꒰ BE QUIET ꒱ - SUNNEW ˎˊ˗

four.

when the meeting was over, only chanhee, jacob, and sangyeon stayed in the hall.

chanhee was sitting at the edge of one of the tables placed in the room, his arms crossed as he was looking out the window, chewing down on his lower lip nervously while he was thinking. he had zoned out almost completely at one point and wasn't even hearing the conversation that jacob and sangyeon were having. only hearing their voices but not being able to tell apart any of the words.

not that he was even trying to stay focused and figure out what they were saying. he was just staring at the branch of a tree outside and thinking about what kevin had told him earlier. his mind was so occupied by this the entire day that he wasn't even bothered that once again there were people spreading rumors about him around campus. he had almost forgotten about the meeting too but thankfully there was sangyeon to remind him, otherwise he wouldn't have gone.

when jacob and sangyeon noticed how the youngest was just sitting there and staring into nothing, they focused their attention on him.

"he's barely even blinking," jacob mentioned but even that didn't snap chanhee out of his thoughts. "chanhee." still no response. he repeated his name a few more times and still got nothing.

when he was about to go and click his fingers in front of chanhee's face to distract him, the latter just grabbed his wrist and moved his hand away without even shifting his gaze away.

"i can hear you i've just zoned out and i'm too lazy to zone back in," chanhee mumbled out.

"awhhh," both sangyeon and jacob cooed as jacob messed up chanhee's hair a little, finally snapping him out of his daze.

chanhee slapped jacob's hands away and frowned at him before fixing his hair. "don't touch my hair." he pouted and then he got off the table, stepping down on the ground. "has anyone seen younghoon today? he was supposed to be here."

"haven't seen him since last week." sangyeon shrugged and looked at jacob who also didn't know where could younghoon be.

"okay, thanks anyways." after saying that, chanhee took his bag and walked out of the hall, leaving the other two boys to just look at each other confused. but they didn't think too much about it. chanhee was just like that sometimes.

on his way towards the exit of the building, chanhee tried to call younghoon a few times but with no success. so instead of going out and heading towards the train station, he decided to go to the drama club just in case he'd be there or if anyone had seen him. but he believed he had to be there. otherwise, what other reason would he have to not answer his phone? younghoon usually wasn't one to just ignore phone calls.

he went to leave his things in the boys' changing room and looked around while he was doing so. but he didn't see younghoon's things. he let out a sigh, feeling like there was already no point on going to see the others but he was already there either way, he made the astronomical effort of making those few extra steps for the day to go to the club so he might as well see his friends too.

he walked in on around four or five people just sitting on the floor and not doing anything while pretending they were reading their script from time to time and there were three others who were actually rehearsing. of course kevin was from the first ones. when he saw chanhee, kevin immediately waved at him, excitedly gesturing at him to come over.

"hey babes," chanhee said as he went over to kevin, standing next to him and running his fingers through his hair while glancing at the ones who were rehearsing. "have you seen younghoon today?" he then looked down at kevin again who had lightly rested his head against chanhee's hip, looking back at him.

"i think he was here only for one or two lectures then he went home again."

"i see." chanhee nodded slowly before moving to sit next to kevin on the wooden floor, then he took the script out of the latter's hands to take a look at it. it's been a while since he last attended club activities regularly, at this point he barely even knew what they were doing.

unfortunately, now that he was the president of the student council, he felt like he was forced to maintain an even better reputation for himself. which also meant being very active in the club he had signed up for. no one was even pressuring him to do that but he had high expectations about himself and tried to be perfect in everything he did.

kevin leaned closer and hummed, observing the expression on chanhee's face. "are you feeling well, chanhee? you look very... troubled to say the least."

the pink haired boy glared at kevin. not only because he really had too much happening to him in just one day and right now he was starting to get a headache from all these thoughts overwhelming him but also because he really hated being interrupted while he was reading new scripts. and kevin knew it perfectly since he was the one to interrupt most of the time. of course, it wasn't on purpose or anything.

"do you know who is younghoon dating?" he asked just so he wouldn't have to answer kevin's question.

kevin shook his head and leaned his elbow against his knee, resting his head in his palm. "i'm not sure if anyone but him knows. and his boyfriend obviously. don't know if he keeps it a secret or just simply no one cares enough to ask about it."

chanhee nodded lightly and returned the sheets of paper to kevin, looking away and almost zoning out once again.

"this has been bothering you the entire day?" chanhee nodded again in response. kevin squinted and hummed. "do you maybe like him and that's why you're jealous now that he has a boyfriend?"

the other fake gagged, making them both laugh afterwards. "are you kidding me? of course i don't like younghoon. i just hate the fact that my own best friend hides things like that from me when basically everyone else knows about it."

soon after, they were shushed by the others, so they had no other choice but to just sit quietly and learn their script until the end of the club activities for the day.