#% ILLIAD MOON <3 !!!
not a word has been spoken in at least three minutes. not by me, not by my parents, not even by penny and jisung. the two with the biggest mouths have not even dared saying a word.
it's awkward. to say the absolute least.
my eyes dart from each side of me. i watch as they all watch each other. besides hyunjin and yeonjun, those two haven't move their eyes since they locked a few minutes ago.
i'm confused if they're going to fist fight or kiss straight on the lips. either or, i'd bring my phone out to snap a picture. or two. or three. or seven.
"so" i cough out after another minute has passed. everyone looks towards me and i can feel heat rise to my cheeks immediately. "let's go hang out in... my room" i look between all of my friends and my parents that sit on the couch.
the group of boys and the duo, that is penny and yeonjun, look at each other before looking back to me. i hear a bunch of different words said to me. sure, yeah, sounds good, are just a few of the words that come out of their chaotic jumble.
they all glance at each other again before making their way up the stairs. a single file line, the boys in the front, penny and yeonjun in the back.
i watch them start their trek and look towards my parents again. "wish me luck" i say, raising my eyebrows. they both chuckle, "good luck." a sort of garbled baby talk comes from harley that sounds like he was trying his best to say good luck to me.
"thank you so much harley!" i say and he laughs.
my body turns towards the stairs and i make my way up, just behind penny. "there's so much testosterone in this house right now, i think im going to throw up or die" she says to me, looking at me over her shoulder. i can't help but laugh at her statement and she laughs back at me.
everyone files into my room and disperses themselves among it. penny runs and jumps into my bed before any of the boys can get to it, yeonjun sits on the pulled out futon penny has been sleeping on and the rest of the boys sprawl across my room.
felix sits at my desk, right next to where i sit on the bed. he spins in the chair while the rest of the boys sit elsewhere.
seungmin sits at the end of the bed, far away from penny, jeongin sits across the room, staring at her as she stares at seungmin. jisung and hyunjin sit on the floor together and the duo takes their turn poking each other but not saying a single thing.
it's quiet in the room, the only sound is the creaking noise the chair makes as felix spins its around and around.
"could you?" i turn to look at him. "stop?" he asks and i nod. he sighs a quick sigh before looking at me again. "illiad moon you're lucky i love you as much as i do" he places his feet firmly on the floor and stops his incessant spinning.
"dude thank god you stopped, i was starting to get dizzy" yeonjun says, he blinks a few times as if he's regaining his vision. a few of the guys chuckle, felix does especially.
"i'm yeonjun by the way" yeonjun says to felix specifically. i know yeonjun always said he would be friends with felix out of all of the boys. i never really understood why but they were similar in some facets. yeonjun was my felix when i didn't have my felix anymore.
well more, yeonjun was my felix/jaemin/hyunjin combination when i didn't have them anymore.
"felix" the boy smiles back at yeonjun.
"penny, hi i'm penny" penny reaches her hand out to seungmin. "seungmin" he says, glancing down at her hand. he doesn't put his hand in hers which leads to penny awkwardly retracting it and looking down to her lap where her hand now lays.
"jeongin!" he shouts from across the room, "i'm jeongin!" his eyes never leave penny, i think he has a crush on her.
"you could be more subtle" hyunjin laughs, great minds think alike.
jeongin's head snaps up towards hyunjin and he squints his eyes at him. "i don't know what you mean by that" innie says before turning back to look at penny.
"hi jeongin" penny says back to the sweet younger boy. i watch as a slight blush falls on his cheeks before he looks towards the big glass doors next to him. there's not much to look at, a tree and the neighbors house, but he looks there nonetheless.
"i'm jisung" jisung raises his hand after a second of silence. "i've heard about you" penny says, her eyes going from jeongin to the boy that has just spoken. sung's head whips towards me before turning back to penny.
"i hope it's all good things," jisung turns back to me again, "moonie you've only said good things right!"
"sung... would i ever talk bad about you?" i tilt my head towards him. "probably" felix says and the the boys chuckle.
"don't worry jisung, it was only that you talk a lot, and that you ate glue and dirt when you were a kid" penny says and jisung's eyes go wider than they normally are. "moo-" yeonjun cuts him off before he can finish saying my name. "and that you stuck your foot out of her passenger window and only put it in when some guy touched your foot" yeonjun says and jisungs eyes get, again, wider.
his head falls into his hands, his ears redder than i've ever seen them. he's embarrassed.
"sung," seungmin chuckles from the bed, "are you embarrassed?" all the boys turn to look at jisung and his bright red ears. "han jisung embarrassed?!" felix says, his jaw dropping in disbelief.
"the same man that screams in public all the time embarassed?" seungmin adds on to felix's statement.
jisung raises his head and i can see that his cheeks are just as red as his ears. "these are moonie's new friends! i need them to think that im cool and not crazy" jisung says before putting his head back down again.
"i think you're funny, a little crazy, but funny" yeonjun says and penny nods in response. "i must agree, you do have quite silly antics and they are quite crazy, but at least they're funny. you could just be crazy like yeonjun" penny says and i watch as yeonjun's head quickly turns towards the girl.
