Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 46: Unexpected Twist Of Events

Jeonghan

"I... I need to go to the... bathroom now..." Seungcheol said, stuttering. He didn't wait for our response as he stood up and dashed away.

"It must be the call of nature. He ate too many cakes earlier," Joshua said while watching Seungcheol's disappearing figure.

I almost facepalmed and slapped Joshua to wake up some sense in him. How could he be so oblivious?

If he wasn't able to notice Seungcheol's expression, it didn't go unnoticed to me. I clearly saw it.

The pain in his eyes.

And I'm no different from him either.

I already knew about it, but why am I still surprised? Did I really assume I had the chance to be in Joshua's heart? It shouldn't hurt like this since I already had a hunch about it. But why is my heart betraying me?

"Han? You alright?"

I shook my head in response, "It's nothing." I said. I fake a yawn to make an excuse to sleep already even if I wasn't feeling the slightest bit of sleepiness, "why don't we really call it a day, Shua-ah? I'm feeling sleepy already."

He pouted his lips, and I could only avert my eyes away. Stop being so adorable, you dumbass. I'm already in pain right now, stop making me desire you even more.

"Alright..." He agreed half-heartedly, then followed by a yawned.

Despite my aching heart, I couldn't help but chuckle, "See? You're sleepy already."

"I guess so," he mumbled.

We both made our way back to his room. None of us spoke even until we reached the room. I scanned the room to see if Seungcheol's already there but I couldn't see well because it's dark and the light from the lamp on the side table wasn't enough.

I heaved out a sigh before making my way beside Mingyu.

"Good night, Han-ah," I heard Joshua's soft voice say.

It didn't help lessen the pain in my heart, but it did ease my mind.

"Good night, Shua-ah."

Liar. It was not near good at all.

***

"Why the hell would he leave a bunch of activities when he didn't even attend his class and explained this?" Soonyoung grumbled beside me, brows knitted in annoyance.

"Should I go prank him? I'm too annoyed right now and pranking would probably help me calm down," I said while still searching for the book we need for our activities.

Soonyoung halts for a moment before turning his body to face me, "Speaking of... come to think of it, it's been awhile since you prank someone."

I shrugged, "It's not like I just prank for my own satisfaction. There's no one who's annoying me, except for that bastard ex-captain. I got back at him so I don't think of any reason to prank him."

He nodded, turning his attention back at the books, "Fair enough. I'm just curious... assa! I found it, hyung! It's here."

I quickly went to his direction and scanned the books he's pointing at, "Finally, we can start."

We took the book we need before heading to find a place where we can comfortably start our activities. We chose to sit beside the window. It was a perfect spot, good thing there's only a few students here.

A week had passed since Joshua's birthday. School days started again and we were welcomed by loads of activities and examinations. We couldn't even hang out for so long after class because we have a deadline for our activities. Only our year was this busy, so our younger friends hadn't been as busy as we are.