𝗨𝗣 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘, ᴅᴏɴɢ sɪᴄʜᴇɴɢ

six

The day passed and Hyewon still felt the nerves gnawing at her. She felt so guilty that she ended up cancelling the plans she had with Yuta and spent the rest of the day with Sicheng.
The male was surprisingly understanding, despite the half-assed excuse she gave him.

So, the next morning she sat in the passenger seat of Sicheng's car, the male pulling up to the campus. She was still quite jittery about the news from yesterday, especially since she hasn't heard from Renjun.

Sicheng noticed the way her hands were slightly shaking, and quickly covered her hand with his. Hyewon looked up at him. "Stop worrying about them. They have to sort this out on their own."

"But-" Hyewon tried to protest but Sicheng covered her mouth with his free hand.

"No buts, Hye. This is their business. We just simply ignore and move on like nothing happened." Hyewon nodded her head and Sicheng gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Okay, let's go."

The pair stepped out and made their way to their usual meeting spot. They continued conversing about random topics, Hyewon constantly laughing at the nonsense Sicheng said.

She was, however, surprised to see Yuta standing under their tree. She quickly glanced at Sicheng, who had stopped talking, before swiftly jogging up to the Japanese boy. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

The boy smiled at her, handing her a takeaway cup. "Came to bring you this." he said, Hyewon taking the cup from his hands.

"Thank you." Hyewon replied, looking at the cup a bit flustered. "Oh, it's coffee..." she added in a bit of a disappointed tone.

Yuta's eyebrows furrowed at the girl's reaction. "Is something wrong?" he enquired. Hyewon quickly shook her head.

"She doesn't drink coffee." Sicheng interjected, making Hyewon glare at him. He simply shrugged it off. "She hates the bitter taste and it messes with her sleeping patterns."

Hyewon mentally facepalmed as her best friend exposed her. She was going to drink it either way and pretend to like it because she didn't want to hurt Yuta's feelings.

"Ah, I see..." Yuta uttered, "Good thing you told me now, or else I probably would've never known." Sicheng wanted to wipe that annoying smile off Yuta's face. He hates the way Yuta's always smiling, even in situations like this.

"I'm really sorry. I feel so bad for wasting your money and effort..." the girl pouted. Yuta reassured her that it was fine, while Sicheng stood to the side and watched the two.

He watched them in disgust and annoyance before he diverted his attention somewhere else. Literally anywhere else.
He then caught sight of Mark and Aeri walking towards them, Mark listening to a very chirpy Aeri.

Sicheng sighed as he watched the happy couple. He just couldn't win today but nonetheless was thankful for the excuse to remove himself from Hyewon and Yuta, who were lost in their own world.

"Yo~" Mark greeted, giving Sicheng a fistbump.

"Hey," the Chinese male greeted back, sending Aeri a quick smile.

She looked around them, realizing the absence of the rest of their friends. "No Renjun or Haechan?"

Sicheng tensed up at the mention of the couple. He knew the others were oblivious to the situation of the previous day, so Sicheng simply shook his head in response. "Jaehyun's probably chasing after Sora again." he said just as Aeri was about to ask.

The girl giggled in response then quickly focused her attention on Mark. This was the perfect opportunity for Sicheng to allow his mind to wander and coincidentally his eyes had set on Hyewon and Yuta talking a few meters away from them.

He watched as the girl laughed at whatever Yuta was saying and it instantly took him back to the party of Saturday. If Yuta could make her laugh so easily already, he knew the girl was down bad.

The Chinese sighed, looking away. He couldn't handle the pain that shot through his chest everytime he looked at them. "Hey, Sicheng. Do you like pretzels or potato chips better?" Aeri suddenly asked.

Sicheng tried to hide his sullen face, quickly putting on a smile. Unfortunately, both Mark and Aeri was well aware that his smile was nothing but fake. Sicheng pretended to think about it, before giving his final answer to Aeri. "Pretzels are pretty cool but potato chips are much better."

Mark gasped, feigning offense. "I can't believe you just betrayed me like that." he accused, hand over heart.

Sicheng chuckled as Aeri had a little victory celebration. "See! I told you!" she exclaimed, leaning over to high-five Sicheng.

"That's not fair though. We definitely need a second opinion." Mark complained, making Aeri sigh.

"Hyewon!" Aeri summoned the girl over. Hyewon apologized to Yuta, excusing herself for a moment.

"Yeah?" she asked as she slid into the empty space beside Sicheng.

"Pretzels or potato chips?" Hyewon stared at Aeri in disbelief.

"Are you serious right now?" she deadpanned.

Aeri nodded her head, pointing to Mark. "It's his fault. He started it."

Hyewon huffed. "Well, I guess potato chips then." she answered. Aeri yelled a quick 'yes' while Mark groaned.

Yuta happened to overhear the conversation and decided to speak up. "I don't know, pretzels are really good." he answered as he stood by their table.

Sicheng rolled his eyes, "No one cares what you think, anime boy."

"Nah nah, calm down there, dude. That's no way to talk to my new ally." Mark said, extending his fist to give the Japanese a quick fist bump.

"Hey, do you guys know if Haechan is coming today?" a new voice entered the conversation.

There stood Huang Renjun, his face visibly tired. They noticed the way his eyes drooped and Hyewon immediately knew he'd been crying. "I don't know, he's your boyfriend not ours." Aeri joked, but immediately regretted it.

"Yeah, well not anymore." the boy retorted. Aeri audibly gasped, a hand shooting up to her lips.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Mark asked, worry growing for his best friend.

Renjun took a deep breath, swallowing his nerves. "We broke up yesterday."

genuinely want to ask for thoughts on the book so far but no one reads it anyway 😭