⤿ gs01.

@⊱ jang taeyang [ test. ]

@⊱ rang soojin [ testing. ]

@⊱ rang soojin With the fairly recent upgrade of the city, Taeyang had felt more of the weight of the responsibility. Yes, he was proud of his achievements during his first term, this term being his re-election, but it was also something his father or his predecessors (majority being from his family) had never experienced. All of them were handling a town but never an actual city. A small one, but a city nonetheless. Just from Taeyang’s perception and whatever compliments and insults he was hurling at himself, it was heavier than whatever past Gohyang mayor experienced. With all this on him, he was more likely to take naps, a few minutes to a few hours long, whenever he was home. Half the time it was at his desk in his bedroom, his posture curved forward as he would basically accidentally sleep at his desk.

He just wished he had more time to be himself these days. Taeyang needed room to be himself and a part of himself included his legal wife, friend, secretary, whatever she was – Soojin. Though it has been years, he doesn’t really vocalize his long standing discomfort with their current relationship anymore. Not like he had a real chance to do so. Since the messy breakup while still being legally married, their relationship had become almost purely roommates and co-workers, nothing more.

The young mayor groaned, sitting up in his chair once he noticed that he had fallen asleep on his desk again. He checked the clock. 3:45am, not even sunrise and just not the best hour for any human to be awake. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his left hand, his locked phone in his right. He didn’t really bother opening his phone to check notifications when it was so late at night. With the rush of phone-induced stimulation in the back of his mind, he idled around the kitchen after stepping out of his separate bedroom.

“Jinah must be asleep.” he mumbled to himself, using his fairly expired nickname for Soojin as he took a glance at her closed door. It was one he made when they were kids, Jin from Soojin and the suffix for a younger friend making it sound like another person’s name. He only uses it when he’s alone, never on her anymore. For him it was a habit he wanted to erase, at least he watched his mouth when he was with her.

Trying to settle his bed head as he opened the cabinets for any canned food. He was hungry and it was way past midnight, no one could blame him. Seeing the cake in its neat little semi-opened box in the fridge, he crouched to rest on his heels to have a closer look. Did I leave this? He thought to himself.

“Mom, did you send something over again…” he whispered, closing the fridge door temporarily and checking his phone for any texts from his parents. His barely there neutral expression slacked into a pained one, but only the darkness could spot his discomfort when he opened his notifications.

[From:] My Wife Soojin
> my parents brought some cake over. it's in the fridge.

Without a word, he opened the fridge door again. He hated this. Not the cake per se, it was his favorite flavor. Of course her parents remembered his preference, the caramel vanilla sponge cake he always asked for on his birthday as a kid. It just hurt that she even bothered to text him about it. No calls, no knocks on his door, no words spoken.

He took out the cake, removing it from its already unsealed box and putting it on the table. Taeyang sat alone in their dining space, a cutting knife in his left hand and a fork for himself on his right. His right hand twitched as he just wanted to stab the cake and blame it on him dropping the box or something. ‘It’s fine.’ he repeated to himself in silence.

The mayor’s breath sounded heavy, but not loud enough to shake awake his sleeping roommate. Pulling out his insulated lunch box and two tupperwares large enough, he cut the fairly small cake piece in half. He put one half in the container, sliding it into his lunchbox for ease in the morning. The other half was carefully placed in the other identical container, Taeyang being careful not to squish any edges. It was a lot neater than the half kept for him. The other container had a post-it note with “수진” (Soojin) scribbled on it, tacked onto the cover.

After this, Taeyang stepped on the cake’s box to make it fit for disposing, tossing it into the trash and taking his insulated lunchbox into his bedroom. He decided he’d have that for breakfast-dessert later. He had no worries about the cake’s edibility since he was leaving in two hours anyway. It was her turn to leave after him that day.

@⊱ jang taeyang soojin hesitated, her hand frozen in the air as she stopped herself from actually knocking on his bedroom door. it had been years since the two of them decided to stay strictly.... friends. could they even be counted as friends at this point? it felt more like they were acquaintances who were married by name but in reality, had nothing to do with each other. she felt even more distant from him than she had before they decided to give dating a shot, and to a certain extent, she regretted it. she regretted deciding to indulge in giving into her feelings for once and agreeing to dating him but what she regretted even more was the fact that she'd swallowed the words that she had wanted to tell him.

soojin shook her head, trying to shake herself out of her thoughts. /it'd probably just make things even more awkward if i talked to him... i don't even know if he's home right now/ she'd thought to herself, opting to text him instead. maybe that would help.

from : soojin.
to : mr mayor.
> my parents brought some cake over. it's in the fridge.

she had wanted to tell him that it was his favorite but ultimately decided against it. she didn't want to make things worse than they currently were as much as she wanted to talk to him more. after all, she missed him. she really did but how do you tell someone that you hurt that you miss them? how do you still go back to talking to them as if nothing ever happened?

soojin lingered in front of his door for a couple more minutes, fighting the urge to knock on his door. she couldn't. she musn't.

with a sigh, she turned to leave. it was a pointless debate. it didn't and wouldn't matter if she reached out to talk to him first if there was even the chance that he wouldn't want to talk to her. /snap out of it, rang soojin. it's your fault so now you have to face the consequence./ she scolded herself as she headed to her own room.