“You sure move on fast, huh?” Myungsoo comments icily, eyes flicking to Sungjong.

Sungyeol feels a headache blooming. “Leave him alone. I don’t want to do this now.”

“I’ll be here till Saturday,“ Myungsoo states, eyes hard. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” he says with an air of finality before he picks up his small suitcase and passes Sungyeol on the way to the stairs.

When he’s gone, Sungjong taps Sungyeol on the wrist and starts to open his mouth, but the latter is faster and cuts him off first. “Don’t. Please, just leave it.”

The younger boy doesn’t argue, and instead squeezes Sungyeol’s wrist before slipping away wordlessly. Sungyeol trudges up the staircase, up to his room, feeling infinitely more tired than he was before.

Later, he washes up quickly and decides to skip dinner, choosing, instead, to turn off all the lights in his room and wrap himself up in his covers.

Woohyun comes to find him a couple of hours later, pulling the covers off Sungyeol’s shoulders and sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s funny, in its own rather ironic way, Sungyeol thinks to himself, the number of times they’ve been in this situation throughout the years. 

He remembers the first time, back when they were fifteen. 

Sungyeol had realised, to his extreme horror, that girls weren’t exactly what he was interested in. 

Typical of himself, he had gone into panic mode, and instead of taking a second to think and breathe, he had, just like now, turned off all the lights and buried himself under his blanket. 

Woohyun had taken the bus all the way from Seoul with a box of strawberry cream biscuits in his bag, just to sit with Sungyeol and tell him everything was going to be fine. 

He had been right, of course.

“Yeol, you know you’d have to run into him eventually, right?” he says gently, sweeping Sungyeol’s hair neatly across his forehead.

“Why is he here?” Sungyeol asks quietly, screwing his eyes shut. He doesn’t want to see Myungsoo; doesn’t want to hear his voice, or be anywhere near him.

Sungyeol feels Woohyun shift. “I don’t know,” he murmurs. “But maybe… Maybe this is a sign? That it’s finally time to talk to him?”

Sungyeol thinks of how angry he’s been over the past six months, thinks of how there is so much he wants to do without having to feel haunted by old memories and an overwhelming sense of rejection, and exhales slowly.

He thinks of how he’s had enough.

“I think…” he says to Woohyun, barely audible, “I think you’re right.”

Woohyun gather’s Sungyeol’s thin frame into a hug, and Sungyeol can hear the smug smile in his best friend’s voice when he says, lightly, “Aren’t I always?”

“Don’t ruin the moment, you jerk,” Sungyeol murmurs, grinning into Woohyun’s shoulder. 

♣︎

Later, they lie side-by-side on Sungyeol’s bed, watching an old episode of X-Man, though neither of them are paying particular attention to Yoo Jaesuk and the antics of the other hosts.

“I hope Howon doesn’t mind that you’re here,” Sungyeol says with a yawn. “Sorry for imposing on your couple vacation time, or whatever.”

Woohyun shakes his head. “Nah, he went to see his parents. It’s fine.”

They sit in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Woohyun sits up, suddenly. “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” he says, smiling.

“Sungjong seemed very worried about you when I bumped into him on the way up here.”

Sungyeol scowls. “You know it’s not like that at all.”

Shrugging, Woohyun says, “I didn’t say anything. All I did was tell you he’s worried, as we all are.”

“Although…” he sing-songs. “You are spending quite a bit of time with him, no?”

“Yeah,” Sungyeol says seriously. “I’m replacing you with Sungjong. He’s my new best friend. He’s better-looking and less annoying. It’s perfect.”

Woohyun shoots him a knowing glance. “Perfect, huh?”

“Shut up,” Sungyeol says, rolling his eyes. “Seriously. We’re just friendly. That’s it.”

“I know,” Woohyun says, nodding. “He’s a good kid, though,” he adds, repeating his sentiments from the other day.

This time, Sungyeol doesn’t hesitate to agree.

“He’s great.”

♣︎

When Sungyeol comes down for breakfast the next morning, Sunggyu hands him a note from the counter. 

“It’s a message for you,” he explains.

Thanking him, Sungyeol heads to the dining room to join Woohyun and Howon, who have already started tucking in to their scrambled eggs. Sungyeol unfolds the piece of paper curiously, and before he can start to read, Woohyun pokes his head over to examine the note.

“What’s that?” he asks, mouth full of egg.

Scowling, Sungyeol nudges Woohyun’s head away. “You’re disgusting, honestly. I don’t know how Howon even puts up with you.”

Ignoring his friends for a moment, Sungyeol focuses his attention back on the note, and feels his heart sink when he reads it.

Back porch, 11a.m.

-KMS

Sungyeol crushes the note and stuffs it into the back pocket of his shorts before approaching Sungjong at the breakfast counter to place a small order of toast and bacon to whet his now dwindling appetite. 

