Regrettably, Hansol skipped waiting for Joshua in the morning to go find Chan. He didn't even have to look for the boy, Hansol knew exactly where he'd be.
He walked into the practice room unannounced and scanned the four faces inside to see which one was Chan.
"I'm sorry, this is a private session, can I help you?" one of the boys said—if Hansol wasn't mistaken his name was Soonyoung.
"I need to talk to Lee Chan," Hansol said.
Three boys turned to Chan.
Chan nodded and led Hansol out of the room. "Go on without me, I'll catch up," Chan said to his friends before closing the door.
"Hi Hansol," Chan said, "is something wrong?"
"I came to talk to you about my sister," Hansol said.
Chan started to speak but Hansol put up a hand to shush him. "I'm not mad at you—Sophia didn't explain that well what happened so I'm not going to blindly blame you without any reason. I just came to say that she'd really upset, she said she felt bad for what she said. All she wants is for you to call her back." His speech sounded like he'd memorized it from somewhere—he really wasn't good with this relationship and feelings stuff.
"I've been trying but she's not picking up, and now with my tight schedule with SCA coming up I haven't been able to sit down with her, and I know it sounds like an excuse, but I've been trying Hansol, I really have. I realized how stupid I was, and I get why she got upset and yelled at me—I don't blame her. I'm going to fix this Hansol, I promise."
"I'm not the one you need to promise to," Hansol said. "Call her and tell her everything you just told me."
Chan nodded with determination. "I will."
"Alright, that was all. I'll let you get back to your friends."
"Thanks. I'll see you later Hansol." Chan bowed and went back to the practice room.
Joshua tried not to think about the fact that he again didn't see Hansol waiting for him in the parking lot—it was selfish of him, thinking that Hansol was there just for him. Maybe Hansol was waiting for someone else and that person stopped showing up too, or, maybe Hansol overslept and wasn't able to come on time.
As Joshua approached his locker, he saw Hansol coming down the hall. So he came early then… He flashed Joshua a smile and kept walking. He eyed Hansol's clothes—cool and casual as always—jeans and a white shirt with a red-and-blue plaid button up shirt on top.
Joshua fished out what he needed from his locker and headed to class.
Jeonghan finally joined Joshua and the others at lunch—with reddened cheeks.
"I don't even need to guess because I know it's Seungcheol," Seungkwan said.
Jeonghan blushed even harder. "Yeah…"
"I don't think I've ever seen you blush, Jeonghan," Joshua said.
Jeonghan tried covering his face. "I'm not blushing."
Joshua rolled his eyes. Jeonghan, the school's biggest flirt that always made others blush, was blushing.
Once Jeonghan had collected himself, he said, "So, Seungcheol and his friends are going out to Fazzano Saturday night to celebrate making the SCA audition cuts and he asked if we wanted to join them."
"Count me in," Seungkwan said.
"Me too," Jihoon and Seokmin both said.
They all looked to Joshua.
"You're coming," Jeonghan said.
"I'm not sure…" Joshua said.
"Why not?!" Seungkwan asked in disbelief.
"Parties aren't really my thing…" Joshua said.
"But it's to celebrate!" Seokmin protested.
"We don't even know if I made the cuts yet," Joshua said.
"Look at it this way," Jeonghan said, "if you make the cuts, we celebrate, if you don't, we drink ourselves into oblivion until we forget it."
"Come on Jisoo," Seungkwan said.
"Even I'm going Joshua," Jihoon said.
They all looked at him with hopeful smiles.
"Okay, okay, I'll go!"
There was a chorus of "yay's" right as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and they all rushed to class.
"So… Joshua's going over to your house today?" Mingyu said.
Hansol rolled his eyes. "He's just coming over for dinner—because our parents are friends."
"Just leave the boy alone," Seungcheol said—who had finally joined them for lunch that week, with a very smug look on his face.
"You should make a move on Joshua," Mingyu went on despite Seungcheol's warning.
"This is why I didn't want to tell you about Joshua!" Hansol exclaimed, a bit too loud. "I don't want to make a move on him," he said, quieter this time, "so shut your mouth."
Mingyu shrunk back and didn't say anything else about it.
