Chapter Text
Hongjoong’s life was one completely and utterly submerged in routine. Wake up, go to work, come back home, eat dinner, fall asleep and repeat the cycle again the next day. He ate the same foods, wore the same clothes, and exchanged the same pleasantries with his coworkers.
It wasn’t something he did out of enjoyment. No, if anything he hated the endless rut he found himself in with the fire of a thousand burning suns. He had just built up so much inertia that it made it impossible to break free.
It was a prison of his own making, the key to his cell dangling right in front of his face, but he was just too weak to grasp it.
“Are you doing nothing again for your birthday this year?” His friend San’s voice wheedled through the phone. Hongjoong shoved another shrimp cracker into his mouth as he sat on the floor, leaning back against the edge of his bed.
“I’m not doing nothing, I’m having food with my best friend whom I love and care about very deeply,” He countered. It was tradition at this point. The day before his birthday he’d get off work, change, then would go to his favorite restaurant with San and they’d eat and go home immediately afterwards. It was both enjoyable and efficient.
“Aw, that’s so- Wait no, that’s not sweet! That’s sad!” San said, indignantly.
“How is that sad?”
“You’re turning thirty, hyung! You’re kissing your adolescence goodbye, diving into the depths of maturity and wisdom! You need to do it properly!” Hongjoong rolled his eyes.
“I really don’t feel like I’m diving into maturity and wisdom.”
“Well no, you wouldn’t. You haven’t changed since we were in college.” There was a pause, the sound of shifting fabric. “Speaking of college: You’re still a virgin, aren’t you?” Hongjoong somehow managed to do a spit take with a shrimp cracker, glaring furiously at a man who wasn’t even there.
“San-ah! You can’t just ask me things like that!!” It wasn’t like it had been for lack of trying. Hongjoong had had crushes, had fallen in love, had even asked people out, but nothing ever came of it. Turns out people just weren’t interested in him like that. He did his best to not let it bother him.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” San replied, “You know you should be careful. I’ve heard that if you’re still a virgin when you turn thirty, you become a wizard and get powers.” Hongjoong pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What the- That’s… San-ah, what kind of weird online forums have you been reading?”
“They’re not weird! Besides, I’m a writer, I have to read a lot of stuff for research!” San replied, the pout evident in his voice. Hongjoong smirked. San wrote romance novels, pretty popular ones too. He had always been good at writing characters that complemented each other, the kind where you rooted for them to get together because they were meant to be.
Hongjoong couldn’t really read those kinds of books anymore, mainly because it hurt too much to read about people achieving something he would never have. But of course, he still bought every single one, he had to support San. His issues were his issues, he had to do his best to prevent them from making him a bad friend.
“Well… If I wake up on the day of my birthday and I have powers, you’ll be the first one I text, okay?” He said, reassuringly.
“Whoa even before your mom and brother?”
“Yes, even before my mom and brother.” San let out a joyous whoop.
“Hell yeah! I’m holding you to that, hyungie!” Hongjoong couldn’t help but chuckle fondly.
“Alright, well… I’ll see you on Thursday? Usual place and time?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world! Love you!”
“San-ah, please…” Hongjoong groaned.
“You have to say it back! Otherwise it’s bad luck!” Hongjoong just rolled his eyes again.
“Fine. Love you.”
“Thank you! I would appreciate a bit more gusto next time but I’ll take it.”
“Good bye, San-ah.”
“Bye bye!” San said cheerily. Hongjoong hung up and slumped against his bed with a sigh. A wizard? Magic powers? Next time he talked to San’s parents, he was going to have a serious talk with them about supervising their son’s internet access. It didn’t matter that San was just a year younger than him and that his parents lived hours away, something had to be done.
Hongjoong glanced at the clock and cursed. He had to go to bed soon, otherwise he’d be a zombie at work tomorrow.
“I must not quit. Quitting is the health insurance killer,” He said, “Quitting is the little death that brings the total obliteration of my bank account.” He could hear the soft sounds of the city outside his apartment: the dripping gutter his landlord refused to fix, the whoosh of the occasional passing car, the garbled noise of his neighbors tv.
It was foolish to assume that it would sound any different when he was thirty, that the world would suddenly change around him. Hongjoong knew the contents of his life forwards and backwards, and there were no surprises in store for him. It would be an unremarkable life, for an unremarkable man.
Hongjoong sighed, standing up to get ready for bed.
“Let’s get this bread,” He mumbled, only somewhat sarcastically.
The day before Hongjoong’s birthday passed very similarly to his other days. He woke up at the sound of his alarm, dragging himself through his morning routine and getting onto the train to head to the office. When he arrived, he sat down at his desk, picking up where he had left off the day before.
