Flowers

Chapter 5

It takes a week for Jinwoo to discover Wooseok's and Minhee's newfound friendship after he runs into them inside the ice cream shop a few blocks away from the subway station. Wooseok finds his excitement adorable and pays for his ice cream as he always does when they come together, it's impossible to resist the urge to spoil the younger boy. Minhee makes it a point to whine he's also younger than Wooseok yet he didn't pay for his but Wooseok just tells him to suck it up.

Jinwoo takes a photo with them to send it to Jungmoo before they part ways with Minhee. Wooseok and Jinwoo making their way to Wooseok's and Jinhyuk's apartment after the younger told him Jinhyuk had promised to help him with an assignment he had to turn in the next week, a class Jinhyuk had already coursed with the same teacher as Jinwoo.

Jinhyuk is not home yet though so Wooseok asks Jinwoo if he's hungry, the younger nodding with a shy smile on his face. Wooseok reaches to pinch his cheeks before he starts fixing something for them to eat. With Jinwoo's help and making use of the leftover rice in the fridge, they prepared kimchi fried rice and stand by the kitchen counter to eat it.

Wooseok listens to Jinwoo talk as they eat, smiling at how his eyes shine as he speaks about the project he is working on for one of his classes clearly enjoying his career path so far. Wooseok fondly remembers when he didn't stress over his own studies and was able to enjoy them fully like Jinwoo.

Back then, in his first year of university, he didn't have a flower mark on his skin.

The telltale sound of the front door being unlocked announces Jinhyuk's arrival and Jinwoo can't hide the excitement in his eyes as he perks up glancing away from Wooseok's face to behind him waiting for his favorite older friend to walk into the kitchen.

"Jinhyuk~" Wooseok hides his smile as he watches Jinwoo walk into Jinhyuk's open arms hugging as a greeting. Jinhyuk ruffs up his hair apologizing for being late but Jinwoo just shakes his head telling him to not worry about it, Wooseok had been with him after all. Jinhyuk finally looks at Wooseok, that bright smile on his face never failing to make Wooseok's heart flutter.

Jinhyuk and Jinwoo move to the dining area and a few minutes after Wooseok joins them with a glass of water and a plate of food for Jinhyuk to eat while he helps Jinwoo. His friend thanks him, Wooseok waving it off. He sits with them but doesn't help -he had never taken that class, it had nothing to do with his major after all- instead, he browses through his feed on Instagram.

Wooseok can't stop himself from chuckling when he comes across Jungmoo's last post, a screenshot of his KakaoTalk with Jinwoo where Jinwoo had send him the photo he took with him and Minhee. Feeling betrayed and left out #GottaGetNewFriends Jungmoo had written. Wooseok likes Minhee's comment right under it, a string of the same emoji of a laughing and blushing face.

"What's so funny?" Wooseok looks up to find Jinhyuk looking at him, Jinwoo currently busy writing away on a sheet of paper -yes his professor asked for the assignment to be handwritten on this day and age- so Wooseok shows him the photo Jungmoo had posted. Jinhyuk's eyes widen in surprise, he also didn't know Wooseok had become friends with Minhee "When did that happen?"

Wooseok shrugs replying it has been around a week now and they were surprisingly getting along really well. The older still looks at him confused, while Wooseok was not difficult to get along with he was hard to approach so he asks how it happened especially considering he's close friends with Donghyun and everyone knows about Minhee's crush on Yunseong.

Jinwoo looks up from his work as he makes sense of their conversation and Wooseok sees the curiosity as clear as day on his eyes. He wants to know too. Wooseok looks away, his left hand reaching up to his neck scratching at the gloxinia marked on his skin.