hoetaek isn’t surprised when seungho finds him. he’s a creature of habit, there’s only really a handful of places he could be at any given time, and seungho knows him well enough to figure out what those are. he smiles at his sketchbook when he catches his friend taking a seat out of the corner of his eye, finishing off the section of the drawing he’s on before focusing his attention on his guest. he laughs when seungho asks if he’s been avoiding him, though he knows it’s an unspoken reference to that brief period of time where hoetaek actually was. he wasn’t even completely aware of it at the time, but he had started pulling away a little, part way into seungho’s relationship with seungah. hoetaek hadn’t been aware of his feelings for their mutual acquaintance when the two of them had gotten together. but seeing them together had sparked a lick of jealousy in hoetaek’s heart, that had led to what is now a full blown crush.
“of course I’m not avoiding you, but it’s the start of term, art club’s first meeting back is coming up, I’m a busy man,” he says, jokingly, a wide grin on his face, though most of what he’s saying is true. although it seems seungho has picked up on the other reason hoetaek has been busy lately. despite the fact that hoetaek’s new relationship is fake, he finds himself blushing at the way seungho asks about it. which, if he’s honest, is kind of a relief since it’s going to help him sell the whole thing to his friend. “ahh, so you’ve heard about ahri and I,” he says with a light chuckle. “yes, there have been developments, I have a girlfriend, it is ahri, I don’t think it’s much of a secret since a lot of people saw us together at the valentines party,” he continues, letting a smile play on his lips as he talks about ahri.
lips curl into a small pout when he realizes he sat just far enough that he can’t see what hoetaek is drawing within eyesight, not well anyway, and he scoots the chair not so subtly closer, careful not to teeter over as he rests a hand on the table. “ uh huh, right. because art club keeps you that busy, ” seungho nearly snorts. though he does think any club can be time consuming, he knows hoetaek well enough to know that he could make time if he wanted. after all, how many times had he noticed hoetaek make time for a particular princess in their lives. he might not be close to seungah anymore but plenty of word gets around. hell, he should know. after all, he’d kept to himself for months and still rumors circulate about him too. gotta love nosy people, right? he could roll his eyes right then and there but it’s nothing to do with the company so he refrains, clears his throat as he leans his elbow on the back of the chair now that he’s settled once more.
“ ‘course i have. didn’t even have to hear about it. i was at the party too, ” he laughs, brows lifting for a brief moment as he shifts, both arms dangling over the back of the chair now as he exhales slowly, glancing around them, hoping for clarity on how to word his next question without being offensive to either hoetaek or ahri. both hold a certain spot in his heart, no matter how different, however far back the connection goes too for that matter. “ i want to hear it from you though. come on, aren’t we better friends than that? it hurts, hoetaek, ” with a dreary sigh, he leans forward on his hands, looking up at his friend with a pout on his lips again. it only takes mere seconds for him to break out into a grin, sitting back up with a laugh. “ ah, that feels weird but i do want to hear about it. how’d you guys start dating? ” especially when hoetaek seems to still like seungah, that’s something he’s dying to figure out.