“You okay, hyung?” he asks concernedly, punching in Sungyeol’s order. 

Sungyeol frowns. “I’m going to talk to Myungsoo later. Not exactly looking forward to it.”

Sungjong nods. “Well you know hyung, the past is the past, and you can keep whatever you want to in the past. Just because you have to face him, doesn’t mean it’s all coming back. You can do it. It’s time,” he gently.

Sungyeol is taken aback by the wisdom in Sungjong’s words, and finds himself nodding in agreement. “That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. I’ll try to remember that.”

Smiling, Sungjong his head in the direction of Sungyeol’s table. “Your order will be ready soon. Go ahead and sit down, hyung. I’ll bring it over.”

True enough, Sungjong comes up a few minutes later with a plate for Sungyeol, but instead of the bacon and two slices of toast Sungyeol had ordered, the plate Sungjong sets down onto the table has a neatly assembled bacon and grilled cheese sandwich on it.

“That looks delicious,” Howon comments, nodding at Sungjong.

“That’s not even on the menu,” Woohyun protests.

Sungjong shrugs. “Employee privileges. You need the pick-me-up. Consider it a favour.”

Sungyeol thanks the younger boy, and takes a bite of the sandwich, which is indeed as delicious at it looks.

Woohyun looks pained as he whines, “I would make fun of the fact that Sungjong used employee privileges for you if I didn’t really want some of that sandwich.”

Sungyeol pretends to think for a few seconds before cutting off a third of his sandwich and transferring it to a side plate. “Here you go, Howon. It’s really good.”

Howon makes a show of biting into the sandwich and gives Sungyeol an exaggerated thumbs-up in agreement.

“I hate you both,” Woohyun sulks, slouching in his chair.

Silence.

“Are you seriously not going to share?” he asks.

Sungyeol simply takes another bite.

“Please?” Woohyun pouts, turning to face Howon.

Howon pushes the plate to Woohyun who cheers and gives his boyfriend a squeeze around the waist. “Love you,” he says, chewing messily.

Finishing up his sandwich, Sungyeol shakes his head. “Weak,” he says, casting Howon a disappointed glance. Howon shrugs. 

“I didn’t want to listen to him whine about it for the rest of the morning.”

Woohyun, at least, has the decency to appear mildly offended while Sungyeol chuckles at Howon’s deadpan nature.

♣︎

11 o’clock approaches faster than Sungyeol expects it to, and before he knows it, he’s heading to the back porch to talk with Myungsoo. Keeping Sungjong’s words from before in mind, he takes a deep breath and pushes the back door open.

Myungsoo is already waiting for him when he gets there, and Sungyeol feels hopelessly awkward in front of the other boy. He seats himself down on the porch steps, keeping a significant amount of distance between himself and Myungsoo, who breaks the silence after a few minutes.

“So… How have you been?” he says casually.

Sungyeol reckons the spike in his temper feels something akin to the short-circuiting of a fuse.

“Stop. Don’t you dare act like this is some kind of pleasant reunion,” he spits out. “Get on with it or I’m leaving.”

Myungsoo drops the calm facade immediately. “Look,” he says, frowning. “You didn’t even give me a chance to explain all those nights ago. You just told me to get out, and I did. So don’t act like it’s all my fault.”

“I told you I had a reason, and it’s true,” he continues.

When Sungyeol doesn’t respond, Myungsoo takes it as his cue to carry on.

“You know I want to do photography professionally, and that’s not an easy career path to want to go down. It’s going to take a lot of dedication, patience and commitment and not just from me, but from the person that I’m with, too. You know you have your own career to think about. You would’ve just gotten tired. I couldn’t see a future together—“ Myungsoo says, but is cut off.

“We’re 21! We don't even know anything about the future!” Sungyeol bursts out. “We didn’t even discuss anything, you just went ahead and made all these assumptions. I cared about you. How could you think I wouldn’t be interested in supporting you, even if I was unsure? I… I loved you.”

“Well that wasn’t good enough!” Myungsoo yells back.

Sungyeol feels like he’s been punched in the gut. Hot tears well in his eyes, but he refuses to allow himself to cry over the shame and disappointment washing over him.

“How could you say that?” Sungyeol asks, voice dropping to a whisper.

Myungsoo runs a hand through his hair and lets out an agitated sigh. “You know for a fact that you wouldn’t have done everything to help me. You would’ve left in the end to go to teaching school,” he says lamely.

Sungyeol exhales shakily. “In all the time I thought I knew you, I never once thought that you would be this selfish. Now I know, and I’m glad you left.”

Myungsoo opens his mouth to retaliate, but before the words leave his mouth, Sungjong comes around from behind, watering can and scissors in hand. The younger boy turns red when he sees the Sungyeol and Myungsoo, and immediately puts his things down and moves out of the way.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you would be here. I’ll just… come back… later, maybe,” he fumbles, pulling his gardening gloves off.