Kyungsoo sighs. Yet again. Baekhyun stabs at his salad as he listens to his friend mope around.

“Kyungsoo, are you going to keep sighing like this for the rest of the day? I’m just wondering before I decide if I want to punch you or not.”

Kyungsoo gives him a sharp glare before sighing again. A stinging pain hits his side. “Ow! Did you just pinch me?”

“At least it wasn’t a punch. Now tell uncle Baek what’s wrong?”

“Don’t call yourself anything related to me ever.”

“Out with it!”

“Okay!” Kyungsoo grumbles. “It’s Chanyeol. He’s been avoiding me.”

“Ah of course it has to do with that good-for-nothing Park Chanyeol. Oh Kyungsoo if you paid half of the attention to your other friends, ahem me, that you paid to Chanyeol I would’ve already married you!” Kyungsoo tries pushing Baekhyun’s face away from his, as the other tried landing a kiss on his cheek.

“Baek, I’m serious.” Baekhyun gives him another smile before backing up and picks up his fork to eat again.

“Weren’t you the one avoiding him first?” Baekhyun asks, dressing spitting out. Kyungsoo grimaces and taps the table agitatedly. He can’t help but nod because it was true. He really couldn’t bring himself to carry on conversations with Chanyeol today when all he wanted to do was crawl into his bed and never get out.

“Then what’s the problem? If you want to fix things you should talk to him. And here I thought when you asked me to come here with you, it was to spend some quality time with good ol’ Baekie, not ask about advice about Chanyeol yet agai- hey! Where are you going?”

Kyungsoo had grabbed his jacket and was already halfway out the door.

“You said you would treat, you jerk!”

The words ‘sorry, busy today. Eating with Baek’ shine brightly back at him.

“He didn’t even invite me,” Chanyeol mutters. Baekhyun that traitor! he thinks. He knew Chanyeol was having problems with Kyungsoo but look at them both! Eating is one of his favorite past-times and they didn’t bother to ask him to come with. Were they on, dare he say, a date?

Chanyeol hits himself at how petty he was being. He was acting like a child! So what if Kyungsoo isn’t giving him the attention he normally gets on a day-to-day basis? Doesn’t mean he can’t function on his own. Certainly didn't mean him and their other friend were dating. He's being ridiculous. I’ll just get a burrito and call it a day, he thinks. Just as he finalizes this plan, a face he really didn’t want to see heads his way. Chanyeol figures he could just quickly walk away and Jongin would get the hint. Unfortunately he doesn’t and he gets a hit on the back. Chanyeol winces and rubs at the offended area as he turns around with a grimace.

“What do you want?” he grunts. Jongin isn’t deterred by his bluntness and is smiling widely.

“Just jogging and saw you sitting here, lonely, all by yourself, and with no Kyungsoo hyung, so decided to stop by,” Jongin smiles. Chanyeol rolls his eyes and walks ahead.

“Hey where are you going?” Jongin asks. ‘To get a burrito’ is the only thing Chanyeol supplies and he hopes Jongin doesn’t decide to tag along.

He does.

They both get a burrito from a food stand and Jongin invites himself to walk Chanyeol back home.

“Is Kyungsoo hyung at your place?” Jongin asks. Chanyeol really doesn’t want to deal with Kim Jongin today. But his stomach is happy and full so he decides to humor him. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know his whereabouts 24/7,” Chanyeol mutters. He swears he hears Jongin mumble a ‘could’ve fooled me’ but he chooses to pretend he didn’t. “Why do you call him hyung anyway? Aren’t you in our grade?”

“I skipped a grade, didn’t you know?” Chanyeol’s eyes bulge out.

“What? You’re kidding!” Jongin shakes his head and shrugs.

“Not really a big deal.”

Chanyeol gapes at him. He’s talented and smart and incredibly good-looking? That is completely unfair. Then another thing dawns down on him.

“Wait, why do you call Kyungsoo hyung but not me?” Chanyeol yells out. Jongin even calls him Park at times. This little-

“Cause I see Kyungsoo hyung above me but you and me- we’re equal.”

Chanyeol inflates. There’s no arguing with this brat.

“-both rivaling for his affection.”

Chanyeol doesn't think he hears right. “What are you-?”

“Chanyeol!”

If he had a tail he’d be wagging it at the sound of his owne-best friend’s voice.

“Kyungsoo!” The smaller stops short in walking towards them when he sees his company. Chanyeol awkwardly stands there while Jongin looks too pleased.

“Hyung!” Kyungsoo forces a smile. He eyes the two of them standing so close to each other.

“Hey Jongin. Were you two hanging out?” he asks. Jongin waves that suggestion off.

“Nah, we just grabbed a quick bite after I bumped into him and had time to kill so I’m walking him home. Wanna go back to campus together, hyung?” Kyungsoo looked hesitantly at Chanyeol but when the taller made eye contact he promptly looked away.

“Yeah sure, Jongin let’s go.” Jongin was like an eager puppy as he rushed from Chanyeol’s side to the other boy’s, latching onto his arm. Chanyeol frowned as they both already started heading their way back without as much as a glance towards him.

“Kyungsoo, wait!” The shorter boy turns around while Jongin pouts. “You were in front of my house so I assumed you had something to say to me?”

It sounded harsher than Chanyeol intended and he hoped Kyungsoo didn’t take it in a bad way.

But judging by the furrow of his eyebrows and the purse of his lips, he did.

“I did but it was a small matter. It’s nothing now, so…see you tomorrow,” Kyungsoo says with a small smile. Jongin already begins chatting his ear off as they both walk off. Chanyeol’s heart drops to his stomach and he feels like yelling out into the sky. How did things between them become so difficult?

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Kyungsoo banged his forehead onto his desk. After he repeatedly told Jongin he was too tired to do anything else, he retired to his own dorm room for the night and thought about what a huge up he was. 

He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help the raging jealousy he felt when he saw Jongin and Chanyeol walking together back to the taller’s house. He knew all about the other’s admiration and crush on the younger back in their freshmen year but it was back before Kyungsoo had developed his own feelings.

Now that he had so much of these positive feelings towards his best friend, the bad ones came along as well. His temper has been out of control and his green monster hasn’t been tame. He was always so composed; it wasn’t like him to let himself loose like this.

He knew that Chanyeol didn’t feel the same way though he had always hoped.  There was that night at a party where the taller had placed a messy, sloppy kiss on half his face after he had gotten drunk for the first time that had Kyungsoo blushing red and restless the rest of the night. The other had even snuck in some s that was the source of Kyungsoo's night fantasies for a week straight. But the taller had completely forgotten everything about that night and Kyungsoo was too afraid to bring it up. He also assumed by the way Chanyeol always seemed to be more attached to him than any of their friends made Kyungsoo think he was special.

Chanyeol treated Kyungsoo like Kyungsoo treated Chanyeol. But maybe Kyungsoo’s definition of special was different than Chanyeol’s definition. Chanyeol was never afraid to show affection to those he cared about. He was an open book and loved to have many friends whereas Kyungsoo only chose to stay close to a select few.

Kyungsoo groaned into his hands. It was his fault. He was the one that got ahead of himself, trying to make sense of a relationship that was nonexistent.

He doesn’t want to hold onto these feelings anymore. They turned his mind into mush and his words don’t come out as articulate as they used to.  He needs to let go. How could he burden Chanyeol with something that the other wasn’t even aware of? He was being, in the most simplest of words, an .

Tomorrow, he was going to set things straight.