_TOMORROW NEVER CAME. [jakehoon]

chapter sixteen.

As they walked down the highway, the sun beamed down at them with an unforgiving intensity, making it difficult for all five of them to keep up a good pace.

Jake was struggling the most - his garments were long and black, which made him a perfect target for the July heat. The brunette was sweating and obviously struggling to keep up with the rest of them.

Sunghoon sighs and stops Jake midway. Jake doesn't argue, almost as if he was pleased to finally catch a break.

"Take it off," Sunghoon demanded, gesturing towards Jake's church clothes, "you're going to pass out if you keep going like this."

"I'm fine," Jake huffs, trying his best to glare up at Sunghoon, "I'm just not used to walking such long distances, my clothes have nothing to-"

"Just take them off!" Sunghoon finally snaps, "They're physically weighing you down and are giving you heatstroke - I get that you have some sort of deep connection with this damn thing but it's going to kill you if you keep it on."

Without any arguments, Sunghoon takes off Jake's backpack for him and is about to grab at Jake's vestment when Jake protectively places his hands over the garment, "Wait. Please, stop!"

Sunghoon immediately lifts his hands and steps back, not expecting Jake to start shaking and resisting so strongly. His mind momentarily flashes back to the Church and all the ill things Jake told him about it and his gut sank at the thought of triggering some vile memories for Jake.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Stop, please, just-" Jake sniffles, trying his best to collect himself. He breathed in a shaky breath as he tried to steady himself.

"Hyung," Jungwon comes up to them, glaring at Sunghoon as he did so, "it's okay." He hugged Jake as the brunette continued to shake and sniffle. Sunghoon felt like the biggest douche in the world.

Sunghoon stood with his hands stupidly in the air, a horrible feeling of regret settling in the pit of his stomach, "I didn't mean to..."

"To what, Hyung?"

Sunghoon gives up and lowers his hands, walking towards the front where Jay and Sunoo try to give Jungwon and Jake some privacy as Jake calms down.

"What happened?" Sunoo asks, noticing Sunghoon's troubled expression, "What made him burst into tears like that?"

Sunghoon shrugged his shoulders, sitting down on the concrete ground, his back towards Jake and Jungwon. He wanted to cry himself - the image of Jake looking at him, pleading for him to stop flashed over and over in his mind, as if Sunghoon would do something so horrible. He made Jake cry. He made Jake shake and panic.

"Hey," Jay squatted down next to him, "you okay?"

"Yeah," Sunghoon croaks out, picking at the skin of his fingers, "I think I fucked up really bad."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sunoo also sat down next to him. Sunghoon shook his head and exhaled deeply.

"Let's go," Jungwon came up to the trio, ushering them up, "we need to keep going if we want to rendezvous somewhere else than the woods."

Jay, Sunghoon and Sunoo got up and put on their bags. Sunghoon throws a glance at Jake and notices how the male has taken off his vestment, opting to continue to trail with his collared shirt.

For the rest of the walk, Sunghoon kept his distance, opting to walk alongside Jungwon at the front. He didn't want to make Jake uncomfortable or paranoid again - he feels like that's all he's been doing ever since they met.

He didn't notice the slight yearning in Jake's eyes as he followed behind the two.