Jongin was sitting at the kitchen counter eating a bowl of cereal when Chanyeol came home. He took one look at Jongin and sighed to himself when he realized that Jongin’s in another one of his moods.

Chanyeol approached him slowly and clapped him on his back to get his attention.

‘You’re only eating that for dinner?’

He didn’t look up as he replied, ‘There’s nothing to eat.’

‘You could’ve called me, you know? Then we could’ve gone out to eat or I could’ve brought something home for you.’ Chanyeol said.

Jongin looked up at him for a second before shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth and said, ‘Too late.’

Chanyeol shoved Jongin’s shoulders and scrunched up his nose. ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full, please!’

Jongin looked up at him and Chanyeol gave him a smile and waited to see Jongin’s reaction. He was thoroughly disappointed when Jongin didn’t return his smile.

He pulled the chair next to Jongin’s and took a seat. He set his left elbow on the counter and put his chin in his palm as he stared at Jongin.

‘What?’ Jongin asked without even looking at him.

‘Tell me what’s wrong.’ Jongin was about to open his mouth when Chanyeol cut him off. ‘And don’t give me that crap ‘nothing’s wrong’. It’s not like we started being friends yesterday.’

The younger sighed and pushed his bowl away from him before turning to Chanyeol. ‘I did something stupid today.’

Chanyeol straightened up and asked, ‘What did you do?’

‘I confessed to Jieun.’

Chanyeol’s eyes widened, ‘What?’

‘And not only that. I actually yelled at her when I did so.’

Jongin watched as Chanyeol threw his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Jongin…’ He whined.

‘I know, I know. I’ve been feeling horrible for the past hour, please don’t add up to it.’ Jongin buried his face in his palms as Chanyeol looked at him worriedly.

‘How did she react?’

‘Well,’ Jongin started as he looked up. ‘She didn’t know about it. But then after the yelling, she was obviously hurt. And the worst thing was, when I looked in her eyes, I saw that she was actually blaming herself for the way I felt.’

‘Why would she feel that way?’

Jongin looked at Chanyeol from the corner of his eyes before he lowered his head. ‘I may have said I felt this way because of the way she treated me.’

Chanyeol smacked the back of Jongin’s head and Jongin winced in pain. ‘Why are you so dumb, Kim jongin? And why did you confess in the first place? I thought you told me that you were going to get over her?’

‘I did…’ Jongin started while still rubbing the back of his head. ‘I tried avoiding her for the past few days but she wouldn’t leave me alone and I became so frustrated. I just blew up earlier when she talked to me.’

Chanyeol closed his eyes and sighed. ‘What happened after?’ he asked while shaking his head.

‘I didn’t get to apologize because then Baek showed up and took her out.’

Jongin heard his best friend sigh again before he said, ‘I swear if you’re not my friend, I would’ve kick your out of here.’ Chanyeol shook his head before continuing, ‘You got to apologize, Jongin.’

‘I know, I know. That’s what I’m planning to do when I see her.’

Chanyeol patted his back before standing up to get a drink from the fridge. He took a huge gulp before turning back to Jongin. ‘Oh, are you coming tomorrow?’

Jongin looked at him, confused. ‘What’s tomorrow?’

‘My gig!’

‘Ahh… I can’t.’ Jongin said sheepishly. ‘One of my students is performing at his school event tomorrow night. I promised him I would go.’

‘But you promised me you’d come to the gig!’ Chanyeol replied.

‘He’s counting on me to show up, I can’t let him down. And besides, you have plenty of gigs more to come, right? I promise I’ll show up next time.’

Chanyeol looked at him for a second before shrugging his shoulders. ‘Too bad, it’s your lost. You’ll miss out on watching my new band mate perform. I swear to you, Jongin, I’ve never had a vocalist this good before. If you thought the one I had before was amazing, this girl would probably sang your way to heaven.’

Jongin laughed at Chanyeol’s words and shook his head. ‘You’re overselling her.’

‘I’m not.’ Chanyeol said and held his hand up, palms forward. ‘I promise you.’

Jongin stood up and grabbed the older’s shoulder. ‘Next time.’ He said before making his way towards his room.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes before opening the fridge once again to see if there’s anything he could eat.

            Baekhyun turned to look at Jieun worriedly. She barely spoke to him the whole evening together and whenever he asked, she would just smile and shake her head saying that nothing was wrong.

