Pay Day [ChanCheol Fanfiction] - Book 2

n i n e

   Chan's fingers hovered over the contact list he barely used nowadays. He thought of calling a friend... But who? He had no one... Unless he called... No. He couldn't. Chan had not once called to check on his hyung, he couldn't just call the boy now because he was in a bad place. The broken hearted boy used to have more friends... But he wasn't really close to them anymore, Hell, he wasn't even sure if they were friends anymore, they were more like accquaintances. But this was all Chan's fault, because he was too head over heels for Seungcheol to care about anything else. His fingers typed the familiar name but a little voice in the back of his head didn't allow him to press the call button, causing him to just stare at the phone number while biting his lower lip in despair.

    "Are you going to call?" 

   Chan jumped in his chair at the sudden, unexpected voice right by his ear.

   He turned his head to the side to see his old friend's face staring down at his phone, slurping on his milkshake.

    "Mingyu?" The younger asked in disbelief.

    The older turned his head to face Chan and flashed the famous puppy smile.

    The simple action brought tears to the younger's eyes. It was so innocent, it brought back so many memories... Memories of a simpler time... A time when Chan's biggest preocupation was to find an excuse as to why he hadn't done his homework. A time when that smile was accompanied by many others as Chan cracked a simple cheeky joke. 

    The younger couldn't help but smile back. Mingyu's bright smile had always had that effect on anyone.

     "How are you man? We haven't seen each other in ages!" The hyung asked, invinting himself to sit on the chair in front of the younger.

     It's not like Chan minded though, he could use the company of an old friend, it's exactly what he needed right now and he was honestly glad Mingyu cared enough to sit with him and spend time listening to Chan even though the latter had never taken the time to check on his old group.  Guilt, regret and embarrassment suddenly rushed through the boy's whole body, which he tried to ignore.

    "Feel like shit, thanks for asking. How about you?" 

     Chan didn't even bother faking it anymore, whenever someone asked he just replied how he really felt, and 'like shit' always seemed like the most accurate pair of words to describe his mood.

     Mingyu  chuckled.

     "So I've heard... Hansol keeps talking about it, he's really worried, you know?" The boy asked, putting down his milkshake for the serious conversation.

    Chan, that had his head lowered the whole time, looking at his fidgeting feet in shame, finally looked up, his hopeful eyes meeting Mingyu's concerned ones. 

    "Is he? Well I... I didn't want to bother him. There's so much going on right now and I never remembered to check up on him, I can't just go up to him now and cry about my shit life it's just... it's not fair. He deserves to have a normal life and I can't just wreck it with my dysfunctional life and weird problems he-"

    Chan was cut off by Mingyu cupping his face, making the boy stare into his eyes, instead of avoiding his gaze like he had been doing most of the time.

   "That is exactly what he wants. Hansol wants to help you and be with you. Your problems won't mess up his life, if anything helping you will relieve his stress. He knows you aren't happy and he wants to help you more than anything but he doesn't want to feel like he's butting in your life." 

   A single tear escaped Chan's eye upon hearing these words. Mingyu smiled in sympathy and wiped his tear with the sleeve of his hoodie.

   "Thank you, Mingyu. It means a lot." Chan thanked, with a little smile playing on his lips.

   "No worries! I really wanted to stay and make sure you have a good time today, but my boyfriend has been glaring at us for the past 5 minutes and he's getting jealous." Mingyu said and looked at someone that stood by the couter behind Chan.

     The younger looked behind him, to see a tall and pale man. He wore a beanie, covering most of his charcoal coloured hair, only leaving out the bangs that covered most of his sharp eyes. In a way Chan thought the new boy's face resembled his own, at least they were both seemingly expressionless.

    "He's cute, isn't he?" Mingyu asked, pride dangling from his voice.

    Chan just chuckled and nodded.

   "He's no Seungcheol, but he's definetely good looking." He thought before actually answering his friend.

   "Yes, he is... Now go ahead and join him before he burns a hole in my back." The boy joked, managing to get a laugh out of the older.

   They bid goodbye and Mingyu started to walk away, but, before leaving the café, he called for Chan, who turned around to face the man holding the other boy's hand.

   "Call Hansol, he will be more than glad to hear your voice."

   Chan just gave his friend a small nod, and turned back to his phone. He called the friend he missed dearly and waited for his response, which, to his suprise, was fairly quick.

   "Channie!" The cheerful voice called from the other side.

   The aforementioned couldn't help but smile widely at the happy, cheery voice and sweet nickname.

    "Hansol! How are you?" The young boy asked, trying to make a small conversation.

    "I'm terrible! My best friend ghosted on me!" Hansol joked, yelling the last sentence which caused Chan to distance the phone from his ear a little bit.

    He emmited a laugh before responding to his best-friend.

    "Listen I'm sorry! Let me make it up to you."

    Chan couldn't see it, but Hansol had just stood up from his bed out of excitement.

   "Make it up? How?" 

   "Ice-cream and arcade date?" The younger asked and bit his lip out of nervousness, afraid the friend would reject his invitation.

   In reality, Hansol was happily dancing and prancing around his bedroom.

   "Yes! Of course!"

   Chan smiled for the nth time today, which was unusual, since he would now spend days without any expression apparent on his face.

    "Drop by the old flat tomorrow and we'll go."

    The boy on the other side of the line hummed in response and they hung up, both wearing smiles on their faces.

    Chan felt happiness bubbling inside of him, he missed this. He missed feeling like a teenager,  going out to the arcade with his friends, eating ice-cream for dinner and acting reckless.

    Little did he know that such happiness sadened someone. By the corner stood a man unseen by the younger, whose tears threatened to fall. 

    Joshua had come after Chan (because he is that much of a cliché) to try and make things better just to find the younger laughing with some other attractive male. He wasn't bothered by Chan's happiness he was just... bummed. It was selfish to feel that way, but he hoped the younger had cared a little more about his slip up.

    "I guess I was wrong..."