(Continued)

Hyunseung, Junhyung, Dongwoon and Gikwang returned to the store five minutes before it was due to open again. They noticed that Yoseob and Doojoon weren’t there yet and Hyunseung had that same evil grin on his face.

“Come on. We should set up in the staff lounge,” Hyunseung told the others, already making his way to the staff lounge. He was followed by the three and Hyunseung immediately started arranging things the way he wanted them to be. He had help, of course. How much could a person do with just one hand?

Gikwang and Dongwoon had to open the store, so only Junhyung and Hyunseung were left in the staff lounge. It had been perfectly fine for the two of them to be in there alone at first. They were focused on arranging things for their prank. However, the atmosphere quickly became awkward when Junhyung’s arm brushed against Hyunseung’s.

Hyunseung stiffened and tried not to overthink things. It’s just a small touch! He didn’t even mean to do that. It was an accident! Jang Hyunseung, why can’t you stop thinking about it? Hyunseung was pretty annoyed by himself but decided that he shouldn’t show how he felt, so he continued to busy himself with setting up.

Junhyung felt the area on his arm which touched Hyunseung tingle and he wondered if it was just his imagination. Let’s face it. His arm tingled because of a small touch. How bizarre was that? Junhyung had good reason to think that he was hallucinating. Still, he couldn’t help but be kind of shy. What the hell is wrong with me?

The two of them hadn’t been talking earlier on, and now they just became ten times more awkward with each other. Junhyung was frozen in his position while Hyunseung was frantically setting things up. It was obvious that both of them were affected by the touch.

Hyunseung cleared his throat and turned to face Junhyung, not looking the latter in the eye. “Um, we’re almost done in here. Just throw that piece of cloth there and we can go out,” Hyunseung instructed. He wanted to hit himself for sounding so bossy, but he was just so nervous and he couldn’t think of a proper way to act anymore.

Junhyung did as told, almost knocking down some parts of the setup in his nervousness. Hyunseung didn’t notice it though – he was way too busy trying to calm his racing heart down. Once Junhyung placed the last part of the setup, he threw the door of the staff lounge open and went right out. Hyunseung was left staring at nothing in particular. He blinked a couple of times to process what exactly just happened and turned to where Junhyung had ran off to.

“Why was he so tense? I’m just a friend to him. Why would he get so uptight when his arm brushed mine? Don’t tell me…” Hyunseung muttered to himself before dismissing his wayward thoughts. “Junhyung wouldn’t have feelings for me like I do for him! That’s absurd!”

With that, Hyunseung turned the lights in the staff lounge off and exited the staff lounge, closing the door behind him. He told Gikwang and Dongwoon that he would be outside, keeping watch for any signs of Doojoon and Yoseob.

The moment Hyunseung stepped out of the store, he inhaled the fresh night air and smiled briefly. He turned to his right and jumped, holding his hand over his thudding heart. He had thought that his heart was starting to beat normally again, but it just went into overdrive once more, this time out of shock.

It seemed that Junhyung didn’t notice Hyunseung beside him though. His earphones were on, so he didn’t hear the wind chimes that sounded whenever the door was opened. He was also seemingly focused on his phone and Hyunseung was curious.

Hyunseung tried his best to be inconspicuous and leaned closer to Junhyung slightly, attempting to catch a glimpse of whatever Junhyung seemed to be so engrossed in. It was a little difficult to see what was on Junhyung’s phone screen when it was so small and Hyunseung couldn’t be found out. It was too embarrassing for him to be creeping up on Junhyung like that.

When Hyunseung saw what Junhyung was looking at, however, he changed his mind. He decided that he wasn’t a creeper, because he was only curious about what Junhyung was engrossed in. Junhyung was the real creeper.

“Are those candid pictures of me?!” Hyunseung shrieked.

