secret² | seulyong

06 | night drive

"isn't it his uncle?"

whispers and chatters echoed through the school corridors. a dark atmosphere lingered through the campus as daunting eyes watched the young man.

"i literally thought he was a good guy, people can professionally lie too i guess"

"what if his other relatives are in it as well?" 

"so.. him too?"

he kept his head low, eyes stressed at the constant kills thrown at him through words.

why?

why me?

rumors and speculations spread like wildfire. after the picture of yook sungwon's death along with his came out millions of people expressed their thoughts about it, without even thinking of filtering their words. soon after everyone started to target his relatives too, given that their roots and connections all lead to politics itself.

and one of them was this high school boy, even the captain of the basket ball team himself. the son of yook sungwon's sister, lee minhyung

of course with his age, mark wouldn't be involved with whatever business and dilemma his uncles and other relatives are in this cruel world. a mere high school student wouldn't have the interest of it. even mark himself was shocked with the recent news.

yook sungwon climbed the dirty system of polictics for years to earn the reputation he just ruined. his so called kindness and strong will of justice won over many hearts of people, making him one of their 'saviors' from this wretched world.

mark thought the same. his uncle sungwon was far from evil in his eyes, as proven by his act of love towards the boy. he practically grew up in the house of the yooks and was taken care of by the late politician as if he's his own child. his mom died of childbirth while his dad died in prison since he was arrested for attempting to kill him, both anger and regret pressed on to the young child. since then, mark was sheltered under sungwon's care, his wife and son being a family of his too.

"hyung!" a bright voice snapped him out of his thoughts, his team mate donghyuck appearing before him. "what's with you getting too worked up?"

he replied with a faint smile, his eyes still low from all the suspicions the other students are expressing to him. 

"ignore them. c'mon, we have a try out to watch later remember!" renjun, another team mate of his added as another one followed. though he remained silent, worrying the three. "you guys go, i don't think i'll be able to be there-"

"huh? is it because of them?" the third student, jaemin asked.

minhyung let out a heavy sigh, "my reputation is already stained by the news. can't have a basketball captain with fishy gossips, you know" 

"you should go"

the five turned their heads, eyes widening upon meeting a freshman. "skills over image. a simple twitter post won't help a team win shots in the court" he said.

"ah, sorry" he shrugged, scratching his head. "park jisung. this one is zhong chenle" he pointed to the boy standing beside him. "we're part of the first years going for the try out later on, and i really think that you should be there. it'll really be an honor to have the captain of the basketball team around" 

"see! nice one jisung" renjun exclaimed, patting the younger on the back. "condelence too..." jisung uttered. the latter gave a small smile, mind obviously drowning into another wave of thoughts again.

condolence huh?

does my uncle deserve that?

he stood in melancholy while the five stayed by. his thoughts were once again interrupted by the ringing of the bell, a sign that the students must go to their respective classes. minhyung displayed a troubled look, the rest appearing the same.