𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

77

Healina

Vernon met the trio in the middle of the campus, they hadn't moved an inch from where he left them.

"Where's Joshua?" Bohee asked, surprisingly the only one of the three who was composed enough to ask. "I lost him," Vernon sighed, kneeling down to pull apart the sobbing boys. Personally he thought everyone was being rather dramatic, "So we either go to class or go look for him," He said, adding onto his comment to Bohee as he pulled out a tissue from his pocket and wiped up Seungkwan and Seokmin's tears calmly.

"Go back to class, are you kidding?! We've got to go find him before he does something even more stupid if that as even possible, I swear I have known this boy for two days and already the pure idiocy I have experienced makes me unable to fathom how he can be one of the most accredited students in the university! How can one person with all that intelligence be such a dumb little-"

"BOHEE!"

"Sorry I'm getting off track," She laughed nervously, she had a tendency to rant, especially in these sorts of situations.

Standing up, Seungkwan managed to gain a bit of composure and gave a hand to Seokmin as well. "We need to work out where he's most likely to be before we go so we don't end up running around the whole of Healina." Seungkwan said, trying his best just to focus on Joshua.

"I can only think of his house." Seokmin replied quietly, the older was rarely seen anywhere else other than the University, his own house and Seokmin's. His mind was too clouded to think of anything else so the group complied and ditched their lessons to try to find Joshua.

"He's not here sweetie, is everything okay?" Said Joshua's mother when the group finally reached his house, she was rarely home but a look of slight panic spread across her face as she realised they should really still be in class.

"Everything is fine Mrs Hong." Seokmin bowed unconvincingly, trying to give a bright smile despite his red eyes but she slowly nodded and shut the door anyway. "Any luck?" Bohee asked, sat on the lawn waiting with the two other boys. Seokmin shook his head.

Honestly, he didn't want to face Joshua at that moment but he needed to, it would eat away at him if he didn't get to apologise and try and make things work. It was of mutual understanding that Seungkwan, Vernon and Bohee would let Seokmin and Joshua sort it out themselves as soon as they found him.

They started to give up hope of finding him after an hour of scouting the nearby streets, none of them able to crack the usual light jokes that would come with these sorts of journeys; the whole experience was just a mix of worry and anticipation of what would actually happen if they found him. Eventually they split up, Joshua was the opposite of irrational and spontaneous so they'd figured he must be safe but that didn't ease their consciences.

Seokmin had been looking at his phone trying desperately to contact the older, unaware of where exactly he was going until he found himself in a place he hadn't been in many years. Behind the row of neatly allotted houses where both he and Joshua lived stood a simple play park, nothing special about it but a few benches, swings, a seesaw and a slide.

Lo and behold, that's where Joshua was sat, legs crossed on one of the benches, ice cream in hand. Where they first met.

Seokmin looked up from his phone eventually, setting his eyes on the nostalgic scene until his eyes caught onto the back of him.

He stood frozen for a few seconds before bravely forcing himself to march up to the bench, texting a quick 'found him' to calm the others. Without a word he sat down next to him, facing forward in the same direction as Joshua was, both not moving their eyes an inch.

"Do you ever wish you could go back?" Joshua spoke slowly.

"What do you mean?" Seokmin replied, trying his best to keep his voice neutral.

"Hop in a time machine and start over again with your newly acquired knowledge of what was going to happen, do you think you'd do it?"

"I don't know, maybe. I think life would be a bit boring if you were aware of everything that was going to happen, trying to prevent it would just lead to a different future you're equally as unaware of so it seems a little futile, don't you think?"

"I think I'd do a lot differently if I had my time again but at the same time you're right, would it be any better? Probably not."

"Yeah."

There was a jarring silence for Seokmin, he didn't know what Joshua was getting at but couldn't bring himself to turn and face him, only seeing him take small licks of his ice cream from the corner of his eye.

That was until he couldn't take it any more, his apology wanting to burst out of him so much he felt like he was about to explode. He finally turned his head, "Look Joshua I didn't-" He stopped when their eyes finally locked. He thought he was in a bad state but the red puffy cheeks and two streaks from his tear stained cheeks told Seokmin he'd really messed up, Joshua felt even worse than him.

"I-I'm sorry Seok," He suddenly struggled out, tears activating again as his cool composure completely broke down, launching himself to wrap his arms around the younger. "I'm so stupid, I box up and label everything in my life and it's how I get by, I didn't mean to do that to you to, you're an amazing person with incredible amounts of empathy and kindness and care and it hurts me so much inside, my heart physically hurts because..."

Seokmin rubbed Joshua's back as he rambled out his words, "It's okay Shua, take your time, because...?" The ice cream fell out of Joshua's hands and onto the floor, falling messily onto both their shoes as the tension grew thick.

"Because I can't love you."