𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲

chapter 14

When the two of you start walking towards the locker rooms, Seojun brings up what happened in the auditorium. You're walking together so that he could get ready for the game, and you'd just planned to wait outside while he got changed before heading to the basketball courts together.

You brush his question off with a smile.
"You need to get ready for the match, come on," you say, walking a little faster towards the locker rooms, but he grabs you by your wrist and pulls you back to face him.

"Promise me that you'll tell me if something is bothering you," he says, and you force yourself to nod.
"I promise I'll tell you after the game," you grab his hand and send him a reassuring smile to ease his worries, "but for now you need to get ready, you don't want to be late," you say, pulling him to continue walking.

When you arrive at the locker room, however, you both stop outside when you hear someone talking. After a few moments of listening you recognise the voices to be Jugyeong and Suho, and it sounds like they're arguing and Jugyeong is crying.

You look up at Seojun to see that he looks upset, and you feel the smile that you were forcing until that moment drop. You're still holding onto his wrist at this point, so you just slowly let go after seeing how conflicted he looks.

When Jugyeong walks out of the room crying a few seconds later, you throw Seojun a final lingering glance before following after her - you need to be there for your friend. You wipe her tears and comfort her as much as you can, before helping her get ready for the basketball match.

The two of you walk up to the seating area in the indoor courts where Sua and Soojin are already waiting, making your way over to sit beside them. You stand next to Jugyeong with Chorong on the other side of you. He greets you after you get to your seat, but you're too busy laughing at the boys' crazy outfits to respond.

When Suho enters the court you rub Jugyeong's arm lightly in an attempt to comfort her, before grabbing her arm and linking it with your own to let her know that you're there for her. You cheer for Seojun and Suho whenever they score, - along with the others - keeping your arm linked with Jugyeong's for the entire game.

Suho's teams ends up winning because Suho manages to score within the last few seconds of the game, so you cheer for them before leaving to help Jugyeong with her makeup because you know she must've been crying during the game.

After the basketball game is over and it begins to get dark you all go outside to see that there are some more performances taking place, people sitting around nearby and enjoying the singing. You walk outside with your friends who look for a seat to listen to the performances, but you decide to look for Seojun instead.

You realise it's time you finally tell Seojun about your past and the reason for your panic attacks - he's your best friend, he deserves to know. It's about time he knew what was actually going on with you.

Once your friends sit down to watch the singing, you tell them that you're going to look for Seojun - since the two of you had agreed to go home together - and that you would see them at school the following day.

They nod and say their goodbyes, telling you to get home safe, and you smile at them and squeeze Jugyeong's shoulder lightly before leaving to look around for Seojun. It doesn't take long for you to locate him since he's close to the area where the performances are taking place.

You're about to take a step towards him, but you pause when you realise he's looking at something. You stand behind him with a heavy heart as he watches Jugyeong and Suho together. He eventually turns around and notices you standing nearby when they're both gone, and walks over to you.