Message sent: 03.10.2013 - 19:48

From: Junhongie

- Will you come to my birthday? -

Youngjae sighed, almost feeling the hesitation in his friend's words, even though he was only reading them.

He didn‘t realize how much time had passed since he didn’t really talk to his best friends anymore.

Guilt swirled through his guts as he could perfectly paint the look of dejection that must have been on his friend’s face when he typed that message.

It had been a whole month since university had started and although he knew that this would bring some changes, he hadn’t expected that there were so many in such a short amount of time.

One of the biggest changes and definitely the one that bothered him the most was the fact that barely spoke to his best friends anymore.

It wasn’t that he wanted to punish them for being friends with Daehyun, he just still couldn’t bear being near that man yet.

He understood that Himchan and Junhong wanted to spend as much time with their lovers as possible, it was natural in a rather fresh relationship. But he had to admit that there was a part of him that felt neglected.

Their contact had basically subsided to occasional text messages and awkward hello’s they exchanged in the cafeteria or the hallways of the huge building in the rare occasion their ways would coincidently cross.

Of course he had made new friends, amazing friends at that, but that couldn’t compete with years of friendship he had shared with Junhong and Himchan. There were too many memories bonding the three that made it impossible for their spots in his heart to be taken away that easily.

He still considered them as best friends, regardless of the current situation.

Time went by so fast that the changes were barely noticeable, the fact that he was either busy studying or laughing with his new friends didn’t help either.

Youngjae rolled on his back, pressing the back of his head into his comfortable pillow. His thumb hovered hesitantly over the display of his phone.

Truth to be told, he was a bit disappointed that Junhong obviously thought that little of him that he actually searched for reassurance that he wouldn’t forget about his birthday. But He didn’t exactly behave like a good friend should have done, so he understood.

To: Junhongie

- Of course! As if I would miss the opportunity to eat your mum’s self-made birthday cake ;) –

He pressed his thumb onto the touchpad of his smartphone, right where the screen indicated the send button.

Message sent: 03.10.2013 - 19:54

From: Junhongie

- Just wanted to make sure… I invited Daehyun tho.. -

Youngjae his lips nervously, cursing his heart for speeding up from just the sight of that name. Truthfully, Youngjae had already expected this to happen, but he would just tough it out for one day, even if it will be awkward as hell. He owned Junhong that much.

To: Junhongie

- Doesn’t matter. You’re my friend! -

Message sent: 03.10.2013 - 19:57

From: Junhongie

- Thank you hyung!!!! We should hang out again, I miss you! -

Youngjae smiled at the enthusiastic reply, he missed his friends just as much.

To: Junhongie

- Hyung misses you too~ let’s have lunch together tomorrow? -

Having lunch with Junhong meant that he probably would be stuck with Daehyun too, but he felt too guilty for not spending time with his friends to reject Junhong’s obvious request.

If it would turn out to be a group lunch with the two couples, he might as well just get his other friends to join them too. After all he had wanted to introduce them all ever since day one.

About half an hour later, the buzzing sound of his phone made him look up from his book again.

Message sent: 03.10.2013 - 19:48

From: Junhongie

- Sry, was taking a shower! Let’s all eat together! Himchan will be happy xD -

Youngjae couldn’t help but smile at Junhong’s overload of information. The younger had always been like that though, and Youngjae found this innocent openness utterly adorable.

Without realizing, he stood up from his bed and walked straight to his cupboard to pick out an outfit for the next day.

‘This is not for Daehyun’, he quietly murmured to himself when he found something he deemed to be good enough and carefully hung the clothes over the back of his chair.

He had been thinking about the Busan boy a lot lately.

After that one encounter, Youngjae had been even more confused than he already had been before-

First, Daehyun had been all over him, showering him with affection, just to not even bother to turn up the day he had left Busan.

Then, Youngjae had found out that his crush had a girlfriend, but when Daehyun had witnessed a girl confessing to him, the older had dragged him away and even took the letter with him.

That last stunt had proven to be very difficult for Youngjae to comprehend.

He did notice a change of behaviour from Daehyun since then, it was so small that it maybe was even insignificant.

Whenever they locked eyes, Daehyun’s lips curled upwards ever so slightly. It was barely visible but Youngjae observed him often enough to notice this small gesture.

Confusion still occupied his mind whenever he thought about the older and he was conscious about the fact that this wouldn’t change so quickly.

But what bewildered him the most was not Daehyun but his own behaviour. Every topic related to the Busan beauty seemed to make him bipolar.

