Ryeowook is feeling simply bewildered right now as he surveyed the mess. How did Siwon managed to mess up the whole house in one short night?

“It’s a bombsite!” He complained aloud to no one in particular, because the culprit had dashed out of the house the moment he arrived this morning.

The sink is filled with stained mugs and dirty champagne glasses, the kitchen table covered with dirty dishes and the air….the air! Ryeowook did not have to be told what caused the scent of debauchery.

Someone should have warned the help, Ryeowook seethed. How could he’d known when Siwon, all impeccably dressed and clean-shaven, pushed past him on his way out at the door. At least the living room was livable, Ryeowook consoled himself. He bet the bedroom would be the toughest to tackle so he should start there, but then he remembered how Siwon was adamant about leaving his bedroom untouched.

“I’m doing my taxes right now. There are heaps of receipts everywhere!”  Siwon said as he rushed past. “Don’t even go in.” He flashed a charming smile.

Siwon is glad he had his work to distract him. His department is beyond busy and every case he took easily took him closer to lunch time. But then, there’s the Admin meeting he had to sit through and he just couldn’t concentrate. Honestly, he tried but he couldn’t focus, his foot tapping impatiently and he was caught several times unaware when the CEO spoke to him.

“I SAID that the delays have been far too long in your department in recent weeks.” The CEO replied tartly.

Siwon forced himself to focus as he defended his poorly staffed department. He must have went across quite hostile because the CEO interrupted his speech about how never having the same freelancers meant precious time spent retraining each one that came in.

A very angry MD Choi strode out of the room when the meeting ended but Sungmin was quickly trailing after him.

“I don’t care if this is a bad time!” Sungmin declared loudly as he slammed the door behind him once they entered Siwon’s office. Both men were seething and refused to look at each other in case they said something they may regret. But it did not take long for Sungmin to begin his ranting about a freelancer who was lesser than a team player than expected.

“Something’s gonna explode if you don’t do something about beefing up our team!” Sungmin ended with flourish.

“Yeah, that would be me.” Siwon flashed a nasty smirk. Sungmin looked at him in confusion. “I quit!”

“NO!” Sungmin cried out as his frame deflated. “No, Siwon, no.”

“I’m joking!” Siwon chuckled.

“Cheeky bastard.” Sungmin murmurs under his breath.

“Hyukjae offered to do every shift available because he is flying off for his vacay in 2 months, we’ve got him.”

“Ok.” Sungmin pouted.

“And Kyuhyun, he just emailed me his resume.” Siwon said as he glanced through the pages. “He can start in 2 weeks although we will need to put him on light duties only.”

“He’s a GP, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but he also covers a rural area so he is pretty much dealing with anything and everything. It’s the volume of work he needs to get used to.”

“He’ll cope.” Sungmin decides.

“And I’ll go talk to the freelancer.”

Sungmin smiled at last and he left the room satisfied.

Once alone, Siwon took a brief look at the clock on the wall before him and groaned. It’s only lunchtime. All he wants to do now is to go home, and reminisce. He had long since stopped being embarrassed about leaving a mess for Ryeowook to clean up after him. And he long since learnt to ignore the disapproving look on Ryeowook’s face when a pretty new face stumbled into the kitchen while he’s making breakfast.

But he wanted his room as Kyuhyun had left it, wanted his scent to linger a while longer before he deal with getting over him.

Again.

~@~

“He’s doing his tax return this time of the year?” Sungmin asks in disbelief when Ryeowook told him about his day.

“He’s got papers everywhere.” Ryeowook affirms.

“Hmm…” Sungmin doesn’t believe a word of the story.

“As you know, I popped in Saturday evening to see Kyuhyun before he left. They were up in Siwon’s room, I did not have the heart to disturb them.”

“In his bedroom?” Sungmin is curious.

Ryeowook coughed guiltily, he isn’t about to share about finding clothes and underwear strewn on the stairs and the loud noises coming from the bedroom.

“Kyuhyun was crying. Sobbing.”

Sungmin shook his head slightly. “Well, I’m glad Siwon was there to comfort him. And soon he will be coming back here!”

~@~

Siwon had to keep on chanting the mantra, “He is just a colleague.” As he skimped through Kyuhyun’s resume. Soon he gave up. “He’s also my ex-spouse.” He conceded and took a closer look at every sentence.

It’s natural to be curious, Siwon reasoned.

He saw that Kyuhyun had become an organ donor and listed his hobbies as swimming, tennis and triathalon.

Yeah, right. Siwon grinned. After forwarding the resume to HR, he sends a quick email to him headed Gaming, Gaming, Food. Kyuhyun would understand.

Things soon start to unravel at lightning speed and Siwon’s past morphed into his present.

The necessary career checks cleared successfully and then Kyuhyun sent in a completed application form stating a new Seoul address. And finally his medical history and current report arrived on Siwon’s desk. It was a thick envelope and sealed. He couldn’t open it without permission but he knows it will contain the details of his ectopic pregnancy. He is incensed that that detail will forever be in Kyuhyun’s medical history but not in his. The incident had hurt him just as much but apparently it didn’t count.

Siwon wanted to insist that it did count. He’d told Kyuhyun to sign the consent form. And in moments of truthfulness he will also admit that he had been impatient with Kyuhyun. He’d felt he needed to be firm with his spouse because he was taken aside that fatal day and forced to accept the inevitable misfortune.

“Just sign the form, Kyu.” Siwon could hear the callousness in his voice and recall the look of betrayal Kyuhyun’d given him.

They had lost the baby but in truth, he had lost both his baby and his wife. It wasn’t just a sense of foreboding, Kyuhyun had pulled his hand free from Siwon’s grasp and turned away to face the wall after regaining consciousness.

“Kyu, talk to me.” Siwon implored over and over again. In the end it had felt like waking up next to a stranger after a night of wild party to find that they have nothing in common except the mess they made.

Still, Siwon had to know. He called up the result of the faceless mass in the little jar. When he knew, he just had to rush home to slip into bed next to Kyuhyun and hold him, desperate for his love and his warmth, desperate to cry with him.

But Kyuhyun had locked himself up in a dark, lonely place where Siwon wasn’t welcomed.

Siwon was feeling lonely too, holding on that knowledge alone. He had finally given up hoping for Kyuhyun to react to his need to miserate together and got out of bed to weep silently in the bathroom.

His baby, their baby, was a l