"How was your date?" Jongho asked, putting on his headphones.
Yunho knew this question was going to show up eventually and he was ready to answer it. "It was fine. He even gave me a gift."
"To apologize?" There was a hint of pleasant surprise in Jongho's voice.
With a small shrug, Yunho replied, "I don't know." He glanced at the small round object lying next to his keyboard. "He didn't say explicitly, but I forgave him."
The clacking of the keyboard interrupted their conversation as Jongho prepared to receive his first call of the day. He should've started a while ago, but it was Monday and everyone was sluggish on Monday.
Jongho's delayed reaction was a light chuckle. "He won your heart over with a gift?"
"You wouldn't understand," Yunho answered coolly. He was so used to being teased that he was practically immune to it. Besides, he remembered - with a smile tugging on his lips - what meaning Mingi had put into that mirror, and that was enough to make that gift more than just a gift.
"Whatever it is," Jongho said, the lilt in his voice implying he had given up on understanding the logic behind a person in love. "I'm glad it's going well between you two." He gave a final adjustment to his headphones and pressed the button to begin working.
The tension left Yunho's body immediately. He was afraid he would somehow give himself away and reveal the more unpleasant half of his evening with Mingi, but Jongho seemed convinced that he had a great time on Saturday and had finally let down his guard on Mingi.
He played with the clasp of the mirror and reminded himself why he lied. First, he knew his friend well enough to know that Jongho would go to extraordinary lengths to dissuade him from continuing the relationship if he found out what really happened. Second, he didn't want to jump to conclusions before he even knew the entire truth.
One thing that bugged him the most was what Mingi's flatmate, San, said. There's something neither of you knows, and it's better if it stays that way.
If San was against the relationship, that might've been an elaborate hoax - San broke into Yunho's house, after all - to scare Yunho away.
Yunho would be content with this story if it wasn't for the other possibility looming over his mind like a shadow lurking behind a tight corner.
What if what San said was true? Yunho didn't know what it would mean yet, but that wasn't a good enough reason to hold a grudge against Mingi. He already did, last week after Mingi got drunk, and he wasn't going to do the same regretful thing again.
Yunho hadn't heard from Mingi at all since Saturday night, and that made him wonder if history was going to repeat itself so quickly, but all he had to do was to look at the mirror on his desk to know that Mingi would never leave him alone without an explanation.
After all that Mingi had done to help him, the least Yunho could do was to be understanding and give Mingi another chance. It felt wrong to push away someone he liked, so he had to do the opposite.
For the first time since he met Mingi, Yunho picked up his phone and went onto Mingi's social media account. It didn't take him long to figure out that Mingi worked in a high school as an English teacher.
"Yunho, please don't tell me you haven't even started." Taking a quick break after three calls, Jongho pushed one ear of his headphone away and drank greedily from his water bottle.
Yunho heard Jongho but was too distracted by the photo on his phone to look up and reply. The photo showed Mingi with one of his classes, standing to the side with a pair of glasses perched on his nose, a big smile on his lips, and neatly combed hair resting on the side of his forehead.
Only the rattling of the partition between Jongho and Yunho's desk successfully grabbed Yunho's attention.
With one hand still on the blue divider, Jongho opened his mouth to ask the question again, but was interrupted by a violent jerk of his chair from behind as their manager Hongjoong rushed past.
Jongho turned around just in time to see Hongjoong looking down at his phone anxiously by the office exit.
Following Jongho's gaze, Yunho noticed the unnaturally white knuckles around Hongjoong's phone and asked, "Hyu-Manager Kim, is there something wrong?"
"My wife thinks someone broke into our house yesterday night," Hongjoong explained quietly, forcing a smile as he walked over to the desks. "I was rushing to work I didn't have time to notice if anything's out of place."
"Nobody got hurt, right?" Jongho asked solemnly.
Hongjoong shook his head. Yunho placed a reassuring hand on the manager's tensed arm.
"I have to go back to check if everything's alright. This is irresponsible of me but can you take care of the team while I'm gone? I trust you guys the most."
"Of course," said Yunho.
Before Hongjoong left, he added, "You guys should be careful, too. The city's kind of...messy, right now."
"That reminds me," said Jongho, facing Yunho again. "You got home safely that night, right? After you came by for tea?"
The image of the dead cats reassembled in Yunho's mind in an instant. Those pieces of memory never went away, even though they were already broken into tiny fragments. He remembered the feeling of being in that dark alley, but also the fact that he was too shocked to text Jongho when he returned home.
"Yeah," Yunho replied. "I told you you were just overreacting."