He still avoided the older male like the plague but yet he was longing for the other’s attention so much that it made him feel sick at the thoughts.

How could someone even try to avoid another person but still wasn’t able to take his eyes off the certain someone?

Youngjae closed his book and groaned, calling it a night. His mind was gone too far, he wasn’t able to continue studying like that.

He would take a hot shower and grab some snacks, something that he rarely allowed himself to enjoy anymore.

But a sweet treat would be able to make him feel better, it had always been like that.

***

The bell, that announced the lecture to be over, made the teacher flinch. Some of the students started laughing subtly, not quiet enough to make the man in front of the class miss it, though. He rolled his eyes in annoyance, dismissing the people with only a gesture.

Youngjae was busy gathering his stuff, placing the notebook neatly into his bag to avoid bending the corners.

“I’m going to have lunch with Junhong and Himchan today,” he mentions casually while zipping up his bag.

“I thought you don’t want to be around Daehyun?” Jaehyo retorted.

“I don’t but I haven’t spent time with them in weeks. They’re getting bothered,” Youngjae shrugged.

“Why do you dislike him anyway? You never told us.” Yukwon asked behind his palm that covered his mouth as he yawned.

Youngjae shrugged again, “It’s kind of a long story and I don’t really feel like talking about it.”

“Maybe I should go and ask Daehyun. Your avoiding makes me curious,” Jaehyo wiggled his eyebrows, waiting for a reaction. He saw panic rising in Youngjae’s face and chuckled.

“Don’t worry Jae, I’m only joking. We’re not even close,” he reassured his younger friend, patting him on the shoulder, a frequent gesture of him.

Youngjae relaxed a little bit, but not for too long since they were heading towards the cafeteria, the place he would sit on the same table as Daehyun and was actually expected to eat.

“Should we tag along? That will make things less awkward,” Jaehyo suggested.

“After I’ve heard so much about them I wouldn’t mind to get to know them anyway,” Yukwon added with a smile.

“Sounds good, Jihoon and the others can join us too,” Youngjae said, thankful that the others had offered what he was about to ask them anyway.

Fortunately, the cafeteria wasn’t packed and he spotted his friends immediately. Junhong was waving at him with a happy look on his face.

A tap on Himchan’s shoulder made him look up from his food and he also started grinning when he set his eyes on his lost friend.

Youngjae could see the back of Daehyun’s head and gulped, he wasn’t prepared at all. It was all for Junhong, he said to himself, he would be strong.

When the three friends neared the table, Junhong tugged on his sleeve, urging him to sit between himself and Himchan.

He awkwardly looked at Yongguk, Jongup and Daehyun, wondering why the couples weren’t sitting next to each other.

His eyes stopped on Daehyun again, just in the moment Jaehyo pat his shoulder for a greeting.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Jaehyo asked across the table after he sat down next to Daehyun.

The four young men from Busan became engrossed in a conversation instantly, forgetting about the rest of the people.

Yukwon awkwardly took a seat next to Himchan, who eyed the poor boy up and down, making him shrink in his seat.

“Oh yeah, that’s Yukwon, a friend of mine. He is in my course,” Youngjae introduced his friend since nobody apart from Jaehyo and Daehyun knew him, “And these are Himchan and Junhong, my two best friends. And over there are Jongup and Yongguk,” he continued, pointing at each person when he said their names.

“Hey,” Yukwon said, his lips spreading into a smile that made Himchan coo over him.

“Where are the other guys you always hang out with?” Himchan asked his friend.

“They’re always late, just like you,” Youngjae answered cheekily. Himchan blushed, muttering incoherent words to himself, eliciting laughter from the other people on the table.

Youngjae took out a box full of fruit, starting to munch on a few blackberries and keeping an eye out for the rest of his friends.

“Eww, what is that hyung?” Junhong asked, scrunching his face up to show his disapproval. Youngjae held up another berry between his thumb and index finger, holding the fruit up in front of his friend’s face, “Food,” he stated and shoved the small bramble past his lips.

“Are you still dieting? You’ve been getting so thin lately, you should stop that,” Himchan looked at his friend with a worried look, but turned around when he heard snickers from behind him. He eyed Yukwon, the source of the noises questioningly.

“You should have seen him on Sunday!” Yukwon mentioned, causing Himchan to raise his eyebrows even more.

“He and Jihoon ate so much pork belly until the restaurant ran out,” Yukwon chuckled.

“Who is Jihoon?” Himchan asked, a sour look on his face.

