“You’ve been hanging out with that Kyungsoo kid a lot lately.”

Jongdae’s sitting outside of Baekhyun’s family’s store with the older boy and Chanyeol when Baekhyun brings that up. Baekhyun’s voice is light and airy but it sounds off as if he’s forcing himself to appear nonchalant. Jongdae knows that tone of voice well, it’s the tone Baekhyun uses when he isn’t pleased with something.

“What,” Jongdae asks, taking his attention from his newly opened Chocopie, the desire to eat the treat fading as he ventures onto the topic at hand. Beside them Chanyeol is in one of the neon blue plastic chairs silently munching on Kimbap.

“What I mean is that…you’ve been spending a lot of time with Do Kyungsoo and it’s getting to be a bit unnerving.”

“What’s so unnerving about me hanging out with Kyungsoo,” Jongdae asks rolling his eyes. “He’s nice and he’s in choir with us.”

“Yeah but he’s weird,” Baekhyun states. “He barely has any friends, he’s barely seen and he’s always running off somewhere. If you have to like someone can’t you like someone cooler?”

“So you don’t have a problem with me making friends, you just have a problem with me making friends with people you don’t approve of,” Jongdae asks.

“Do Kyungsoo is…” Baekhyun trails off, biting on his lower lip as his mind searches for the right descriptive word to describe Kyungsoo.

“Friendly,” Jongdae interrupts. “He’s seriously nice, and unlike some people he actually gives a crap if I’m not happy, and he doesn’t talk about people behind their back.”

“Are you saying that we don’t care if you’re happy or not,” Baekhyun asks with an apparent frown.

“When have you not been happy,” Chanyeol speaks up for the first time. Jongdae turns his heated gaze from Baekhyun to Chanyeol. Chanyeol’s looking at him with concerned eyes, cheeks filled with food, and there’s a large part of Jongdae that just feels like rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“I was just trying to explain how nice Kyungsoo is,” Jongdae says.

“You sound like a girl,” Baekhyun says drily. “Whatever though, talking about that kid is slowly ruining my mood. Tomorrow, Chanyeol’s going to help us with our bio projects, and we were thinking that it’s best to go to your place since there are no parents or siblings. Are you working tomorrow?”

“I don’t work tomorrow,” Jongdae says, “but I already have plans.”

“Can’t you hold them off,” Baekhyun asks. “This project is a big deal, and Teacher Kang is such a hard . I doubt he’ll give you an extension even if you need it. Chanyeol only has tomorrow free to help us.”

“It’s okay,” Jongdae tells him. “I already asked Kyungsoo to help me.” He looks down to his still open but uneaten Chocopie, waiting for the beginning signs of Baekhyun’s obnoxious fit. Jongdae says nothing when the pair of them runs off together, forgetting completely about him, or when they intrude and push him around under the guise of being best friends. Honestly, at the moment Jongdae wasn’t exactly sure if Baekhyun was angry because he might be losing a best friend or if it was because he just wasn’t getting his way.

“What,” Baekhyun asks if he hadn’t clearly heard Jongdae.

Jongdae looks up then, Baekhyun’s eyes are narrowed and his lips are pressed