end of the day | seongjoong

chapter twenty three

the second he stepped into his brother's car after school on monday, hongjoong's heart instantly began racing. the only thing he's been able to think about all weekend is seonghwa, and he knew there was no way of stopping it. hongjoong was falling for this boy, and falling hard.

just like his past crushes, it's hard for hongjoong to hide his feelings. not only is it hard for him to hide his feelings with the person he liked, he also had a hard time hiding his emotions from his family.

usually, hongjoong didn't care if his family knew about his love interests. since he was a young boy, both his mother and brother have been very accepting of his sexuality. anytime he came home from school blabbering about a new boy he liked, they both made sure to listen intently to everything he had to say and encourage hongjoong to admit his feelings to the person. the only problem with hongjoong's crush this time that he never had to deal with in the past was that the boy was one of jongho's best friends...

as much as he tried to hold it back, hongjoong couldn't control it any longer. as he was sitting next to jongho, he felt like he was about to explode, like he was going to throw up all over himself. he knew he needed to tell jongho what was going on in his mind before it came out any other way.

"jongho, i have something super important to tell you." hongjoong said as he turned to face his brother, who was parking his car in front of their house.

"ok, tell me." jongho answered nonchalantly after he finished parking.

hongjoong instantly panicked when jongho answered him, regretting every saying anything in the first place.

wait, but am i ready to tell him? what if jongie's mad at me... what if he hates the idea of me liking his best friend?

hongjoong pushed his panicked thoughts to the side and continued speaking to the older.

"wait, no. i have to tell mommy too, and i know she came home today. so let's go inside, i'll tell both of you at the same time." hongjoong shakily said as he quickly opened the car door, grabbing his bag and rushing towards his house.

"well that was a bit weird." jongho said to himself as he stepped out of his car, furrowing his eyebrows at his brother's strange behavior.

"hi my love!" hongjoong's mom tried greeting her son after she opened the door, but he ran past her and straight to the couch.

she turned her head, surprised at her son's behavior. hongjoong was always jumping for joy when he first got to see her after she'd been at work for a few days, but he was acting the complete opposite this time.

as jongho walked his way to the house, his mother gave him a concerned look, "what's wrong with him?" she asked, pointing to the boy on the couch.

jongho sighed, "i'm not sure, honestly. he was silent the whole car ride and as soon as we pulled up to the house, he blurted out that he had to tell me something important, but then said he wanted to wait to get into the house to discuss it with the both of us." jongho explained and his mother nodded her head in understandment.

"hey joongie, is everything alright? did something happen in school today?" hongjoong's mother asked as she walked up to the boy, putting an arm around him.

"y-yeah, everything is ok..." hongjoong sniffled a bit.

"oh my god, baby are you going to cry? please, tell us what happened." hongjoong's mother rambled out frantically, surprised to see her happy-go-lucky son look so distraught right in front of her for some unknown reason.

"it-it's just.... i like this boy..." hongjoong began speaking and jongho sat down beside him, rubbing his thigh to relax the small boy.

"it's ok babe, you know you can tell us anything." jongho smiled at his brother, pulling on his cheek a bit.