Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 38: Arrival

Joshua

Mom:

Sweetie, where are you? 

Mom:

Reply as soon as you see this. 

I was about to type my reply when I heard a door click open. Seokmin came out of the teacher's office. 

"How was it?" I asked, forgetting immediately my mom's message. 

He was looking at his paper when he stepped out. He raised his head after hearing my voice. I felt my chest pound nervously as I waited for his response.

"Hyung..." he mumbled, slowly walking towards my direction.

I worriedly stared at him. What's with voice? With his expression? Did he fail his remediation?

"Seok?"

"Hyung..." he mumbled again.

He stopped right in front of me, our eyes still fixated on each other.

"Seok... it's alri—"

"I PASSED!" he suddenly yelled.

My forehead creased, "What?"

His blank expression earlier was now gone, replaced by his usual bright smile. But this time, his smile reaches from ear to ear. It was his widest smile that I've ever seen since we started hanging out.

"Hyung, I passed the remediation! I even perfected two sections of the English remediation test!"

My lips formed a smile as I stared at Seokmin. His bright smile never failed to make me smile. He just radiates happiness, and it's contagious. Everyone will just automatically smile whenever they're near Seokmin.

"I told you didn't I? You won't fail because you did your best," I told him.

He showed me his remediation paper, "Look, hyung! This is the highest score I've got in Math!"

I took the paper to look at it. Indeed, it's high. Out of 100, he got 80%. As far as I know, 75% is the passing score.

I lifted my head and looked at Seokmin. I smiled proudly at him, "Good job, Seok."

"Ey, it's all because of you, hyung! I wouldn't have got this score without your help!"

"No, Seok. I wasn't the one who answered this. I just taught you how to answer it. You did the rest," I retorted, "you were hardworking. You deserve this score!"

I noticed his ears were slowly turning red, then to his cheeks, "Thanks, hyung." He said, averting his eyes away from me as he looked back at his remediation test.

"This calls for a celebration!" I exclaimed, taking out my phone in my pocket.

"Hyung, this is just a remediation. Why would we celebrate it?" He asked.

"Because you did a great job! Don't worry, it's my treat," I said.

He quickly shook his head, "No, no. It's me who should treat you!"

"You already paid for me last time, it's my turn now. Just take it as a congratulatory gift," I smiled at him.

His cheeks flushed once again as he sighed, "Fine..."

I smiled triumphantly.

After ordering his favorite chicken, we head back to the dorm. We need to take a shower first before going to Seungcheol's room.