Chapter 30: pressure

------------✧♡✧-------------

One week later:

[Heeseung POV]

"Hey Jake, can you bring me a beer too?" shouted Beomgyu loudly throughout the garden to his friend, who was inside getting some bottles from the fridge.

"And any sort of glove or anything! This fucking barbecue is torching my hand!" complained Sunghoon, who was busy turning some steaks.

Jay rolled his eyes and pushed the younger one away from the grill to take his place. "How can you be so incompetent, idiot.". Within seconds, he had flipped all the meat and hung the tongs back in the rack before returning to his place at the table.

In the meantime, Jake had also arrived outside and placed the bottles in the middle of the table. "By the way, I invited Minji, Eunjin and the other girls later".

"DUDE WHY? I just wanted to have my peace today.". Beomgyu leaned back in his chair in annoyance.

"Oh, come on, man. Just because you're having beef with Siu doesn't mean you have to spoil the mood for everyone here.". Jake shoved a bottle across the table in his direction.

"What beef are we talking about? It's obvious that he's completely crushing on her.", laughed Sunghoon. "

"I'am not crushing on her, what the hell!? Siu has a strange personality".

"Yeah. Strange. You're just afraid of older girls". Sunghoon laughed and Jake joined in.

I wasn't really paying attention to them and twirled the bottle opener in my right hand, until I felt Jakes piercing gaze on me. "What about you?" My jaw clenched as I finally chucked the piece of metal onto the tabletop. "Why Eunjin?".

"Because you ask so stupidly," Sunghoon answered in his place.

"Why not?". Jake shrugged, which made my best friend cackle up. "You really need to loosen up. Your stuffy behavior is for real unbearable. It's your chance. Eunjin's been pining over you like a crazy bitch for years. Just indulge yourself.".

"How many times do you want me to say I don't want anything from her?" by now, it was unmistakable that I was pissed. Sunghoon's behavior had been bugging me for weeks.

Finally, he turned away from me. "A year ago, you would never have missed a chance to hook up with a hot chick like her.".

"Ohh...Heeseung has turned into an adult.". Jay mocked me from behind. My hand balled up into a fist on the table. "Sunghoon, can we talk?". He raised his head and faced me in confusion. "Now!". I got up from my chair, without waiting for an answer.

Without looking back a second time, I entered the house. Sunghoon followed me after taking one last sip from his bottle. I patiently waited until he squatted down on the couch again, and I closed the sliding door towards the garden.

The other boys outside only looked at us with astonishment, but didn't really care about us further.

"What is it?", my friend pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Do you want to start a fight again? Then I'll be happy to leave," Sunghoon replied, obviously annoyed.

I exhaled deeply to keep myself somewhat under control. "How many times have I told you to stop with this bullshit?".

"Oh, come on, man. You're just unrelaxed to the max.", the younger one knew immediately what I was getting at. "You have to admit that yourself.".

"I'm not admitting anything. I'm fine.".

"Then why do you keep making such a big deal out of it?", finally he made his cell phone disappear again and turned to me. "We're just teasing you that you've just become such a prude since Arin.".

"There's someone I like."

Sunghoon gasped. "So why should I slut around like you do?". His shocked face slowly changed to a wide grin. "Heeseungie boy has a doll in mind? Didn't expect that.". He wondered in amazement.

"So we can drop the subject?".

"Who is she?"

I drew in a sharp breath. "You don't know her.".

Fuck. This was completely going in the wrong direction. My original plan to tell him about Hyeona vanished into thin air in that second. I was scared. I was fucking scared. I had known Sunghoon all my life and knew exactly that he was not the type who could simply accept something like that. Why didn't I just tell the truth instead of riding us deeper and deeper into the shit. He wouldn't kill me. He would be pissed and wouldn't talk to me anymore, but that's all that would happen. But Hyeona? I know she would like nothing more than to have a normal, healthy relationship with her brother again. I couldn't and wouldn't ruin that just like that.

Sunghoon nodded slowly. "Cool, dude. Why don't you just take her with you? She can come along today, too, can't she?".

"She lives far away," I explained. "It's really nothing serious, so let's not waste any more of our time over it.". I left Sunghoon alone in the house and went back outside to my friends. As I took a seat in my chair, I noticed Jake next to me looking at me strangely.

"What were you guys talking about?" asked Beomgyu curiously.

My eyes pierced Sunghoon, who also came back to the garden. "Nothing important."

"Why don't you tell them?" the grin hadn't disappeared yet.

Hesitantly, I chewed on my cheek. So much for keeping it a secret. "Can you shut up? I don't want to, okay!".

It was enough if I told a person a complete tall tale. If I lied to all my friends, I couldn't reconcile that with my conscience.

"You get aggressive so quickly. Gosh...", Jay gave me a disgusted sideways glance before focusing back on the meat on the grill.

All of a sudden, I noticed Jake slowly pushing my phone over to me. Only now did I realize that I had left it outside. "You better watch your stuff," he said quietly, nodding down, so only I could hear what he was saying.

