“You’re getting pretty good living the wild life,” Chanyeol remarks, taking a bite of his muffin. “And it’s only been, what, a month?”

Sehun shrugs. He hasn’t been keeping track of time. Clubbing, nursing hangovers, video games, and tolerating Chanyeol dragging him around the city is the life he leads now. Losing his ity at seventeen wasn't in his plans, but hey, the opportunity presented itself and Sehun took it. Why not?

“Have you been keeping in touch with Jongdae?”

Sehun immediately straightens and tumbles off of his chair.

“!” he curses as Chanyeol howls in laughter.

He sprints out of the cafe and makes his way back to his uncle's house, expletives running through his head. The last time he talked to Jongdae was when Chanyeol first invited him to the club. Sehun has no idea what could've happened to his best friend in the span of four weeks.

He quickly logs into Skype and smiles when he sees Jongdae's online status. Sehun requests a call.

Jongdae declines immediately.

Eyebrows furrowed, Sehun tries to call him again to no avail.

“wtf hyung” he types.

Jongdae doesn’t answer.

Exasperated, Sehun uses his phone to call Jongdae the real way.

“Why don’t you want to Skype?” Sehun asks as soon as his best friend picks up.

“I don’t want you to see my face.”

“They did something to you again, didn’t they.”

“...yeah.”

Sehun runs a hand through his hair. “You know you shouldn’t go out by yourself. And you could've told me, Jongdae, I'd go into Jong's Facebook and post stupid stuff to get him in trouble."

"I know... But you just seem really busy. We haven't talked in a while and I didn't want to spoil your fun."

Sehun mentally hits himself because honestly he's the worst best friend in the world.

"Sorry, Jongdae, Chanyeol's been taking me places and I'm always too tired for Skype." What Jongdae doesn't know what hurt him. "And anyway, why do you keep going out alone if you know they'll be waiting for you?"

"I got a job."

"Really? Where?"

"At the music store," Jongdae replies, voice bright. "I work the register and sort things, that kind of stuff. The manager is only like 25 and he takes me to clubs to sing, so I won't have to use my fake ID anymore."

"How long have you been working there?"

"A couple days before you left."

"Cool," Sehun responds, wondering why Jongdae never told him about this.

The two fall silent. It's not the comfortable kind, like when Jongdae sleeps over and they can hear the quiet sounds of each other breathing before they fall asleep together, like going out for ice cream and sitting next to each other on the bench and eating without saying anything, like sunrises and lazy summer afternoons. It's the kind of silence that makes you want to end the conversation because the lack of noise is deafening.

Sehun wonders what happened to their relationship.

"I've got to go now. My shift starts soon. Bye, Hun."

Jongdae disconnects before Sehun can say anything.

"I can just feel him getting tired of me."

Baekhyun his head. "How so?"

Jongdae flops over on the counter, looking like a pile of pudding. "We just couldn't find anything to talk about when he called me. And Sehun's never on Skype anymore. I feel like he's leaving me behind." Jongdae lets out a "Auughhhghdhf" in anguish and flops on the counter. "Is he bored of our friendship?"

"Well I certainly am," Baekhyun pipes, and is hit on the head by one of Jongdae's flailing limbs. "Hey!"

"You're mean," Jongdae pouts. "You hate me."

"So does Sehun. Ow!"

Baekhyun rubs his forehead and scowls as Kyungsoo's voice floats from the backroom, "Are you guys willing to help me carry boxes or are you gonna keep flirting?"

"Coming, darling!" Baekhyun calls, and Jongdae snickers as Kyungsoo shouts back, "Shut up, Byun Baek!"

"I don't know why you keep trying, hyung," Jongdae says when Baekhyun opens the door to the backroom. "He's not going to date you."

Baekhyun sticks out his tongue (totally twenty years old) and answers, "You never know! He'll fall for me very soon, I'll promise you that."

He wraps an arm around Kyungsoo's waist and winks, making the shorter man blush and smack him on the chest.

I wish I had Baekhyun's confidence, Jongdae thinks before turning away.

"Let's go sing karaoke today!"

Five pairs of eyes turn to stare at Baekhyun.

"What?" he says. "I want to go have some fun but the clubs are full of STDs. I'll pay for the soju and everything."

The eyes shift to Jongdae, the youngest of the workers.

"You can't drink," Yifan, the manager, declares.

Jongdae rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Baekhyun cheers and plops down on Kyungsoo's lap.

"Hear that, Soo baby?" he crows. "I get to listen to you sing."

Kyungsoo shoves him to the ground.

