When Jongdae had stumbled across the globe, there’d been something that had compelled him to buy it. He knew he wouldn’t get any use out of it, but he’d purchased it anyway. As it was, it was now sitting on his desk, serving no purpose whatsoever.

“Why do you keep spinning that thing?” Minseok asks, walking into the room to see Jongdae continuously spinning the globe. It wasn’t as though Jongdae could read it, since all the countries were written in English - “It looks prettier in English!” Jongdae had argued when Minseok asked him about the practicality of a globe he couldn’t read, and then the older had promptly given up - so it was, in Minseok’s point of view, a total waste of money.

Jongdae sighs, spinning the globe even more. “I don’t know,” He admits, sitting back in his chair even as one hand continued with his mindless spinning. “There was just an urge to buy it, you know?”

“No,” Minseok replies, practical as always. Jongdae resists the urge to stick his tongue out at Minseok. Of course the other had never given in to his urgings. For a person straight laced enough to use one vacuum for the floor and one to vacuum his bed, there was probably no chance of Minseok ever wanting to buy impractical things. Other than even more vacuum cleaners, of course.

Jongdae sighs again, not stopping even after Minseok collects all his shower stuff and disappears into the bathroom. The M dormitory is quiet, and Jongdae never would have thought he’d say this, but he misses the racket. He misses the soft padding of Zitao’s feet as he walks into the kitchen to get water, misses Luhan’s loud whining as Minseok denies him something yet again, misses Yifan’s yelling at everyone to shut up, misses Yixing--

Yixing…?

Yixing.

And therein lies the problem. Jongdae misses Yixing. He misses Yixing so much, because the bed in the other room is gathering dust in the room they used to share, beds pushed together despite their manager’s displeasure, cold feet and warm cuddles, Yixing’s head on his shoulder, Yixing’s fingers in his hair, Yixing’s arms around his waist, Yixing, Yixing, Yixing.

Jongdae stops, and he ponders. Sliding his phone out of his pocket, he looks through the messages that he sent to Yixing, that Yixing used to send back. It’s not as though their relationship has gone down the hill, but the latter’s been so busy that it’s difficult for him to even use his phone nowadays. Jongdae would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little put out by it, but he’d rather have a healthy, well rested Yixing who didn’t reply rather than a sleep deprived one who answered all his messages.

“ Ge ,” Jongdae records, his arm stretching out in front of him as he rests his head on it, unable to fully keep the sadness, the loneliness out of his voice. “ Ge , you’re okay, right? It’s winter now, so you need to keep warm and take care of yourself, all right?”

He releases the button and watches as the voice message loads and sends, across the ocean, across the distance that keeps him from Yixing. He thinks about it, then snaps a quick selfie in which he’s pouting and then sighs - he’s doing that a lot - and puts his phone away.

Yixing won’t reply soon, if he even does at all, but Jongdae at least knows that he’s reading them. He drags himself out of his chair as Minseok pads back into the room, telling him to shower.

He’ll mope a little more after he’s clean.

“Give me one too~ Give Benny one too~”

Yixing looks over to his phone as the telltale voice of Jongdae rings from the device. He smiles, picks it up, and listens to the message. He laughs, as the phone rings again with Jongdae’s aegyo - Yixing won’t tell anyone that he found the audio clip online and set it as his Kakao ringtone, but it’s not like it’s a big secret anyways - and he’s greeted with Jongdae’s pouting face.

“Yes,” He chuckles to himself. “I’m taking care of myself.”

He slides the phone back into his pocket and smiles. There are some things that are better told in person, Yixing thinks, as he shoulders his bag and boards the plane back to Seoul.