Chapter 60

"Thanks for lending me your clothes, Ravi-hyung," Sanghyuk said as he was just stepping out of the men's bathroom and fixing up his tie. "It kinda feels weird wearing your school's uniform because I initially wanted to enrol there but you know..." He trailed off when the latter remained quiet and irresponsive to his attempts on starting a conversation. Sanghyuk had not really heard the entire story from Hongbin, but he, himself, could tell that there was something off about Wonsik. Maybe it was his silence or perhaps the bags under his eyes or even the way that he seemed to keep staring at something that Sanghyuk was holding. He looked down at his hands: one was carrying the bag that had his uniform and the other was empty. "Hyung...?" Sanghyuk started, again trying to catch Wonsik's attention, "Are you okay? Do you want me to fetch you some water or something?"

Wonsik did not flinch when he got called. Therefore, Sanghyuk concluded that he knew full well that he was staring (and he was possibly aware that he was beginning to feel uncomfortable) – "Hyuk-ah," Wonsik spoke all of a sudden, catching the younger off guard. "What do you think of Hongbin right now?"

They started to walk out of the station and slowly climbed up the flight of stairs, but somehow, Sanghyuk found it rather difficult to answer. His mouth and throat had gone dry, leaving him to cough. "What kind of answer are you expecting from me...?" He asked cautiously.

Wonsik shrugged. "He confessed to you, didn't he? And you two had been going back and forth in your relationship since then." He turned to Sanghyuk, "Not that it's my business. But at some point, you're gonna have to stop leaving him hanging. Hongbin's gonna wait for you, sure, but it's really gonna help you if you draw the line properly. You two are just gonna stay in this never ending cycle unless someone would go and tell you guys. Either way, the result is the same. It's just a matter of how quickly you get there. Right now though, the progress is stagnant that I'm beginning to get bored of waiting for something to happen –"

"Hyung," Sanghyuk interrupted him, knitting his eyebrows. "Our relation – our friendship – is not your entertainment, you know?"

The former hummed as if he was acknowledging what Sanghyuk said, but he responded, "To be honest, anything right now would be good. I'm bored as hell and there's only the two of you left that I have within my coverage. The others are just... They've all gone away and are too stubborn to listen. But whatever, something is still something." He halted when he reached the top of the stairs and glanced behind him. "Kinda worrying though because Hongbin's genuinely head over heels for you and the string that you two have is so thin and flimsy. Maybe Leo-hyung noticed it already, but... It's just weird. Maybe it'll break like his or –"

"I have no idea what you're talking about right now," Sanghyuk muttered, sounding more baffled than he was earlier on. "Strings that Binnie-hyung and I have? What... Don't tell me that you're talking about the 'red strings of fate'?" He guessed, raising an eyebrow. "My sister used to tell me stories about those stuff and I think that Binnie-hyung said other things about them too. Ain't those stuff just myths? I didn't think that you'd be the type to be interested in such stories... I watched some animes and read mangas about it actually – Even in Naruto! Except that it was only implied. I don't know if you watch it, but Naruto's mother has like red hair and because of it, she was fated to Naruto's father or something like that. Kinda like Mikasa's scarf that Eren gave her in Attack On Titan as well – Not necessarily direct on both cases, but they've both alluded to the myth."

Wonsik stared at Sanghyuk, blinking a couple of times before he started to walk again, the latter following closely beside him. "Well... Believe it or not, I'm cursed to see everyone's red string of fate," he laughed bitterly, but he was also somewhat amused at what Sanghyuk said. "It's saddening and it's a huge burden. Sometimes I wish I'd just go blind so that I don't see them."

Sanghyuk chuckled. "Oh yeah? And my string is 'thin and flimsy'? Where is it located? My ankle?" He stopped walking to lift his foot and check. "My wrist?" Then he raised his hands and splayed his fingers, "My finger?"

Wonsik's eyes naturally landed on the thin red string tied around the younger's little finger. He had been eyeing it for a while now and had been comparing it to the one that he had on his own hand. "Yeah, it's on your finger. The smallest finger on your left hand."

Sanghyuk snickered while he put his left pinky finger up, carrying both bags on his right hand. He saw nothing, of course. "It's on this one? So why are Binnie-hyung's and mine thin? Does that mean anything? I haven't heard of such a concept before, you know? And I'm intrigued! Maybe you should try making a manhwa or be a writer or something? Stories like these are really gonna sell with teenagers, you know? I know that I'd read it or watch it if ever!" He dropped his hand to his side and returned the other bag to his left hand, humming to himself a song that just popped in his head – "Ah! That reminds me of one of the songs that Ken-hyung's group released before! Have you heard of it? It was called 'Depend On Me' and their concept was the red strings of fate as well! Kinda understandable that they would go for something like that since the myth is popular in Japan and the song was for their Japanese fans..."