-------------------

Junhyung pulled his earphones off and looked at Hyunseung. He gulped and shoved his phone back into his pocket, but Hyunseung was surprisingly fast and strong for an injured person. He snatched the phone from Junhyung – with his injured hand, too, but it didn’t seem to have hurt – and looked at the photos in the album. His eyes widened even more when he saw how many photos Junhyung had of him. 139.

“Give that back!” Junhyung exclaimed as he grabbed his phone back. Hyunseung pretended that his wrist hurt and yelped when Junhyung took the phone back. Junhyung hastily apologised and checked on Hyunseung’s wrist.

Hyunseung smirked and took the opportunity to take the phone from Junhyung again. He quickly looked at the oldest photo and gasped when he saw that it was taken a month before Junhyung robbed the store. Hyunseung could still remember going out with his college friends to cycle.

“Did you stalk me or something?” Hyunseung questioned, feigning terror as he tried to look afraid of Junhyung. In actual fact, Hyunseung felt flattered. Hey, it wasn’t everyday that he was stalked by someone. It seems like he does feel something more than friendship. Hyunseung let a smile slip onto his face and Junhyung stared at him weirdly.

“I… There’s no point in lying, is there? I did,” Junhyung admitted, turning away so that Hyunseung wouldn’t see the faint blush on his cheeks. Hyunseung couldn’t be bothered though; he was turning fifty shades of red when he heard what Junhyung said.

“Well…” Hyunseung trailed off, trying to come up with a decent lie. He thanked the heavens that he didn’t have to make anything up when headlights shone on them and Hyunseung squinted at the vehicle. He didn’t quite recognise it, but he could see who was in the driver’s seat.

“They’re back!” Hyunseung whispered, pulling Junhyung back into the store quickly. Gikwang and Dongwoon turned to look at the two and Hyunseung gestured to the car outside the door with a grin. Sneaky grins replaced the confused expressions on Gikwang and Dongwoon’s faces.

The four watched in anticipation as Yoseob and Doojoon ran back into the store, looking tired and freaked out. It probably wasn’t very pleasant to have to rush to central Seoul and be back in an hour. The couple greeted the other four, sweating in spite of the cool weather.

Hyunseung settled into his role quickly, scowling at the couple. “I thought we were friends!”

Doojoon blinked in confusion, clearly not understanding why Hyunseung was upset. “If this is about me not telling you that I was with Yoseob, then I’m sorry,” Doojoon apologised. Hyunseung snorted and turned away.

Next, Junhyung got into character as well. “And Yoseob? What do you have to say?” Junhyung demanded. Yoseob tilted his head slightly. Now this was unexpected. Junhyung nearly never got angry at him, mostly because he always acted so cold.

“It just happened! I thought that Hara would tell you, but it seems she didn’t,” Yoseob frowned as he replied. Junhyung scoffed at his best friend, rolling his eyes and glaring at Doojoon. The soccer player wasn’t exactly intimidated. No, it was the look on Hyunseung’s face that scared him.

Lastly, Gikwang and Dongwoon began to act too. “What kind of best friends are you? I used to tell my best friend every single detail about my life,” Gikwang chided. Doojoon stared at the younger male in disbelief. Since when does Gikwang nag at people?

Dongwoon joined in. “Yeah! How hard could it be to just tell them that you guys got together?”

Yoseob glanced between all four of them and then he looked back at his boyfriend. “Shut up!” he yelled before storming off towards the staff lounge. Doojoon wordlessly followed behind his boyfriend and Yoseob opened the door of the staff lounge.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Yoseob screamed and ran away, faster than anyone thought he could run. He hid behind Doojoon’s back but Doojoon was already moving away. Yoseob gaped at his boyfriend and the two of them took turns to get away from the cursed staff lounge.

There wasn’t anything really scary in the staff lounge. All that were in there were very convincing figures of a clown and ghosts. Don’t even question how the rest of them got those after dinner. They have their ways.

The thing is, though, that Doojoon is scared of clowns while Yoseob is terrified of ghosts. The two best friends knew that clearly, so they made use of their knowledge to prank the couple. Doojoon turned to shoot his best friend a pointed look.

