Zelo looked outside the window and watched as the other car drove by. He nervously bit his lips, a habit he picked up when he was still dating that one guy. It had been so long since he had gone on a date that Zelo didn’t that he knew what to do anymore. Absentmindedly, his fingers brushed across one of the scars on his arms and all hope left his body. Once

Yongguk finds out how broken he actually was, dates like this won’t ever happen again. Yongguk smiled suddenly as a song came up on the radio.

“This is my jam,” he said as he started to hum along. Zelo stared at him in shock as he realized that he knew this song also. He started to hum along and Yongguk turned and smiled at him.

“So where’re we going?” Zelo asked.

“Hmm,” Yongguk uttered as he tapped the steering to the rhythm of the song, “I was hoping you would pick, know any good places?”

“I... I don’t go out much,” Zelo whispered, looking down at his hands.

“Hmm... you want some jajangmyun or something then?” Yongguk asked.

“Anything is fine really,” Zelo said.

“Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“So submissive.” Zelo shrugged at this and Yongguk frowns, “if you keep doing that then people will start pushing you around.”

Zelo smiled bitterly, “yeah, wouldn’t want that to happen,” he muttered, going back to looking out the window. The car ride was quiet for awhile until Yongguk suddenly said

“I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“You just met me, why does it matter to you what happens to me?” Zelo scowled. The fact that Yongguk was pretending to be nice irritated him, it reminded him of all the people in his old school who tried to befriend him but eventually gave up on him. He didn’t need anyone’s sympathy. Yongguk thought about it for a moment before he finally said

“Because you matter,” he smiled over at Zelo as they park in front of the restaurant. Quietly and thoughtfully, Zelo got out of the car. His eyes followed the whistling man as he walked gracefully into the restaurant. He was interesting, and a little weird at times, but his smile was contagious. Zelo smiled and walked into the restaurant after him.

The waitress greeted them as they walked in and lead them to a table. She placed two menus on the table and walked away. Zelo opened up the menu and skimmed through the choices.

"I'll have everything, you?" Yongguk said, setting down his menu as if he was finished. Zelo stared at him in shock. Yongguk broke out in laughter.

"Are you really that gullible?" He mused. Zelo blushed and looked down at the menu again.

"No, I just... Something keeps telling me that I can trust you..." Zelo muttered, not looking up st the guy across from him. His statement is met by a silence that lasted longer than it should've. Zelo finally looked up to Yongguk's eyes boring into his face.

"Why?" Yongguk whispered. Zelo shrugged, he honestly didn't know the answer to that either. The waitress came back and asked if they were ready to order. Yongguk order two specials without taking his eyes off of the younger boy. She took their menus and walked away quickly, feeling the weird atmosphere eminating from that one table.n

"I'm sorry," Yongguk said when he saw that the waitress had gone away.

"For what?" Zelo inquired.

"For always picking on you, I didn't know how much it would affect you, I didn't know that... You trusted me." Zelo stared at the older man is shock, not many people had ever apologized for the things they did to Zelo, no one ever cared enough about the effect to. Now there's this guy here, someone Zelo only recently met, someone he didn't even know that well and yet he's apologizing for... Hurting Zelo. Zelo smiled and said

"It's ok, I wasn't hurt, at least not a lot."

"Tell you what? I'll make it up to you, I'll take you out again and treat you like a prince for a day."

Zelo thought about this offer for a moment, could there be some kind of motive behind this or was he being sincerely nice? Zelo went with the latter and said:

"Deal." Yongguk smiled at the boy's reply just as the food arrived. The two ate in silence before setting off to return to the office.

When they arrived at the office, everyone was back at their desks doing what they were supposed to. Sunhwa smiled widely and skipped over to Yongguk.

"Gukkie~ Did you eat well?" She asked.

"Very well, thank you, you?" He asked her, looking suspicious. They were never this nice to him, never asked him how his day was let alone how his meal was.

"Wonderful, Daehyun paid for everything, although we missed our boss so we brought him a little present." She skipped back to her seat and Daehyun facepalmed. He pulled on her sleeve and started whispering angrily at her as she just shrugged her shoulder at everything he said. Zelo watched this exchange in amusement, her voice was pleasant but laced with poison. It was something Zelo was accustomed to, but it sounded teasing, rather than menacing. Yongguk chuckled and went over to Zelo's cubicle and sat down in a chair.

"I'm done with my work so I'm gonna stay here for awhile," he proclaimed as he made himself comfortable in the seat. Daehyun stared in shock.

"Wouldn't it be better for you to go rest in your office? It's a lot more comfortable," he offered frantically, watching as his plan blows up right in his face.

"Being cooped up in that office all day makes me feel disconnected from my coworkers, I want to be out here joking around with you guys," Yongguk smirked, knowing he had won at the game of wits. Zelo stared at the man sitting in his cubicle and Yongguk winked at him. Zelo blushed and turned back to his computer. Daehyun glared at Sunhwa as his plan of demise had failed because of her. She gave Yongguk a thumbs up and the other two girls giggled to each other. Jongup stared long and hard at the cubicle behind him, a frown set in his brows.

"Something wrong, Gup?" Yongguk asked, staring back at the frowning boy. Jongup looked shocked that he was caught.

"Nothing, boss," he said as he hesistantly turned around in his chair. Zelo glances at Jongup and then goes back to his work. They used to be so close, what happened?

Friends, what are friends anyway? I have plenty but I don't understand why anyone would want them. It hurts having friends. They smile at you but the smile is scary. They call you "buddy" as they just casually take the money from your pocket. They kick you and punch you and they call that "hanging out." When Jongup used to be by my side, he would explain to me that this isn't how friends are supposed to act, but I've never learned the true meaning of a friend. Jongup told me that friends stick by your side no matter what, that they mend your scars and defend you in front the bullies. He laughed at me when I asked him what a bully was. He said that the people I call friends are bullies, they feed off of my torment, they like my pain. They aren't my friends. I asked him if he was my friend. He smiled and nodded as he gave me a kiss. Jongup lied, he didn't stick by my side, he didn't defend me. If he lied about that, did he lie about the meaning of friendship too? Are those people that I used to hang out with the true meaning of friends? If that's the case then I don't want anything to do with friends. All they do is bring me pain. I'm tired of going home with bruises and having to explain to my distraught mother that this how friends get to know each other. I'm tired of starving during lunch because they stole my money and my lunch. I'm tired of being chased by angry people because I was doing my friend a favor by taking back what the grocery store took from him. All this pain and suffering, I want it to end. People are evil. They're nothing but trouble. Friends, what are friends? I have plenty but I want none. I just want to be alone.