love you to the stars and back - Hongbae oneshot book

past

[Part 2: fond memories, growing up or growing apart, and tears hidden in another universe]

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It's fascinating, almost unbelievable, how Hoyoung ended up here.

The past years have been a whirlwind of scenes, rushing past Hoyoung's eyes as if someone pressed fast forward against his clear instructions.

Being a proper adult with a job and everything does not feel like how he has imagined it to be, not in the slightest. He still doesn't know what exactly he is doing, if he's living correctly, if there is a right way to these things at all. Sometimes when he enters the company early in the morning, the swivel chair and the angle of his screen never quite the same as at home, he thinks he will never fall into place like he is supposed to. Sometimes he still forgets how awful the instant coffee on their floor tastes and that the trip down to the cafeteria is definitely worth it.

Sometimes he forgets to drink at all.

More often than not, he leaves with a headache and Minchan has to sit and watch him gulp down three quarters of a bottle like he has never even seen a drop of clear water in his life.

But sometimes, it doesn't feel as foreign anymore.

*'☆°*

It's returning early from lunch break and napping with his head on his desk in the far corner. It's waking up with a piece of the infamous blackberry candy from the cafeteria in his palm. It's smiling as he watches Kangmin rush out of the room because he's going to get scolded for the second time this week for running off to another department when his seniors are looking for him.

Kangmin working for the same company is still something Hoyoung can't wrap his head around — he didn't think he would end up working together with any of them, least with the once puppy-eyed boy who used to doze off on Dongheon's shoulder and hide from the mall security with Gyehyeon.

They don't really see each other all that much as Hoyoung would like to. The finance department doesn't have much to do with the visual design team, where Kangmin works. But it's the small gestures that make up for it. In exchange for the candy, Hoyoung regularly makes the effort to accidentally press the wrong button on the elevator just so he can ruffle Kangmin's hair.

He is taller than Hoyoung now. By two inches.

He's still a puppy, the way he beams at him with wide eyes.

*'☆°*

It's tapping away on his phone during his train rides, indulging Dongheon's endless complains about his stuck-up, conservative older colleagues at the middle school where he is teaching. I swear it's not the kids. The kids are the best part of it all, Dongheon always clarifies. It's the adults. The fucking adults, Hoyoung, please don't tell me that is my future.

I'm sorry, but we've already established that you are disconnected from the current generation. You don't even know what Loss is, Hoyoung likes to text back and snickers to himself when Dongheon aggressively floods their chat with defenses and further laments.

They meet up for wine every other week, Dongheon, Minchan and him. Well, they have their glasses of expensive wine Dongheon receives from his colleagues who don't know him enough to gift him anything else for his birthday, while Hoyoung quietly sips on apple soda. He doesn't drink. Never saw the appeal in the burning sensation and he has seen enough drunk people during high school alone to stay away from it. He's quite sure his weak stomach would throw it all up, anyway.