Bittersweet - |Pepigyeom|

4 • Delicate Lines, Warm Hands

Hello my lovelies! <3

This chapter is a whole ride, so please prepare~ It ended up being pretty long, which I'm glad about because the last chapter was a bit shorter than intended. And we have a lot of Pepigyeom interaction in this one ~
I can't wait to show you!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think, and keep yourself warm during the (hopefully last) cold winter days <3

Love,
Aki

Yugyeom is not used to waking up to a noise other than his alarm clock. So when he opens his eyes to the sound of a notification coming in, the first thing he does is reach for his phone, and ends up promptly dropping it to the ground.

Lollipop screeches as he slides to the other side of the mattress, attempting to pick up the device by letting the upper half of his body dangle over the edge of the bed, but the only thing he manages to achieve is him falling out of the bed and almost tearing his blanket and, consequently, Lollipop, with him.

He yawns, finally being able to reach it, and rubs his back from where he half-crashed into the bedside table. When he unlocks the screen, there are three new messages.

7:02- Boss: I had to come in for a delivery today. Mark will be here, too, and you have too many hours of overtime anyways, so no need for you to come in before 11.

7:04 - Mark-hyung: Get some more sleep! Boss texted me, the deliveries are coming today and he'll be there. See you later!

7:05 – Mark-hyung: Is he ... is he an actual person? I've seen him maybe once when I was employed haha ^^

Yugyeom can only smile at the text on the display. It's surely been more than two months since he's last seen their boss, too, and for Mark is has to be at least half a year. Others would certainly be glad that their superior is barely present in the shop, and sure, it has got its advantages, like being able to do what they want to do as long as there are no customers and they fulfil their work responsibly, but sometimes Yugyeom thinks it's a pity he doesn't have more conversations with his boss. From the little time they've spent being in the same room so far, Yugyeom feels like he's a really nice person.

It would be a good idea to go back to bed, just like Mark advised him to do, but Yugyeom doesn't feel like he'll be able to fall asleep again. It took him about two or three hours yesterday evening, and even though that means he's only gotten half the amount of usual sleep and is exhaustingly tired, everything is better than lying awake in bed, so he decides to get up properly and make himself breakfast that consists of more than just cereal for the first time in weeks.

He contemplates on turning on the radio as he cracks two eggs on the edge of the pan, but they would probably only play music anyways, and that's something he can very much renounce on right now. The memories of last night are still vivid in his mind, dancing around like flower petals he can't seem to grasp. It's not that he regrets dancing, he just feels like not doing it would've been a better choice for his psychological well-being. And physical, maybe. As he leans to the right to get the orange juice out of the refrigerator, his back and legs hurt like he's run a marathon.

He eats breakfast while watching a few episodes of a show on his phone, makes Lollipop something to eat, brushes his teeth and puts on his favourite yellow sweater to help against the hollow feeling in his chest, and is out of the house in time.

Though it's neither a main nor a very popular street, there are workers outside who are putting up strings of fairy lights between the buildings and on two or three of the small trees that line the pavement. They are shouting orders to each other, laughs and jokes in between, and though it's not like he has forgotten, Yugyeom again remembers it's Christmas soon. On Friday, to be even more exact. In three days.