Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 53: Of Signs and Realization

I think we all waited for this time to come, right?

Joshua

Seokmin: Have you guys seen Seungkwan?

Jihoon: Nope.

Soonyoung: Me neither.

Wonwoo: Maybe in their room?

Seokmin: Hyung, I'm his roommate.

Mingyu: Maybe in your room?

Seokmin: Wtf, Mingyu. Are you joking right now?

Mingyu: What??? I'm just trying to help.

Seokmin: Nevermind.

Vernon: He said he's just gonna pass something to their Science teacher awhile ago.

Seokmin: Alright, thanks Vernon! You're a lot more helpful than Mingyu.

Mingyu: What did I do? I was just helping.

I chuckled upon reading our group chat but I didn't bother replying to anything so I hid it back in my pocket as I continued walking upstairs, towards our dorm's rooftop.

Our classes ended early because of a sudden meeting for the teachers. So upon announcing it, the teachers left but not without leaving activities to be passed immediately too. Good thing I already finished mine so I can just leisure around, and so I decided to come up here to unwind.

I've been bothered by what Jeonghan told me yesterday. I couldn't get it out of my mind no matter how much I divert my attention to something else.

He said I'm dense, that I'm so oblivious. But of what?

What am I missing? What is it that I didn't know? I couldn't feel?

Are they secretly hating me? Are they secretly talking behind my back? Or are they secretly doing something without me knowing?

But Jeonghan wouldn't say I'm oblivious if they were keeping it a secret. That only means they're not hiding it, and that I'm just too dense to know about it.

The problem is, I didn't notice anything at all. Nothing had changed about us, probably the awkwardness that lingers between me and Jeonghan, but aside from that, there's nothing else that had changed.

Right?

I'm not really sure. I just wished Jeonghan had told me a hint about it so it wouldn't be too hard for me to guess about it.

"Joshua hyung?"

I jumped on my feet when I heard a voice suddenly emerge. I quickly turned around and heaved out a deep sigh.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Mingyu.

He stopped right beside me, "I always come here to unwind," he answered, "what about you? It's the first time I saw you here, it's always Jeonghan hyung that I see here."

"Jeonghan?" I asked.

He nodded, "he seemed to like it here too."

"Well, it's the best place to unwind." I simply replied.

"So you're here to unwind too?"

I nodded.

Then silence ensued. It goes on for almost ten minutes with the two of us just staring at the view in front of us and none of us talking.

But even though I'm not looking at him, I could see from my peripheral vision that Mingyu seemed restless. He was opening his lips, then he'll close it again, as if he's stopping himself from saying anything.