Captivated (BL) || V1: A Chaotic Beginning || COMPLETED✅

Chapter 33

'Deep breath,' his subconscious bruits more to himself than to him while clutching his pink chunky comforter tightly around his shivering little body.

Jin clears his throat at the discomforting ambiance as the silence rapidly spreads, hurling and trapping him in. He can almost hear the crickets awkwardly chirping by the distance in bright daylight.

"I brought company. I hope you don't mind."

He hopes Hiro could still keep an open mind about this.

He stood still, the tip of his shoes clinking against each other and his head drops down to his anxious fingers rubbing them against each other out of bad habit.

He admits he's on the verge of having a breakdown.

His subconscious presently gave up and sunk on his own little feet, singing itself to sleep by the corner and his incorrigible friend, Jihyuk, who's frozen as ice beside him wasn't a big help either.

They were standing in front of the well-presented man himself, who has his stern brow arching at the sight of them both, seeing he turned in a bit late and not alone.

Hiro internally grimaces, "You took your time," his lips thinned.

The young fellow gulps. How can he make such simple words so intimidating?

What a dire child he grew.

The thought exactly matches the few stories his father had shared about his little-but-too-obvious young mischiefs at yesterday's fine and exclusive dining.

Just imagining an innocent small boy with slate black hair and whose curious eyes were opened rather too early to the hideous truth and ugly discrimination of this world, he couldn't blame him for what he had become growing up in a different environment.

A life with class and expectations.

That must have pressured him, even in his adolescence.

Surely it does after witnessing his juvenile side—His illogical, but fragile and sensitive emotions. Predictably, he had missed developing and honing his adolescence on cue.

"Uhm . . ." Jin clears his throat, waving his thoughts out. He really needs to know where to stop overthinking things at the wrong momentum.

Because it's getting out of hand.

Well, now that he's in a more awkward and prone to a botched situation, thriving about anyone's past will be unnecessary.

At least he gets to celebrate from successfully dealing with the tiring excess from his friends' nosiness . . . but this is what that leads him to.

Though he has successfully driven them away without giving anything much regarding what sort of relation he has with this unrealistic man, he's left with one thought.

The truth is, even he, himself, is bothered what to call them—what they were.

'Well, it looks like being in the hot seat didn't pressure you enough,' an arched brow and a disapproving frown taunt him from his ever so helpless subconscious who only knows how to whine.

Being centered to all of this and dealing with it alone is not a very recommendable and clearly, traumatizing experience.

Remind him to reward himself for his capacity to stay on the grounds despite the pressure and headache lifting him up.

He's even surprised he survived this long.

Assuming that Hiro and Jihyuk already knew each other and as much as he likes to buy some time, he'd rather skip introductions and avoid looking like a fool in front of these two.