"Are you guys excited about Saturday?" Seungcheol said, changing the subject. "I invited Jeonghan and his friends, if that's okay?"
"The more the merrier," Mingyu said, recovering his cheery attitude. "I'll call Fazzano to—ah, Wonwoo, stop."
Hansol and Seungcheol eyed Mingyu and Wonwoo; the former was covering his face to hide a blush and the latter was trying to hide a smirk.
"I'm gonna go," Hansol said, "I have some stuff to do," he lied. He took his stuff and left the cafeteria. He was surrounded by couples. He needed some time with people that didn't constantly think about a significant other—or alone.
He opted for alone.
Trying to be subtle, Hansol snuck to the roof—a place where no one was going to bother him. He set his bag down and took out the lyrics he'd written the previous night. He went over them a few times while eating the rest of his lunch. Hansol shoved his things back in his bag and tossed it aside.
It was so quiet and peaceful on the roof, Hansol could spend hours there. He put his earbuds in and hit play.
Not long after, he felt his eyelids droop and slowly fell asleep.
Hansol woke up to his phone vibrating in his hand. He rubbed the blurriness from his eyes and looked down at his phone.
Wonwoo 3 missed calls
Mingyu 5 missed calls
Seungcheol 2 missed calls
Sophia 4 missed calls
Wonwoo incoming call
Hansol snapped out of his haze and answered the phone.
"Where the hell are you?" Wonwoo said as soon as he answered.
"On the roof, why?" Hansol replied.
"Why the hell are you on the roof? Hansol do you know what time it is?" Wonwoo asked.
Hansol moved the phone away from his ear and checked the time. If he hadn't been awake then, he was now.
"Fuck," he muttered, scrambling up to get his things.
"We've been calling you for the past half hour. Did you fall asleep Hansol?"
"I would assume so," Hansol replied, already opening the door of to the building and going down the stairs. "My mom's gonna kill me," Hansol muttered to himself.
"She thinks you're staying after to study with a friend," Wonwoo said, "you're welcome."
"Thanks," Hansol said. "Look, will you just tell everyone I'm fine? I have to get home and get ready for that stupid dinner."
"Yeah, I'll let them know. Try not to fall asleep next time, Hansol, we were worried sick about you."
"You were?"
"What do you mean 'you were?' of course we were you asshole, we're your friends. We care about you. Now hurry the fuck up before you miss Joshua." Wonwoo hung up, not giving Hansol a chance to reply.
"You look great Jisoo, stop worrying," Jeonghan said, straightening the wrinkles on Joshua's pink button up shirt.
"Don't you think it's too formal?" Joshua asked.
"It's perfect, the shirt's fancy but the jeans make it casual."
"He's missing something," Seungkwan said, he pushed Jeonghan aside and started to unbutton Joshua's shirt.
"Seungkwan! What are you doing?"
"I'm unbuttoning your shirt what's it look like I'm doing," Seungkwan said, all the while Joshua tried to push him away, "you know, for Hansol."
Joshua managed to get Seungkwan away from him and started buttoning up the buttons that the other boy had undone.
"Who's Hansol?" Jeonghan asked.
"One of Seungcheol's friends—Joshua thinks he's cute," Seungkwan replied for Joshua.
"Isn't he straight though?" Jeonghan asked.
"He is," Joshua said, glaring at Seungkwan, "which is why I only think he's cute—as in, 'he's good looking'—nothing else."
Seungkwan didn't look convinced, but Jeonghan looked like he'd believed him—or at least pretended.
"Alright, hurry up, you're going to be late," Jeonghan said, almost pushing Joshua out the door.
"Mom why do I have to wear this?"
"You're already late, stop complaining," Hansol's mother snapped. She tossed him a white wool vest. "Wear that too it'll look nice."
"Why all white?" Hansol whined.
"Because white looks good on you, now stop complaining." She left the room, saying, "take a shower and get dressed," as the door closed.
Hansol wanted to wear a black hoodie and call it a day but he didn't want his mother yelling at him any more than she already had, so he showered and put on the white button up shirt and wool vest his mom told him to then went downstairs.
