Beyond This Fucked Up World [choi yeonjun]

Chapter Sixteen - Everyone Except Him

The sun was hanging up in the sky and I was lucky that it was no longer shooting right into my face. Beomgyu, Kai as well as my humble self arrived at the skatepark and I could tell from a distance who the others were, who were credited with the two remaining cans and none of them were Yeonjun.

Gradually, I got a feeling of soft aching emptiness spreading through me and I knew I missed Yeonjun. It had only been two days that I hadn't seen or heard from him and even though I knew two days weren't much, I couldn't shake the thought that it might be more days. Or weeks. Or months. Or no more at all.

Maybe he decided to do exactly what Sunoo did and just leave on his own without saying goodbye to everyone. But I knew he wouldn't do that. He was far too angry with Sunoo for that, because he had done it.

I tried to ignore the unpleasant feeling and concentrated on the people who were present at the moment.

There was Taehyun, who was riding around on his skateboard as usual with a big smile and didn't seem at all like the one I had met two weeks ago. Behind Taehyun, at the top of the ramp in the middle of the skatepark, Soobin was sitting cross-legged, looking down at his phone and busying himself with it.

"Soobin!" Beomgyu shouted in my ear, waving wildly at him. Soobin lifted his head curiously in response and you could see his expression light up when he saw us. He waved back at Beomgyu and now Taehyun spotted us too, waving at us as well.

We walked over to where Soobin was sitting and I sat down right next to him when we got to him. Taehyun came lithely up the ramp and greeted Beomgyu and Kai with a handshake, smiling at them incessantly.

"You're late."Soobin complained with a smile and turned to the two.

"I had a job interview, okay? So you don't say anything here!" Kai explained himself.

"You can shove your time up your ass, Soobin!" Beomgyu replied. I had to chuckle at the two rather different answers and Soobin joined in.

He turned back to me and gave me a pleasant smile. I mimicked him so that we both smiled at each other for a ridiculously long time.

"Stop your love gawking and take this off me already." Beomgyu interrupted us, holding a green can in front of Soobin's nose. Soobin took it and looked awkwardly at his phone, which was lying between his legs.

My head turned away automatically and I noticed the heat in my cheeks slowly rising. I squinted my eyes in embarrassment. After a few seconds, I slowly looked back at Soobin, who had already opened his drink and was about to drink from it.

"What did you just do?" I asked him, trying to change the subject. I pointed lightly at his phone and Soobin set his drink aside.

"I've been trying to reach Yeonjun but he's not answering any of my messages."

"That's right, where is he anyway?" Kai asked now, looking over at us. I knew all too well why he probably didn't want to come. Even if he didn't know that I would be here today, he hadn't been in touch with anyone since Tuesday.

I should have felt relieved that I wasn't the only one he was ignoring, but instead I felt even more miserable because he's so upset that he won't even answer his friends.

"Does anyone know what could be wrong with him? He hasn't been answering my messages for a while." Taehyun asked worriedly and everyone shook their heads except me.

"I think that's my fault." I whispered softly, glancing at my still-closed can. But since none of us had spoken at that moment except me, of course everyone had heard it.

"What do you mean?"Soobin asked me gently, his voice calming me a little. I looked at him regretfully, feeling guilty.

"Tell me, what have you done?"Beomgyu rushed me, not wanting to upset me in the process. I sighed.