Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 41: Vernon

Joshua

"You still love to watch anime, huh?" Vernon said as he let his fingers trailed on the piles of anime CD's I have, "you also have a lot of cartoons here."

"I only watched them whenever I went here," I told him.

He turned around to face me, "What do you mean by that?" He asked, his face was laced with pure confusion.

I smiled, motioning him to sit on my bed so we could talk which he quickly obliged.

"We really do have a lot to catch up," I said, "I'm studying in a boarding school because my parents aren't always at home to watch for me."

"Is that why you never contacted me when you went here?" Vernon innocently asked.

"I..." I rubbed my neck, not knowing how to respond with that, "I honestly don't have an idea why we ended up not contacting each other." 

"I don't know either," he replied.

A moment of silence had passed when Vernon spoke again.

"How are you... uh... hyung?" he awkwardly asked.

I chuckled at his cuteness. He may have looked matured, but he's still that awkward Vernon from before.

"You can drop the honorifics with me if that's where you're comfortable at. I understand that you're not used to it," I said to him.

"If you say so," he shrugged, "so, how have you been, Josh?"

I smiled, "I'm fine..." I stopped for a moment, hesitating whether to tell him about the Baekho incident or not. In the end, I didn't. "Yeah, I'm fine. I have great friends who has my back."

"That's great then," he said, smiling a bit.

"How about you?" I asked, "how have you been?"

"Well, I didn't have much friends back in there but it's still fun. I'm still glad we'll migrate here in Korea now after a few years of convincing them."

My eyebrow raised at that, "After a few years of convincing?"

He nodded, "I'm the one who convinced them to migrate here." 

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Because I missed you," he said, almost in a whisper. He wasn't looking at me when he said that.

My heart softened and I felt my chest tightened.

He must've really missed me that much that he really tried to convince his parents to live here for good...

"Oh, Vernon," I said, pulling him again into a tight hug. He hugged me even tighter as he buried his face in my neck. 

My eyes widened when I felt my shirt turning wet, and then followed by his sobs. His shoulders were heaving up and down. 

I pat his back slowly, "Ssh. Don't cry now, big boy." 

"I missed you so, so much. Why didn't you call me even once... I'm so worried..."