mr. socialite. | 희승 √

CHAPTER 5

The rest of the day is silent, Heeseung barely talking to the rest of us. I'm sitting with Jungwon, and the boy is biting his lip as he plays with his lunch.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah... it's just..."

"Heeseung, right?" Jungwon nods at my words, putting down his utensil.

"You probably don't know or even will—since he likes to keep this part of his life a secret— but they used to have connections with each other," Jungwon explains, sighing. "As you can see, it ended on a sour note. I wish we could read him better."

I didn't dare continue to ask Jungwon questions he doesn't have to answer to, so we eat lunch quietly.

However, time chooses to pass by quietly- It's already Thursday. Can you believe it? (I can. The week before winter break is super fun and everyone starts to decide their plans and whatnot!) 

Continuing, I haven't seen Heeseung nor the rest of the band lately- at least, not together. I've tried asking Sunghoon, but all he's told me is that they got into a big argument a few days ago- and haven't talked since.

God, how much must I miss?

I'm on my way back to the dorm with my large iced coffee, ready to absolutely bomb this study guide for the AP exam. It's around... eleven? Yeah, eleven fifty-four at night. There's nobody in sight- but, there's shuffling behind me.

Oh shawty, if you decide to absolutely try to kidnap me, I'll splash coffee in your eyes!

Seriously though, I don't have my backpack on me right now- just a wallet and my phone. Should I give them paper cuts?

Okay, I'll stop joking. Soon, the footsteps start to catch up and I don't want to turn back- but I know they're following because between these few minutes I'm talking to myself, we've gone in a complete circle.

I phone Sunghoon, nobody answers.

I phone Jay, straight to voicemail.

I phone Sunoo, his phone is off.

I phone Jungwon, it continues to ring, but no answer.

Ni-Ki is at practice, so his phone is probably at his house.

I proceed to phone Jake- and just like clockwork, nobody answers.

Of course, the last person I'd like to phone is Mr. Socialite since he's going through a temper tantrum right now, but let's not risk getting kidnapped.

I phone him, and when I thought I'd be left to fight this person all by myself, he answers. "What the hell do you want?"

"Heeseung, I'm getting followed."

"What?!"

"Don't sound frantic, I'm near the edge of campus and I don't want to take him to my house. Can you come-!" My phone is snatched out of my hands and a dagger is placed in front of me. I blink a few times as I chuckle awkwardly, putting my hands up.

"So... how's your day?"

"Shut up and get against the wall."

Sighing, I pout and nod, complying before I'm killed. He slams me against the wall as I hiss, his hands pinning mine up as he chuckles slightly.

"I have nothing against you, you know?"

"Then why do you decide to do this to a university girl at midnight?" I tilt my head, smirking. "A bet?"

"Shut up," He threatens again, grabbing my phone. However, when we both look, the call already ended. "Hah, seems like your prince charming isn't going to come to help you after all."

"We both expected this one, didn't we..."

"You seem quite calm for a girl who's about to get kidnapped."

"Listen, it's twelve o' six at night, I have an AP exam in eight hours, and I haven't studied crap. I'd rather die than take it."

"You're lucky I'm not that brutal."

"Thanks, I guess." We create small talk before the boy places his pocket knife closer to my knife, covering my mouth. 

"Mmhm!!"

"Can you shut up? Someone's coming-" Before I can even bite his hand, someone kicks him down, the knife and my phone flying out of his hands. Heeseung pushes me behind him before he's beating the crap out of the nice kidnapper, causing me to widen my eyes.

"Heeseung, it's okay!" I pry him off, the kidnapper bleeding before running off.

"And tell Ji-Hun to never do it again!" He screams out, tears welling up in his eyes. Turning back to me, he places his cold palms against my cheeks, looking around my body. "Iseul, are you okay?! Why didn't you fight back?"

"It wasn't that serious. We had small talk and he threatened me a bit. I can conclude he still had a life to live," I reply, sighing. "I'm really fine. Thank you for coming."

"Are you serious?!"

"What?"

"You call me out here at the dark of day just for you to brush this off!?" He yells at me, causing me to squint. "What the hell, Jae Iseul!"

"I may have asked you to come, but you didn't need to!" I exclaim, pointing at him. "Why are you so mad anyway, you're being such an ass right now-!" I try to push him away until he grabs my hand with one of his pushing me back to the wall. One hand is keeping my furious hands above my head as he points his finger up in my face- what an asshole!

"Don't tell me crap, Iseul, you're glad I was the only available one out of us all!"

"As I said, nobody needed you to come! If you had crap going on with Ji-Hun, then why didn't you just-"

"Stop, just shut up!" He yells in a furious motion before sighing out, pushing himself away from me. He covers his eyes before wiping his tears off- and I feel like a guilty piece of crap. "I don't want to be hostile with you- not when I entrusted you with even hearing about her."

"I know absolutely nothing about you, Heeseung," I grit my teeth. "I don't even want to if you're just going to act like this to every comment any of us will ever mention."

"It's my trauma, Iseul, not yours!" He exclaims.

"If it's your trauma, get over it! If it's happened days, weeks, months, years ago- get over it! How are you going to move on if you can't even handle a few mentions of her name-"

"Because I don't want to, okay!?" He screams, immediately sitting down because his legs must not be able to handle it. My eyes widen out of instinct, watching as he ruffles his hair. "I- Nevermind. Forget it. I wish I never met you, god... Don't ever talk to me again about it. You obviously don't know how to understand other people's feelings." 

"Then tell me, Heeseung!" Those four words cause him to look up at me for once, tears falling down his stained cheeks. "If you want me to understand, tell me- you're the only one I can't read- whether you're sad, happy, feeling pitiful- tell me! I want to understand you... it's just that..."

"What?" I hesitate at his short sentence, licking my lips.

"...At the end of the day, you're still a guy who fakes all these feelings because you're a social butterfly," I whisper, looking away.  "Mr. Socialite."

That word must've cracked him apart- because he's back on his feet, not saying a word before collecting my phone and pushing it back into my chest.

"I never asked to be a socialite- to be someone everybody loved." He roughly replied. "I just wanted to be myself."

And before I could even muster up a few more words, he walks away.