LOVE, CANCER & HIM ✓

「Chapter Six」

just because his path is different,
does not mean that he is lost

The waitress places two cups of coffee down on the table, and questions, "Don't you need anything else?" She winks at the young man, and when Hoseok notices this, he coughs, which means that he wants her to leave them alone, immediately.

For a while, they both remain silent, not knowing what to talk about.

Hoseok pulls his cellphone out of his pocket, and looks at the broken phone screen with sadness, but he can not hide the truth of not knowing why he would ask a stranger to have coffee with him.

"They are all the same." The young man who is sitting in front of Hoseok breaks the silence with this sudden conversation, having both of his hands clenched into fists as he sees the waitress from before who is now flirting with a rich old man.

"What do you mean?" Unaware of what he is talking about, Hoseok questions, and his eyes meet with that waitress, but instead, he prefers to stare down at his shoes, not wanting to look at her anymore, because he is now reminded of the day when he, himself, first met Jihyun.

[Six years ago]

At the highschool;

"You need to talk to her," Namjoon suggests his best friend when he notices that he can not stop staring at her. "At least, ask her out."

"Are you out of your mind?" The boy questions, and rolls his eyes. "She is the most popular girl in highschool, but look at me— I am nothing but a loser."

"Who says that you are a loser?" To his surprise, this voice belongs to none other than Jihyun, herself. "I think you are cute." She says to the boy before leaving them alone.

Hoseok panics, and a big smile appears on his face. "Did she just call me cute?" Shockingly, he questions his best friend who has his arms crossed. "Do you think that I need to ask her out?"

"That's what I have told you, earlier." Namjoon answers, and rolls his eyes, meaning that he is completely annoyed, at the moment.

Ignoring what Namjoon has said, the boy runs after Jihyun in order to grip her wrist, and after clearing his throat, he asks, "Hey, wanna make out?"

She starts to laugh, and so does the rest of the students.

"I didn't tell you to make out with her, you idiot, I told you to ask her out," Namjoon face palms himself, and whisper-yells, "That's why nobody has ever wanted to be his girlfriend."

[Present day]

"Flirting and stuff, I mean." The young man answers, and takes a sip of his coffee.

"Well, you definitely need to change your opinion about them, because they aren't all the same, you know?" Hoseok knows that convincing a stranger is not that easy, but at the moment, he wants to try his best. "For example, my girl is—"

Clampsing his mouth shut is the best thing he can do, right now, because all of a sudden, he remembers that she does not belong to him anymore.

"You are going to be late for the important meeting you have mentioned before." Changing the subject is the best thing he is good at, so he does it in order to escape the bitter truth for a while.

The young man chokes on his coffee, and says, "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right," Ignoring his cellphone which is ringing in his back pocket, he decides to ask the boy a question, "So... what's the name of the man I've been talking with?"

Hoseok opens his mouth in order to speak up, and introduce himself, but he clamps his mouth shut when his eyes accidently meet with the name on the young man's phone screen after he pulls his cellphone out of his back pocket.

'JI'.

Again, he declines the phonecall.