Conceal

14. Betrayals?

A gust of wind blew by, making the leaves on the trees rustle noisily, which were accompanied by the inaudible mutterings of passerby and the faint clicks of cameras snapping photos.

Jooheon would never forgive himself if he stood still and watched this unfold right before his eyes. So he strode up to Wonho and pulled him away from Jongho, ignoring the soft gasps the crowd was making. Wonho must've felt sorry as well, since he clearly wasn't using all his force, making it surprisingly easy for Jooheon to break his grip on Jongho's shirt.

Wonho was staring blankly into space when Jooheon led him back to the bench, as if he had just realised what he had done. Jooheon gave Jongho an apologetic glance, who was about to take a sip from the water bottle Kihyun offered.

With the problem resolved and nothing else to see or record down, the crowd dispersed and went off to their busy lives once again.

They were once again undisturbed, but Jongho was hesitant to go towards the bench, where the man who almost lifted him off the ground was seated, still staring at him with a face he could not read. Kihyun was next to him, but he looked equally nonplussed to give him advice right now.

Unfortunately for Jongho, he didn't really have a choice. Despite the short talk with Jooheon, Wonho was already walking towards him again, Jooheon trailing behind him helplessly, holding the older's arm in a meagre attempt to stop him.

Kihyun held his head and massaged his temples half-heartedly, which did nothing to fend off the growing headache. He felt like no one had the right to get upset when he, the victim, was still holding it together, but he was way too exhausted to retaliate. He wouldn't have known what to say even if he had the energy anyway.

"Let's go," Wonho stopped in front of Jongho and took his phone out. "I'm calling detective Chae just to let him know."

Jongho was still processing what the other said when Jooheon snatched the phone away from Wonho's hand. "No! This isn't what we agreed to just now."

Wonho looked at his empty hands and replied quietly, "We didn't agree to anything just now. All I did was listen to you babbling on about something that that will never work."

"Then you weren't listening," Jooheon hissed, pushing Wonho by the shoulder so he was facing the other properly. "Stop jumping to conclusions, because that isn't helping anyone. I know what you're thinking, that Jongho must've did something to Kihyun's phone. But before going there, have you ever considered the fact that Kihyun forgot about sending those messages?"

Wonho scoffed. "How would you forget such a thing like that?" Then he mumbled the last few words, "Unless you're on drugs, I guess."

Kihyun heard it, and it felt like a stab in the gut, but he let it slide, because he knew that Wonho was just sensitive, just like everyone here right now. What was more important was what came to his mind when Wonho's words reached his ears. "Wait..." He tried to remember what he was doing before he went to the kitchen to share the news of Jongho calling the police, but his mind was blank. He felt like he printed something and all the printer spat out was a piece of blank paper. "I knew I stayed in my room the whole day, and that Jongho's text was the first thing I saw after I woke up, but I'm not sure what I did before that." The truth was, Kihyun felt like he was so distressed it wouldn't surprise him if he had revealed everything to everyone he was close with. But he didn't say that out loud, simply because he felt like this was something that should be kept only to himself.

"Are you kidd-" Wonho quickly stopped himself when he inadvertently made eye contact with Kihyun. He sighed harshly, disappointed in his inability to control his temper even in front of his friends. He turned his attention back to Jooheon. "Anyway, that's just another reason why we should go to the detective, right? He can confirm whether the texts are true." He turned back to Jooheon and stretched out one hand, asking for his phone back.

Jooheon tightened his grip around his friend's phone and hid his hand behind his back. The last of the sun's rays finally disappeared below the horizon, leaving everything in a hazy gray colour. That reminded Jooheon how exhausted he was, after inflicting damage and trying desperately to revert it, which proved to be almost impossible without revealing his secret and inflicting more damage as a result. It was a hard enough task to conceal his identity, but harder yet to put lies on top of that. At that moment, he felt like a bird with perfectly healthy wings that flew for so long it lost the motivation to fly, or bees that gave up on pollinating flowers knowing humans would one day completely annihilate their own kind.

"I'm just saying, shouldn't we stop contacting the police?" Jooheon began, trying to be as straightforward as possible without giving anything away, while also attempting to sound confident even though he had zero justification to what he was about to say. "That detective might seem helpful, but when he runs out of leads he's going to look for the easiest way to handle the case, which is to arrest the only suspect..."

No one was talking anyway, but it was as if those words sucked out everyone's voices and drove them to silence. The silence was starting to become suffocating when Wonho finally spoke up, as if just remembering his standpoint. "Why are you so against the police? That detective has been helping us this whole time, so what makes you think we shouldn't trust him?" His pupils glinted under the moonlight. "If we stop the investigation right now, wouldn't we look even more suspicious than we already are? Do you seriously think I'm that dense? Stop this trickery, I know you're betraying us. You just want us to get arrested, don't you?" He snorted out a laugh, realising the ludicrous words he just said.

At the word "betrayal", Jooheon was brought back to the stuffy chamber, with the orange carpets on the floor and the speakers surrounding him. Suddenly the harsh reality was clear to him - that to be loyal to one side would mean betrayal to the other, and there was no way he could satisfy both. This also made clear what his priorities were. He put a hand into his jacket pocket and touched the friendship bracelet inside, feeling the coldness of the metal on the tip of his finger.

Before Jooheon could make up something reasonable to say, Kihyun appeared behind him. Jooheon, unaware, loosened his grip on Wonho's phone, so Kihyun was able to take it with ease. Jooheon turned around to see what happened, but Kihyun was already next to Wonho, handing his phone back. "Stop fighting over this. This is my problem, not yours. I shouldn't have told any of you from the beginning." Kihyun said quietly, looking, exhausted, at his feet. "I'll decide what to do from now on, so please go home now and forget about everything that happened in the past week. I'm sorry for giving you so much trouble."

No one said anything until Kihyun started towards the direction of his apartment, tired of waiting for an answer. Wonho jogged up to Kihyun and stretched out his hand to block his path. When Kihyun tried going around it, Wonho caught the hem of his sweater with his other hand. "Wait, Kihyun..." Wonho began, only to stop midway. He had so much to say, so many emotions to express, yet none of them felt right enough to be said out loud to his friend. Besides, he wouldn't know where to start, with his thoughts jumbled up like his earphones in his pocket.

He didn't know whether to be relieved that his phone rang at that very moment. Wonho released Kihyun's shirt, but Kihyun stayed, intrigued by the phone call.

Jooheon looked at Jongho, but he was busy tying on his phone, fingers flying across the screen and a frown etched on his face. Jooheon wondered what was the problem he had, because he was beginning to realize that everyone had one. When he turned back to his friends, Wonho was a few metres farther, listening to the call in private.

Just as he was deciding whether to stay and wait or return home, Wonho came walking back. Jooheon wasn't sure if it was the streetlights casting weird shadows across Wonho's face, but other than the troubled and concerned look he was wearing this whole time, Jooheon could also see a hint of fear.

Putting his random thoughts aside, Jooheon focused on what his friend was saying. "...sorry, you're right, Jooheon. Let's stop going to the police..."

What follows didn't matter anymore, not to Jooheon. Because what mattered was the unsettling sensation that crawled over his skin like bugs, and what really mattered was who called Wonho, and what the caller said.