Alone Together [RIIZE]

14. Memories II (Things Change)

A/N: A bit of angst in the beginning, but it turns into coming-of-age-movie fluff!
This chapter is based heavily on RIIZE's Memories MV!

And so, by the next day Sungchan had successfully lured each of his friends to the house on the ranch, which led to each of them being pretty surprised to see each other after so long. He'd set up chairs in the garage after manually opening it and brought a few bags of chips, hoping to entice them all into meeting him here.

And they did. The issue was the silence that followed seeing each other because nobody knew what to say.

What should they talk about? The argument that happened in the chat? Or Mark? Was it too soon or too late for that? Would that put a damper on everyone's mood? Probably. Okay, uhh how about geometry class, is that a safe enough topic?

Sungchan bit his nails anxiously, eyes darting between his silent friends sitting in their chairs. Everyone looked upset, and to varying degrees. Wonbin tinkered in the garage with a motorbike of some sort, twisting bolts here and there and measuring distances from wheel to wheel and axel to axel.

"Are you okay?" Anton asked, intending for only Sohee to hear. He had noticed that she was sulking and her legs were tucked into her chest

"She's going through a lot right now." Wonbin warned softly, not letting her answer that question. He shot a pointed glance at the youngest and pointed a wrench at him before he could even ask why as if to say 'fuck around and find out'.

Anton scoffed loudly and pulled his hand away from Sohee's. "She can speak for herself."

Wonbin narrowed his eyes at the youngest boy and folded his arms. It seemed like he was going to say something to him, but only scoffed and kicked a rock into the garage.

"No, no. It's okay. You guys might not know..." Sohee side-eyed Wonbin, who only grimaced and nodded along. "That me and Wonbin broke up. And that's okay! We're still, like, friends." She assured, though she didn't seem so sure of it.

Anton gasped, then covered his mouth when he realized how loud the noise was. The others kind of nodded along sympathetically, except Sungchan (who knew already) and Eunseok (who never had much of a reaction to things like this).

"Yeah. So don't make shit awkward." Wonbin deadpanned, looking directly at Anton, who glanced away. "We have enough shit goin' on."

Shotaro laughed nervously. "Woah. We're venting in the general chat now?"

"Guess so." Wonbin shrugged, turning back to tinker on the bike in the the garage.

Sohee rolled her eyes. "It's not venting Taro! It's making you aware."

"My life is falling apart. We don't have enough money for me to go to college." Eunseok tapped rhythmically on his legs, turning his head on every fourth beat. "We were... supposed to have money put aside, but we lost it. And now, I don't know what to do next year."

"Oh. I guess it is venting hours. I'm really sorry... do you want a hug?" Shotaro reached out towards Eunseok, asking permission to hug him. Eunseok nodded and curled into himself, feeling his arms wrap around him. 

"I just found out that estrogen doesn't change your voice." Sohee pouted, keeping her voice purposely high. She didn't look at anyone in the eyes, not even Wonbin or Anton. She tugged her beanie down over her eyes and sat deeper in the folding chair. "Which fucking sucks. I don't know why nobody even told me that when that was, like... the thing I was looking forward to. And now I have to take vocal lessons, which cost even more money my dads don't have."

"Since we're all venting, I should mention that my dad..." Seunghan huffed and hugged his knees to his chest. "Kicked me out. He found out that I'm, uh..." he hesitated and shut his eyes, reminding himself that his friends wouldn't judge him. "He found out that I'm gay." He admitted, as Eunseok petted his dark, silky hair absentmindedly.