The next day, Jongin did the exact same thing that he had the previous evening. He walked down the stairs, his arms limply hanging by his side, and slowly made his way to the living room. His gaze was unfocused and the artist automatically walked towards the couch, curling himself up into a ball after sitting down. The thin navy blue blanket was hanging around his shoulders again, even though mornings weren’t as chilly as they used to be.

After half an hour of Jongin lifelessly sitting like a mannequin, Yixing couldn’t stand seeing his friend act like this any longer and resolved to somehow get to the root of whatever was bothering Jongin. The manager came over to sit next to him on the couch, but Jongin barely acknowledged the other male’s presence. “Jongin, are you feeling okay?” Yixing asked, worriedly raking his eyes over the artist’s wilted form. “You’ve been acting kind of strange lately. Well, ever since last night.”

An indecipherable mumble escaped Jongin’s lips, but he kept staring down, his gaze boring into the cobalt blue-colored carpet on the floor.

“Did…something happen during your appointment with Dr. Do?”

Jongin noticeably stiffened, but he still refused to give the manager a proper answer. Instead, he drew the blanket even tighter around his shoulders and hunched over his body enough for his ears to just barely brush against the soft fabric.

The older male sighed loudly, pursing his lips in a straight line as he stared at Jongin. While it wasn’t strange for him to act so moodily, this kind of detachment was extremely rare. In fact, Yixing wasn’t sure he had ever seen his friend so…drained. Even when he normally lounged on the couch and watched whatever television program was on at the time, which Jongdae had complained about on more than one occasion since he was used to vegetating in the living room after a long day at work, Jongin was at least somewhat engaged and responsive.

But this… This behavior was alarming in its own right, even though the artist wasn’t being caustic or temperamental. In fact, Yixing wasn’t sure if he would rather deal with the current Jongin who seemed to be a ticking time bomb, ready to blow at any moment, or the usual Jongin who threw tantrum after tantrum like a bratty little kid and left behind a trial of destruction wherever he went. Neither were great options, to be honest. At this point, the manager would lose, no matter which choice he went with.

Regardless, something like this could only be solved by one person.

Without a word, Yixing stood up from the couch, but the artist didn’t pay him any attention. The manager almost wished Jongin would make a biting remark, because then they would be having a conversation, albeit a heated one. But Yixing would gladly sacrifice himself for that, since it wouldn’t be as alienating as…whatever this was.

--

Jongin had shifted so that he was now lying on his right side, still facing the black television screen stationed at the opposite side of the living room. The thin navy blue blanket was still wrapped around him, although his white socked feet were sticking out since his body was too long to completely fit under it. He was so lost in his thoughts that the artist didn’t notice another figure walk into the room until he suddenly felt a heavy weight on his legs. “What the—”

“It’s time to rise and shine, Jongin! Midday naps are for babies.”

“Sehun, you’re sitting on me,” the artist pointed out wryly.

“Not my fault you’re hogging the couch,” Sehun answered flippantly. His devilish grin widened when he purposefully lifted his feet off of the ground so that all of his body weight was transferred onto Jongin’s legs, causing his best friend to gasp in pain.

“Okay, okay, get off of me so I can make space for you!”

Sehun beamed as he stood up to allow the artist to swing his sore legs off of the couch, pointedly ignoring the string of muttered curses that were leaving Jongin’s mouth. “I brought you candy,” the model said, holding out the peace offering with both hands after he sat back down.

A smile tugged at Jongin’s lips due to the cheesy, childlike gesture and he found himself unable to stay mad at his best friend for long.

It was a giant tub of licorice candy, mostly black licorice twists and sour candy belts.

“One of the company’s rookie models—I think her name is Kim Doyeon—recently posed for a licorice candy ad,” Sehun explained as he pulled back the lid from the plastic tub before picking up a twisted stick of black licorice and handing it to Jongin. “It’s her first big gig and she managed to sign a contract with an overseas company.” The model then pointed to the label on the tub, which was in English.

“Oh, I’ve heard of them,” Jongin commented after reading the name on the label. “They sold their candy in France as well.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty big. Donghae wouldn’t shut up about how Doyeon could become the new face of our agency if she keeps booking gigs like this.” Sehun made a face before grabbing a black licorice twist for himself and taking a generous bite out of the top end.

“Are you jealous?” the artist teased, snickering loudly.

“Of course not,” Sehun instantly answered. “If anything, Suji is the one who needs to be worried. But she isn’t going to be dethroned so easily, not by a rookie who only has one overseas gig under her belt.”

