Break the Mundane
Title: Break the mundane (tentative)
Pairing: Onew/Seohyun; Onew/Luna
Length: um; 1.9k w
Description: Because life does not come out with an outline. And everything does not go according to the plan.
Warning: infidelity
i.
I flutter my eyes open, almost automatically, at 6:29, a minute before my alarm goes on. The smell of pancakes arise my senses. Of course, my lovely girlfriend is already up, doing my breakfast as I prepare for work.
She had always been the first and last thought of my day.
“Good morning, babe.” I punctually did my morning routine of kissing her forehead at 6:30. Joohyun is very strict when it comes to schedule and plan. She likes things done right on the dot.
“Good morning.” She flashes a smile-her signature smile that gets me every time even after all these years. And it has been always the same; the comfortable kind of same.
ii.
It was around the first term of his second year in college when they started dating. She was his first love, liking her from the very first time he ever laid his eyes on her. She’s got the smile of an angel, wisdom of Athena. In his eyes, he has always been a goddess. A lot of guys pursued her in their high school days so he couldn’t really make a move. Much to Jinki’s delight, Joohyun turned every single guy down, saying she isn’t ready yet.
When he confessed to her, she said that he just came in on the right time, the right moment and that she’s been waiting for him. Jinki thought it was the happiest day of his life, right then. He never imagined for someone like Seo Joohyun to fall for him.
It was typical, their relationship, but that’s the way they liked it.
After all, Seo Joohyun always liked typical and customary. She liked going according to the plan and going steady. She never preferred changes but she’s always ready for the worst. Jinki didn’t dislike that demeanor of hers, no matter how many people says that she’s boring. Even their shared closest friends think that she’s no fun.
“At least she’s great at cooking. She’d be able to do something on our hangouts.” Kibum criticized like he always does. Jinki didn’t laugh but Kibum knows that the former is not offended. Jinki has always been good at understanding others and coping up, that’s why everyone thinks that they’re the perfect match-Jinki and Joohyun.
Because in all of 8 years that they were together; they fitted just right. Joohyun would do the organizing and planning while Jinki does the coping and understanding. Relationships don’t work like people think it does. At first, physical appearance attracts us, most likely. But what do you think happen close doors? When it’s just the two of you at home? Having dinner, watching re-runs or sleeping? It becomes different. But Joohyun had it all figured out and Jinki understands.
Fourth year into their relationship, Jinki finds a stable job on the company he interned for. That very year too, Joohyun becomes a pre-school teacher. On their fifth year, they started living together in one roof.
It wasn’t really hard for them to adjust. Definitely, a relationship that has time as its foundation is one of the strongest relationships of all. They knew each other more than they knew of themselves. They were each other’s sibling, best friend and lover. There was nothing much they could ask for.
“You do remember, right?” she asks one Friday night, his left hand playing with hers, their legs intertwined beneath the sheets.
“Of course.”
He always answers that; because he does. He remembers every moment, every single thing about Seo Joohyun. He remembers how she looked like the first day he saw her, yellow umbrella under summer rain, damp road, pretty eyes, and brown wavy locks. He remembers her shy smile, the first time she held out her hand for him to shake. God knows how nervous he was. He remembers how she laughs at his nonsensical humor. He remembers when he first fell in love with her. He remembers their first kiss; her red lips were always tempting. He remembers how much he loved her, how much he loves her.
Joohyun nods at his lover’s response. She knows him just as well. She knows that Jinki is his reassurance, that Jinki is someone who never forgets.
Sometimes they talk like that; nothing definite, just mere fragments of questions that one can never answer unless you’re Jinki or Joohyun. It is an unsolved case of how they understand each other so well. There is this unfathomable, invisible, something almost inexistent bond that unifies them, makes them one.
But perfection is only ideal but not existent.
iii.
He meets Sunyoung, one autumn morning; wearing navy blue pencil skirt, red lipstick and a genuine smile. She refers to herself as his new assistant.
“I never requested for one.” He reasons out when she asked him why he was flustered.
“Actually, there was no hiring for the position. It’s just that, I asked my cousin Jonghyun. Kim Jonghyun, your supervisor, for a job.” She whispers. The proximity of their faces slightly, uncomfortably near. But somehow, Jinki didn’t mind. Sunyoung sounds witty and friendly.
“So yeah, here I am.” She flashes her million dollar smile. It is indeed bright and it somehow lightens him up. He smiles back, a shy one.
“Lee Jinki.” He holds out his hand.
“Park Sunyoung.” She reaches his.
iv.
Jinki doesn’t know but there’s something about Sunyoung that he pragmatically likes a lot. Maybe, it’s her company-like the times when Sunyoung suddenly cracks a joke after a nerve-wracking situation or maybe it’s simply her brightness-her million-dollar smile and her upbeat attitude.
