Chapter 28: Around 1.1

Chanyeol sits on the corner dine, as usual, which he claimed that it’s his and thankfully, the others seem to pick up with it. Ordering a pastry basket and a watermelon shake awhile ago, the young male takes a bite on the chocolate chip cookie while drowning himself in the play of Mozart’s The Magic Flute played by Sungyeol.

Dazedly looking outside, he remembers the girl that he saw outside the past few days ago and he wonders where she could have been. An uninvited guest comes and takes the seat across him.

“Chanyeol?”

The said male glances at the uninvited guest before taking another bite on the chocolate chip cookie, returning his shift back outside.

“What are you doing here, Jongin?” he boredly asks, completely not surprised by his friend’s appearance.

Jongin sighs, snatching a cupcake from the pastry basket-which earned him a side glance from Chanyeol-and take a bite.

“Taemin is out again to the Wu’s and I’m left alone in the house,” Jongin replies with a hint of sadness.

Chanyeol sighs.

“How the hell did you even find me here?” he asks, quite annoyed by the fact that his peacefulness is disturbed. Jongin blinks, noting the annoyed tone of his best friend, before rolling his eyes.

“I was going somewhere when I spotted you in this café and I thought to drop by and see you, can’t you be rather happy to see your friend?” Jongin sarcastically says making Chanyeol look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m happy to see you very much, Jongin,” he says with an unenthusiastic voice, “happy?”

Jongin huffs out, munching out the cupcake. Just then something dawned on Chanyeol’s mind, he looked at Jongin with a quite surprised look.

“You were going somewhere?” the young male asks in surprise. Jongin nods his head, not realizing that he is slowly revealing the secret he is keeping for some while now. Seeing Jongin’s reaction made Chanyeol’s doubtful question, true.

“So all of this time, whenever we are going to separate in the sidewalk and seeing you out of your mind for the past few weeks, it’s because you’re seeing someone?” Chanyeol gasps at the sudden revelation that he had concluded. Jongin nods but then his eyes widen at what he had heard.

“What?! No! I-I’m not seeing someone!” Jongin denies, his voice cracking in the process and he cursed in his mind for it. Chanyeol smirks, completely believed that he is seeing someone due to the fact that his voice cracked which is a sign that he is lying.

“Liar, you’re seeing someone, Jongin. Don’t even try to deny it,” Chanyeol smugly smiles at him, taking a bite on another chocolate chip cookie. Jongin blushes in response and he knew that he can’t get away with it any more. He exasperatedly sighs before nodding his head, surrendering that he is indeed seeing someone.

Chanyeol squeals in delight, completely excited and forgetting his annoyance for the younger awhile ago. His eyes glinted in excitement and mischief, smiling widely that means (for Jongin) he needs the story and the explanation making Jongin rolls his eyes.

“So let’s hear it shall we?”

After a long conversation about practically everything excluding the part where his symptom first month and the blushing part, their conversation finally ended. Jongin fidgets in his seat, completely nervous under Chanyeol’s judging stare.

“So let me get this straight, the name of the person you are seeing for the past few weeks is Kyungsoo? And that he owns a flower shop and Sehun also works there? And you met him through accidentally bumping each other?” Chanyeol sips his shake after and Jongin nods his head.

Leaning his back on the chair, Chanyeol blew his bangs.

“Have you told Taemin about this?” he asks as he cast a worried glance to the younger. Jongin frowns at him and shakes his head.

“How could I? I couldn’t see him day and night, Yeol,” Jongin replies flatly. Chanyeol sighs again and take a sip on his shake, shifting his gaze outside. Jongin ruffles his hair, getting another cupcake in the pastry basket.

A shuffle of footsteps rang on their ears that seems to coming their way to them. Jongin turns around with Chanyeol looking in front, eyes widening and a gasp leaving their lips.

“Kyungsoo hyung.”

“Baekhyun hyung.”

~*~

Luhan takes a on his ice cream, the sweet taste invading his tongue. He is currently outside, taking the beautiful scenery of Han River. It’s been a long time since he visited the place and somehow he sees two young males sitting on the grass, the light brown haired male resting his head on the other male’s shoulder. Seeing the two young male, makes him smile at their cuteness before a tear rolls down from his eye-the image he saw fades and returns into nothing.

The ice cream melts in his hand and he takes a step back, remembering the days when they were on Han River back then. The scene that he saw just now was the day before they were going to France and it’s just too painful to remember such memory.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Luhan blinks away the tears and panickly eats his melting ice cream.

Whereas Sehun is in the same road Luhan is, but quite afar from the latter. Sehun was free from work since Kyungsoo closed the flower shop early due to some emergency. That’s okay for him though, he had been down for some while and he needs some fresh air.

