"So," Hyunjin said, awkwardly. "How are you?"
Once again, Jeongin was caught not knowing what to say because of Hyunjin. If anything, he was more worried about how Hyunjin was doing.
"I'm... ok." Jeongin replied, quietly.
"Good. I'm glad someone is." Hyunjin muttered, the faintest smile appearing on his face. "How are things with Chan? Are you... happy?" Hyunjin hesitated, probably hoping for the answer to be no, although he already knew this wasn't the case.
"Yeah, I am." Jeongin said, feeling guilty for some reason. "What about you?" Jeongin asked, suddenly curious, hating the awkward atmosphere.
"I'm fine." Hyunjin smiled and looked up at Jeongin. One look an Jeongin could tell that he was lying through his teeth.
Moments of silence passed and Jeongin noticed Minho looking back at them every now and then, waiting for either of them to say something.
Finally, Hyunjin spoke up.
"Do you... hate me?" He asked, cautiously.
How on earth was Jeongin supposed to respond to that? The answer was yes, but why couldn't he bring himself to say it? He stayed silent.
Hyunjin looked down, holding his head in his hands and whispered something to himself which sounded like "You do."
Jeongin was about to say something, but Hyunjin began talking before he had the chance.
"I'm sorry." He said, keeping his voice low so that the others don't hear. He didn't want to ruin the good atmosphere.
"Why..." Jeongin trailed off. Hyunjin was apologising, but for what? For leaving him alone back in high school? For bullying him and his friends? For playing with his feelings?
"I was an idiot. I don't know why I hurt you so many times, but I... I promise I didn't mean to. I really do care about you and I want you to be happy, although that doesn't include me." He said, his quiet voice becoming shaky as he fought back tears.
"Hyunjin..." Jeongin really didn't know what to say.
"Please tell me you forgive me." Hyunjin pleaded.
Minho turned around and saw Jeongin's shocked expression combined with Hyunjin's teary eyes and nudged Chan. They both seemed to be contemplating whether or not to intervene.
Jeongin wanted to laugh. That apology was pathetic. Hyunjin had no idea how much he'd put Jeongin through; Jeongin hated him with his whole being. But, why did he want to forgive him? Why did he feel obliged to put a smile on Hyunjin's face?
"Forget it." Hyunjin muttered, standing up and turning to leave. Minho sighed and got up to run after him.
"Jeongin." Chan whispered, coming closer and putting an arm around Jeongin, comfortingly. Jeongin rested his head on Chan's shoulder, sighing deeply.
"Are you ok?" Chan asked. Jeongin shook his head no, as his eyes started tearing up. He felt them roll down his cheeks and buried his face further into Chan's comfort.
"Minho!" Jisung yelled, as soon as they got home. "What the hell was that?"
Minho exhaled as he collapsed onto the bed, frustrated that things only got worse for Hyunjin.
"That was your plan?" Jisung asked, incredulously.
"Jisung, please don't." Minho said, hiding his face behind his friends. "I'm exhausted enough, today."
"Exhausted?" Jisung scoffed. "From what? Messing things up?"
"Jisung, stop." Minho muttered, calmly. Jisung didn't seem in the mood to calm down; he looked angry.
"Why did you do that?" Jisung questioned, sounding somewhat disappointed. "You saw how bad Hyunjin was that day, why would you make it worse?"
Minho looked away, refusing to answer.
"Fine, I don't care about your stupid plan or whatever, but why didn't you tell me first?"
Minho stayed silent.
"Minho, stop being childish." Jisung said, as if he was scolding a child. He really couldn't believe Minho was giving him the silent treatment. Soon, after trying to get Minho to talk for a while, he got up and left.
Minho was silently beating himself up. How stupid could he have been to think that would work? On top of that, Jisung was adding insult to injury. But Minho should try to understand, right? He had hurt one of Jisung's closest friends, as well as one of his own. Jisung had every right to be mad, Minho just wished that he wasn't. He clenched his fists, trying to calm himself down before he says or does something he shouldn't.
Jisung walked back into the bedroom and Minho didn't bother turning around to face him when he started talking.
"I just got a call from my mum." Jisung informed. "I can go back home now."
Minho sat up immediately and looked up at Jisung, who was grabbing his few belongings from Minho's room.
"Wait," Minho quickly got up and held Jisung's hands, stopping him from collecting more of his things. "Are you serious?"
"Now you want to talk?" Jisung said, pulling his hands away from Minho's.
"Jisung!"
"What?" Jisung was still clearly upset with Minho.
