martyrs & maniacs. | tbz jujae

24.

And baby steps he did. For the next few days, Juyeon has been hellbent on fighting the urge to contact Chanhee and to see how he's doing. He even went as far as to stay over at Younghoon's unit and attend and leave classes early, just so he can stop himself from seeing Chanhee and the latter finding him. He knows that there's at least a hint of curiosity clouding his boyfriend because of his absence, especially since they were supposed to talk the day after that night. And since Juyeon didn't appear and the only thing that greeted Chanhee was an empty apartment, Juyeon knows that he is already trying to find ways to contact him.

Hiding and abstinence is an arduous chore, but somehow Juyeon makes it work. Albeit still heartbroken, he's proud to say that hasn't interacted with Chanhee for more than a week, both through social media and in person. It was hard, it was still not enough to be proud of, but Juyeon couldn't care less. One week will turn into one month, and then to one year, and before he knows it, Chanhee will be nothing but a part of his past.

Today is going to be an enjoyable and memorable day, Juyeon hopes, as he looks at the stalls and balloons crowding the front of their university. It's time for the school's semi-annual campus fair, which, like what Juyeon expected, took hours of student council meetings to plan and execute. It's a relief that Chanhee coincidentally didn't attend the meetings that Juyeon attended. The universe is definitely in favor of helping Juyeon move on, because he got to distract himself from Chanhee without even seeing him once.

Younghoon and Hyunjae are still on duty with their respective booths, leaving Juyeon and Eunseo to roam around together. Their adventure mostly just consisted of small talks and eating, but it was fun nonetheless.

Eunseo noted that Juyeon was smiling the whole time they were walking around, and it made Juyeon's heart melt when the younger woman wrapped her arms around him to tell him how proud she was of him.

"Don't tell them I showed you some affection." She told him after pulling away. "Unless you want to get kicked in the part that hurts the most."

Juyeon just laughed at her and agreed.

It didn't take long for the two oldest to arrive, with Younghoon sporting a kiss mark on his cheek from his class' stall ("A kissing booth?" Hyunjae had asked incredulously. "What is this? A Netflix film?"). The oldest man just rolled his eyes before surging forward to try and give Hyunjae a kiss.

Hyunjae barely managed to avoid it. Barely.

Hyunjae locks eyes with him seconds after he blocked Younghoon's attack, and he shoots Juyeon a smile. Of course, Juyeon smiles back.

"What were you two up to while Younghoon was kissing hundreds of girls?" The blond asks, looping both of his arms around Juyeon's and Eunseo's shoulders. The latter tried to remove it only for Hyunjae to pull the both of them closer.

Juyeon doesn't resist the other's actions. "Just strolled around, ate and played."

"Sounds boring."

"That's literally what we're supposed to do right now." Eunseo snaps at him, shoving Hyunjae towards Juyeon and breaking free from her friend's grip.

The blonde girl drags Younghoon away from them, muttering something about Hyunjae being an ass and her doing him a favor. The older man was too distracted in removing the lipstick in his cheek that he just let Eunseo pull him away.

"You made her angry." Juyeon remarks, watching his two friends' disappearing figures.

Hyunjae just laughs. "I always make her angry, nothing new."

"So what are we going to do now? Should we chase after them?"

"Should we?"

A light bulb suddenly appears in Juyeon's head, and he grins. "Last one to find them gets to treat the winner for brunch." He starts to run before he can even complete his sentence, and Juyeon can see Hyunjae gasp at the blatant cheating that he did.

"Not fair!" The older man shouts from a distance, uncaring when the crowd around him looks at him judgingly.

Juyeon hastily forms a heart with his hands and directs them to Hyunjae before he continues his search for Younghoon and Eunseo. The game was just something he initiated without thinking; he has been happy the whole day and it only feels right to add to that happiness even more.

He navigates through the crowd, careful not to bump into anyone or trip while running.

Then a hand grips his arm, and Juyeon chokes out a laugh when his body practically flew towards the hand's owner. He chuckles. "Okay, okay! I'm going to play fair!"

There's a huge smile plastered on his face as Juyeon turns around to face Hyunjae. Except the person in front of him isn't his friend.

Chanhee stares intensely at him, mad yet smiling. Juyeon's own smile drops.

"Long time no see, babe."