He lets out a sigh, pocketing both of his hands in his jacket. He stops walking and turns to sight the beautiful river. He smiles as the memories of Luhan and him resurface in his mind, feeling slightly the presence of Luhan that made him at ease.

“Where are you Luhan? It’s been so long, where are you?” Sehun whispers in the wind, hoping that the wind would carry his message to his lover.

Luhan finished his ice cream, wiping off the ice cream that melted on his hand using his handkerchief. Taking a few moments to admire the Han River, he received a call.

“Hello? Oh, Yongguk hyung, what is it?” he greets, rubbing his eye.

“Yeah, sure. Okay. See you later then,” He ends the call and pockets his phone. Breathing the air, he whispers.

“I’m going to find you, Sehun. Soon, just wait for me.” He takes his leave on the side, not sparing the other side a glance where Sehun was 10 yards away from him. And not too long, Sehun leaves the opposite side where Luhan left, missing each other again when they are so close.

~*~

Jongdae sighs, adjusting the knit scarf around his neck. The flu seems to be stuck with him and he’s getting tired of resting at home so he decided to stroll out and breathe some fresh air. He dropped by at his café to check how things are going on. Everything seems to be fine and he was glad for it and leaves short instruction to the staffs before he left.

Jongdae sniffs a bit, fixing his glasses when his phone rang. Seeing a text message from his brother, asking where he is, Jongdae replies with ‘somewhere’ and turns his phone off. Somehow, he wanted to stroll out somewhere, breathe in some fresh air and ease his mind. It’s been two days since the call from Minseok and Jongdae wonders why he isn’t erasing the latter’s number. He could have done it, but he wasn’t able to-more of like, something is hindering him from deleting the number and what’s funny is that he even saved the number in his contacts.

Settling himself on one of the benches of the park, Jongdae buries his nose on his scarf, eyes glazed with mist. He wasn’t able to got a hold of Sungmin since the latter was out to get some ingredients and Jongdae vows to get him next time.

But yet again, something inside of him is glad that Sungmin gave his number to Minseok and how in the back of his mind is so glad that he heard Minseok’s concerned voice, asking how he is. It’s those flurry moments where Jongdae tries to believe that Minseok changed and that all he did back then was a dream; a horrible nightmare.

He wishes it was all that, but all the memories that resurfaced in his mind and the pain in his heart proved otherwise. He leans his back on the bench, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to escape the thoughts of Minseok out of his mind.

He sigh a bit, pulling his hand away and rests on his side before he shivers. He coughs a bit when a medicine is reached out to him and Jongdae was slightly puzzled as he noticed that the medicine is for flu. He looks up and gasps escaped his lips when he saw the person who is giving him some medicine.

“Hyung,” he mutters as his eyes suddenly doubled. He blinks, trying to regain his vision back and when he did, he looked back at the person. Minseok looks at him worry. He’s been following the younger the time when the male left his café. He bought some medicine while on the watch of the younger’s back and tried his best not to be noticed, afraid that the younger would run away from him.

Once, he learned that Jongdae is sick, he’s been worried sick and practically on a frenzy panic that he only stopped when Kyuhyun and Donghae threw him a bucket of water. He was worried about the younger, knowing that the younger has a weak immune system and that if his sickness didn’t get treated, it would have gone worse. And seeing the latter had gone out and see his condition doesn’t ease his heart as he thought it would be when he saw the younger outside.

“Jongdae-ah, take it. You need to drink your medicine,” Minseok says, panic evident in his voice as he settled beside the younger. Jongdae looks at him warily and Minseok could see the hesitation in his eyes and he sighs.

“Look, I’m not going to stay for long, okay? Just, just drink this medicine and drink and I’m off to go,” he says dejectedly. As much as he wanted to stay, he can't and he might as well oblige to the younger's thoughts.Waiting for a few moments, Jongdae took the packet of medicine from his hand and placed it in his mouth. Getting the drink from the plastic bag, he handed over the drink to the younger.

Drinking up some, Jongdae caps the bottle again before setting it to his side. Placing his hands on the edge of the bench, the younger takes a side glance at the older beside him.

Feeling the atmosphere turned awkward, Minseok decides it’s enough and stands up. Standing up, he glances at the younger before looking forward.

“Get well soon, Jongdae,” he mutters for the both of them and takes a step on the side. Before he completely leaves, Jongdae spoke.

“Thank you, hyung.”

Minseok’s eyes widen at his reply, but soon regained composure and smiled.

“Take care,” he utters back and leaves the younger in the park with Jongdae watching his retreating back.