`june gloom (1x1 with jac.)

[pereyra]

High school sweethearts Fox and Natan couldn't have been a more perfect couple- that was, up until their senior year. Every good thing comes to an end, and their relationship came to a messy one- constant arguments and built up bitterness eventually coming to a close when Natan called things off, realising they were two different people with two very different aspirations.

Now, a decade later, they've both made themselves into something- a popular and well known musician, and a successful experimental scientist. However, neither has really gotten over the other.

By chance, they meet in a coffee shop on an early morning in the late summer. But can these two rekindle what they once had?

This is a 1x1 between jac. and god is an astronaut,
please do not post unless you are a mod or one of us!

[pereyra]

“... you’ve got brunch with Dr and Mrs Santiago at ten, followed by your scheduled appointments, lunch with Aronzio at noon- why are you having lunch with Aronzio?- two appointments after that, a meeting with Mr Ochoa, and then the rest of your day- oh! And Elaine was wondering if it would be possible for you to pick Shannon, Hallie, and Scott up after school? If not, I can always call her back and let her know, she’s just swamped with housework to-day- I heard the in-laws are coming over. Must be a mess. Anyway, the three munchkins are-”

“Salvador, please! Take a breath!” Natan couldn’t help but laugh at his assistant’s rushed speech, reaching across the table as far as his short arms would allow and taking the younger man’s hand, drawing it closer and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know where I would be without you- really. I’d lose my head if you weren’t around to tell me it was attached to my shoulders.”

He’d always been fond of Salvador- a taller, handsome man with dark skin and long hair he often wore up in a bun. His work was to quite literally keep Natan’s life in order, and he did a fine job of it. Natan had only been partially kidding when he’d said he’d lose his head without the other man. While his own line of work was not a common or especially sought-after one, he often found himself neck deep in paperwork and data tables and experiments and a million other things that certainly kept him on his feet. He let go of Salvador’s hand, smiling fondly at the man before picking up his coffee and taking a long drink of it, staring out of the corner of his eye at the parking lot. They sat in an old coffee shop downtown that was host to some rather interesting clientele- themselves included. It was a cute little shop that often smelled of both sweets and coffee and had a rather enticing atmosphere, sugary sweet both outside and in. Natan personally came for the coffee- and he took it black, with a bit of cinnamon and honey added. Unusual at best, but that was the way he liked it. Salvador, in his orders, was a bit more extravagant- not that the scientist across from him minded, past a bit of teasing.

“What I’m trying to say, Doc, is that you’re booked. Completely. Packed. And people keep calling in to try to schedule appointments. You’ve got a waiting list a mile long. Are you sure you want to be taking off to brunches and other things?” Salvador asked, taking a drink of his own latte as if on cue, but setting the cardboard cup down more quickly and folding his hands on the table in front of him, leaning forward. “I’m running out of excuses. And Murdo- don’t get me wrong, kid’s doing his best but he’s awful at turning people down. Keeps telling them we’ll schedule an appointment as soon as possible, and people tend to get a bit upset when you tell them the appointment they want is going to have to wait three weeks.”

“On the bright side, business is booming.” Natan sighed and played with the lid of his own cup, running a thumb across the edge. “You’ve got a point about Murdo though. I’m afraid I’ll have to have a word with him. In the meantime, watch yourself. Let me handle these things.”

Salvador nodded in compliance, and Natan smiled, tilting his head so his long, loosely curled black hair fell to one side. “Thank you, lovey. If it helps any-.” Before Natan could finish his sentence, Salvador’s phone, which sat on the wooden table beside his phone, started buzzing, an unknown number appearing on the screen. “You should take that, querido.”

Natan watched as his assistant sighed helplessly and picked up his phone, nodding a few choice words that earned him a sharp glare before rushing out of the cafe to take the call. Probably another client. It was certainly interesting for Natan to reflect on. He hadn’t known why the company he worked for, Eden Incorporated, had wanted a somnologist so bad, particularly one with a history in medicine, but the job offer had been too good to refuse- he made more than a decent living now, and he had made friends at the company close enough he considered them family. Despite having no relation to Elaine or her husband, Spencer, they were dear to him, and their three children- Shannon, Hallie, and Scott- he considered to be his nieces and nephew. After his mother’s passing a few years ago, he’d been so worried about having nobody to spend holidays with, but here he was, and he couldn’t possibly feel more at home.

He relinquished his thoughts about it, glancing out the window to see if he could see Salvador and frowning when he found himself unable to. It didn’t bother him too terribly much, though. He was sure he looked a bit odd, sitting alone at a table meant for two and studying other patrons of the cafe, looking for either a familiar face to strike up conversation with, or someone entirely new to him who caught his interest. Natan wasn’t an overly social person by any means, but he was amiable enough and anything was better than sitting alone. He was sure he looked nothing short of lonely, and typically that was a thing he tried to avoid putting thought to.

