Strawberry Milk - Jeonglix

30

The mix of natural anxiety and a lack of sleep was not doing anything good for Jeongin when Felix's mum pulled up outside his house on Saturday afternoon. "Do you think they know you were gone?" Felix whispered, referring to his foster parents, but Jeongin didn't know what he wanted the answer to be.

"Probably not," he admitted, picking up his bag by his feet. "I'll see you soon if they didn't," he smiled, quickly pecking Felix on the lips as he pushed open the car door and started walking down his front garden.

Once Jeongin made it around the back of his house, he tapped on the window and saw Seungmin sitting at his desk. Seungmin looked at him with the same disappointed look he'd been sporting all week and Jeongin wished it would go away, but he didn't know if that would happen anytime soon. The window opened, but Seungmin didn't say anything to him. He went back to his desk, reading over a sheet of paper with one hand pressed against his neck and the other playing with the cross around his neck.

Jeongin didn't know what to say except 'thank you' as he climbed into the room and dropped his bag onto the bed. "Did anyone...notice I was gone?" He asked, taking off his shoes and throwing them under the bed after too long a silence passed.

"No."

"Oh..."

"Or maybe they did, I don't know. I wasn't here either," Seungmin mumbled, avoiding looking in Jeongin's direction but Jeongin could tell his mind wasn't on the paper in front of him.

"Where were you?"

Seungmin shrugged, "I thought you knew? I mean, you did say I sneak out every night to get fucked, so, if that's what you believe then so be it."

Jeongin's eyes widened, "I didn't...I didn't mean that. I don't remember saying it, I'm sorry."

Seungmin scoffed, "it doesn't matter. Did you find anything in London?" He asked, turning to face Jeongin for a brief moment, but that was all he needed to see the disappointed look on his face. "You didn't, did you?"

"No, I didn't," Jeongin admitted, trying to smile but it faltered. "I'll never know anything about my past family and I don't matter in this one either. I feel like I don't belong anywhere..."

Seungmin sighed, taking his turtleneck sweater from the back of his chair and pulling it over his head. He walked over to Jeongin's bed and sat down beside him. "You belong here, Innie. Rose and Justin may not pay much attention to you, but I do. Besides, it could be a good thing! Think of all the stuff you can get away with."

Jeongin scoffed, "you won't let me do any of the things I could get away with."

"Yeah, well...I won't be living here when I go off to university in a couple of months. Think about what you can do then."

Jeongin felt himself smiling, falling against Seungmin's shoulder as arms wrapped around his middle. "I'm sorry. I hate arguing with you and I miss you. Please can we go back to being ok?"

"I miss you too," Seungmin said, ruffling Jeongin's hair with one of his hands before kissing the top of his head, "let's never fall out like this again, yeah?"

"Yes, please," Jeongin nodded, moving closer to Seungmin and feeling the soft material of his sweater against his cheek, which raised a question, "why are you hiding your neck?"

"What? I'm not! It's just cold in here..."

"It's summertime?"

Seungmin fell silent before admitting, "fine...maybe you weren't wrong about the reason I sneak out."

Jeongin wished he hadn't asked.

🍓🍓🍓

The evening had barely hit and Hyunjin was already drunk. He hadn't gone out, he'd been drinking on the floor of his, Minho and Chan's living-room, a bottle of cheap vodka in his hands, all alone. Chan was at work and Minho was teaching a dance class. Hyunjin didn't have much to preoccupy his time with, so he passed it by drinking.