Bittersweet - |Pepigyeom|

3 • A Spark Behind A Wall of Glass

Hello my lovelies!

I've survived the January exam season and am back with more ideas and inspiration than ever! <3

Thank you once more for your lovely comments on the last chapter. As this story is titled Bittersweet, it's predictable that every ounce of sugar will be followed by a bit of bitterness, and the first spark of angst might not be too far ...

I am happy to finally be able to update again, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Love,
Aki

PS: Happy belated birthday to my lovely Juli once more! As I am now on holidays you will have to travel four hours to find me and punish me for eventual angst ... so I might as well use the next month well, hehe. <3

Yugyeom notices he's forgotten his umbrella in Jinyoung's car on Saturday morning.

It's not raining hard, more like the snowy kind of gentle rain as he gets ready to leave for work, but the empty space next to his door where his umbrella would usually be waiting for him to be picked up is more than obvious. Lollipop is crawling around his legs and promptly decides to lay down on the spot, purring like that place belonged to her since the beginning of time. Yugyeom rolls his eyes.

Saturdays are relaxing, because it's the only day he comes in at ten instead of eight. Bambam's already there when he steps through the door, running his fingers through his damp hair. He can only hope the weather later will be better than the day before, or else he will have to walk through the same snowstorm as yesterday, just without a shelter this time. He thinks of Jinyoung and smiles – at least he will have an umbrella today. Yugyeom should be grateful for his own inability to remember things.

"So happy on a Saturday morning?" Bambam chirps, leaning around a shelf. Yugyeom flinches, and then has to laugh about his own jumpiness.

"I guess," he answers, though it's painfully clear he's in a better mood than any other Saturday. Not that Yugyeom is ever in a bad mood – even on his worst days, namely yesterday, he manages to keep a smile on his lips. However, this is something else. Today, he's shining, and it feels like there is a giant sun placed right above his head that will keep him warm during wind and snow.

"Did something good happen?" Bambam raises his eyebrows and consequently also his arms to point the mop he's using to clean the floor with at Yugyeom. "Or should I say ... someone good?"

Yugyeom is genuinely confused to why Bambam would expect him to meet up with anyone, until he recalls there's probably no one that knows the exact extent of his solitary life. It's his fault; after all he always talks around it when being asked about plans and such. On one hand because it's embarrassing to admit he's neither got friends nor any specific hobbies, and on the other hand because he doesn't want anybody to feel like they have to befriend him out of solidarity. Especially not Bambam. He's way too nice to be used like that.

So Yugyeom almost shakes his head, before Jinyoung crashes his thoughts and he finds the corners of his lips raising to yet another smile. Maybe it's because Jinyoung asked him voluntarily and deliberately, because they had such an easy conversation or because it filled Yugyeom with pride to see Jinyoung laugh, but Yugyeom's sure he's the reason for the sudden rise of mood. Yugyeom's life is a line like a tightly drawn string, and it's rare that someone manages to cause a little wave in the static. He couldn't be more grateful.

"The latter," he answers, not missing Bambam's look of surprise and excitement and the poor bucket full of water that is almost knocked over as Bambam screeches: "A date?"