Smiles -Seongjoong

16

Only Seonghwa knows how he spent those three days. He never knew someone's mere absence would affect him so much. He wanted to call him, but he didn't know what to say to him. The others facetimed Hongjoong often, they had a good time, Seonghwa felt as if only he was left out. In short, he missed him, but still, he felt better when he noticed how much fun Hongjoong was having on the trip. He laughed on the video calls, Seonghwa couldn't help but smile every time he heard it.

On the third day evening, it was finally time for Hongjoong to come back. He rang the doorbell. Seonghwa rushed to answer it. The younger was standing there smiling. The others started coming to meet their hyung too, blocking Seonghwa's view. They hugged him, and the house was soon filled with questions like "How was the trip?" "Did you bring anything for me?" "Don't tell me you didn't visit the museum" "Let him step in the house at least"
Hongjoong must have been in a good mood, for he gave even Seonghwa a one armed hug. They all settled down, their questions didn't. "Of course, of course" Hongjoong was laughing and answering as many as he could. "I bought y'all something" he said. "Mingi can you pass over that bag". Mingi did. "This is for you" Hongjoong said pulling out a little plant of peace lily. He handed it to Mingi who said, "Oh hyung! I have wanted this since days oh my god. Do you know these are peace lilies? It purifies air and promotes sleep, you know that? Thank you so much! If you ever come in my room to yell me, you'll probably calm down because of the lilies woah! I love this" Mingi just jumped in excitement and rushed upstairs.
"Woah I didn't know you had so much knowledge on plants" said Yunho.
"I didn't even know the name, I just bought it cause it looked cool" Hongjoong replied.

Hongjoong distributed the gifts he had bought for them, perfume bottles, some clothes, and a new book for Yeosang. Lastly he gave Seonghwa a t-shirt, "I didn't know what you liked, I thought this looked good" Hongjoong said. Seonghwa managed a smile, mumbled a thanks and hugged the t-shirt close to his chest. "But hyung, you didn't have to buy us anything, it wasn't necessary" Jongho implied. "Shut up, I bought these with my savings, you got no say in it" Hongjoong replied. They all spent some time talking about the trip, then went off doing their daily work.

After dinner, Hongjoong was doing some research on his laptop in the living room, almost everyone was in their rooms. Seonghwa came and sat on the couch across Hongjoong. He was on his phone, Hongjoong didn't bother him too. After about a couple of hours, Hongjoong got up for bed, when Seonghwa said, "Where are you going?"
"To sleep? It's almost midnight" the other replied.
"Are you tired? We could talk-"
"I don't want to miss school tomorrow, is it something important?"
"No, it's nothing."
"Then we can talk tomorrow, I am kinda tired right now" he went upstairs.
Seonghwa sat there feeling stupid, he could have not said anything, it would have been better. The other day Hongjoong had said he didn't talk to him, it wasn't like that, he just didn't know what to talk about. Otherwise he was dying to talk to him. Just having Hongjoong around was a blessing itself, but he did want to know more about him, how his life was before he was brought here, how even after being terribly abused, he had managed to be such a kind soul. He was a little jealous of how he was so comfortable with everyone but him, how he would goof around with the younger ones but stutter when speaking to him. Seonghwa decided that day, he would change himself, if not for himself, for Hongjoong.