w/ @thatkyeol
9:22 pm — his stomach feels knotted up, his back and feet are sore from being on his feet for so long. the girl he was excited to see the most is notoriously nowhere to be seen, and junsu finds himself pulled into a meaningless conversation with a group of people whom he could’ve sworn talked shit about him behind his back when he was in high school and now pretend to be his friend conveniently after he learned how to properly style himself — all for the end result of simply trying to impress rieon, of course.
but he’s bored and tired. junsu likes to think of himself as someone who is personable and outgoing, but something about these people in particular just don’t rub him the right way. it’s taxing to think that there’s still a circle of petty drama that has continued even though they’ve all long graduated. he was never popular in high school, but looking at it all in retrospect, maybe it was for the best; he wasn’t used to being surrounded by such shallow and materialistic people who conveniently wanted to know more about the noh family’s chain of restaurants and poking at junsu’s not-so-distant decision to forgo his offer to the country’s best culinary school to work as kang rieon’s unofficial personal lap dog.
junsu is far too kind to tell these people to fuck off and leave. instead, he wills himself to stay rooted awkwardly in the circle they’ve all seemed to form around him that’s beginning to feel just a tad claustrophobic. he’s never been used to having so many eyes on him — he wasn’t a kang or a hong, and fair enough to say, junsu wasn’t the most memorable of the noh children, either. everything was beginning to feel more so like a police interrogation than it did simple small talk.
a moment comes when the conversation finally lulls momentarily, and just in the nick of time, like always, junsu spots the all too familiar crown of black hair appear amongst the crowd. always his saving grace.
“ah, kyeol-ah!” he beckons for her after clearing his throat; he tries to make it sound casual and welcoming, but junsu’s voice only comes out mildly panicked and desperate. it’s noisy, so he doesn’t call to her again when other heads turn too and he meets her gaze. junsu widens his eyes, shifting his pupils to the group beside him and back to her in urgency. please, get me away from these people.