Daehyun groans into his pillow, rolls off the bed, aggravation trailing behind him. Fighting the grogginess, he manages his way down to the kitchen and while rubbing his eyes awake, a growl lets out into the open. “How many times do I have to tell you to turn that stupid -” He cuts short, rounding the corner to find his fury mistakenly aimed at someone else. Yongguk pauses the song, looks uneasily in Daehyun’s direction. “Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was home. Jongup said you were gonna be out.”

Daehyun bites the inside of his cheek and backs away without a word.

“Dae,” Yongguk utters.

Daehyun stops. The quiver at the end of the way Yongguk says his name almost compels him to turn back around and for a second he finds a mean to justify doing so, but he shakes the thought away and continues up the stairs. Yongguk leans back in defeat, but not altogether lost. The hesitation in Daehyun’s steps as he walks away doesn’t go unnoticed. Yongguk sees a fracture in Daehyun’s shell and however tiny it may be, it’s the only chance he’s got. Yet it isn’t an easy feat to keep trying at something that seems to be going nowhere. The constant rejection is flustering and he isn’t sure how much more he can withstand, but then he thinks about why Daehyun is so insolent and why he tolerated it thus far and sighs, crippled to do otherwise.

The music resumes at a much softer volume just as Daehyun makes it back into his room. He shuts the door with unnecessary force and draws the curtains roughly, darkening the room to a tolerable shade before crawling back under the sheets. The clock ticks through the silence and Daehyun fusses to find an adequate position, but his bed is providing no consolation for his growing irritation so he rises. After rummaging through his dresser and slipping into fresh clothes, he peeks down the hall and when all seems right, he creeps along the wall until he reaches the stairs. Carefully, he descends.

As if on cue, Yongguk appears from the kitchen and is thankfully preoccupied with his phone. Daehyun scrambles to rush back up and spins around hastily only to hit the tiered surface with a loud thud. He bites his tongue to keep from yelping; footsteps approach quickly and it’s not long before a hand comes to rest on his shoulder.

“Dae, are you okay?”

When a soft nudge from that same hand prods against his arm, he finally looks up. Yongguk’s face is full of concern and Daehyun can’t help but soften under his gaze. Yongguk repeats his question, bringing Daehyun from his momentary placidity and he lurches away from Yongguk’s hand, pressing his rib further into the corner of the stair, educing a pained moan causing him to involuntarily lean back toward Yongguk who only becomes more concerned. “Are you alright? Did you break something?”

Daehyun brushes him away with a wave of his hand and Yongguk backs up a bit, giving him room to stand. Daehyun straightens out his shirt, clears his throat and pushes past him, pride barely intact. Yongguk watches as Daehyun walks away, almost slipping again on the last step before making it out the door. He shakes his head, feeling a tad guilty for wanting to laugh at the younger’s stubbornness.

*

Daehyun rubs frustrated palms over his face and lets out a discontented grunt. He mumbles softly to himself, cursing at his unforgiveable clumsiness as he walks along the street. He has no idea where he is going, just as long as he’s out of the house and far from Yongguk, especially after that little mishap.

Not too many people are out for a Saturday, making the walk all the better. Daehyun isn’t too fond of crowds; in fact, he isn’t too fond of much of anything, which is why he doesn’t have a lot of friends, but he doesn’t mind.

“The more, the messier,” he would say whenever Jongup would ask if he wanted to tag along with his friends and Jongup would laugh, but never argue because he understood what Daehyun meant by that. It started back when Daehyun was still one half of a whole. Jongup didn’t know the details. All he knew was that there was a rift in Daehyun’s relationship and then something went down and ever since then, Daehyun had a guard up the size of a dam. He wouldn’t trust anyone and he wouldn’t let anyone come close enough to be a potential threat, friend or more.

It was actually sad, in Jongup’s opinion, to see such a good guy turn into someone so daunting and bitter that his demeanor alone would deter anyone from even considering approaching him. But he swore from the day that he witnessed Daehyun come home with shirt soaked in his own tears, completely lost and distraught, that he would never leave his side. Daehyun needed to know that there was at least one person in the world he could always count on and he would never let him hurt like that again.

Jongup isn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he is one of the best friends anyone could ask for. From the start, he and Daehyun clicked and he would always listen to whatever Daehyun had to say about his day, however petty and irrelevant it may have been. He would laugh when he was happy and frown when he was mad, but most importantly, he would hold his hand and sit on the couch with a pint of cookie dough ice cream on hand as Daehyun sulked into his shoulder, watching a slew of sad movies. He would lighten the mood with a little joke about how Daehyun was actually crying over how small the guy’s was or something along those lines, but Daehyun would retort with, “You shouldn’t be talking,” and Jongup would grin and bear it. Insult or not, at least Daehyun was smiling.

So even in times of Daehyun’s rash outbursts – often not his fault – he would just take it and leave it at that. He knew Daehyun’s intentions weren’t malicious; he just needed an outlet for his vexation no matter how unnecessary. It became more of a routine over time and the shell that Daehyun built solidified.

However, there was one point where he almost pushed Jongup over the edge. Considering how difficult that is to do, it was a wakeup call to say the least. Daehyun had yelled at him over something so small and it tipped the iceberg for Jongup. He couldn’t take anymore. He didn’t think he deserved to, not under any circumstance, not even his best friend’s. The daily rants and constant irascibility were taking its toll.

Jongup was ready to