Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 37: The First Sign

Jeonghan

Where the hell are they?

I've been walking around the campus for awhile yet I still haven't seen any of my friends. I really should've gone with them instead of meeting a certain someone who didn't even say any important things aside from scolding me in front of the headmaster.

I sighed in frustration. They're not even answering their phones!

Tired, I decided to sit down for a while. I sat on the bleachers in the field. It's the football team that's playing, and I realized Seungcheol must be watching somewhere in the crowd. But there's too many people so I didn't bother to find him.

I heaved out a deep breath, when my phone suddenly vibrates. I took it out expecting to see a message from either Seungcheol, the Chinese couple or anyone else.

But not from Joshua.

Joshua:

Han! Where are you guys? I haven't seen any of you. I thought we'll watch the football game?

I smiled bitterly after reading it. I didn't reply, I just hid my phone back in my pocket.

These past weeks that have passed, I feel like Joshua's drifting away. As overreacting as it is, I just felt that way. And I couldn't help but feel bitter about it every time Seokmin would call and excuse him from us, then Joshua would cancel whatever plan we have or even tell us to continue without him and that he'll just make it up for us.

It makes me feel bitter, and I certainly know why.

I tend to feel emotional when I felt like my friends had been drifting away from me. I felt this way before with Jun and Minghao when they became so awkward with each other because they couldn't confess their feelings. They were avoiding each other, which means they avoided me too. So when they did it again last time, I felt upset.

Now that Joshua's been spending a lot of time with Seokmin, I felt a bit upset. Seokmin can just hang out with us without taking Joshua away. Why does he have to excuse him from us?

Shaking the thoughts away, I stood up to go back to my room. I'd rather sleep for awhile.

***

"Jeonghan! Wake up!"

"Go away," I mumbled, pulling back the pillow I'm hugging.

"No, you're going to stand up!" The annoying bastard persisted on pulling my pillow away from me. Annoyed, I sat up abruptly and turned to glare at the man who woke me up.

Only for my gaze to soften immediately as soon as my sight became clearer.

"Oh, Joshua." I mumbled.

He smiled, "Wake up! It's already afternoon!"

I rubbed my eyes to remove the remaining drowsiness I am feeling.

The bitterness I've felt instantly disappeared upon seeing his bright smile. How come his smile can ease everything? It's always like that with him. It's unfair.

"What are we going to do? It's not like we have plans for today," I mumbled.

"We do have one!"

My eyebrow raised at that, "What?"

"We're going to play foot volleyball!" he exclaimed happily, "no teams are playing on the field right now. So we can finally play by ourselves!"

"Really?" I asked, excitement slowly creeping in my system.