“Kim Jongin,” his friend greeted with voice laced with less enthusiasm that Jongin was already very used to. “Yo!” Jongin greeted the other guy over the phone with much excitement in his voice, a great contrast to that of his friend’s. His eyes were wandering around Soojung who was busy doing something else, as he spoke. “Where are you, man? I haven’t seen you all day,” he continued.

“What are you, my girlfriend?” the other asked in a deadpan tone. Jongin could already see Sehun rolling his eyes as the words escaped his lips. Typical Oh Sehun.

Instead of shooting a comeback, Jongin chose to ignore his friend’s question. “Anyway, Sehun,” he started, a radiant smile gracing his face as Soojung looked up before he continued, “You should join me and Soojung if you’re not busy.“ The girl smiled back at him, but he had missed the way Soojung’s eyes gleamed with sadness as he spoke on the phone. He had missed the way Soojung had slightly bit her lip at the mention of his friend’s name.

There was a moment of silence then a rustling sound could be heard before the voice from the other line spoke, still in the same tone of voice, “Sorry, I have something to do.” If Jongin knew better, there was a hint of sadness on Sehun’s voice.

A groan emitted from Jongin’s lips then. “Oh come on!” the last word came out in a long dragging sound as he whined. “I know you’re not busy!” he exclaimed into the phone. “We barely hang out these days, man.” His lower lip was so close to protruding into a pout but his friend’s voice stopped him from doing so.

“I’m hanging up.” Just as Jongin opened his mouth to say something, the line went dead, not even giving Jongin the chance to utter a word.

“Sehun? Oh Sehun?!” he called but obviously the only answer that he received was the sound of a beep before it went dead silent. Jongin let out a groan again before he threw his phone at the table in irritation. “That was the one hundred one times he had hung up on me,” Jongin huffed and blew his fringe out of annoyance while he had his arms folded over his chest.

The girl across him then looked up. “You calculate it?” she asked, a little amusement in her voice as she looked at Jongin.

The girl’s voice had Jongin’s head snapped to Soojung, “What?” he questioned, eyes went wide out of surprise, but a laugh escaped his lips a second after. “Nah~” Jongin waved, a grin splitting his face as their eyes met. “I was just kidding,” he dismissed with a smile sketched around his face but then his brows furrowed, “But seriously though, he always hung up on me. That guy!”

Jongin wasn’t one to get angry over such little thing but his best of friend had been distancing himself from Jongin, always giving him the nonsense ‘I’m busy’ excuse to him every time. What exactly did he do wrong? Jongin couldn’t point out exactly when it happened. All he knew was that this has got to stop at one point. Everyone has their own limitation in being patient and Jongin didn’t know where his limit was. He only knew that his limit was running out.

“He’s probably just busy.” The girl’s voice pulled Jongin out of his train of thoughts. For a moment Jongin had forgotten that Soojung was there with him.

It had been just over a month since their first meeting, their first exchange of words. Over a month since Jongin had fallen head over heels in love with the girl that was sitting across from him at this very moment. Two weeks of quiet answers from the girl and another two weeks of succeeding at making her open up to him, then another of witnessing her beautiful and stunning smile and the next thing he knew here they were at their usual place, witnessing the smile that yet again able to make Jongin’s heart melt. If it was for something else, Jongin would have exclaimed it’s a pain in the ! But this, for Jongin, was worth the effort. He had expected it to be longer than a month. Maybe it was because of his persistency that made Soojung gave up on avoiding him, or maybe it was because the girl had finally see the sincere feeling that Jongin had for her. Either way, Jongin was happy with the outcome of his persistency.

Despite that, Jongin’s heart always cracked a little at the sight of Soojung’s face that was somehow filled with despondency that she always seemed to wear on her face every time the girl thought that Jongin wasn’t looking. It hurt him to see but Jongin never had the courage to ask the reason as to why the beautiful face of her was always tinged with sadness.

A snort escaped his lips at Soojung’s words. “Yeah, right. Oh Sehun is never busy,” he grumbled, still feeling annoyed for being hung up by his best friend. His glum face that resembled that of a child had the girl smiled. She didn’t say anything in return but offered Jongin a smile instead.

Unbeknownst to both, there was a person watching them for afar, hands clenched into fists in jealousy. Seeing a smile plastered on Soojung’s face while she looked at Jongin, he couldn’t contain his anger and frustration built up in the inside of him. He then walked away with a pain in his heart.

