"W-Wait what?" Daehwi stuttered through his short sentence, as his hand stopped mid-way into grabbing his glass of iced tea.
"Um, I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Jihoon seemed to be in a state of shock as well, almost dropping his fork with the stabbed piece of meat in it upon hearing those three words escape Jinyoung's mouth.
"Uh, I don't think I heard you correctly," Woojin weakly let out, his previous intentions of shoving some meat and rice into his mouth long forgotten.
Guanlin's state was no different, he didn't say a word. He couldn't even do so in the first place, considering the poor boy choked on his own iced tea since Jinyoung spoke while he was drinking.
Jinyoung inhaled, before deeply letting it out, "I said, I'm getting married."
Their table was then filled with an uncomfortable silence, Daehwi's eyes were as wide as saucers and his eyebrows were almost knitted together; Jihoon just stared blankly and stupidly at Jinyoung, Woojin whispered a "I still think I heard him wrong,", whilst Guanlin had to process things through first and gave Jinyoung the "are-you-sure-you're-sober" face.
"Aha," Jihoon began, his small laugh sounded as if he was trying to convince himself that he didn't hear right, "Jinyoung, what the actual hell?"
Guanlin's voice followed after, "Jinyoung-hyung, are you that drunk? Do you need a drive home?", only earning Jihoon's, "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Guanlin. You can't drive, you're sixteen for goodness's sake. And Jinyoung can't drink!"
"Well Jinyoung-hyung here is getting married at seventeen," the youngest of the five protested, pointing a seemingly accusing finger at Jinyoung, "Are you more concerned about me driving or him getting married?"
"Now, now, quit it you two!" Woojin hissed, pulling Guanlin back, since Jihoon and Guanlin seemed to be getting their selves nearer to each other each time a comeback is said.
Jinyoung decided to ignore yet another back-and-forth from Jihoon and Guanlin, managing to get used to their childish bickers since they both came into his life, turned to Daehwi, who was sitting across from him in their restaurant table.
"Daehwi? You okay?"
Daehwi's eyes were just boring into Jinyoung's face, his expression looking lost, still wearing the face of his reaction from earlier. He hasn't inched a bit, except his hand that was about to reach for his glass has rested beside his half-emptied plate.
In short, Daehwi was most definitely not okay.
Jinyoung wasn't even sure if Daehwi actually heard his question, but he admitted it was a stupid move and that Daehwi's state was self explanatory.
Just then, the ring tone of Jinyoung went off and the sound coming from his phone shut Jihoon and Guanlin off and thankfully snapped Daehwi off of his trance.
After muttering a quick, "Sorry.", Jinyoung winced and stood up, leaving the three of his closest friends in confusion. He didn't need to know what that call was for.
Jinyoung, now out of his seat, cancelled the call and started wearing his coat.
"Wait, where are you going?! What about your food?!" Jihoon almost yelled, clearly not pleased with the fact that Jinyoung is willingly about to leave without even finishing up his plate.
"Daehwi can have it," Jinyoung replied, "Now I'll be going. See you all soon." After bidding them goodbye, Jinyoung bowed slightly and waved, but then he stopped. "Me?" Daehwi questioned, looking puzzled, pointing to himself.
"Oh, I forgot something," Jinyoung reached for one of the pockets of his coat, before pulling out rich looking pastel papers with satin ribbons tied to them, "Here, now I'll definitely be going," he smiled, something that didn't reach his eyes, Daehwi noted. Definitely not the Jinyoung smile he grew to know.
The three of them stared at Jinyoung's retreating figure hastily exiting the restaurant, eyes following until they couldn't see him from the windows of the place.
They were each given one of the papers, and Jihoon was the first one to open it; and despite also having one of the papers, Daehwi, Woojin and Guanlin peeped over as well.
Guanlin and Woojin actually went to their side of the table, since they were sitting across Jihoon and Daehwi earlier and was beside Jinyoung originally. The reason why was beyond them.
"Park Jihoon, you are hereby honored with this VIP invitation to join Bae Jinyoung and Choi Yurin in their ceremony of matrimony," Jihoon read, loud enough for all four of them to hear.
Daehwi removed the disgustingly pastel and glittery (Jihoon's words, not his) satin ribbon from his own invitation, and he got the same message, except written down was his own name in calligraphy.
"Huh, it happens in a week," Guanlin pointed out, reading the details on his own invitation. "Saturday, well what do you know, that's after finals, Jinyoung really got this marriage through,"
"He'll be preparing for the wedding and for finals, I admire him for that," Daehwi broke into a small smile, still eyeing the invitation in his hands.
"Does Jinyoung know what he's doing?" Woojin seemed to be questioning his own self, most probably still has his brain wrapped in confusion.
"This is absurd," Jihoon commented, folding his invitation back to how it was given to him, even tying the ribbon back. "He's seventeen and he's stupid, yet here he is, getting married. What a man!"
"I've suddenly lost my appetite, honestly." Guanlin sighed, returning to his original seat, then began to poke at his food.
"We'll have it for take out, then," Jihoon proclaimed, before turning to Daehwi, "Hey, are you still gonna eat Jinyoung's food since he oh-so-kindly bestowed it upon you?"
"A-Ah, no, I'll just get it for take out as well." Daehwi replied, smiling at Jihoon afterwards.
