𝟮 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝟭. ❥ sungtaro.

April 6th

The following Thursday was pretty much uneventful. The morning was the same, of course, and the only interesting part of the day was when Shotaro headed off to work.

When he walked into the building, the first person he encountered was Mark, who only gave him a little somber smile as he passed by. Shotaro knew that the older was probably busy, but that didn't mean his smile wouldn't reach his eyes. That wasn't very, well, Mark.

The next person he saw was Ten, who just told him that if he needed anything, he was there. Which, well, yes, but Shotaro didn't know why he'd been the reminder. Even Yangyang, who would always be joking with whoever he was with, seemed extra somber.

Shotaro finally cornered them in the break room. When he had arrived, they had been whispering, but tapered off once Shotaro had arrived.

"Okay, what's going on with you idiots?" Shotaro looked the three of them over. Mark, like always, looked guilty; Ten had his mouth pressed into a thin line; and Yangyang was shifty. "You're acting awkward."

"Awkward?" Mark sputtered out, that awkwardness from his middle school years still having not left him in all this time. "Us? No! This is how we always are!"

"No, it's not. Yangyang is barely smiling and is fidgeting, Ten is hiding his lips for some reason, and you're denying things. You never deny things unless they're true."

Mark started to get out a "that's not true!" before realizing that doing so would instill that the statement was, in fact, true. Instead, he turned to look at Ten, and Yangyang followed suit. It seemed as though Ten was always the one who could keep it together in these situations.

"We're just..." Ten glanced at Mark and Yangyang, "you know, there's a very important anniversary coming up for you, and we just wanted to make sure that you're doing okay before that. We know how hard it was and all."

"Oh." Shotaro had no idea that it was about that. "Well, I mean, I've sort of moved on. Crying over it won't bring her back. Also, I think I trust myself more, given that Sungchan and I had sex, like, five days ago."

Yangyang gasped, finally back into character. "Unprotected?"

Ten whacked him on the back of the head, answering for Shotaro. "That's great, Taro. We just didn't know how to approach you on this and all..."

"Please be straightfoward," Shotaro groaned. "When you do this, you remind me of the ladies at my first job who always whispered when I walked by because I was gay."

"Point taken." Ten snapped his hand in front of Mark's face. "Hear that, Mark? That means no more stupid sentences of denial."

Mark groaned. "It's not den– okay, Shotaro, maybe you were right."

"He was definitely right."

Shotaro smiled.