𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭│𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐮 ✓

97

Healina

"Jeonghan's party will pale in comparison." Joshua nodded confidently as he looked at the excessively decorated front room. "Do they have cocktail sausages in Odera? I bet they don't, I win again!"

"Shua please," Seokmin laughed at how serious Joshua seemed to be. "It's the last day of the year, we have a lot to celebrate just stop competing with him already."

"Never." Joshua smiled. "Next years going to be a fresh start for all of us, no one is attending the ceremony, Seungkwan got an apprenticeship at Pledis, we're going to be working full time and Vernon's got that music degree he's thinking of." He nodded firmly to himself, it seemed that all the derailment from the year had actually put his plans back on track, not without minor editing but he found he was happy, really happy.

"Okay well don't go jinxing it now, everyone will be here any minute." Seokmin said, flattening out his dress shirt he'd decided to put on, it'd just be their small group of friends but he still wanted to look nice and Joshua definitely wasn't complaining.

Minutes later there was a knock at the door, "The favourite is here~" The voice chimed, "Bohee you can just open it." Seokmin called. "Well I would but-"

Hearing the struggle in her voice, Seokmin ended up opening the door to reveal Bohee with an extravagant box of alcohol, "Bohee why would you-"

"Oh come on Seok, you could go on a murderous rampage and still go to Healina just loosen up a little." Bohee smiled, pushing past him and placing it on their counter.

"I'm not sure about this," Joshua commented in a warning tone, "Oh come on, you too? We've already had our ceremony, what are they going to do, throw you out?" She laughed at Joshua before he could answer, pulling a can of beer out of its packaging and throwing it to him. "I'm hardly going to roofie you, I think you're alright."

Seokmin looked confused, "What's a roofie?" Bohee just shook her head, it was true not all Healinans were as sheltered as the pair. They both ended up accepting the drinks anyway and soon Vernon was at the door.

"Is Seungkwan here yet?" He asked, eyes darting around the room. "No, you're fine." Vernon let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, "Okay I'm just really nervous and I don't want to make this awkward-"

"Hey." Seungkwan said from behind him. Vernon whipped his head around to meet the older's eyes and stood there speechless. To Seungkwan, it felt strange to see him again, part of him still angry and the other half just wanting to jump into his arms and apologise himself. "Hey." Vernon nodded a safe distance apart.

The silence persisted as they stood there frozen for an exorbitant amount of time.

"This is hard to watch, you two promise me you're not going to ruin my party with this tension and just relax for tonight?" Bohee spoke up from behind them. Seungkwan broke into a soft smile, "We won't." He said with genuine reassurance as he nodded to Vernon to solidify that statement, after all it was their last night of the year.

"This is hardly a party, it's more of a sad excuse for a middle school sleepover." Bohee complained, an hour in and both Seokmin and Joshua had only had about three sips of their drinks and Seungkwan's promise was faltering as awkwardness sat between him and Vernon.

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm having lots of fun." Joshua complained, he didn't appreciate insult toward his party, "Vernon and Seungkwan have been glancing at each other for the entire time and I can't stand it, we have to do something."

Bohee clapped her hands together, drawing the attention of the four boys, "We're playing a drinking game, beer pong, let's go." She said, already approaching the kitchen cabinets since she doubted Seokmin and Joshua would have any solo cups hanging around. "Bohee how do you even know about this stuff?" Joshua said, baffled. "I'll have you know, you're not my only friends." She winked.

When Seokmin first met the girl her attire suggested she was as innocent as can be but her attempt to break the boys out of their shell was amusing so he went with it and dragged Joshua with him. Vernon shrugged and joined them along with Seungkwan. 

"How do you play, is there drinking involved?" Joshua stared blankly at the weird setup of miscellaneous mugs and cups. "You'd think you would've been to at least one party before, wow and of course there is drinking involved." Bohee sighed, these kids were hopeless. She explained the rules and split them into two teams, "Joshua and Seokmin then Vernon and Seungkwan, I'll just watch." She smiled, she knew what she was doing but she hoped some light drinking would ease the awkward aura between the two youngest. They looked at each other warily but said nothing.

"YES LET'S GO!" Seokmin howled half way through the first game, "Seok you've had two cups." Joshua laughed but was feeling equally as competitive as they watched Seungkwan reluctantly sink his first from Joshua's favourite constellation mug. There wasn't much to be celebrating considering Vernon had become quite good at it very quickly, already scoring three times when Seokmin's was their first one.

"How do people drink this stuff?" Seungkwan asked, shooting Seokmin a dirty look for sealing his fate. "It's not so bad." Bohee shrugged.

By the second game they'd loosened up a bit, the tension dissipated and Joshua had stopped fussing over everything. "Shua you've got this." Seokmin encouraged, "That statement would be more likely to be true if you'd get off me." Joshua huffed, trying to prise Seokmin off of his waist with little success. They only needed to get one more to win the second round, Vernon watching with a focused brow while Seungkwan just smiled happily, cheeks reddening as he processed his fourth drink.

Joshua threw the ball and erupted into a cheer as it landed in the cup, kissing a very taken aback Seokmin in celebration. Bohee howled as Vernon collapsed next to Seungkwan in defeat, the older had found himself spacing out on the couch a few rounds ago.

He was upset he lost the second game but the cheers of the three older seemed to melt away as he looked at Seungkwan, whispering a soft "I miss you." He was sure he'd forget. "You too," He heard in an almost inaudible mumble and at that moment Vernon beamed, they could fix this. Of course, in this state it was just words and he wasn't going to take advantage of that but Seungkwan missed him. That piece of mind was enough.

He was brought back into reality when an arm was slung around his shoulder, "Look at them, gross isn't it?" Bohee said with a smile, pointing over at Seokmin and Joshua who were still dancing around through short kisses at their victory. "Yeah," He laughed, "Do you have a girlfriend Bohee?" Curiosity peaking his mind.

"Why, finally over Seungkwan?" She winked, "I'm just kidding, used to but it's the classic story. Had a girlfriend once, the ceremony happened, now I don't." She said casually, only slightly tipsy but enough to speak about such things when she'd usually never talk about herself. "Oh, I'm sorry." Vernon said as his eyes couldn't help but wonder to a certain blonde boy on the couch, "Why do you ask?"

"Curious, you said you have other friends but I haven't really seen you hang out with anyone else so just wondering." Bohee hummed in contemplation, "Well, maybe one day I'll introduce you."

At first Vernon was the only one slightly skeptical of the girl that had managed to slot her way into their little group but he trusted her enough now to just smile happily.

As the conversation lulled she snapped out of it, jumping up once again. "Now who wants to play some strip poker!" She proclaimed, pulling out a pack of cards from her pocket that had somehow gone unnoticed the whole time.

"NO!" Three of the boys said in unison, excluding Seungkwan who had promptly fallen asleep on the couch. One thing to note about Bohee is she always got her way and let's just say Seokmin ended that day with a little less dignity than when it had begun.

But alas, the year was over for them and nothing was stopping them from moving on with their lives. They all needed a break, ready for all the hardships to just be over so they could feel like themselves again.

How unaware they were of the storm that was to come.

-

That was the last Healina chapter before the ceremony, I'm excited