Golden Boys Must Burn || 8TURN

𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆-𝗼𝗻𝗲

➶➶➶➶➶ ☆ ➷➷➷➷➷

Y/N's POV:

No one had mentioned anything at school yesterday, which meant Haemin must not have said anything yet. That was fine I supposed because today was a public holiday, but after the long weekend, people might start to notice that I'm not even talking to him at school. If he wasn't going to say anything by Monday end of school, I was. I really didn't want this dragging out. Yoonsung had already asked if everything was all right during English.

Kyungmin and Mina knew, though unlike my sister, Kyungmin was thankfully trying to stay out of it. Mina kept asking if I was okay, if I needed to vent, if I wanted her to take me out anywhere for a distraction. If I wanted her to beat Haemin up.

And I knew she was just trying, in her own intense way, to help, but honestly, I was fine. I was pissed off, but I was surprisingly okay. Myungho had picked me up yesterday and we'd stayed at my place to study. 

Bizarrely, things were actually going pretty well, even if I felt a weird little pit in my stomach whenever Haemin crossed my mind. He was in the wrong, not me. So I shouldn't feel bad.

"See ya later, bitch," said my dear sister, stopping at the curb to drop me off.

I flipped her off as I got out before making my way down a little arcade, lined with cafes, boutiques, and near the end, a sports shoe store. My current pair was starting to show a bit too much wear.

I entered the tucked-away store and went to the women's sneakers aisle. It was as I sat on one of the try-on chairs in the aisle after putting my shoes back on that someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.

I snapped my head up but relaxed. "Oh, hey."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Jaeyun stepped back.

"No, it's okay. I think every time I don't die of a heart attack it just strengthens the muscle. Are you here with anyone?"

"I think you pronounced captain of the baseball team wrong," said the school president with a simper. 

I tried glowering at him, but he wasn't exactly wrong and we both knew it so I let it go. "What about Seungheon?"

"I'm actually here picking up stuff for both of us." His little knowing smile morphed into something more genuine. "Myung and I have been friends since preschool. He was always spontaneous...enthusiastic. I tried getting him into taekwondo, but all he wanted to do was art. His mum was lovely."

I wasn't sure why Jaeyun was telling me this but I didn't want to interrupt the moment when he continued.

"His dad was always an asshole but the floodgates opened when she died, like everything he was putting into hiding his true nature for the sake of the family image crumbled and all his contempt just piled onto the easiest target he could still keep quiet. But of course Myungho, the dumbass, likes to pretend everything's fine because rich kids whining about absolutely any issue is pathetic, apparently. His spontaneity turned into poor impulse control until he finally found something else he loved, baseball. Then his dad had to disapprove of that and find every opportunity to let Myungho know...until Myungho proved to be as talented at the sport as he was, and that image-obsessed mosquito decided it'd be good P.R. for his company to have a sporting-prodigy son."

Jaeyun seemed to come out of a daze, like he realised he was rambling. "Wow, that was kind of...a lot. I just wanted to say that it's been a while, but lately, Myungho's been more like he was back when his mum was alive. Whatever he's been going through this time, even if he won't tell me, it's still there. But he seems a lot better." Jaeyun looked at me, that small smile back. "I wonder what's positively changed for him these past few weeks?"