yeosang saw the incoming call from hongjoong and quickly exited the room, answering his best friend.

"hey joongie." yeosang answered the phone, making his way into the boy's bathroom for more privacy. he could hear hongjoong's sniffles on the other end of the phone, breaking yeosang's heart into a million pieces.

hongjoong doesn't usually cry, so when he does, you know he's really hurt.

"s-so he's r-re-really t-th-there?" hongjoong choked out, stuttering so much that it was hard for yeosang to even understand what he was saying.

"yeah, he really is. hongjoong, i'm so sorry. i didn't mean to stir the pot, but i felt like you needed to know about this. i'm not sure exactly why he's here, i didn't speak to him. jongho went over to say hi to his friends but i stayed back because big groups scare me and i saw him standing there." yeosang spoke softly to his friend, trying his best to calm the boy down.

"i-i'm sp-spee-eechless." hongjoong cried louder, shaking his head, "hang u-up p-please." yeosang did as he was asked and hung up the phone, no questions asked.

yeosang knew he did the right thing by telling hongjoong, but he couldn't help but feel guilty for what he did.

maybe i should've just left it alone... hongjoong wouldn't have known, and he wouldn't be hurting so much right now. but i'd never forgive myself if i didn't tell him, it's his right to know.

jongho looked back to where he left yeosang and noticed the boy wasn't there anymore. jongho furrowed his eyebrows, not sure where the boy could've went.

"sorry guys, i'll be right back." jongho excused himself from his friends and walked out of the cafeteria, looking around the hallway for yeosang.

where did he go?, jongho thought. maybe he went to the bathroom?

jongho made his way to the boy's bathroom and barged inside. at first, he didn't see yeosang in the room. but suddenly, jongho heard quiet sniffles coming from the far stall.

"yeosang?" jongho called out, making his way to the stall. he looked down and recognized the brown and black shoes yeosang was wearing, knowing the boy was behind the bathroom stall door, "sangie, what's wrong? can you open up? it's jongho."

yeosang hesitantly stood up from the toilet and opened the door, revealing his red tear-stained face to jongho. jongho immediately engulfed him in a hug, not bothering to ask what was wrong. he let yeosang cry on his shoulder, rubbing circles on his back to calm the boy down.

yeosang then put his hand out for jongho to give him his phone. jongho quickly went into his pocket and unlocked his phone, opening up the notes app for yeosang. yeosang began shakily typing, wiping his tears as his fingers moved across the phone.

'jongho, did you not realize that seonghwa was here tonight?'

"yeah i did, what about it?" jongho asked after reading yeosang's message, unsure of the issue at hand.

'he told joongie that he had a fiftieth birthday party for his aunt tonight, but he's at the formal? that makes no sense to me.' yeosang showed jongho his phone, tears still falling down his face. jongho quickly waved his hands in the air, knowing exactly how to respond to yeosang to fix the situation.

"yeah, but it got cancelled last minute! no hard feelings, he probably just forgot to tell joongie." jongho defended his friend, not seeing anything wrong with the situation.

yeosang rolled his eyes and typed again, 'really? are you stupid? you actually believe that?'

"yeah, why wouldn't i?" jongho asked with furrowed eyebrows.

'because... no big party like that gets cancelled two hours before the actual event. you have to think deeper... he obviously lied to hongjoong about the party. for whatever reason, he didn't want to take hongjoong.' yeosang showed jongho the phone. jongho's eyes widened as he read what yeosang wrote, finally processing everything at hand.

"oh my god..." he said, "you're definitely right. wow, how didn't i think of that?" jongho awkwardly laughed, covering his face with his hands in shock.

——

after a while of waiting for her son, hongjoong's mother realized how long it had been since hongjoong had gotten up to use the bathroom.

that's weird... he seemed really happy tonight, then all of a sudden after reading a text message he ran to the bathroom. i should go check on him.

chinsun stood up from her seat and quietly walked towards the bathroom, not wanting to scare her son. as she neared the bathroom, she heard loud sobs coming from inside. her heart started racing, not used to hearing sobs from her youngest son.

"baby, what's wrong? are you crying?" she started knocking, startling hongjoong a bit, "please open up for me. joongie, let me in."

hongjoong hesitated for a minute, not wanting his mother to see him so weak. he eventually obeyed, knowing she would just push him to eventually let her inside. hongjoong stood up and quickly washed his face, trying his best to hide the fact that he was crying.