After several months of being colleagues-turned-friends with Sunyoung, he never once thought he’d come to realization that he had never really been with someone. As far as he remembers, he had always been alone-isolated. He was unaware of how dull and monotonous he was. But then, he wasn’t completely alone, he was with Joohyun-alone and monotonous with her.
Their relationship was harmonious. It is a bond everybody took notice of; they believed that they have the same temperament. They easily jived with each other’s ideas. There are some rough edges like small conflicts just like how Sunyoung always argues that white coffee is better than dark and bitter once but Jinki always rebottles that he’s the one who’s drinking anyway but nonetheless they were fit together.
It was a different kind of fit than his and Jooyeon’s
v.
One night, after one of their company dinners, Sunyoung and Jinki walk off with smiles on their faces. For some reasons, they actually share the same humor. Jinki wasn’t the one to say much but after getting to know Sunyoung, he just couldn’t shut his mouth.
“You should’ve seen his face after I spilled my coffee on his perfectly white dress shirt.” She snorts. “It was disgusting! I never laughed so hard in my life.”
“You say that every day, Sunyoung.” Jinki says as he wipes the tears from his eyes for laughing so much.
“I say what?”
“That you never laugh so hard. But you always do.” It was true. He notices how she smiles brighter than the sun and laughs like there is no tomorrow. For Jinki, Sunyoung is the epitome of bright colors. While Jinki is stuck as monotonous; Sunyoung is nonchalantly very vivid-booming with colors but it doesn’t hurt his eyes when he looks because it is somehow contagious.
Sunyoung smiles and didn’t say anything after that.
vi.
Jinki kisses Joohyun’s cheek after a long day from work-just like a part of his routine. Their relationship wasn’t the wordy-type of relationship. Though there are exchange of stories like about how one of Joohyun’s students wrote a touching letter for teacher’s day and Jinki watches her eyes sparkle in delight-and it reminds him of how he fell for her every single day.
Jinki hugs her tight that evening and she asks why. “Just because.” was his answer. She found it unusual and was dumbfounded by the answer.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” he says as he shakes his head and tugged her in for another embrace. “It’s just that it had been a really long day and I missed you.”
She is irresistibly sweet and innocent like cotton candy; fragile like diamond. Jinki believes that Joohyun is one in a million and there are not a lot of girls like her. She is very hard to keep and it takes a lot of years to maintain their stealthy relationship but he thinks she’s worth a whole lot.
However, somehow, on the back of his mind, he thought “and so is Sunyoung.” But immediately shook the idea off his mind.
vii.
The difference between Sunyoung and Joohyun is that the former could be could be compared to a perpendicular line while the latter could be some sort of a parallel line. Joohyun keeps going on one pace; her traits are very similar and she never changes direction of everything she does. Meanwhile, Sunyoung is a collection of paradoxes. She is the intersection of two different things.
Jinki concludes that when one day when he sees Sunyoung crying on the rooftop of their building; crystal-like tears brimming in her eyes. He feels bad when he thought she looked beautiful when she’s crying that hard. Not because he enjoys the fact that she is bawling; but because it made her more humane, more tangible.
She used to seem like almost surreal; bursting with never ending laughter. But here she is, showing another set of emotion which is foreign to him. He wants to do something for her but he knows that no one could do a better job at comforting than Sunyoung. He didn’t want to bother her and end up being a disappointment so he just decides to turn away but just when he is about to leave, Sunyoung meets his eyes.
“Are you al-“ Jinki’s words were cut off by a hug.
“Just for a second.” She says and he obliged with a comforting tap on her back.
Right then he realized that Sunyoung is a girl of millions of diversities and that she could always end up surprising him.
viii.
Out of all the things to expect while separating the laundry for 4 years, some rogue lipstick stain on Jinki’s collar was what Joohyun least expected. Her mind travels several thoughts away; thinking of every possibility there could be. However, she remains calm after seeing it since she is not the type to beat him sensibly after that one thing. She found the composure to get back to work and learn to let if past.
Although saying that she’d forgotten it after a while would be a white lie.
ix.
As far as Jinki knows, it was nothing more than a friendly hug. However, there is this sensation that built up inside him. It was a familiar feeling. Like seeing fireworks on New Year’s Eve and simultaneously feeling it inside your stomach. He knew it could be a possible sort of adultery to feel that way but the thought didn’t entirely scare him; it partly excited him and he didn’t know what to expect after that.
Sunyoung flashes his bright smile the next day with a relatively familiar “Good morning, Jinki.” so Jinki reciprocates the consistency with a smile and “Good morning, Sunyoung.” But the typicality of the situation didn’t last long a Sunyoung presses a yellow sticky note on his table that reads “Coffee later? It feels like there’s a lot that you should hear from me and vice versa-I guess?”
After that, it was Jinki’s time to break the mundane.