Wilted Flowers | soonhoon au

Wilting Petal #5

January 7, 2020.

8:45 AM.

Jihoon's residence. Chan's room.

"Wake up, motherfucker!"

Lee Chan forgot the day's schedule after an overnight of bingewatching Dr. Stone, which he only finished until episode nine. He only recalled the intense line thrown in the show and the unimaginable possibility of the anime's premise. He slowly opened his eyes seeing Jihoon, with a disappointed look on his face.

Chan rubbed his lips with his wrists for any sign of dried saliva from his beauty rest only to hear Jihoon nagging...again. "Bitch, I have been waking you up since 7:00 and all you're going to do is rub your mouth?!" Chan is still sleepy and cannot process what Jihoon is even saying. "Oh, okay, I'll be there in your office any second now." And, again he closed his eyes and hugged his pillows tighter. Jihoon had enough of the lazy energy in the room and head straight to Chan's mini library. He noticed a piece of blank paper and tore it. Chan became oblivious of what's happening only hearing continuous tearing of paper. Rubbinh his eyes, he now clearly sees Jihoon getting few of his limited edition novels, skimming it.

"What are you doing?"

"Cleaning."

"The what--the fuck is wrong with you?! Hey, is that torn paper? Isn't that a dream? Wait, you fucking torn the pages--"

"Hold up, I didn't, it's just a blank paper, alright? Finally, you fucking got up from your stinking throne."

Chan, processed what he said and was confused why he was urged to get up from his king-sized bed. "And why would I need to?"

"It's the start of the second semester today, isn't it? It's Tuesday."

The younger thought about it and still questioned why, when IT IS a Tuesday. "You didn"t enroll a schedule for Monday didn't you?"

"Holy, yes!" Chan quickly got up and stumbled on his pile of clothes all over the place. He haven't done his laundry for a while.

"You had a lot of time to wash your casual clothes. Let's see if you'll end up with an outfit you'll be satisfied with." The younger snorted while Jihoon chuckled seeing Chan struggling to match his available clothing.

"Man, I can't find anything good! I'm almost late for class!" While Chan continues his crisis, Jihoon smiled and threw in his direction a paper bag. "Ba--Balen--Balenciaga?! Hey, what's this for?! Stop with the games, alright? I can't pay for this.", he said while sadly releasing his grip from the expensive gift.

"Suit yourself."

"Is this really...mine?", Chan's question just made Jihoon laugh. "Of course, it's yours. We're family."

Chan became teary-eyed as soon as Jihoon left. With excitement, he tore the paper apart, only to see Jihoon's black hoodie. His used black hoodie. His excitement went downhill after supposed few moments of realizing he finally owns something authentic.

"Yes, of course. Jihoon won't actually give me the actual item." He disappointedly wore the hoodie and went straight to class without saying his good byes to the man who gave him the oufit of the day.

The young CEO sips his coffee, smiling.

》♢《

January 7, 2020

10:00 AM

Pledis University.

He closed his locker with a loud bang. He can't believe it, he is wearing a used hoodie in school, when in fact, he is known to be very stylish. Well, only second or third to the  Physical Education Professor, Xu Minghao. He can't ever compete to that man.

"Yow, man. What are you doing here? Got dumped again?", Hansol, his bestfriend, wrapped his arms on Chan's shoulders and teased him. "Who's the girl, then?"

"There is no girl and no one got dumped." The kid is still disappointed and just pretends its nothing to not make things complicated. As they walk down the hallway, Chan saw a familiar face talking to Minghao, their PE professor. "Hey, Sol, do you know that guy? It's the first time I've seen him."

"Who? Oh, that. He's the new faculty head of the PE department. I've heard of him this morning. He looks cool to me."

"Cool, huh? Doesn't he look familiar to you?"

Hansol looked at the ceiling ang thought about it. And it's a no for him. Chan continued to walk down the hallway and cheekily observed the man. He looked at his facial features. "He doesn't look harmless though." Unexpectedly, the man looked at him directly in the eye with no hesitations. He looked...sad. His eyes keep telling him he had been grieving for a while now. Chan broke the eye contact and randomly started a conversation with Hansol.

The man who saw him smiled a little. "He looks okay.", he whispered.

"How do I look today, American boy?", Chan told out of the blue and successfully flaunted his black USED hoodie.

"You look chic, bro. Where'd you got it?"

"Just a treasure handed down for years.", Chan bitterly replied.

"Are you sure, it's handed down to you?"

"Of course, I'm sure. I've seen someone from the house who wore this a million times. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've been bothered with that price tag at the back of your hood. A lot if the students silently gasp whenever you walk by, seeing how expensive your outfit is."

"What price tag?!" Chan reached for that so-called tag and was surprised to realize Jihoon really do love him.