The sky was getting a new tint of purple when Doyoung looked out the window. The clock was just hitting 5 – he stayed a little longer than usual – yet he could still see student athletes practicing and a few teachers on their way off to their homes. He sighed heavily – his fingers felt a little numb this time around for some reason – turning back to retrieve his backpack from his locker in the music room. He checked his phone instinctively as a teenager does, seeing several missed FaceTime calls from his friends. He quickly texted back Ten and Johnny on why the random spam, before stepping out of the classroom. He had overheard a few students talking during his last period. Something about a crazy mother cursing out a teacher, with some versions of the story saying she hit them. Doyoung knew not to believe anything so quickly until his more gossip-induced friends would spill.

When he took a turn down the hallway to get out of Hell – or, school – he almost rammed right into someone’s chest. He recognizes the color of the neck tie as a second year, then moves his eyes up to see Jaehyun, dimple popping out and soft, blonde hair.

“ you scared me,” Doyoung snapped as he took a gasp of air.

“Uh, hello,” Jaehyun snickers, “And I totally saw. You looked as if you saw a ghost.”

“Now I know why so many people call you Casper,” Doyoung rolled his eyes.

Jaehyun shrugs it off, walking right beside the other and smiling proudly, “I waited.”

“Yeah, and?” Doyoung snorts, “You want a sticker or something?”

Jaehyun pouts but doesn’t say a word. He thinks to himself, “Or maybe a kiss.”

Their short conversation ends as quickly as it started. They were both too nervous to mutter a word to the other, now that their brains could recall earlier today. Neither of them were mad, or extremely upset – it was just… Awkward, again. They both found it weird how so heavily troubled they may feel at a moment could all be resolved by an embrace from the other – something Doyoung had always mocked others for, he began to understand it. Nothing felt more comforting than to be held by somebody – and hold someone with the same intentions. They were beginning to notice that maybe they both overreacted back then. It was the lack of miscommunication that killed them both.

Not wanting a second coming, Doyoung abruptly clears his throat when they make it to a stop light. Pressing the button rather redundantly, he asks.

“You’re still coming over, right…?”

His voice is hesitant and soft, afraid of looking like a fool. The last thing he wanted was to have Jaehyun mock him for overthinking it too much, or seem too excited. Not as if those things weren’t true. They were more than facts.

“Yeah, if that’s okay,” Jaehyun smiles a smile that erupts happiness.

Doyoung feels his chest heave heavily for some reason. He nods his head, “I’m just warning you beforehand. My mom has gotten even more irritating since then.”

Jaehyun laughs with a shrug of the shoulder, “It’s fine. She can’t be worse than you.”

Doyoung is ready to assault the other when Jaehyun cuts him off. He gestures over to a vending machine next to a metro station, tugging the other’s long sleeve. He hadn’t even realized Doyoung took off his blazer while they were walking together – possibly too immersed with his own troubled head to see.

Doyoung digs in his pocket for loose change when they approach it. Jaehyun is already punching numbers as he looks, hearing Doyoung murmur to himself.

“I swear I had… Where did it go?... Where did I put it?...”

Jaehyun straightens out when he goes down to retrieve his snacks, putting a can of soda against Doyoung’s chest.

“My treat,” Jaehyun smiles.

“I-I’ll pay you back,” Doyoung helplessly begins to blush when he holds the cold can close to his chest.

Jaehyun rolls his eyes, “It’s just a dollar. Don’t worry about it.”

“Still…” Doyoung mumbles finally looking down at the free can he got, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Jaehyun smiles, “Grape soda is still your favorite, right?”

“… Yeah,” Doyoung simply responds, “Yeah, it is.”

He didn’t want to try to correct his accusation. Grape soda hadn’t been his favorite flavor since the beginning of first year. He had become a basic cola guy now. Yet, the thought of it is what overtakes his mind. It didn’t matter if Jaehyun got him simple water for all he cared – it was the fact that he still remembered, that took over his head, heart, his beat.

“Do you want to sit down for a bit?” Jaehyun gestures over to a bus stop, absent from anyone else.

“Sure,” Doyoung says with a soft tone, embarrassed to look at the other’s eye still. He felt too clumsy to crack open the soda with these emotions.

They sit beside each other, their shoulders bumping next to each other’s. Jaehyun laughs at Doyoung’s strange paranoia of spilling the soda over himself that he stretches his limb far off to the right and opens it there.

“You’re so extra,” Jaehyun laughs as he cracks it right over his lap, the disrupt sound of fizz popping out of the overall quiet terrain, and a fizz of bubbles escape from the hole. Before they know it, his hands are sticky with soda and his lap has a few drops of it as well – luckily he spread his thighs out as much as he could to avoid it being any worse – but by doing so, he crushed Doyoung to the side and he unintentionally spilled his soda over his shoulder and onto the advertisement besides them.

“Can you be any ing messier?” Doyoung lectures the other as he tosses him his blazer to clean himself.

“I didn’t know – “ He cuts himself off by laughing, “I seriously didn’t.”

“Just go choke,” Doyoung glares at the other.

Jaehyun still laughs, and a few repressed laughs escape Doyoung’s too. He’s hiccupping every ten seconds or so and Jaehyun nudges him, “Just laugh~”

“No~” Doyoung is already laughing when he says it, and he facepalms himself, “You’re just so ing stupid, I can’t.”

Jaehyun laughs at the insult – with no harsh feelings – and nudges the other teasingly. He does the weird wheeze of laughter – the one that sounds like it’s his last breath –that has Doyoung laughing harder and start clenching his chest. He could still recognize that laugh clearly – even years after.

