lean on me // s.coups

fifteen

"seventeen's leader s.coups recently found with a girl while leaving the movies." somi read from her phone as she slowly sat up. "unnie, are you seeing this?" she asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

"i'm well aware, somi." i said with a chuckle, shaking my head. "why are you so chill?" she asks, with a frown.

"it's been two years. he can date whoever he wants."

somi moves from her position on the bean bag over to me.

"unnie. you may have forced yourself to believe that, but i know you're hurting." she says, making me put my phone aside.

"somi, he's his own person-" "stop telling yourself that!" she says frustratedly as she stands up, staring at me with disbelief.

"unnie. with all due respect, everyone knew how in love you two were. all of us knew. even when you didn't date, everybody knew. don't try and tell yourself that everything's okay. because i see how affected you are," she starts.

"i see how much you want for that girl to be you instead. i can see that you regret what you told him two years ago. i can see that he regrets that as well." somi says as her tone goes softer.

"i invited joshua oppa over for you, because i need to go for a shoot. please listen to him. talk it out." she says, giving me a hug before she leaves my apartment.

i was a little shocked to see her like that. usually, she was so easygoing and fun.

moments later, joshua steps into the apartment, with a guitar case in hand.

"hey jae." he says, greeting me with a smile. i wave, gesturing to sit down beside me. he lets out a huff, placing the guitar case down as he flops down unto the couch.

"i heard from somi. still bullshitting huh?" he asks, giving me a chuckle. "how is what i said about seungcheol and i, bullshit? isn't it the truth?" i asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

he sits up.

"it's a hundred percent true. he can do whatever he wants and you have no control over that. but you're lying to yourself, jae." he says, shifting his body to look at me.

"tell me, how did you feel when you found out about his girlfriend." joshua says as he rubs his temples.

"i didn't feel-" "liar. you were upset. angry, even. because both of you had an unhappy ending. the ending that neither of you desired." he says, looking at me as he pointed a finger at me.

"josh-" "and because you didn't like how you were feeling, you forced yourself to think that you were happy. that you were better off without seungcheol. when in reality, you wanted so much to run back to him. didn't you?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"what he did, wasn't right. i can say that confidently. in fact, he'll admit to that. but you'll have to figure out your true emotions first, jae." joshua says, making me sigh.

"do you want to know the best part?" he asks, making me hum.

"his relationship with that girl, is a hundred percent fake. it was a set up by the company."

my eyes widened as he said this.

"what?" i asked. "after the breakup, we had several concerts where it was obvious that seungcheol wasn't himself. people began to start rumours. so the companys solution was.." he dragged on, wanting me to continue his sentence.

"the company hired someone to be his girlfriend. forcing him to fake his happiness. if he didn't, the group would suffer. if he didn't, the band would be disbanded." i said as everything fell into place.

"you forgot one last detail." he says, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"everybody knew of the sudden loss of contact between you and seungcheol. people began to realise that you had some affect on him." he says.

"so if he didn't agree to the fake relationship, you'd suffer as well."

he did this.. with me in mind as well? even after all that i said to him..

"he loves you, jae. always have. always will."