The next day at school, Jongin finds it strange that he hasn’t seen Kyungsoo around at all. He had intended to find the shorter male to apologize for making him cry the night before, but how could he even apologize when he couldn’t even find the other?

At first, Jongin expected to meet Kyungsoo before school, something they had begun to do, but when he arrived at the meeting spot, Kyungsoo wasn’t there.

This was just the first.

And when Jongin decided to wait outside of the latter’s classroom after the bell rang, he was too late because Kyungsoo was already long gone.

So, as Jongin walks to the cafeteria for lunch, he’s worried, but not entirely concerned. But what surprises him the most when he arrives at the lunch table is that Kyungsoo isn’t there.

“Uh, guys?” Jongin asks when he sits down, and the atmosphere is exceptionally strange. Chanyeol’s still missing, Baekhyun’s silent, which never happens, Sehun’s giving him a disappointed look, and Luhan’s outright ignoring him. “Where’s Kyungsoo?”

Jongin gets no response, and his confusion heightens even further. 

The glance that Sehun gives him tells him that something’s wrong, and Sehun mouths the words ‘He just left. He seemed sad.’

Jongin furrows his eyebrows, and he wonders where Kyungsoo could even be.

Jongin spends all of lunch looking for Kyungsoo, and just as he’s about to give up, he hears a familiar voice ringing down the hallway. Following the sound of conversation and laughter, Jongin furrows his eyebrows. There’s one door open in the hallway, and he can tell that there’s people in there.

Quietly shuffling closer, Jongin carefully peeks into the room through the window.

What he sees only makes his eyebrows furrow even further, his forehead creasing.

It’s Kyungsoo, and he’s sitting with someone else. From his view point, Jongin can’t quite see, but Kyungsoo’s laughing, and his smile is radiant. Jongin sees that there are two lunch boxes on the table, and he knows they’re Kyungsoo’s because he can tell it’s one of his lunchboxes.

Jongin frowns, wondering why Kyungsoo’s even there. He doesn’t realize how long he’s been standing there until the bell signaling the end of lunch rings, and he jumps from surprise. He sees Kyungsoo stand and organize the lunch boxes, and the backside of the strange looks familiar.

Students are beginning to shuffle into the hallway from the cafeteria, and Jongin knows he’s running out of time, but he lingers anyways because he just has to know who that is.

And then the stranger turns around, and Jongin’s eyes widen because it’s Joonmyeon. He knows Joonmyeon, because Joonmyeon is Kyungsoo’s friend. A really close friend.

Jongin feels a strange, unfamiliar feeling settling in his stomach. Though he can’t put a finger on it, it’s definitely jealousy, but what Jongin feels is the strangest feeling of discomfort and irritation.

Just as Kyungsoo and Joonmyeon are leaving, Jongin hides, and he catches a few of their words as he peeks from around a set of lockers.

“It’s been so long since I’ve talked to you, Joonmyeon, where did you disappear off to?” Kyungsoo chuckles, and his eyes gleam.

Joonmyeon shrugs softly, hiding his own happiness, because bumping into Kyungsoo was definitely a surprise. The other seemed rather distraught and lost, and it made Joonmyeon worried.

Joonmyeon had initially planned on separating himself from Kyungsoo since that day he saw the other with Jongin, only the most popular guy at school, because it pained him too much to see Kyungsoo like that with someone else. So, when Kyungsoo was alone in the hallway, he couldn’t have been more surprised.

“Nowhere, really” Joonmyeon smiles, “Just a little busy, that’s all,” he lies, but Kyungsoo believes it.

Jongin winces when he sees the two hug and then separate.

‘It’s okay,’ Jongin thinks to himself as he walks painfully slowly to his next class, looking just a bit lost.

Jongin thinks that he’s probably just overreacting to something stupid. He figures that he’ll talk things out with Kyungsoo after school, because they always walk home together. Always.

Besides, the problem really isn’t all that serious, right? Kyungsoo’s not obligated to eat with the same people at lunch all the time anyways.

Jongin walks off with a more confident smile that things will be okay.

As soon as the bell rings, signaling the end of school, Jongin darts out of class. He’s ignoring all the girls who call his name or try to follow him, because he has something much more important to attend to.

When Jongin reaches the front gates, he’s not surprised that Kyungsoo’s not there yet because he made it out in probably just two minutes. He’s leaning against the wall as he waits, arms crossed over his chest.

After an extremely long wait, Jongin furrows his eyebrows. Kyungsoo should have been out by now, because nearly all the students have left already. There’s an occasional student that is leaving the building later, probably after asking a teacher a question, but Jongin’s hopes always skyrocket and then drop like a rock when he looks up to the sound of a shuffling, only to see that it’s a stranger.

He’s now seated on the ground, back up against the wall, as he waits. There’s nearly nobody leaving now.

But then, he hears the oh-so-familiar sound of Kyungsoo’s voice, and he perks up. His attention is now focused, and he looks around, searching for the sound. Jongin doesn’t even care that Kyungsoo’s nearly half an hour late, because the only thought that’s occupying his mind is that Kyungsoo finally came out.

He’s about to call out for the other male, but the sound dies in his throat when he hears another voice. Joonmyeon’s.

Without even thinking, Jongin scrambles to his feet and hides behind a bush. He doesn’t know why he does it, because he really should have just waited for Kyungsoo and spoken briefly like he had planned on doing.

But instead, he eavesdrops what he can hear.

“Are you busy today?” Joonmyeon says, and Jongin’s rather calm because he knows Kyungsoo is. Kyungsoo should be walking home with him, not Joonmyeon.

“No, why?” Kyungsoo replies, and the answer makes Jongin’s heart skip a beat—and for the wrong reasons.

Kyungsoo’s tone sounds so light and carefree that Jongin is so shocked he nearly gasps.

“Then, do you want to…maybe go catch a movie or something?”

Jongin can see Kyungsoo smile and nod from his spot, and his heart drops like a stone to the bottom of his stomach.

“I’d love to, Joonmyeon.”

Jongin watches with wide eyes and a slack jaw as he sees Joonmyeon’s and Kyungsoo’s backsides walk off into the distance.

He thinks he can already hear the sound of something breaking within him, but then he sees Kyungsoo take a hold of Joonmyeon’s hand in his own, and then there fingers are intertwining and curling around one another’s and that’s when Jongin hears it for sure. The sound of his heart shattering.

Jongin bites his lip, but he’s not sad. No, now he really understands that the feeling is jealousy.

And then Jongin feels his inherent competitiveness begin to grow, and he squints at the fading backsides.

There’s no way he’s going to lose Kyungsoo.