ATEEZ l The story of a friendship #3

-Epilogue-

Three weeks later

02:24pm

The sun was shining, the leaves gently stirred with the cold breeze, shaking the trees, the eight boys were sitting on Hongjoong's porch looking around and enjoying their last day here. Tomorrow, seven of them would leave to Seoul to start their university life and all of them were scared out of their mind.

They had decided to stay at Hongjoong's house last night and had stayed the entire day today as well.

"So, when does everyone leave?" Jongho asked as he felt his heart ache. He still couldn't believe he would be on his own by tomorrow.

"Yeosang and I leave tomorrow with the ten o'clock bus, we're heading straight to culinary school" Wooyoung spoke, his eyes locked on the street in front of him.

"Me and Yunho are driving off around three, they said our dorms wouldn't be opened before then" Seonghwa said.

"I still can't believe four of us are going to be studying at the same university" Wooyoung said.

"Yeah but Mingi and I aren't studying the same thing as them" Hongjoong clarified.

"You're studying music, right?"

"Yep, and they're studying "drama" or whatever"

 Yunho rolled his eyes at the elder's teasing but smiled before taking a sip of his iced tea.

"How about you, San? Are you sure about your plan?" Yeosang asked.

"I got into that dance academy and I want to go there but in case I don't make it I should at least have a degree right?"

"Yeah but studying and training at the same time? It's going to be tough" Hongjong pointed out.

"Even worse if you're studying something you don't really love" Yeosang chimed in.

"I'll manage, guys" San smiled and the others nodded.

"This all sounds so grown up" Mingi said.

"I know right, I can't believe we're already starting college"

"I wished you guys were still in high school with me" Jongho was really afraid of what would happen if the his friends left to Seoul.

"Me too, Jongho" Yeosang said.

"Same here" Mingi added.

"I'd give anything to have one more year there" Seonghwa said. 

No one spoke, they were all looking at the street in front of them in silence.

"Come guys, we can't get depressed now! Let's play a game" Yunho said.

"Yeah come on!" Seonghwa clapped in his hands and cheered making everyone else cheer with him.

Hongjoong gave each boy ten pieces of paper and a pen, all of them had to come up with ten character, people they knew in real life, celebrities or whatever. Mingi was the first one done, followed b Yeosang, Wooyoung, Seonghwa, Yunho, Hongjoong and Jongho. After waiting for San to patiently finish his ten papers, the elder placed them all in a hat and mixed them. 

 They split into four teams of two, Hongjoong and Yeosang, Wooyoung and Yunho, Seonghwa and Mingi and San with Jongho.

For the first round they could use any word they wanted to get their partner to find they word written on the paper.

"I wrote the theory evolution" Jongho said with a smile as he read a paper he himself had put in.

"Charles Darwin!" San answered.

"Shit, who did I write then?" Jongho opened his eyes and looked at his friends.

"What??"

"I wrote someone I found on a celebrity generator and I thought he had written the evolution theory but no. So, I don't know who he is" 

Everyone burst out laughing at their idiotic friend.

"Who is written on that paper??" Yunho asked, pointing on the piece of paper.

"Mark Twain?"

"He wrote the books with the adventures of Tom Sawyer" Seonghwa managed to explain in between laughs. It took everyone a while to recover before the game could go on.

In the end, San and Jongho won their first round, followed closely by Yunho and Wooyoung. Things got chaotic in the second round where they could only use one word to describe their paper.

"Glove" Mingi said.

"Glove??" Seonghwa repeated not knowing what he meant.

"This is too easy" Hongjoong said.

"I know right" Yeosang laughed.

"No, it's not??  I don't know"

"Think of all the persons we had in the first round, who could match that? Who could match glove?" Mingi pressured his teammate into finding the answer.

"I can't think of anyone!!" The ravenette was about to lose his mind trying to find someone that fitted the word.

"Time!" Yunho yelled.

"MICHAEL JACKSON" The seven boys yelled as Seonghwa opened his eyes wide.

"Ohhhh right"

"We have like five Michael Jacksons in there and you didn't remember???" Yunho asked in frustration.

"My bad" Seonghwa laughed and sat back next to Hongjoong as he grabbed the phone to set the time.

The game went until the third round where you had to mime until your partner found the person you were miming. 

There were a few very well done moonwalks, a few disastrous imitations of Egyptian stereotypes for Cleopatra as well as a very convincing rendition of either San, John Lennon, Dracula or Obi-Wan Kenobi judging by Hongjoong's guesses.

"Alright, the winners are Yunho and Wooyoung" Everyone cheered and went to tackle the team asking them for a victory run around the porch.

10:28pm

It was past ten o'clock when the boys had to leave, they all bid each other goodbye and held back their tears. Sporting a big smile, none of them let the fear that was creeping inside of them show, they knew those last moments were worth ten times any doubts they could have about their future.

After a long goodbye, Mingi and Hongjoong drove off. Yunho, Seonghwa and San left together and Yeosang took Jongho home. It was a hard day for them but it would be nothing compared to the hard times that came before them.