Even when Sanghyuk kept going on and on and on, Wonsik found himself stuck and unable to hear past 'Ken-hyung.' He felt his heart skipping a beat even though he kept screaming inside his head that it never happened. It was also getting harder to breathe having to remember his last encounter with the aforementioned idol. Wonsik wanted to forget about him, hence why he got himself drowned in soju. But when he woke up, aside from his splitting headache, Jaehwan was the first person that came to his mind and he almost pulled at his hair because of it. Thankfully, his brother was there to distract him somehow –

"Didn't think that I'd have this kind of conversation with you, hyung," Sanghyuk admitted, wearing a stretched out smile. Wonsik finally took notice of him and the way anxiety seemed to be affecting him – "By the way... Why'd you go and stop Leo-hyung that time? Binnie-hyung told me about it and I'm just kinda wondering..." He pulled to a stop again, his eyes dramatically blown wide and his gasp was obviously fake. How he was able to take a 180-degree change in such a short time, Wonsik would not understand. He did not have the energy to even imagine – "Don't tell me... Do you like Leo-hyung perhaps? You two always seemed close and you worry about him a lot too!"

Wonsik sighed, letting his eyes fall close as he blindly walked. "That would be a torture. Let's be honest here, neither of us would be able to handle someone like him. Besides, I'm not connected to him so I'm not going to uselessly go after him even if I feel something."

Sanghyuk snorted, catching up to him with a couple of skips. "You're still on that?"

"Well yeah... Almost my entire life has been revolving around it..." Wonsik muttered, lifting his left hand and checking the red knot wrapped around his little finger. "What I don't understand with him is why he's so persistent. It's so annoying!" He clenched his hand and bit on his lip. 'But I'm worse...'

As Hongbin predicted, his mother had easily allowed Sanghyuk in by lending him their school's uniform. She was too preoccupied with preparing their dinner after all and still somewhat drowsy from what Sanghyuk observed. Although he already visited their house a couple of times, Hongbin's mother seemed to keep on failing to recognise him and he had to constantly reintroduce himself to her each time. He was told to make himself at home and even ordered him to watch over the two so that they would do their schoolwork. With a nod, Sanghyuk agreed with her terms and Wonsik led him up the stairs and then their shared bedroom. "Your prince is here!" Hongbin's brother announced as he was pushing the door open.

Before Sanghyuk could even react, it was Hongbin who started a fuss first and launched a pillow towards Wonsik's direction. His brother just barely managed to avoid it thanks to Sanghyuk who tugged at his sleeve and forced him to the perfect position to get hit. Thankfully, he still had the energy to evade it. "Birds of a feather flock together, huh?" Wonsik grumbled, kicking away the pillow back towards his brother and then shutting the door behind them. "It's no wonder that you're into each other!" He said in a rush before he locked himself inside their bathroom.

"Don't mind him," Hongbin told their guest, rising to his feet and meeting him halfway their room. He did not expect, however, to see such a peculiar reaction from Sanghyuk. The latter looked as if he were stunned and embarrassed with all that happened just a minute ago. Sanghyuk was rarely like that and it was starting to worry Hongbin again. The past few times that he had seen him recently, he had observed nothing but unusual behaviour from him. He parted his lips to ask yet opted to stay quiet in fear of scaring Sanghyuk away again. "So what's up? It's strange that you actually wanted to go and see me – or us – especially if the circumstances are like this. Don't get me wrong – I like you being here and all, but I'm just surprised. And with what happened between us as well..."

"Nothing, nothing," Sanghyuk answered right away, shaking his head. Without asking for prior permission from Hongbin, he invited himself to sit down on what he assumed to be Wonsik's bed. It was messy; the blankets were all over the place and not to mention, the bed sheets were covered with the word 'SWAG' and the phrase, 'You only live once.' "And those stuff are all behind. I wouldn't fret over them too much because I think we're good now anyway, aren't we? I just really wanna hang out. Maybe start over again so we could understand each other and not guess anymore? I don't want to burden you when you've already got plenty on your plate."

Hongbin chuckled, his dimples appearing on each cheek. "Are you assuming right now that I've got a lot on my plate?"

"No!" The younger cried in defence, "What I meant was that – because of your mother and all – she's really scary by the way – I thought – you know what... Forget that I even brought that up! How are you then?" He asked instead, clearly flustered as he had been stumbling with his words. Both of them were aware that Sanghyuk was not the type to speak like that since he always took his time in conveying what he wanted to say as sincerely and accurate as he could (that sometimes end up in being longwinded the more that he kept adding in to his sentences).

Hongbin simply found the whole thing entertaining and somewhat 'heart-fluttering' as many of his admirers would say about him. Admitti