Minseok, being the oldest, is chosen to drive ("You guys all have cars, why do I have to be the babysitter?"), and Luhan checks Baekhyun's wallet to make sure he has enough money. The younger man is known to treat people to a meal and then bail right before the check comes.

They rent a room for three hours, and for those three hours, they're total es.

Baekhyun gets drunk within thirty minutes and Kyungsoo suffers as a consequence. The older man forces him to sing duets and it's obvious that Kyungsoo really wants to die by the time the second hour rolls around.

"SO BABY DON'T CRUUUYYYY, TONIIIIIIGHTT," Baekhyun wails into the microphone. Kyungsoo sets his own down and sits next to Yifan, burying his head in his arms.

"WHEN YOU SMILEEE, SUNSHIIINE."

Yifan winces and rips the mic out of Baekhyun's grasp.

"Okay, that's enough Byun Baek for tonight. Anyone want to go next?"

He smirks and tosses the mic into Jongdae's lap.

"Your turn, golden boy. Show everybody why I take you to the clubs."

Baekhyun frowns as he collapses onto Kyungsoo. "Whyyyy," he whines. "I'm good at singing! Kyungsoo is a magnet and this is squeak. Why does everyone care about Chen Chen..."

No one bothers to decipher what he said and no one bothers to ask who Chen Chen is. There's really no point.

"Uh, what song should I do?" Jongdae asks, flicking through the choices.

The group falls silent (except for Baekhyun, who is babbling nonsensically and trying to burrow into Kyungsoo's chest) to think when Minseok pipes up, "Have you heard that really sad song on the radio? It's by three guys or something. Miracle in December?"

"Ohhhh," they all chorus.

"Not a very easy song to pull off," Luhan says uneasily. "You need a soulful voice."

Yifan's smirk grows wider and he pats Jongdae on the back. "If you're searching for a soulful voice, then you're searching for Jongdae. Trust me."

He finds the song and as the intro starts, Jongdae squeezes his eyes shut. He's used to sneaking into clubs and singing in front of total strangers, but this is different. He's surrounded by friends and Jongdae's more concerned about their opinion of him than a crowd of unfamiliar faces.

"I'm struggling to find you who I cannot see..."

Jongdae doesn't even realize the song is over until Kyungsoo shouts, "Wow!" It startles him out of the calm feeling that washed over him while he was singing because Kyungsoo isn't really the loud type. Jongdae laughs nervously and looks around.

"Hey, you're... really amazing," Kyungsoo breathes. Baekhyun pouts and butts his head into Kyungsoo's chest again.

"Yeah," Luhan agrees. "To be honest I didn't think you would've done so well, but it seems that Yifan was right. You're good."

Yifan mutters something about "always being right" as Minseok points to the score on the TV screen: 97.

"Not perfect apparently, but at least you got seventy more points than Byun Baek!"

"Nooo," Baekhyun complains. "I'm beautiful. My voice is beautifuler. Right, Soo baby? Tell them I'm beautiful. Because I am. Holla."

"Someone shut him up," Luhan grumbles.

Kyungsoo shrugs and shoves another bottle of soju in Baekhyun's hands. "My tactic is to feed him more alcohol until he passes out."

"Uh, I don't think that's healthy," Minseok says slowly, "he could get alcohol poisoning and die."

"Even better," Kyungsoo replies, and Yifan scooches away just a tad.

Baekhyun does end up passing out but Kyungsoo is the one who has to hail a taxi and bring him home so the joke's really on him for giving Baekhyun the extra bottle of soju.

Sehun's parents have finally lifted the ban off of his laptop and the first thing he does is scroll down through his news feed.

He literally does nothing else on his laptop besides laugh at other people's stupid posts and play minesweeper.

A message suddenly pops up from Jongin.

J: hey what u up to

J: heard ur in siberia...

S: um. i'm good? and yeah i'm in siberia.

J: lol cool

S: okay?

J: what do u even do in siberia? r there good clubs?

S: yeah but i only go to one

J: you go partying????

S: uh yeah

J: have u ever gotten drunk before? lol

S: yeah. hangovers

J: you know what feels better than getting drunk?

S: what

J: . ing girls is amazing

J: guess u wouldnt know b/c ur a lol

S: i used to be until last month

J: holy wait

S: what? you didn't think i would stay a forever, did you?

J: i thought u were a

S: nah. i like girls

J: wow

J: hey when u get back do u wanna hang out with my friends?? u seem like a cool guy

S: idk.

J: why not???/

S: i guess you don't have good memory because i'm pretty sure you were the one who always used to beat up me and my best friend.

