between us | hyunin

xxiv | thuban

it was the night after the last day of the school camp, and hyunjin was lying on his bed, facing the ceiling. his thoughts blocked out the distant buzz of the washing machine downstairs. 

earlier that day, he'd been sitting on the bus with jeongin, waiting to go home. the younger had seemed a bit off, but hyunjin had just took that as a sign of him being tired. music camp was draining, after all; he himself had been dancing for at least four hours every day that week. 

"i can't believe we went to camp as strangers and came back as a couple," minho was saying to jisung. both of them were sitting in front of jeongin and hyunjin and their conversation was loud enough that hyunjin was sure the whole bus could hear. 

"i can't believe how needy you are," came jisung's reply. although hyunjin couldn't see through the seat in front of him, he had a feeling that minho had just attempted to hug or kiss the other. he'd already seen enough of both in the last hour from minho to know that jisung and minho were definitely already there in their relationship. 

"we should've sat somewhere else," hyunjin said to jeongin, laughing slightly, the younger nodded but he didn't smile. 

"everything okay?" hyunjin asked another minute later when the younger hadn't attempted to strike up a conversation, although hyunjin had tried many times by pointing at shops outside the window and recounting the last time he'd been there. 

"of course. don't worry about me." the younger forced a smile. hyunjin felt hurt; it was as if jeongin had returned to the boy he'd been when they'd met on hyunjin's first day, almost three weeks ago. he hadn't even laughed when hyunjin had said he'd gone to a circus in a field that they'd passed. "i started crying as soon as the clown entered," hyunjin had said. "i had a phobia of clowns when i was five."

no need to add that he still hated clowns with a passion. 

especially not seeing jeongin seemed disinterested with everything he was saying. 

"are you tired?" hyunjin had asked about halfway through the long drive back home. jeongin had still failed to say much more than a sentence at a time, and it seemed like a millenia since he's last smiled. last night, probably. 

"no, i'm fine," the younger said shortly, and turned his attention to the window again. hyunjin started to wish that he'd taken the window seat because it meant it would've been harder for the younger to ignore him. 

"you sound tired, though." hyunjin knew he was being awfully annoying but he didn't care. he wanted his jeongin back. 

"really, i'm fine. leave me alone."

so that was the last that jeongin talked to hyunjin on the bus ride home. hyunjin spent the rest of it in uncomfortable silence, thinking about what he'd done wrong. something must've happened over night, or before he'd woken up. he was pretty sure jeongin was fine before they'd gone to bed last night. or maybe not - he hadn't said much at supper. maybe he was just adjusting to being "out of the closet". maybe he was just adjusting to the whole "our group has three couples" situation. 

because changbin's phone had been stolen by seungmin later last night and he'd run to hyunjin and jeongin's room to show the notification on his screen; a single heart emoji from felix. 

though hyunjin was well aware that felix and changbin weren't officially a couple, but they were both obvious and oblivious as hell to each other. 

so maybe jeongin was just adjusting to the fact that their group consisted of two gay couples and one soon-to-be-gay couple. 

hyunjin hadn't bothered to attempt to adjust (that used too much energy and he really was tired from the whole week). he was just going to go with it.