𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 ♧ SeungJin

XLII

"He felt as he always did when he finished a book — queerly empty, let down, aware that for each little success he had paid a toll of absurdity."

♤♡◇♧

Hyunjin was living a life that suddenly held a lot more issues than it had just a few weeks ago. When he tried to go to sleep at night he could only think, think about Seungmin and his stupid pretty face. The boy had totally gotten the best of him and now he had to live with it.

He felt pathetic, that such a small issue was keeping him up at night, and causing his mind to go racing in other directions when he was supposed to be listening to someone speak. Just the other night at dinner he had completely zoned out and his mother had to physically shake him to get him back in the real world.

Right now he was doing the exact same thing. While he was supposed to be helping Felix and Jisung pick out their matching outfits for the concert they were going to in a couple of days, but instead he was sitting in the back of the room on Jisung's bed completely in another world.

When Minho sat down on the bed beside him he barely managed to scrape up enough brain cells to acknowledge him. "Hey." He said shortly as Minho scooted back against the wall to sit beside his friend.

"Hi." Minho responded, and though he didn't say much more than that Hyunjin could tell by the fragile strain in his voice and slight crease between his eyebrows that he had more that he wanted to talk about, "So, Seungmin.."

Hyunjin perked up, "What did Chan tell you?"

Minho gave him a perplexed look, shifting his weight uneasily, "Nothing, jeez.. what are you on." He looked his mate up and down before relaxing again, "I just wanted to talk to you about him and his new 'involvement' in our friend group." He explained.

Hyunjin let his nerves rest again. Oh. So Chan hadn't told Minho about his crush.

"Sure, if that's what you want to call it." Hyunjin picked at the nail on his left pointer finger. He often poked at that nail when he felt upset.

Minho ran his tongue over his top lip, stopping mid-way before letting a deep breath of air escape his lungs, "I know you think he's a good guy, but I'm still not so fast to believe if I'm gonna be honest."

"You don't say." The younger deadpanned.

Minho's eyes flickered to the other male before landing back on the two boys infront of them currently bickering over a certain shirt that may or may not look good on Felix. "I'm just worried, but I'm not worried for myself, I'm worried for them." His hand briefly motioned to Felix and Jisung.

Hyunjin turned his head, "What? Why?"

"Felix is getting comfortable, he's starting to want Seungmin to hang around us more. He wants to be closer with him and make friends. Jisung is the same, he's letting Seungmin in like the dude never bullied us— they love him, basically."

"Your point?" Hyunjin was kind of annoyed; what was wrong with them being friends with Seungmin?

"What if Seungmin isn't someone we can totally trust? What if he's not as great as you say he is? Felix and Jisung have already opened themselves up to him and I just.. I don't want them to get hurt."

Hyunjin scoffed, "Yeah, that or you're jealous."

Minho looked muddled by this, pursing his lips ever so slightly as he tried to figure out what this meant, "Jealous? Me? Of Seungmin? Are you fucking insane?"

Hyunjin shrugged, raising his eyebrows high in his forehead, "You want Jisung all to yourself and you're afraid that Seungmin, a cute gay kid, is gonna come and steal him from right under your nose."

Minho let out a tsk sound along with an irritated click of his tongue, "You're starting things Hyunjin."

"How so."

"You're just saying that to make me angry because you don't like to think that you might be wrong." He lowered his voice to make sure no one else heard them arguing, "I get that your going through something right now, whatever that may be, but don't bring me into it."

Minho was right. Hyunjin had been in the middle of this crisis for about a week and he was starting to get agitated by every small thing. By the lack of sleep, the dehydration of never remember to drink water, not feeling like he wanted to eat so he was always hungry, you name it.

The younger let his head fall into the wall, "You're right. I'm sorry about that."

"Hyunjin!" Felix cheered, "Me and Jisung think that Seungmin should come with us to the concert! What do you think?"

Hyunjin lifted his head again, looking at him. He glanced at Minho who gave him a knowng look, but Hyunjin brushed it off nearly immediately. "Eh, if you want to bring him I have no issues."

Felix and Jisung giggled to eachother, "Lets make him an outfit to match ours!" Jisung suggested. The boys were wearing clothes that Hyunjin knew Seungmin would never dream of wearing, but he didn't bother stop them from brainstorming the idea.

Besides, he wanted to see what Seungmin looked like in that type of clothing anyway, he bet it would be really hot.

Minho nudged Hyunjin's shoulder again, speaking quietly now that Felix and Jisung were paying more attention, "All I'm saying is, if things start to go wrong you need to be responsible for making sure Felix and Jisung don't get hurt, okay?"

Hyunjin nodded, biting the inside of his lip and continuing to pick at the nail on his left pointer finger.

"And, hey," Minho said decided he'd add one more thing to this conversation, "I know you're in a rough patch. If you want to talk to me about it, you know you always can. I'm one phone call away."

Hyunjin nodded, looking up and smiling at his friend, "Thanks Minho. Means a lot."