‘We’re here.’

Jieun looked out the window and saw her house that she shared with her two friends before turning back to Baekhyun who was smiling brightly at her.

They got out of the car and he walked her to the gate.

‘Thank you for going out with me today, Jieun-ah. I’m sorry if you’re a bit disappointed since it wasn’t that great of a date.’ Baekhyun said whilst rubbing the back of his neck.

Jieun shook her head. ‘No, I had a great time. Really.’

Baekhyun looked at her and bit his lip. ‘But, you didn’t look like you did. You didn’t really talk to me and you looked kind of disappointed all night.’

‘I didn’t, Baekhyun, I swear. I just… have some things on my mind. That’s all.’ Jieun explained.

Jieun watched Baekhyun’s face and realized that he didn’t believe what she said. ‘I really do like you, Baekhyun. And I really did have a great night. But…’

‘But what?’

Jieun looked at him worriedly but when he urged her to say it, she realized she had to tell him. ‘Before you showed up at Jongin’s studio earlier, we were kind of in a fight.’

Baekhyun’s eyebrows furrowed. ‘What were you fighting about?’

‘We weren’t really fighting, I’d say. He was just really frustrated at me.’ Jieun muttered and looked down at her hands. ‘He confessed to me.’

‘He what?’ Baekhyun asked, his eyes wide.

‘He’s had feelings for me all this while, Baek. And I feel so horrible that I made him feel like so.’

Baekhyun looked at Jieun and he remembered how Jongin had been in a horrible mood lately and he realized that it all started after Baekhyun told him a week ago that he’s inlove with Jieun.

He closed his eyes and rubbed it with both his hands.

I did this, he thought.

‘Baekhyun, I don’t know what to do.’

He looked up at her and saw her worried eyes and how she looked so sad then. He stepped forward and pulled her in for a hug.

Baekhyun gathered his courage to ask, ‘Do you like him?’

‘I don’t.’ Baekhyun sighed in relief. ‘But, I don’t want to lose him as a friend.’

Jieun pulled away and looked at him.

‘It’ll be hard on him if we’re together.’ Jieun muttered.

His eyebrows furrowed at her words and he took a step back. ‘Are you really doing this? We just started, Jieun-ah. And now you’re ending it already?’

‘I’m not. I just… I just think that maybe we should stay apart until he calms down. I don’t want to hurt him anymore than I’ve already did. Do you?’ Jieun asked.

Baekhyun remembered how Jongin had been avoiding him for the past week and how whenever they’re with each other, Jongin always looked so uncomfortable. Jongin is totally different than how he used to be before and Baekhyun realized what Jieun’s said had its point.

Baekhyun didn’t want to hurt Jongin but he didn’t want to lose Jieun either.

‘I don’t want to hurt him, Jieun. But –’

‘Let’s just not be together for now.’ Jieun said, cutting him off.

He looked at her and realized that Jongin must actually be more important to her than he realized. Baekhyun stayed silent as Jieun spoke out again.

‘Just for a while. Until things cooled down.’

Baekhyun looked down and nodded his head. He didn’t want her to see how disappointed and hurt he actually was at her decision but he’d do anything for Jieun.

Anything.

            Yejin and Chanyeol had been practicing non-stop for the last couple of hours for their gig tonight. Chanyeol strummed the last chord and looked at Yejin who was biting her lip.

‘That was great, Yejin. You did a great job.’ He said.

‘Really?’ She asked as she looked at him. ‘Are you sure? I thought I blew that last note.’

Chanyeol shook his head. ‘You didn’t. Relax. Are you nervous?’

Yejin didn’t say anything and just nodded her head. She started playing with her hands as it was one of her nervous habit and Chanyeol who noticed it, put his guitar aside and stood up to stand in front of her.

‘Give me your hands.’ Chanyeol said as he reached his out.

Yejin looked at his hands and asked, ‘What?’

He sighed and reached for both of hers. ‘Just hold my hands. And close your eyes.’

Yejin looked at Chanyeol curiously for a second before closing her eyes and Chanyeol did too.

‘Let’s take a couple of deep breaths, shall we?’

Yejin followed his instructions and felt herself relaxed a little as they did that for a few more times.

‘You’re going to do great. I know you will. And the gig will be fine. Nothing’s gonna go wrong now because I have you, Yejin. And you have me. We’ll be there on stage together and nothing’