Sanity vs. Soulmate | JeongCheol

20

Jihoon had been right. Shortly after his friendly reminder of my awaiting death in case of any escape attempts,  the others indeed returned to their places on the couch. And they all stared at me. Lovely. Just lovely.
I still had a hard time reading their faces but overall they didn't look too freaked out by my story which I took as a good sign.

"Sooo..."
Of course Seungkwan would start this conversation. He and Jihoon seemed to be the spokesmen of the group.
"Most of us left to have a litte heart to heart in private, as you might have noticed."
No shit, Seungkwan... Tell me something I don't know.
"And we've reached a final opinion on your story. That is if you guys agree with us? I suppose you heard all of it?" He turned to the holy trinity of intimidation and received a short nod from all of them.

Seungkwan rolled his eyes. "I'll need a little more than that. I asked two questions at once. How am I supposed to know which one you're answering with those nods?"
Now it was Minghao's turn to roll his eyes. "Both."
"And what about you?"
"Same here," Jisoo answered and Jihoon gave another nod which of course provoked a petty face of Seungkwan's.
"Fine. So we've all reached the same conclusion then. Brilliant."
Oh shit. This is it. I hugged my legs tightly and took a deep breath before returning my attention to Seungkwan and the rest.

DK was giving me an encouraging smile and Jun held up his thumbs. They were just little gestures but they meant the world to me. They gave me that little bit of courage I desperately needed right now.
I took another deep breath. I got this. I got this!

"Jeonghan Hyung, you turn up out of nowhere after years of silence and one of the first things you do is telling us an outrageous, weird, unbelievably crazy, fantastical story, sounding more like a fairytale than an actual happening, asking for our help. Asking us to believe all this."

My shoulders slumped. I should have expected this. A single tear made its way down my cheek. Angrily I wiped it away. I hated myself for crying again, for being this vulnerable and weak. What did I expect? I barely believed all of this myself. How could I assume they would understand?
Suddenly I felt something hit my chest. It was one of the blue cushions with golden embroidery around the corners. I lifted my gaze to the couch where it must have come from and
was met with a fuming Seungkwan.

"I haven't finished yet!!"
I swallowed hard. What else was he gonna throw at me? It doesn't matter anyways. It's not like it can get much worse.
"It might sound like you told us the biggest, most unbelievable, craziest fairytale ever to exist, but..."
I stilled.
"Why should you make something like this up?"
My world stopped spinning. Everything paused. Seungkwan sat back while I starred at him in total disbelieve. Then Jisoo raised his hands, starting to sign.
"What Seungkwan means by this, is, it took you ages to gather the courage to face us again. We all noticed throughout this evening how guilty you feel for abandoning us. We saw how much it meant to you that we're using signs. We felt in our very own hearts how hard it must have been for you these past years. It's not hard to see how afraid you are of loosing us again right after finding us. We heard you stutter, we saw your tears... Hannie, it wasn't hard to notice how much you were struggling until you were able to tell us this story about your mysterious hearing. Why by god wouldn't we believe you?"

My tears no longer knew any restraint. They freely ran down my face and I must have looked like an ugly little potato but I didn't care. It felt like a whole damn mountain had been lifted of my heart. They believed me. They believed me!! They freaking believed me!!

"Besides," Minghao butted in, "You don't have enough imagination to make this all up. As for the being crazy part: everyone of us is insane. So you fit right in."
I laughed. It was one of those cracked, half-coughing laughs while you're still crying but it was the best laugh of the whole day. I finally felt not alone anymore. They believed me. They believed me!!!