Acceleration [Book 1]

21: Raging Bloodlust - I

⊱⋅ ─ 21: RAGING BLOODLUST - I

"Can I talk to Jeongin?" He asked, catching Felix and Chan's attention, the two males exchanged concerned looks before turning to Jeongin, waiting for his response, they wouldn't just leave Jeongin there alone with Seungmin if he didn't want to.

The youngest chewed on his lower lip as he casted his eyes down on the ground5 in deep thought, a few moments later, he took a deep sigh and looked up at Chan and Felix.

"You can leave us alone," Jeongin sniffled, rubbing his slightly runny nose with the scarf that rested on his shoulders. Chan ruffled Jeongin's hair while Felix pinched the younger male's cheek, waving goodbye as they slowly left Seungmin and Jeongin in that alley.

"Why are you here?" Jeongin croaked out, his eyes looking at his feet hanging from the edge of the crate he was sitting on, he wrapped himself in his scarf, a chilly breeze brushing over their skin and making them shiver.

It took Seungmin a while to answer, he was already planning an explanation in his head when he was sobering up and changing his clothes, but all the words that he had planned to say are all now thrown to the back of his brain.

Seungmin leaned his back on the wall, his hand coming up to massage the bridge of his nose, a sigh erupted from him before he started to talk, "Jeongin, let me explain."

The younger chuckled sarcastically, "If you are going to explain what you were doing with Yeji, it's fine," he coldly replied, "I know about the bees and the birds, Seungmin... I'm not that innocent."

"Please," Seungmin half-begged, his forehead creased as his face turned to a sad expression, Jeongin huffed as he rolled his eyes, casting his eyes down on his lap, then at Seungmin's untied shoelaces, listening to what the older male had to explain to him, "it was a mistake, Yeji kept provoking me, I kept resisting... I admit, I was tipsy, but tipsy or not, I couldn't bear to lay a single finger on her," he started, the way he delivered his words were faster than Jeongin expected, the younger male's eyes lighting up in surprise at this, but his eyes remained on the ground, where Seungmin's feet were, "what else? I was never attracted to her, goodness, I am not attracted to her, because Jeongin, all this time, those years of us training and racing, times we shared beds, times I helped you out on your homeworks, the realization only got me when I found myself in too deep, deeper than God knows what."

"Your shoelace is untied," Jeongin said, somehow interrupting Seungmin and his explanation, making Seungmin look down at his shoes and he immediately crouched down to tie the shoelaces into a double knot as he always does.

It was a habbit of Jeongin to tell Seungmin about his shoelaces, well, mostly everyone, he remembered Seungmin reminding him about tying his shoelaces that one time, that one time.

"Jeongin!" Chan called as he looked from left to right to look for the younger male, it was his first race, and he's been training for two years already, tonight was a night where he finally got to represent his team.

Jeongin emerged from a throng of people, an excited smile on his face, his braces shown as he did, "I'm here!" He said, his smile unwavering, anyone from outside of the team would say that he's got it, that he wasn't nervous, but in reality, that smile was just a facade, anyone from the team knew that it was just something used to cover up his nerve-wracked expression.

"You got this," Chan encouraged the younger male, patting his shoulder as they quickly walked towards where the startline was located, "just remember, you take shortcuts, you be careful of the obstacles, don't ever try to run into Kris' team and don't get into the last five ranks." Jeongin nodded to everything that Chan just told him, Seungmin, who was his running partner, trailing right after them.