love you to the stars and back - Hongbae oneshot book

future

And if he wouldn't agree, he would listen and understand and that is just as good enough. All Hoyoung wants is for Minchan to know that he is so, so dear to him in ways he couldn't imagine if he tried to sketch it out for him and put it up on their refrigerator with the one pride magnet he brought from his parent's house.

His father might have never spoken a lot and his mother didn't listen much to what Hoyoung or either of his siblings said. However, that doesn't mean there has been no place for him at home at all.

The magnet reminds him to keep both sides of his childhood close to his heart. It also stands for another home. Another future, one where he doesn't get the urge to shut the door behind him anywhere he goes.

One where he won't be alone if he doesn't want to be.

His heart stutters. Vaguely, somewhere on the back of his mind, a revelation dawns on him with soft, hopeful rays of the most golden sunlight. Oh.

So this is it. It's you.

But what Hoyoung feels, Minchan has already been thinking about for ages.

He still can't bring himself to say the words, not quite yet, but he can say something else and mean it all the same. If he wants to put an end to the starlit midnight dance they've been doing around each other, he has to try.

He will try. For them. For him.

*'☆°*

Minchan's laughter bounces off the colorless cement walls of their apartment complex hallway, jumps up and down the staircase and probably squeezes itself through their neighbors' doors, and Hoyoung can only half-heartedly scold him to be quiet. His chest feels too light to give his words any weight. He rushes up to their floor, the plastic bag with their ice cream swinging in his hand, and arrives first to unlock the door.

"I'm putting these away," he says over his shoulder. Minchan hums, before a soft rustling of fabric swallows his voice. He's probably fumbling with his jacket, failing to pull his arms out on the first try.

Hoyoung doesn't bother reaching for the light switch, just peels his shoes off and slips past the mess of tote sacks and plastic bags he knows is pouring out of the box next to their feet. They've been talking about de-cluttering the apartment for a couple of weeks now, but even though he knows it will be good to reclaim some of the square meters they pay for, he kind of wants to keep the place eternally chaotic. It feels lived in. And when he comes home to it after an especially difficult day, it's a special kind of comforting too.

Things can be messy and beautiful at the same time. Minchan has taught him that on countless days, between cluttered counters and spilled cocoa on the floor.

The kitchen is not in its worst state when Hoyoung steps inside tonight, but he figures he should block out a day to clean up a bit here too. They need to unload the dishwasher, some silicon spatulas are aimlessly lying around on the counter, and there are two smaller, cherry themed plates on the stove with crumbs littered all over them. He's been trying to squeeze some baking into his free time, since Minchan is the cook in this household and he guesses that if he doesn't do it, Minchan will pick up the hobby sooner or later. And Hoyoung absolutely cannot have him glued to the kitchen every waking second he's home.

He hasn't made anything grand yet, nothing worth mentioning. Some chocolate chip cookies, and yes, he has tried his luck with a strawberry shortcake, but once he fed it to Dongheon for a first opinion and received a solemn vow of honesty and the glowing review pitifully dry in the same breath, he stuck to his cookies. At least those are supposed to be dry.

The door of the freezer makes enough creaking noises to chase the embarrassing memory away. He flips the bag, and the ice cream packs tumble into the empty space.