"Kyuhyun!"

Kyuhyun turned around, seeing a short, young man, who was drowning in a giant, green scarf running towards him. He almost groaned, but schooled his expression to one of tolerance before the other could notice it.

Ryeowook, a bit out of breath, caught up to him soon enough with his much shorter legs. Kyuhyun could only see his eyes from behind the scarf he had really wrapped well around his neck, but he knew the shorter man was smiling just by seeing his eyes. Shaking his head, he looked at the time on his phone and clicked his tongue.

“You're late,” he commented.

Ryeowook scowled, his reply muffled by the scarf, "Am not.”

"Yes, you are. We agreed on meeting at 6 p.m."

"Well, smarty pants, then you are late, too. And you were not even trying to go faster. Tch."

Kyuhyun stared at him before giving an exaggeratedly deep sigh of suffering, "Why do I stand you again?"

Ryeowook waved his hand in the air, ignoring his words. "Forget that nonsense for now. Let's get going, they're waiting for us."

They approached the street and waited for the cars to stop in front of the crosswalk, giving them a chance to cross. Their destination – a dining place near the school – was right on the other side of the road. They could already see their friends waiting for them there. Ryeowook waved at them, excited.

“Let's go,” Kyuhyun said with a nudge. Ryeowook beamed and walked forward, but in the middle of the road, on the pedestrian refuge between the two lanes, they had to stop. There were no lights and the drivers didn't care to stop, not letting them pass.

Ryeowook didn't think much of it, it wasn't that uncommon in this city, and he was used to it by now, so when there was a few seconds time to cross, he dashed ahead and ran to the sidewalk on the other side with hasty steps, leaving a dumbfounded Kyuhyun behind.

“Oh, come on! What are you waiting for?”

“For a safe chance to cross,” Kyuhyun snarled from where he still stood. Ryeowook rolled his eyes, but still waited for him on the other side. It took Kyuhyun a while to get the courage to cross, but when he did, he walked up to him and straight up flicked Ryeowook’s forehead.

“That was dumb,” he chided, annoyed.

“Aww, were you worried?”

“No,” he immediately denied, “I just don't play with my life.”

“Please, there was plenty of time to walk across. You're just too slow with this. Besides, if you wait for a huge gap or some random kind driver, you can wait all day there and I ain't doing that.”

Kyuhyun pinched the bridge of his nose. But before he had time to say anything, their friends stepped in.

Ryeowook immediately latched himself on everyone, giving all but Kyuhyun big, warm hugs, the comfort of their presence, and smiling brightly once he let go. It was so nice to finally have friends, and Ryeowook couldn’t stop his excitement from showing this time either.

Kyuhyun just awkwardly waved, feeling like an outsider for some reason. And he had no reason to, these were his friends to begin with, and honestly? He couldn't even consider Ryeowook his friend, and he doubted his friends felt any different.

“Come on, Kyuhyun,” one of their his friends called. Kyuhyun sighed, wishing the evening would go by just fine before following them inside.

Ryeowook, as always, had already occupied the spot at the end of the table. And as always, Kyuhyun was the last one to come, having to sit on the exact opposite seat from his. He could already feel he will not like this day and he didn't even have to tutor anyone later. Why was Ryeowook so determined to always ruin his relaxation time?

"Come on, let's order."

"I heard they added new lunches earlier this week," Donghae, one of Kyuhyun’s friends, informed, and they all quickly scanned through the menu, hungry and tired.

The place was in no way fancy, it was actually quite greasy and worn out, but it was cheap, fitting the budget of poor students well — the reason being that the dishes were made out of leftover foods. You could not expect a high quality dinner there. It was funny how 'fancy' they could still make some of the foods sound. 

"Fish foam and steamed potatoes with grated carrots and sour cream gravy? What the- Who the hell would even eat tha-" 

"One of those, please," announced Ryeowook loudly as he flashed a smile at the waiter, handing back the menu. The rest silently stared at him before quickly saying their orders and sending the waiter away. 

"You do realize it's made out of fish remains, right?" 

Ryeowook shrugged, "It's still fish. And I have gravy with it." 

"All right, your choice. Just make sure you don't get a fishbone stuck in your throat."

"Mind your own food, please."

Awkward silence followed till Eunhyuk, another one of Kyuhyun’s friends, cleared his throat, "So, uhh, have you done some tutoring lately?"

"I planned some on next week," Kyuhyun revealed. Thank god, he added in his mind. One more week to prepare himself for it.

"But aren't the exams, like, at the end of this month?"

"Not to mention about the pop quizzes," Donghae piped up. 

"Come on, I'm not that bad. I can manage. Have a little faith in me," Ryeowook whined, but they only laughed it off.

It wasn't even all about him, but Ryeowook had always found himself awkward in social situations. He was glad they were acting like they didn't care about it though. Or, well, at least some of them were trying to make it seem less awkward. If only Kyuhyun wasn't there, pushing all the wrong buttons by just sitting there. 

Ryeowook huffed and crossed his arms, tuning out of the conversation till the food was brought. He couldn't help but to wonder why he even bothered coming there once he saw his plate, dubiously eying the thing that was supposed to be his dinner. But he wasn't the only one:

"Umm… Is it always supposed to be this dark?" Kyuhyun asked with a frown. His seaweed-noodle-bean mix of sort was looking very... unidentifiable.

