buy me your love (no returns)

chapter 32 ☆

☆

it was yet another late shift of working at the store, and jihoon was exhausted. he'd already had to deal with a bunch of annoying customers and it was taking all of his strength not to bolt out the store.

the perks of being a broke college student, he supposed.

it was a little bit past 7pm and the store was mostly empty, save from a few people browsing in silence; jihoon took this as his time to half study before anyone came up wanting to buy anything. everything seemed to be going fine, he was undisturbed and working in peace. he was so peaceful that he didn't notice the sound of the bell, indicating a new customer had walked in.

rather than start browsing the store, this person went straight up to jihoon at the counter, prompting him to look up.

"are you park jihoon?" the person asked, face expressionless. he looked to be a man slightly older than jihoon, perhaps seongwoo's age, with neatly combed black hair. the man looked beautiful, sure, but it didn't explain who he was and how the everloving fuck he knew jihoon's name.

"...yes?" kids, don't ever give your name to people you don't know. jihoon had just broken that golden rule and immediately began cursing himself.

"thank god..." the older man muttered under his breath, sparing jihoon a comforting look, "i'm not here to harm you, i'm a friend of jinyoung's."

oh?

calmed down significantly from the sudden confession, jihoon asked, "what's your name?"

"minhyun, hwang minhyun," a pretty name for a pretty person, he decided, "jinyoung's a close friend of mine, he talks about you a lot."

"oh, really?" jihoon held back a smile at that, "what do you need though?"

"well," minhyun's warm smile had been replaced with a worried frown, "i wanted to talk to you about how jinyoung's been acting recently."

jinyoung's behaviour recently had been concerning, of course. he chalked it down to crush issues, though he hated to think about it anymore. he didn't know jinyoung had been acting off with other people though. maybe this was more worrying than he thought.

"...what about it?" he asked cautiously.

"it's just... he's more snappy than usual," minhyun explained, "he's even more irritable when i try to tell him that we're all concerned too."

"oh..."

"he won't tell me exactly what's going on either so all i can do is watch from the sidelines..." he sighed, visibly stressed, "a part of me hoped you would be able to help."

"...d-do you not know anything about it?" stuttering, nice jihoon. really playing it cool.

"well, he did mention a crush before," minhyun answered, clearly trying to be cautious about his words, "but i'm not sure if that's..." trailing off, he didn't meet jihoon's eyes.

"he...mentioned love to me," jihoon piped up, catching minhyun's attention, "i think he's in love with someone...that's why he's being so off."

"love..." minhyun mumbled to himself, growing even more worried by the second.

"i don't know who with, but i think it's unrequited...from the way he talked about it."

"oh." the older of the two breathed out, at a loss for words.

"i... i don't know how to help, minhyun-ssi." jihoon frowned, trying to get off the topic completely. thinking about the crush made him feel miserable, so talking about it was like a whole new level of sadness.

"that's alright, i think you already have." minhyun stated, "i'll be taking my leave now."

"o-oh, ok." jihoon stumbled, "it was nice meeting you?"

"likewise, jihoon." minhyun nodded before leaving the store and, ultimately, jihoon in complete confusion.

putting his head down in his hands, jihoon made a small sound of anguish. his feelings for jinyoung truly were impossible.