Transparent
Backbone
Busy is the definition of Lee Donghae's life.
All day he's directing meetings, running to conferences, reviewing work.
Indeed, Lee Donghae is a very busy man.
Taking a momentary breather in his office, Donghae plops down in his chair, leaning forward and resting his forehead on the mahogany desk.
How his father had done this job for so many years, Donghae didn't know. It was exhausting.
His quiet moment of peace lasted only for a moment longer, until someone entered office.
Donghae didn't bother to lift his head. Who ever it was could at least announce who they were, or get out of his office.
He could feel the presence of someone approaching his desk, then the creak of someone leaning against it.
A hand brushed it's way through his brown locks, and he looked up meeting the brown eyes of his lover.
"Hey." Donghae smiled weakly, as the older moved closer to him.
"You're tired." they sighed, smiling back as they pulled Donghae into a hug.
"Of course." Donghae replied, "You're the Executive Editor. I'm sure you're exhausted too."
His lover chuckled, "Not nearly as much as you, Mr. CEO." they chuckled lightly, and Donghae smiled at the melodic sound.
"Are you busy tonight?" they question, linking their fingers with Donghae's gingerly.
"Yeah... I should go home on time tonight." he told them with a frown, "Yeojin was already tucking Jinhae into bed when you dropped me off last night."
His lover frowned too, "...You're right. Go spend the evening with your family."
With a long face, Donghae kissed his lover, pushing back the dark brown bangs that obscured their eyes, "I promise, I'll make it up to you tomorrow."
They simply nodded, returning his kiss, and holding him against them, "After all, I'm sure Jinhae misses you."
A knock interrupted them. Pulling apart, his lover took a seat on the opposite side of Donghae's desk as the door opened to reveal the Advertising Director, Choi Siwon.
Siwon shot the Executive Editor a harsh look, and Donghae sighed, as he made his way to his desk, setting down some of the files for their next marketing pitch.
"If you'll excuse us, Lee-ssi, I have to discuss the next project with Donghae." he told the other man rather blatantly.
Lee Hyukjae shot Siwon an annoyed look, but stood none-the-less, giving him a polite bow, before quietly bidding his secret lover farewell and exiting his office.
Siwon glared at him as he left the room, and turned back to Donghae with a livid expression.
He picked up the project proposal and roughly slid it towards him, with an inaudible growl.
Donghae noted the hostility, but chose tp focus on the task at hand, and read over the file.
After twenty minutes of awkward, silence as the two worked, Siwon began to pack up the now completely reviewed file.
He gave Donghae a disapproving look, before finally speaking.
"You think I don't know, Donghae-ah?"
Donghae was shocked, but tried his hardest to remain composed, "Know what, Siwon?"
"About you and Hyukjae." he spat angrily, looking utterly enraged, "Don't act as if you have no idea what I'm talking about."
The CEO was taken aback, how could he have found out about them? They'd tried their hardest to keep it hidden, even his wife didn't know.
"Siwon-ah, really I--" he was cut off as his long time friend slammed his fist against the desk.
"Everyone can see through your little act, Donghae!" he exclaimed. "How could you do this to your wife? Your son?!"
Donghae was quiet, staring down at his desk. "...I love him." he replied quietly.
"More than Yeojin? More than Jinhae-ah?" Siwon questioned, angrily. "How can you do this to your family?"
It was hard enough to even be in tis situation, and Siwon's discovery of his secret made it even worse.
He'd never intended to hurt his family. But, he'd always been in love with Hyukjae. And, although he'd come to love Yeojin too, it simply wasn't the same.
Sure, he'd loved her enough to bless her with a son. A son, who was above and beyond anything Donghae had ever dreamed. He loved his son. And, he would never wanted to hurt little Jinhae. But, he was in love with Hyukjae and he couldn't simply divorce Yeojin, not when their son was so young. He wouldn't understand.
So he'd lied to them, it was 'for the best' he'd told himself.
Yeojin was sweet, and loving and caring. She wouldn't understand what she'd done wrong if he simply slapped her with a divorce. Because she'd done nothing wrong, ever. She was the perfect wife and mother. But, she wasn't Hyukjae.
"You're a fool you know that?" Siwon told him, shaking his head as he stood up.
Of course he knew that.
He knew that he would ruin everything, and Yeojin would leave him and take their son with her.
"Don’t take a good woman for granted. Someday, someone will come along and appreciate what you didn’t.” he told Donghae, as he left him to his thoughts.
That night, he returned to his lovely home, to find his lovely wife cooking dinner as his wonderful son played with his toy cars at the table in his high chair.
"Pa!!!!" the one year old exclaimed, lifting his arms to the older male, wanting to be held.
At the stove, Yeojin turned to see her husband lifting their son out of his high chair.
She smiled, he was on time tonight.
He walked toward her with a small smile, "What's for dinner?" he questioned, bouncing their boy.
The baby giggled happily, playing with his father's tie.
"Japchae and Kimchi jjigae." she told him, as he leaned over the stove to check out the dishes she was preparing.
Yeojin missed how he used to greet her happily with smiles and kisses, but things have changed.
With the tiniest of frowns, she turns back to slicing the kimchi for the stew.
As they eat dinner, Donghae decided to be the one to carefully feed Jinhae.
There's no speaking at the table, aside from occasional "ahh~" as Donghae feeds their son.
Yeojin realizes that things will never return to home they were.
That her dreams of being the perfect, happy family, are never going to come true.
And, even though she was sitting right beside him, she felt invisible.
Comments