celestial strings | h.js

one.

Seungmin could feel your presence around the school again. He wondered why you hid.

Turning over to look at his friends, his expression remained neutral and unbothered as he watched Jisung point at something on his phone and make Felix laugh. He breathed a mildly annoyed sigh, unable to verbalize the fault he had placed on Jisung since the moment it was revealed what had happened between you both after everyone split up to find the cat café.

It was because Seungmin knew it was not entirely Jisung's fault that nobody had heard from you for weeks. Both of you have made grave mistakes in the recent fight, which was much more severe than anything any of you have ever picked with each other. Both of you have said things you shouldn't have, using the vulnerable knowledge of each other as something as abysmal as snowballs on a fun winter day.

But he has not heard from you for weeks. Nobody has heard from you for weeks. Jisung had frantically reached out to you the night of the fight when he realized there wouldn't be a time when you could finally come home. He could wait and wait until the sun rose, and there would be no traces of you, so he resulted in texting and calling you an uncountable number of times.

Jisung had assumed the worst when he decided to call Seungmin. You were not the type to ignore his calls and messages; even though the tension might still be up, Jisung thought he would have some of your grace, in which you would at least tell him you were safe. But there was only radio silence, and he assumed the worst: you had been taken by the man he saw that day.

Except you were the type to ignore his calls and messages because you were the type to distance yourself as soon as complications arise immediately. Seungmin hated thinking about it this way, but your record tracks: you ran away from your city, you ran away during the car crash, and you had run away this time after experiencing Jisung's temporary hatred toward you.

Seungmin only tried to text you a few times. He assumed if you won't reply to his messages, you would not pick up his calls either. The results were the same: complete and utter silence.

Yet, lo and behold, you were here with them. Hidden behind walls, or among trees, or cloaked with invisibility. Seungmin wondered if Jisung noticed, but it didn't seem like anyone but he did.

"I think you guys should go ahead first. I forgot something in my locker," Seungmin said once he looked away from the other end of the street where you usually came from.

"Huh? Why? We can wait here for you. It won't take you that long," Hyunjin said, raising a brow at him.

Seungmin shrugged. "I figured I could find my homeroom teacher on the way to discuss my grade."

Jisung put his phone down at the peculiar explanation. It may be within his character to forget a homework assignment in his locker, but Seungmin was not someone who lacked time management. If he needed to find a teacher to talk to, he would have done it during school hours instead of waiting until the last minute.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Jisung asked, his connotation failing to be discreet.

Hyunjin and Felix turned to Seungmin then, looking more surprised than suspicious. They have each reached out to you individually despite knowing the very little chance of getting a response, which they have yet to get. But regarding your whereabouts, those two also have their fair share of concerns.

Felix did not fault anyone for what happened. If anything, he didn't think he should have a say since he was neither closely related to you and Jisung's relationship nor well-versed in what happened to you in the past. Maybe Jisung had the right to be upset about not being able to help you with something with unpredictable danger. Maybe you were also right in taking the extra step to protect his defenseless self.