“But how did you get your hands on this?” Jongin asked while motioning to the tub nestled in his best friend’s lap. “You weren’t also part of the ad, were you?”

The model shook his head as he absentmindedly drummed his fingers against the side of the plastic tub. “Nah, I haven’t posed for anything that isn’t fashion-related in months. The licorice company sent over crates of this stuff to our headquarters,” Sehun explained, using his arms to mime a giant box in order to emphasize the amount. “The entire break room is filled with cardboard box towers of candy, so I swiped a box for myself after a meeting with one of the creative directors about my next photo shoot.”

“So you stole the candy,” Jongin deadpanned.

“No, I relocated some of it to a place where it’ll be fully appreciated,” Sehun corrected with a sly smile. “Besides, no one’s going to miss one measly box of licorice. And the company will probably be begging us to take the rest of it home sooner or later, once everyone gets sick of snacking on these in the break room.”

“And you’ll generously offer to take all of it, won’t you,” the artist predicted with a pointed look at Sehun.

His best friend sent Jongin a Cheshire Cat-like smirk, showing off his pearly white teeth. “Maybe.” He then shifted his body so that he was sitting cross-legged on the couch with his back resting against the left couch arm. After finishing off the rest of the black licorice twist in his hand, Sehun finally asked, “Is everything okay, Jongin? Yixing told me you’ve been sulking and—”

“I’m not sulking,” the artist muttered petulantly.

“He told me you aren’t feeling well,” Sehun amended with a wry smile, “and wanted to know if I could come by to cheer you up. I don’t have anything scheduled today, so I thought we could spend the rest of the day together and talk about whatever’s bothering you. Or we could play video games or watch a movie, if you don’t feel like talking.”

Jongin reached over to snatch a handful of licorice candy and aggressively stuffed a green apple-flavored sour candy belt into his mouth, wincing when the acerbic taste completely coated the top of his tongue. He kept his gaze trained on the carpet again, even though he could feel Sehun’s eyes piercing through him, as he vigorously chewed the candy.

It wasn’t that he minded telling the model what he was dealing with. After all, Sehun was his best friend for a reason.

It was mostly because Jongin didn’t know how to explain his dilemma. He still hadn’t quite processed the fact that Park Chanyeol, the poor guitarist he had given one hundred thousand won to, was the best friend of Do Kyungsoo, his ophthalmologist. That these two opposite individuals had connected on a deeper level and were possibly even more.

Something like this shouldn’t bother him, but it did. A lot.

Coupled with the conflicting thoughts on being single versus dating someone that had been swirling in his head for the past few weeks, the artist was even more confused about everything and thus, his mind had automatically shut down. There was only so much that his brain could handle at a time and it seemed as though all of this converging at once had overloaded Jongin to the point where his soul had virtually left his body.

He remedied this by shoving more black licorice twists into his mouth, trying to focus solely on the extremely sweet and sour taste of the chewy candy. It worked to a certain degree, but the distraction still wasn’t enough in the end.

Now, the tendrils of black resembled the black licorice twists as they stretched and coiled around him. A strange sense of stickiness coated his wrists while a sharp, sour-sweet smell aded his nostrils. Jongin slightly choked on a large piece of licorice, coughing loudly as he thumped his chest while Sehun patted his back to help dislodge the candy that was stuck in the artist’s throat.

“Maybe you should just stick with the sour belts,” Sehun suggested while rotating the tub so that the half with the colorful candy belts was facing the other male, who had luckily stopped coughing but was now looking at his best friend with watery eyes.

“Y-yeah—” Jongin cleared his throat loudly, still feeling a bit of a tickle near the back. “Maybe I’ll—I’ll try eating the licorice twists later.”

The model nodded as he passed over a handful of sour belts to Jongin.

“In the mean time, let’s…” The artist’s eyes wandered around the room until settling on the glass cabinet drawers of the television stand, which the screen sat atop. “We haven’t played Mario Kart in years. Let’s do that,” he proposed while pointing to the game console, which was surrounded by a couple of controllers and a stack of game cases, sitting in the cabinet.

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows at Jongin’s obvious attempt to change the subject. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” he asked, his voice low and calm. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally aggravate his best friend.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” the artist said flatly before cramming several sour belts into his mouth and standing up from the couch. “I’m just in the mood to play video games right now,” he continued after swallowing the candy. “You said we could do that.”

“Okay,” Sehun answered slowly. “But don’t come crying to me when you get your kicked,” he jeered, moving a stick of black licorice horizontally in front of his neck to signify the artist’s eventual defeat.