“Another first year student, a friend of us,” Youngjae explained cautiously, “He will join us once he moved his lazy from his classroom.”

“And what is that about?” Himchan pointed at the box full of fruit, “Since when are fruits enough to keep you going all day?”

“I eat three big meals at home and I need the sugar to concentrate,” Youngjae shrugged.

“You’ve changed,” Himchan stated, disappointment dripping from his voice. “Fortunately,” was Youngjae’s short answer.

There was an awkward silence between them, everybody only looked down at their food until rather loud voices interrupted the uneasy atmosphere.

“You’re late,” Youngjae stated with a smirk.

“I’m sorry,” Jihoon cooed with a cute pout, “Jico has the hots for that Hwayoung girl in Minhyuk’s class and refused to eat until he got her number.”

“Have you been successful then?” Youngjae looked at Jiho expectantly. Jiho swung his arm around Jihoon’s shoulder, waving his phone with what Youngjae thought was the widest smile he had seen on that man, “Of course! No one can resist my charisma!”

Apart from Himchan, who gawked helplessly, everybody else burst out with laughter. While they tried to calm down, the five guys who had just arrived sat down on the table that was just long enough to provide space for all of them.

Junhong had scooted over to make space for Jihoon who immediately grinned like a young boy in awe.

“Your voice is so deep! It’s even deeper than Yongguk’s,” Junhong said, making Jihoon laugh and Yongguk blush slightly.

Jiho took place between Himchan and Yukwon, saving his friend from Himchan’s dark eyes that occasionally pierced right through him.

On the opposite side of the table, Taeil took the space face to face with Jihoon after Jongup also scooted over.

After all of them had introduced themselves, they all started conversations with each other. Youngjae’s assumption had been proven right as he could hear Himchan and Jiho excitedly talking about music.

On his right, Junhong was busy listening to Jihoon and Yongguk, who had started a ‘battle of the deep voices’. It was quite funny to see Junhong’s face lighting up every time one of them made an even deeper sound than before.

Youngjae dared to look up and sneak a look at Daehyun, who sat between Jaehyo and Minhyuk. Jaehyo and Daehyun were engrossed in a conversation, making Youngjae’s stomach churn with fear. What if he asked Daehyun about them? But Daehyun wouldn’t openly admit that he had made out with a guy, would he?

He decided that it didn’t matter if the others would find out about his preferences. Himchan had let it slip that he is in a relationship with another man rather loudly when Jiho had told him that he loved rapping and writing lyrics, causing Himchan to shout out ‘My boyfriend does the same! I bet he’s better than you’.

A few confused looks were thrown at Himchan, but when the first shock was over, Jiho had challenged Himchan’s boyfriend for a battle, not knowing that they were sitting on the same table yet.

After that they simply resumed their conversations, laughing with each other and getting to know one another. Some students gave them weird looks and others even shook their head in disbelief when they walked past their table, they were quite noisy and attracted a lot of attention that day.

But apart from that, Youngjae wouldn’t want to change a single thing. He hadn’t felt that content in weeks, not even Daehyun’s presence was bothering him.

Finally he was united with his best friends, and even better than that, all of his friends seemed to get along quite well, if he tried to overlook Himchan’s obvious outburst of jealousy when Yukwon had mentioned their activities.

Youngjae sneaked a few more glances at Daehyun, watching him munching on a sweet pastry. He didn’t even realize that Junhong had stolen a lot of his cherry tomatoes, but he couldn’t care less anyway. He was too hypnotized by the way Daehyun’s lips moved while he chewed. When Daehyun’s tongue slipped out to the remaining crumbs off his lips, Youngjae felt his face heating up and concentrated on his own food again.

In total, he and Daehyun had locked their gazes twice during lunchtime. There was something in Daehyun’s eyes that he couldn’t put his finger on. But once again, Daehyun didn’t say anything. Not in the cafeteria and not on the way back to their shared class. He remained silent and Youngjae shrugged it off as wishful thinking on his part.

The two circles of friends soon became one, the shared lunchtime became routine. Only one day later they had exchanged their phone numbers, leaving even Youngjae with one more number in his contact list – Daehyun’s number.

He knew he shouldn’t be happy about that as he was still trying to get over him but he thought that maybe one day they could become at least friends again.

One week later, Junhong had invited his seven new friends to his birthday party, smiling happily when everybody agreed. This would definitely be one hell of a party, it would always be as long Jiho and Kyung were involved. Junhong only didn’t know yet what he had gotten himself into, that’s why he kept smiling that day.