Mixed Blood

26: Social Distancing

When they reached their favorite hang-out place, Seungcheol and Jeonghan were still dazed by what Joshua told them. Because of that, they lost their appetite and both were oftentimes lost in deep thought. The rest of the friends noticed and couldn't help themselves but ask.

"Seungcheol-hyung, Jeonghan-hyung, is something the matter?" Chan asked.

"Well..." Jeonghan looked at Seungcheol.

"Joshua knows that the two of us are soulmates," Seungcheol revealed. "I did not know how he knew."

"Why? Is that a problem?" Jihoon was confused.

"We wanted to keep it from him since he is the only one among us without a soulmate. Jeonghan and I thought that he would feel left out if he knew," Seungcheol explained. "We told everyone else because you are my brothers' soulmates and I was expecting everyone to keep the secret because you'll understand the intention behind it."

Mingyu covered his mouth with his hands, "Oops."

Wonwoo noticed this, "Gyu, what did you this time?"

With everyone's attention on him, Mingyu confessed, "I completely forgot Joshua-hyung was not supposed to know. He asked me this morning if the two of you were soulmates and I casually answered yes thinking you told everyone in our friendship group. I'm sorry, hyungs. It totally slipped my mind."

"It's okay, Mingyu-ya. What's done is done," Jeonghan sighed. "Let's just hope he is not too upset about it."

The next day, everyone was expecting everything to be back to normal. However, it did not happen. While Joshua was still talking to them during classes, everyone was caught off-guard of this new normal of Joshua.

"Should we head to the cafeteria?" Jihoon suggested.

"Sorry once again, guys. I will go to the library again," Joshua informed his friends.

"Why? What is it this time?" Seungcheol slightly raised his tone.

"I have this really interesting book that I'm reading and I'm already at the story's climax. I can't afford to postpone reading it," Joshua told no one in particular.

And with that, Joshua was off to the library without any of his friends able to stop him.

Going to his favorite spot inside the library, he pulled out a novel entitled "The Third Wheel" by Michael J. Ritchie. Technically, he did not lie. He was already at the climax of this weird science-fiction novel with a touch of every other existing genre. However, he was just using this as an excuse to be away from his friends, specifically Seungcheol and Jeonghan.

Pages into his novel, Joshua's eyes started to tear up. He was totally relating to the main character – all of his friends were paired up and he was only one that was not. Quickly abandoning his intentions to read, he gently plopped his head down on his arms instead. For the second time in a row, Joshua was crying inside the library again.

Meanwhile, his friends were becoming extremely worried. They knew exactly what was the main reason why Joshua was acting this way. They just didn't know the minor details.

With the sound of the bell, Joshua returned to their classroom, acting like nothing happened. What did not know, however, was that Seungcheol and Jeonghan noticed his puffy eyes.

A small glitter of hope showed itself in their Mathematics class. The teacher instructed them to work with the problem sets either individually, by pairs or as a trio.

"Joshie, would you like to group with Cheollie and I?" Jeonghan inquired.

"It's okay. I'd like to work with it by myself to master the solving process," Joshua managed to show his ever-gentle smile.