checkmate ; xdinary heroes

14.

closing his beloved notebook and standing up jooyeon let out a small sigh, walking out of his and seungmin's shared room with confident steps. 

he had strongly decided to have a talk with jiseok. and no, it wasn't about him killing people, jooyeon knew, that was what all of them did and there was nothing he could do about it. the talk was going to be about something else which was really important to jooyeon. 

in the living room, he found jiseok and seungmin sitting on the couch both watching tv. jooyeon coughed, trying to get the two's attention. seungmin glanced at him for a brief second, rolling his eyes and went back to watching tv, knowing too well that jooyeon definitely did not want to talk to him. 

and he was right. ❝jiseok.❞ the youngest among them called out, making the said boy hum as a response and turn around to face him. ❝can we talk?❞ he asked, feeling his heartbeat rising up as he got nervous. 

the elder stood up, nodding and without saying a word followed jooyeon out of the living room. they went to jooyeon and seungmin's shared room and jiseok took a seat on one of the beds, waiting for the younger to close the door and sit beside him. 

❝what is it?❞ jiseok wore his famous bright smile and jooyeon swore to all the bunnies above he felt his legs getting weak, because the elder was a little too adorable for him to handle. 

telling himself that it wasn't time to admire jiseok, ❝i wanted to ask you about that day, when me, you and hyeongjun went for that man. what do you remember?❞ jooyeon spoke up, playing with his fingers. back then, a few days ago, when jiseok told him that he didn't know what kiss jooyeon was talking about, the younger told him to just forget about it. but after that, he read some things and tried connecting some dots, so he very much needed to hear from jiseok what he remembered. 

making himself more comfortable, ❝let me recall.❞ jiseok brought his knees closer to his chest, staring at jooyeon who sat beside him. ❝we went there, to rob him. but because he came back much earlier than we expected, we had to kill him. we were on the rooftop, i shot him. three times.❞ 

jooyeon nodded a few times and hummed as a response while he listened to the elder telling him what he remembered. ❝is that all? how did we come back home?❞ 

jiseok pressed his lips into a thin line, narrowing his eyes as if he was thinking deeply about the question. silence fell for a few minutes and jiseok finally opened his eyes, looking at jooyeon. ❝i⸺ i don't remember that. i remember waking up in my bed, wanting to drink some water and then i met you in the kitchen and apologized for pushing you too harshly. that's it.❞ jiseok let out a small sigh. he tried really hard to recall that day fully but it was as if a certain part of it, a few hours, were missing. it was just plain blank in his mind. 

jooyeon hummed as a response once again. his thoughts were all over the place, he already kind of could tell what was wrong with jiseok. but at the same time, he wanted to think of another moment when something similar had happened. for him to ask jiseok and make sure, that his guess was actually true. 

snapping his fingers, ❝the first day, when i came here. do you remember it?❞ jooyeon asked with a small smile. he himself could never forget that day. when he was brought to this abandoned building by hyeongjun and gunil. he was so scared, confused and lost not understanding what even was going on. and jiseok ⸺ that evening he introduced himself as gaon ⸺ was the one who was with him the whole evening. he was doodling some things on the small paper and wanted to talk to jooyeon. then they played chess. jooyeon himself remembered the day too well to forget. that was the first ever time of him finding jiseok, or gaon, actually friendly unlike all others.