Tomo Kan Pt. 1

After a long day at work, Kai and Jinn were riding in the car on their way home, Jinn had decided to let Kai drive his car this time. "What should we eat for dinner? Want to pick up something on the way or you want to cook tonight?", Kai asked, but there was only silence, no response. Glancing over at Jinn for a second, Kai could see that he had spaced out, while staring out that window. Come to think of it, Jinn had been unusually quiet most of the day, Kai hadn't even seen much of him to begin with.

"Babe, you okay?", Kai asked, glancing over once more for a second as he drove, speaking a little louder to make sure Jinn heard him this time.

Being brought back to reality, Jinn blinked a few times as he heard Kai's voice, "Uh…yeah, just got a lot stuff on my mind.", Jinn answered and proceeded to staring out the window.

"What stuff? Anything I can help with?"

"Just work stuff babe is all.", Jinn responded.

Kai glanced over at Jinn again, you could see on his face that something was wrong, but Jinn wasn't willing to talk about it, maybe Kai could pick his brain later after he had eaten and took time unwind. Instead of asking Jinn any further questions, Kai decided to stay quiet as he drove the rest of the way home.

When the two got home, Jinn went to take a shower while Kai changed his clothes, making his way to the kitchen to make dinner. "Hmmm.", Kai hummed as he stood with the freezer and fridge open, trying to figure out what he wanted to make. Kai was no chef in the kitchen, but he knew how to cook, he just needed to figure out what.

Not thinking any longer, Kai decided on making fried chicken and a mixed green side salad. Pulling out boneless chicken breast, Kai placed them in a bowl, filling it with warm water and thawing them out in the microwave.

In the shower, Jinn stood with his eyes closed under the steaming hot water spraying from the shower head, the water running on his head, through his hair and down his face. He had been standing under the water for almost ten minutes now, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything else. Taking a deep breath, and exhaling heavily, Jinn through his head back, allowing the water to run directly onto his face, as he thought. Although he had not mentioned anything to his boyfriend yet, Jinn already had it set in his mind that they were going to be separated one way or another. It was beginning to feel like there was some outside force that was constantly trying to take Kai away from him and this time, this damn time Jinn didn't have a say in what would happen. As a man that truly loved and cared for Kai, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he was the reason Kai missed out on such a great opportunity for his career growth, this was what he went to college for after all. Jinn let out another heavy exhale as he grabbed the soap, his shower poof and began to wash, was he going to be able to handle being in a long-distance relationship with someone he got use to being able to hold, love and kiss whenever he wanted? And most importantly, what if Kai decided Japan was where he belonged? Would Jinn be able to handle losing his sun again?

After Jinn's shower, he stepped out, grabbing his towel, and exiting the bathroom. The smell of fried chicken tickled his nose as he inhaled, making his way to their bedroom. Toweling off, Jinn quickly sprayed on some deodorant, putting on a t-shirt and ball shorts, he began to put on some cologne, but then he stopped as he almost pressed down on the nozzle, did it even matter? How much longer would he be happy to put on the smell of the cologne only his lover looked forward to smelling whenever he got dressed? Letting out another sigh, Jinn flopped on to the bed, shortly after falling asleep.

"Ouch!", Kai complained, as hot oil popped on his hand as he pulled out the last chicken breast, placing it in the strainer. Kai had cut up onions, peppers and mixed greens, tossing them together in a bowl and placed it on the dinning room table, before placing the plate of fried chicken he had made, dinner was ready, all he needed now was Jinn.

Proud of himself, Kai made his way to the bedroom to see Jinn passed out on the bed. His smile turning into a sinister grin, Kai quietly walked over toward his sleeping man. When he was sure that Jinn hadn't been disturbed by his presence, Kai jumped on the bed, scaring Jinn out of his sleep.

"What the...Kai!", Jinn complained in a lethargic voice as he had been suddenly and rudely woken up.

Kai let out a giggle, "wake up sleepy head, dinner is ready, it's time to eat." Kai proceeded to get up off of the bed but was suddenly pulled back down as he felt strong hands wrap around his waist. Kai's head bounced as he roughly landed on his back onto the bed and Jinn placed himself over his lover, laying his head on Kai's chest.

"Jinn let me up!", Kai whined.

"Stay with me.", Jinn said with his eyes closed.

"Jinn, dinner is gonna get cold if we lay here.", Kai whined again. Jinn raised his head to look at Kai, those pretty brown double lidded almond shaped eyes staring back at him.

"Do you love me?", Jinn couldn't help but to ask even though he knew the answer, he just simply wanted to hear it out of Kai's mouth.

Kai raised his hands, placing them on each of Jinn's cheeks, he could see that Jinn was deeply troubled, but as a good boyfriend, he decided on not pressuring him about it until he was ready to bring it up himself "I love you Jinn." Kai finally responded.

