Jihoon’s hand slid out from under his pillow, reaching for his phone that sat on the bedside pillow. The bright light from the screen felt like he was staring directly into the sun and he scrambled to turn the brightness down before scrolling through his notifications.

Fourteen missed calls

Six new voicemails

missed messages

One new email

“A ing email? Really?” He muttered to his phone. His friends must be getting desperate. In their defense, he had sort of dropped off the face of the earth the past day, and it wasn’t often that their group of friends went more than an hour or two without speaking. A day went by and the others started to worry.

He probably should respond to at least one of them, Jihoon told himself as he rolled out of his bed and padded out to sit at the kitchen counter. Seungcheol was the one he had a problem with, the rest were simply guilty by association. It wasn’t fair to make all of them so worried. Sighing, he pulled his phone back out of his pocket and opened his contact list. Out of habit his thumb hovered over the name that sat at the top of his Favorites list.

“,” he muttered as he quickly tapped the name immediately under.

Seungkwan picked up before the phone even rang once, sounding amazed as he greeted Jihoon, “I can’t believe you’re alive. We’ve all been taking bets on what killed you, you know.”

“I don’t even want to know.” Jihoon chuckled, “You’re not with the others now, are you?”

“No, Jisoo went home about an hour ago. And Seungcheol was here earlier this morning, he told me about how you ran out on him yesterday.”

Jihoon frowned, “Did he?”

“Yeah. He also, uh,” Seungkwan’s voice softened, “He told me about Doyoon.”

“Oh.”

“I’m really sorry, Ji. I really am-”

“You’re not the one that needs to apologize, ‘Kwan.” Jihoon sighed, “And the frustrating thing is that even Seungcheol doesn’t even need to apologize to me. He doesn’t know that I’ve been practically in love with him for years, so why am I so upset? It’s not like he intentionally broke my heart. But here I am, moping and hiding out in my house. I’m pathetic.”

“You’re not pathetic, Jihoon.”

“But I am! I’m acting like a child who got his toy taken away. Do not tell me that that is not pathetic.”

Seungkwan sighed on the other end of the line, arguing with Jihoon was pointless. The older would never accept that he was wrong until he was proven otherwise. And though he would always admire that about his best friend, it was pretty annoying. Usually Seungkwan would continue arguing with Jihoon, but the latter didn’t really need that today.

“Fine, fine, you’re totally pathetic. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Seungkwan chuckled at his friend’s ridiculousness. There was silence for a few moments before the younger boy spoke up, smile growing on his face as he thought of the perfect way to distract Jihoon, “Hey- Hansol and I were gonna go get frozen yogurt later today, you can come with us if you want. I know it’s your favorite~”

“Wouldn’t I be third-wheeling your date though? That’s no fun- actually, scratch that, that would be a lot of fun.” Jihoon laughed, and Seungkwan felt a little bit better hearing that his friend was happy, “Prepare to be ed, Boo Seungkwan. I’m a master at it.”

“God, I regret this already.” Seungkwan rolled his eyes, “Meet us there at four, okay?”

“Got it.”

Jihoon ended the call and shuffled back to his room. Now that he had plans, he actually had to make himself look presentable. Dropping his blanket onto the bed, he pulled a shirt and jeans out of his closet, quickly changing from his pajamas to the new clothes. He glanced at the clock as he passed it on his way to the bathroom, groaning when he realized it was already 2:30. He really had laid around all day, how depressing. He hurried to finish getting ready. The yogurt shop was just in town, but it was at least a twenty minute walk, thirty if the traffic was bad. Usually he would call Seungcheol and the older would borrow one of his parent’s cars to drive Jihoon around, but that was obviously out of the question. Jihoon frowned at his reflection in the mirror. Thinking about Seungcheol made him feel nauseous and like his heart was going to fall right out of his chest. He had no idea how he was going to make it through school- luckily most of his classes weren’t with Seungcheol, but it wasn’t like he could ditch his group of friends at lunch and he shared his free period, a time he usually cherished, with Seungcheol. , Jihoon thought, I’m supposed to tutor him on Mondays, too.

He shook his head. It would be so much easier to ignore Seungcheol completely. He could sit next to Seungkwan and Chan at lunch and practice guitar with Jisoo during his free period. And who knows, maybe if he pretended to be perfectly fine, it would eventually become real.

<><><>

“Please don’t kill me.”

Hansol raised an eyebrow at Seungkwan as he slid into the seat across from him, “Why would I kill you? I’d hate to do anything like that to such a cute face.”

Seungkwan blushed, looking away for a moment, he wasn’t anywhere close to being used to receiving Hansol’s flirty comments. He’d never realized just how complimentary the boy was, “I’m not sure, you might be pretty miffed…” He trailed off, pausing for dramatic effect.