In the end, they all can't find it within themselves to get back to eating. They went their separate ways with take-out and a wedding invitation in their hands.
-
"Can you believe him?! Getting married! At! Se! Ven! Teen!" Jihoon ranted to Woojin, his fellow pink sausage (they've held unto that title since grade school) and also his roommate, making exaggerated hand movements to emphasize his refusal for the wedding.
"I know," Woojin sighed, "He's not thinking straight! Hell, I didn't even know Jinyoung was straight!"
"Right? Since when did he even know this 'Choi Yurin' and when the actual hell did Jinyoung have the guts to propose?" Jihoon let out his protests, Woojin nodding to each word he spoke.
"Ugh, our little Jinyoung has been doing things that irritated me since forever, honestly," Woojin started, "But I didn't think he would go as far as marrying!"
"My head aches, I'm calling Guanlin," Jihoon overdramatically fanned himself, before throwing himself on his bed and reaching for his phone to call Guanlin.
"Aw, boo," Woojin teased, "Fine, I'm calling Hyungseob, I'm sure he's invited too."
-
"Daehwi, seriously, are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, Jinyoung-ie, I'm perfectly fine!"
"You spaced out a heck of a lot during dinner after my, uh,"
"Announcement?"
"Right."
"It's shocking, never knew you'd marry at that age."
"Well, I don't know, it's cool."
"I can guarantee you one thing though, Jinyoung-ie,"
"What might that be, Hwi?"
"I-I'Il definitely cry at your wedding,"
Daehwi suddenly feels tears threatening to escape his eyes, which gave him the alarm that his voice just broke. Honestly, he's surprised Jinyoung didn't tease him about it yet; the boy has a habit of tormenting Daehwi about his voice cracks.
"Daehwi..."
"Y-Yeah?"
"You...you're not happy about my marriage, are you?"
"Ah, the answer to that isn't needed," Daehwi proceeded to laugh bitterly, "I'm happy for you, you know? I love you and you know that, and you're getting married, and I want nothing but the best for you and your happiness!"
"That's so sappy but my heart fluttered," both boys erupted into a giggle fit after Jinyoung's response, "But I love you too, Hwi."
"Yeah. And with that, good night! Finals week is this week, remember? Don't be too excited about the wedding!" Daehwi chuckled, soon cutting off the call after Jinyoung bid his good night as well.
"Oh, god, I think I'm crying," Daehwi muttered to himself, before making his way to the comfort room.
-
3:26 A.M., 5 days left until the wedding.
Daehwi couldn't sleep. The thought of having to see Jinyoung getting emotional seeing his bride walking down the aisle and ending the ceremony with a share of a lovely kiss whilst he watches by the front row seats has been taunting him. Not only that, but the whole thing has completely distracted Daehwi from concentrating on his studies.
So he was definitely able to grab his phone when he heard his ring tone, and there he saw, flashing on his screen, a text message from Jihoon.
jihoon-hyung !! •v•
daehwi. video chat. me. you. guanlin. now.
-
"That's a nice joke, but I'm too down in the dumps to actually laugh at that at three in the morning on a weekday," Daehwi yawned, beginning to feel drowsy, but still trying hard to properly hold his phone.
"Oh, honey, we're as serious as that wedding invitation." Jihoon snickered, his tone was almost scary, and he looked scary as well, his video camera was only illuminating his face and some bangs; his shared room with Woojin was all lights out.
"Um, what?" Daehwi dumbly answers, "Does Woojin and the other hyungs know about this?"
"No, we're keeping it to ourselves, since most of them are happy about the wedding," Guanlin explained, smiling a bit, showing off a hint of mischief.
"Woojin knows, though," Jihoon pointed out, "But he says he's too scared that Jinyoung's gonna hate us forever, so that disrespectful garden fertilizer is just gonna stand by and watch."
"Hold on, a-are you even thinking this through?!" Daehwi whisper-shouted, conscious of the fact that his mom could hear him, "Of course he would hate us forever!"
"Don't think so, honestly," Guanlin shrugged, "We're doing the guy a favor."
"Our little Linlin is growing up so fast, he's really out here telling us to crash Baejin's wedding," Jihoon pretended to wipe a fake tear, he even sniffed for additional effect, "I'm so proud."
Daehwi gave his friends a dirty look through the camera, pretending to gag after seeing Guanlin grin stupidly at Jihoon's remark. "Get some sleep, you two." Daehwi groaned, face-palming to show his friends that they were definitely going crazy or are just leveling up their stupidity.
"Consider it, at least, Daehwi-hyung," Guanlin pleaded, before yawning. Seems that Daehwi's not the only one who's tired already.
"Wouldn't want to see Jinyoung, your childhood friend, currently platonic soulmate and long-term crush, literally get married in front of your eyes," Jihoon taunted, he seems like he really wants this plan to work out, "And he's not getting married to you. Alright, good night Daehwi, sweetie I love you!"
Jihoon's threat (it seems one) got Daehwi to rethink his life choices the whole morning, and unfortunately (though he saw it coming), he was absolutely struggling with keeping his eyes open the whole school day.
"Darn, I should've confessed years ago," Daehwi groans out of the blue, hand sliding down his own face, showcasing his disappointment in himself.