Joshua and his parents hadn't arrived yet so Hansol and Sophia were told to wait in the living room.
"Did you talk to Chan?" Hansol asked.
"Yeah, he called me. He said he was sorry and that he never meant for any of it to happen. We're fine now," Sophia replied. "What about you? Do you have your eye on anyone?"
Hansol shook his head. "No one has stood out to me," he lied.
"Hey, what happened to you today? Wonwoo said you fell asleep somewhere but he didn't go into details," Sophia said.
"You're probably going to laugh at me but at lunch I snuck off to the roof and accidentally fell asleep," Hansol confessed.
Sophia let out a giggle. "Really? You fell asleep on the roof of the school?"
Hansol nodded. "Yup."
The doorbell rang and Hansol and Sophia stood up to greet the guests.
Joshua had never seen Hansol dressed so nice—he liked it. It gave Hansol a sense of purity, especially in white.
They greeted each other respectably and soon after, Hansol's mother led them to the dining room. The table was covered in an assortment of sushi and a few Korean dishes.
"Why don't the three of you sit on that end?" Hansol's mother said, speaking to Joshua, Hansol, and Sophia.
The three nodded and sat down where Hansol's mother had suggested.
"Tomorrow's the big day," Joshua said, his attempt at small talk.
"Yeah…" Hansol said, "You nervous?"
"Aren't you?" Joshua said.
"A bit," Hansol said.
Joshua tried one of the sushis, it was one of the best he'd ever had. "This is really good," he said, not even done chewing.
"My mom's friend makes it; all of the fish is fresh. She catches them herself," Hansol's sister, Sophia, said.
"No wonder it's so good," Joshua said.
"Hansol doesn't like it all that much though," Sophia said.
Joshua turned to see that Hansol's plate did not have a single sushi on it. "Why not?"
Hansol shrugged. "I don't know, I just don't like the taste I guess."
"Hansol, will you pass me the japchae?" Sophia asked.
Hansol nodded and lifted the bowl of food to pass it across the table to his sister; as he extended his arm, he hit a bottle of soy sauce, spilling its contents all over the table.
Hansol set the bowl down immediately and tried to stop the liquid before it fell on Joshua's lap, but he wasn't fast enough. Brown liquid was spreading on Joshua's light-colored jeans like a drop of food coloring in water.
"I am so sorry," Hansol said, already handing Joshua napkins. "I didn't mean for this to happen, Joshua—"
"Hansol, it's fine, it's just a pair of jeans," Joshua said. He saw how worried Hansol had gotten.
The adults had their heads turned in their direction.
"What happened Hansol?" His mother asked.
"I just spilled some soy sauce on myself," Joshua replied before Hansol could.
"Hansol, why don't you lend Joshua a pair of pants?" Hansol's mother asked.
Hansol nodded to his mother. "Come on, I'll get you something clean," he said to Joshua.
Joshua got up and followed Hansol to his room.
Hansol rummaged through his closet to find a pair of pants for Joshua; he took the first pair of jeans he thought would fit him—although it might still end up slightly big due to Joshua's smaller frame.
"It might be a little big," Hansol said as he handed Joshua the pants.
Joshua took the jeans. "Thanks," he said with a flash of his classic smile. Joshua's expression changed. "I think you got some soy sauce on your sleeve." He took Hansol's wrist and turned it over for Hansol to see. He tried not to flinch at Joshua's touch.
"Oh, thanks."
Once Joshua had closed the door to the bathroom, Hansol practically ripped the shirt from his chest. The button up was tight and uncomfortable and the wool vest was making him sweat. He looked through his closet for something his mother would've deemed appropriate for a dinner—a simple long sleeve black shirt.
He was almost finished putting his shirt on when Hansol heard the bathroom door open. He shoved the rest of his shirt down, almost positive Joshua had seen some of his back, and turned around.
Joshua looked better in his pants than he did.
"The black suits you," Joshua said.
"Thanks," Hansol said, a bit sheepishly. "Let me put that in a bag for you," Hansol said, holding out his hands for Joshua's dirty pants.
"Thank you," Joshua said; he handed his pants to Hansol, who had to hold himself back from flinching at the brush of Joshua's fingers.
