𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

76

Healina

The day passed by slowly for Seokmin, another lesson spent absentmindedly staring into space as Bohee animatedly recalled events from the previous night which did actually manage to cheer him up a bit, even if it was just a little. He was going to have to face Joshua today and frankly he had no idea what he was going to say but he knew this had all been building up, Joshua was going to find out soon and there was very little Seokmin could do about that.

As it turns out, he didn't have to do anything.

"Good afternoon Seokmin," Joshua said, wiggling his eyebrows as he placed his lunch on their bench.

"Good... afternoon?" Seokmin replied hesitantly, not at all expecting the strangely chipper attitude that came from the older.

"I know your little secret," Joshua smiled, grabbing Seokmin's hands and linking them together from across the table, eyes suddenly becoming serious. In that moment Seokmin could've passed out, this was how he died.

"Seokmin I-"

"Oh my god did he work it out?!" They were interrupted by Seungkwan who had ran over to the scene of the two boys holding hands, "Y-Yeah I think he did," Seokmin gulped as Joshua just smiled warmly. "Congratulations!" Seungkwan burst out, unable to conceive that the mental battle he'd been going through could finally be put to rest.

"But how do you feel about it?" Seokmin dared to ask, face becoming redder by the second as his brain failed to catch up with reality. "Happy, really happy actually, it all makes a lot more sense now." Joshua nodded, content with how it was going despite not expecting the two other boys to be so intense about it.

Seungkwan let out a squeal and soon after Bohee came bounding up to the table. "What's going on?" She asked, "Bohee did you tell Joshua about Seokmin?" Seungkwan asked. "No way, did he find out?! That's so super incredible I'm so happy!" She exclaimed, hugging Seungkwan in celebration who was startled at first but soon returned the hug.

"I worked it out by myself actually," Joshua said proudly. "Really, it took you this long?" Seokmin chuckled back, swinging their hands lightly in the surreal moment.

"What do you mean this long, I only met Bohee yesterday. Sorry about how I acted by the way, you're dating, that's it right?" Joshua said in full confidence as everyone around just completely shut down. Seungkwan's giddy celebration turned into a look of pure dread as Joshua's statement hung in the air awkwardly, Seokmin's face instantly going blank. It wasn't even a fun trope at this point, it was just incredibly frustrating so Seokmin decided to change that.

"Shua can you stand up for a second?" Seokmin asked, no emotion in his voice. Joshua complied to the strange request and stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, Seokmin's gaze strong and Seungkwan and Bohee in the back watching intently.

Seokmin then stood up, Joshua's eyes flicking around in distress as he honestly thought he was about to get punched. Instead he felt two arms rest on his shoulders that slowly climbed to the nape of his neck.

"Idiot." Seokmin mumbled before finally pressing their lips together, he was so tired of dancing around it and all the obliviousness, he didn't care if this was going to ruin what they had, he didn't care if this would be the only time he'd get to feel this sensation.

Joshua felt his entire being rush out his body, with one simple action all his barriers had been broken down; his synapses firing so fast he couldn't even begin to react to what was happening to him.

Seokmin pulled away when he felt no reaction from the older, their eyes meeting each other. "I-" Joshua began, unable to make sense of anything. Behind the layers of frustration, Seokmin's eyes held deep seated fear for what he had done.

They were meant to be the pure ones, the morally just ones that always cared about the people around them and kept a fine composure all the time but in that moment they were an ugly, terrified disarray of undiscovered emotion and termoil.

With that, celebration turned to distress as Joshua backed away slowly, scanning Seokmin's reddening eyes like he didn't even know who they belonged to anymore before running, running far far away from all the pain.

Seokmin dropped to his knees and wept when time finally decided to catch up to him. Vernon, who had only approached the group right before Seokmin leaned in, had taken off to find Joshua as Seungkwan and Bohee instantly rushed to Seokmin.

"He hates me, he really hates me doesn't he? I-I'm going to be shipped off to Odera because I can't do anything right, I try so hard to care about everyone but him, I can't believe I did that without him saying it was okay I'm-" Seokmin was cut off as Bohee squished his face to her chest, not minding the way his tears stained her clothes, "Shhh Minnie, shhh," She cooed, going into instant mothering mode as soon as she saw him breakdown.

Seungkwan was busy clearing other students away from the scene with mild threats as the whole event had drawn quite a lot of attention, it wasn't your everyday scene in the generally quite uptight university.

It was going to happen eventually but no one had predicted it would be like this, so gracelessly.

Seungkwan soon returned to the pair on the floor as the bell for the next lessons ran out, not like any of them cared, it was the least of their problems. Upon their eyes meeting, Seungkwan also felt himself tearing up, he'd seen all the pain, all the hidden feelings, all the holding back as if it was his own. Bohee let Seokmin fall from her arms to Seungkwan's as they both cried, Seungkwan placing light kisses on top of Seokmin's head in reassurance.

"Stop crying, you're making me cry," Seungkwan sniffled while stroking the back of his head. Bohee scanned the area for any signs of the other two but they were no where in sight.

Meanwhile, Vernon had ended up at a crossroads in the middle of a street not too far from the university, he had no idea where Joshua could've gone.