flower boy | seungjin

26

After the door opens up to let him in, Hyunjin falls face down onto the sofa, groaning to himself. 

"How was therapy? Was it as boring as I predicted?"

Hyunjin flips over onto his back and cranes his neck to stare at Nancy, who's leaning against the wall with her arms crossed in front of her. "It was actually okay," he says. "Talked about stuff, got advice, etcetera etcetera."

She hums, "And you still won't tell me why you decided to go in the first place, apart from you can't be around Jeno anymore." Hyunjin throws her a smile, along with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Thanks for letting me sleep here by the way, Nance." 

"I'm sorry the sofa isn't the most comfortable thing in the world," she pauses, "You know you could just sleep in my bed. It's big enough and it's not like there's anything going on between us anymore." Her voice quietens for the last part, her loose hair falling to slightly obscure her eyes. You never did tell me why.

Hyunjin shakes his head. "It's fine," he says. "I'm comfortable enough."

That night, the two of them find themselves void of anything interesting to do, so they stick a movie on and forage through the kitchen cupboards for anything sweet that they can eat until they feel sick. 

"You're lucky my parents were away this week," Nancy says. Hyunjin pushes himself upright again, the blood having rushed to his head after hanging upside down off the edge of the sofa for too long. "They never would've agreed on letting a boy stay over - even on the sofa." She grabs some popcorn and smiles at him through her mouthful.

Crossing his legs under him, Hyunjin chuckles. "Does this mean I owe you now?"

She nods, "Oh, totally. I'm thinking you have to be my personal butler for a week."

Hyunjin looks at her. "Fuck off," he deadpans, and Nancy laughs before he gets a chance to carry on.

"Chill, I'm just kidding."

There's a few moments of silence, before Nancy speaks up again. "Hey," she says. "If you liked someone, but weren't sure if they liked you back... what would you do?"

"Where did this come from?" Hyunjin laughs. "You're not someone I'd peg as the romantic type."

Nancy scoffs, "As if you can say anything about that." 

Suddenly, Hyunjin's face drops. "Did you meet someone, then?" He clears his throat. Nodding, Nancy starts eating the popcorn a lot quicker. Rocking back and forth, Hyunjin scratches his nose and sighs. "I don't know, maybe tell them? You're right, I'm not really a great person to be asking. It's not like I'm an expert."

Nancy looks at him. "What's with the sad tone all of a sudden? Did you break someone's heart or something?"

He noticeably winces, and his voice comes out scratched. "Something like that."

"Okay, I won't ask." Nancy places a hand on his shoulder. "But hey, it's in the past now, right? No more looking back. And forgive me for sounding like a cringey asshole, but you can't change what's happened, all you can do is look at the future and not make the same mistake again." Hyunjin figures the advice would've helped, if there wasn't one small problem. This isn't the past. 

He meets her eyes, "Thanks." Smiling, he relaxes his shoulders and leans back, Nancy's hand drops to the sofa as he does so. They sit like that in silence for a while with their full focus on the movie, until it's well past dark outside and Nancy's ended up falling asleep. Hyunjin switches off the film once he realises and plays a game on his phone for a while, until his eyelids start to droop and his limbs grow tired. Hyunjin spends the last of his energy by picking up Nancy and putting her in her own bed, pulling the duvet over her body before trudging back to the sofa. He collapses back onto it with a sigh, finally shutting his eyes and letting sleep consume him.