Steel Heart || Jeongcheol

Darken Your Clothes And Strike A Violent Pose

A few days after the funeral, things seemed to go back to normal for Jeonghan. People quit looking at him with pitiful eyes, and he was starting to reach the 5th stage of grief: acceptance.
He accepted that his grandma was gone. He didn't have to cry about it, or take time off work. He was strong.
Sure, maybe his legs received a few more cuts in the last couple of days, but that's just stress relief. It's not a big deal.

One Spring evening, Jeonghan came home late from dance practice. As expected, most of the younger kids were already in bed. Junhui and Minghao were in the living room, reading a Korean children's book together.
It wasn't the first time.
Minghao wanted to improve his Korean, and Junhui wanted any excuse to spend time with him.

'That poor boy is so whipped.' Jeonghan thought as he walked down the hallway, smirking to himself.

He pretty much expected Seungcheol to be either asleep, or on his laptop writing lyrics. What he didn't expect, however, was for him to not be there at all. He shrugged, putting his backpack on the floor by his bed-

'What's that?'

There was a folded piece of paper sitting on his bed, with a smiley face drawn on it in blue crayon. Jeonghan smiled a little, picking it up and unfolding it slowly.

Hannie,

Meet me in recording booth 2B. Bring soju.
ASAP

- C. S. C. ❤️

Jeonghan's heart skipped a beat when he saw the little heart on the corner of the page. He didn't know why; Seungcheol probably only did it as a cute, platonic thing. He always did that kind of thing, and Jeonghan always smites himself for reading too much into it.

Just as quickly as he'd come home, he left the dorm again.

"Where are you going? You just came home?" Junhui asked upon seeing his Hyung speed-walk through the living room again.

Jeonghan stopped, looking at him, "Don't worry about it." He said simply as he walked out the door.

On this particular night, he air was cool and the sky was free of clouds. The moon formed a sliver of light high in the sky, and millions of starts danced around it. Jeonghan looked up at the beautiful expanse as he walked down the Seoul street.
His heart felt light, like something good would happen soon.

About a block away from the Pledis building, Jeonghan went into a small liquor store and grabbed two bottles of Soju. Though neither he nor Seungcheol were of legal age to drink yet, Jeonghan had a pretty convincing fake ID. So perhaps there were a few occasions where he'd buy some booze just for the two of them to share.
They didn't tell anybody, not even Joshua.
It was one of their little secrets.

He paid for the drinks and continued on his merry way, picking up his walking pace because the sooner he got there, the better. The neighborhood got a bit sketchy at night; and Jeonghan often saw some interesting groups of people hanging around the dark allies near their dorm.

Once he reached the Pledis building, which he was relieved to find was unlocked, he went into the back stairwell and climbed the two flights up to get to the 2nd floor.

The darkened hallway that resides up there could be quite scary late at night. Flickering security lights and creaky floors put Jeonghan on high alert as he walked around, "Studio 2B," he whispered to himself as he looked at the doors that he passed.

Finally, he reached 2B and knocked on the door with his free hand, waiting with baited breath for it to open.

The door opened to reveal Seungcheol, standing there with a pleasant smile on his face, "You came," he said, his voice tinged with relief. He took the two bottles from his hands and motioned for him to come in.