Eunhyuk peeked at his plate and made a face, "Not that I know, but that looks kinda… yucky."

"Show me, show me," Donghae begged, excited. Ryeowook glanced at the plate too once Kyuhyun lifted it and almost scoffed. 

“Fits your dark soul,” he muttered to himself from under his breath as he played around with his food, suddenly losing his appetite. 

“Did you say something?”

“Oh, nothing. Don’t mind me. So, just pretty much act like you always do,” Ryeowook told with a sarcastic, bright smile, his eyes narrowing as he tried to forcefully keep himself positive.

Kyuhyun sighed and would’ve banged his head on the table, but since they did come to eat outside, he didn’t dare to.

"Well, it's not like I like you anyway," he casually stated. Dumb, his friends almost screamed as their eyes widened. That was a really dumb move. 

Ryeowook forgot how to breathe. His hold around the chopsticks tightened and he silently trembled in anger. Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Boy, Ryeowook was so going to-

"AH so good!" 

"Come on, let's just enjoy the food. Dig in!"

Ryeowook forced himself to take some air in and let it out. Kyuhyun was a douche at times, but he didn't want to waste a punch on him. It's not like he even could… He sighed before starting to silently eat, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Shame burned inside of him as all he could think of was Kyuhyun rejecting his feelings so that everyone and their neighbors had heard it. He forgot to engage in the conversation again up till he heard the magical words “-- bitter hearted pain in the --”. 

Ryeowook threw his chopsticks down on the table, the impact sending them flying, “You say that again to my face.”

Kyuhyun raised a brow and opened his mouth, “Bitter. Hearted. Pain. In. The. .” He drawled the words, making sure he was properly articulating them in case Ryeowook would get confused. 

Ryeowook’s eye twitched. Oh, so now it was fair for him to say that? Like he did not ruin his life with what he did? Like he hadn't made sure he was left with no friends for the rest of his school time? Right. ‘Fair’. 

“You self centered little piece of-”

“Oookay, calm down, Kyuhyun didn't mean to say it, he's just a bit…. Tired. Kyuhyun, shut up and behave.”

“He needs to get it through his head, I don't like him and I won't ever like him. He needs to stop thinking that just because I'm his math tutor, I suddenly care if he's left alone.”

“Of course you do, Kyu. Since he told you to-”

“Like I'd want to spend my time with you. All I want is to have friends, and you owe me that.”

“Do not! It was an accident, okay? Now leave me be.”

Ryeowook scoffed, “Oh, an ‘accident’? Haven't heard that before.”

“You-”

“STOP! You two are giving me a migraine.”

“Well, Kyuh-”

“Please, both of you, just shut up. Always bickering. Don't you have anything else to do?”

Ryeowook frowned, “Well it's not like it's my fault he's an idiot.”

“Ryeowook…”

“My god, stop saying that to me! If this is still about that stupid conf-”

“Kyuhyun!”

“Well, it is! How stupid must you be that you let the whole-”

“Shut your mouths for even five seconds, jesus!”

Grudgingly, Ryeowook leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, Kyuhyun doing the same on the opposite side of the table.

Eunhyuk let out a breath of relief, “Thank you…”

It was exactly three and a half seconds later that the two stood up, pointing their fingers at each other while cursing each other out.

They decided to end their rendezvous early as there was no point to even try to stop them once the two started bickering. They could swear if Kyuhyun would just keep his mouth shut, and Ryeowook would just let it go, those two would already be together. They were both just idiots.

They ended up just dragging them outside, wishing quick goodbyes, and leaving, trying to stay out of the way as much as possible while also not getting a ban from their usual eating place. 

Ryeowook couldn’t believe their friends just ditched them, but neither could Kyuhyun. They had been fair and paid the bill for them, to avoid yet another fight between them, really. But still, leaving the two alone again? Seriously? Though Ryeowook did have to admit he hadn’t been on his best behavior today. He blamed it on the tear filled sleepless night he had had too much again recently.

“Well, things got a bit heated today,” he admitted nevertheless with a light laugh. “I should've controlled myself better. Sorry.”

Kyuhyun nodded, “Apology accepted.”

“It wasn't for you, . I was saying it for your friends.”

“They aren't here.”

Ryeowook groaned, “I have eyes.” They walked a bit further in the silence, with Ryeowook stealing glances of the taller every few seconds, before he stopped, frowning. “Well? Aren't you going to say anything?”

“Say what?”

“About your behavior today, too. Don't you think they deserve to know you are sorry?”

“You started it.”

Ryeowook opened his mouth, ready to lash out but shut it instead, holding the breath inside him till he calmed down, and then slowly blew it out. It was with that sigh that the familiar ache in his heart regained its consciousness. Right. For what would Kyuhyun ever apologize?

Feeling he was getting a bit shaky and emotional again, he rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Whatever, bye,” he wished by a mere raise of his hand before he turned around, his feet kicking the ground as if it had personally offended him as he began his way home.

A/N: I feel like this but in my defense, despite this messy start, things will be explained in the other chapters, and each time we learn more about how, why and all. Sorry for throwing you in to this mess head first lmao :'> 

Anyway! I hope you enjoyed it! Subscribe to stay tuned, comment if you want and see you next time!