As a part of the accounting department at Golden Entertainment Inc, most of his job was keeping track of budgets for projects and calculating revenue from album and merch sales. Which, ultimately, meant he spent most of his day hunched over his computer in a way that definitely wasn’t giving him back problems.
“Hey, Hongjoong-ah!” His colleague Seonghwa said, swiveling around in his chair, “Have you gotten a chance to look at the proposal for the new CrystalRose music video?”
“Oh, yeah. I sent that back to you.”
“Ah, thank you!” Hongjoong thought that was where the conversation ended, but Seonghwa wheeled his swivel chair over, leaning in conspiratorially and whispering, “Hey, look over there. Jeong Yunho’s here with his fan club.” Hongjoong glanced up and snorted.
Yunho was a member of the Marketing team, and Hongjoong couldn’t decide whether he hated him or he wanted to be him. They had both joined the company at the same time, but Yunho’s star had risen while Hongjoong’s had stagnated. Yunho was handsome, nice, good at his job, tall… No wonder all of the women of the office followed him around like creepy little ducklings.
“Yunho-ya! Can you help me with my computer, the program isn’t working!” One of the girls from Payroll whined. Yunho turned, smiling that pretty, soft smile of his as he smoothed back his already immaculate brown hair.
“Of course! Show me what’s wrong?” She dragged him over to her desk, and Hongjoong wondered why Yunho was so… Obliging. Not just with his fan club, but with everyone. Every time Hongjoong looked at him, Yunho seemed to be bending over backwards to make someone else happy. But who was the person making Yunho happy? Why was he always smiling?
“Hey,” His other colleague Jongho said, breaking him out of his thoughts, “What are you two looking at? Why aren’t you working?” Hongjoong rolled his eyes.
“Why are you always on our case when you’re our junior? Don’t you have better things to do?” He snarked back.
“No. I love making your life miserable,” Jongho said with a grin.
“Aw, my little boss baby!” Seonghwa cooed, pulling Jongho into a hug. Jongho’s grin immediately vanished as he wriggled out of Seonghwa’s grip.
“I’m twenty eight, you can’t call me a baby!”
“You’ll never stop being our baby. Even when you’re old enough to retire you’ll still be baby,” Hongjoong said, reaching out and pinching his cheek. Jongho swatted his hand away with a disgusted sound while Seonghwa and Hongjoong shared a chuckle.
When Hongjoong glanced back in Yunho’s direction, he was surprised to see the other man was already staring at him, his big eyes shining with an emotion Hongjoong couldn’t identify. Hongjoong gave him a polite wave, which Yunho returned with another one of his brilliant smiles before they both went back to work.
Hongjoong subsequently made it through the rest of his work day without event, just barely managing to make it to his favorite pocha for dinner with San.
“Hongjoongie-hyung!” San cried out, tackling him into a hug. Hongjoong felt like the wind got knocked out of him but he still managed to give San some pats on the back.
When they had both been in college, San had been the skinniest little twink ever. After they graduated though, he had discovered deadlifting and Crossfit and now was just a solid wall of pure muscle. Unfortunately though, his mind had not quite caught up with the rest of his body, so he still threw himself at Hongjoong like he weighed nothing.
“Hi, San-ah,” He wheezed out. They went to their usual table, ordering their usual tteokbokki and fried dumplings and gimmari.
“And now, a toast!” San said, holding up his cup of water (since he didn’t drink,) “Happy birthday to my dear Hongjoongie-hyung. You’ve been there for me forever, hopefully I get to be there for you forever as well!” Hongjoong smiled, clinking their cups together.
“Thank you, San-ah.” Forever. What did forever even look like? He drank his shot of soju down in one go, laughing when San faked a hissing sound like he had also done a shot of liquor. “I’m glad you’re my friend, you know. I don’t think I’d be here without you.” San looked at him with an incredibly sappy expression, his smile making his eyes curve.
“Same, hyung. I mean… You literally saved my life.”
“That was less me saving your life and more me panicking. I didn’t even know you were allergic to raspberries! If you hadn’t had your Epi-pen on you…”
“I got into the habit because my mom would yell at me when I left it at home,” San said with a pout.
“For good goddamn reason!” The rest of their meal went by pleasantly, the ahjumma who ran the stall even giving them some extra eomuk guk when San let it slip that they were celebrating Hongjoong’s birthday.
By the time Hongjoong paid and said goodbye to San, he was warm and full and pleasantly tipsy. He walked back to his apartment, toeing off his shoes and removing his jacket before collapsing on top of his bed in his clothes.
“I must not quit. Quitting is the health insurance killer. Quitting is the little death that brings the total obliteration of my bank account,” He mumbled, barely having the wherewithal to plug in his phone before passing out completely.