Jongin huffed as he walked over to the television stand, opened the cabinets to retrieve his gaming equipment, and then knelt down to set up the console. “The only that’s getting kicked today is yours, Sehun. I don’t care how long we’ve been best friends. I’m not going easy on you today.”

“As if I’ve ever needed a handicap from you,” the model scoffed. “Prepare to eat my dust, loser.”

“Yeah, okay,” Jongin answered mockingly. “I’ll do that once I’ve lapped you into the next course. You’ll still be stuck in Luigi Circuit while I’m cruising through Rainbow Road.”

“Except you’ll probably choke during the race, just like how you choked on your licorice earlier.”

Jongin almost threw the black game controller he was lending to Sehun at his best friend’s face—he resisted, only because he needed him for future figure sketches—as Sehun crowed with laughter.

He was lucky that he had a handsome face.

And that Jongin had no wish to deal with Donghae’s inevitable hysterics if the scout ever found out Sehun’s face had something thrown at it.

--

“I have another photo shoot coming up next week, if you want to visit,” Sehun offered after they finished another round of Mario Kart. “Staying cooped up in here forever won’t do you any favors.”

The artist sighed heavily, even though he knew his best friend was right. Brooding around like this wasn’t conducive to solving whatever problems he was facing and his behavior was inconveniencing everyone else in the house.

Not to mention, it was so stupid of him to be so hung up over something so insignificant like Park Chanyeol being best friends with Kyungsoo.

Did this prevent Kyungsoo from properly doing his job as Jongin’s ophthalmologist?

No.

Did this bar Jongin from getting to know Kyungsoo on his own time?

No.

Did this ultimately affect Jongin’s life?

No.

So there was nothing to worry about. Kyungsoo could be best friends with whoever he liked. Even if said best friend happened to be an excessively friendly, talkative, tall guitarist. And this best friend regularly slept over at Kyungsoo’s house. And also stored his clothes at Kyungsoo’s house.

Good god, this was annoying to think about. The artist hated how easily his thoughts would return to this topic, even though it was so minor in the grand scheme of things.

Jongin had his own best friend to worry about.

And said best friend was currently staring at the artist, patiently waiting for a response to his suggestion. While he waited, Sehun had been half-listening to the Mario Kart soundtrack that was playing in the background, since he could tell how distracted Jongin was by the way the other male rhythmically drummed his fingers against the side of the silver controller that he was holding.

“Sure, I can come,” Jongin finally answered, causing the model to crack a wide grin. “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“I’ll bring more candy for you,” Sehun promised while navigating through the game screen to set up their next race. “I think there might be some red licorice twists in a few of the crates, but I’ll get Donghae to open them up and check for me. Honestly, the black licorice doesn’t taste that good,” the model admitted as they waited for the race to load, “but I didn’t want to only eat sour belts and I was too lazy to try to find the red licorice instead.”

“I mean, it’s not awful, but you definitely could’ve brought over better candy for me to snack on while I mope.”

With the race now in session and the karts zooming around the course, Sehun purposely aimed his next Red Shell at Jongin’s kart by slowing down to let one of the computer-generated players pass him so that he was directly in front of his best friend’s kart. The model snickered as he sped off while Jongin cursed loudly as his kart spun wildly and several other racers passed him.

“Just wait until I get a Blue Shell, Oh Sehun! You’re going down!”

“Not unless I pass the finish line first!” the model sang as he easily dodged a Green Shell that ricocheted against the edge of the track and shot past his kart.

Yixing peeked in, smiling softly when he saw the two best friends laughing loudly as they played video games together.

Even though he hadn’t been able to elicit the same response from Jongin earlier, at the very least, the artist had Sehun to rely on and that was good enough for Yixing. As long as Jongin didn’t feel alone, things would be okay.

♈♈♈

A/N: BIG SHOUT-OUT to RobinFeelAster for being such a wonderful crowdfund supporter! You’re amazing, and I’m so honored and thankful that you like my writing enough to monetarily support me! It really helps, especially since I'm currently going through a big life change, and I’ll do my very best to keep pumping out quality content!

I will also be marking early release chapters with (ER) in front when I upload them. Once they are available to everyone else, I will re-publish the chapters and mark them with (NEW!), so there's no confusion as to when these chapters can be read. :) Anyway, subscribe, comment, and/or upvote if you're enjoying the story so far! Have a lovely day and see you next time with a brand new chapter!