[Chapter 8]

The car ride was dead silent. Joshua’s hands were white as they gripped the wheel. While Vernon wanted to say something as soon as they all entered the car, he did his best to hold off until they had drove around a bit.

When the car reached a red light, Vernon turned to face Joshua from the passenger seat and decided that now was as good a time as any.

“You gonna tell us what the hell happened back there?”

Joshua clenched his jaw and refused to look away from the road, responding only after a few seconds in order to try and change the topic.

“I’ve told you so many times not to swear in front of Chan, his parents are going to–”

“Josh, seriously,” Vernon interrupted, levelling the other with a look that said he would not let Joshua get off that easily. Chan tried to hide his giggle from the backseat. Joshua saw Vernon’s expression from the corner of his eye and sighed. However, he refused to say anything, and gently eased the car back into motion once the light turned green.

“Should I take a guess then? About your secret?” Vernon tried again.

“Hansol–”

“He for some reason doesn’t know that you speak fluent Korean? And have for your whole life?”

“Well–”

“How in the world did you pull that one off?”

“I just–”

“And why? If you like him so much, then wouldn’t you want to talk to him in a language that he understands?”

“It’s not that simple!” Joshua shouted out, all his frustration finally letting loose. He hit his hands angrily on the steering wheel and tried to take deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Luckily, Vernon and Chan knew to keep quiet until Joshua simmered down. When Joshua finally felt like he could speak normally, he continued.

“I just...when I first saw him...”

Joshua’s anger quickly turned into nervousness as he related his situation to someone for the first time, speech getting quicker and quicker the more he rambled.

“When I first saw him he was kind of really pretty and then he talked to me but I couldn’t speak so he just assumed that I didn’t speak Korean and I just went with it because...well y-you know, how could I just say ‘you’re so pretty I couldn’t speak’ like that would have just been creepy and lame and stuff. But then he was kind of really cute speaking English and one thing happened after another and I-I...yeah...he doesn’t know.”

The blush that he knew was blooming across his cheeks was warm. He hoped that Vernon and Chan could not tell. When the car pulled up to another stoplight, Joshua took the change to glance at the other two in his car. If his face was red, Vernon’s and Chan’s faces were even more red as they held their breaths, eyes sparkling as they looked between each other and Joshua. The oldest turning to look at them, though, seemed to release whatever they were holding in, and they started to howl with laughter. Joshua was so shocked by their laughter that he missed the light turning green, and the cars behind him began honking angrily.

Joshua fumbled to put the car in drive as Vernon and Chan continued to guffaw.

“Wh-Why is this so funny?” Joshua grumbled, now blushing even harder.

“Because you’re adorable, hyung!” Chan responded in between his laugher.

“That’s not the thing I want to hear from the maknae,” Joshua muttered.

“But it’s true! I mean, it’s almost like you haven’t realized that you’ve said way more embarrassing things to people before!”

“Like, ‘you’re so pretty I couldn’t speak’ isn’t even in the top ten cheesiest pick-up lines Jisoo-hyung has ever said,” Vernon added.

“I know, right? Remember that time hyung said, ‘If you were a fruit, you’d be a fine-apple?’ And the dude just walked away?”

“Oh my god, how could I forget? We made fun of him for weeks afterwards.”

“And that one time a boy complimented his sweater and Jisoo-hyung said, ‘I like your pants–’”

“–and things just got really awkward and Jisoo-hyung was a stuttering mess?”

“Alright, point made,” Joshua interrupted.

Chan reached from the back seat and patted Joshua on the shoulder.

“If Jeonghan-hyung really likes you, then he also likes your cheesiness, too.”

“Why are you calling him ‘hyung’ already? Didn’t you just meet him today?”

“Because I told him in Korean that I like him and now we’re best friends,” Chan replied, emphasizing “in Korean” and giving Joshua a sassy look through the rearview mirror.

“Guys, come on,” Joshua began before a ping came from Chan’s phone.

Who are you texting?” Vernon asked, turning around fully in his seat and attempting to look at the youngest’s phone.

“Jeonghan-hyung.”

Spluttering, Joshua said, “W-Wait, really?”

“Yeah, we have plans to hang out next weekend.”

Vernon reached even further back to try and look at Chan’s phone.

“Wow, no kidding, he’s really messaging Jeonghan.”

“B-But...but it took me almost two months to get his number!”

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

Jeonghan finished cleaning up his station and started to mop up his half of the salon, Wonwoo already working on the other half with Mingyu cleaning all of the surfaces and putting the nail polish back in their case. Usually, their end of the day routine was filled with stories and laughter. Today, it was quiet.

Letting out a sigh, Jeonghan waved goodbye to his coworkers and went to the back of the salon. He put away his cleaning supplies, grabbed his wallet, and was ab