Lavender Bubbles °• Changjin

○ 42 ○

"This place is eerie at night," Changbin muttered as he glanced over the empty building.

Save for the two of them inside Hyunjin's office, and the exception of the poor woman standing at the reception desk who  had the unfortunate graveyard shift, the business building was vacant. Lights shut off to allow the dark inside, desks left unoccupied by the ghost of employees taking the space in the day, the only thought of life still being on this world being the flickers of dots past the window in his office, the cascading view of the city tumbling before them, stretching into a horizon that melted together with a sea of endless blue. It reminded Changbin of a scene from a book he read once, though he didn't remember the title nor the purpose of the scene.

Hyunjin simply nodded to the comment, finalizing the exchange behind that swift notion and nothing more as he pressed into his office He set down at his desk, already pulling up his laptop and his phone to set off to finish the work that was dumped on him during his day off.

As he waited for the laptop to start up, he glanced up to Changbin and asked, "Do you have to work at the boba café tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah. I have a shift, in the afternoon," Changbin confirmed, nose scrunching up as he spun around the office, taking in all the smaller details he hadn't yet quite noticed; The little houseplant he kept on the corner of his desk flourishing with petals, the framing of what seemed to be his degree hung up on the hall, and a closed sketchbook which wasn't there before left on the couch off to the side of his office, the same that Hyunjin drew the sketch for his tattoo on. He quirked an eyebrow at it, silently wandering over to the book while Hyunjin was distracted with the screen of his laptop. While he was focused on the sketchbook, Changbin started with a light nausea in his mind, "I'm sorry if I made you upset earlier."

Hyunjin glanced up from the screen again, the gentle glow of his laptop spreading across his features in the encroaching dark. His tone was flat as he wondered, "How would you have made me upset?"

"Just seemed like it when I said we were friends," Changbin picked up the sketchbook, idly fumbling with it to distract himself from the thundering in his chest. A nervousness. A tightness, a fear of the response he would be given. He didn't really want to look through the sketchbook, he didn't want to without Hyunjin saying it was alright, but to have something, anything in his hands to distract him from the light tremble in his body and the quiver in his tone was enough. As long as he could steady himself.

For someone who looked as intimidating as he was, he really didn't favor conflict.

Even worse was knowing he was the cause of it.

His skin felt grimy again.

"That's what we are, though. We're friends," Hyunjin huffed as he returned to his laptop screen. A light shrug raised his silhouette against the wall, before he finalized with the afterthought, "I would be more worried if after all this time we were hanging out, you thought we weren't."

Changbin nodded to himself, returning his gaze back to the sketchbook held delicately in his hands.

Was I overthinking everything then?

Maybe he really did just want to be my friend?

Stupid love starved brain, mixing up signals.

Hyunjin murmured, "You can look through the sketchbook if you want."

"Oh, no, it's alright—"

"Take a look. You were curious about my art anyway."

Changbin glanced up to the businessman, focused solely back on whatever windows popped up on his laptop to keep his mind elsewhere, before looking back to the sketchbook in his hands.