"Don't go." Minho said, softly. Without Jisung, his apartment would feel so empty. He would feel empty. Jisung rolled his eyes.
He grabbed the rest of his things and shoved them into a bag.
"It's not like you won't see me at school." He muttered, his tone still cold.
"But-" Minho couldn't even finish what he was saying, as Jisung walked out and closed the front door behind him.
Jeongin had been spending more and more time in Chan's company. Jisung had tried to make him feel better about Hyunjin, but of course it didn't work. Every time he saw Hyunjin in the corridors at school, he felt a wave of guilt.
The worst part was that Hyunjin tried to smile and look happy whenever he noticed Jeongin glancing his way.
However, Chan was always a place of comfort for Jeongin. A place where he felt safe and relaxed.
"And how are you today?" Chan asked, as Jeongin walked into the café and sat down.
"The same as I am everyday." Jeongin sighed. Chan shook his head and smiled.
"Come on, something new must've happened today."
"Well, Changbin got into a fight today." Jeongin said, remembering the mess at lunch today.
"How come?" Chan asked, furrowing his brows. "Hi, how can I help you?" Chan's face changed to a smile as he spoke to a customer. Jeongin almost forgot that Chan was working. "Yes, you can go take a seat and order when you're ready. Anyways, what happened to Changbin?"
"Someone called Felix names because he's dating a guy, so Changbin got mad and no one really tried to stop him." Jeongin shrugged.
"Oh.." Chan said, looking down. "Are people in your school very homophobic?" He asked, cautiously.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Jeongin replied. "But Felix has Changbin to look after him so you don't need to worry. He'll be fine."
"No, I'm more worried about..." Chan trailed of, wondering if he should say what he was thinking. "You."
"Why?" Jeongin laughed.
"Just. If anyone bothers you, tell me, ok?" Chan said, becoming protective.
"Yeah, yeah ok, mum." Jeongin scoffed.
"Huh?" Chan looked up, with raised eyebrows. "You little-" Chan held up his hand and lightly slapped Jeongin's forehead.
Jeongin laughed, and promised Chan that he would tell him if anything happens.
"Good." Chan said, satisfied. "Now eat something." He put a plate of cake in front of Jeongin, before turning around to attend to another customer.
As Jeongin was watching Chan, he had a pretty stupid idea.
When Chan turned back around, Jeongin scooped up some of the frosting from the cake and wiped it off on Chan's nose. Chan eyes crossed, trying to see his nose. He tapped his finger on his nose and pulled it away, revealing frosting.
Immediately, Chan scooped up some frosting and was going to slather it across Jeongin's face.
"No no no I'm sorry!" Jeongin began apologising, frantically, trying to dodge Chan's hand. However, Chan managed to reach Jeongin's face and wipe some frosting off on his cheek.
As they were both laughing at each other, Chan got out some tissues and began wiping off the frosting on Jeongin's face, gently. After he was done, he wiped his own face.
"Be quiet and eat your cake already."
ChaeRin was bored. Hyunjin hadn't given her much attention and barely talked to her. On top of that, he looked horrible nowadays. ChaeRin couldn't help but wonder if she made the right decision when Hyunjin asked her out, since he clearly didn't really care about her.
She found this café not far away from school and was bored enough to check it out. She'd seen nice pictures on social media.
It looked quite nice on the inside, but the interior design wasn't what caught ChaeRin's attention. She saw Jeongin at the counter talking with the cashier.
Maybe coming here was a bad idea. But ChaeRin's curiosity won over her urgency not to be seen. She quickly went to a table where none of them could see her, but she was close enough to faintly hear them.
That cashier looked oddly familiar, but ChaeRin just couldn't put her finger on it.
She watched Jeongin wipe some frosting on the cashiers face and the cashier return the favour. As she was watching she had a slight suspicion that these two weren't just friends.
When she saw the cashier wipe the frosting over Jeongin's face, she knew for sure. They were a couple. The look in the cashiers eyes told her everything.
Of course. Why didn't she pick it up earlier? Jeongin obviously had to be gay. There's no way he was straight, considering that he never took any interest in a girl like ChaeRin back in high school.
She saw the cashier holding a spoon to Jeongin's mouth to feed him and began fumbling with her bag to grab her phone and take a picture.
That would come into use later.
I totally forgot to credit @MiNgk0 for editing the cover for me! A very big thank you to her! For the atiny reading this, check out her book 'Leader'!
As usual, thanks for reading an di hope you enjoyed 💚