As Kai spoke those words, Jinn's eyes began to water, his lovers voice almost sounding like a sweet melody playing to his ears. Not wanting to alarm Kai with his sudden urge to cry, Jinn closed his eyes, lowering his head onto Kai's chest again. "Just a few more.", Jinn said softly as he squeezed his lover tighter beneath him.

"Okay.", Kai responded as he ran his fingers through the strawberry blonde hair on Jinn's head over and over.

The next day, Jinn and Kai drove separately to work, Jinn had to meet their boss at a building site that was not going as planned. Kai sat at his desk, sketching an outline when Brandon came over, "Hey Kai."

"Yeah?", Kai looked up to see the blonde-haired intern holding a bouquet of roses. Kai rolled his eyes, just toss them out."

Brandon let out a chuckle, "Ah I see, Jinn isn't okay with it is he?"

Kai's face turned a shade of red for a moment, when did this kid become so bold? "No, he's not!", Kai said firmly with wide eyes as he talked through his teeth, letting Brandon know that he was talking too loudly.

"Sorry, sorry.", Brandon apologized, placing his hand over his mouth. "Who are they from?"

"I have no idea, they don't even leave me clues on the notecard.", Kai responded.

"Tell you what, what if I do a bit of digging from the company that keeps dropping them off, that way you can find out who they are and tell them yourself to stop sending them.", said Brandon. Kai looked up at Brandon with a raised brow, Kai always felt he was going out of his way, however this time he might come in handy. "Yes please, I appreciate it.", said Kai with that same pretty smile.

"No problem.", said Brandon, a smirk making its way onto his face as he nodded, leaving Kai's side.

Toward the end of the day, Brandon made his way back to Kai's desk. "So, I'm back Kai.", he said.

"Yeah? What'd you find out."

"So the company say's that they're ordered and paid for through their website, they can't tell me who paid for them, but they did say that the notecard is always empty because they cannot understand the writing because it's always written in Chinese or something. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.", said Brandon.

"Ah no, it's fine thanks.", said Kai and Brandon nodded, walking away. As Brandon took his leave, Kai thought a minute. He didn't know anyone who spoke Chinese, so Kai thought he'd better call back and get more info.

When five o'clock hit, Kai clocked out, making his way to the flower shop nearest to his job.

"Good evening sir, can I help you?" the florist said.

"Uh yeah, I was wondering if you had anything for Kai Pak?"

"Let me check.", the lady said, logging into her computer and checking the system. "It says that they were delivered this afternoon, have you not received them?"

"Well no, they came, I'm just wondering who they're from, the notecard is always empty.", Kai responded.

The lady nodded, looking back at the computer, "Oh see, the notecard space is always written in another language, my son works here during the day so I'm never aware he's sending it blank, I do apologize."

"Oh no, it's fine, do you mind if I see what the message from earlier said?", Kai asked with a hopeful expression.

"Well, I can't allow you to look at our database, but I can print them out for you.", said the lady.

"Yes, please and thank you!���, Kai said, showing that same pretty smile.

"Okay, just a minute.", said the lady as she did a few things on the computer. Leaving the store front for a minute, the lady walked into her office, grabbing the printout of the notecard's messages written in another language. "Here you are sir.", said the lady handing the printout to Kai. Kai nodded with the same smile and exited the store.

Standing outside of the door, Kai looked at the multiple messages from the last few months and it was indeed in another language, but it wasn't Chinese as the store clerk had thought, it was Japanese. The messages were from Tomo Kan, each one thanking him for all his hard work and efforts in the design of his project except for the last one that read, "Hello Mr. Pak, I thank you again for all your hard work and efforts, I hope to hear good news regarding your decision soon!

Tomo Kan."

"My answer? Maybe it's a mistake.", Kai said quite confused. Not thinking anymore of it, Kai got in his car and drove home. Usually turning the doorknob out of habit before he put the key in the door, Kai was pleasantly surprised to see that it was already unlocked, which meant that Jinn was home. With a smile, Kai walked in to see Jinn laying on the couch watching tv. Walking over, Kai sat down, leaning his body back against Jinn's, his lover's strong arms wrapping around him as their bodies touched.

"You weren't at the office all day, how'd it go at the site?", asked Kai.

"It was fine, just a few minor mishaps, how was your day?"

"Mine was fine, pretty boring without you though.", Kai whined. "But oh, I went to the flower shop near work to talk to the florist about who keeps sending me flowers."

"Who is it?", Jinn said with his brows furrowed, because who dared?

Kai pulled the notecard printout, out of his pocket handing it to Jinn. "the notecard was always empty because the sender always wrote it in another language that the workers couldn't understand, they're from Tomo Kan, so you have nothing to worry about babe." Kai giggled.

Although Kai was laughing, Jinn only sighed, little did Kai know, they both had a lot to worry about.