Hanahaki Strings • seventeen jihancheol

Chapter 63: Of Threats and Records

Seungcheol

It's the last day of Interhigh today.

Since that day when we confronted Hyungwon with the letters he sent to Jeonghan, Joshua and I never left him alone. Wherever he goes, either the both of us were also there or just one of us.

Our friends were confused as to why we wouldn't let Jeonghan wander around by himself. They asked us several times but neither of us answered the truth. In the end, they just let us be.

Jeonghan had been quiet since that day. He would still joke around with us but he seemed so gloomy. Whenever we'd asked him about it, he would just smile and say it's nothing. We didn't want to force him to tell us so we'd just let him.

I thought at first it was because of that bastard Hyungwon, that maybe he's scared and creeped out of what he experienced but as time passed by, I realized it wasn't. Something else is bothering him. I badly wanted to ask, but I didn't. So I just stayed beside him.

Today, the three of us decided to stay in my room. There's nothing to watch at the Interhigh anymore since it's just the awarding and closing ceremony. Besides, it's too crowded there and neither of us wanted to be part of that crowd.

"It's so boring," Joshua blurted out. "Are we really going to just lie here all day?"

"I'm too lazy to stand up," Jeonghan replied.

"Why don't we just watch a movie? Let's just order some food," I suggested.

"Go play some mov-" Jeonghan's words were cut off by Joshua who stood up from my bed.

"Nope! We will go out and roam the campus!" He said. "Come on, Han! Move your lazy ass and let's go do something productive instead of lying down here."

"And you think roaming around this large campus is productive?" Jeonghan sarcastically replied.

Joshua pulled Jeonghan's arms, trying to pull him up, "Don't be sarcastic on me. Come on!" He said. When Jeonghan didn't budge, Joshua turned to face me. His eyes were asking for help which made me chuckle.

I stand up from the couch, approaching their direction. Jeonghan pouted when I effortlessly pulled him up. He glared at Joshua.

"You're so unfair!"

Joshua chuckled, "Let's go! I remembered Soonyoung telling me that there's a lot of food stalls for today since it's the last day of Interhigh."

Jeonghan grumbled with a frown, but still let the youngest among the three of us pull him out of my room.

I chuckled as I watched them from behind.

I hope we can stay like this. The three of us.

My smile slowly fades away when I remember what Joshua and I talked about last time when we reconciled.

"I don't like Seokmin, Cheol."

I was quick to look at him the moment I heard him say that, "But you said at your house..."

He let out a sigh, "That was a misunderstanding. My fault..."

"What do you mean?"

"I do like Seokmin- but not in a romantic way. It just happened that Jeonghan mentioned his name that time and me, being the stupid person I am, didn't understand the correlation of Seokmin to our conversation. I admitted I liked him, because I really do. I admitted it without putting malice into my answer. But turns out, I was wrong about it."

I remained silent, unsure of what to say.

Joshua turned to face me, a small smile adoring his handsome face. "I hope you believe me when I said I like you, romantically," he stopped for a moment as his tears continuously fell from his eyes. "You don't have an idea how much it hurts to see you avoiding me and the way you think I was playing with your hearts. I swear, Cheol, I'm not. I genuinely like you."