𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ☾︎ soonhoon

C H P - 6

They only sighed.

----

It had been a day since then: 24 hours, 1440 minutes, but to Soonyoung and his fractured heart, it felt like it had been only a short 10 seconds. He wanted as much time to pass by as possible, so he could work on healing himself, but instead of speeding up as he had wished it to, time decided that he had done something that made him deserve to suffer. With a mischievous smile, it slowed down--perhaps even halted.

"Are you okay?" Junhui asked as he slowly approached Soonyoung, his palms sweaty, his fingers shaking. What he had seen the day before still haunted him: his friend plunged back into that dark abyss of pain, just as he had been the first time. His heart ached for his best friend, and to put it simply, he was drowning in worry. "Soonyoung?"

Letting out a high pitched hum, the shop owner glanced up from his bouquet to the male standing beside him, his eyes wide with innocence. "What do you mean?"

"You were just... making a face to yourself. It worried me."

The blonde seemed genuinely confused at the words. He curiously rubbed at his face with the palm of his hand, searching for any hint of a displeased expression. "Oh, I was? I didn't realize it..." He softly slid his fingertip over a flower petal, and as he did so, his dark eyebrows pulled together. They had caught on, huh? That wasn't good. "I'm sorry."

Junhui immediately shook his head.  "No, no, don't be sorry. I'm just... worried about you."

"I know." Soonyoung took a deep breath in, ignoring his pounding heart, and brought his gaze up to meet with his friend's. He forced his brows to unfurrow and his fake smile to grow. "What do you say we take a lunch break? I could use it." And he wasn't lying; he could use the fresh air, because the voices were screaming, still.

He missed when they were just whispers.

"I'm sure you could, too."

"I suppose so."

Then, with a feigned smile, Soonyoung slipped past his friend and hurriedly made his way over to the double doors. He was watching his feet as they moved across the floor, so he hadn't realized that just outside the entrance, a familiar male waited.

"You're closing?"

Soonyoung quickly peered up at the voice, the one he knew better than he knew his own. For a second, he hoped that he was just dreaming, that he was just... hallucinating, but he wasn't. Jihoon was really there: beautiful, shy, annoyed, perfect Jihoon.

His breath hitched.

All the bandages he had used to repair himself in the span of a day peeled off, exposing the cracks in his being. "I'm just going on lunch break," he reassured, although rather nervously, shutting the door behind him. "You can wait, though. The break is only fifteen minutes." There was a heavy pounding in his ears, resonating in his mind. He hadn't realized yet that it was his heartbeat trying to communicate with the one before him, to spill all the secrets he had hidden away so many years ago.

"Oh." Jihoon paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something, before his eyebrows lifted and he asked, "Can I just stay with you, then? You know, hang out with you on your break?" He didn't mean anything weird by asking; he just genuinely wanted to get to know Soonyoung. Normally, he wouldn't have been interested in any strangers whatsoever, but he still hadn't gotten over the fact that he knew Soonyoung from somewhere, somewhere, and he wouldn't be able to get through his day with a clear conscience until he figured out from where.

It was those eyes he was most curious about.

Soonyoung kept his face flat, calm, but his heart trembled and his fingers twitched. For a second, a thought crossed his mind. If he and Jihoon grew close, he would be able to keep him in his life, right? Even friends would be enough for him. But could he do it? Could he put himself through that stress and pressure day in and day out just to keep him near?