[miya.]

"Ye... Ye..." Fox inwardly sighs, holding the phone slightly away from his ear as he travels down the street, listening to his manager on the other end list off the scedual of what he was supposed to be doing today - and simultaneously yelling at him about being missing. Again. Which honestly Fox didn't understand why his manager was so pissed at him right now, it always happened but he always showed up on time for the important things, what was the big deal?

"Yug-eseo gija ban sigan-eseoui mannam mich saundeu chekeu, 8sie gong-yeon-iissda. Dangsin-eun jeoleuldeul-eul su issseubnikka? Fox! Neo eodiya? Dangsin-eun jigeum yeogieiss-eul pil-yoga!"

The words rattled off his manages tongue, but rattled right in one ear and out the other, Fox taking in none of it while his eyes traveled around the street. Most of the time his focus appeared to be on the people, but the smell of sweets - one of his few weaknesses - caught his attention, and he paused his steps. Bringing the phone down away from his ear with another muttered "Ye" to the manager, who was no practically yelling, Fox looks around him for the source of the smell, only for his eyes to fall on a coffee shop across the way. A half smile half smirk, one he was known for, showed on his lips and Fox pulled his hat down slightly over his eyes and hod up over that before making his way across the street towards the shop. Only after crossing did he bring the phone up to his ear, flinching at the screaming he was met with. "Ye -" He couldn't get another word out, and instead of trying to say more Fox clicked the end call button and pocketed the phone while pushing the cafe doors open with his free hand.

Glancing around he was happily surprised by the fact there didn't seem to be much of a younger crowd there, and he relaxed a bit, hands going into his pockets while he stepped up to the show case of sweets and leaned over to take a closer look at them. "Dan..." Fox muttered to himself, tilting his head. Even if someone was to recognize him Fox wouldn't have much cared so when his hood fell down enough to show his face he didn't make a move to quickly hide it again. What harm would it be? Oh yes the big bad boy wanted some sweets so cute~. What ever.

Pointing in the directions of one of the sweets, a slice of cheese cake, he lifts his head to look at the cashier, "One please." Fox's English heavily accented by his Korean. Despite growing up primarily in the states he had never been able to shake the accent, and if anything going back for the time he had just strengthened it more. Again, not that he cared much honestly. Though... Fox didn't care about a lot of things that people seemed to think he should. He didn't have perfect English, perfect reputation, perfect anything, but he enjoyed it. He quiet enjoyed how everything had played out in his life since dropping out of High School a few months before graduation, since pursuing music full time. Fox had looked away while waiting for the worker to get the cheesecake out, his eyes wandering around to the patrons in the cafe. Most appeared to be older folk, or those to engrossed in last minute work to notice anyone else's presence.

A knock to his shoulder brought his vision very quickly to a man scurrying out of the cafe with a phone pressed to his ear, and Fox scowled, "Aish..." He rubs at his shoulder, turning back towards the worker and nodding his head in thanks when she finally put the cheesecake down, "Gomabseubnida." Fox nods his head in thanks, pulling the money from his pocket and searching threw the bills until he found the us dollars, pulling a few out and handing them to the worker in an attempt to pay for the sweet.





[ translation ;; "Yes... Yes..." "There is a press meeting in half a hour, and sound check at six, the show at eight. Can you hear me? Fox! Where are you? You need to be here now!" "Yes" "Sweet" "Thank you" ]

[pereyra]

Natan found himself staring at a particular woman for a long while without really meaning to- a redhead younger than most of the other patrons of the cafe with her nose in a book, hunched over a table. There was nothing about her in particular that drew his attention, his staring was more of an absent gaze- he’d read the book she was reading before, Animal Farm. It wasn’t one of his favourites, but it was up there. It certainly deserved the recognition of being a classic.

He didn’t look up until she did, and his head shot up quickly. How he’d managed to completely zone out in the middle of the cafe like that was completely unknown to him and he looked around for Salvador quickly, biting his lip in worry when the other man was still nowhere to be seen. He scanned over the cafe one last time, just to be sure, and felt his breath catch in his throat when his eyes landed on someone very, very familiar. He must be seeing things, though. After all, he hadn’t been sleeping well lately- ironically enough. There was no possible way his high school boyfriend could be in the same cafe as him- as far as he knew, Fox had gone back to Korea, or something like that. Natan had tried to stop caring, though, and it had worked pretty well for him after some time.

High school had been a difficult time for Natan. He wasn’t bullied much by any means, he always gave off the air of being confident, when the reality was that he was terrified of everyone and everything at the time- being a teenager on it’s own was difficult enough. Being transgender didn’t help his case at all. Fox had been… there. Natan couldn’t have asked for more.

