SANCTUARY

chapter 28

Haechan ended the call and pocketed his phone.

"Don't listen to that bullshit," Haechan gritted his teeth as if he had heard it before. "This is like one of her old tricks."

Even though I hated her for what she had done to Haechan, there was a lingering thought that was stuck. It felt like she was sincere, but seeing Haechan pissed, I didn't bring it up.

"Let's go home?", I suggested and he nodded in agreement.

When we had arrived at the apartment, we were surprised by the presence of Jisung who was watching movies with Jeno and Jaemin. We crashed the living room and Haechan smirked at Jisung.

"How was your date?", Haechan teased his younger friend. Jisung reacted in a shy way. He didn't say much. "C'mon, don't deny it. I even have a picture."

"Ah, Haechan!", Jisung covered his face with his hands. He stayed like that until he decided to clarify the situation we saw. "I asked her out on a friendly date and confessed. She ended up rejecting me. I decided to not be sour and treated her out for some pastries at a café. I took it well."

The mood went down after hearing our youngest getting rejected.

"Here, Jisung, I have some chocolate for you," I offered as I handed over the chocolate bars to Jisung. They were from Haechan's mother. To my surprise, he had held out his hand and declined them. "I thought you liked chocolate?"

"I got traumatized," Jisung muttered, staring at the chocolate with utmost hate in his eyes.

"Why?"

"He didn't want to tell you but he got hospitalized after eating the chocolates you gave to him a couple of months ago," Jaemin informed me, which shocked me entirely."Jeno had to take a leave to take care of him and the same for me. It was traumatizing for him."

"Jisung, why didn't you tell me? You could've been honest to me."

"It was from you and I didn't want you to feel bad because you always give me snacks," Jisung lowly uttered, his head dropping down. "Besides, it's okay. You don't eat chocolate. At least you weren't affected."

"Apparently it was theobromine poisoning. The thing is that Jisung didn't eat much of the chocolate," Jeno added information about the past incident. "The chocolate seemed to be tampered with but the doctors let it slide."

"That's impossible, the chocolate was sealed perfectly. It must've been a company mistake. Those chocolates were from...", I suddenly stopped speaking when I realized who the chocolates were from. "Mark..."

The terrified voice of Haechan's ex, who was now Mark's girlfriend, rang through my head.

"Do you actually think..."

"Haechan, I'll call the police. Even if she had hurt you, she doesn't deserve to die," I said as I took my phone out and immediately contacted the police.