You Belong With Me | Jeongcheol Fanfic

Chapter 13

As the conversation continued in Seungcheol's hospital room, Hansol's flustered reaction to Seungkwan had lightened the mood, filling the space with laughter and teasing. But after a while, there was a comfortable silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

Seungcheol, however, wasn't done with his curiosity. He glanced at Hansol, who was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, fiddling with the strap of his bag, trying to look nonchalant after all the teasing about Seungkwan. Seungcheol wasn't buying it.

Clearing his throat, Seungcheol looked directly at Hansol. "So," he began, his voice laced with playful suspicion, "are you going to tell me what's really going on between you and Seungkwan? I mean, you guys seem to be spending a lot of time together."

Hansol's ears turned a shade of red, but he tried to play it cool. "Like I said, nothing's going on. He's just... around."

Dino scoffed. "Around? You literally go out of your way to hang out with him, dude. We're not blind."

Hansol shot Dino a glare, then let out a long, exasperated sigh. "Fine. Maybe we've been hanging out more than usual, but that doesn't mean there's anything to it. We just..." He paused, searching for the right words. "We get along now, I guess."

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow. "You 'get along' with him now? Just a few weeks ago you couldn't stand being in the same room."

"Yeah, well, people change," Hansol mumbled, avoiding their eyes. "He's... he's not that bad. And we've been talking more, I guess."

Seungcheol and Dino exchanged a knowing look, the grin on Dino's face widening as he leaned back against the wall. "Talking, huh? That's how it starts."

Hansol groaned and threw a pillow at Dino, who dodged it, laughing. "It's not like that!" Hansol protested, though his red cheeks and the way his voice wavered said otherwise.

Seungcheol chuckled, deciding to go easy on him for now. "Alright, alright," he said, waving a hand in surrender. "We'll stop teasing you. But for the record, Seungkwan's not as scary as you think. He's just... loud."

Hansol snorted at that, relaxing a bit. "Yeah, I figured that out."

The mood lightened once again, and they settled back into casual conversation. After a while, Dino got up to stretch, pacing around the room, while Hansol pulled out his phone to check some messages.

As Seungcheol lay back in his bed, his mind began to wander again. He couldn't help but feel grateful for his friends being there, their presence making everything feel a little less overwhelming. But his thoughts inevitably drifted back to Jeonghan. That brief kiss on the forehead from the night before had been on his mind ever since, and even though he had no idea where things would go from here, he couldn't shake the feeling of warmth it had left behind.

His smile returned, and he didn't even realize he was doing it until Hansol glanced up from his phone and noticed. "You're smiling like an idiot again," Hansol pointed out, a teasing lilt in his voice.

Seungcheol blinked, looking away quickly. "I'm not."

"You totally are," Dino added with a grin, walking over to stand beside Hansol. "Still thinking about Jeonghan?"

Seungcheol sighed but didn't deny it this time. "Maybe," he admitted softly.

Hansol chuckled, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. "You've got it bad, man."

Seungcheol smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I think I do."

As the banter continued, Seungcheol's phone buzzed on the bedside table. He glanced at it, his heart skipping a beat when he saw a message from Jeonghan: "Hey. I'll stop by later, okay? Just want to check on you."