i'm your a to z | jihancheol

is it normal?

chapter 29

As he ran beside Seungcheol, Jeonghan couldn't help but be reminded of the past. Many times before had he ran by Seungcheol's side and not once did he think he'd ever do it again as adults. For a moment, he even forgot he was an adult and felt free. It was as if the weight of adulthood and all his worries were lifted as the two ran like children again after Joshua.

He was glad he met them, he thought as he heard Seungcheol laugh once  they'd cornered the American.

Both him and Seungcheol ran forward at the same time but what happened next happened in a split second. Seungcheol tripped over his feet, bringing the younger man down with him.

Jeonghan knew he would've been flustered if it had ended up the same way every k-drama did had Seungcheol not pushed him off. The two lied on their backs for a good few seconds before turning their heads to face each other. At the moment they'd made eye contact, they burst out laughing, as did Joshua who sat down beside them.

"I think I won," the youngest of the three stated with a grin.

"Won what?" Seungcheol asked immediately getting up.

"I don't know but I know you won."

"You ass!" he exclaimed, his competitive tendencies beginning to show. "You should've said, I could've won then!"

"No you could not have," Jeonghan interrupted as he stood up as well.

"You're so mean!"

"I'm mean?" Jeonghan asked with a scoff, wondering if the elder had ever seen himself. "Sure whatever you say, Choi."

"Don't call me that!" he said, probably knowing the only reason Jeonghan had said it was to annoy him, and practically stomped out of the room.

After a second of silence, Joshua and him burst out laughing and followed behind, calling teasing names as they did. Things felt alright.

Well, that was until he noticed Joshua and Seungcheol would talk to each other a lot more. The eldest seemed a lot more comfortable with the American than he did with Jeonghan.

At least they were happy. At least Seungcheol wasn't yelling at him.

A week had passed since the day Seungcheol had changed completely. Jeonghan would've said it was for the better since Seungcheol no longer yelled at him over small things as well as the fact he seemed to be happier, along with Joshua. Except it made Jeonghan sad in a way. He wanted to believe it was the lack of attention but could it also have been jealousy?

Jeonghan was never the jealous type. In fact, didn't he want Joshua to be happy with Seungcheol? Hell, he wouldn't even know who he was jealous of.

Once the eldest of the three had started to show his soft side, it reminded him of how they were like in high school. His best friend was back. He should've been happy about that yet...

Jeonghan groaned to stop his thoughts, surprising Joshua who was sitting besides him at the table.

"What's the matter?" the American asked, looking up from his notebook.

"Nothing," he lied, not wanting to be of a bother. Although there was something he could ask. "Hey, I have a question."

"Sure, go for it."

"Is it normal to not want to have a crush on someone?"

There was no answer from the other for a moment, making Jeonghan worry that he'd said the wrong thing.

"It is. Why, do you have a crush?"

"Nono, just asking," he lied. "Is it normal to not want to have a crush on your best friend or past best friend?"

At this point, he was only making it obvious who both of them were. Unless Joshua was oblivious.

"Yeah."

"Alright thanks."

The American nodded and went back to writing. Jeonghan wanted to ask what he was writing but he was probably asking too many questions. He sighed leaning back in his chair, wondering when Seungcheol would be back from his police training. Apparently, the man was fully registered -his former gang members were not happy when Mingyu had let it slip.

Jeonghan would sometimes wonder what happened to the murder case and why his best friend would always look so uncomfortable whenever it was brought up. He never questioned it though; it was obvious what had happened. But Jeonghan wasn't one to rat someone out so he moved on from the topic.

He wandered the house, seeing if there was anything new this time. The boys had two rules: to never go into the parents' room and to never open the closet in the library. Jeonghan could never even find the closet so it wasn't a problem (it must've been behind a shelf or something of the sort) but the way Seungcheol said it made it sound like he hid a body in there.

Eventually, he grew bored and sat onto his bed with Noire in his lap. It was funny even to him the way he spoke to the cat as if it could reply or even understand. Still everyday, he told her about his day, his rants, and even some of his observations about the house.

For example, Joshua stayed in the room that used to belong to Seungcheol's eldest brother. There were cop badges and diplomas; the man had mentioned once before that his eldest brother was an officer. It was funny how he became a gang leader to spite his police brother but now, he was becoming a police officer to spite his past gang.

Jeonghan stayed in the middle brother's room. It was a bit larger but there wasn't much. He seemed to like superheroes a lot though since he had a collection of comic books. Jeonghan wished comic books were the only thing he saw though. Inside one of the drawers were hentai mangas; Jeonghan felt sick upon seeing them.

The Chois were clearly some horny people. And it had to be straight hentai too...

a/n: so the next few chapters are going to be pretty short since nothing major happens so if you want you can skip them, honestly they're just there for comic relief and to keep the story going while my mental health fixes itself enough to let me actually write. anyways  thanks for reading and comment if you can btwbtw idk if anyone reads these and idk if I've said this before but please comment, it motivates me to keep writing rather than spam voting because I really do enjoy reading your thoughts on the book or your frustration and jokes, they really do become my favorite part of being a writer <3