unloving joshua hong; jihan/jeongcheol

f o u r

The whole week was torture; there was never a day that I did not cry myself to sleep. I saw Joshua a few times around our neighbourhood and at school, and my heart was crushed every time we passed by each other without the usual smiles on our faces.

On Saturday, I went to Aunt Heejung's salon for my part-time job as a receptionist and an all-around assistant for the hairstylists.

"How's your love life going, Hannie?" Mrs Ryeo, our almost-70-year-old regular, asked whilst Aunt Heejung was trimming her curly grey hair.

"Hehe," I tried chuckling then I slumped my face on the reception desk, "my love life's doing great, ma'am!" I gave her a thumbs up.

"Oh my goodness!" Mrs Ryeo exclaimed, slightly covering her mouth with her hand as if she was in real shock, "Did you finally confess to the Hongs' son?! Are you boys finally going out?!"

"Yupp," my Aunt Heejung answered for me, "but he got rejected." She shrugged and then continued fixing Mrs Ryeo's hair.

"Poor Hannie," the almost-70-year-old looked sad; well, everyone at the salon who were listening to our conversation looked sad, but I did not want them to worry so I pretended to chuckle and told them that I was okay.

During my supposedly lunch break, one of our top hairstylists, Mr Seo Eunjung, was about to fill in as the receptionist, but some thug-looking bastard came inside our shop and postponed my awaited meal.

"You," the thug pointed at me, "why are you here?!"

I clicked my tongue, "Ya! Didn't your mom tell you that it's rude to point at people?!"

"My bad," Choi Seungcheol sighed, "my mom left with another man when I was four. I don't really remember her, to be honest, so I don't know if she told me something like that." He said it so nonchalantly that I felt so bad.

Choi Seungcheol then asked for Mr Seo Eunjung and I saw them walk inside the coffee shop across the street. After almost half an hour, the two of them came back, and Mr Seo's eyes looked red and puffy; the hairstylist went straight to the staff room.

"Ya," I whispered to Choi Seungcheol as I slightly hit the reception desk with my palm, "what did you do to our lovely Mr Seo, you punk?!"

The punk just let out a soft chuckle that it pissed me off, "yupp, he sure is lovely."

"W-WAIT," I blushed, thoughts rushing to my mind, "Y-you, Mr Seo, and you, w-wait what?!"

"Pabo," Choi Seungcheol flicked my forehead, "before you get stupid and idiotic ideas in your head," he grabbed my wrist and turned to Mr Seo who just came out of the staff room, "Sir, I'm borrowing him for a bit."

"Yeah, sure," Mr Seo approved with a smile.

Choi Seungcheol led me to the park by the riverbank; he made me sit down on a bench and then he got me some crepe from a food truck.

"Here ya go," he gave me a strawberry flavoured one.

I clicked my tongue, "I like banana caramel with pistachios."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he turned around, "wait, I'll go get so--."

"No, no, no," I pulled on his shirt to stop him, "strawberry's fine." I sighed.

"Oh okay," he smiled and sat beside me that I almost puked for it was the first time I saw him smile, and it felt super weird.

I quietly munched on my strawberry crepe, not minding how awkward it was, until Choi Seungcheol decided to break the silence.

"So," he coughed.

"Hmm?" I licked the crème that got on my thumb.

"I'm sorry," he said in a serious tone whilst looking down at the ground, "I'm really sorry for calling you a sissy, I know you're not gay and--,"

"Oh I am," I said casually, "Ah! Just for one particular person though," and then I continued munching on my crepe.

"Oh," his eyes widened for a moment and then he smiled again, "I see."

And then we were silent again; the cool wind gently brushed against my bob cut hair, and all I could hear were kids playing around the park with their bicycles and kites.

I stood up after I had the last bite of my strawberry crepe and I was about to bid him goodbye when I suddenly remembered something.

"Ya," I sat down again, "w-well, what are you and Mr Seo anyway?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he chuckled.

"Aish!" I nudged him, "stop smiling and laughing, tsk, I'm used to your evil persona that it makes me wanna puke whenever I see your gummy smile." I gagged.

"Okay, okay," he chuckled for a bit and then stopped, "anyway, Mr Seo, well, he is my dad's boyfriend."

"Wait, you're Mr Choi's son?!" my eyes widened.

"Yupp," he bobbed his head, "wait, how did you know my father?"

"Well," I said, "I haven't seen him, yet, but Mr Seo always talks about him with a huge smile on his face."

"I see," he smiled again.

"I. TOLD. YOU. STOP. SMILING."

"Yes boss," he chuckled again, and then covered his mouth after seeing me raise an eyebrow, "anyway, I actually just found out about my dad and Mr Seo last week, that's why I was in a really, really bad mood--,"

"Oh," I bobbed my head, "so you're a homophobe?"

"I'M. NOT." He clicked his tongue and hit my arm, "would you please let me finish first?!" I nodded and he sighed, "I was in a bad mood because I did not know that my dad swings that way when I was always right beside him. Plus, I found out about their affair when I walked in on them making out in our house's living room."

"That must've been tough," I pursed my lips.

"Yeah," he pursed his lips too, "so I kinda tortured Mr Seo and my dad by cursing them and calling them faggot and stuff." Choi Seungcheol looked sad whilst he reminisced, "my mom must've left us because she knew my dad's gay."

Choi Seungcheol's story pinched my heart that I instinctively patted his shoulders.

"Thanks," he smiled.

"N-no problem, hehe," I hid my hands behind my back and stood up quick, "well, I gotta go now. My lunch break's over."

"Yeah, sure," Choi Seungcheol said.

My chest felt heavy with all the information I found out about Choi Seungcheol's kdrama-like life. I was almost out of the park when the punk-turned-smiling-machine caught up.

"Yoon Jeonghan!" he called out for me, panting. Seungcheol offered me his right hand, "friends?"