we can co-manage it, how does that sound?” 

 

“It sounds like a great idea” 

 

The two smiled at one another, that night was the start of their friendship, a friendship that let them depend on one another and neither could hide much from one another.