Just Strangers [SeongJoong]

021

Seonghwa 

"Are we going to the play?" I asked through his door after getting complete silence from San for days. 

"Yeah! Give me a minute!" He called. I guessed he must've been trying to help Mihi with it the most he could since she had a lot of anxiety over it. Honestly, I had heard absolutely nothing about it until it was announced. I wondered how Mihi had any time to do it after her classes and volleyball practice but I couldn't question much about Mihi's will to do things she wanted. 

Hana walked into the hall, looking at me and then San's door. "What play?"

Not having much interest in walking on eggshells, I decided to just answer. "Mihi is going to be in a play. I wanted to show up to support her." 

She stayed silent for a couple of minutes and I assumed that she had decided to ignore it altogether until she said, "Do you mind if I come?" 

I blinked in surprise. "Um...no, I guess not. San's still taking forever and the play doesn't start for another hour so you have time to get dressed." 

She stayed there for a second longer before turning around and heading to her room. A few minutes passed and then San's bedroom door opened and even though he was only half ready I could see the surprise in his eyes. 

His voice was hushed as he spoke but he said, "Should I warn Mihi?" 

I shook my head. "I can sit in the back with Hana so Mihi doesn't see her. I don't want to get her anxious or angry before her performance. You can sit with Mingi and Yunho." 

"Okay." He went back into his room to finish dressing and for whatever reason it was taking him such a long time. It wasn't like he was one of the performers. "You riding with me or Hana?" 

I walked so I didn't exactly have a ride to the theater they were using. Hana's apartment was off campus so we'd have to drive unless we wanted to be all sweaty and exhausted by the time we made it. "I'll ride with you. I miss motorcycles." 

San said nothing, knowing damn well I didn't want to bring up Hongjoong. I was angry enough over what happened, mostly at myself. Especially since I'd run into him a couple of more times and each time he acted like I didn't exist. Even though I didn't want to talk about it, I did want to ask him if he'd heard anything from him. 

But I knew what his answer would be. 

Because I knew who Hongjoong was and that he wouldn't mention it to anyone if he was hurting. 

San came back up the seats to check on Hana and I. "Did you see Mihi?" I asked. 

"Yeah, she seems fine so I think she'll do great." He flashed a bright smile and then jogged back down the stairs to where Yunho and Mingi was. I could've sworn I saw Wooyoung beside them but it couldn't have been him because San smiled at whoever it was, and he definitely wouldn't have if it was Wooyoung. 

Hana hadn't spoken a word since we came, her anxiety was clear in her eyes as we waited for more people to flood in through the doors. Not entirely sure why, I found myself gripping her hand in reassurance. "You're just here to support her. It's alright." 

She tried to offer me a smile to show that she was okay, but it was so obviously fake that it did nothing to relieve me. 

We all wanted something we'd lost back. 

The lights in the room darkened like it was a theater and it caught my attention, I dropped my hand and looked forward. 

It was pretty clear that the play was a murder mystery comedy and Mihi played the mistress of the dead husband. In my opinion, she was the funniest on stage but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But the longer the play went on, the more tension there was and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't like it was that much of a suspenseful story, it was just supposed to be using dark humor because of the storyline. 

Mihi seemed to have a lot of tension with one other girl specifically and I gathered that the other girl was supposed to be the main lead as she was the one who did the introduction to the play. Every time Mihi would deliver a line and the audience would laugh more than they had whenever anyone else was on stage, she'd have this annoyed expression. 

Mihi was just putting her all into it but I never once thought she was trying to overshadow anyone else just because she obviously had put a lot of heart into it. It made me grow uneasy as I watched everything unfold because I couldn't help but think things would reach a horrible breaking point. 

Surprisingly, the rest of the performance went on without much problems other than the occasional glares and Mihi almost getting hit once but she handled it with so much professionalism. After it was over, they all came out to do a final bow and I thought it'd be done until the girl who was the main lead decided to speak up. 

"And everyone give a special thanks to our other main lead Mihi!" She said it was so much passive aggressiveness that I was surprised the audience didn't care and just clapped anyway. Maybe they thought she was being nice. "It was such a nice surprise to have you eating the stage up like you did." 

Mihi wasn't smiling though, she just seemed incredibly confused. 

"Aren't you thankful that so many people here tonight liked your performance?" She continued. The secondhand embarrassment was real because I had no idea why she kept pushing and pushing to try and embarrass Mihi.  

"T-Thank you." Mihi stuttered, shifting uncomfortably. 

Then something happened that nobody had prepared for. A boy came up behind Mihi and grabbed her by the waist then lifted her skirt up to the whole audience, causing her to scream and fall to her knees to try and cover herself. 

Before I could even get out of my chair, I saw Mingi and Yunho running up the stairs to the stage.