“I dunno what to tell you, man.”

“I figured.”

“Yeah, sorry, man. But, I mean, at least you got it off your chest or something, right?”

HakYeon was relaxing in the living room of his high-school friend’s apartment. The two had their feet propped up on the small coffee table, socked feet pushing around various items of clutter. Sometimes something fell to the ground, but WonShik would wave away HakYeon’s effort to pick it up. “I’ll get it later,” he would mutter without conviction.

The two weren’t exactly best friends; they had been close when they attended high school but grew apart after graduation, keeping casual contact with each other every now and then. Another reason was because WonShik had suddenly found his match not long after graduation, and he dedicated his full attention to him. At the time, said soul mate was at work, so it was just HakYeon and WonShik at the apartment; a good thing, because WonShik is an incredibly over-affectionate lover and embarrassing with his PDA.

HakYeon had called out to WonShik because he was the only one in HakYeon’s circle of friends whose soul mate is the same gender, so he had hoped maybe his old friend could give some insight on this Poly world HakYeon didn’t understand. Unfortunately, WonShik was just as flabbergasted with HakYeon’s situation.

WonShik leaned back in his chair, his face scrunched up in thought. “I’m trying to think of all the people I know… but I never heard of anything like this before…”

“Do you think something like this is possible, though?” HakYeon asked.

“Mmm… Maybe? I mean, there are a lot of people in the world, so who knows. Anything could happen, you know?” When HakYeon threw back his head and sighed loudly, WonShik quickly added, “Or maybe he’s just frontin’. You never know.”

HakYeon frowned. “Well, maybe. I can’t say that the first time we met would be him playing around, but at least he’s starting to seem… normal? Ugh…” HakYeon threw his head back again. “He’s so difficult.”

“At least you said he looks good, though, right? You’re a good-lookin’ dude, too, so maybe you can swing him.”

“WonShik-goon, please.”

“Sorry. I dunno what I could say that would be helpful. Um. Good luck.”

There went that venture. At least HakYeon could communicate with TaekWoon via phone, but their conversations were much like their spoken ones.

< TaekWoon-goon! You’re working today, right?! >

< Yes >

< Ah are you at work right now???? >

< Yes >

< （・□・；）Sorry for bothering you!! Have a good day~ >

No reply.

A time or two, HakYeon had called him. He never failed to pick up the phone, but he never hid when he was done.

“HAKYEON.”

“Eh?! What?!”

“I’m standing in front of the time clock. I’m hanging up now.”

“Oh! Okay! Have a good day!”

It was still maybe once a month or so that the two actually got to meet face to face, due in part to TaekWoon constantly working. But they had yet to meet anywhere else besides their favorite coffee shop. At least they took the same table without question.

“What’s wrong?” HakYeon asked.

TaekWoon had been staring at the table for a long time. His rock-tumbler face was somehow a bit darker than usual. He hadn’t even touched his coffee yet. His eyes snapped up to meet HakYeon’s but quickly redirected to look elsewhere. HakYeon waited patiently.

“I shot someone the other day.” He took note of HakYeon’s rounded eyes and continued, “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ever shot someone. I’ve killed people before. I’m not boasting about it. But…” TaekWoon’s gaze fell again, looking somewhere much more distant than the table between them. “I guess… the color of blood… was unsettling.”

Enough for stone-monument TaekWoon to act like this? “What was it? I’ve never seen it before.”

He searched around carefully, sometimes pausing on an item to gauge its likeness, but eventually TaekWoon just shook his head and continued to look. HakYeon could tell he was getting visibly frustrated, so he tried to console him, “Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to – ”

“Here.”

One of TaekWoon’s hands disappeared as he seemed to reach into his pocket for something. HakYeon had a brief moment of confusion – He keeps blood in his pocket? – which continued when the hand returned, not bearing anything but fingers slightly curled. TaekWoon held out his empty hand to HakYeon. He wasn’t exactly sure of what he was supposed to be looking at until he noticed a bead of something growing on the pad of his index finger, and the realization flooded his veins with a nauseating wave of dread.

“Yah, TaekWoon!!!”

It was a dark, ugly color, nothing like he imagined it would be. It continued to swell on TaekWoon’s finger until it looked heavy enough that it was about to roll over the side. HakYeon snatched up a napkin and crumpled it around TaekWoon’s finger, the paper quickly seeping up the blood.

TaekWoon looked up at HakYeon. “What…?”

He didn’t even know he was shaking. “Don’t… do that. Please…”

For a while, TaekWoon just stared at HakYeon who was still holding the napkin around his wounded finger. Then he seemed to snap back to his senses, jerking his hand back as he stood up, the legs of his chair stuttering along the floor.

“I won’t…” he muttered.

And he spun around and walked off toward the back of the café. The napkin was still in HakYeon’s hand. It took him a while to relax his hands, opening his frozen fingers one by one, until the napkin fell from his clutch. The stain left behind was much brighter than the blood that had been seeping through the cut in TaekWoon’s finger. HakYeon snatched up the napkin and crumpled it into a tiny ball, wrapping it in another layer so he wouldn’t have to see it. TaekWoon finally reappeared, carefully watching HakYeon as he reclaimed his seat.

HakYeon let out a huge breath. “Yah! What was that for?! What did you even do?”

“I washed my hands.” TaekWoon held up his hand to (proudly?) show his finger which was wrapped in a Band-Aid (where did that even come from?).

“I meant… earlier!”

“I have a knife in my pocket, so I used it.”

He said it so casually, HakYeon had to stare. “Why do you have a knife in your pocket?!”

“Because I always have a knife in my pocket.”

“Well…! You didn’t have to do that to show me what blood looks like! I would’ve seen it eventually!”

“Are you okay?”

It was out of character, and it cut off HakYeon’s whining. He was so caught off guard that he didn’t reply. TaekWoon stared like usual, his expression still blank and unreadable.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” HakYeon finally replied.

“Okay.”

A/N: I'm updating tonight because I just received some bad news, and I need y'all's comments to make me happy again...