Chanyeol swallows, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. "...It's a bug bite."

 

 

"Chanyeol, I know what a hickey looks like." Kris's eyes go dark and for a second Chanyeol thinks he might get angry with him. Kris' expression quickly changes and instead he gives Chanyeol a disappointed look, furrowing his eyebrows for a minute before smoothing it out with his fingers.

 

 

 

"No, no—" Chanyeol shuts up at the glare he receives for trying to lie again.

 

 

"Okay, yes it is. But it's not what you thi—"

 

 

"Was Jongin the one who did this?" Kris asks, and Chanyeol thinks he hears a subtle amount of bitterness in his voice but he really can't be too sure. For some reason, he feels like he let down Kris in a way.  The thought of that just makes him feel even worse, and he berates himself for expecting another outcome out of the situation.  

 

 

Chanyeol bites his lip, trying hard to make his tone sound convincing. "...Yes, but it was— I wanted to…it was mutual he didn't force me."

 

 

"Really," Kris raises his eyebrow, looking and sounding that he didn't believe a word of Chanyeol's explanation. "Chanyeol, do you like Jongin?"

 

 

Chanyeol might've stuttered when he replied with a yes, willing himself not to look Kris in the eye.

 

 

"Don't you think you guys might've gotten too far?" Kris phrases it as a question but Chanyeol feels like its more of a rhetorical question than anything.

 

 

"What are you guys doing? Jongin, of all the people... are you serious? Isn't it way too early in your relationship for it to get that far?"

 

 

Chanyeol keeps quiet, more or less to keep himself from saying something he might regret. Who was Kris to tell him off about his relationships? Sure, he has more experience but Chanyeol's been in a couple of relationships before. Why is he only telling him this now?

 

 

“Didn’t you think this through? You’re making a mistake—” Kris starts, and Chanyeol really doesn’t want to hear it.

 

 

"Who the hell are you? My mom?" Chanyeol blurts out.  The way Kris was talking to him was similar to how a parent reprimands their teenage daughter from seeing anyone.  It annoys him, because he knows it's too much to expect a different reaction. But, he expected some sort of support from Kris.

 

 

Kris was, after all Chanyeol’s best friend.

 

 

Kris pauses before carefully answering. "No, I'm your best friend."

 

 

"I didn't come here for a lecture Kris. I actually didn't want to come at all," Lies. He had been so so eager to hang out with Kris.

 

 

"I don't want to be criticized for the decisions I make, the things I do and who I choose to have a relationship with. You're my best friend. All I want is your support, not to be told off like I was a freakin' kid. You have no right to tell me how I should feel for Jongin or for anyone I have a relationship with." Chanyeol stuffs his things into his bag, turning away from Kris.

 

 

"Chanyeol, I'm just trying to tell you that you're making the wrong decision—"

 

 

"If you won't listen to my side of the story what makes you think I'll listen to yours? You won’t even hear me out. And that's the thing, I don't want you to tell me these things, Kris. You could've told me this earlier. Of all the times you could choose from, to bestow some of your wisdom on me. It had to be right now?”

 

 

“Why didn't you tell me this when we walked home together in silence two weeks ago, right after you saw what happened with Jongin in the hallway?" Chanyeol continues, the words spilling out of his mouth. He turns to face Kris, his frustration has gotten to the point where he wanted nothing more than to scream at Kris, barely managing the calm and collected voice he's speaking in.

 

 

"Chanyeol, calm down. Let's talk this out."

 

 

"No, let's not. I tried and let’s face it, It's not like you're going to give me the chance to explain anyway.”

 

 

“Chan—”

 

 

“ off, Kris."

 

 

 

 

As far as dramatic exits go, Chanyeol would like to think he just executed a great one as he exits Kris' house with the door slamming behind him.

 

 

//

 

 

 

Of course, Kris s it up. Jongin thinks once he gets a text from Chanyeol asking if Jongin could come over as soon as he finishes hanging out with Luhan.  His eyes stray over to Luhan, and they’ve been having so much fun too.  He sighs, messing up his hair in frustration.

 

 

“Something wrong?” Luhan asks, his eyebrows raising in what appears to be concern.

 

 

“Yeah, it’s just I have to go soon. Just a few more street food stands, okay?”

 

 

So far, they’ve gone to get tornado potatoes*, bungeoppang*, and the hot dogs they first bought. Jongin started paying for his own food right after the hot dogs, insisting that the hot dogs were enough to make up for it. Luhan merely raised his eyebrows, and scoffed leading the way to the next vendor going on about how Jongin was rejecting hyung’s money.  

