Like a Fool - Hyungwonho

20.

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The next week and exams went by in what felt like a blink. Although that seemed to be a common occurrence now if Hyungwon thought about it. He'd wake up, do a thing or two and suddenly it was ten in the evening and he felt like he'd done nothing of importance.

That had been his cycle ever since that cursed party and he didn't seem to be able to break free from it. No matter how hard he had tried.

What more was there for him to do. He had fixed basically everything he could for now and the only loose thread was his talk with his own brother. The one that should probably be the easiest one to tie off. Yet there he was, still struggling with it.

His phone was left open on his desk, a simple chat chain was left open on the screen as he finished up overdue classwork in a rush. He'd missed so much during his absence and the stress was only now catching up to him. As if exams weren't enough, he stayed after exams to work on the missing work. He had only read the message, not having a chance to reply to it due to the mere surprise it had caused him.

'Let's go home together?'

A simple request Hyungwon would've accepted in a heartbeat back in high school had now left his hands almost trembling as he wrote down some haphazard notes from their material. He couldn't concentrate on anything at that point. Why was he so terrified? It was just Jooheon and just a simple bus ride.

This made it obvious that Jooheon was willing to stand next to him now. Yet he wanted to run and crumble up into a ball somewhere where no one could reach him.

Deciding he had had enough, he started packing up. He was a mess and nothing but a hot shower and a good shower couldn't help with it. 

Though before he could exit he was suddenly pushed back harshly, forcing him back into the classroom. Raising his head from his phone, he was faced with a displeased Minhyuk. "Oh great," Hyungwon muttered under his breath, putting his phone back into his pocket whilst mentally preparing to be verbally assaulted.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Minhyuk spat at him then, getting straight to the point. Hyungwon pulled his lips into a small line, really not seeing any point in the argument right now. He'd not done anything that could go toward offending the other student.

"Did I breathe wrong or something?" Hyunwon asked, taking a step back just to put space between the two of them. Minhuyk enjoyed smacking him and he'd rather not go home with a bright red hand mark on his face today.

"The fact you're even breathing..." Minhyuk huffed out, rolling his eyes before shaking his head. "This is more about you not understanding to leave Hoseok the hell alone? You're still texting him as if you've not done anything wrong." the guy then continued, taking a step forward and forcing Hyungwon to move back again.

"If you want me to kill myself, just say it straight. Not that I'll let someone like you get to my head with shit like that." Hyungwon scoffed. He almost couldn't believe Minhyuk would resort to implying such a thing, but somehow wasn't surprised by it either. "And for your information, we talked it through."

All he had texted Hoseok that day was a simple "OK" and Minhyuk must've seen that at some point to freak out like this. Great. Other than texting, he and Hosoek hadn't spoken a word since Sunday. They were both busy with studies and Hyungwon also with work, having picked his shifts back up.

Whenever they saw each other at school, they only shared a look and a soft smile each other's way before continuing on. Hyungwon wasn't exactly on everyone's good list anymore, especially after everything that had gone down so if he wasn't getting enough angry looks, he definitely would if he was around Hoseok again.