Meant To Be » 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄

» XV «

I spun around in my chair as I kept on thinking back to the moment when Jay and Jake each held onto my hands. I understood why Jay did that but I couldn't understand why Jake refused to let go.

He's clearly still in love with Youngjae so what was up with that?

I stopped spinning the chair when I realised that I hadn't noted down the incident at school in my book. Why am I so forgetful today? A part of me blames Jay for confessing his feelings to me.

I took a peek at my phone while taking out my book to see if Jay had texted me, just to see no notification. I pressed my lips together and was about to start writing when I got a notification, saying that Jake just followed back.

I widened my eyes and instantly had my phone on my hands. I was dancing out of happiness inside while I looked purely surprised outside.

I started spinning the chair again as I forgot about the book and pen placed in front of me and decided to stalk him instead. Might as well thank him from here.

I slacked as I continued to skim through his old posts in there, finding rare pictures of the trio along with Youngjae and Youngbin. Sunoo from eleventh grade photobombing in some pictures.

I brought up a small smile upon seeing how happy they looked all together. It made me wonder how everything got complicated with the trio and Sunoo. Sunoo was clearly not hanging out with the 2002 liners anymore, he was always with Jungwon and Riki.

Is it okay for me to assume that he's distancing himself from them because of me? Everything seemed to be okay when we met for the first time... I visited his profile just to see that it was private. I rolled my eyes and kept my phone down at last.

I snatched my pen and eventually started writing down the occurrence on the book. I instantly took out another notebook after finishing jotting down in a rush and wrote Sunoo's name just under Jake's striked off name.

I pressed my lips together and rewrote Jake's name. I at least need to try. He's probably the only person who truly cares till today. I grabbed my phone and started texting Jay. ‘You mentioned that Sunoo from eleventh grade used to be close friends with Youngjae?’

He directly saw my message and replied. ‘Yeah. Got more questions?’

Before I could even reply back, he rang me up. I grinned at myself before answering the call, “Not really, I just wanted to know if he was best friends with her.”

“They were awfully close, to be frank. Did you think it has something to do with Youngbin's death?” He spoke through the other line.

“Uh...not really. I was just curious. I came across his account and I directly got reminded of you saying that he used to be close friends with you all,” I scratched my head.

He hummed, “Pretty close. He was the glue that sticks the group together but...” he trailed off, hesitating.

“Did he start being out of the circle after Youngjae's disappearance?” I questioned.

“Not exactly. He still stuck by our side for a few weeks after the tragedy,” he spoke.

“Do you think it's because of me? Because he was still reaching out to you all when I first came here.”

“Nah...I don't think so. There's nothing wrong about you to make Sunoo stop hanging out with us. He was acting sketchy days before you came along, don't think it's because of you.”

“Hm? Sketchy? How?”

“Well, it first started on the day we went out after our promotional exams. He kept on looking around, as if searching for something in particular. And every time we asked him what was up, he showed us a dumb smile and said that it was nothing. Then he visibly got upset or uncomfortable when we brought up Youngjae and Heeseung, especially Heeseung.”

“Oh?” I exclaimed, trying my best to figure out what was wrong with Sunoo.

“We just assumed that the thought of Youngjae and Heeseung was too upsetting for him that he started distancing himself from us to not get reminded of what had happened...?” He spoke, quite unsure.

“I can imagine. Thank you for always answering my questions, I owe you a lot.”

“You owe me nothing, but a date would be acceptable though,” he spoke in a joking matter, making me laugh.

“We both know that you were half joking and half being serious when you said that. Alright, I need to go now. Goodnight,” I smiled.

“Goodnight,” he spoke from the other line before hanging up.

I immediately went to Jake's account to hit him up and thank him for that day. He also instantly saw the message and gave me his number so that we would chat and call more efficiently.

៚ · •

Seventy three, seventy four, seventy five...seventy six. I counted the number of bloodsucking cases in South Korea  that I had recorded in my notebook. It hadn't even been a week but it was already close to reaching a hundred cases.

If this goes on, we'll reach five hundred in just a month or two and things will go out of hand. I winced as I thought about it. I eventually put the book away and looked up to call for Jay when I caught him already looking at me with a smile.

“Finally done?” He asked.

I chuckled, “Yeah, let's go and have lunch!” I could feel Jake's and Sunghoon's stares as we left for the cafeteria.

I was going to make my way to Sunoo and the other two juniors when Jay grabbed the edge of my blazer, “Where are you going?”

I turned to him in surprise, “Jungwon. Don't you wanna join them?”

He blinked a couple of times, “What are you trying to do?”

“I want to get to know Sunoo better. Is there a problem with that?” I queried.

He quickly shook his head, “No, not at all. You go ahead, I'll just...sit with the other two guys, I guess.”

He walked off, leaving me speechless. He's clearly avoiding Sunoo back. Gosh, let's just hope everything turns back to normal once they get older.

I continued to make my way closer to the juniors, “Hey, Jungwon. May I join you guys?”

“Sure!” It wasn't Jungwon but Sunoo that answered me. It caught me off guard but it felt good to be welcomed with such a warm personality.

I struggled a bit with the communication but fortunately Sunoo was patient while Riki was equally good and bad with the language like me.

Besides the fact that I was secretly torturing myself to sit with students who were a lot younger than me, I believed that things were going as planned and that I was closer to knowing the truth behind Youngjae's disappearance.

© 2022 -JAKISM