Quiet | Seungjin

7

Hyunjin walked into the kitchen ready to go for school, which was a surprise since he was almost late every day.

"Up and dressed...what's the occasion?" Mrs. Hwang asked sarcastically from the table as she sipped her coffee.

"Just ready to start the day, Mama." After taking an apple from the fridge, he walked over to the table and sat down across from her. He let out a small breath before taking an aggressive bite from the Apple, "Mama—that boy from the therapy center, he's in my class...and I sit next to him. Can I know about him now?"

She looked up at him with a slight frown on her red lips, "Hyunjin, I know you're curious, but don't take an interest in him so he can be you charity case. I'm glad that you like to help people...but don't use him for his trauma."

"Use him? Use him for his trauma? What kind of person do you think I am?" He said a little more rudely than he intended to.

Rising an eyebrow, she set her coffee cup down. "I'm going to ignore that tone. He's been through a lot honey, that's all I'm going to tell you. If you want to know him so bad just be his friend."

He sighed, "I tried Mama, I tried to talk to him yesterday but he ignored me."

"Just keep trying, give him some time, hun."

Hyunjin just nodded in response. "When is Dad coming home?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"He'll be home in a couple days. You should get to school before you're late."

Glancing at the clock, Hyunjin jumped up when he saw what time it was. "Ok yeah, bye Mama, I love you!"

"I love you too!"

✨✨✨

Seungmin smiled to himself when he saw Shuhua waiting for him by his locker. After the first day they met, the two exchanged phone numbers and had been talking about anything and everything over text.

Besides his parents and brother, Shuhua was the first contact he added to his phone. It felt like the best day of his life when he got home and somebody actually wanted to talk to him.

Looking up from her phone, the girls features lit up at the sight of her new friend. "Good morning Seungminnie!" She squeaked.

He waved to her, a smile seemingly stuck to his face. The nickname she used made his heart flutter—not in a romantic way, but out of happiness. He'd never had a nickname before.

"Oh my god...look at her..." Shuhua gushed as she linked arms with the boy. He tensed up slightly at the action, but didn't pull away.

Looking over, Seungmin saw she was talking about one of the popular girls, Soojin, who was leaning against a locker taking to her friends.

"She's so pretty—I think I'm in love!"

Seungmin let out a small laugh at the girl's antics. "You...like her?" He smiled to himself at how smoothly the words came out.

There was a slightly surprised look on her face when she heard his voice, but she didn't want to make a big deal about it. "Would it be okay with you if I did? I mean she is another girl. My parents told me I shouldn't admire other girls the way I do—but I can't help it."

Tilting his head to the side, he was a bit confused as to why he wouldn't be okay with it. He nodded, reassuring her that it was normal for her to like Soojin as more than a friend.

It was probably the way his parents raised him, but Seungmin had never thought sexuality defined a person. You were who you were and there was nothing you could do about it. Even though his brother was straight, his parents had always told both of their children to always be who they were no matter what anybody said.

Seungmin wasn't exactly sure who he was in that sense. Of course girls like Shuhua were beautiful...but he wasn't really sure if he could feel anything more towards a girl...or anybody really. Love has always been intimidating to Seungmin. There was so much trust involved in that, and trust was hard for him.

When he looked down at Shuhua, there was a soft smile resting on her lips as she stared at the girl. A light blush tinted her cheeks as she studied every inch of Soonjin. Quickly averting her eyes when she looked up, Shuhua tried to subtly hide behind her friend.

Seungmin didn't miss how Soojin's eyes lingered on her as she continued to talk to her friends, although she was a bit distracted now.

"L—Lets get to class." She said softly before walking towards their homeroom.

✨✨✨

"Bitchhhhh—you're with Dawn!? Damn hottest couple of the year!" 

Jessi turned around and froze when she saw that her class was full of students staring at her with concerned expressions. "Wow...look at you guys being responsible and getting to class five minutes before the bell rings. Excuse me and Ms. HyunA's conversation."

"Ms. Jessi, are you single?" Aisha asked quietly from her seat in the back of the room.

The whole class started laughing at the girl who looked like she was in a trance by her teacher. "Aisha, sweetheart, I am single...but too old for you."

A small pout formed on her face, "But I'm eighteen!"

"And I'm thirty two!" Jessi said enthusiastically as she rummaged through the items on her desk. "Um...today we're doing a group project...groups of—what was it? Oh! Groups of four to five please! You can pick them." She mumbled while she continued looking for something.

Everybody got visibly excited at the fact that they could choose their partners. Hyunjin glanced to his left to look at Seungmin as Felix and Jisung walked up to his desk. The two boys snickered at how intensely the elder was staring at the poor boy. "H—Hey...Seungmin, do you maybe want to join our group?"

The youngest looked at him in shock, not really expecting somebody to ask to be apart of their group. His eyes darted back to Shuhua as he didn't want to in a group without her.

"She can join too." Felix butted in when he saw the boys dilema.

A smile formed on her face as she nodded, "We'd love to join your group, thank you."

"Well I'm Jisung."

"Felix."

"I'm Hyunjin"

"I'm Shuhua," She said softly.

Seungmin wanted to introduce himself, but his voice faltered at the presence of others he'd never met. The words were scratching at his throat so they didn't have to leave.

"He's Seungmin," Shuhua spoke as if she could read his mind. He gave her a thankful smile as a response.

Felix opened his mouth to say something but was quickly elbowed by Jisung. "Why don't we sit down, Lix," He said hardly as he pulled two chairs in front of the table.

The youngest felt himself start to panic, but tried his hardest to hide it because it wasn't their fault. Maybe he was just socially exhausted from the week, but Seungmin felt like he was going to combust at the proximity of the three other boys.

Shuhua opened her palm towards the boy under the table, trying to offer her support. They had talked about the topic of his anxiety, she still didn't know what caused it—but she wanted to be a good friend to him.

After taking a deep breath he interlocked their hands. The simple gesture somehow helped him calm down, which was quite strange because physical contact always made the situation worse. It must've been because he trusted Shuhua. 

———

I Think this might be my favorite book to write 

Thanks for reading lovelies!