"you," he points his finger at her, "shut your mouth."
she looks at me and just shrugs. i can't help but chuckle at the slight chaos in the room.
"are you guys siblings?" felix asks, soft laughs escaping from between his lips. my two friends look at each other before looking back at felix. "no, i would kill myself" penny says, followed by a "i think if we were siblings one of us would be dead" from yeonjun.
"they're family friends" i interject before felix can open his mouth. "we've known each other since we were born and blah blah blah" penny makes a motion with her hand. felix nods before the room goes silent again.
all these random bouts of silence kind of make me want to die.
"i'm hyunjin by the way" hyunjin speaks for the first time in a few minutes. i realized he never "introduced" himself even though he knows all the guys and met penny and yeonjun earlier.
"yeah we know" yeonjun says, a touch of attitude in his voice. hyunjin turns around to look at him but yeonjun looks up at me. there's a mortified look on my face and i raise my eyebrows, signaling him to shut up.
"what!" he says loudly, "i mean, you're a pop star and we've already met!" i'm sure that's not what he meant.
i'm actually positive that's not what he meant with his short, sassy quip.
"yeah," hyunjin turns so his back is facing yeonjun again, "i'm sure that that is exactly what you meant."
my eyes flick down to hyunjin now, giving him the same look that i gave yeonjun. all he does is shrug before looking down at his lap.
the room goes silent again. felix, jisung, seungmin and jeongin all look at each other awkwardly. penny stares at the wall, her lips pursed. i can't tell if it's because she wants to awkwardly laugh or if it's because she's dying from the pure awkward silence.
"awkwaaaaarddddd" jisung says, earning a giggle from penny, seungmin and felix.
"how about! we watch a movie!" i say. all of my friends look at me before nodding.
i grab the remote from the side of my bed and turn on the tv, sliding through all the different streaming platforms until i land on a comedy that will make them laugh and ease the god awful tension in the room.
penny scoots right up next to me and jeongin joins seungmin on the end of the bed so he can see the television.
all of them intently watch the movie besides yeonjun who watches for a few minutes and then scrolls on his phone, jisung who falls asleep next to hyunjin, and penny who turns to me to whisper every 3 and a half seconds.
"that was awkward right?" penny asks me. i imagine she's talking about yeonjun and hyunjin's interaction. i nod and put my head in my hands. "i thought about killing myself for a second" i whisper back and she laughs softly.
a few seconds goes by before she turns to me again. "your friends," she points down to seungmin and jeongin, "they're cute."
i roll my eyes. "what happened to your two little relations in new york?" i ask her, cocking one of my eyebrows. she raises one of hers back to me before speaking. "hey, i'm keeping my options open right now."
i shake my head at her again. "they're both single, but don't window shop my friends!" i say and she chuckles again. "well your friends are very nice to look at, all of them" her eyes glance around the room before she makes a disgusted face.
her finger points to yeonjun and i know exactly what she's going to say next. "except that one, he's... he's definitely there." i nudge her slightly and she can't help but laugh again.
"be nice!" i say and she shakes her head, rolling her eyes in the process. "me! penelope yang! yang jisoo, if you will. will never be nice to choi yeonjun, daniel choi, ever in my life. i don't think it's possible for the two of us to be nice to each other."
"you guys have drunk cried to each other about how grateful you are to have each other" i squint my eyes at her and she rolls hers again. "but we would never say that to each other sober."
"drunk words are sober thoughts!" i say and she shakes her head. "whatever!" she shuts up finally, leaning her head against my shoulder.
i scan the room, watching as all the guys watch the movie, chuckling here and there at the funny parts within it.
my eyes land on hyunjin and i see his eyes looking back. a small smile cracks on his face and he waves. my hand lifts slightly and i wave back at him.
he changes his fingers to an okay sign and raises one of his eyebrows. i know he's asking me if im okay, we would do this in school all the time when we couldn't talk in class. i nod and do the signal right back, he's nods too.
we smile at each other again before looking away.
i look around the room again and my heart swells. my entire body fills up with heat and love and warmth.
i'm surrounded by the people that have had some of the biggest impacts on my life. all in one room. all together.
i feel content for the first time since i got home.
i feel truly at home, for the first time, in over a year.
AUTHORSNOTE.zip
okay so it's been a while since
i last posted lol. i'm finishing up
my second year in college. it's insane
and i'm like. idk. i feel emo rn thinking
im halfway done with my undergrad.
ugh makes me sad. but anyways
sorry for that little moment. i hope
you loved this chapter and there were
some quips and stuff but this was kinda
just a filler chap to show a little tension
between hyunjin and yeonjun and also
to start a lil sum between sum characters
if yk what i mean. if you don't
uhhhhh idk. anyways, over the summer,
i hope to get a majority of the book
finally edited and done so i yall have
content and i can put all of this on
hold for a while. praying. okay
thank you guys so much for reading and
sticking by this book and letters for as
long as you have. we're coming up on
the 4th yr of letters being published and
that is just INSAAAANE to me. thank
you guys for all of the love and support
it truly means the world. and as
always, vote and comment for more
never again!!❤️