Mine | Jaeyong

Chapter 41

'Look, I don't know why he did. Ask him yourself, you should be solving this situation between yourselves. He just turned up a couple years ago and bought this place!' Johnny had then started dragging Taeyong into towards the building. But Taeyong was scraping his feet at the ground in denial. But then the bell of the door rang as he was dragging Taeyong inside.

'I can't!' Taeyong whined. 'I can't do this, not now, not ever!' He was trying to pull Johnny away from his grip but of course, Johnny was stronger than him.

Johnny groaned as he was pulling the unwilling Taeyong. 'You can! Stop being silly! You brought this upon yourself.' Then Taeyong gave in, he just swatted Johnny's hands off of him and tidied himself up.

He cleared his throat. 'You have to promise me that if I decide to leave you'll make sure he doesn't follow me and you won't either.' He gave Johnny serious eyes. He was certain he would harm Johnny if he broke it. When Johnny nodded his head, Taeyong relaxed his tense body and decided to look around the room he was dragged into, part of him didn't believe Jaehyun lived here. He never knew Jaehyun was into art or colour.

The walls were painted a mint green which fit well with the white curtains that were beside the windows with multicoloured stained glass that made the room glow in colour because the sun had seeped through, there were paintings on the walls, mostly conceptual paintings. There was an easel in the corner, beside a wooden table with clay pottery of vases. It was a workshop for artists. There was even a wooden sculpture in the centre of the room that half of it was left calved, that seemed to be a work in progress, there were fresh chippings of the wood that littered the floor beside it, that lastly had a metal black fold-out chair beside it.

He started to question if this Jaehyun was the same person.

The Jaehyun back then dreaded manual labour and never had done art, or maybe he did, and never showed Taeyong. But it is possible that he got good at it over the years, but that would mean that it would be more than a hobby. But he could remember Jaehyun swearing to him he would never pick up a paintbrush or any other art supply or object in his life one time. Funny, isn't it? How Karma works, she's clever. They say if you promise to do something too early or without thought, you'll end up doing the opposite as you grow. Taeyong never understood or realised that could be possible until standing there. What had he promised to never do and did now? Ah... be with Jaehyun.

Taeyong cleared his throat. 'It's nice.' As he smelled the oil used to polish or clean wood, white-spirit was it? He remembered that smell at school in the art rooms, which just reminded him of the school as a whole. Classmates hated the smell and complained at how it made them drowsy, but Taeyong actually liked it. Johnny seemed to think the opposite and held his nose. 'Bloody bastard forgot to use the air freshener I got him.'

Taeyong made a small suppressed laugh.

They were both being nosy, looking around the room, it started to be a little to empty so Johnny quickly cleared his throat and shouted 'Jaehyun! You there!?' He had forgotten to check whether Jaehyun was even home, but it was the morning, he should be here unless he wakes up early and does other things. But then there was a shout back. 'Johnny?' It was muffled behind the barrier of brick. 'Yes, it's me.' Johnny had said in a bored tone.

Then there were footsteps and Taeyong could feel that anxiety swirling in his gut and he quickly tip-toed to the door so he could leave. 'Stay here!' Johnny made a whisper while he hissed at Taeyong.

Taeyong had his hand on the metal handle though, he couldn't turn around and be brave.

'Ohhh, how is Ch-' There was a drop of metal clashing on the floor. There was a sudden fluster of guilt and embarrassment running down Taeyong's head to his toes and he could feel his fingers go cold, he could no longer move, he knew Jaehyun was behind him and he wasn't planning to look at him even though deep down there was a part of him that wanted to see what had become of Jaehyun. 'Taeyong, it has been a while.'

No shit...

Taeyong bit his lip nervously.

Jaehyun must have picked up the metal object, he walked to the chair and there was a sound of soft scraping that was satisfying to the ears. 'You don't need to be scared, I can't even hurt a bug, I end up capturing them in jars and setting them free.' Jaehyun had a voice showing he was concentrated on the thing he was doing.

He was different. He used to kill bugs all the time whenever Taeyong got scared, this couldn't be Jaehyun. He had changed so much. He sounded more mature as well. He hadn't sworn, not even nearly once yet.

Taeyong felt a hand on his shoulder and he quickly jolted around, his body must have switched to survival mode with this skittish behaviour. But as he peeked his eye to look who it was, it was just Johnny, giving him a comforting smile. Why had everyone changed personalities and mannerisms except him? That was his question and seemed to be Jaehyun's as well. 'You know, you may look different but you're still the same.'

He tightened his fist. He still hadn't looked at Jaehyun yet, his eyes were on the floor. There was a gulp from Jaehyun as he looked at the other from the front, he quickly looked away and back to his work.

One thing had changed as he was back at square one.

Taeyong turned back around, rubbing his neck nervously. 'I think it's better if I go.' He put his hand back onto the metal, pulling it and leaving, that left a cold breeze to flow into the room from the winter air. His presence being no longer there didn't just make the room cold, but also Jaehyun. Johnny let him leave, he promised. But Jaehyun must have slipped through the door swiftly without his notice when Johnny did notice he cussed. But maybe, it was better he just let this happen... or well, it could end terribly, leaving him to blame.