Jongho shrugged. "I just think that things always come in a package. You met this person and you're suddenly much happier in your work, but then-"
"I get your point," Yunho said, stopping Jongho before it got to the hypothetical part.
The conversation ended there and they eventually went back to work - for real this time.
Hongjoong returned before lunchtime with the good news that nothing was stolen; it was probably just a prankster going overboard.
The rest of the day was uneventful, which was perhaps why Yunho was so overwhelmed by a mixture of anxiety and excitement by the time he left the office building - he decided to visit the school Mingi worked at.
He got permission to get off work a bit earlier than usual, but the sun was already making its gradual descent in the sky by the time he arrived at the school gates.
A few students were still trickling out into the streets even though the school day had long ended. Yunho felt slightly self-conscious and awkward as he walked past them as if he was walking against a water current in a shallow river.
With the help of a nice teacher, he went around the security guard's prodding questions about his identity and purpose of visit and went into the school grounds.
Yunho turned to the young woman next to him as they walked across the courtyard towards the school building entrance. "Thank you..."
"Oh, you can call me Ms. Seo," she replied cheerfully.
A few excited screams coming from a sports ground to their left filled up the momentary silence.
"Mingi should be getting off work soon. Do you want to wait inside the entrance hall?"
Yunho hadn't realized they were already at the door until Ms. Seo spoke again. In fact, he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings; he was too nervous about meeting Mingi at the place he worked.
"Um, sur-"
"Oh! Nevermind, he's right there!" Ms. Seo released the door handle and pointed over Yunho's shoulder.
Yunho turned around and sure enough, Mingi was standing to the side of the gates, by a small garden extended along the perimeter of campus. He didn't wear glasses, but his hair was parted the exact same way as it was in the photo Yunho saw this morning.
Then he spotted someone else. A sulking student kicking dirt on the ground.
"Ah, that's Minjun," said Ms. Seo, noticing Yunho's curious gaze. "He's probably waiting for his parents to pick him up."
Thinking back, Yunho remembered the line of cars parked outside the school.
"The streets are getting dangerous lately," Ms. Seo sighed through her nose. "The parents are worried."
"I didn't realize it was this bad," said Yunho.
"Anyway, you are here for Mingi..." Ms. Seo jabbed a thumb towards the school gates with a playful glint in her eyes. "He'll be excited to see you. No one ever visits him, other than his boring flatmate."
That summoned a swarm of butterflies that fluttered in Yunho's stomach. He felt suddenly special.
Before Ms. Seo got to leave, Yunho blurted, "How is Mingi like as a teacher?" He realized he knew too little about Mingi's other life. The life when Yunho wasn't with him.
Ms. Seo clapped her hands together. "He's an absolute charm at school!" Then she frowned, glancing at the student, Minjun. "Some students don't like him, and that's normal when you're a teacher, but he treats all students the same. I don't mean it like how teachers are obligated to help all students, but as in he really loves them as if they were his children."
Yunho looked at Mingi again. He tried to touch Minjun's shoulder, but the boy shrunk away as if he was burned. Still, Mingi had an understanding smile on his face as he spoke softly to the student.
Yunho understood, suddenly, what Mingi meant on the phone all the way back when they first spoke. I have a job that requires talking a lot too. It's very different from yours in some ways but very similar to yours in others.
"Oh right!" Ms. Seo exclaimed, chasing Yunho's thoughts away. "He gets super moody at night, so he never stays after school anymore." She looked up at the graying sky as if to make her point.
"Moody?" Yunho wondered out loud. That could explain Mingi's erratic behavior on Saturday night. "Do you know why?"
"Not really. Rumors said that it has something to do with an incident from his past." Ms. Seo hardened her stare as she said, "But I personally don't believe any of it, because I only ever saw Mingi lose his temper once. And who doesn't lose theirs once in a while? He's an amazing person."
Mingi was waving goodbye to Minjun now, who was walking to his parents' car. It was Yunho's first time seeing Mingi's back profile so closely. It looked unfamiliar.
"But..." Yunho began, only to realize he didn't know what else to ask.
"Yunho?"
Mingi's deep voice made Yunho's heart skip a beat. It had become an instinctive reaction by his body. He turned around and saw a wide grin, slightly flushed cheeks, and those gentle eyes.
Yunho knew this face. It was familiar, but it wasn't the one that he wanted to see. He remembered the stony gaze, the tight lips, and the red neck, too. He looked up at the sky and couldn't help but wonder if Mingi was going to get moody again.
Mingi's face glowed a soft orange under the last rays of the sun, and at that moment, he felt like a complete mystery to Yunho.