Nosferatu || Seongjoong ✓

10| Phone call

With a strained facial expression, Seonghwa wandered back and forth in his house, his thoughts resting only on one single person in this universe. Hoongjoong. Once again, Seonghwa lifted his cellphone out of his pocket and stared at the number on the switch. He knew it had been two weeks since he last had spoken to him, and that was far from something Seonghwa was proud of doing. In fact, he was feeling uncontrollable, much nausea because of it, even though Emma had repeatedly told him how he shouldn't stress so much over it. But of course, Seonghwa didn't listen to her. It was just not a typical Hongjoong thing to stay away from his surroundings like he was doing now. Had Hongjoong gotten some fatal illness or something like that? It would correlate well with the condition he saw Hongjoong last time. And yet Seonghwa didn't dare to admit it to himself. It was just too unrealistic to be the truth.

So now he stood between the option: call Hongjoong or call Hongjoong. He had no other choice. The issue had to be solved now. So when the boy pressed down the call bottom, he could do nothing but to wait while wandering nervously back and forth the floor. The hand there didn't hold the cellphone was knitted tightly together in the hope that the other would pick up the call. With a faint whisper, the black-haired man continued to mumble 'come on, come on, pick up' over and over again.

And then it stopped calling, instead of showing the ticking time on the display. Seonghwa held his breath, unable to move any further from where his wander had let him.

"H-Hongjoong?"

It was in that exact moment, Seonghwa's world stopped and stood still; when his best friend finally answered him.

"Hey Seonghwa"

The voice was so familiar to him, yet so foreign. It had been a while since last time he had heard Hongjoong's voice, although it was one he had always known. But the black-haired man didn't know what to say, just as he couldn't figure out how to breathe in for an inhalation. Instead, he gulped and drilled his nails deeper into his palm.

"Hyung, are you there?"

"J-joong-" he exclaimed, finally taking in a panicked breath, "Where have you been?"

Then silence. Seonghwa barely felt the pain unleashed from his hand, which he pierced with his fingernails.

"I'm okay."

But it was just a maneuver around the question, and Seonghwa also knew that as well, "Hongjoong, I mean it, I've been worried sick about you! Even Emma has been affected by it! Like, you haven't been responding to my messages for several weeks, are you well aware of that?! I think that I deserve a real explanation! "

His temper rose, the more it dawned on him what his best friend had exposed him to. He felt dizzy. Before, he had been more worried than guilt-ridden, but now that he knew Hongjoong was okay, he couldn't help but let anger take over. Weren't they best friends? So what could be so top secret that he couldn't even tell Seonghwa? Fair enough, if it was something Hongjoong wanted to keep for himself, Seonghwa wasn't naive. We're all humans. But staying away from him for two weeks without saying anything, that just deserved the slightest explanation.

"Hongjoong, you know you can tell me everything, okay?"

Maybe the younger one just needed someone who could support him in whatever he was going through right now. Seonghwa was well aware that Hongjoong maybe wasn't one with his hands full of acquaintances, and it was perhaps one more thing that made Seonghwa think it was even more strange that the younger had not contacted him at all. But the ensuing silence in the call created just instead of awkwardness between the units that almost made Seonghwa regret what he had just said.

He bit his lip and moved his gaze down to his feet, nervously stepping around with the flippers. Maybe that still wasn't what his best friend needed to hear? He was like frozen in his body, again trapped in all his body joints. Not even his mind was able to flow freely. Only his senses were able to reach out for the slightest reaction from the younger boy. Time wasn't stopping, moreover running faster at a pace where it became impossible for Seonghwa to keep up. He felt a coldness creeping up around his whole body, hugging him from behind and trailing an unpleasant shiver with it.

It bothered him with breathing, and his heart rate dropped farther than the bad conscience.

"I'm coming by now."

It wasn't a question but a statement. And Seonghwa would implement it.

"No, no, no! You don't have to!"

But Seonghwa didn't listen anymore and quickly ended the call with a single flick of his finger. There was no way to avoid it.

Purposefully, he stuffed his cell phone into his pocket and continued toward the entrance to tear a jacket down from a hook. His thoughts hovered around him like big thick clouds of fog that overshadowed any other focus for him, and suddenly he stood with his jacket on, and his gaze fixed on his bare feet wearing the flippers. Only then did he come to reality again. The black-haired young guy sighed, irritated, and turned around on his long legs and ran through the whole house to pick up a pair of socks, which he quickly pulled on while the flippers flew around across the living room floor on the way back. Slowly, the adrenaline steadied up more and more as Seonghwa fell way farther into the whole situation.

It raged outside as if the weather itself knew what was going on. Seonghwa nervously wiped his hands off at his black pants before grabbing the steering wheel and turning on the engine.

†

Yaass I'm back again-