I quickly lifted the phone, so that the screen lit up. Shit. Hyeona texted me a few minutes ago. I inhaled tensely and let the cell phone disappear in my pocket. A quick glance at Jake showed me that he knew what was going on. But thank god he seemed quite relaxed and quickly turned away from me to continue the conversation with the others.

At that moment, the gate to Jake's garden was pushed open and a loud bunch of kicking and cackling girls entered. A loud cheer and jumbled conversation greeted the group before my friend next to me got up from his chair and greeted the guests.

"Cool that you guys are here. Are you hungry? The meat will be ready soon," Jake hugged the girls one by one.

I glanced back and stupidly bumped straight into Eunjin's big grin, which was heading directly towards me. Annoyed, I turned my head back and noticed Jay laughing at me, knowing exactly how much she was getting on my nerves.

"Hey, number one.", a pair of arms snaked around my neck from behind and hugged me tightly. "How does it feel to be captain again?".

Relieved, I realized that the person was Siu. "Great. I guess.".

"Lee, don't be so modest all the time," Eunjin suddenly joined the conversation and pulled a chair from the next table to take a seat right next to me.

"Where did you just come from, girls?" asked Beomgyu, who was probably not the only one to notice the group's wobbly behavior.

"The better question is, where else are we going?" exclaimed Sunghoon's girlfriend Yoojung.

"Bachelorette party!" one of the girls shouted, and the rest joined in cheering.

Gosh, how much they must have drunk already.

"We're just stopping by and hoping there's some food," Siu admitted with a laugh, releasing my neck to walk over to beomgyu.

Jake was busy moving some chairs from inside to the garden, so that each of the girls had a seat. I thought about getting up and helping him to escape Eunjin's greedy eyes.

No seriously, wouldn't you feel incredibly watched if a person with their head propped up on their palms was watching you non-stop?

"Right, the wedding," nodded Beomgyu. "Hadn't even crossed my mind.".

"Isn't it crazy how the first of us are already getting married. In your early twenties?", Minji marveled. "Crazy no. These people are just stupid," Jay interjected from the grill, loading the meat onto a large plate. "Marriage is so overrated. Why do people even do it? To take away your freedom to leave when you're not in the mood for your partner anymore? No thanks.".

Siu's laughter disappeared and she folded her arms. "You really would be top Husband material if you didn't have such a shitty way of thinking, Jay.". She complained.

"Am I supposed to take that as a compliment now?".

"Take it any way you want," she shrugged. "I'm just saying.".

I leaned back a bit in my chair and darkened my display to read Hyeona's message.

"What are you watching?", Eunjin suddenly asked me. "Can I take a look?".

"Nothing.", annoyed, I made my phone disappear again before I even got to unlock the display. "I just wanted to read a message.".

All of a sudden, all eyes glued on me.

"Read a message? Well, well...", Beomgyu raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "You've been so quiet and absent-minded all day.".

"So what?"

"Are you texting with a girl?" he probed further. However, I withstood his mischievous grin. "Do you have a girlfriend?".

I inhaled tensely and straightened my hair. Even though she's not here right now, I couldn't just deny Hyeona. It felt wrong. Like I was betraying her. "What if I do?"

"No, you don't," Eunjin countered.

Everyone gasped in shock. "Bro, are you messing with us?", Jay asked incredulously.

"You guys asked. I answered.", I bluntly reached for my beer bottle.

"And you didn't even come up with the idea of telling us anything...", Beomgyu rasped in addition.

"She doesn't live here. You don't know her. That's why I didn't say anything.". I noticed a piercing sideways glance from Jake and avoided it rigidly. "It's not a big deal. Just forget about it.".

"You're acting so weird, Lee.", Sunghoon shook his head. "With Arin, you were bragging about it.".

"For real, bro. It almost seems like you're trying to hide her. We're going to find out anyway. So you might as well go easy and say her name right away.

"Maybe she's ugly.", Eunjin shrugged and sat back in a huff. "He's embarrassed and uses it as an excuse not to introduce her to us.".

"Okay, that's enough!", Jake's words hushed everyone. "He obviously doesn't want to talk about it. So can we close the subject?".

Surprised, I looked over at him. I never expected Jake to defend me. Probably simply for the reason that Hyeo himself was important to him. And he wanted to protect her. For whatever reason, I was more than grateful to him.

the afternoon passed quickly, and evening was approaching. The girls had already left us after barely 2 hours, which I was actually glad for, because I finally got rid of Eunjin.

The boys also left Jake's garden one after the other, because everyone had their own plans for the evening. Finally, it ended with the fact that we sat only two in his garden and more or less silent. I would never have expected that we had so little to say to each other. It was almost as if we didn't know each other at all and probably only the other boys were the reason we hung out with each other.

"About earlier," Jake suddenly started. "I'm not going to tell anyone.".

------------✧♡✧-------------