𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

67

Healina

A month on, no sign Sanha, a mother in ruins and four boys just trying to move on.

The funeral was hard, lots of tears, Seungkwan still blaming himself, only the four boys there, all very macabre in a kingdom that stood for light. Vernon paid for it with his parents money, not like they were around enough to notice anyway. All four boys found themselves stuck in this jarring time with each just trying to move on when they had been reduced to so little.

"How've you been doing Mrs.Yoon?" Seokmin asked, entering her house with a bunch of groceries and Joshua at his side. The pair had been visiting her biweekly since everything had happened.

"Same as usual," She lamented, her face was gaunt with even her dog Hannie looking dreary who lay slumped on her lap. Seokmin pouted, approaching her for a warm hug and Joshua did the same, he acted like a lost puppy when visiting Mrs.Yoon, she never commented on Joshua's promise to protect her son but deep down he felt like he was the cause of it all so he just mimicked Seokmin's every action whilst in the once vibrant house.

"We got everything you asked for, Joshua paid for it all so you don't have to worry about that," Mrs.Yoon frowned a little, "You know Joshua you don't have to be so timid, none of this is your fault, the Joshie I used to know would laugh and scream all the time, remember when you decided to paint little clouds all over the walls with Jeongan?" She smiled lightly and Joshua let out a faint chuckle at the memory, "I know Mrs.Yoon," Her comforts didn't comfort him but he was trying to move on.

When the pair left the house Joshua let out a sigh, turning to face Seokmin he noticed just how dishevelled his friend looked. "Seok, you shouldn't work yourself too hard, everyone's been emotional recently and you've got your course, your job, visiting Mrs.Yoon and then you spend the rest of the time entertaining me, take some time for yourself," Seokmin put his arm around Joshua, pulling him closer, "The fact that you care is enough for me, don't worry,"

"Just me caring isn't going to fix those eye bags, get some sleep, idiot,"

Seungkwan was different, his usual lively behaviour replaced with caution and doubt, it killed Vernon to see him acting so differently but neither of them could shake his guilt.

"I'm starting to drop in my course but it's okay, I'm not sure if it's for me anyway," Seungkwan said, staring down at his report card. The comment left Vernon stunned, "You're the most vibrant person I know and you've been talking about presenting and stuff since we were kids! Please don't let this get in the way of your future, we can move on," They were sat on Vernon's bed after a long day and usually Seungkwan would thank him for dismissing his irrational ideas but this time Vernon turned to see a look of anger, "Get in the way?! Are you saying that's all Minghao's death was to you, something in the way? I thought you were supposed to be the closest to you since he adored you so much,"

"Kwannie that's not what I-"

"Don't start with the 'Kwannie' shit, maybe you didn't mean it but it's what you said, you spend so much time just drifting through life like none of it even matters," Vernon didn't like it when Seungkwan was mad, it was extremely rare but all his brain was telling him to do was find a way to fix it. He tried to hold Seungkwan's shoulders to calm him down but he was shrug off, "Seungkwan you need to relax, we can work through this easier if we're calm," He tried to reason.

Seungkwan found himself more and more frustrated at Vernon's passiveness, "Why can't you just argue at me back?! It makes me feel like such an asshole when I'm always the one shouting at you but I just don't know how else to get across that I'm just so sick of this," He said defeated.

"Sick of this?" Vernon said cautiously, "I'm sick of feeling so low all the time and you trying to fix it, I feel like it was all my fault and still you're comforting me when you were his main friend. I'm sick of being so terrible and you just saying it's okay," Seungkwan was crying now and Vernon didn't know what to do, comforting him was what he was good at but after Seungkwan's confession all he could do was watch.

There was an inbalance, all four felt a lot more alone than when Jeonghan was around, there was hope Minghao would fill that hole for them but now all four just felt out of place in their own kingdom.

Even if they refused to believe it, they were crumbling.

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This fic just reached 10K, thank you so much for all the support - votes and comments really motivate me to keep writing 💕💕💕

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