ATEEZ l The story of a friendship #3

-1-

Two  weeks later

02:06 pm

Jongho grabbed his belongings out of his locker and into his backpack in a hurry, his way out of school was always in a rush as he tried his best not to be seen by the pack of bullies that had designated him to be their new target this year. Breathing out, he quickened his pace before stopping in his track.

"Damn it" He whispered. In front of him at the entrance gate, exactly where his bullies would always grab him, stood his friends. 

 He saw Seonghwa throw a little rubber ball on the ground watching it bounce back into his hand, his back was leaning against the stone wall next to Mingi. Hongjoong was waiting in front of them talking with Yunho whilst Wooyoung texted on his phone. His friends didn't know about his situation and he really didn't want them finding out about it. 

A sudden voice startled him making the boy look behind it.

"Well look who it is, our favorite student! Right, guys?" Park Chen chuckled as well as the rest of his dumb friends.

"I don't have time for this today, Park" Jongho tried to leave but two other kid grabbed him, pushing him into the wall.

"Oh come on, Choi. You didn't think you'd get a free day now did you?"

"I'm not that stupid" He whispered but was heard.

"Good, I like my men intelligent. Not as much as me, but you'll do perfectly" Chen grabbed his jaw and patted his cheeks rather roughly before letting go and leaving with his friends.

Jongho groaned, it was true that on top of being a bully Chen happened to be one of the smartest kids in the school. But if he was so smart why would he be a bully and why pick on kids if not to make them to your homework which he clearly didn't need? 

Jongho sighed, he didn't have time to think about Park Chen's poor life decisions, he grabbed his backpack and hurried to where his friends had been waiting for him.

"Oh hey, look who's here" Seonghwa caught the ball one last time before getting up and greeting Jongho.

"Sorry for making you wait but guys you didn't have to come and get me you know"

"Yeah, but we like coming back here, plus we like being all together" Yunho answered as he playfully hit Jongho's shoulder.

"Yeah, but we're not all together, two of us seem to constantly be missing" Seonghwa said as he looked at everyone.

"Well to be fair one is missing and the other just comes up with stupid excuses to hide the fact that he's with the other one" They all looked at Mingi but none disagreed.

The boys had noticed Yeosang's change in behavior but hadn't talked to him about it, they thought they would give him time to come and talk to them about it on his own, but the more the days passed, the more the boys worried. 

At first it seemed like San and Yeosang had bailed on the party, but the days had gone by and Yeosang wasn't answering his phone, after that he would only talk by text and hadn't once gone out with the boys. 

They would ask San what he knew about it but the latter always dodged the questions or answered by saying he couldn't tell them anything, which wasn't helpful at all.

"Come on, let's go get something to drink" Hongjoong offered leading everyone to a nearby coffee shop they all liked to go. The boys were all sitting in a booth with their drinks in their hands.

"Wooyoung ,do you ever put your phone away?" Yunho sighed.

"Sorry, it's become my only way to communicate with San lately" The boy tucked his device inside his pocked and took a sip of his iced Americano.

"Guys, when are we going to do something about this whole situation?" Hongjoong asked.

"Which situation? If those two want to ignore us fine, I'm sure as hell not going to run behind them and beg"

"Seonghwa, you're just pissed because Yeosang is clearly not okay and he didn't turn to you" Mingi said as he rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm sorry but if there's one person he'd turn to, it should be me!"

"Why?" Yunho asked. 

"Because I'm the one he's closest to!"

"Well apparently not"

"Oh please, San is? Give me a break" The elder rolled his eyes and leaned back. The subject was dropped and the boys started asking Jongho about his day at school and other every day stuff.

++++

03:00 pm

The group stayed a bit more before all heading to Seonghwa's house like they did almost every day. The boys had only gotten there a few minutes ago when San knocked on the door of the house going straight to the elder's living room where Yunho and Mingi were playing Xbox with Hongjoong watching.

Jongho was working on his homework with Seonghwa helping him whereas Wooyoung was sprawled on the couch. 

San had expected a hug from the younger when he'd arrive but the blonde didn't even spare him a look. He approached Wooyung, took both of his legs between his hands lifting them to sit under them but the boy got up and sat in the corner of the couch, his eyes glued to his phone.

"I wasn't moving you, you know"

"Yeah, I know" Wooyoung sighed but stayed focused on his device. 

San clicked his tongue not knowing what to say. The air around him was strange, he knew his friends were probably all wondering about Yeosang, as usual, but they also knew he wouldn't say anything about it.

A few minutes later San scooched next to Wooyoung and grabbed his phone from his hands, immediately catching his attention.

"Hey, give it back" The  boy immediately whined.

"No, talk to me"

"About what?"

"Something, you haven't looked at me once since I got here, Woo"

"Yeah well I've gotten used to not having you around so" The blonde took his phone back and got up, going to sit next to Seonghwa and Jongho.

San exhaled and looked in front of him, Yunho was facing him and had a empathic smile. The white-haired boy turned his attention back on the game and San sat back down on the couch. He stayed about half an hour more before bidding goodbye and leaving the house. 

He wanted to stay more but the tension in that house was too much for him. If his friends were so damn curious why didn't they try to speak directly to Yeosang? They're all friends, they should've been to his house days ago and check up on him. 

If he was totally honest, he didn't like the fact they neither had gone to see the boy, what if he had been sick? Or worse? How much time would have gone by before one of them decided to check in? Yeosang needed his friends right now and no one seemed to notice it but him. Shoving his hands in his jacket pocket San got into his car and drove off.