diamonds | jaywon, sunsun

16

Sunoo is halfway on his sixth tissue of the night when the door opens and Jungwon comes home. Fresh tears well up in Sunoo's eyes at the guilt of misbehaving with his best friend without any reason.

"Won, you're home!" His Jake hyung is trying to work a recipe for dinner (the consideration is very sweet but he still sucks ass at cooking) and is paused in tearing the packet of Enoki mushrooms with his teeth.

"Jake-hyung! I didn't expect you here." Jungwon goes, completely ignoring Sunoo and hugging Jake. Sunoo shouldn't complain, it's his fault in the first place.

"Hyung, you look like a puppy." Jungwon laughs at the sight of the packet in his hyung's mouth.

"I hear that from my husband multiple times a day. No matter what I'm doing, Heeseung always calls me a puppy with aegyo. Riki is convinced I'm a hybrid." Jake smiles, locking Jungwon in an invisible bubble of comfort.

"To talk about serious matters, what actually happened?" Jungwon glances at Sunoo softly sobbing on the bed, already on his eighth tissue.

"Ah, I was worried you might commit a crime murdering Sunghoon, so I didn't call you right away. I figured Sunoo needed someone like me. It took him forever to let me in because he wouldn't be convinced that I'm on his side despite being Sunghoon's best friend." Jake gets back to work, pulling out the mushrooms.

"Jay already told me. That bastard... I would have killed—"

"Don't worry, me and Heeseung already did. Heeseung's mad mad, Riki isn't very happy either. I figured the two of them would be enough for him. And Jay isn't going to let it go too. I'm actually on my way to murder Taehyun as well. After taking care of my babies, of course." Jake smiles and pats Sunoo's head, who stops crying.

Once the eldest leaves for the kitchen, Jungwon sits beside Sunoo, holding the  bags gingerly.

"Won, I'm so sorry. You know me, I'm— I become an ass sometimes." Sunoo begins in a clumsy manner, wringing his hands.

"No, don't do that, seriously. I'm okay. Just tell me the whole matter."

Sunoo tilts his head, reminding Jungwon of a curious child.

"You're not mad at me?"

"No." Jungwon's reply is firm, as he stares into Sunoo's eyes.

"Thank heavens you asked. Jake hyung wouldn't even hear me out." Sunoo says.

"He's kind, but he's an airhead sometimes."

"Jungwon!"

"Sorry. Now, tell me what happened."

"So me and my boyfriend, you know Yejoong right?—" Jungwon nods in reply, then Sunoo continues — "We were on an afternoon date and then suddenly when we're leaving and I'm waiting outside for him to pay, there's this dude who grabs my wrist — it was Sunghoon — he grips tightly and tells me to break up with my boyfriend. In, like, a harsh way. Out of character."

Jungwon frowns. Something was horribly wrong.

"I know right? It's so weird. And then I say no, and then he says that it's very urgent. I tell him what Yejoong told me about him, he's the one that told me those things I said to you about Jay — now, he threatens that he will tell Taehyun hyung about what I did at work. I told him I'm not afraid of anything, but that was because I didn't expect him to go all out."

"He told you those things about Jay?" Jungwon asks.

"Yeah."

"Well, he's dead wrong for that. This is weird. There's nothing wrong with Jay. I don't know how he knows the two of them, but I can surely say that he's wrong about Jay." Jungwon says with finality.

"You're probably right. I'm sorry for that one night." Sunoo hangs his head.

"No, it's okay. You didn't know what to do, hyung. None of it is your fault." Jungwon rubs a soothing pattern on Sunoo's back. Sunoo holds on to his best friend, too afraid of losing him again.

"Don't go to the kitchen for Jake, I say, don't. No matter how many times he calls you, Jungwon, please, I'm jobless now. We can't order takeout everyday. It's always a disaster when you two cook together, and I always have to clean up." Sunoo's eyes widen with fear, and sure enough, one second later Jake is calling Jungwon for help.

"Hush, and open your gifts that I bought you. Jake took classes, he's not gonna be that bad."

"Jungwon, no—"

"I'm coming hyungie!"

                          *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"You absolute bitch," Jay's footsteps echo around the empty house as he searches for Sunghoon. After not finding him anywhere, he runs up the stairs.

"You fucking piece of shit!" Jay almost breaks the bedroom door open— to reveal a Sunghoon lying down on his bed.

"Wake the heck up!" Jay screeches at him, undeniably angry.

Despite the loud voice, Sunghoon doesn't even flinch. He's staring transfixed at the ceiling, eyes glossy and red.

"The hell." Jay stands there, unsure of what to do. The audacity of the younger crying after taking away someone's job throws him off guard.

"Are these tears of guilt? Well damn you deserve to cry. Worse, actually. I didn't even know you were capable of doing something so shitty." Jay makes sure to lace every word with stinging poison.

Sunghoon still doesn't move, doesn't blink. Now Jay is slightly worried. Is Sunghoon even alive? With apprehension, Jay approaches his cousin, not a trace of life behind those eyes. He looks at him directly.

Sunghoon's gaze, fixed previously on the ceiling, is now level with Jay's. Like this, Sunghoon resembles the younger, petite boy he once was — in his childhood. Innocent, soft and shy.

He keeps staring up in Jay's eyes without blinking, the red veins highlighted in his seemingly black irises. Jay holds a few fingers under his nostrils, to check if he's alive and breathing.

"Don't tell me doing Sunoo dirty turned you emo again." Jay says, again to empty silence. Sunghoon doesn't reply.

"You were given the ability of speech for a reason. Stop acting like Alicia from the Silent Patient — they're not making a Korean adaptation anytime soon."

Silence.

"Sunghoon. Don't test me, I swear to God. Say something."

Again, silence.

"Please."

Sunghoon blinks slowly. Whew, that's an improvement, Jay thinks. The last time Sunghoon was like this was when —

Wait. Could it possibly be...? But how?

"Sunghoon, did you see or meet anyone?"

Sunghoon blinks again, rapidly this time. And then, he clears his throat and croaks weakly, voice broken with hours of sobbing.

"Jay," He says weakly. "Jay, it's Yejoong. Sunoo is dating Yejoong."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

I'm sorry, I didn't write these chapters in the best condition... So please don't mind the plotholes or the crappy writing style. It's only meant to be a writing practice for improvement! I write for fun, after all ~