𝟮 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝟭. ❥ sungtaro.

September 17th

Shotaro trudged to work on Thursday, pretending as though he wanted to be there, just as he had even before the... incident? He was still tired from Sungchan's birthday party, which had been two days prior, and the effects stemming from it. He watched movies with the younger the entirety of Wednesday evening, finally able to enjoy something.

He had made a quick pass through the break room in the early hours of his shift, in such a rush that he hadn't had any time to listen in on any of his friends' (or coworkers') conversations. Usually, he was a sucker for information and– let's face it, gossip– but that fasination had gone along with his joy after the whole miscarriage. That word still made him shudder.

After he slaved to capitalism for a few hours, Shotaro's break (that had felt as though it was sitting on the horizon the entire day) finally arrived. He had to stop himself from running into the break room, instead casually slipping out to catch up with Mark, Ten, and Yangyang as usual.

He found the three already seated and talking, which wasn't surprised. The weird thing was that when Shotaro sat down, they stopped talking.

"Um..." Even Ten was avoiding eye contact, which was very odd. "What were you guys talking about?"

"The systemic oppression of women in the workforce," Yangyang spat out, covering his mouth as though he was embarrassed by what he had said. Now, Shotaro was always up to talk about rights, but he wasn't stupid. It was clear that it wasn't where the conversation had been. He snapped his head over to Mark, who had stopped looking away to take a bite of his meal. "You guys are acting weird."

Ten seemed to writhe in his seat before he started at Yangyang. "I told you to act natural!" Then, to Mark: "And I said we should come up with a backup topic."

Shotaro, meanwhile, was trying to guess what they had been talking about. His birthday? It was far too early to be thinking about in the first place. Sungchan's birthday? Then they'd have no reason to stop talking. Those were the only options he could think of, as it was also way too early for it to be Christmas gifts. "What's going on?"

"Are you..." Yangyang gritted his teeth. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Unless it's supposed to be hidden from me." Shotaro looked around, seeing that the trio all had their eyes on him. "Am I supposed to be skeptical?"

"He really doesn't know," Mark said to Ten across the table, eyes widening a bit. He had always overreacted a bit with his expressions, but with the way that Ten and Yangyang's body language had been, he didn't know if it was good or not.

"Is is bad news?" he asked quietly, though Mark and Ten continued their conversation across the table with their eyes.

"Not necessarily." Then, again, Ten shifted his gaze to Mark. "I guess he doesn't," the male said, a hand already instinctively going to ruffle Shotaro's hair, just as he had on the younger's first day back.

That small action alone sent Shotaro into a full-blown panic. It had to be bad. "What is it?"

"Jungwoo gave birth today."

"Oh." Shotaro quite literally felt his heart be squeezed and crumpled and all of those words. He was nearing the five month mark– why couldn't he just get over it already?

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, eyes studying Shotaro's reaction. It was Mark who had the first words. "I knew we shouldn–"

"No, no." At that line, Shotaro forced out the most geniune smile he could, this being the fakest rendition of it. "I'm happy for him. You can tell me more."

Ten, Yangyang, and Mark all shared a look of clear concern before the younger slowly started speaking, voice low. "Um, his name's Kim Corey. It was this morning, when we were on shift. 8 pounds. Healthy. Jungwoo and Jaehyun decided that he'll be the last one."

"Nice," Shotaro nods, that fake smile refusing to leave his face. He wants to exit the conversation, but that'd only make him look hurt, so he ignored everything he was feeling. He stuffed a perila leaf into his mouth, meatless, just so he'd have something to chew on.

He was happy for Jungwoo. Jungwoo, who had children so early (Robbie was technically an accident, but Jaehyun and Jungwoo loved him too much to tell him that). Jungwoo, with no pregnancy complications whatsoever, healthy babies all around him.

Jungwoo, who Shotaro wished he could experience the life of, just once.