✓ dare to date? | park sunghoon

44

"...jiyoon?" jungwon muttered so quietly that you had to already be looking at him to catch what he said, otherwise you wouldn't be able to read his lips.

"the fuck?" sunghoon blurted his thoughts out loud, making his friends turn to him. that also seemed to snap jungwon out of whatever kind of memories was going through his head.

"what? you good sunghoon?" niki asked, causing sunghoon immediately avert his attention to him.

"oh- yeah. don't worry about it." he tried playing cool, hoping they'd all go back to what they were doing. when he looked at jungwon, he was already looking back at him before looking down.

his eyes seemed so saddened, the aura around him felt like there was a sudden burst of melancholy. just what was it that made him feel like that?

don't tell me, that one simple stare at jiyoon could make this boy feel that way..?

sunghoon sighed, putting his chopsticks in his mouth to bite on anxiously. he was in deep thought, trying to figure out why the heck jungwon looked like that. it wasn't like he could ask him for himself because he knew damn well jungwon wouldn't answer.

the real question was, why did he care so much?

and the truth is, he didn't, really. well, he didn't care 'so much.'

but because namkyu was involved, then of course he wad going to care. the boy who supposedly likes namkyu to the point he confessed is now 'ogling' over another girl?

it didn't make sense. there was something behind it.

and sunghoon badly wanted to know.

once jungwon finally managed to pull his stare away from jiyoon for the nth time, he suddenly stopped eating and engaging in the conversations.

he was looking down at his lap, eyes filled with emptiness.

though, his lips were still moving. muttering the name to what seemed to be jiyoon's over and over again.

namkyu on the other hand was finishing up her chat with her cousin. they planned to catch up on everything another day since they were clearly both busy, just somehow stumbled upon each other.

when namkyu walked back to her seat, she noticed the solemn look on jungwon's face which worried her.

"you alright jungwon? why aren't you eating?" she asked, looking at his plate then back at him.

his mood quickly changed, which made sunghoon (who was looking at the whole situation) surprised.

"oh, uh.. i drank a lot of water, so i'm a bit full." he lied awkwardly, noticing his cup that was only halfway filled with water. 'shit' he murmured.

she raised a brow, "your cup isn't empty though."

he smiled nervously, thinking of another lie, "actually, that's my third cup." he chuckled.

suddenly, the group of friends, including jiyoon stood up. they took their leave and it distracted jungwon from whatever namkyu and him were talking about.

he just stared as she smiled and laughed with her friends, holding her hand purse with two hands and her leather jacket hanging on her forearm. she didn't spare a single glance at jungwon, well, she probably didn't even know he was there.

namkyu noticed his stare. it wasn't like anything she's seen before. in fact, she's never expected jungwon to have such a look of love—and pain, in his eyes like that.

this made her really confused. he was looking at jiyoon—her cousin, like that. did he know her? what was she to him?

"jungwon...?" she said quietly, understanding the situation would probably not be something that should be spoken about loudly.

he snapped out of it once again, looking into namkyu's eyes. "namkyu." he replied.

"do you.. know jiyoon?" she asked curiously.

even as he was looking in her eyes, you could tell his mind was elsewhere. he wasn't present whatsoever.

after a few long seconds of silence, he shook his head, but hesitantly.

"no." he said, forcing a smile a bit after.

she didn't believe him, she knew he was lying but she decided to brush it off. he clearly didn't want her to know anything about his past with jiyoon and she decided to respect that.

her cousin was successful, she appeared on tv sometimes. you'd see her on city banners in korea, so knowing her wasn't surprising.

but the look that jungwon had on his face spoke more than just 'knowing' her. no one would stare at someone like that if they just knew them from the internet or whatever.

he had something to do with her, and namkyu could tell.

soon, everyone was finishing their meals. they had lots of fun, especially jungwon who was back to normal. it might've been the soju though, otherwise, he'd probably still be silent.

namkyu wasn't a drinker, to say the least. so it wasn't surprising to see her get really tipsy over just a few shots.

sunghoon on the other hand felt like a babysitter. he would've drank if it weren't for namkyu. he felt the need to take care of her.

of course, jungwon couldn't because of how he was acting. he drank a lot for whatever reason. his face was so flushed it was almost worrying.

they stayed there for a while, chatting about nonsense. sunghoon had to stop namkyu from spitting out about her whole past to jungwon, he knew she'd regret it in the morning.

he was honestly getting a bit tired listening to their conversations about nothing. it also felt like nothing bad was going to happen since other people were there, so he thought it'd be safe to leave them alone for a bit and go to the bathroom.

that might've been the worst choice he's made, because the events after that would probably haunt him for the next few days.

♡