 

 

Jongin’s feet feel numb from the combination of hours of dancing and an abnormal amount of walking and he knows that later on he’d be in a state that passed the usual pleasantly sore feeling he seems to get after dance practice to I’m going to feel that tomorrow. But, he feels satisfied and happy. And it really couldn’t get much better than this.  

 

 

Luhan nods, “Okay, what do you want to get next?”

 

 

“I’m actually sort of thirsty, so a drink maybe? My treat.”

 

 

“You’ll regret that Jongin.” Luhan shakes his head, a small smile playing at his lips.  He grabs Jongin’s wrist, tugging him closer, closing the gap between them. It surprises Jongin and he  nearly crashes into Luhan, steadying himself with his hand slipping out of Luhan’s hold to grab onto Luhan’s left shoulder.

 

 

“Let’s go get bubble tea!”

 

 

 

 

//

 

 

 

The shirt Luhan's wearing is tight and he garners more than one appreciative once-over from several people passing by. Jongin seethes, wrapping an arm around Luhan's shoulders hoping that it comes off as a warning sign to strangers and companionable to Luhan. He almost hums at the contact, but he restrains himself content with getting away with this much.

 

 

It lasts a few minutes, then Luhan suddenly stops, looking at Jongin with a curious expression.

 

 

He thinks you're clingy already, don't push it. Jongin reminds himself, letting his arm fall from Luhan's shoulders. He walks ahead, burying his hands in his pocket to prevent himself from reaching out to touch Luhan.

 

 

"Jongin! Hey, where are you going?" Luhan catches up, with a smile that differs from the usual, when his eyes wrinkle around the edges with dimples beginning to appear. Instead, Luhan looks sort of confused, eyes slightly big and  his mouth twitching at the edges of his smile.  

 

 

Oh no.

 

 

"Sorry for that," Jongin makes a vague gesture at Luhan.

 

 

"For what?"

 

 

"You know, for being too touchy." Jongin shakes his head, a wistful smile on his face.

 

 

Luhan laughs, "Jongin, you're not being—what did you say again?"

 

 

"Clingy," Jongin answers before he actually realizes what he just said and Luhan's face starts to show a flash of recognition, biting his lips.

 

 

. Did he actually just let that slip?

 

 

Jongin is inwardly panicking and it takes a lot of effort for him not dash off into another direction, to repeatedly slam his head into a random wall.

 

 

"No, Jongin. You don't understand—" Luhan says, moving closer to Jongin to grab his wrist.

 

 

"Don't worry, hyung. I-it's fine, and uh.. I have to go anyway, Chanyeol texted me to hang out awhile ago but he didn't want to bother us so I told him that I'd meet him after a few more vendor stands."

 

 

Luhan narrows his eyes, and he tries again.  "Jongin,"

 

 

“I’ll see you on Thursday, hyung.”

 

 

Luhan nods, swallowing and Jongin swears his eyes don’t follow the movement of his adam’s apple bobbing up and down.  

 

 

Jongin thinks he hears Luhan say, of course. be careful.  But even if he did, Jongin’s already half way down the street weaving through the crowd, ignoring the noise of the cars and the sudden influx of people that came as the night came closer.  So, he really can’t be too sure.

 

 

 

//

 

 

Jongin takes half an hour to speed walk all the way from the street littered with vendor stands where he left Luhan to Chanyeol’s house.  Jongin raises his hand to knock on the door but before he even gets the chance to, Chanyeol opens his door and greets him.  

 

 

“Hey man,”

 

 

“Hey. How did it go?” Jongin breaches the subject carefully, watching as Chanyeol’s shoulders seem to slump dejectedly.  To Jongin, it seems like they both had a crappy afternoon. He offers Chanyeol a little symphatetic smile.

 

 

“If it’s any consolation, mine didn’t go so well either.”

 

 

Just like that, Chanyeol waves him inside, locking the door after Jongin goes in.  He chooses to sit on the carpeted floor beside Jongin, instead of the couch right behind them.  Jongin leans back, resting his head against the cushion of the couch.  Chanyeol does the same, stretching his legs beside Jongin’s.  

 

 

“What happened?” Jongin asks.

 

 

Chanyeol tells him what happened at Kris’ place and in turn, Jongin explains what happened with Luhan.  Jongin can tell that Chanyeol feels angry and he’s sure Chanyeol can tell how Jongin is feeling himself.  Chanyeol might not be the most attentive when it comes to emotions involving his own but when it comes to his friends, he’s the most observant.  

 

“You know, Luhan might not have known what you were talking about." Chanyeol tries to console, and Jongin shakes his head.

