COSMOS | seongjoong

chapter 12.

it had been nearly a week since hongjoong received that phone call from taejoon. seonghwa was still so curious as to who it was, but he decided against asking for now, as he didn't want to invade hongjoong's privacy. he planned to ask him eventually though, making sure to store a reminder for the confrontation in the back of his mind.

as it was now late september, the two had a week without classes— their college had finally decided to give them a break as the students there had been working and studying nonstop for 2 months. hongjoong took this time as an opportunity to introduce seonghwa to his best friends; they had begged hongjoong to introduce them to the man he was crushing on.

that led them to the current time, where seonghwa was seated anxiously on his bed, waiting for the two men whom he's never seen before to knock on their door. hongjoong, on the other hand, had a bright smile on his face as he paced around the room, rambling to seonghwa. the older one usually paid as much attention as possible whenever the other spoke, almost as if it was illegal not to. but this time was different; seonghwa was too caught up in his overwhelming negative thoughts to decipher his words. he picked at his cuticles wondering if hongjoong's friends would despise him. no matter how many times hongjoong tried to debunk the thought in the now pink-haired male's head, he couldn't get his brain to believe it.

seonghwa's pov

i was quickly brought out of my thoughts by the sound of a knock filling the dorm. that must be them, i thought. i slowly stood up, not even trying to make an effort to open the door as hongjoong was already in front of it by the time i averted my sight from the floor. don't be awkward, seonghwa. you can't make them hate you.

soon enough, i saw shorter brunettes walk inside. they looked really kind and friendly, which made me a little less tense about the situation. "hi joongie! i missed you so much! i basically dragged san here... could you believe he'd rather sleep in than see his bestie after weeks??" the shorter of the two strangers rambled on. he looked vaguely familiar; i couldn't pinpoint precisely where i had seen him before. i did know one thing— why was he so affectionate with hongjoong? that should be me...

hongjoong smiled as he was brought into a hug by the other two men. "i missed you too, wooyoung! and wow san, i'm so hurt," the beautiful male wipes a fake tear off of his face to add a dramatic effect to his reaction. all three of them fell into a small fit of laughter.

if i was honest, i felt left out. why do i sound so selfish? they've literally been here for 2 minutes... you aren't the main character seonghwa. i slowly walked up behind hongjoong, trying to make my presence more known. he looked over to me with a bright smile before beginning to speak. "ah! this is seonghwa! seonghwa these are my best friends, wooyoung and san." i awkwardly waved at them with a small smile, but the way wooyoung looked at me after hongjoong said my name was making me uncomfortable. he almost looked mad, and i had no idea why. my heartbeat picked up slightly in pace as my hands started to run cold. i'd try to keep my composure as i've known them for 5 minutes— they provable wouldn't think very highly of me if my first impression to them was me having a breakdown.

after a while, the three of them were having random conversations about many different topics, with me adding in a response every now and then. it seemed as if every time i looked up from the floor, wooyoung was glaring at me. it didn't feel nice at all; why was he still looking at me this way?? san was in the middle of a sentence about an assignment for one of his classes when i mumbled a small 'be right back' and nearly bolted towards the bathroom. it was entirely too overwhelming to sit out there, especially with the death glares i was getting from san's boyfriend.

i could feel a panic attack coming on, as tears started to well in my eyes and my body started shaking. i took a seat on the floor, trying to calm myself down by counting the tiles paved into the ground. i had felt so guilty— i told him that i'd be more than happy to meet his friends... he would be so disappointed if he saw me right now.