A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic)

A Sparkly Ever After (3/4) Epilogue 2

 By the end of the day Key had managed to deal with customers while getting the store back in shape. He didn't know who was at fault for the condition it had ended up in but he knew that it was a serious fault on Jonghyun for letting it get this way. Maybe Onew was right and he had been oblivious to the stress Jonghyun had been in... He kind of ended up self-absorbed at times.  

Like when he had been preparing his brand launch after their honeymoon... Jonghyun had spent countless nights awake planning the business side of it with Key, getting up early in the morning to make sure the space was perfect, dealing with the caterers and florists and table people when Key had broken down crying from the stress. He hadn't slept the entire night trying to make it perfect for Key and all Key could do was yell at him for getting the wrong napkins.

He always came around to apologizing, and Jonghyun would forgive him, but Key considered it his biggest flaw in himself.

But Jonghyun still hadn't come back, though, and Key was seriously beating himself up. Where was he? He had found his phone in the bag he'd left in the store. Onew had even come home with a passed out Taemin, holding him over his shoulder. Hyunjae came home before Jonghyun, and then Daniel had gone home, and when they flipped the closed sign on the store window that's when Key began to panic. He grabbed his phone, calling anyone and everyone who might have had news from Jonghyun.

"Where could he be?" Key asked, upstairs in the condo with Onew as they cooked him dinner.

He wasn't hungry, though. Dark thoughts kept beating him up. Had Jonghyun finally had enough of him? Had the fight they'd had the night before pushed him to the edge? What if he had jumped off a bridge? What if he had gotten into an accident?

"What if he's dead, hyung? How would I know? What if he's in the hospital right now, and I can't even be there to help him? I will never forgive myself if he's hurt somewhere and dies without me... I'll bring him back to life and kill him myself for pulling a stunt like that!" They were strong words but everyone knew that it was merely a cover up for how worried Key was. And he wasn't the only one.

The other two were worried, too. And with no means to contact him there was no way they could quiet Key's fears.

"I'm sure he just got caught up in the other store's business," Hyunjae tried to reassure, sitting on the couch next to Key. "They were short staffed there today, right?"

"Yeah, but he could have used the phone there to call me!"

"Key, relax," Onew called, bringing Taemin over to his high chair. "Jonghyun will call."

And as if right on cue, Key's phone rang. He jumped on it like a lioness jumped on her prey, not even looking at the caller ID before pressing accept call and putting the receiver up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Key?"

He exhaled a huge sigh of relief when he heard Jonghyun's voice, grateful that his suspicions of his husband being dead could finally be put to rest. That relief was instantly replaced with anger, though, and the catty man shot to his feet, pacing as he ripped into Jonghyun.

"Where the hell are you? No, where the hell have you been?! I've been running the store all day waiting for you to show up. No call, no text, not a single fucking peep. I've been worrying my ass off here thinking you were dead or worse!" Key shrieked down into the microphone of his cellphone. He could practically see Jonghyun cringing away from the phone. He was preparing for a heated conversation, one they were used to having with a quick back and forth that ended up with apologies and saying 'I love you'. Instead, Key was shocked to hear Jonghyun sigh, sounding totally deflated.