J: ok man im really sorry... i was stupid i guess lol

S: and you still beat up jongdae, don't you. i skype with him and he looks like a human punching bag. you better give me some pretty good reasons if you want me to be friends with you.

J: ok look. i usually dont apologize for the i do but ur not as lame as i thought u would be so im making an exception. i'm really sorry about what i've done to you guys. i'll tell my friends to stop bothering jongdae, alrite? im sorry.

J: and i know i have a rep but u know, im not as bad as you think i am. trust me

S: alright.

Surprisingly, Jongin is true to his word.

During their Skype sessions, a mystified Jongdae informs Sehun that no one’s out to get him anymore.

Sehun finds that Jongin and his crew really aren’t that bad. Facebook messaging and video chatting are helpful to the building of their friendship, and the only thing that bothers Sehun is the way they speak. Jongin and his friends don’t mind referring to girls as “” or “” or “” and talk about their lives extensively. They use a lot of other vulgar language and Sehun is always uncomfortable with it but he doesn’t say anything because he really doesn’t want to break what he already has with Jongin.

Truth is, he swears, but never in a derogatory way to purposefully put someone down. Maybe if it was any other person Sehun would’ve told Jongin to cut it out, but he doesn’t want to be a victim again. Sehun’s sick of bruises and snickers and, well, Jongdae.

It’s really because of his best friend that he ended up in Jongin’s bad books, anyway. Sehun feels horrible about the feeling of resentment building in his chest but he believes that it’s justified.

Why should he be called when Jongdae is the one who’s gay? Why should he get beat up when it’s Jongdae’s problem in the first place? Why should he always get in trouble for Jongdae’s stupid pranks and visits to the club? Why should he stick up for themselves all the time?

“When you come back, we should totally hit up a club to celebrate,” Jongin says, grin directed at the camera.

Sehun grins back.

“Of course.”

“Without Jongdae,” Jongin adds, looking apologetic. “I know you’re best friends or whatever, but-”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Sehun says. “We don’t need him.”

Jongdae’s bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet nonstop, and when Baekhyun glares at him, he smiles sheepishly and stops before starting all over again.

“What’s up?” Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun brightens at the sound of his voice and moves to put an arm around him, but the shorter boy bats him away.

“Sehun’s flight touches down in three hours,” Jongdae answers. “I’m going to the airport to pick him up.”

“Don’t you need a ride?” Luhan asks, leaning across the counter.

“Well, yeah, but I’m driving.”

Minseok frowns. “All the way to the airport? A 17 year old like you will die.”

Jongdae pouts and stops bouncing.

Sighing, Minseok waves his car keys. “I’ll drive you.”

Jongdae squeals and twirls. Everyone stops what they’re doing to look at him.

“Sorry,” he whispers. “I’m just really excited. I haven’t seen him face to face in three months.”

“You really like Sehun, don’t you,” Yifan says, amusement painted all over his features.

Jongdae blushes and hangs his head.

“I’m totally going to the airport with you,” Baekhyun says slyly, “I want to see your face when Sehun struts towards you with his luggage.”

Jongdae covers his red face with his hands and says nothing.

He hates his job.

“I’ll see you there! I can pick you up. I mean, there’ll be some friends in the car with us, but-”

“Thanks Jongdae, but I don’t think you need to-”

“What do you mean? I haven’t seen you in forever, I want to pick you up from the airport. We can talk about all the stuff you did in Siberia during the drive home.”

“I guess you can come to the airport if you want, but I don’t know if you’ll drive me back home. I think I already have a ride…”

“You think, so you don’t know for sure.”

“Actually I’m pretty su-”

“See you at the airport!”

Baekhyun snickers after glancing at Jongdae’s face.

“You look like Hachiko,” he remarks, “waiting for the professor to get off the train.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Wait til you see him. Sehun’s really handsome and his hair is blond and look! There he is!”

He waves at Sehun enthusiastically but it looks like his best friend doesn’t see him.

“Hun!”

Jongdae’s about to run when Kim Jongin saunters up to Sehun and the two begin walking in step towards the exit.

“Sehun?”

Said boy looks up and catches eyes with a confused Jongdae, who gestures for him to “come here” because why is he with Kim Jongin?

Sehun holds his gaze for a few seconds, then turns and laughs at something Jongin said, greeting Yixing who takes one of his suitcases and waving at Tao.

Tao. Who broke his ing ankle last year.

“Jongdae-”

He brushes past Baekhyun and sprints back to the car.

A/N: hEY OKay so um i'm going to be gone for like the next five days? i might be online but idk when i'll update so just a heads-up. thanks for your support. 

also the dumb indents are really ing irritating im sorry

ily