"hi m-mommy." hongjoong stuttered out after he opened the door for her, choking on his words as they came out of his lips.

"what's wrong? and don't lie to me, i heard you crying. you were happily watching my little pony, and then you got a text that made you cry. who was it?" she questioned hongjoong as soon as he opened the door, walking inside the bathroom with him and closing the door behind her.

"i don't know what you're ta-talking ab-- ugh, who am i k-kidding." hongjoong threw his head in his hands and began sobbing again, "he li-lied to me, m-mommy."

hongjoong's mother quickly hugged her son, rubbing circles on his back as he continued sobbing. she ran her fingers through his thin blonde hair, massaging his head as she did so.

"shhh," she whispered, "it's ok, joongie. it's ok."

"it's not ok!" he screamed in her chest, "he lied to me. straight to my f-face!"

"who lied to you?" chinsun backed away from the hug, looking her son in the eyes.

"s-seonghwa." hongjoong spoke quietly, crying harder after hearing the boy's name out loud.

"what do you mean he lied to you?" hongjoong's mom asked, not knowing what the boy had lied to her son about.

"remember how i told you he w-was going to his aunt's f-fif-fiftieth birthday party?" she nodded her head yes, "w-well, he didn't. he's at the formal. s-sangie sent me a pi-picture."

ms. kim's face dropped the second hongjoong told her what had happened. her heart broke for her son.

"oh my god, baby boy... i'm so so sorry baby." she hugged her son once again, this time even tighter than the time before. hongjoong continued crying in her chest, hiccuping in attempt to breath.

"i just d-don't g-get it... is he em-emb-embarrassed of m-me?" hongjoong looked into his mother's eyes, hoping she would have an answer for him.

"i don't know why he'd do that, joongie. i can't give you an answer. i'm so sorry. i'm just so very sorry." she continued rubbing circles in her son's back, attempting to calm his heart wrenching sobs.

"just... just l-leave me al-alone. i need some t-time by mys-self." hongjoong let go of his mother. he looked down at the floor, unable to meet her gaze.

"i don't want to, but i'll respect your space. i'll be in the living room, please come to me in a few minutes." chinsun gave her son a kiss on the forehead, walking out of the bathroom and shutting the door behind her to leave hongjoong alone.

hongjoong decided to sit in the bathtub, raising his knees to his chest and hugging them tightly. he rocked back and forth in the tub, unable to control his cries. he was hurting, more than he's ever hurt in his entire life.

hongjoong looked up from his lap after hearing his phone buzz. he read the name and gagged, opening it to read whatever lie seonghwa had sent him.

seongie 🧚🏼‍♀️
hey honey bun, how is your movie night going?

instead of answering seonghwa's text, hongjoong decided he needed to confront the boy voice to voice.

call seongie 🧚🏼‍♀️ ?
yes or no

back at the formal, seonghwa felt his phone buzzing and realized he had an incoming call.

incoming call from strawberry joongie 🍓
answer ?
yes or no

fuck... how am i supposed to ignore him when i just texted him? he thinks i'm at my aunt's party, he'll think it's weird if i ignore the call...

"be right back guys." seonghwa excused himself from his friend group and ran out of the cafeteria, stopping in the hallway where hongjoong couldn't hear the loud music from the dance.

"hey baby, what's up?" seonghwa faked a smile, heart racing a million miles per second as he spoke.

"y-you liar!" hongjoong screamed out, not bothering to sugar coat anything.

"huh? joongie, is that you?" seonghwa asked, playing dumb as he spoke.

"you know who it is. why seonghwa? w-why would you do that to m-me?" hongjoong cried into the phone, breaking seonghwa's heart after each word spoken.

"hongjoong, i can explai--"

"no, you can't explain!" hongjoong interrupted seonghwa mid speech, "now i might be sl-slower than the average seventeen year old but i'm far from s-stupid. i know you're at the f-for-formal. and don't tell me some made up excuse. just tell me w-why you lied to me." hongjoong begged, just wanting an honest answer at this point.

"it's... it's..." seonghwa tried to explain, but he couldn't find it in him to tell hongjoong the reason.

"let me g-guess, are you em-embarrassed of me? is th-that it? are y-you embarrassed of me, seonghwa? are you embarrassed of me because i'm d-different?" hongjoong questioned, choking up on his words as they came out.

seonghwa didn't respond. he stayed silent, hoping hongjoong would get the message without him having to say the actual words.