They begin to recollect themselves when a group of old people sit beside them to actually wait for the bus. They only hiccup every so often, but nudge each other to calm themselves down. Then when it seems to have finally calmed down, they sit in silence, eavesdropping on the elder woman rant on about a woman in their retirement home who knitted her a horrendous blanket. Sadly, they never get to hear the ending because their bus comes and they take off to wherever the bus leads them.

The moment they’re gone, Jaehyun says; “She sounded just like you. Ungrateful.”

“Shut the up,” Doyoung bites back as he takes a sip from his soda.

“What do you think she did? You think she threw it away?”

“Nah. She said something about giving her a piece of mind, right? She’s going to give her own ugly blanket to her.”

“Who knew old people could be so sassy…” Jaehyun chuckled.

They sit in silence for a while again, simply watching the cars pass by. It was funny how moments could pass by where the last thing on their minds were of each other, rather than what the other thought of them. When it was silent, it was all they could think about. Does he find me boring? Would I ever be good enough? Those thoughts run across both of their heads, the sad part was that neither could ever expect the other to feel the same way.

“Doyoung…” Jaehyun finally spoke, “I always feel the urge to tell you this. I’m sorry.”

“… For what?”

“For everything. It’s unfair how I treat you, but you’re understanding all the time, like earlier.”

“… I’m not really understanding, though. In fact, I’m mad most of the time you choose to open your mouth or do something…” Doyoung takes a pause, “But it’s weird.”

“What is?”

Doyoung shakes his head, “No, it’s stupid. I –“

Jaehyun takes Doyoung’s hand as he looks him in the eye, “Please, Doyoung?”

Doyoung blushes, afraid to move his hand away. He lets his hand hold his, then shrugs his shoulderes as he tries to think of the best words to explain.

“How much I…” Doyoung pauses, Jaehyun holding his breath so he can continue, “Deal with you. You make me so irrational, but I don’t hate it. I like it, you know? It’s – ”

A ringtone disrupts his speech, and he couldn’t thank faith enough for its considerate timing. He knew if he spoke just one more second he would have ruined himself. Jaehyun tried to fight against him reaching to check his phone in his pocket, but Doyoung stepped away quick enough to pick up the call.

“Ten? What’s wrong?”

Ten sprinted down the street with the ridest struts he could, clinging onto his phone for dear life as he clicked on whatever number was most recent. He couldn’t stop his legs from sprinting and he didn’t realize he had lost a shoe while on his run until he ran across a front yard whose sprinklers were on.

“Hello? Hello?!”

He heard the familiar voice on the other line. He didn’t stop running though, crying helplessly, “Lord help me, Doyoung! I’m going to ing die!”

“Die?! Die?! What happened?!”

“I can’t stop running!” Ten cried, “It might still be chasing me!”

“… You’re not referring Yuta’s mom as ‘it’, right? What if she hears?”

Ten finally had to stop his marathon when he felt his stomach clench up and his subway sandwich from earlier walking here coming back up. He pulled his last efforts to hop on a brick fence just in case he was threatened. In these cases – although he takes pride in his petite figure – being taller was a benefit. He had an upper hand for whatever beast was following him.

“Ten?? Are you still there? Say something!”

“I think… I’m safe. For now,” Ten relaxed a bit and tried to catch his breath, but Doyoung wasn’t letting him have a second to.

“Did you call just for nothing? I have things to do, you ing rat.”

“No, Doyoung! Don’t go…” Ten said in between his gasps for air, “I was going to call anyway about Yuta…”

“Oh, right! How did it go…?”

“Well… His stuff wasn’t in the front of the yard, so I guess it can’t be too bad…” Ten took another deep breath of air, “But… I couldn’t go inside and knock because this… THIS beast came up to attack me!”

“Not his mom right…”

“His mother isn’t even a beast,” Ten mumbled, “She’s another level. But anyway, no, I was entering his home when suddenly some dog with ing rabies or some started barking at me and chasing me!”

“… A dog?”

“This dog was vicious! It chased me down the whole street, I think…”

“You think? YOU THINK? So you called just to tell me you were being chased by a ing dog?? I thought you were going to say something about Yuta. I’m going to – “

“Aren’t you worried about me!? Yuta is in his safe, warm home, probably eating his feelings away. I was almost murdered!”

“You have such a hard life. Bye.”

Ten gasped when he heard the line click. He held the phone away from his phone and saw he did hang up. That stupid band geek! Ten will let him have a piece of his mind when he sees him… And remembers.

“How the hell do I get down from here then?” Ten questioned aloud when he felt the coast was clear, the best dog was out of his sight and probably lost him with how quick he ran, and the sky was losing its blue.

He couldn’t help but still worry about his good friend Yuta. His best friend, for ’s sake. He felt at fault. If it weren’t friends like him, Yuta would never get into this trouble. Of course… It’s Yuta’s own will, too. Maybe he shouldn’t have pressured his friend so much to date. Yuta wants to date, and he wanted to try to help him, but instead he’ll only get in trouble for it. And still be a when he does.

Should I try calling him? Ten thought to himself. He held his phone and stared at it, debating about it over and over again. He was generally scared if his mother picked up. Yuta’s mother was a whole other level of tiger mom. At least, that’s his idea of her. Yuta doesn’t like talking about his family much. Or himself at all, really…

“I’m such a ty, weak friend!” Ten groaned out loud.

“WOOF!”

“Ruby – quiet!”

Ten turned his head around to hear where the familiar bark was coming from.

“That ing demon is back!” Ten crieid as the dog started jumping up to try and eat him.

“Get away!” Ten nagged the dog as he swatted his hands at it in an attempt to scare it away, “You stupid dog!”

The dog’s jump were surprisingly so high that it managed to bite his shirt and tear it fr