Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-45-

Jihoon poV:

The next morning I stayed in my room for a while. Jeonghan and Seungcheol were right: avoiding Soonyoung was dumb, but what should I do? I can't hide my stupid blushing cheeks or my unhealthy pounding heart. If I could I would just leave the island till Soonyoung is completely erased from my head, but I know exactly that this isn't what I really want. Ugh, if I just had a crush before, I would've been warned how this works. And why a guy? Why can't I just like girls like everyone else? I was long enough an outsider. I hate having a crush on Soonyoung...

I stood up and went to the food court to breakfast when I met Hansol, Seungcheol and Jeonghan at the crepe store. Weird combination...
"What you're doing alone? Where's Soonyoung?", Hansol asked as I approached them with a fruit crepe.
"Can't I be alone for once in a while? I'm not attached to this dude", I snapped, taking a bite of it. That was a straight lie...
"And how's life going?", Jeonghan asked me grinning. We all besides Hansol knew what he meant by that.
"Questioning every decision I ever made in life, including being born", I sighed.
"Being born isn't a decision", Hansol uttered clueless, earning no reaction from anyone.
"So are you going to tell him or not?", Seungcheol asked as if Hansol wasn't around.
"Yeah, I'm also curious", Jeonghan leaned forward.
"Who?", Hansol asked confused.
"Of course not! Y'all think I'm crazy?", I shook my head, stuffing more of the sweet dish in my mouth.
"To be honest at that moment you told us that you're ignoring him, that's when you've gone crazy", Seungcheol said. At that point everyone would know that we're talking about Soonyoung, but Hansol was somewhat dumb enough to not notice that.
"Guys, I want to be included!", he whined, tapping with his feet.
"Whatever, I regret even telling y'all", I sighed, annoyed of this non ending subject. "Why are you even here?", I turned to Hansol.
"Minghao is in his stinky mood again, Seungkwan literally locked himself down in his room and Jun... I don't know what he's doing actually", he shrugged his shoulders. I just nodded. "But what were y'all talking about?", he asked still curious.
"If you have a crush on a girl would you be straightforward or would you keep your feelings for yourself?", I asked him, an eyebrow raised.
"Be straightforward of course. What's the purpose in hiding? But why are you asking? Do you have a crush on someone?", he questioned, getting excited at the end.
"Of course you would", I murmured a little disappointed, supporting my head on my arm, while looking somewhere else. What did I even expect...
"Okay, time for work again", Seungcheol said as he stretched himself, while getting up.
"You don't even rest in vacation weeks, do you?", Jeonghan said, looking at Seungcheol, who wore his suit like always.
"Being a boss isn't easy", he sighed, bidding goodbye, leaving us behind.

After I finished the crepe I also left, followed by Hansol since Jeonghan decided to go after Seungcheol. We were on our way to the amusement park.
"I'm getting bored here! Why does this island never change?", Hansol complained loudly, frustrated of the monotonous routine.
"You decided to work here", I uttered the fact, while crossing my arms.
"As an orphan you don't have many options. Especially if you don't have the essential educational needs for a proper job", he set his point.
"Wait you never went to school?", I asked surprised.
"I went to elementary school and then that orphanage stopped paying for the school fees. The older kids taught us the rest they knew about school, which was stuff from ninth grade. The lucky ones were the ones getting adopted, where their parents then paid for their school fees. So in fact I could actually get the middle school graduate diploma, but for that I actually needed to attend a middle school, which I never did. But the law eventually changed so we were the last generation to be that unfortunate", he explained, as if it was a casual thing to tell.
"So you're not the only one?", I questioned.
"There's this dude. His name is Hyeonggu. He was my best friend back then. I'm asking myself what he's up to these days. We lost contact after we turned 15 and he had to change orphanage", he replied. I never thought of being lucky to be a high school graduate...

At the amusement park we found Minghao. He was asleep and spinning in a duck carousel, hanging half out of the seat. We turned the carousel down and Hansol woke him up.
"How can you even fall asleep like that?", Hansol questioned confused, shaking Minghao, who slowly gained consciousness.
"Yeah, I thought this was Jeonghan's individual talent", I commented.
"I got stuck and waited for someone to come. I guess I fell asleep", Minghao mumbled.
"What the hell? How could you even fit in that seat?", Hansol questioned loudly, seeing the way Minghao squeezed himself into that small seat.
Suddenly I saw Hansol in a different light.
The reason why he was so clueless the whole time, was because he never learnt these things. The things, which were basic knowledge for us, never got into his brain. How didn't I know that fact about him? I really lived in a shell. Not even knowing that fact about him even though he works here longer than a year.

After struggling for half an hour, we finally got Minghao out of that duck seat. His legs were a little scratched, but at least we freed him.
"You owe us something", Hansol uttered exhausted.
"Don't do that again, that's my favour", I grumbled annoyed.
"Hey, y'all don't know how embarrassed I am!", Minghao exclaimed loudly, his cheeks turning red.
"Are you even in the position to complain?", Hansol asked rhetorically, rolling his eyes.
"What's even my job here?", I asked myself. Firstly carry Soonyoung back into his room, now even pulling stuck people out of their seats.

Suddenly Seungkwan came, running towards us almost passing out.
"Found you", he sighed, breathing heavily, while putting his arms on his knees.
"What's wrong?", Hansol asked.
"The portal-", Seungkwan tried to catch his breath.
"What's with it?", I asked tensed, already sensing something bad. We all looked at Seungkwan, who straightened himself up.

"It's dark again!"