junhui was seated on his bed in the late afternoon, staring down at the digits he had typed into his phone, hesitating to call this certain person. ever since his sudden stay in the lake house, he barely stayed in touch with his friends nor had he contacted them voluntarily.
of course they knew fairly that it had something to do with his yet to be discovered disease, but more than that had remained unspoken. junhui was against the idea to rise concern amongst his dearest friends, knowing that it would most likely cause worries and grieve. but most of all compassion, which he hatred with a great passion.
that's mainly why, out of all friends, he had chosen a certain person. the only one who he could call in an emergency case. though he was well aware that no matter what, his friends would always have his back, the boy he was about to call carried along this specific form of assurance, making him the only person junhui wanted to entrust his current idea with.
he had purposely chosen a moment for himself alone, leaving minghao downstairs at the already crackling fireplace, so he would be able to commit the call without further worries regarding minghao not knowing much details about his disease yet.
finally, when he felt like he had gathered enough courage, he pressed the button and brought the small device up to his ear, hearing a few repetitive beeps on the other side of the line before a click was heard, meaning the boy on the other side had picked up his phone.
"junhui! o my god, junhui!" the happiness that radiated off the boy's voice was almost overwhelming, filling junhui's entire chest with a sense of joy.
"chan! hey! how have you been?" junhui asked out of curiosity, wondering how his summer was going.
"i'm doing great! despite the fact that jeonghan keeps telling us weird stories about his and seungcheol's sexlife in way too much detail. and we kind of really miss your company.." chan ended his sentence rather sad, his joyous tone dying down once he got reminded of junhui not being there all the time. "say, where have you been? are you in a hospital?"
"well actually, i'm supposed to be in a hospital right now." speaking to chan certainly made him feel homesick, wishing to be reunited again as soon as possible. "but yeah, you know that the hospital is quite a lonely and sinister place. so they've made an exception for me."
"wait wait wait, so you've been out all this time?" chan assumed, jumping in conclusion too soon.
"nope, i'm currently at a secretive hospital experiment. some sort of house for short." junhui shortly summed up, being interrupted by chan gasping before he had the chance to continue.
"a what- please tell me they're not running creepy tests on you or anything? i swear i will grab my car and i'm getting over there to get you out of that place-" "-chan you don't have a drivers license yet-" "-i don't care! driving can't be that hard!"
junhui had to restrain from not laughing too loud, reveling in chan's company. even if it was just his voice, his presence being many many miles away, junhui was glad to be in the company of something nostalgic and home-like. the same feeling he always got when he was together with his group of friends.
"no it's a lake house! there's this man who owns the house and who's like a father to everyone, i have no idea what his actual name is but everyone calls him doc! and the landscape is beautiful, since we practically live in a remote valley. beside the side effects that occur every now and then it feels like a vacation resort, you can barely even tell i'm sick."
junhui knew that his last sentence had mostly been a lie, as his disease was starting to play up quite a lot recently. more side effects started showing and majority of his sleep went to waste as he started losing the ability of feeling tired. not even to start about his muscles going down hill on an incredibly fast pace.
yet chan, the always cheerful boy, didn't deserve to know all that information.
"that actually.. sounds way better than a hospital." chan breathed out, apparently rather surprised about the location junhui had been on for the past weeks.
"and actually, there's someone i need to tell you about.." junhui took a deep breath, gathering the guts to tell chan about the certain someone he had met during his stay. "..i fell in love with a guy here."
"YOU WHAT!" junhui had to distance his phone for a split second, allowing chan to scream all sorts of inaudible words in his microphone without causing damage to his own ears. "dude, YOU GOT YOURSELF A BOYFRIEND?"
"yes! and to make things even better, i'm allowed to invite you and the group over! that's why i called." yet again chan started yelling unrecognizable things out of pure excitement for the good news junhui had brought to him.
"the toe cult is making a trip! and my man finally got himself a boyfriend! o my fucking god! i can't wait to tell the others!" junhui was way glad to hear chan's happiness on the other side of the line, getting ready to go through the further plan with him, to get their meeting at the lake house arranged.
"okay, but! there's something important you need to pass around to the rest. minghao, you know.. my boyfriend.. he's in here for a past trauma and as you see, he finds it overwhelming and hard to speak to new people. so please, i'm asking you and the rest to not arrive with some sort of weird surprise or jokes because i don't want minghao to feel uncomfortable the moment i introduce him to you. he's doing so much better than when i met him in the first place, and if you don't mind i really value his well being."
it was silent for a mere second on the other side of the phone, making junhui question if chan received the information correctly and if he was able to comprehend what he had just said. "damn.. i've never heard you being in love, let alone be so starstruck about a single fucking person."
both junhui and chan chuckled about the younger's blunt comment referring to junhui's relationship. yet junhui appreciated it, being able to talk to his friend again.
"man, i don't believe i've ever felt like this before in all honesty."
