Myungsoo stands in a darkroom with only red light shining brightly as he carefully transfers one by one photos to different bins filled with chemicals. In order for the photos to properly develop, he slowly continues the process. He feels the fatigue spreading just as slowly across his muscles and he sighs wondering a bit frustrated when he’ll be able to finally go home and finish all this work that’s piled up for him.

He suddenly feels the phone in his pocket buzz with an incoming call but he ignores it.

He's trying to focus on finishing the batch of photos as soon as he can. He feels it buzz again and he sighs once more a bit irritated. He takes out his phone only to see that it’s an unknown number and he frowns.

He turns off his phone, stuffs it back into his pocket, and then resumes to finish the last batch of photos for the day.

He spends the next 3 hours rinsing off the photos, drying the photos, and then making sure that the photos are cut correctly before he analyzes his work. He’s sitting at his desk marking his photos and going over how he could better develop the photos for the next batch when his door is swung open.

“What is it, Minhyuk?” Myungsoo asks not in the least surprised and not even looking up from his photos.

“Hyung, stop working,” Minhyuk says breathlessly and Myungsoo spares Minkyuk only a glance but more like a warning glare to let him finish his work. Recently he’s been overbooked with appointments and photoshoots that he can’t even spare time to go home and rest because he’s so busy. He goes back to analyzing his photo but takes notice of how the other boy looks so disheveled.

 “What’s going on?”

“Hyung, I’m serious. Put down the photo,” Minhyuk hesitates to go on knowing that the information he’s about to tell Myungsoo might push the man over the edge. The man in front of him was already physically drained and making him emotionally in danger might even send him seriously over the edge.

“I’m not sure-” Minhyuk pauses a bit, “I don’t know how to tell you,” Minhyuk pauses again feeling so frustrated with himself.

Myungsoo finally looks up realizing that this must be serious if Minhyuk is struggling with his words. Minhyuk always speaks wells no matter what the situation is. That’s the main reason why he hired the boy to be his secretary in the first place. Myungsoo was never one with words, so he lets Minhyuk deal with everyone for him while he just takes photos and edits them to send out to magazines.

He stares at Minhyuk waiting for the boy to continue and sets down his photo carefully.

“Go on, I’m listening,”

Myungsoo sees an unreadable look Minhyuk is giving him and he starts to feel uncomfortable. A few moments pass them and Myungsoo can’t take it anymore.

“Yah, I don’t have all day. Just tell me what’s wrong with you,”

“It’s not about me, hyung,” Minhyuk says cautiously watching the man in front of him. Myungsoo hardens his face the way he does when he feels frustrated.

“Then what is it?”

Minhyuk still doesn’t know how to say this but to hell with it.

“Sungyeol hyung, got into an accident and he’s in surgery right now,”

Silence envelopes them both and Myungsoo stands up a bit too quickly knocking down his chair behind him.

“W-where is he?” Myungsoo mumbles feeling the shock and worry settle in. Minhyuk looks at Myungsoo surprised not hearing him.

“Where is he!?” Myungsoo repeats shouting this time and Minhyuk flinches before he rushes over to hand Myungsoo a sticky note with the hospital address.

“Why the didn’t you tell me sooner!?” Myungsoo says frustrated as he bends down to grab his jacket off of the fallen chair and rummages around his desk to find his keys.

“Daeyeol tried calling you and I tried calling you but your phone was off,” Minhyuk tries to explain quickly as he watches Myungsoo frantically grab his things.

“! Did Daeyeol change his number again? !” Myungsoo feels so many emotions at once and just rushes out of the office not bothering to tell Minhyuk goodbye. He takes a quick glance at the address on the sticky note in his palm before getting into his car and drives quickly off to where Sungyeol is.

Once he arrives at the hospital, he parks messily and runs into the building. He finds out where Sungyeol is having his surgery and when he arrives all he can see is red red red red.

He sees Sungyeol’s mother on the ground with Daeyeol holding her and Sungyeol’s father standing in front of the doctor with dirtied scrubs and menacing red stains too prominent.

He freezes where he stands, breathing in and out heavily trying to catch his breath, and watches the scene slowly unfold before him.

His heart stops and then drops down to his gut too fast when he hears the very words he never expected to hear ever in his life.

“I’m sorry, there was nothing that we could do,” The words come out generic and harsh to his ears.

He hears Sungyeol’s mother cry louder into Daeyeol’s chest and then he sees the way Sungyeol’s father’s body trembles before the doctor who puts a firm hand on his shoulder and looks away sadly.

He feels his body moving itself as he continues to breathe in and out harshly and before he knows it he’s in front of them.

“What?” It comes out more like a whisper to himself than anything else and he stares at the doctor with piercing eyes hoping for an explanation that will dissolve all of his misunderstandings. He knows clearly what those words mean but he refuses to accept the fact, it can’t be true.

It just can’t. None of this can be real.  

“Please make the necessary arrangements as soon as you can,” The doctor says to Sungyeol’s father who stopped his trembling abruptly as the words hit him. The man nods his head slowly and Myungsoo could feel his grey suit tightening against his skin.

“W-what is going on?” Myungsoo asks a bit louder this time and the doctor glances at Myungsoo with those empathetic eyes before letting go of Sungyeol’s father’s shoulder and walks back into the surgical room.

Sungyeol’s father turns around to face Myungsoo and his face is hard. He looks at Myungsoo with those same goddamn forsaken eyes and Myungsoo suddenly feels this urge to throw up from the immense clean smell of the hospital.

His senses heighten and he feels so sick, down to the pit of stomach all the way to the aching way his heart pounds against his chest.

“A-a-abeoji,” Myungsoo stutters as he looks at the man in front of him looking for clarification, looking for anything that can give him hope as his world is slowly crashing down before him. The man sets a firm hand on Myungsoo’s shoulder similar to how the doctor had done before and looks straight into Myungsoo’s dark blood shot eyes.

“He’s gone, Myungsoo-yah. We need to prepare to let him go in peace, okay?”

After that, everything started moving so fast. The shock was still there but he couldn’t feel anything. He was too busy to feel anything. Too busy with filling out forms while Sungyeol’s father called people to inform them of the horrible news while Sungyeol’s mother helped set up the mourning area in the hospital with Daeyeol.

After he finishes filling out the last of the paper work and finished signing off the papers for the body, he stumbles backwards hitting the chair that is pinned up against the hospital wall and slumps down to sit feeling so goddamn tired.

He lets the fatigue spread across his body once more like that morning and takes this moment to finally untie his tie and let it rest on his lap.