from zero » hyungwonho

iii

"Do you really think it was Hyungwon that you saw?" Minhyuk asked quietly, setting himself down on Hoseok's desk chair the wrong way round, laying his chin on his arms that were folded on the headrest of the seat.

"I don't really know anymore, to be honest," Hoseok sighed, staring up at his bland cream ceiling for the second time that day. "Maybe Kihyun was right when he said I might have been imagining things."

His crutches had been abandoned to the tight space between his bed and desk, leaning safely against the wall for Hoseok to grab when he needed them.

Of course, his injury didn't go unnoticed by his mother, but Minhyuk did actually take the blame for it even though Hoseok was only joking earlier.

Hoseok remembered Minhyuk bowing down a full ninety degrees and expressing his deepest and sincerest apologies for his carelessness, and Hoseok didn't know whether to slap him for being so stupid or to hug the shit out of him.

Hoseok's mother had smiled down at the boy, ruffling his hair and telling him to stand up. She understood the whole thing was unintentional, and let Hoseok off with a warning since it was the first time anything like this had happened.

But she had assured him that if something like that happened again, he would be grounded for a week.

"It's kind of like that saying 'when life flashes before your eyes'," Hoseok continued when he was met with silence from Minhyuk for a few seconds. "I thought I was going to die so maybe my mind wanted it to be him. I really don't know."

Minhyuk smiled before pressing a hand to his heart in mock offense. "How dare you think of another man right before death when your best friend is definitely worth so much more to you? I am highly offended, Shin Hoseok!"

"Stop being such a drama queen," Hoseok's chest rose with a silent laugh that he breathed out through his nose. "It means nothing now because I'm not dead."

"Good point," Minhyuk noted and silence filled the room once again. "Just...try not to think about it too much, ok? You said you don't hate him even though I kind of do so this shouldn't change anything, right?"

"Right," Hoseok commented uncertainly, creasing his eyebrows in a small frown. "But what if it really was him?"

"Only time will tell, brother," Minhyuk replied and Hoseok nodded, shifting uncomfortably onto his side to look at Minhyuk.

"Wanna stay round for the night?" Hoseok asked suddenly, and Minhyuk nodded with a smile.

Things like that were never out of the ordinary - asking randomly to hang out and for sleepovers - for any of the boys really.

Hoseok remembered when he was in high school and met Minhyuk, the latter would simply invite himself round Hoseok's house as and when he pleased. Of course, Hoseok's mother never minded, as she immediately took a liking to Minhyuk the first time she had met him.

She had called him 'a sweet, charismatic, handsome young man'.

Hoseok also had a good relationship with Minhyuk's parents, who were loud and extroverted just like him. He just never really saw them that often since he never really liked to leave his mother alone for too long at a time.

But now that college was finished for them, the extra long summer of ten weeks had swiftly begun and Hoseok found himself out of the house more often than he was in it. His mother didn't mind, though; she'd always encouraged Hoseok to go out and make friends, and he did.

Minhyuk was actually how he had met Changkyun, Kihyun, Jooheon and Hyunwoo. They were friends from primary school, and at first Hoseok felt like he was intruding in their perfect friendship, but he actually fit right in with the rest of them.

Hyungwon, on the other hand, was just the boy who sat next to Hoseok in his Maths, English and French classes. Once the two had noticed the trend of them being seated together often, they soon became friends and then even more than that.

They were labelled as the cutest gay couple in the school when they were in the tenth grade, but they'd actually been dating since the ninth grade. Hyungwon was Hoseok's high school sweetheart, and the same for Hyungwon.

They were so in love with each other, and that was why it shocked and confused Hoseok when Hyungwon told him he was breaking up with him towards the end of their last year of high school.

"Wonho~" Minhyuk drawled melodically, and Hoseok blinked twice before shaking his head to wake himself up.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Hoseok asked in confusion, and Minhyuk sighed with a smile on his face.

"I asked if you're up for coming to the park tomorrow with the others," the younger male repeated. "Without our bikes this time, of course."

Hoseok smiled at that last remark. "Yeah sure. My mum said the weather's set to be a game changer tomorrow anyway."

"Perfect!" Minhyuk exclaimed, grabbing his phone from the desk where he had put it when he and Hoseok had arrived earlier so he could text the others.

Hoseok felt his phone vibrate from next to him but he knew it was just Minhyuk and the others texting back and forth on the group chat so he didn't bother checking the messages.

"Right, now that that's been settled, what's on Netflix?" Minhyuk asked, very ungracefully reaching over Hoseok to grab the TV remote from the older boy's hand to flick through Netflix himself.

"Aish," Hoseok muttered under his breath as he watched his best friend's face light up when he saw they'd added Monsters Inc. to Netflix.

"We're watching this, I don't care what you say," Minhyuk stated, selecting the Pixar film and bringing his legs up to cross them on Hoseok's chair.

Hoseok chuckled in disbelief and shook his head. "Unbelievable. My own house and I can't even pick what we watch."  But Minhyuk was too engrossed in the movie already to even hear the snide remark made his way.

Hoseok chuckled once again and soon turned his attention to the TV screen, like Minhyuk, beginning to enjoy the film.

~*~

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