 

 

"No, no. I'm pretty sure he does."

 

 

 

 

 

//

 

 

 

It takes Jongin ten seconds to realize Kris just pinned him to the wall.  To be honest, he’d be freaked out if he wasn’t really amused by the entire situation.  He barely even made it out of the school and already he’s being confronted by Kris.

 

 

“What did you do to Chanyeol?” Kris asks, baring his teeth and his tone low to avoid calling unwanted attention on them.  And Jongin knows he might be beaten up for this but he grins and answers, “What any other couple would do after a month and a half of dating.”

 

 

Kris bites out, a strangled what? and Jongin’s smile widens.  

 

 

 

“I’ll let you come to your own conclusions, Kris.”

 

 

“It is not funny Jongin, what you’re doing to Chanyeol.”

 

 

“What am I doing Kris?”

 

 

“You—”

 

 

“Let me tell you something Kris,” Jongin smirks, interrupting and liking the role of playing the villain way too much. It actually surprises him that Kris managed to hold out for another week and a half after his fight with Chanyeol before he took out his anger on Jongin. He had expected it, of course.  

 

 

“I took a chance on Chanyeol that you were too scared to actually act on.” He continues, stepping forward, urging Kris to back away. “The excuse you keep saying about thinking of Chanyeol as family is bull. Chanyeol might not see that, but I do and if you didn’t figure that out before...Well, I’m pointing it out right now.”

 

 

Jongin smiles slyly noticing that Kris barely manages to maintain the menacing glare he had focused on him. “Chanyeol will kill me for saying this, but this was a long time ago and I’m sure he doesn’t feel this way right now...So he might not mind it if I say this now. Chanyeol liked you, so much that the moment you started to ignore him he was devastated and barely kept up that stupid disguise that made it seem like he was happy all the time.”

 

 

Kris looked momentarily surprised, before regret became obvious in his expression. Jongin’s expression quickly changes into a scowl, “You wouldn’t notice, of course. You didn’t even pay any attention to him but I did. I saw my chance and I took it. I did what you should have done and look where I am now.”

 

 

 

“If you dislike our relationship so much, do something smart about it. Instead of telling Chanyeol off for making a stupid decision.”

 

 

//

 

 

hey, can you come over after school? i have to tell you something. - Jongin
 

"Chanyeol! Wait up!" Kris pants, and Chanyeol pushes down the urge to groan out loud. He's still angry at Kris. Still wound up and betrayed and he really can't face Kris right now. Yet he stops, his lips nervously thinking of what's to come. "What, Kris.”

 

 

"It's just that, I heard from Jongin- That.. You.." Kris stutters and it irritates Chanyeol to no end.

 

 

"Spit it out."

 

 

"That you used to like me." Kris finishes, slowly moving towards Chanyeol. He looks hesitant and Chanyeol thinks that he should because he's not really in the best mood right now.

 

 

Chanyeol in a breath, so this was what Jongin wanted to talk about and he tries to make his answer sound as calm as possible."Yes, I did."

 

 

The lie is unsettling because he still likes Kris now despite all the things the senior did. He still constantly thinks about him. About how much he had missed hanging out with him, feeling as comfortable as he did before. When he was able to keep liking him without anyone knowing and still remain close to him as his best friend.

 

 

"You did?" Kris asks, eyes searching Chanyeol's face. Chanyeol manages to keep a blank face before he grits out, "Did."

 

 

"I'm not going to lie to you, I liked you for a long time. I realized it during my freshman year but I think it started way before that," Chanyeol sighs, suddenly faced with making up a lie that came far too close to the truth for his liking.

 

 

"Then you began ignoring me and I thought about what I did. Did you somehow manage to find out? So, I tried to lessen the amount of time I spent amount of time with you...hoping that we could still be friends."

 

 

"You still didn't give me the time of day, you couldn't even talk to me for five minutes and pretend to be interested. It hurt, a lot. You didn’t even tell me what I did wrong, you made it seem like you didn’t even care enough to tell me." Chanyeol laughs, his voice hoarse with the effort of preventing the tears gathering around his eyes to fall.

 

 

"It took me awhile to get over it but I did. Then, Jongin asked me out and I figured. Why not? Why would I want to keep torturing myself by liking a guy who would never like me back, when I could be happy in a relationship of my own?" He swallows, "So, you're right Kris. I did like you, but I still consider you as my best friend and what you said. I find it hard to forgive you for saying those things."

 

 

Chanyeol leaves, and tries not to think about how much he hoped he’d hear Kris’ familiar footsteps following him to stop him instead of the lone sound of his own shoes scuffing against the cement.