dandelion ➳ 박성훈

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄: a coward

chapter twenty five

꒰☁️꒱

"this has to be a dream!" she managed to whisper, as sunghoon let got of her waist and gently pushed her towards the boy standing by the door. all eyes were on him, some recognizing those shiny eyes, while others remained in their frozen state, wondering who the young boy interrupting the party was.

"hello, little sis!" sunoo exclaimed, his hands spread all wide to welcome the person he's missed dearly much the past two years. haneul didn't hesitate to run across the yard and fall into his embrace, hiding her face on his chest. last time she hugged him, she could support her head on his shoulder.

"you're here! you're finally here, this ain't a dream!" she weakly whispered in between her sobs, sunoo running his hand through her hair before he tightly wrapped his arms around her small figure.

"surprise!" he whispered, his words getting muffled by her hair, both of them not being able to contain their smiles. sunghoon himself couldn't help it but let his lips tuck upwards.

sunoo has changed a lot ─ incredibly much ─ haneul pointed out. his once dark brown hair had a dusty blonde color, brown details on the roots and very ends. he grew more handsome, of course, and she could say he had matured, quite a lot.

"this has to be the best day of my life! no kidding!" she hopped around her brother, holding his hands, dragging him further into the place. everyone warmly welcomed the boy, either by giving him a friendly tap on his back or hugging him out of the blue.

yet, sunoo had no problem. the much welcoming environment brought one of a bright smile to his face, not until a specific hand sneaking its way around haneul's waist made him crease his brows.

"woah woah, I think I missed a good amount of episodes. mom and dad certainly didn't mention this." with a finger pointing at their locked hands, haneul chuckled as she encouraged sunghoon to step forward.

"sunoo, that's my boyfriend sunghoon and hoonie, that's my elder brother, sunoo. sunghoon was a figure skater, you've most probably heard of him or maybe seen him on the tv."

"yeah, kinda familiar." sunoo said, his voice dropping an octave lower while eyeing the man across him from head to toe. tho being taller, sunghoon felt like being preyed by a tiny yet much dangerous fox.

"I'd like to have a talk with you." he said, the raven gulping harshly, a nod of approval from his girlfriend as he followed sunoo in a not so crowded corner.

haneul looked around her, trying to spot jungwon, finding him chatting with a group of youngsters, a smile customizing his face. her lips tucked upwards in a grin, yet it got swept away by the thought of one person missing.

"wait, where's heeseung?" she asked herself, not expecting a question as she quickly entered the house, many people occupying the couches in the living room. driving her heels closer to sungchan, she bent over his head and whispered into his ear.

"oh, he's upstairs. he didn't seem well, so I asked him if everything was okay and if he needed any help. he said he was feeling a bit under the weather, so he went to take a rest."

haneul shortly thanked the brunette and ran up the staircase, opening the doors one by one and looking inside. once she reached her own door, she found it locked.

"don't tell me─" horrendous thoughts passed through her mind in a just a millisecond, bumping the door with her fists. someone was sitting on her bed, she thought, cause soon enough the sound of her mattress creaking made her scrunch her brows.

the door unlocked, as she looked up to meet eyes with a dazed heeseung. the boy must have fallen fast asleep once he fell on the bed, cause patterns of the creases on her bedsheets were engraved in his skin.

"hey, how are you?" she asked while taking a step, heeseung closing the door behind him. "I feel like someone shoved me inside a washing machine and it's on full speed."

she walked closer to him and placed her hand on his forehead. she pulled away. "hee, you've got a fever. come on, I'll tuck you in bed and bring you some water and medicine."

while talking, she was already pulling the blankets off bed so that he could lay down, then reached for his arm, his shirt feeling wet under her touch. "oh my, you're soaked in your own sweat. lemme go grab a t─shirt."

she opened many drawers, looking for a while in hopes to find any of sunoo's lent t─shirts or sunghoon's forgotten ones, and soon enough a smile brightened her face, pulling a white tee out.

"there ya go." she said, throwing the cloth on him, who immediately took off the stinky shirt of his and threw it for her to put in the clothes bin. "hey, turn around!"

"you act as if I haven't seen you naked at all. mom has so many albums with photos of you and me and, may I tell you, your career as a strip teaser was showing."

"shut up." he chuckled, her running out of the room and closing the door behind. now heeseung was left alone with his thoughts, cheeks burning up from how hot he felt.

haneul came back with a pill and a glass of water. she handed them to him, who immediately chunked down half the water along with the pill. "be careful, you'll choke yourself."

once he was done, he laid down on the bed and stared out from the open window. he was having a clear view of the house across, more specifically jungwon's window, but from his point of view, nothing could be seen.

"call me if you need something, I'll be downstairs." she said while dragging the blanket up to his chest, smiling at him before she walked towards the door.

"hey haneul." heeseung's hoarse voice ringed through her ears, as she turned to face him. he found him opening his mouth, as if wanting to say something to her, yet he closed it again. "thanks."

"sucker." she joked, sticking out her tongue as he did the same. "rest well. I'll call your mom to tell her that you are staying here for tonight." closing the door, heeseung was once again met with complete darkness and the suffocating feeling of loneliness.

what kept him back from saying what he's been fearing the whole night? he himself didn't know, a reason why he was now lowly cursing himself under his breath.

heeseung didn't like to admit it, but other than being scared of jungwon and his cruel words and actions, he was also scared of the annoying and disturbing feeling in the pit of his stomach.