Felicity (A Jikyu And Hajeongwoo Fanfic)

Chapter 7

Having been too young while coming to Korea, Haruto had to go through a lot. At first, he did not even leave Yoshi's side for a couple of minutes. Only Yoshi and Haruto shared their apartment for the first few months. Haruto was the reason why they stayed in a constant stress of paying rents of their shared apartment, because living with someone new scared Haruto. But after some months, Haruto could see how painful everything was for Yoshi and to some extent, for himself too, so they invited someone to share the rent, known as Asahi. Asahi is a quiet person. He was even quieter back then and Haruto felt at ease around him soon. Since Asahi is Japanese, things got a lot easy. However, the introverted side of Haruto did not change around Korean people. He barely talked to them, that too being cautiously looked after by Yoshi. The way Yoshi protected him and helped him leave his shell little by little shows how much Yoshi cares for him. And Haruto always felt safe around his non blood lined hyung.

Aside from Yoshi, only one person made Haruto feel almost the same. And how the person was introduced with defies Haruto’s introvert self. It was that very night when three strangers were invited to celebrate Yoshi’s birthday, who were the friends of their new roommate, Mashiho. Haruto expected to see older guys everywhere, but surprisingly he found someone of his own age. That someone, even at first glance, felt close to Haruto. Maybe because of Yoshi’s restless efforts of making Haruto socialize with people that finally started working or because of the heartfelt vibe the unknown boy sent, Haruto approached him, which he never did before to a Korean guy. And to be honest, Haruto thinks that was the best decision taken by him ever since he had come to Korea.

Having a friend is not foreign to Haruto, but having that boy from the night, whose name he knew moments after as ‘Park Jeongwoo' by his side whenever he felt down was definitely a start. At days when he missed his home being the utterly homesick guy he is, or when he felt like his efforts were not recognised properly, or when he was in a bad mood in general, he always found a way to talk to the hyperactive boy named Jeongwoo. He would text him, call him or just make an excuse of playing online games with him just so he could feel at ease. The thing about Jeongwoo is, even though Haruto never says anything about his desperation to fulfil his dreams and his frustration when things don’t go the way he wishes, the replies from Jeongwoo always seemed to be the exact words needed. It always made Haruto wonder, as to how the guy that was the same age as him and felt like a baby compared to him with his sunshine like behaviour could be so thoughtful and could read him so well. And even though he did not find an answer, he liked it.

The fact that destiny always presented Jeongwoo at the right moment to Haruto is what makes him wonder the most. On a particular day, Haruto and Yoshi was called by a company for audition and they kept on waiting, but weren’t called due to a sudden mishap. But they weren’t let go that soon. The company didn’t let anyone leave until late at night and thanks to Yoshi and his courage that they could reach home safe and sound. Haruto felt shitty and wanted nothing more than to cry then and there but he held back. At that frustrating state of mind, destiny gifted him with Jeongwoo’s presence. Haruto forgot everything as he saw Jeongwoo sitting on a sofa in their living room, looking worried as hell but cute nonetheless. After freshening up, however, he had to go to Mashiho’s room to find the boy. Haruto didn’t know why he invited Jeongwoo to sleep with him that night so awkwardly in front of Mashiho. He could’ve just played it cool! But the look of awe on Jeongwoo’s face did change the pace of his heartbeat sometimes. Haruto didn’t have to state how irritating things were few hours ago, because Jeongwoo made him forget about those long ago. Haruto wanted to talk all night but fell asleep without knowing it himself. What he did know is when he woke up for some minutes as per his usual routine near dawn, he could see from the corner of his eyes how a sleepy Jeongwoo was looking at his face, being in his embrace all along. That night gave him some weird sensations and an untold, unbound amount of warmth.

The failure from that day at audition was soon replaced by beating hearts and anticipation when Haruto and Yoshi both were called for a second audition. They both went and performed their best, supporting each other while doing so. And thanks to all the years of hard work to make their talents even more polished, both of them were called to sign in under the famous company and were asked to attend a trial photoshoot. Haruto felt ethereal.  One, he could really have a chance to be a model from the most famous company ever, two, he didn’t have to stay behind or leave behind his most favourite hyung at all. The excitement was too much to contain and only sharing it with Yoshi didn’t satisfy him, so he took out his phone to text Jeongwoo.

This little act didn’t go unnoticed by Yoshi. “Ruto are you texting your mother too?” He asked as he himself just sent a text to his mom seconds ago.
Haruto felt both flustered and guilty. How could he forget to notify his parents about something like this? And it’s even worse as he did text someone, someone who isn’t even remotely connected to his parents. So, he just nervously smiled and hurriedly did a copy-paste of the text he sent to Jeongwoo to his mother.

Knowing Haruto for years, Yoshi could tell something was wrong with his behaviour and decided to pester him about it a bit, “Hey, did you find yourself someone as important as your family?” he mocked.
“No! It’s not like that.” Haruto denied. But a faint hint of blush still spread across his ears.

Yoshi laughed, “Ruto, been there done that.”

Now it was Haruto’s turn to tease, “Since when did you have someone like that, Yoshi san?”

“It's not about me though, but you know Mahiro, right? My best friend. When he was newly in relationship with his girlfriend, he used to forget even his family.” Yoshi laughed again, “it's not wrong though. It’s not like you’re abandoning your family. It’s just the rush of the emotions that you are not familiar with.”

Haruto nodded, a bit relieved after hearing those words, “yeah, but, I'm not in that state, trust me. You'd be the first to know if I am, san.” He said with sincerity.
Yoshi just smiled a ‘we'll see about that’ type of smile, but did not drag the topic anymore, making Haruto grateful to him. But in the back of his mind, Haruto kept thinking about the similarities between Yoshi’s friend and himself. But Jeongwoo isn’t his lover, so why did it come to this point?

Haruto soon came to a conclusion that Jeongwoo isn’t his ordinary kind of friend, isn’t even the best of friends because they haven’t known each other for long. So, Jeongwoo can only fit a certain criterion, that is the special kind of friend that only Haruto can have.