small words || jeongcheol

15: clumsy.

Hi, guys! Happy New Year, I have finally taken this book off hiatus and will be updating again! Thank you all for being so patient - enjoy the chapter :)

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There was a clatter from the hallway as Jeonghan slowly made his way down the stairs.

"Who are you?" he questioned, lingering on the bottom step.

A tall boy stood in the hallway with a guilty expression, his hands stretched out to try and stop the ceramic umbrella stand from falling. But the vase-like object now lay shattered on the floor, umbrellas everywhere.

"Ah, Jeonghan," said Josh, smiling tightly, looking stressed-as-heck about the mess. "This is Mingyu, our newest volunteer."

"Hi," said the brown-haired boy, smiling widely and revealing crooked teeth and rather pointed cainines. There was something cute about his innocent smile.

"You mean our only volunteer," Jeonghan drawled, tugging the belt on his dressing gown tighter and stalking past.

"This is Jeonghan- oh, he's gone," Josh murmured. "Mingyu, I'm sorry to throw you in the deep end, but we're a nurse down on the trip scheduled for today. Could you fill in for Seungcheol?"

"He can't come?" Mingyu asked, fiddling with the sleeves of his white sweater and following Josh through to the living room.

"It's actually Jeonghan who can't come," Josh explained, "He took a fall and isn't strong enough to come with us. So Seungcheol offered to stay here and look after him."

"Ah, I see," Mingyu said shyly, "I'm really sorry I broke that-"

"It's okay," Josh said quickly, "No harm done. Minghao, meet Mingyu, our new volunteer."

"Hey, nice to meet you, kid," Minghao said, grinning. He shook Mingyu's hand enthusiastically. "I'm nurse-in-training here."

"Minghao, please clean up the hallway," said Josh, patting his arm.

"Sure thing," he replied.

"And I'm Nurse Moonbyul," said the blue-haired woman, appearing from the dining room. "But I'll be out of your hair today, I'm taking the girls shopping."

"Where are we going?" Mingyu asked Josh.

"We're taking the boys to the arcade. I'll introduce you to them now, everyone's having breakfast."

"Soonyoung, don't throw food at me!"

"That's wasteful!"

"Guys, seriously, shut the fuck up!"

"No one cares, bitch!"

"Here we go,"Josh muttered. "Guys," he said loudly, entering the living room. "This is Mingyu, he's going to be helping out around here from now on."

"Until we scare him off," Junhui drawled.

Everyone else fell silent and judged the newcomer.

"Um, hi," Mingyu said nervously.

"He won't last five minutes," Soonyoung said sagely.

"I'm Seungcheol," the broad man introduced himself with a nod. "Welcome to hell."

***

"I can't believe everyone else gets to leave this damned house and have fun, without me, again."

"I'm sorry, Jeonghan," Seungcheol said, spooning the last of the cookie dough on the tray. "But even you're not feeling up to it."

"True," he considered, pushing off from where he had been leaning on the counter. "I'll go and whine to Seungkwan about it."