checkmate ; xdinary heroes

21.

lips pressed into a thin line and a small yet visible frown displaying on his face, jungsu walked inside the living room, looking around. 

jooyeon was sitting in a corner of the room with knees brought closer to his chest, staring at the wall with empty eyes, which jungsu found strange, since his younger brother was never like this. he was lively and all smiley all the time. and now since he and seungmin had come back ⸺ it had been a few days since then ⸺ jooyeon was not being himself. jungsu didn't know, was it because he had seen seungmin getting stabbed and it traumatized him, or was it something else. jungsu didn't know what had happened to him but it definitely did worry him a little too much. 

beside him, on the floor sat jiseok with his legs crossed, trying to get jooyeon's attention, he was telling him something with his signature bright smile but the youngest among them was not paying attention to him one bit and jiseok was visibly upset about it, yet he was not giving up. 

jungsu knew, hyeongjun was taking a shower, since they met in the hallway when jungsu was going down and the younger walked out of his room with a towel in his hands. he hadn't seen gunil, didn't know where the eldest among them was. and as for seungmin, he knew he was in his room resting. that was what the younger did for these a few days anyway. he practically didn't leave his and jiseok's shared room. as he was feeling not so well and needed as much rest as possible which required lying down and not moving his arm. 

jungsu took a seat on the windowsill looking through the half opened window. the weather was just perfect. not to cool, nor too hot. small breeze was blowing and the sun was covered by the clouds from time to time. it was a perfect weather to go out. yet, jungsu didn't feel like it. and seemed like others didn't want that too. 

well, it was already late afternoon and if any of them wanted to go out, they already would by now. since he hadn't seen gunil for the whole day, jungsu assumed the eldest among them was the one who went out. 

he was too deeply lost in his own pile of thoughts, that he nearly failed to notice hyeongjun who walked in the living room with a towel in his hand. the boy wore for him oversized shirt, which was jungsu's. actually, there was no such a thing as certain someone's clothes since they all shared it. but there were some clothes that they wore specially often, and that was why they were called their clothes. only for formality. for example, this shirt right there which now hyeongjun wore was the one jungsu would wear a lot. 

hyeongjun walked inside the living room, looking around with his just dried very fluffy hair bouncing as he moved his head from side to side and noticing jungsu and how the elder was staring at his shirt, hyeongjun flashed him his the most adorable bunny smile and putting the towel on the armchair, approached jiseok and jooyeon. 

❝what is wrong with him?❞ hyeongjun's soft voice echoed in the living room as he took a seat on a small chair beside jooyeon, not wanting to dirty his clothes and sit on the floor since he had just showered. ❝jiseok?❞ 

jooyeon seemed too lost in his pile of thoughts, he didn't even notice hyeongjun approaching them. and jiseok just didn't respond. as if, he wasn't even the one whose name was called out. 

❝ji⸺ oh, gaon.❞ quickly understanding the situation, hyeongjun corrected himself and the said boy hummed as a response immediately, glancing at the younger and just shrugging. 

jungsu watched the scene unfolding right in front of his eyes and he felt like wanting to curl up in a ball and cry himself to sleep. he just didn't know, couldn't understand why was jooyeon doing this to him. 

drawing all the attention to himself and now it was not only jiseok but hyeongjun too. jungsu feared that soon he would be losing them both. god knows what jooyeon was planning to do and what he had already told them about jungsu.