"If you lose me, please run in circles."
"Hm? Why should I run in circles?"
"because if you do, you'll find me standing by the very place you lost me."
Circle All Rights Reserved 2023
Mingyu was fast asleep. Maybe because he was still weak and recovering. Jeonghan, Vernon and Thean decided that it's best for the three them to stay together since Mingyu is in danger. Jeonghan and Thean's home has top tier security so no one can come inside nor know things happening on it. So it will be the best place to hide Mingyu from Thean's father.
It has been three days since the three of them moved here and Vernon came home to look for his father's next steps. Their mother however is safe as she was currently in States for business.
Thean is well already by now. Jeonghan never left her side and she's starting to see him in a different light right now.
She sees him by their backyard. Where he is sat beside the campfire with some whiskey on his side and an icebox. He was clearly drinking. Everything must have been stressing him out lately but he tries to keep it together. He must want Thean to lean on him and but is unwilling to share his burdens to her.
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"Easy on the whiskey." Thean says as she sits beside him on the empty camping chair. The two of them shared liking forests ever since so they wanted to have a piece of nature in their home, where they can camp silently for days and have no one becoming a nuisance to them.
"Hmm. Was he sleeping already?" Jeonghan answers.
"He is." She says. "Oh, I borrowed your jacket." Jeonghan looks at her with his drowsy eyes.
"It suits you better than I do." he says.
"Have you eaten your dinner?" Thean says. "The food on our kitchen looked untouched."
"I love it when you call this place 'our'." Jeonghan says with a chuckle. "I don't even understand why but I fucking do."
Thean giggles. He was clearly getting tipsy. Jeonghan doesn't like cursing.
"Jeonghan-ah, I said easy on the whiskey."
"I hate it, Thean-ah." he suddenly says as he pour another shot on his glass.
"What? What do you hate, Hannie?"
"I hate the way you let him touch you." he finally lets out. "But I can't say that to you, right? I shouldn't go too far but I'm jealous. I get so jealous I want to rip his hands off you and kiss you right in front of him."
"I'm sorry, Jeonghan.. but you know Mingyu needs me too right now."
Jeonghan grins. He pulls Thean's seat to make her closer to him and holds her hand.
"I know, love. I understand." he says. "but what I feel right now is more precious than words, you know? I don't even have to let this all out but..." he stops and looks at Thean right on her eyes. "I don't understand it too, I promise you. But I love you. I go wild with my thoughts and feelings. I'm starting to become crazy."
Thean was dumbfounded. Jeonghan does not like to overwhelm her with his feelings but he does when he's drunk. "I even want to kiss you right now."
"Jeonghan."
"Yes, love?"
"I'm sorry." Thean suddenly says.
"Why are you saying sorry?" Jeonghan asks.
"I don't know. I.. just want to say those words to you so much."
"Alright? I'm sorry,too." Jeonghan says with a small smile. "I feel like you need to hear those words from me now. Incase I won't be able to say that to you in the future."
... Days passed. Athena quietly goes back to school after so much that happened and Mingyu as well although he has to wear an arm cast since he has broken a bone, which they doesn't know yet because his CT scan is yet to be known this week. Jeonghan goes back to teaching and is getting ready for his review for the bar exam, since the next yearly exam will be held three months from now, on October.
"Are you alright?" Thean asks, getting Mingyu's bag and carefully lifting it on her shoulders. "We should go home after class. You still need to rest."
"I told you." a student 2 meters away from them whispers. "I told you they were dating. She literally said they were going home."
"Are they living together now?" the other student asks.
"What do you think?"
On a normal day, Thean would probably not even look at them but she was worn out by now. She had been taking care of Mingyu 24/7. She dries his hair, since Jeonghan does his bathing, as he doesn't like her doing that obviously. She cooks food for him as they can't order any food now that they know they could have been being watched and someone could poison them. She writes his papers and does his assignments cause he is basically handicapped now with his arm casts. She was tired as hell, so she did what she won't usually do, but something that she would do when impulsiveness gets into her brain.
"So what if we're living together? Do you want to join us on our home and see how we do everyday?"
"Thean-ah, don't—." Mingyu tries to stop her but she is just wasn't her usual self. She was mad. They don't know what the three of them are going through so how dare they try to tap on their lives as if they have the audacity to do that?
"Huh? Cat caught your tongue? Tell me a thing now! Fucking answer me! What do you actually want, huh?"
Jeonghan taps her shoulders and walks beside her and Mingyu.
"Don't lose your grip, my love." He says as he eye the students. "You can go now, I guess Miss Choi is feeling under the weather today."
"You must have been so tired to lose your composure like that." Mingyu says, feeling sorry. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't say that." Thean says as she heave a loud sigh. "I'm indebted to you. It's my father's fault you get to be like that now."
"You two shall go home after your classes." Jeonghan smiles at Thean. "Get it together, my love." he says and walks away. He must still have classes to teach.
"Let's go, Mingyu." Thean says.
The two of them walked side by side for their next class. Jeonghan made sure that the two will share the same general classes as he knows they need it each other for now despite of Mingyu being a mechanical engineering student and Thean being an industrial engineering student.
"Thean-ah, have I told you yet?" Mingyu says, trying to spark a new conversation between them. When he woke up, everything between the two of them changed drastically. The colorful walls he had built for Thean came crashing down, the joyous blue skies he painted for her became gray and the red stained tee shirt he had always make sure she sees was long gone. The reality struck the two of them so bad they forgot to have fun. They are starting to forget that they were still young.
"Hmm? I don't think so. What is it?"
"I love you. I always do." Mingyu says, "in evey world there is, in every orbit I had to do in your axis, I will always come back to you."
"Mingyu-ah."
"You're the reason I wanted to live even if.."he stops. He doesn't want her to remember that his father was the one who did this to him. "Even if things happen."
"I don't know what to say." Thean sighs. "Everything was just so fucked up these days I even forget how to feel about things that are being said to me." she says with a small smile. "I'm starting to feel numb."
