friend #hyungwonho

#5

"How do you have this much money?" Hoseok asked, accepting the forty thousand won Hyungwon gave him as they met.

"My parents are rich", Hyungwon answered casually, not even bothering to make up a lie. It was not something to be embarrassed of.

"Oh, that must be nice", Hoseok smiled. He had always wished to have rich parents. Even middle-class parents would be fine if they cared for him. He was jealous of Hyungwon and didn't understand that Hyungwon's life was hard too because of his parents.

"Can we walk around the city?" Hyungwon asked. Hoseok gave a nod even though he knew that Hyungwon would still continue. "There is a new coffee shop I want to visit a short walk away."

"I'd love that. Which way shall we head?" Hoseok pointed at different directions and Hyungwon nodded his head at one of them. "There? Okay."

They started walking side-to-side along the streets where shops and bars surrounded them.

"Hyungwon..." Hoseok started and the other guy immediately turned his head when he heard his name being called. "Are you always so quiet or are you afraid of me?"

Hyungwon looked like the question made him flustered. "I'm always like this. Don't worry."

"I really like your voice. Can you sing?"

"Oh... I c-can't", he stuttered, his body heat rising a little, bringing a blush to his cheeks.

"I bet you can. We can go to karaoke some day", Hoseok suggested, not even noticing how anxious Hyungwon got.

Hyungwon didn't answer anymore. He was focused on looking at the beautiful city he hadn't been experiencing like this in a long time. They continued their walk without talking. Hoseok was staring at Hyungwon most of the time whereas Hyungwon had admiring look on his face as he looked at the city view.

"I have never been in this part of the city before", Hyungwon suddenly said, turning to look at Hoseok who had been admiring his face for the whole time, not stopping now.

Hoseok reached his hand towards Hyungwon's wrist. "Can I hold your hand so you won't get lost?" he asked but as soon as his fingers came in touch with the wrist, Hyungwon jerked his hand away like he had gotten scared.

"Uhm..." Hyungwon muttered, suspicious look in his eyes that moved fast. "I mean, if you want", he carefully gave his hand to Hoseok who conjoined their fingers.

"Great", Hoseok held his hand with a tight grip. "Do you know where is the coffee shop you wanted to go?"

"I'm not exaclty sure. I just heard about it."

"Well, you're lucky that I do. They mentioned it on TV", Hoseok said, lying. He had already been there many times because his clients often wanted to go there. To make Hyungwon feel better, he now pretended that it was his first time.

They got there in a short time but Hoseok's feet were already hurting because the shoes he had weren't really made for walking. He kept smiling, not wanting Hyungwon to know how tired he was.

"I will order for us, you can go sit down", Hyungwon said when they were waiting in the long line. The place was crowded.

"I'll have an espresso then", Hoseok felt bad leaving Hyungwon to wait there alone but did so anyways.

Hyungwon came back later with two identical cups. He gave one of them to Hoseok and sat down with his own cup.

"You like your coffee strong too?" Hoseok asked, wrapping his hands around the small cup to cool it down.

Hyungwon had already brought the cup to his lips and taken a small sip from it, obviously burning his tongue and trying his best not to show it. He just nodded. Normally he liked caramel lattes and cappuccinos but now he had taken same thing as Hoseok to seem good in the guy's eyes.

"I would've guessed you were more into sweet flavors", Hoseok shrugged, taking a sip from his own coffee to see if it was already cool enough. He realized than Hyungwon had accidentally burned himself but pretended that he didn't even notice so that Hyungwon wouldn't feel embarrassed.

"So, what did you do yesterday?" Hoseok asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I was at home. I tried to go to sleep early but there was a party next door", Hyungwon explained with a blank expression on his face.

"What kind of people live there?" Hoseok asked another question.

"Some young girls. They keep parties every weekend."

The situation reminded him of the party he had been last night. He had been with young girls who sure had partied like that before. He tried to ignore the fact that he might have been in Hyungwon's neighbor's house. "Do you have a cat?"

Hyungwon shook his head, carefully sipping his coffee again.

"A dog?"

He nodded.

"Listen, Hyungwon, I have an advice for you", Hoseok took a serious expression on his face and leaned a bit closer. "Next time they are partying, dress up as an old lady, curlers on your and your dog's heads, go there and complain about how your dog can't sleep."

Hyungwon let out a laugh that turned to giggle when he tried to hide it. Hoseok thought there was nothing funny in his sentence but he was proud of making Hyungwon laugh anyways.

"Bitches love dogs, I'm sure they'll stop", Hoseok finished.

"Thanks", Hyungwon said after gathering himself and calming down a little. He still had a small smile on his face.

"I like your laugh", Hoseok randomly said, not even realizing that he probably shouldn't have said that but it just came out.

Hyungwon blushed and looked away awkwardly, the smile fading from his lips.

"Shall we continue walking?" Hoseok asked after clearing his throat when he noticed that both of their cups were empty.

Hyungwon nodded and they walked out of the coffee shop.

"Can we please go there quickly. There is something I really need to buy?" Hoseok asked, pointing at a sport store where some random three guys just entered.

Hyungwon didn't say anything and when Hoseok turned to look at him, he had a scared expression on his face. "Can we just go back?" he gulped.

"I promise you, it'll be quick. We can do whatever you want after that."

He had no choice but to say yes and follow Hoseok to the sports store.

"I need a tennis racket. One of my customers gave me money to buy one so we can play together", Hoseok explained to the guy who was staying behind his back.

Hyungwon felt weird when Hoseok talked about other people. Of course he was jealous but he tried to understand that it was Hoseok's job to see many different people.

"Pink or yellow?" Hoseok asked, holding two rackets in his hands. Hyungwon pointed at the pink one. "Good choice."

"You know, it feels really weird seeing Hyungwon with someone", a male voice came suddenly, causing Hoseok to look at the direction.

"Shut up, that's probably his cousin or something", another one said while they were walking away.

"I feel sorry for his cousin then, he doesn't know -", the first one said again. The door closed behind them and Hoseok couldn't heard the rest of the sentence.

He turned to look at Hyungwon who had his head hanging low and was pretending to be looking at the tennis balls.

"Do you know those guys?" Hoseok asked, trying to get eye contact.

Hyungwon just shook his head. "I need to go now. Thank you for seeing me today", he said and Hoseok couldn't say anything when Hyungwon had already disappeared.

"Weird", he muttered to himself and walked to the register to purchase the tennis racket.