the stars aligned for us | sunsun

11

song: frost   –tomorrow by together

11|  the past relived

jay's mind was reeling.

did sunghoon really have no idea what he did to sunoo? is he lying?

he was fucking boiling with anger. jay had been there with sunoo the entire time when they met after that disastrous week.

he held sunoo whenever he cried, he force fed him whenever he tried to starve himself, he bailed sunoo out when he was caught being high somewhere downtown. he was there when sunoo was so out of it to ground him back to reality. he was there supporting sunoo when he wanted to change for the better. he had been there when sunoo was finally ready to open his heart and share his wounds with him.

jay was there to reassure the boy when he needed it. finally, jay was there when sunoo got happier and forgot sunghoon ever existed in his life.

jay grabbed jake by the collar, "he's lying. how can he forget the shit he did?!"

jake calmly removed jay's fist from his collar. "why are you taking it out on me?"

jay instantly let go of his grip on jake, muttering an apology.

"do you know where is jungwon? i want to talk to him."

"don't you have his sns? but, i'm pretty sure he's at home or at least according to sunghoon that is."

jay tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack, briskly walking towards his car leaving jake behind.

"how much is the chicken–jay hyung?" jungwon's drowsy state dissolved upon seeing jay outside his apartment.

jungwon had no classes today and decided to stay in and order some soy garlic chicken.

"come on in, what brings you here hyung?" jungwon ushered jay to sit on their couch as he dragged a chair to sit near him.

"your brother at home?"

jungwon shook his head, "no, why?"

"i might just punch him in the face if he were," jay mumbled to himself.

jungwon hadn't meant to hear it but he did and it spiked his nervousness. jay's tense posture set him on edge.

jungwon cleared his throat, "so..."

"did you know that sunoo and sunghoon had been best friends?"

"yes, i do."

"some things happened the week sunghoon moved. do you know what happened?"

jungwon's palms grew clammy. "i don't know what you're talking about."

jay wasn't dumb, he could read jungwon like an open book. the boy was avoiding eye contact with him, his leg was shaking and he was fidgeting with his fingers. he knows something. jay knew the art of give and take.

jungwon was easily guilt-tripped. as long as you appealed to his emotions enough, he would give in. jay had observed that and it's mean of him to take advantage of his trait but he was well-versed in the art of give and take. he was going to give him all the information to trade for what jungwon knows.

"sunghoon had been trying to fit in with the popular group at their high school in suwon. they had asked him to stop being friends with sunoo. apparently, sunoo was 'uncool' to them. sunoo had called in sick for two days, but it was because his grandmother had died. he called sunghoon multiple times but he had declined them all.

sunoo had to borrow money from the thugs downtown to afford a space at the crematorium for his grandmother's ashes. he didn't even hold a funeral. his so-called relatives only called to see if his grandmother had left any assets for them. didn't even bother giving their condolences or offering to take in the fifteen year old.

he went back to school on the third day just to see sunghoon with the popular gang. he dismissed it, happy that his introverted hyung was breaking out of his shell. he didn't even share his pain to him, not wanting to burden him. fuck, sunoo was in love with sunghoon. he was longing for some sort of affection now that grandmother's one had disappeared. he confessed to sunghoon."

jay let out a scoff before continuing, "your brother and those assholes just had to tear him down to pieces when he was already vulnerable."

"hyung... can i talk to you?" sunoo rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, anticipating sunghoon's reply.

he gave no regard to the stifled snickers coming from hyunwoo, junseo and narae. sunghoon and sunoo walked away, creating a small distance between them and sunghoon's new friends.

"what?"

sunoo paid no heed to the bite in sunghoon's words. instead, he shyly confessed, a red tint flushing cheeks, "hyung, i like you!"

"i'm not gay like you. i like girls. kim sunoo you disgust me. what even made you think i liked you back?"

sunoo's lips trembled as his eyes searched for anything in sunghoon's eyes just to reassure him that whatever sunghoon's saying isn't how he truly feels.

"are you going to cry like a baby, like you always do?" sunghoon mocked, a cold smirk on his face.

sunghoon gestured for narae to come up to him. she swayed her hips, her skirt sloshing back and forth. her manicured hands slinked up sunghoon's arms. sunghoon roughly grabbed by the neck, slotting his lips against hers eliciting a moan from her before pushing her away.

"you see that? leave."

sunoo willed his tears to not to fall.

"hope you're happy hyung," sunoo chuckled hollowly before he walked away.

the following day he was walking around aimlessly, skipping school. he heard voices near the skate park, the exact same ones that mocked him yesterday.

"yah you know that f*g? the one who confessed to sunghoon yesterday. he came to beg at my dad's feet to borrow money, you know? he's such a whore. he agreed to work at the stripclub until he pays his debt off," junseo chuckled.

"he agreed to work as a stripper?"

"yah narae you wish. who would even pay to see him strip? he doesn't even look appealing," hyunwoo flicked narae's forehead.

"you're right, he's working as a server."

peeking from behind the wall, sunoo watches sunghoon laugh along with them. sunoo's heart ached as the tears once again welled up in his eyes. the heartbreak feels cold. it feels like concrete drying in his chest. this heartbreak was unexpected, as they always are - top of the world one minute and cut down the next. why is that?

sunghoon had basically clawed his heart out and ripped it into shreds. he could understand if sunghoon had simply rejected him. but, sunghoon was his best friend. he got stabbed in the back.

the salty tears tasted like blood to sunoo. i hope he's happy.

"sunghoon hyung did that?" jungwon trembled in fear, seeing jay get angrier by the second. he couldn't believe sunghoon hyung was capable of doing such a thing.

"that's why i'm asking you how did that asshole forget everything?!" jay yelled, smashing the vase onto the floor.

jungwon flinched. 

is sunoo's anger justified?

– L