Lies
"Karl, wake up! We are going to be late. I’ve already prepared breakfast!"
Hayden’s voice effectively replaced the morning alarm, buzzing all over the bedroom like a hyperactive whirlwind.
Karl groaned from the depths of his half-sleep, burying his face deeper into the pillow. "Hayden... just two more minutes, please," his voice came out muffled, thick with exhaustion.
"What do you mean, two minutes?!" Hayden huffed, sorting through a pile of clothes. "I’m going to be late! I don't know about you, but if I don't reach the office on time, Sophie is going to absolutely chew me out."
Distressed by the sheer chaotic energy Hayden was radiating, Karl had no choice but to drag his reluctant body out of bed and head toward the bathroom.
By the time Karl walked out, Hayden already looked presentable- gorgeous, as always. But his brows were knitted in frustration.
"Karl, did you see my laptop?" Hayden’s voice passed through Karl’s ears.
Karl stood still, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes, offering no reply. Hayden asked again, his tone more urgent this time. Finally, Karl snapped back to reality.
"Uh? Sorry," Karl muttered, rubbing his neck. "I didn't see it in here. It must be in the living room. That’s where you were working last night, remember?"
Hayden made a confused face, tilting his head. "Is that so...?"
He turned, about to leave the bedroom to search for his missing laptop, but Karl stepped forward. Approaching him from behind, Karl gently slipped his hands around Hayden’s waist, pulling him back against his chest.
The sudden, intense intimacy made Hayden freeze in his tracks.
"Why can't you just calm yourself first?" Karl whispered, his voice suddenly dropping into a low, gravelly tone. "Today is supposed to be your day off. And you still want to go?"
Karl placed his head heavily on Hayden’s shoulder. He kissed the exposed skin of his neck gently, then smirked, biting down just hard enough to leave a mark.
"Ouch!" Hayden gasped, slapping Karl’s arm away. "You idiot! Are you a dog or something? Why did you bite me?!"
Hayden groaned, but a sweet, flustered pain lingered where Karl’s teeth had just been. His cheeks flushed a deep crimson. Turning around to face Karl, Hayden playfully pinched Karl's nose before planting a quick, reassuring kiss on his lips.
"Sir, Marcus just became a new father. His wife needs him at the hospital," Hayden explained, his expression softening. "And you know our company runs entirely on sponsorships. Everyone is drowning in new contracts right now, so he couldn't even ask for a half-day. When he asked me to cover his shift for a few days, I just couldn't refuse."
The words hadn't even fully left Hayden’s mouth before Karl gripped his waist tightly again. Without a word, Karl crashed his lips against Hayden’s, kissing him with a sudden, desperate hunger until Hayden’s breath turned shallow.
‘What is wrong with him today?’ Hayden thought, his heart racing. ‘He’s always like that, but lately, it’s getting worse day by day.’
The sheer weight of Karl’s affection was beginning to make Hayden feel a strange, creeping anxiety. It had been happening for days now. Every time Karl looked at him, there was an underlying current of profound sadness in his eyes. Even though the love Karl showed never changed, the look in his eyes had transformed into something heartbreaking.
Hayden’s heart clenched. He broke the kiss, staring into Karl’s eyes. It was still there—that devastating look.
"Karl... are you okay?"
The question made Karl visibly uncomfortable. He immediately diverted his eyes, breaking the contact as he walked over to his wardrobe cabinet. "What do you mean? I’m the same as usual."
Refusing to let it go, Hayden stepped forward and grabbed Karl’s wrist. "Karl. Did I do something wrong to make you behave like this?"
The hurt in Hayden’s voice was unmistakable. He couldn't shake off this suffocating feeling, racking his brain to figure out what mistake he might have committed.
Karl clenched his teeth, his back still turned to Hayden. Behind the mask of his calm expression, there was nothing but sheer, agonizing helplessness.
Slowly, Karl turned around to face Hayden. He took a few long, quiet seconds to trace every single detail of Hayden's face, as if trying to engrave it into his memory. Then, a soft smile broke across his lips.
"It's nothing," Karl said softly. "I just feel a bit overwhelmed today. It’s just... time flies, right? It feels like just yesterday we were in college, then university... and now we work like our entire lives depend on it."
"Isn't that just how life goes?" The reply came with the speed of light from Hayden’s mouth, a small laugh escaping him.
"Yeah," Karl murmured, his eyes locking onto Hayden's again. "But somehow, I feel... I feel like I just want to spend more time with you."
Karl looked miserable, yet he forced a joking expression onto his face to keep from troubling Hayden any further. Hayden’s heart distressed at those words—not because of the sentence itself, but because of the raw, haunting way Karl had delivered it.
‘Now I really don't want to go to work,’ Hayden thought, a lump forming in his throat. ‘Why is he talking like this?’
Unable to find the right words, Hayden stepped into Karl's space and wrapped his arms tightly around him, giving him a warm, suffocating hug.
"Let's go to the arcade after I get off work," Hayden whispered against his chest. "You know, just like we used to. Let's go there, okay? Just wait for me..." Hayden paused, suddenly remembering something. "Wait, why are you even waiting for me? Don't you have to go to the hospital? You’re a doctor, you idiot, and you're busy chit-chattering with me here?"
A genuine, bittersweet smile whooshed across Karl's face. "Don't forget what you just promised me."
"Yeah, yeah. Now go eat your breakfast and leave!"
Karl finally left the bedroom, the smile still lingering on his lips.
Hayden let out a long-awaited breath, his shoulders dropping. The heavy atmosphere from moments ago had been suffocating enough to drain all his energy. He took one more look around the messy room, and finally, the ultimate comrade of every modern worker—his laptop—appeared right in front of him on the nightstand.
"How does it magically appear the exact moment Karl leaves?" Hayden chuckled to himself. "I am definitely going to make fun of him for this later."
A genuine smile, one that felt beautifully covered in golden dust, appeared on Hayden’s face as he grabbed his laptop, ready to move forward into their daily lives.
But time is God. His rhythmic tick, tick, tick leaves behind anyone who cannot match his steps.
Hayden stepped out, leaving the bedroom behind. But the very moment the door clicked shut, the clock spinned violently. The colors bled, the shadows stretched, and the entire abstract sequence of moments that had just occurred in that bedroom vanished into thin air—as if they had never belonged there in the first place.
