After The Dance

❁19❁

Jongho's eyebrows mashed together as he focused on the photo that he was staring at, creating some sort of explanation for it. He swiped again onto another photo and it was now the babysitter. Though now, it was his hyung who was wearing the same suit minus the mask. The male went back and forth between the two pictures. Until, it clicked in his head.

His Yeosang hyung and the mystery stranger were the same person.

Jongho froze at the realization. His brain was still processing everything. He thought that if he ever finds the stranger then he would finally have the answers that he wanted and his feelings would subside. Clearly that wasn't the case. Now, he had more questions than before, and his feelings? All of it was in this one huge tornado running loose in him. Just as he could do some more thinking, the older walks back in the room to get his phone back again.

"Good thing Sungho only spilled some syrup on the counter. Now Jongho, you had your fun but it's time to give my phone back" Yeosang entered the room to see the younger still sitting on his bed with a look of shock of some sorts while holding on his phone. Jongho meets his hyung's eyes before standing in front if him. Taking a deep breath, he starts confronting his hyung.

"Hyung... You were the mystery stranger?" He lifts the older's phone to show the pictures. Yeosang doesn't move nor speak. He could care less on how the other managed to unlock his phone. His focus right now was preparing himself for when the younger would tell him that their friendship is over.

"I- Jongho, you weren't supposed to find out" The babysitter was spouting anything at that point.

"Wasn't supposed to find out? Hyung, you know how desperate I was to find the person!" Hurt and betrayal swelled in Jongho's chest. He didn't mean to raise his voice, but his emotions were slowly coming out like a faucet that wasn't properly closed. And the babysitter couldn't blame him.

"You don't understand! That night, you were different from your usual self and when you said that you liked a person I-"

"You what? Tell me" Jongho keeps his eyes on the older. He could tell that the male was having an internal battle in him. Making decisions and choosing his word.

"For god's sake, hyung tell me!"

"I WAS JEALOUS!" The babysitter's chest heaved up and down from the shout, a small pounding in his head.

"I was jealous and hurt- hell, even heartbroken to find out that you like someone!" The two didn't speak. Forgetting about Sungho that was down stairs, forgetting their project that they were supposed to plan, forgetting the older's phone. They paid no mind to the rest of the world as they were busy facing this problem in front of them.

"Why?" The younger's voice came out softer and hesitant.

"Why? You're asking me why? Jongho, don't you get it? I like you, and I have since around freshman year and have never stopped liking you!" Tears were forming and stinging in Yeosang's eyes but he was determined to keep them from falling.

"I was afraid that if ever told you my feelings then our friendship would eventually end. So I promised myself to hide the truth while helping you with your investigation. But it looks like it was all for nothing" The babysitter stepped forward and took his phone from the younger before leaving the room. Jongho doesn't move. The sudden confession from his hyung stunned him. He rethinks everything again to see that things were for once making sense. Since the mystery stranger was the older himself then consequently he was just sharing his crush between the same person. The scene of him almost kissing his hyung and his other self made him realize something big.

He fell in love with Yeosang.

All this time he was chasing after a person that was right in front of him. The person who is caring and kind to the others around him, the person who works and studies hard and does everything with the best of his abilities, the person who Jongho and his family accepted in their home.

The person was his hyung, Kang Yeosang.

Coming back to reality the younger moves to try and stop his hyung from leaving. Running pass the hallways of his home, the male reached the stairs. His feet going at a fast pace while balancing himself so that he wouldn't fall. Jongho eyes scan everywhere to see where the babysitter went, but he was nowhere to be found. Not in the kitchen. Not in the dining room. And sadly, not in the living.

Sungho looks behind him to see his older brother running around the house like a madman. The boy had now moved to the living room after his little accident with the chocolate syrup in the kitchen. He was occupied by the tv playing a cartoon, some colouring books and crayons of his, and a dog plushy that sat on the coffee table as it watched the kid fill in the black-outlined pictures. It was all peaceful until his babysitter passed him and left in a hurry.

The babysitter wasn't gonna stay the night because the brothers' parent would come home later. And there were times where his hyung would leave before their parents arrive, but Sungho would always hug the older goodbye before he stepped out of the front door. So when he didn't get to hug him earlier, he frowned. But he did saw how the babysitter looked close to crying and he looked upset. It was that that Sungho let his hyung be and leave.

"Sung, where's hyungie?" Jongho asked the boy in a frantic state. He had a guess where the older could be but he wanted confirmation.

"He left" His small arm pointed to the door. The male made a break for the front door and stepped outside. Few clouds lazed about, the blue sky was getting accompanied with a soft yellow glow, and birds flapped their wings to reach their nest before night fall.

Jongho stood outside. The babysitter's car wasn't there anymore. He stood there, he didn't know for how long but it was long enough that his feet were hurting and that his parents had arrived.

"Jongho? What are you doing there?" His mother stood in front of him with her husband following after he locked the car doors.

"Sweetie? Is Yeosang still there?" She tried asking him again. Jongho looks at his mother with almost lifeless eyes.

"He left, again"