MY BOO┊hhj [ ✓ ]

25

25
<--->

"s-sowon is back?" jeongin cautiously asked as he felt the hair on his neck rise up. "i, no, you're lying. how would you know the necklace is hers?!"

changbin gulped. he knew it wouldn't be easy telling them about sowon and explaining them that he knew exactly what her necklace looked like. he was the one who gave it to her before she left.

jisung noticed changbin's pained expression and quickly took over, "i know it may be hard to understand, but please just believe us? we don't no where she is right now, but we have a clue that she goes to our school, and she must be really good at hiding from us."

"but she went to america after the accident. how can she already be back?" seungmin asked, finding himself slowly digest in the information. it's not that he's unhappy about her return, he just doesn't know what to feel.

no one knows what to feel about the news. it was hard for them to erase sowon from their memories, and now that she's back it was even harder.

"four years," changbin croaked, catching everyone's attention. "it's been four long years without her."

"then do you suggest we find her and be like, 'hey sowon, i think you should totally hang out with us from now on to risk our two friend's lives!' is that what you want?" seungmin sarcastically says as he glared at changbin and jisung.

minho quietly spoke up, "areum and hyunjin cannot know about her, you hear me?" he squinted his eyes at everyone in the room except for jisung and changbin. "we cannot let them know."

"if by chance they find out?" jeongin squeaked after being so silent that the others forgot he was even in the room.

"if they find out then i don't know what we'll do," minho exasperatedly sighed, shaking his head a little. "we still have to inform chan about this. who knows what he's doing with areum right now. and make sure that any signs of sowon's return is unnoticed by them."

everyone slightly nodded their head. for the first time in a while they've never felt so nervous until today came. who knows what will happen in the future.

"are you sure it's sowon's necklace though?" jeongin doubted, biting his bottom lip anxiously. seeing sowon again might give him a heart attack, not literally but might.

changbin nodded his head as he confirmed, "yes. it's really hers. i gave it to her before she left." another silent atmosphere gave them a group hug.

"can - can someone explain to me who kim sowon is and why we're keeping a secret from hyunjin and areum about her?" felix called out, confused at everything. they forgot to tell him the whole story of what happened four years ago. felix had only came to south korea at age sixteen so he had not even the slightest clue who sowon was or what even happened.

everyone cleared their throat, obviously uncomfortable to explain. until seungmin decided to be the brave one and explained it to him.

<--->

chan cracked his fingers extra loudly, disturbing the silence that lingered in the air. areum looked up from her phone as her nose crinkled up in disgust.

"uh, sorry," chan laughed, coughing afterwards. suddenly choking out of nowhere, he hit his chest harshly as he tried to breathe for air.

"that, my friend is why you don't laugh and choke at the same time," areum teased, shutting her phone off. she got up from chan's bed as she made her way over to his desk.

chan rolled his eyes after surviving what seemed like almost a death experience to him. "i wasn't laughing and choking at the same time. your ugly face made me choke."

areum flipped her hair, scoffing a little, and she made sure that the ends of her hair flickered onto his face, making him move back in response. "sweetie, my name is called areum for a reason. my parents found me so beautiful that they just had to name me it."

"or maybe they named you areum to hide the fact that you're ugly," chan fired back, obviously not over the fact that areum called him out for choking. it was childish, and chan knew that though he chose not to.

areum folded her arms across her chest, shaking her head. just as she was about to open her mouth to disapprove his point, chan's mother knocked on the door lightly.

"chan! hyunjin is here!" the said boy exchanged confused glances with areum as both warily walked out of his room to go greet hyunjin.

when both saw hyunjin sitting on the couch with his head in his hands and his shoulders slumped in a distressed way, chan took small steps forward towards him.

"hyun..jin?" it was weird for chan as it was the first time hyunjin had come visit him after what he did. for all chan knew he didn't receive an apology from the younger one yet for punching him in the face last time.

hyunjin was startled for a second, glancing up to look around before his brown eyes set on chan who was just a couple feet away from him. nervously, he stood up from his spot and attacked chan into a tight huge hug.

"i'm sorry," hyunjin cried, burying his face into chan's shoulder. "i really am. i don't know what gotten into me when i punched you. i was just - i was - i don't know.." though inside chan was bitter at him, he still felt soft for the boy.

chan slowly wrapped his arms around hyunjin, patting him on the back as he let the boy cry on his shoulders. "it's okay, hyunjin. even though you punched me hard i'm still struggling to speak."

hyunjin laughed slightly as he pulled himself away from chan. "yeah, that too i am sorry about. you had to miss out on a lot of school days because of me."

meanwhile areum stood behind the two, watching them interact with a big smile on her lips. in this moment areum felt happy to see that chan and hyunjin were talking again. well it wasn't like they weren't talking in the first place, but now it felt complete again.

"i forgive you, but on one condition," chan said to hyunjin with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. hyunjin nodded his head, practically letting chan do whatever he wanted. "you have to do whatever areum wants for the rest of next week starting on monday."

areum shrieked from behind the two as the cute moment was disturbed with the mention of her name. "i'm sorry - what?! no, he isn't going to be some servant i'm going to order around - hold up, that actually sounds nice."

hyunjin let out a small groan of disbelief, patting his dry tears away with his sleeves. "am i crying for nothing?"

"no," chan told him with a smirk, "you're crying for love."

author's note
i just want to scream how much i love stray kids to the whole world