“Jang Hyunseung…” Doojoon growled. His attention was caught by a whimper beside him, so he momentarily pushed aside his anger towards his best friend and looked at his boyfriend. “What’s wrong?” Doojoon asked worriedly.

Yoseob was tearing up and he was trembling visibly. Doojoon hastily gathered the smaller male into his arms and glared at each of the four. Hyunseung gulped then. He hadn’t expected such a reaction from Yoseob, and he wouldn’t have pranked them if he knew that Yoseob would cry.

Junhyung felt a little bad. He knew that his friend was really scared of ghosts, but how scared was he? Junhyung didn’t know, and now that he found out, he couldn’t help but to feel just a little guilty. The way Doojoon was looking at them didn’t help either.

Gikwang and Dongwoon glanced at each other and turned back to face Doojoon. They could see that Doojoon was the overprotective type of boyfriend. This wouldn’t turn out well.

“If Yoseob doesn’t stop crying, all of you are dead,” Doojoon warned.

-------------------

It took ten solid minutes for Yoseob to stop crying. Doojoon had been more than relieved when his boyfriend finally calmed down. The other four were even more relieved than Doojoon, thankful that they wouldn’t suffer Doojoon’s wrath.

Hyunseung and Junhyung had spent that ten minutes taking down the figures while Doojoon and Yoseob were holed up in a corner of the store. The store wasn’t closed yet, so Yoseob couldn’t be seen crying or it would give customers a bad impression.

Right after Yoseob calmed down, he and Doojoon were told to get back to work. Gikwang and Dongwoon decided that it was time to perk themselves up, as they phrased it. They kicked Junhyung and Hyunseung out of the staff lounge and probably had on the figures or something.

At the moment, there were quite a number of people buying some snacks for supper and the store was pretty crowded, so Hyunseung and Junhyung decided to go out for a breather. They headed towards the park and strolled, neither saying anything to the other.

Hyunseung snuck a glance at Junhyung and flushed lightly when he remembered how many photos of him there were in Junhyung’s phone. 139. Hyunseung couldn’t even imagine how Junhyung had gotten those. Junhyung definitely knew where he schooled. But why didn’t I ever see him?

Hyunseung sighed, knowing that Junhyung wouldn’t admit the truth. Junhyung could easily guess what was on Hyunseung’s mind and groaned inwardly. Why did he have to see those photos? Why did I even take so many photos of him? I’ve never been a fan of taking photos.

Mentally sighing, Junhyung decided not to overthink things and settled for holding Hyunseung’s hand yet again. Hyunseung jumped when he felt something warm holding his hand, relaxing when he realised that it was just Junhyung. An old couple walked past them slowly and both of them could easily make out what they were saying.

“They make such a cute couple, don’t you think?”

“I remember when we used to be like that…”

Junhyung and Hyunseung both didn’t want to hear more because their faces were as red as tomatoes. They sped up their pace and stopped walking when they were a fair distance away from the old couple. They looked at each other and turned away in embarrassment.

“T-that old lady didn’t know what she was saying!” Hyunseung sputtered nervously. Junhyung felt hurt. He never thought that Hyunseung only saw him as a friend. He had always been aware that Hyunseung was fond of him. What Hyunseung said really hurt his pride and he was upset.

“Yeah…” Junhyung replied unsurely. Hyunseung stared at Junhyung in confusion. So what does his reply mean? He really doesn’t feel anything for me? Why would he keep hanging out with me then?

Both Hyunseung and Junhyung were so painfully oblivious to the other’s feelings, it was kind of annoying. Still, they ended up sitting at the bench where they were at in the afternoon. Junhyung made a mental note to find out whether or not Hyunseung really liked him.

Who actually guessed that the stalker was Junhyung? XD I just had to, because Junhyung can be so darn oblivious in here ._.

Well I'm glad I managed to update on time :) Hopefully this happens next week too! :D

There isn't much from me today so I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next! Annyeong ^^