Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-20-

Soonyoung poV:

I was walking to the amusement park with Jihoon on my side. I didn't go to the other side after the last encounter with Jisoo. Seems like it gets worse the more often I go there. I still didn't have the chance to talk to Seungcheol's brother, but I found out a little bit more about the others: Turns out that Minghao and Jun know each other from China. Why they ended up on this island is still a mystery though. Hansol was an orphan, given away right after he was born so after turning 20 he took the chance to move on this island. It seems like Jeonghan is the only one, who lived a normal life until he ended up here next to Seungcheol's side. Seungkwan's parents didn't want him in the first place and saw him as a mistake so he ran away to this island. He and Hansol started to work here about the same time. That's why Seungkwan hangs around Hansol the whole time. The two of them are like gossip girls since they know everything and see everything. Wonwoo and Mingyu are known as the emo and the puppy duo. Don't know what that's supposed to mean, but well. Jisoo and Jeonghan are called evil twins since they always play pranks and have always the most vicious ideas. Seokmin was the mood maker along with Seungkwan and always led the whole group to the food court. Seungcheol is actually really cool. He kinda has more of the leader role than the boss role. He also sometimes acts like an old dad, but I don't blame him, he has the dad job after all. Turns out that I'm one of the oldest of that team even though I thought I was part of the younger ones in term of behaviour. Chan told me all this. Besides Jihoon, he was the closest to me. I was really happy to have found some friends like Jihoon and Chan.

It was Friday. We started to sort out the coins.
"That job is so monotonous. I think that's the reason why these people quit", I moaned annoyed.
"Better than nothing", Jihoon said.

Jihoon still didn't tell me what happened in his world and why he never goes there. I wanted to know it so badly, but I also thought that he would tell me if he thinks it's the right time.

"Hey, Soonyoung and Jihoon!", Chan greeted us happily.
"I wanna go home", I whined as I finished the first box.
"Today is not that bad. Since it's cold now less customers come so less coins to sort out", Jihoon said.
"Since when do you see positive sides?", I questioned him suspiciously.
"Since you came here. See? You're changing me too much, stop hanging around me so often", he complained jokingly.
"You stick around me the whole time!", I also complained jokingly.
"You two are the new fighters here. Apopros fighters: Do y'all know why Hao and Jun suddenly get along?", Chan asked looking at the carousels in front of us, where the two chinese boys were. They were doing their job in peace, no fighting, no arguments.
"You're right. I guess something happened on the other side", I thought aloud.
"Everyone is changing since you're here, Soonyoung. Even Jihoon opened up", Chan noticed. I looked at him, but Jihoon just quickly looked away as always, when he's embarrassed. I guess...

Weeks have passed since I last visited the portal. It wasn't such a big deal that I didn't see the other side. I often spent the nights at Jihoon's room where we played cards or randomly chilled on our phones. Sometimes I talked to Minhyuk. Turns out that he also sometimes visits his world, but he says he would stay to chat with me. If he would get one coin for one minute of talking... That would be more than our coins in the coin storage...

It was that time again where everyone went to the portal and only Jihoon and I remained.
"What do we do this time? Cards? Phone? Maybe crepes at the food court?", Jihoon asked after we sat down on the metal of the game stands. It was nice spending time with Jihoon, but always staying here was boring when I knew there were other ways to spend the evenings.
"I know you don't like it that much, but can we exceptionally go to your world this time?", I asked shyly.
"What? No, definitely not", he shook his head.
"Please! Just one time and only short!", I begged.
"No, Soonyoung", he kept denying.
"Please! I try to not pass out", I fell on my knees, folding my hands together.
"Can't we just stay here?", he asked.
"But it's boring always staying here. Please, please, please, please-", I pouted, but Jihoon stood up, having his fist balled.
"I said no, Soonyoung!", he shouted. I was shocked so I quickly shut up. I never heard him shouting before so I just looked at him shocked. He looked at the floor, sighed and fell back down. "I'm sorry. I just- I once lost someone. I don't want to lose you too", he sighed, seemingly angry with himself.
"No, no. You are the person to keep things for yourself. Exploding is just natural at that point", I said, playing restless with my fingers.
"Stop being so understanding. It's creepy", he shook his head.
A silence fell after that, both sitting there awkwardly.
"But, Jihoon", I started after a while. His attention turned to me so I kept talking. "Why don't you just tell me what happened in your world?", I carefully asked. He seemed to consider answering so I waited.

"You know that before you, other people worked here, right?", he began. I nodded. "Well, one of them was called Hyunwoo. He had your job before you came. We were pretty close and, like the others, we visited our worlds regularly. One day we visited his world. It was like always, but we had a fight. We faught over nothing actually. I told him that I had enough and that I return to the reality. He told me that I wasn't welcome anyway so I went back. The day after I did my work. I would sometimes visit the portal, which was weirdly coloured when I saw it. It was a really dark purple, almost black. Back then I thought nothing about it. I was just annoyed that I had to do the job alone. Seungcheol told me that something was off with the portal so we all went there. Back then it was only Seungcheol, Seokmin, Jisoo, Jeonghan, Wonwoo and I working there. The portal was still coloured in that dark purple with the difference that we couldn't enter it. It was like an invisible shell so we couldn't even near it. The problem was that Hyunwoo was still in there. Everyone got anxious, me included. The only person, who could probably get out was he himself. We called Seungcheol's brother since he knew the most about the portal and he told us that Hyunwoo was about to get eaten by the world since his time there is overdue. So we had to wait, but... he didn't came out. The portal turned in his normal rainbow colours. Everyone was shocked, me included. For a month no one mentioned the portal or the other world again until Mingyu joined. They started one by one to visit the world again, but I couldn't and I still can't", he explained and took a deep breath at the end.

Now everything made sense: From Jihoon being always closed up, dealing alone with problems since he was young. No one ever stayed by his side. His parents didn't, the others didn't, Hyunwoo didn't. In addition he felt like he was the cause of Hyunwoo being devoured by the world. He must have destroyed himself with that thought. That's why he asked me if I'm going to stay, since no one did. He always walked behind since he was used to it. Used of staying alone. He was such a lonely soul. Doing everything by himself and pretending he was fine.

"You're pretty strong, Jihoon", I noticed.
"What? No. I'm weak as hell", he quickly denied.
"Yes, you are. I wouldn't trust people's words in your place. Thanks for trusting me", I smiled. He seemed surprised. "And I want you to know that it's not your fault for what happened back then", I added, while I stood up. He didn't said a word, but a small smile build up in his face. It was the most genuine smile I ever saw of him, which made me automatically smile more.
"So what do you want to do? Cards? Phones? Maybe eating crepes at the food court?", I picked up the topic from before.
"What?", he asked surprised and also got up.
"That means crepes", I assumed and walked forward.
"Hey, wait for me!", he exclaimed and quickly followed, making me laugh. He was smiling again...

Yeah, I could spend every day like that...