The Underground - 3RACHA

9

Jisung had been staying at Hyunjin's for the past few days. In that time he'd been searching for a job but his quest had failed mostly due to his own fault. He was meant to go into the jobcentre on Saturday but ended up pacing outside of it for an hour instead. That's when he went to Hyunjin's and started looking in the newspapers. He found a few jobs and applied for them but had only heard back from one. The local ice-cream shop had asked him to come in for an interview and Jisung accepted, but an hour before it he had to call them up to cancel. He couldn't build up the courage to do it. The prospect was frightening and when he told Hyunjin, he hit his arm with more strength than necessary and told him he was "useless."

Hyunjin had a job himself and he didn't live with his parents. He dropped out of high school at sixteen and got a job in a factory which eventually gave him enough money to move out last year. Jisung going back to his Uncle's house jobless wouldn't be a good idea, but Hyunjin's small, semi-detached house didn't seem much better in comparison. With nobody around, Hyunjin seemed to get worse. He didn't hesitate to insult Jisung when he got the chance and he took a liking to bringing him down whenever he could. It was getting to the point where Jisung wanted to run away, but he had nowhere else to go as they walked into The Underground that Friday evening.

Jisung was oblivious to the world around him as he passed through the doors but he snapped out of his daze when he heard someone calling his name that wasn't Hyunjin. He looked around the entrance hall they stood in but it was quite busy so Jisung couldn't see much. Hyunjin didn't look happy as he stopped beside Jisung, rolling his eyes and pointing in the direction the voice had come from.

"Felix!" Jisung realised and bounced over to the boy. Hyunjin followed behind him but he made it obvious that he didn't want to be there, crossing his arms over his chest and huffing as his foot tapped against the floor. "This is my friend, Hyunjin," Jisung smiled, turning to Hyunjin who he noticed looked agitated but he continued anyway, "Hyunjin, this is Felix! He's friends with SpearB."

Hyunjin's attention was caught, but only for a second. He looked Felix up and down once before turning his head in the direction of the doors that lead to the audience area. "I don't like SpearB," he stated, clear to both Felix and Jisung that he couldn't care less about the conversation.

"Hyunjin-"

"It's ok," Felix interjected with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "not many people seem to like him. I think that's why he's locked himself in his room for the past few days. He won't even let me in."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jisung said, reaching a hand out to squeeze Felix's that lay at his side. Felix continued to smile at him and squeezed his hand back. Hyunjin looked back at the two for a moment. His eyes flicked back and forwards between them before he scoffed.

"Can we go in now? We're going to miss the first battle," Hyunjin said despite not usually caring about being late. He didn't wait for an answer from Jisung though, instead, he grabbed the hand that was still connected with Felix's and abruptly pulled him away. Jisung stumbled forwards at the force before being dragged off by Hyunjin.

Jisung tried to turn back and wave to Felix who looked startled. Jisung was used to Hyunjin's absurd behaviour though and he wasn't phased, but he was annoyed. "Hyunjin, I was talking to Felix!" He glared at the taller boy whose grip on his hand was getting tighter.

"No, you were being a fucking faggot and holding his hand. Do you want to get beaten up when you leave this place because that's what will happen if you do that?"

Jisung looked down at their still connected hand. Hyunjin dragged him until they'd managed to push their way through a significant amount of the crowd and ended up near the front of the stage, but still, their hands remained together. "Hyunjin, you're holding my hand," Jisung mumbled.