Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-40-

Months have passed on caratland and with the time the seasons also changed. In that time we celebrated many birthdays and other celebrations like Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Christmas was pretty boring since it was a work day on this island. Jihoon hated that time the most since we needed to wear Rudolph ears, which made him even cuter than he already was.
A day before New Year's Eve Seokmin had a promotion idea, so we had to give every single customer we saw a special card, which was twice the work. Junhui hated it even more than Jihoon and I could swear I heard Minghao curse every time he handed someone that colourful paper.
Our "let's stay in the real world"- vibes, how Hansol always called it, seemed to spread around the others too. At first it was only Hansol and Seungkwan, but after a month half of them also stayed. It was funnier that way since we could do more things than playing random cards or online games. I didn't visit the other world since my last encounter. I also grew pretty close to the other ones especially Seungkwan and Hansol, who seemed always around when needed.
Wonwoo decided to not go see his parents getting released from prison. The first weeks he seemed to regret it, but after some time he also started thinking positive, getting affected by Mingyu's optimism.
Minghao and Junhui became the second inseparable duo, only seen together and always playing a weird game on the phone.
Jisoo, Jeonghan, Seungcheol and his brother became these older brothers, who shared their knowledge of the other world with us.
Chan on the other hand was the only one to always leave for the other world. We were still close though, he just never spent his evenings on the island.
Jihoon sticked around me even more than before. He literally never left my side, besides from the hotel rooms. Unfortunately Jihoon dyed his hair orange, instead of pink, but I'm fine with both. He also seemed more joyful than before. He even jokes around the others, what he never did. Seungcheol told me that I didn't only crack his shell, but completely pulled him out of it. To be honest I don't think I did something like that. I just came and tried to befriend him. After some point the tables turned and he always wanted to stick around me.

Hansol, Seungkwan, Jihoon and I were on our way to the food court. For some reason we all agreed to have ice cream for dinner.
"So I was supposed to stand still, but of course moved and damaged the whole class photo", Seungkwan finished his story.
"Well, at least your outfit was on fleek", Hansol laughed.
"I saved for a freaking year only to damage it on a shitty day like that", Seungkwan rolled his eyes.
"You should've baught yourself a phone with that money", Jihoon judged him.
"Would've been better", I immediately agreed.
"I don't even know, which times I prefer: the times where Jihoon kept the comments for himself or the the times where Jihoon just savagely disses you", Seungkwan snorted, making us laugh even more.

At the ice cream stand we ordered our favourite ice cream and settled down near the amusement park. It was the beginning of February and the snow already melted. Everytime the snow melted, I craved summer even more.
"Already half a year passed since I started working here", I noticed, eating my sesame ice cream.
"Already? Damn so much time passed", Hansol commented. From far away I could see two figures slowly showing up. Turned out to be Jeonghan and Seungcheol.
"Hey, guys", Seungcheol greeted us.
"Oh, no. The parents arrived", Seungkwan rolled his eyes jokingly.
"Hey, Jeonghan. Wanna change your haircolour?", I asked him curious.
"Don't really have plans for it, but feel free to experiment with it", Jeonghan replied. Both of them were sipping on a limo they probably got a few minutes ago.
"Cool, let's dye it purple!", Hansol exclaimed excited.
"Nah, how about blonde?", Seungkwan suggested.
"I want to see pink hair", I also took part in the discussion.
"Are you obsessed with pink hair or something?", Jihoon raised an eyebrow.
"Nope, but with cuteness a.k.a people called Jihoon", I joked, a grin spreading over my face. I expected a judging expression, a punch on my shoulder or a casual death threat, but received hard blushing cheeks and avoidance of eye contact instead. My grin quickly fading in disappointment. "What's that...? It was supposed to be a joke", I said, leaning back against a bar. Jihoon's been strange lately. The only times I see his judging expression is when something comes out of Chan's mouth. He also stopped calling me 'baby tiger', which I definitely support, but it just feels weird to not see him judge me in any way.
"How do you think?", Jeonghan came back to the actual topic, turning to Seungcheol.
"I'm fine with everything, but I prefer natural", Seungcheol added his opinion.
"It's blonde then!", Seungkwan triumphantly clapped in his hand.

After finishing our ice cream we made our way back to the hotel. I was talking to Hansol and Seungkwan, while Seungcheol and Jeonghan stayed at the back. Jihoon was of course attached to my left side.
"But if you could, like without trouble or anything like that, would you go back to the other side?", Seungkwan asked me this question again. The last three month my ears couldn't get away with this question.
"Like I said, I'm done with it. Unless I want to skip work for a week or two", I replied.
"Don't you dare to pass out again. I need you at work", Jihoon sighed, annoyed of the imagination.
"Look, Jihoon really changed completely. Remember the Jihoon before Soonyoung? He would literally ignore us for a month if we would offer help", Hansol noticed.
"Your help isn't helpful!", Jihoon argued.
"Whatever. At least we tried to be nice", Seungkwan shrugged his shoulders.
"Hey, Jihoon!", Jeonghan suddenly called from the back, making us all turn around. "We wanna ask you something", he said, while pointing at himself and Seungcheol. Jihoon then swapped places to the back.
"Now where Jihoon is gone, do you really think he never dated someone before?", Seungkwan asked, getting a hit from Hansol.
"Don't try to be mean here", Hansol quickly cut him off.
"I was just curious", Seungkwan pouted.

We chatted until we reached the hallway to our rooms.
"Wait, where are the others?", Hansol asked. We turned around, but we were indeed alone.
"Oh, right", Seungkwan also noticed.
"Whatever, I'm tired", I shrugged it off. They were probably still talking, but not in the hallways.
"Same", Seungkwan said and already opened the door to his room.
"Well, goodnight y'all", Hansol bid goodbye and disappeared in his room, Seungkwan and I doing the same.