«Where did you go last night?»
Yeosang looked up at Seonghwa with confusion on his face. He was grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and hadn't even heard Seonghwa coming into the room.
«What do you mean? I cleaned up the living room.»
«And then?»
«Then I went to sleep.»
«Where?»
«I shared rooms with Jongho.»
Seonghwa clenched his jaws, trying to take a second before speaking. If he just let it all out, it wouldn't be pretty. He turned his back to Yeo and started lunch. He had planned for a nice lunch, so he should go through with that, right?
«Where are the others?»
«Working out,» Yeo said. He was still confused as to what was going on. «Joong and Yunho went running, and the others hit the gym down the street.»
«Right.»
«Is there a problem?»
«Yes,» Seonghwa said, he had no intentions of sugarcoating it. «I'll tell you when everyone is here.»
«Okay?»
Yeo felt the anger radiating off of Seonghwa, and decided to also go for a run, to get out of his way.
Fifteen minutes later Maya came out from the bathroom, freshly showered, walking slowly on naked feet down the hall towards the kitchen. The smell of pancakes and bacon was drawing her in.
«Hey, gorgeous,» Seonghwa greeted her with a smile.
She came over and kissed him warmly.
«Good morning, love,» she smiled. She bit her lip nervously and tried to look casual as she asked: «Where are the others?»
«Working out, it seems.»
«Oh?»
«Yeo told me. Apparently, Joong and Yunho are out running and the others went to the gym.»
«Okay,» she said, sitting down on the stool Hwa pulled out for her. «But Yeo is here?»
The light in her smile quickly vanished when Seonghwa answered.
«No, he went running too.»
«Oh.»
It made his heart break. The look on her face knowing none of them were here... It was the first morning after their anniversary. It should be special, right?
«I made you coffee,» he quickly said and put the cup in front of her.
«Thank you! It smells wonderful!»
Maya and Seonghwa sat next to each other eating when the others came bustling through the door, all happy and high on endorphins after their workouts. Hongjoong came into the kitchen first.
«You started without us?» he jokingly said.
A look at Seonghwa's face told him the joke was not well received.
«Yeah, we started to eat. There was no one else here, and we were hungry.»
«Hey, what's for lunch?!» Yunho was the next one to join them.
«Actually, I'm done,» Seonghwa said, getting up and putting his plate in the sink. Maya didn't even look at any of them, she just slowly did the same.
«What's going on?» Jongho didn't need many seconds to pick up on the tense atmosphere in the room.
«I thought we planned on making a special brunch today?Or lunch or...» Hwa turned around and looked at the others. One by one the last boys joined them, everyone got curious when they heard Hwa's tone of voice. «Did we not plan for it? Did we not order all the things we needed which are now sitting in the fridge waiting to be cooked? Or did you think I was going to do it by myself? Like most things nowadays, it would seem.»
«No, Seonghwa, that's not...» Hongjoong started.
«You guys were asleep so we thought we'd let you sleep in,» San said, his smile a little worried.
Seonghwa looked from one to the other.
«That sounds nice,» Hwa said. «Would have been even better if we had woken up to brunch already made by you guys then.»
«Yeah,» Wooyoung said. He had been hiding behind San. «We should have done that. I'm sorry.»
«Yeah, well. You guys go ahead and make yourselves some lunch or brunch or whatever you wanna call it, I'm full. I'm leaving. Maya?»
«Me too,» she said, quickly grabbing his hand and following him down the hall.
«Hey, we're sorry, okay?» Yunho said. «But don't you think you're kinda overreacting? It's only lunch. Or brunch.»
Seonghwa stopped immediately. Only Maya squeezing his hand tightly kept him from saying something really bad. Instead, he took a deep breath before turning around.
«Actually, there is more that I'm angry about, but we'll have to talk about that later. Right now is not... It won't end well. So, we're leaving.»
«You're going home?» San was utterly confused.
«Yes, Maya and I are going back to Seoul. You guys enjoy this beautiful day here at the beach. We'll see you later back home.»
The venom in his voice was not lost on them, nor was the slam of the door to his bedroom.
«I'm sorry,» Seonghwa said to Maya when they were alone again.
«Don't apologize to me,» she said, coming over to him and offering a hug. He took her up on the offer.
«Are you okay, though?»
«Me? I'm fine.»
«Maya,» he sighed. «You were heartbroken last night.»
«Yeah, that was just the aftereffects of the drop, right?»
He looked at her for a long while, until she couldn't meet his eyes any longer. Then he kissed her warmly.
«Let's pack up, I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to.»
By the time the van was there, all nine were packed up. Seonghwa looked furious as they all got into the vehicle, but he didn't say a word. He just made sure to sit with Maya, shielding her from the others. The mood was low. There was hardly any talking at all on the way back home to Seoul. Some of them listened to music, and some of them slept.
Maya kept her eyes shut, leaning on Seonghwa's shoulder, pretending to sleep. Her thoughts were going round and round in her head. She was getting a headache from this. Seonghwa must have noticed, he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers. Maya looked at their hands. At their rings. Her white gold ring with eight diamonds and the one green emerald at the center. She looked at Hwa's grey one, with the same stones in a line. Eight makes one team. But with the one green in the middle, it kind of broke up the team, didn't it? Maya couldn't help it, the tears started running again.
--
a/n
Celebrating 6K reads (feb 2023) with two chapters on the same day. Yay!
Thank you soooooooo much for reading my story! I appreciate every single one of you taking your time to read words that I have written. Your comments and votes mean a lot. I love you, and I hope you'll enjoy what's to come.