“Yah, stop with the suspense and tell me!” Hansol swatted at Seungkwan’s arm, pulling a laugh out of the boy.

“Sorry, sorry, I just love seeing your reaction,” Messing with Hansol was one of Seungkwan’s favorite pastimes, regardless of if they were best friends or boyfriends, “But anyway, Jihoon has been feeling kind of down, something happened between him and Seungcheol yesterday, so I invited him to hang out with us because I was tired of him moping. I hope you don’t mind, I was just worried and said something on a whim.”

Hansol was a bit disappointed, he was really looking forward to being alone with Seungkwan. But at the same time, it was cute that the older boy cared about Jihoon that much. Hansol had always been a bit scared of Jihoon, if he was being honest. From the moment the pink-haired boy joined their group of friends, he had made sure to keep a safe distance and, for the most part, his mouth shut. But Seungkwan had never had a problem with that. He always teased and played with Jihoon, which was adorable, though it did give Hansol a bit of anxiety.

He frowned when he fully took in what Seungkwan had said. Seungcheol was even closer to Jihoon than Seungkwan was, what could happen to make Jihoon so upset?

“You can’t tell anyone,” Seungkwan warned when Hansol asked, “But Jihoon has had a thing for Seungcheol for a long time. Like a really long time, I’m talking four years. And apparently yesterday, Seungcheol took Jihoon out to lunch just to tell him that he asked someone else out. Jihoon’s been hiding in his room since, that’s why he isn’t responding to anything.”

Hansol’s eyes widened, “Jeez… That’s rough.”

“I know.” Seungkwan frowned, “Poor Jihoon.”

“But,” Hansol’s brows furrowed, “I thought that Seungcheol had a thing for Jihoon.”

“So did I! I was so certain of it,” Seungkwan nodded his head, “He’s so clingy with Jihoon, I thought they were dating behind our backs or something.”

“No, no,” Hansol shook his head, “Seungcheol told me a couple weeks ago that he had a thing for Jihoon. It was right before school started.”

Seungkwan’s eyes widened and he leaned closer to Hansol, who blushed at the closeness. Usually Seungkwan would freak out being this close, but he was too distracted by the information he had just received, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, of course I’m serio-”

“I swear, Hansol, if you’re messing with me right now I will seriously end you.”

“I’m not!” Hansol laughed, “You sound like Jihoon, it’s scary.”

Ignoring the teasing, Seungkwan sat back in his chair, eyes still wide. He had always figured that Seungcheol had a thing for Jihoon, it was so obvious. He wasn’t anywhere near as clingy with the others as he was with Jihoon, and where the younger went, the older was sure to follow like a lost puppy. But knowing that Seungcheol reciprocated Jihoon’s feelings made it even stranger that he would randomly ask out some senior.

“I think we’re going to have to play a little bit of detective, Hansol.”

“.” Hansol winked.

Seungkwan smacked the boy’s hand, “You’re disgusting.” His fingers intertwined with the younger’s as he spoke, causing the insult to lose all meaning. Hansol’s cheeks quickly got red, something that Seungkwan would probably always find adorable. The curly-haired boy could easily make flirty compliments, but would get embarrassed so quickly whenever Seungkwan said or did anything to him. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to kiss Hansol, if he would get embarrassed or take control. Seungkwan blushed as he realized he had been staring at Hansol’s lips, and that the boy was bright red because of it. And also he was squeezing Seungkwan’s hand and leaning in slowly and

“Alright, lovebirds,” Jihoon’s voice broke through Seungkwan’s little trance. The older boy placed a hand on both Hansol and Seungkwan’s foreheads, shoving them back into their seats and officially ruining the moment. Jihoon slid into the seat next to Seungkwan, “Isn’t it a bit early to be kissing? You only started dating yesterday, right?” Jihoon glared at Hansol, asking him more than Seungkwan.

Hansol looked up from where his eyes had been in his lap, the blush still evident on his face, “Ahh, I guess you’re right, Jihoon.”

“Of course.” Jihoon smiled, obviously approving of Hansol’s answer. Seungkwan was about to smack his best friend when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he glanced at it under the table and opened the message.

From: Hansolie~♥♥♥♥

Don’t say anything about what I said. Okay, Detective Boo?

Seungkwan smiled, glancing up to nod slightly at Hansol. He’d have to talk to Seungcheol first thing in the morning.

A/N: thank god for verkwan being nosy af, am i right? thank you all so much for 144 subs and almost 1500 views, you are all absolutely amazing and i love each one of you so much~!! i honestly thought that this story wasn't going to go anywhere, but i'm totally blown away from the love i get each time i update. i read all of your comments over and over and they make my day <333

new chapter should be up within the next week~