Askew | ATEEZ SEONGHWA

Chapter Eighteen

One week later

Seonghwa stared at the ceiling of Yunho and Mingi's house with a blank expression, feeling his heart break into a million pieces. Ateez and your friends were all there, seated in the living room, eyes on Seonghwa. "She's what . . . ?"

"Um, getting married, uh, day after tomorrow," Mingi says hesitantly.

"And you're telling me now?"

"In my defense, I thought you genuinely started liking Shinhye," Mingi mumbles. "I didn't know that she was just a rebound."

Seonghwa remained quiet, thinking about something. Hongjoong gives his best friend a sad look. "Seonghwa, you're crying!" he gasps.

Seonghwa chuckles bitterly, wiping his tears away; but new tears kept falling anyway. San gets up from his seat to go and give him a comforting hug.

"We're all invited to the wedding?" Yunho asks.

"Yeah, her parents sent invitations to all of us today," Mirae replies.

Yeosang sighs loudly, catching everyone's attention. "Guys, did you all seriously not notice anything?"

"What do you mean?" Yunho and Jungwoo question at the same time.

"It's so damn obvious that Jena doesn't even like Ha Hyunsang," Yeosang explains. "When I was at her parents' house last week, she was quite down after the news. Hyunsang's parents said that both Jena and her family agreed to marrying Hyunsang, but Jena didn't even know anything about the marriage proposal. There's just something really fishy about this whole situation."

"So her parents accepted it without asking her first?" Wooyoung says, earning a nod from Yeosang.

"Yeah, when I asked my parents about it, they said that they didn't need to ask Jena about it first as Hyunsang and Jena are already dating and would eventually get married anyway," Jongho says.

"Now that I think of it," Keonhee starts, "Yeosang is right."

"What do you mean?" Mirae asks.

"I noticed that whenever Hyunsang showed any affection for Jena, she seemed a little uncomfortable," he explains. "I thought it's probably because they were in public."

"But then, Jena doesn't have a problem with PDA," Jungwoo remarks.

"Exactly!" Yeosang says. "I feel like she's being forced to be in a relationship with Ha Hyunsang."

"You mean, it's like . . ." Hongjoong starts, eyebrows furrowed. "He's kinda threatening her to be in a relationship with him?" Yeosang nods. "So he doesn't actually like Jena?"

"Well, maybe he does," Yeosang says. "But honestly, I think he went after Jena because Seonghwa dated Hyunsang's sister."

"Oh, right," Wooyoung agrees. "Remember when Seonghwa broke up with her and Hyunsang and his friends came to beat him up?"

Seonghwa scoffs. "Not my fault that his sister was a fucking toxic bitch."

"You dumped his sister and ended up dating Jena not even a week later," Mingi says. "Maybe that's why."

"Wait," San blurts out, catching everyone's attention. "The guys who beat you up recently . . . could they have been Hyunsang and his friends?"

Seonghwa's eyes widened in realization. "I knew one of the guy's voice was familiar . . . one of them was Chibin."

"Are you sure?" Jongho asks, his hands clenching into fists. To say he was pissed would be an understatement. No one gets away with hurt his friends.

"One hundred percent."

"It makes sense," Yeosang says. "If it were random guys, they would've probably wanted to steal Seonghwa's wallet or something. Whereas, these guys randomly beat him up and ran away after knocking him out."

"And Jena didn't come to the hospital even after she said she would," Mirae adds.

The room was silent for a while; everyone was lost in their thoughts.

"So what now?" Jongho asks with a sigh; he regretted treating you so coldly. "The wedding in less than two days and I know Jena will go with it."

Hongjoong glances at Seonghwa.

"Seonghwa, you need to talk to her."

-

End of Chapter Eighteen.