“Does he not oddly remind you of Junhui?”

And there, the latter paused, staring blankly into the elder’s eyes. Junhui was the reason behind Wonwoo’s smiles, stellar grades and everything else positive two years ago.

Seungcheol never formally met him but he has heard many stories about Junhui and the pair together.

Junhui used to wait for Wonwoo to head home together every day as he knew that Wonwoo would be stressed about school and needed to pick himself up, but couldn’t without a friend. On the way home, he would listen to Wonwoo rant, laugh and watch him take a short nap, only to be woken up as they near the bus stop.

At first, Seungcheol thought that they lived in the same neighbourhood or just a few blocks away, but actually Junhui lived on the campus dorms, for which he was an exchange student of a semester. He would accompany Wonwoo home, and head back to the dorms immediately to not miss his curfews.

Back in the day, the two were inseparable, they’d be seen together during lunch, in between classes, they would make it a point to see each other even in between classes when they were going to different classrooms.

They weren’t officially dating or anything, but everyone knew both of them were out of bounds to singles who were ready to mingle.

To immortalise their favourite memories, Junhui set up an Instagram account with the username ‘OnlyWonINeed’. As cheesy as it was, Wonwoo felt really blessed and happy with that idea.

Wonwoo used to have about 500 over followers on Instagram, people from middle school and high school would follow him, his friends around the neighbourhood and his cousins too! He wasn’t always the one that shunned from social media.

Everything changed during Junhui’s last week of exchange in Seoul. They had 7 days to say goodbye to each other, but Junhui had none of it. On the seventh day, he started to ignore Wonwoo. On the sixth, he avoided him along the walkways. On the fifth, he stopped seeing him for lunch. On the fourth, he didn’t send Wonwoo home. On the third, he pretended both of them never had anything. On the second, he just ignored him completely. No matter how many text messages were sent to him, Junhui just ignored them all.

On the last day, Junhui posted a photo on their Instagram account. It was Junhui’s fondest memory of them together - the weekend Wonwoo’s parents were away and they spent the entire weekend together, sleeping over, watching movies and just spending time together.

A photo of them, cheeks pressed together with their brightest smile on their faces grayscaled. Accompanied with a really long paragraph.

To my dear Wonwoo,

In the blink of an eye, 3 months has passed so quickly and it pains me to say this but goodbye. You’ve got no idea how happy I’ve been the past few weeks with you.

You were always there for me, always helped me translate, bring me around and show me what’s good around town. Your weekends were usually spent with me, bringing me to new places that sometimes you haven’t even been to before. Those weekly adventures will be something I miss.

But I can never miss anything or anyone more than you - just you.

I’m so sorry I left you hanging like that this week. I know it was painful for you, it was for me too, but it’s the only way we can start getting used to each other’s absence. During the week, when I look at you, I still feel a sense of comfort even though we’re not talking.

You’re an amazing person, Wonwoo. One that I can never be, one that no one can ever be.

Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle, boy. I’ll see you soon. I promise.

I love you.

Wen Junhui.”

There, in that instance, Wonwoo was left in tears.

He never knew that what he thought was an innocent friendship would turn into something romantic and hurt him like that. He always thought that he wouldn’t feel so attached to anyone and it was safe for him to just become friends with people so easily.

“Come to think of it, he does really remind me of Junhui,” replied Wonwoo.

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I’m not, but I don’t think I should shun away from someone just because of a dark past, hyung.”

“Smart choice, Wonwoo.”

“But hyung, I’ve got one small question.”

“What’s up, bud?”

“If anything bad ha-”

“I’ll be there in an instant, boy. You can count on it.”

The pair spent the rest of the day at the Spring Fair, taking pictures underneath cherry blossom trees, snacking and catching up with each other. To Wonwoo’s surprise, Seungcheol’s grades has been going up and at this rate, they’ll be able to graduate together!

Towards the end of the day, they both got a passing girl Seungcheol recognised (likely from school) to take a photo of the pair. At the entrance of the fair, after three counts, the photo comes out perfectly. Not too much shadow, bright and happy. Just the way Wonwoo likes it.

They bid farewell before heading home for dinner. On the way home, Wonwoo posts the photo on his Instagram with the caption, “First post back, dedicated to the bestest friend anyone could ask for.”

While walking back home, Wonwoo plugged his headphones on and 벚꽃이 지면 started playing. He then thought to himself, as Spring comes to an end this year, will it hold something exciting for him?

A rather short update this week because I've been really busy lately. Sorry for the wait, everyone! I'll also be away the next week, so I'll be writing, but only updating probably towards the end of the week... Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate it. :)

++ also starting to feel that writing shorter chapters are easier... maybe that'll be the way onwards now. :-)

- Wook.