At this point, Natan couldn’t remember how the two had met- if they had mutual friends or a class together or were some other high school cliche- and maybe that was for the best. What he did remember was spending the first few weeks of his freshman year trying to come up with elaborate ways to ask Fox to the homecoming dance with him, only for it to accidentally slip out in conversation.

From there, things had been good up until their senior year, and then the fights got more frequent and they started to grow apart. Even as a teenager, Natan wasn’t stupid. He knew these things weren’t built to last. Still, the fight that tore them apart was permanently seared into Natan’s mind because he wasn’t a cruel man and never had been but the way he’d left Fox was so harsh and bitter it still sat wrong with him.

It had been late in the winter and Fox was the same person he’d always been but Natan wasn’t. Senior year, he recalled, was when he had finally started to figure things out and piece together who he wanted to be. The two boys stood in Natan’s house, a rundown place in the centre of town, the buzz of florescent kitchen lights the only sound for a very long time before Natan found the words to speak.

It was then that he had realised that him and Fox wanted two very, very different things from life.
He’d told Fox, in a brutally straightforward manner, that he couldn’t deal with it anymore- that he couldn’t put up with the constant fights, or how angry Fox had always seemed, and that he needed to go his own way in life- a way that wasn’t pursuing Fox to the ends of the Earth just so Fox could pursue music. After four years, it wasn’t working out.

He wished he’d left it at that, but as he showed Fox to the door, there was something that had possessed him to add, right as he closed the door on the other boy, that he had never really loved him.

And that was entirely untrue, but at the time, Natan had thought it to be. Now, he sat wide-eyed in a cafe, staring at the man he’d admittedly never gotten over, completely unsure of what he should feel, holding a half empty coffee cup between his hands that was getting much too cold for his taste.

Mechanically, Natan stood up, taking the cup with him and dropping it in the trash can as he approached Fox, a stunned expression still on his face. Should he even say hello? It felt appropriate, but he wouldn’t blame Fox if he still hated him, even after all these years. Finally, he mustered what courage he could, maybe meaning to say that he was sorry for what he’d said, and that he still lost sleep over it, especially in the winter, or that he’d like to catch up with Fox after not seeing him for so long, and ask how his career was going- why had he returned the the States?- but what he said didn’t really match up to that.

Instead, he stuttered for a moment under his breath, briefly considering the possibility that he might have been drugged or something and he was just seeing things, then finally, he cleared his throat and managed to speak, though still rather weakly. “... Taekyung?”

[miya.]

Fox nods his head at the worker, taking the change back from them as it was handed in his direction, and pocketing it back into his wallet, and then into his jeans. As he moves to grab the plate a figure out of the corner of his eye pulled a sigh from Fox's lips. He figured it was just a fan or someone that had finally noticed him there, and was preparing to put on his usual convincingly-real fake smile, and give them a small wave.

That was until that name met his ears and it made him freeze, one hand on the plate of the cheesecake and the other hand getting ready to reach up and tug his hat down further. That name though. That name brought everything around him to a still. It wasn't like Fox hadn't herd that name, it was his name after all, but it was rare, and never - ever - was it said like this. In a way that was so uncertain and cautious that it almost hurt to hear. His eyes travel from the sweet in his hand over to who had spoke - and time started again in fast forward.

Though they had changed Fox knew who it was after just a moments look. The other being someone he would never, never, forget the face of. He slowly drops his hand down, and shoves it into his pocket while finally picking the cheesecake up off the counter with his other. He gave a little nod, but didn't meet eyecontact with Natan. How could he?

High school had been rough, at lest those years had been. Going to school had been almost an escape for Fox from what was going on at home. Almost. The teachers and other students had never thought much of Fox and his rough exterior, and so he was always pushed to the side by everything. Except Natan. How they met he didn't remember, maybe he had been skipping class and ran into him or something. Who knew. But he did remember the cute way Natan seemed to always stutter around him, a way that was clearly not out of fear like everyone else, how Natan and his goofy stutter had ended up being his safe place away from home rather than school.

Until the fights started. Until Natan had started wanting him to change, until he started trying to change, but couldn't. Four years it took. Four years it took Fox to learn why Natan's voice had stuttered so much when they first talked. Not out of fear, or out of the love he thought the other had for him, but out of wanting to change him. It left him bitter to say the lest, and it left him broken. Fox had loved Natan in high school, he'd been his first real love in all honesty, and to learn what he had only at the end had left a scar on him. A scar he had been trying to hide all these years, one he'd been doing a pretty good job at hiding as well. Seeing the other if, well, only for a brief moment like this, it hurt that scar just that much more.

Fox took a deep breath, and closed his eyes for a brief moment, before nodding to Natan and moving past the other with a few muttered words, "I'm sorry I'm not doing autographs right now."

That's right. Maybe if he just pretended he was some fan then it would hurt less. Just some fan... Some fan...