Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-9-

"I think stealing a second ride from my sister for the roller coaster here", I answered.
"Really? That's the worst thing you ever did?", Mingyu questioned.
"I'm disappointed", Seungkwan said and laid back.
"You never stole money from your parents or drove the car from them without letting them know?", Seokmin asked. I shook my head.
"Or stabbed a person?", Wonwoo questioned, this time earning a hit from Mingyu on his foot.
"Leave him alone. If he says so we have to believe him", Jisoo calmed the others down and continued eating his taco.
"He's like Jihoon. That's why they keep hanging out with each other", Jeonghan claimed.
"But why does Jihoon see it and Soonyoung doesn't?", Hansol whispered to Seungkwan but Seungkwan acted fast, flicking his finger on Hansol's forehead.
"Not here", he whispered back, grinding his teeth. Why is everything a secret here?

"Hey, How could y'all start without us! I always wait for you!", Chan exclaimed from the far, Junhui and Minghao behind him. For once the chinese guys weren't fighting.
"There we go", Wonwoo sighed finishing his taco.
"Y'all so mean. I had to deal with Hao and Jun alone, while you ate tacos! Be honest with me: I only got that job to keep them in peace!", Chan claimed, sitting down next to Jisoo. Minghao and Junhui sat next to Wonwoo.
"That wasn't the main reason, but I have to admit, you're making my job way easier", Jeonghan grinned, making Chan sigh,
"I feel pushed around."

After a while Chan finished eating. Only Chan, Jihoon and I remained. The other one already went back to work.
"How can the amusement park continue even when everyone working there takes a break?", I asked myself out loud.
"Most of them go eating too so usually there's no problem. And usually there's always someone there. If not us then Seungcheol", Chan explained, bringing his plate back to the food truck.
"Doesn't he eat?", I asked.
"Yes, he does, but not here. I don't know from where he gets his food, probably from Jeonghan, but he never eats at the food court so I guess he's fine", Chan shrugged his shoulders. "I go back to work, too, then."
"Do we have work to do?", I asked Jihoon. He shook his head.
"See you later", Chan said and made his way to the amusement park.

Jihoon and I walked around, talking about things happening here and there. That's where I realized again that Jihoon is pretty talkative, if it's only us two.
"Jihoon,", I started, after half an hour passed. Jihoon looked at me curiously.
"Earlier we were talking about the reason we work here. Why are you working here?", I asked him. He looked away and thought.
"I wanted to move out, but I didn't have money so I just started working here", he lied. I don't know why, but I knew he was lying. I sighed. "What? You're always sighing when I say something", Jihoon questioned.
"I'm waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Waiting for you to tell me the truth."
He got quiet after that sentence. "Let's go back to the amusement park. There are probably customers needing our help", I changed the topic. Jihoon nodded so we went back.

The second half of my work day passed quickly. It was funny observing the horror ride team since Seungkwan really was a third wheel. Wonwoo seemed annoyed by Mingyu's endless talking, but he still preferred being next to him than Seungkwan. Jeonghan was next to Jisoo at the ferris wheel. They were talking and laughing about something. Seokmin and Hansol were almost falling asleep and the chinese guys kept there endless argument alive. Chan was on the side of a roller coaster, waiting for a problem to be fixed. Jihoon was quietly doing his job as always.

This time we went to the seafood restaurant. I ordered some seafood ramyun and the rest some burgers. They were chatting about something again. Jihoon didn't eat or talk like always around the others. I asked myself what could've happened for Jihoon to be like that. Maybe he was always like that, but I didn't think so. Something must have happened like Chan hinted. An incident.
"I think I go back to the hotel", I told Jihoon and Chan, after I finished my ramyun. I wasn't thinking of staying longer.
"Okay, we'll come later, do we?", Chan said, turning to Jihoon at the last sentence. Jihoon nodded so I made my way back to the hotel.

There I wrote my mom and watched random videos, but I couldn't get the thought away of the big mystery in caratland. That grey wall, Jihoon's incident, no one comes back after eating out. Something was really messed up here.

I went over to Jihoon's room since I only knew his room number. I knocked and waited, but no one opened. I knocked again when I saw our boss.
"Jihoon's not here", he simply said. I nodded and went back to my room.

Something was definitely off. This wall. There must be something about it. I stood up and put on a coat and my shoes, put my phone in my pocket and left the room. I needed to find out more about that secret since it seemed like everyone knew about it. Also I was way to curious to stay calm and wait for Jihoon to tell me.

I went to the amusement park where I could see the other ones walking to the horror ride. I quickly hid and followed them from behind. They were talking in their usual groups: Mingyu with Wonwoo, Chan with Junhui and Minghao, Seokmin, Hansol, Seungkwan and Jisoo with Jeonghan. Even our boss was there. He walked next to Jeonghan. Only Jihoon was left behind, following the other and looking on the floor. He stayed close to them, but still with a meter distance. I somehow pitied him. But why was he like that?

In the storage I could perfectly hide because of my black coat, so I approached them a little more to listen to their conversations.
"But guys, isn't it funny how he thinks we take some drugs? Like I wouldn't come to that idea!", Seungkwan laughed out loud.
"Isn't it? Like I expected him to think we're just a little weird, but like drugs?", Junhui commented.
"Honestly it does kinda seem like we take drugs. Like we're talking about how addictive that is. I would think like that too", Jisoo said.
"That guy must be pure as shit. I guess he must be a virgin to not see it", Wonwoo claimed, making everyone besides Jihoon laugh. They made more jokes about my 'virginity' and other stuff like that. Even Chan laughed, when I thought he's one of the only one, who likes me. That even hurt me because I thought they were all honest people and not some dirty, gossiping full-time workers.
"His name is Soonyoung and he isn't a virgin", Jihoon suddenly said, shutting everyone down.
"You're so not-funny, Jihoon", Seokmin shook his head, turning back to the front and leaving Jihoon alone at the back again. At least there's one sincere one...

They finally stopped at the sort of leather door, which Jihoon showed me before.
"Okay, I don't wanna see y'all so make sure to enter a minute after me", Junhui made sure.
"Gosh, we got it. And to be honest I don't want to know how yours looks like either", Minghao rolled his eyes.
"Well mine must be better then yours, raccoon", Junhui claimed.
"Doesn't this make me the better person out of us two?", Minghao countered.
"Sometimes I think that Minghao is the problem, but somehow it's Jun's fault too", Hansol said to Seungkwan and Seokmin, who agreed with nodding.
"Whatever I'm going", Junhui stopped the fight and grabbed the leather door to open it.

The next thing I saw, was even surprising to me, a naive, innocent boy, who was living more in a magical and optimistic world than the reality.