Friends I han seojun ff ft. lee suho

#036

chapter 36

~leave her be~

His jaws clenched, Seojun stomped to the basketball court. It was almost the end of the day by the time he reached Saebom, so there were only a few students lingering in the hallways as he made his way past the principal's office, rolling up his sleeves. Seojun's face immediately morphed into a grimace as he pushed open the doors to the court. He was greeted by the familiar sight of his friends clowning about. Meanwhile, Lee Suho was busy in his own world, seeming unimpressed by their antics.

"Lee Suho, I let you off the hook because I didn't want to kill you," Chorong exclaimed in a fit of anger, while the other boys stood around, some kicking and some punching nothing but air and hurting themselves while they were at it.

"Who are you to mess with Seojun, you audacive punk?"

Gritting his teeth, Seojun watched as Suho looked up at his friends, his eyes bored as ever. "Audacious." he corrected

Perplexed, the boys looked at each other. "Whatever. What will you do if he gets disciplined because of you? You held his collar first, so it was self-offense."

"Self-defense," Suho replied without missing a beat. Suho gave them a once-over, eyes narrowed in skepticism. "Why are you acting like gangsters?" he asked.

"You're responsible for Seojun not being in school right now. Who knows where he is. Do you really think we're just going to let you off like that?" Chorong exclaimed, his deep voice reverberating through the empty courtroom.

Min Suk and the other boys were more hyped than ever. "Hit him and show him where he belongs," the boy yelled, pulling Chorong forward to close the distance between him and Suho.

Chorong's face twisted into panic, then into a strange sort of forced pain. "Wait- Stop! I think I got a muscle cramp," he yelled, holding up his neck for dramatic effect.

While the other boys began to panic, Seojun had about had enough.

"Yah, Kim Chorong!" he exclaimed, keeping his eyes dutifully trained away from a certain someone. "That's enough for now."

Suho and the other boys looked up in surprise at his voice. Seojun tried not to dwell on the fact that Suho's face darkened ten-fold when he met his eyes.

"Han Seojun! You're okay!" Chorong burst into hysteria all of a sudden, crushing Seojun in a hug and forgetting all about his 'cramp'. "We were so worried when you didn't reply to us."

Seojun tore the boy's hands away from himself. "Stop with the melodramatics, will you?" he hissed, frustrated at the thought that his time with the brunette had been cut short for this. "Aish. Is that why you called me here? For me to witness this humiliation?"

Chorong's face dropped a bit, before he turned to look at him with evident concern. "But you're okay, right?" he asked.

Seojun made a face, trying not to get too touched by the fact that his friends cared so much for him. Oh, he really deserved hell for treating Chorong as he did. 

"What would happen to me?" Seojun tried to reason, brushing him off. "Now go. Get that cramp treated at the nurse's office or something."

The boys seemed to like his suggestion, knowing that it was the only way to avoid detention without having to scrub every inch of the court clean themselves. As his friends flocked out of the court, fussing over Chorong, Seojun breathed out a sigh of relief. His eyes flitted briefly at his cell phone to check if Yoon-ah had reached home safely.

She hadn't left him any messages.

Frowning, Seojun shrugged away the uneasy feeling brewing in his stomach. It had been a while since she left, after all, she probably would have reached home by now. He shouldn't be too concerned. Perhaps she simply didn't think it necessary to inform him. Yoon-ah disliked being 'babied' anyways, as she put it. 

"Han Seojun!" Suho called out of nowhere, forcing the other boy to stop mid-thought. 

Seojun thought he saw a riot of emotion passing through the other boy's mute demeanor. Though Suho's expression looked strangely akin to desperation, the moment was so fleeting that Seojun could not make much of it. 

"What do you want from me?" 

His next words only served to make Seojun's blood boil. The boy's lips curled into a sneer. 

"What do I want?" he mocked. "Just stay out of my sight."

"If you don't want to see me, then don't come around me," Suho countered. "I have no reason to avoid you."

The boy could not resist letting a mocking smirk wash over his face. "You know exactly why, you jerk," he spat. "You want to drool all over Lim Jukyung like a love-struck puppy? By all means, go ahead. But leave Yoon-ah out of your dirty games. Don't play with her feelings."

Suho raised his eyebrows, almost as though in amusement. "What do you mean?"

"You clearly don't have feelings for Yoon-ah," Seojun continued bitterly. "Then why do you hang around her all the time and act as though you do? If you can't love her, stay away from her. Leave her be."

"Why are you so concerned?" Suho countered the furious boy with his own question. "It's not as if she's your girlfriend."

Seojun nearly choked on his own spit when he heard the moron utter those words. "What did you just say?"

His only response was a shrug. "Whether I like her or not is none of your business," Suho replied, still donning a casual air of indifference. "It shouldn't bother you unless the one that likes her in any way, is you."

Seojun looked back with a blank stare; no words being able to escape his mouth at that moment. Why couldn't Suho just give him a direct answer? All the boy had to do was confirm that he didn't....didn't have feelings for the brunette.

In all honesty, Seojun would have rather thrown himself off the building than acknowledge his heart skipped a beat at Suho's words. 

There was no way he could be in love with his best friend. 

With a start, he realized he had never thought of the brunette as such before. But it was true either way, Yoon-ah was one of his closest friends. If he had feelings for her, it could ruin everything between them, possibly reducing them back to strangers. There was no way the jerk could be right...could he?

Seojun's eye twitched in irritation as he suddenly realized who he was talking to.

"You don't know anything about my life, you brazen punk," he snapped back, letting out an incredulous scoff. Seojun turned back sharply to face the other boy, cocking his brows. 

"But then again, that's who you really are," he spat, knowing full well that he was touching a nerve.

Seojun started to walk away, not knowing what to make of the storm of emotions the other boy's words had elicited in him. Suho spoke up once more, stopping him in his tracks.

"That day, when Seyeon came to see me..."

Seojun jerked his head back sharply, his breathing intensifying. "What?"

The dark-haired boy stepped back, facing Suho with a murderous expression on his face. "Isn't it a little late to make an excuse?" he asked, his voice rising despite his intention not to. "Do you even know what that poor guy told me that day?" 

Suho did not retaliate with a shrewd reply. He only looked back at Seojun with a storm of emotions raging in his eyes. However uncharacteristic it was of him, it did little to deter Seojun as he spewed out those piercing words without any remorse, consumed by his rage and driven by his own demons. 

"Seyeon ran over you because he counted on you!" he bellowed. "He said you would believe in him without knowing you're a cold-hearted, selfish jerk."

"So don't ever mention his name again..."