together [daejae]

Chapter 17

"Don't worry. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything. Junhong is there too."

Daehyun nodded and I knocked on the door. After resting for about an hour and a half, I had managed to convince him to show Yongguk the letter from Max. I believed it would help a lot to convince Yongguk that Daehyun had not killed him. He was still blaming himself for it, but that would be my project. For now, I just wanted to make sure that Yongguk got to know what had really happened to his best friend. He deserved to know. Daehyun had understood that and agreed on showing him the letter, but making him actually come with me had been a lot harder.

After about half a minute, Junhong opened the door. "Oh, hey. Come in." he said quietly and we entered the room. Yongguk was sitting on his bed, now looking at us as we came in. I had been a bit worried he would tell Daehyun off, but he didn't say a word.

Daehyun went to stand over at the window, probably because it was as far away as this room allowed it from where Yongguk was sitting.

"There's something we think you should see" I said to Yongguk and handed him the folded letter. "Please read it completely before asking anything."

When he saw the handwriting, the expression in his eyes changed to something I had never seen on him before. For a short moment, I was sure I could see a mix of pain and something that felt like love, before he closed his eyes to take a deep breath. I went to stand next to Daehyun and took his hand, as Yongguk started reading the letter. Junhong sat down next to his roommate and put an arm around his shoulders.

While he was reading, he did not show any kind of emotions. Then, he got up, gave the letter to Junhong and started approaching Daehyun. I could feel how the latter tensed up, when Yongguk stood right in front of him.

"Was there anything more than friendship between you and him?" he asked, his voice shaking as if he was about to cry, but there was still not a single tear in his eyes.

Daehyun hesitantly shook his head. "I… I just saw a friend in him. I knew he liked me more than that, but we never spoke about it directly."

Yongguk just looked at him for a few moments, until he suddenly pulled Daehyun into a hug.

I felt Daehyun flinch, then he held onto my hand even more tightly. However, he soon seemed to realize that Yongguk was not actually attacking him, and relaxed a bit.

"I'm sorry" Yongguk whispered. Now, he was definitely crying. "I had no idea…" He pulled back. "Max told me that you were in a relationship… I… I was jealous, I've always… I loved him. And he knew but, he didn't feel the same. He also was the one who spread the rumour about you killing your boyfriend… I believed him, there was no reason not to…"

"Why would he do this?" Daehyun asked quietly. "lying about all these things…"

"I don't know. I'm so confused… But I believe that you're innocent. You didn't kill him and I'm going to tell that anyone who's trying to attack you for this. I'm really sorry for doing all these things to you… I thought it was your fault…"

Now, Daehyun looked to the ground. "Still I should have stopped him…"

Yongguk sat back down in his previous spot next to Junhong. "Can you tell me how it happened? It's okay if you don't want to."

Daehyun looked at me for a moment, then he nodded.

After he had told them the story, nobody said a single word for a couple of minutes. Junhong was hugging Yongguk, who tried to stop crying so he could speak.

"You couldn't have stopped him."

Daehyun looked up, obviously he had not expected this. "What?"

"Even if you had read it earlier… How could you have known he'd just jump right in that moment? Even if you had been with him the whole day, sitting there was the most normal thing for him to do. It wasn't your fault."