𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

1

Healina

"Hello Ladies~~" Seungkwan sang as he practically slammed his lunch onto the bench his friends were sat on. A startled Joshua looked up from the book he was reading to greet him as the others, currently Jeonghan and Seokmin, also said hello to the younger. "Where's Vernon?" Seungkwan asked as his lips began to form into a pout but no sooner than he did so he felt a chill on his neck.

Seungkwan squealed at the sudden drop in temperature and turned his head around to see his grinning boyfriend with two ice cold strawberry milks. Seokmin's eyes turned to crescents looking at the small gesture, wishing he could be like that with Joshua, looking over to the boy who had now become reabsorbed in his book.

"So..." Seungkwan began as he wrapped his arms around Vernon and pulled him down onto the bench, "Jeonghan, Joshua are you excited for the ceremony this year?" Jeonghan was about to open his mouth when Seungkwan continued, "Well I doubt either of you would be nervous right? You're practically the figureheads of what Healina citizens should be." Jeonghan shut his mouth this time as he thought, all his friends were so sure his eyes would basically explode with serenity he was so perfect but there was doubt in his mind. It was probably nothing but probably meant there was a chance, there was a part of him that just wanted to break loose and maybe it would show through, he just didn't know.

With Jeonghan now lost in thought, Joshua answered "Yeah, I'm excited I guess, I know it's meant to be this big deal but really once it's over everything will be the same. Although blue eyes does sound cool." Jeonghan snapped out of his thoughts and just said a simple "Yeah." which he assumed was relevant to the conversation.

The five boys were currently all in school and became friends in various ways. Jeonghan and Joshua made friends first since they went to the same daycare and bonded after getting into a rather heated debate over a dollhouse until they realised they could just play together. Since then, Jeonghan has used Joshua as his personal pillow and was generally very touchy which Seokmin had never been the biggest fan of.

Seokmin had met the two at the park one day when he was six, he dropped ice cream on Joshua's new shoes and proceeded to grab the shoes of the then strangers feet and flail them wildly around his head whilst apologising profusely in attempt to clean the shoes which made the two older boys burst out laughing and they allowed him to stick around after the shoes were cleaned with a better method than little Seokmin's attempt to become a human helicopter.

Verkwan became friends in middle school and almost instantly started dating because of their shared love for blueberries, a very important quality when you're nine, their friends at the time figured it would last a week but it had been almost nine years and even though they were still young they just seemed to balance each other out perfectly.

They then joined the other three when they reached high school. At the beginning of the year, Seungkwan being the socialite that he is, easily found the group that he found the most entertaining, mainly for his antics with Seokmin as they were both so extravagant.

So there they were on a bench under their favourite cherry tree, the lunch bell rang and they headed to their respective classes and waited for the day to be over, It was December 23rd and the day of the ceremony drew ever closer as the bell for the end of classes eventually rang out.

Jeonghan slung his bag over his back and walked home with his brother he had picked up from middle school, Yoon Sanha, who began animatedly talking about his day and persisted in reminding Jeonghan about the ceremony. That seemed to be all anyone would talk about much to his displeasure.

"We're home~~" Sanha chimed, in a tone not dissimilar to how Seungkwan tended to announce his presence as he pushed open the door. Their mother softly smiled from where she stood at the kitchen island chopping vegetables to acknowledge their presence. Jeonghan dragged himself up to his room after a long day of painful lessons that didn't really peak his interest at all and face planted onto his bed. As he looked around his room, majority painted sky blue and white he just felt, with lack of better way to describe it, meh.

He truly believed he was better off in Odera, in Healina they are told Odera is filled with alcohol, parties, sex addicts and general ruffians - it's where all the outcasts live so Healina could be perfect. Jeonghan wasn't perfect. He lied, he cheated and he didn't bring purpose to anyone's lives, in his mind at least. His test scores told him he was incredible but his eyes won't cheat or lie, they'll decide if he's worthy and if he was honest he'd open up and say that was terrifying. Of course, true to form, he wasn't honest and tried to push away the ideas of how his family would react to their angel being a disgusting Oderian. He wanted a fresh start but being thrust into a culture he had basically no idea about wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

He cut off his thoughts, it wasn't going to happen.

Joshua and Seokmin walked home together as they lived pretty close, Seokmin cursed himself for having what he saw as an obvious crush on the well presented boy beside him but to everyone else he was just Seokmin the fun loving goofball with the sunshine smile, he was just kind to Joshua as he was to everyone else.

"Hey Seok?" Seokmin smiled at the nickname, "Yeah Shua?" He replied.

"Do you think it would be cute if i asked out Jeonghan at the ceremony?" Oh. Seokmin's smile faded as his brain tried to process the various different messages going through his mind. "Y-you like Jeonghan, like as in like like him like that?" Joshua giggled at Seokmin's excessive use of the word like, assuming he was reacting this way since he'd never said anything about it. "Well yeah, we've known each other for years, he's basically a koala around me and it makes sense, no one else has expressed that interest in me so it seems like the next step." All Seokmin felt at this point was regret, he should've been bolder. With Seungkwan he could be expressive and loud but with Joshua he found himself being unable to reveal his true feelings. "I mean if you think you'd be happy." Seokmin said, notably quieter than before the subject came up.

"Yeah, I think I would be." Joshua replied and began daydreaming about the scenario, oblivious to Seokmin's true feelings. They reached the street where they parted and walked their separate ways.