𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲

chapter 42

A/N: This story is literally the SLOWEST of slow burns but I'm not sorry HEHEHEHEHEH *runs away*

After your chat with Suho you wipe your tears before going to your mother's room. You say goodbye to her before looking for Seojun, since you had offered to help him get home after being discharged. Your mother is luckily doing much better, the doctors finally telling you that she can be discharged the following day if there aren't any issues before then.

When you find Seojun he looks a little bothered by something but you don't say anything, assuming it must have something to do with the Seyeon situation. You grab all of his bags and help him get home, and when you arrive there you use your spare key to get in. You put all of his bags into his bedroom before deciding to cook him some food, since all he's been eating recently is hospital food, so he sits at the kitchen table and keeps you company while you make something for him quickly. His mother doesn't mind you using the kitchen in their apartment, so you know she will be okay with it.

Once he's eaten you help him into his bed, making sure you've cleared away everything in the kitchen and that he's got everything he needs before going back to his room and sitting next to him on his bed. It's at this moment you finally realise that the plaster on his face is no longer there, and Seojun watches in confusion as you reach your hand up towards him.
"Does it hurt anymore?" you ask, and he realises that you're referring to the cut on his jaw. When he doesn't respond you look at him, and your eyes widen when you realise how close you are. You gasp and immediately move back, but you're shocked at the feeling of his hand snaking around your waist and pulling you back towards him. He pulls you into a hug.

"Thank you for staying by my side while I was in the hospital," he mumbles into your shoulder, causing you to smile sadly.
"Of course," you whisper, "I'm sorry for avoiding you all this time Seojun," you try to tell him, but he just hugs you tighter.
"Don't worry about it," he tells you with a shake of his head, before finally leaning back enough to see each your face. "I'm sure you had your reasons, and I won't keep pushing you to tell me anymore. We're okay, I promise," he tells you, and you bury your face into his chest for a little while longer before finally breaking the hug.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Seojun watches as you tug your sleeve up slightly and pull something off your wrist. You reach for his hand and gently pull it closer, before placing it on his own, and when he finally looks down he sees his friendship bracelet that he shared with Suho and Seyeon. The whole time that Seojun was in hospital you had been looking after his bracelet. You know how it means a lot to him, so when he had the cast on his hand you wore it to keep it safe.

During all the chaos of him and Suho being brought into hospital, a nurse handed it to you. It was the same nurse who knew about your mother being in the hospital and when you were waiting outside the emergency room for so long, she had told you to stay with your mother and to come back later.
"He was wearing this but we had to remove it while we were treating him," she tells you, handing the bracelet to you.

"Ah," he says, looking down at it with a smile, "I thought I lost it in the accident." He's relieved for a moment, but then he realises that the shiny glint he saw on your wrist while you were sleeping was actually his bracelet. He thought it was yours that he had given you, his heart sinking at the realisation that maybe you really weren't wearing it all this time that the two of you hadn't spoken. Seojun quickly pushes that feeling down before pulling you into another hug, thanking you for keeping his bracelet safe.

After spending some time with him and making sure he's settled in okay, you finally get up to head back to the hospital.
"You sure you're going to be okay?" Seojun asks, and you nod in response with a smile.
"Don't worry, my mum's getting discharged tomorrow and then I'll be right downstairs again. We'll be going back to school on the same day," you tell him as you ruffle his hair, laughing when he whines at you for ruining his hairstyle.

You say your goodbyes before finally leaving, deciding to take a quick shower at home and grabbing a spare change of clothes for when your mother gets discharged, before making your way back to the hospital.

The following day Seojun and Suho go to visit Seyeon's grave together while you spend the last day in hospital with your mother, getting ready for her to be discharged. When the doctors finally give you the okay you thank him as well as all the nurses for all their help, before taking your mother home in a taxi. You get her home and straight into bed, not wanting her to move around so you make sure to do everything.

Once Seojun and Suho are back from being at the graveyard they go back to Suho's house to shower and have some ramen together. At that point Seojun's phone pings to signal that he had received a message, but Suho rushes to check his phone.
"Hey it was mine," Seojun tells him, waving his phone in his face to prove it, and Suho sees that the message is from you.

You had messaged him to let him know that you had gotten back safely with your mother, and asking how everything went at the graveyard. "Are you trying to show off that you're dating?" Suho watches the little smile on Seojun's face as he replies to your message, but stays quiet. Once Seojun is finished he puts his phone down before looking back at Suho.

"So did you guys make up?" Seojun asks, referring to Jugyeong.
"I told you to stay out of it."
"But there must be a reason she doesn't want to tell the others about you dating."
"What do you mean?" Suho asks, his interest piqued.
"I think it's because of Kang Soojin," he tells him, and he lets out an exasperated sigh when he sees the confused look on Suho's face. "How are you in a relationship when you're this dense?" Suho gives the boy a deadpan look.

"Look who's talking, you're worse than me."
"What do you mean?" Seojun asks, voice sounding defensive. Suho sighs.
"What's going on with you and Y/N, seriously?" he asks, and Seojun just looks down.
"Why do you keep bringing her up," he mumbles as he looks away from his friend.
"Are you seriously going to keep acting like there's nothing going on between you two?" Suho asks.
"She doesn't even feel that way about me, so why does it matter? Just drop it." Suho can't help but let out a snort.

"I didn't realise you were this dumb, you're more dense than I am." He lets out a sigh, pondering whether he should mention the trip day. "Look, all I'm going to say is that when Y/N had that panic attack on the camping trip," he starts, and Seojun looks up at Suho with wide eyes because how did he even know about that? "You were with Jugyeong comforting her at the time." He freezes. "Y/N saw you guys." Seojun looks at Suho in shock, but before he can ask further Suho gets a phone call. He goes outside to speak to Jugyeong on the phone, leaving Seojun to his own thoughts.