connected|chan

-fourteen-

"Bang Chan. It's nice to see you. It's been what—eighteen hours since we last heard from you?" ChangBin taps his fingers on the counter as he stares up at Chan slipping into the dorm.

"Shut up. Don't ask. My head hurts." Chan waves him off, tugging on his sweatshirt.

"About an hour after I left you texted and said that you were gonna get her comfy and in bed then come home. We believed you. Then—three hours later—you still weren't home. We figured you just got caught up and maybe fell asleep watching a movie with her or something—so we texted—a lot. We even called—no answer." ChangBin begins laying out their side of the night while Chan anxiously shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Chan opens his mouth to speak up, but ChangBin shakes his head to silence him.

"I'm not done. Six hours into your disappearance—SeungMin became frantic. He tried getting ahold of EunHye out of fear something happened to you both. Nothing. It got to the point that at eight hours of you being MIA he wanted to walk his ass over to her place to check on you. It took a hell of a lot of convincing to get him to stay put. MinHo took him home and told him that you guys just fell asleep and probably left your phones in the other room." ChangBin continues as JiSung makes his way down the hall, oblivious to Chan's arrival.

"Well—I mean—we did—at one point." Chan mumbles, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Hour ten—we gave up hope. Those of us who weren't already in bed went to bed and figured that someone would call us if we needed to go pick your ass up from the police station or something. Hours eleven through eighteen—most of us honestly just let ourselves believe you were at the studio working and that's why you didn't get ahold of us." ChangBin finishes his dramatics as JiSung falls down on the couch with a loud groan.

"I'm sorry. I really am. After you left she was overwhelmed all over again—so I sat and watched a movie with her. She fell asleep in my lap and every time I went to lay her in bed she woke up and cried if I tried to let her go." Chan tries to explain himself, but ChangBin holds his hand up to silence him.

"I don't care. It's your business. I'm just telling you it would've been nice to at least have an update on what was going on. If you were gonna stay the night all you had to do was say that." ChangBin shrugs as he gets up onto his feet.

"It was your fault." Chan states firmly, his head hanging low.

"My fault? How the hell was you not letting us know where you were my fault?" ChangBin spins back around to face him, baffled how he played a part in it all.

"She's confused. So confused she barely talked to me most of the time. She was stuck in her head trying to understand herself. That's why I didn't update anyone. That's why—that's why I didn't come home—okay? Once I got her to sleep—I left. I went for a walk and slept at a hotel." Chan explains, swallowing hard as the pain from the previous night sinks in.

"Wait—what are you talking about? Why the hell didn't you just come home? You seriously had me worried. I know I pretended not to care—but I was seriously freaking out." ChangBin let's his defenses down, no longer trying to pretend he was unfazed.

"I couldn't face you. I wanted to avoid you as much as I possibly could. You're one of my best friends, but I hate you right now. I hate you so much—but at the same time I don't." Chan frowns, lowering his head, disappointed in himself.

"Why? What'd I do?" ChangBin mumbles softly, unaware that Chan knows how he feels about EunHye.

"She likes you. She really freaking likes you. She doesn't know if it's me or you. And you like her. How the hell am I supposed to be fine after hearing that? Huh? How am I supposed to face you and her knowing that I could just be a damn pawn in the middle of the game?" Chan lets out some of his worries, his head a jumbled mess of complicated emotions. If he's having a hard time now—he can only image how EunHye feels constantly.