Stay With Me | haobin

Seventeen

~ Present Time ~

As Hanbin sees Zhang Hao and Jiwoong hugging, he feels his eyes water. He has always wondered how their life would've been if these rumors wouldn't have started.

Would have Zhang Hao fallen for him eventually?

Could they have been together?

Back then... Zhang Hao's crush was actually Jiwoong, although he never found out since he didn't know his name.

Jiwoong ended up switching schools a few days before Hanbin also switched, so they ended up going to the same school and that's where Hanbin found out more about him.

Of course he couldn't tell Zhang Hao anymore since they weren't friends anymore and Zhang Hao hated him.

Now he has to watch Zhang Hao fall in love with Jiwoong all over again, not even realizing he's the guy he had a crush on back then since his looks changed quite a bit.

Maybe they were just meant to be together.

Hanbin tried to save his friendship with Zhang Hao even after the rumor about him was also spread.

Hanbin would send him letters telling him this had to be a misunderstanding.

But Zhang Hao never wrote back.

Although they were friends for so many years, Zhang Hao thought the worst of him.

No, Hanbin never thought Zhang Hao spread those rumors about him. 

But he wanted to have an excuse to hate Zhang Hao. He wanted to have an excuse to dislike him and move on since he knew Hao would never forgive him.

Hanbin isn't sure who spread those rumors about him, but he's sure it wasn't Zhang Hao or Wooyoung. Even though he and Wooyoung aren't as close anymore since Hanbin moved away, he's sure it wasn't him.

Hanbin finally snaps out of his thoughts and sees Daeun walking towards the other direction. "Daeun?"

"Hanbin? What are you doing here?" She turns around.

He turns to where Zhang Hao and Jiwoong were, only to see they're not there anymore.

"Oh... I was just driving around." Hanbin tells her.

"Really? Why are you out of your car? There's really nothing around here."

"So why are you here?" He asks her.

"O-oh... there's a pharmacy nearby. I wasn't feeling well, so I got some medicine."

"Medicine?" Hanbin asks and sees she's empty handed. "But you're not holding anything."

"Oh, it's in my purse." She says nervously. "I should get going now. See you tomorrow at school, okay?"

"Okay, I'll pick you up tomorrow at the same time."

"No no, it's fine. My mom is driving me to school tomorrow, so don't worry."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll get going now. Bye." She walks away from him.

Hanbin has been noticing she's been acting weird lately, but isn't sure why.

He gets back into his car and takes his phone out to call Jiwoong. He should act like he didn't just see him with Zhang Hao.

"Hey Hanbin, is everything alright?" Jiwoong answers the phone.

"Yeah, everything's perfect. Where are you?" He asks him, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Oh, I'm walking Zhang Hao home. He-" Jiwoong starts, but it sounds like Zhang Hao told him not to go on. "We hung out so I'm walking him home."

"Oh, I see. I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out, but it seems like you're busy so I'll leave you now." Hanbin tells him. "See you tomorrow then."

"Okay, see you." Jiwoong hangs up and Hanbin starts driving back home.

He needs to make sure to get there before them so he can tell Ricky and Yujin to not tell Zhang Hao he went out to look for him.

Once he's home, he parks his car and rushes into the house after unlocking the door.

"Hanbin? Where's Zhang Hao?" Ricky asks him, worriedly. "I was calling you and you didn't answer. I thought you'd keep us updated."

"Oh... sorry." Hanbin apologizes. He probably called when he was lost in his thoughts. "Don't worry. He's on his way home. When I finally found him, Jiwoong was already with him."

"Jiwoong?" Ricky asks confused.

"Yeah, he's my friend but he has also been getting close to Zhang Hao recently."

"Oh, right... him." Ricky nods. "I've heard about him from Zhang Hao."

"Can you three not tell Zhang Hao I went out to look for him?" Hanbin asks Ricky, Yujin, and Gyuvin, who's now here as well. "If he asks, just pretend you went out to look for him and couldn't find him or something."

"Do we really have to do that?" Yujin frowns. "Why do you want to make it seem like you don't care about him at all? It's okay to care, Hanbin. He was your best friend."

"Just don't tell him please." Hanbin walks past them and goes upstairs to his room.

"I don't like this Jiwoong guy." Gyuvin frowns. "Wow, it really feels like I'm watching a kdrama in which Hanbin is the second lead. I don't like it."

"Yeah, me neither." Ricky agrees.

After a few minutes, Zhang Hao gets home and Ricky quickly rushes over to him. It seems like the Jiwoong guy already left.

"Hao, are you okay?!" Ricky asks, worriedly.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. Thankfully, Jiwoong found me and walked me home."

"We went out to look for you but couldn't find you. We were so worried." Ricky tells him. He doesn't want to get in trouble with Hanbin, so he just lied like he told him to. Hopefully he made the right choice.