"yep, that a-answers it." hongjoong smiled out of anger, shaking his head at rapid speed as he spoke.

"hongjoong, i can explain." seonghwa tried to say again.

"then explain, mr. p-popular! explain why, even after you told me you'd never break my heart again, you went ahead and tore it out of my c-chest, stomped on it a few hundred times, and then t-threw it in the trash bin. explain it to me!" hongjoong screamed out loud, scaring seonghwa a bit. he had never heard hongjoong so upset in his entire life, but he understood why the boy was so hurt.

"i—" seonghwa tried to answer but choked up on his words, feeling the tears brim his eyes.

"what a surprise, you can't explain! you know seonghwa... when you told me you liked me for me, when you said you liked my differences, i b-believed you. i believed your words that day, just to get s-stabbed in the back with the same exact ones. and when you said you'd never hurt me again, i thought that you'd stick to it. i thought what we had was sp-special, but i guess it wasn't. and you know what, i'm sorry to m-myself. i'm sorry to myself for believing those words, for believing anything you ever had to say. i should've k-known it was all too good to be true." hongjoong ranted, happy to get all of his feelings out.

"hongjoong, please! don't think for a second that what we have isn't special. i'm an idiot, ok! i'm so fucking stupid. i let what other people thought get to me and i can't even begin to explain how sorry i am. but please, hongjoong... you mean the world to me. please believe me. fuck, i'm so sorry! fuck fuck fuck, i'm an idiot. i'm so sorry, joongie!" seonghwa paced back and forth through the hallway, pulling at his hair as he spoke.

he knew he messed up, and he messed up big time... and he didn't know if he could ever fix it this time.

"don't call me j-joongie. you don't have the right to call me that right now. and yes, you are an idiot. but that doesn't change anything. i can't fo-forgive you right now. i can't believe your words when you lied straight to my face for the past few weeks. do you know how b-bad that feels, seonghwa? do you know how much my heart hurts right now? to be l-lied to for so long by the one person who mean the most in the world to you?" hongjoong questioned, hoping seonghwa would understand how bad he was hurt.

"i don't even want to think about it, joo-- i mean, hongjoong. but please, please believe me when i say that what we have is special. i've never cared about someone the way i care about you." seonghwa put his all in, hoping hongjoong would get the message.

"seonghwa, you need to understand that i can't believe anything that is coming out of your mouth right now. i'm beyond hurt and i think that i have every right to be hurt." hongjoong spoke, finally able to control his overwhelming emotions and speak without choking on his words.

"you do have every right to be hurt, but please... i like you so much, hongjoong. more than words could ever describe." seonghwa begged.

"that's great, but i need to go now. i hope you have a great time at the formal. i hope it was worth losing me, because whatever we had going on is done now." hongjoong finished speaking, hanging up the phone before seonghwa could respond.

"no!" seonghwa screamed out, calling hongjoong back immediately.

call strawberry joongie 🍓 ?
yes or no
call denied.

call strawberry joongie 🍓 ?
yes or no
call denied.

call strawberry joongie 🍓 ?
yes or no
call denied.

call strawberry joongie 🍓 ?
yes or no
call denied.

after four attempts, seonghwa decided to leave hongjoong a text instead.

seongie 🧚🏼‍♀️
please hongjoong, i never meant for any of this to happen. i'm so sorry

he was instantly left on read and seonghwa slid down the hallway wall, bringing his knees to his chest in attempt to cover his face.

i'm a fucking idiot... i'm a fucking idiot... i'm  fucking idiot... how did he even find out?

he looked up and saw jongho walking back into the cafeteria with a boy next to him. he was smaller, wearing a brown shirt with wavy blonde hair on his head. after looking at his face closer, he realized it was hongjoong's friend, yeosang.

"that's how he found out." seonghwa whispered to himself, not at all blaming the boy for telling hongjoong. seonghwa believed yesang had every right to expose him to hongjoong, he was just doing what a true friend should do.

instead of going back into the cafeteria, seonghwa shot his friends a quick text that said he had to go home. he ignored their questions, not wanting to lie anymore that night. he drove home by himself, allowing the tears to flow hard and fast from his eyes.

i broke him, i broke my joongie.

heheeeeee... i'm so excited for this. i love being satan reincarnated!

-vic