ATEEZ l The story of a friendship #1

-10-

18:24pm

The five boys made their way back to the classroom, when they entered they saw that Hongjoong and San had woken up and Yunho was listening to music. Mingi smiled and went to sit next to Yunho ripping one of his earphones and plugging it in his own ear, instantly jamming to the good music. 

Wooyoung sat down along with Yeosang, while Seonghwa went to check on Hongjoong. The blonde looked at the small boy, he was frowning with an annoyed look on his face. Looking in his direction, Seonghwa saw Hongjoong eyeing Mingi and Yunho who were singing dancing all the while being seated on some desks and chuckled. Not feeling like talking to him if he was in a jealous mood, therefor bad mood, the elder went to sit next to Jongho using his legs as pillows as he started a deathly game of rock-paper-scissor with him.

Hongjoong would never admit it but the boy was fulminating at the view of the two tall boys enjoying themselves so much. It wasn't until he saw Yunho place his hand on Mingi's thighs as he crunched his body in laughter that the boy scoffed rather loudly, getting up. Mingi noticed and in between laughs asked him where he was going.

"Hey where are you going?" He asked still smiling and laughing.

"Somewhere"

"Oh come on tell me where" Mingi asked.

"No" Hongjoong kept a stoic expression.

"Why not?"

"Just let me go okay? You stay here with Yunho laughing and making noise and I'll just be on my own" Hongjoong spoke louder then he wanted to and caught the other boys' attention.

"What's going on?" Mingi asked confused as he got up.

"Nothing. I just want you to leave me alone. Stay with Yunho or whoever you want to but leave me alone" With that the brunette stormed out of the room. 

Mingi looked around confused, Yunho was smiling seemingly amused by the situation whereas the others gave each other knowing looks.

"Who's going to go?" Yeosang asked.

"I'll do it" San got up and left quickly to catch up to the tiny brunette. 

He found him sitting on one of the benches in front of the lockers, the ravenette sat down and sighed not saying anything. He looked to the other boy with a small smile. 

"I know, I couldn't stop myself" Hongjoong pouted and looked down.

"It's okay"

"No... We're nothing and look how I get; I've never been like this. I don't like it"

"It's normal, you want to secure your place in his heart and once you'll have it you'll relax and won't get so jealous" San said as he rubbed his hand on the other's back.

"You think so?"

"Of course. Right now you're still in the race, you can't let your guard down yet"

"I don't know, do I even want to win the race?"

"Judging by your reaction right now, I'd say so"

"It's weird, I barely know him" Hongjoong exhaled and rested his back on the wall.

"That's not important, look at me and Wooyoung"

"Are you two dating?" The elder asked. San chuckled and shook his head. "But your place is secured, no?"

"No, I'd probably get jealous if I saw him having so much fun with someone else"

"Oh please, Wooyoung would never risk losing you to someone else. I mean who could ever come close to you?" Hongjoong said with a smirk.

"Jesus, Hongjoong. Stick to Mingi please" San said that as a joke but was in fact very flattered by the elder's words. 

The two went on talking, mostly about their feelings and relationship, it was refreshing for both of them to find someone with who they were comfortable enough to talk about such things. 

In the meantime, Mingi was still very confused about Hongjoong's outburst and was pestering everyone about it. He had asked them all many times if they knew why the boy had reacted that way and they all replied no but their smiles and eyes told otherwise. 

 Mingi was once again annoying Wooyoung, asking if he had done something wrong which only made the ravenette burst out laughing and Mingi groan in annoyance and desperation.

"Whatever, I'm going to go for a walk. Yeosang, want to come with?" Mingi asked.

"Sure" Yeosang got up but was stopped by Seonghwa.

"You can't go for a walk, your leg is still weak and on the mend" He said in a stern voice.

"I think he'll be okay, Seonghwa. Besides, I'll carry him back if he doesn't feel fine" Mingi said in a jokingly annoyed tone.

"I'll be okay, hyung. Don't worry about me" Yeosang smiled and left with his friend, Seonghwa scoffing not happy about the other's irresponsibility. The two boys chuckled and started walking slowly for Yeosang to catch up.

"So, why did you want to go for a walk?" Yeosang asked.

"I don't know, I didn't like the atmosphere in the room right now. It reminds me too much of home"

"How so?"

"Well you know, Hongjoong storming out without a reason and you guys all there seeing everything but not helping me, knowing something's on but deciding not to do anything about it, it's the same as in my family"

"Just to be clear, we are trying to help, but there's not a lot we can do and what about your family, how are they like this?"

"It's hard to explain" Mingi looked at his feet and sighed.

"Give it a try"

"Well it may not seem like it but I help a lot around the house, I'm always making breakfast, helping with dinner, cleaning, filling the ice trays, cleaning the dishes, taking care of our laundry and stuff like that but my parents and siblings never really thank me, they're always behaving like it's normal for it to be this way and they certainly don't help around. 

I know it's normal to help with the chores but to me it seems like I do them all and they, my siblings, do nothing. And whenever they do one thing, they will boast about it all day and my parents will be like "Yeah good for you" but they don't say anything when I do them cause it's "normal". So sometimes I don't do them, I think "hell I'll let them do it" but of course my brother is never home so he doesn't do shit and my sister is in her room or doesn't do anything even so.

 When that happens well of course my parents come down on me, screaming that I don't do anything and so when I get really worked up I stop being nice and doing what they tell me to do. I should mention my sister has this thing of always asking me to do little things for her but gets infuriated when I say no. And they all get angry at me whenever I stop being nice. Like do you get it?"

"Yeah when you stop being who they think you are and who they need you to be and become yourself they don't like it"

"Exactly! And I'm tired, if I'm not everything they're used to they get angry. I've been the only nice and obedient child out of all of us, probably because I'm the youngest and now theyre used to me basically being their slave. Sometimes I tell my parents off and say that my siblings don't do anything either and that I'm not the only one that should help, they go: Yes but they're jerks, you're good. So I feel bad and I start helping and everything starts over again" 

Mingi groaned and sighed feeling exhausted. Yeosang had no idea that his friend's situation was that bad, and even though it didn't seem like much, he could see it had taken a toll on his friend.

 Even though he didn't say much after that, he knew that Mingi didn't care for his answer so much as he had needed an ear to listen to his problems and Yeosang had gladly given his. The two boys proceeded to talk about other things, Mingi immediately going back to his happy, cheerful self to the biggest joy of Yeosang.