The tree of friendship, somewhere in Seoul, 2008

“I have to admit, the administration building is not looking so scary when you see it from here.“ Changmin shook his head in amazement.

“Told ya!” Sooyoung clapped her hand happily. “Wookie-Oppa has always the best ears and eyes among all of us.” Changmin frowned. “Yah! You only want to praise him so he forgot the fact that you eat almost all of his food!”

“Meanie Oppa!” Sooyoung smacked his head and then ran to hide herself behind Wookie when Changmin chased her after yelped because of the sudden coalition between her hand and his head.

Wookie startled when suddenly he was becoming a pole for the fighting best friends. “Yah! Wookie, don’t be so soft at heart! She will bully you around.” Changmin scoulded at Wookie who was trying to separate the two.

“Oppaaaa, don’t let me goooo.... you know me, I can’t even hurt a fly!” Sooyoung hugged Wookie’s arm tightly that it started to turn red, but Wookie was just let it be, knowing that his heart was doing somersault with her that close.

Changmin snickered. “Like anyone would believe.”

Joohyun smiled when she saw them from the side ways. As a newcomer, sometimes she felt so lonely among the old friends. She sometimes stayed outside the scene and observed. She glanced to her side where someone else was also watching the scene.

Or she thought so.....

Because the said man actually was glancing after her. She blushed uncontrollably when she thought he probably knew that she had been watching him.

But Kyuhyun was the calmest and reserved man that she ever encountered.Sometimes she thinks he behaved like he was the new person in the group and not her. She threw her head to the side and watching the screaming fight that was still taken place that afternoon.

Little did she knew that Kyuhyun was actually been thinking about her. Or to be precisely, the small scene he saw in the canteen before. A scene that he should not be surprised, yet he felt something was completely wrong with it.

Because he should not be jealous to his cousin over a girl that they both just knew a day before. And because he could not jealous since he had lost the permission to be in that feeling on the day he agreed to substitute Jonghyun in courting Yoona.

But since he was a normal man, having seen the way Changmin touched Joohyun’s cheek and her blushing scene was something that hurt a lot. That day marked the moment when he knew that Changmin was seriously interested with her.

And that he should never come between them.

He glanced at his side and found her watching him instead. His heart betrayed his brain and common sense. It did some somersault when he realized that somehow he got her undivided attention.

The two of them might still be in each trance position if Wookie had not chosen to drop himself in between and let the two crazy neighborhoods played around. “They’re crazy!” Kyuhyun glanced at Wookie and felt sorry for the boy. He’s been with the two since they’re still kids, so he knew how to try to follow those two. Sometimes he wondered who the third wheel was.

Not like his own labyrinth of feeling, which he was sure he was the third wheel for Changmin and Joohyun’s possible blossoming relationship. It seemed that was always his role, the third wheel. Although in the case of Jonghyun and Yoona, he was fine with it. But with this one….

“Are you alright, Oppa?” Joohyun, the always softie at heart, turned a worried gaze to Wookie who seemed having difficulty on breathing.

“I am alright. It just….”  Wookie