Just at the sight of Soojung smiling at him had his heart doing a little summersault inside his chest like no tomorrow. Jongin then flashed his signature charming smile back to the girl and he thought that maybe, just maybe, he really had a chance to capture her heart.

***

When night came Jongin found himself in Sehun’s bedroom, lying on the other guy’s bed while the owner of the room sat on his desk chair. He had decided to confront Sehun at his house just so the guy couldn’t escape anywhere even if he wanted to. Jongin didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell to Sehun’s house, going inside after he unlocked the door with the key that he found beneath the front carpet. Sehun had let out a groan when Jongin announced his arrival at the front door of his room, but he decided to let Jongin be.

“So, what’s up?” Jongin asked from his spot on the bed. The warmth comfort of the blanket had Jongin closing his eyes, taking away the tiredness in his body, almost drifting off to sleep but he fought the urge to sleep by blinking his eyes several times and widening them into the size of a saucer. An unattractive sound of his yawn was heard seconds later. Stay awake, Kim Jongin! He scolded himself internally.

“I should be asking you that. What are you doing here?” Sehun asked just as he closed his book and swivelled around in his chair to face the guy that was lying on his double-sized bed. His raised eyebrow that followed after had Jongin looked at him weirdly.

“What?” Jongin questioned in his sleepy state, hugging one of Sehun’s pillows close to his chin. Another set of yawn escaped his lips. He really needed to stay awake.

“I can see your drool on my pillow,” Sehun deadpanned, crossing his arms to make it a point that he was not amused. Jongin let his eyes wandered down to the pillow he was holding and indeed there was a stain of drool. He flashed a grin to Sehun and made a peace sign with his free hand making the latter rolled his eyes. “And it’s only nine, Jongin,” Sehun informed.

“I went grocery shopping with my mom,” Jongin let out a yawn yet again. The guy had lost count on the amount of time he had yawned tonight. “She made me go around the market for two hours straight,” he continued then, face contorted in utter despair. His statement made the other laugh and he shot a glare to Sehun. “What are you laughing at, you heartless brat!”

“Mama’s boy,” Sehun teased and Jongin sat up, ready to lung forward and attack the guy but then he smiled.

“It’s been so long since you called me that,” he stated, the same smile still playing around his lips. Jongin was always known to his best friend to have a soft spot for his mother and that earned him the nickname.

“Are you turning gay for me, Kim Jongin?” Sehun asked in a flat tone, face turning that of stoic as the question rolled out of his lips. That question had Jongin lung forward to the guy.

“Ya! Are you out of your mind?” Jongin exclaimed as his arm found its way around Sehun’s neck, putting the poor guy in a headlock.

“Jongin—Ya— Kim Jongin! I can’t breathe!”  Sehun managed to breathe out in his state of struggle, hastily hitting Jongin’s arm that was around his neck.

Jongin’s lips formed a satisfied smirk before he let go of the other’s neck. “That’s for saying I’m gay, twerp.”

“That hurts like hell, man!” Sehun cried out in a strain voice as he rubbed his neck. Jongin just shrugged his shoulder in a nonchalant manner. “Why are you here anyway?” The former asked.

“To spend time with you,” Jongin answered. He then added quickly with hands up defensively when Sehun looked at him weirdly, “Not in a gay way, chillax dude. It’s just we haven’t hang out together lately, you know,” he expressed, already lying on the bed again.

“I already told you I’m busy,” Told Sehun as he too went to his bed, snatching the pillow that was in Jongin’s hold and lied his head on the said pillow while Jongin looked like a puppy that had been kicked.

“Busy with what exactly?” Jongin asked in a challenging voice, giving Sehun a side-way look. He was certain that the other guy was never busy and that Sehun was lying to him.

“Stuff,” Sehun simply shrugged.

“Oh save it, Sehun!” Jongin snapped. He sat up as his eyes narrowed into a slits down to Sehun, “You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

“What? No!” Sehun quickly retorted, his voice went an octave higher than the usual.

“Why are you being defensive?” Jongin asked then, a triumphant smile grazing his lips at the sight of his friend looking like a deer caught in the headlight. “Come on! Spill it, Oh Sehun!” he demanded.

“Nothing. There’s nothing, Kim Jongin,” Sehun reassured but Jongin was not one to be convinced with such transparent lie.

Jongin then asked, “Is this about a girl?”

“No,” Sehun replied but the expression on his face betrayed him. He looked away in an instant.

The expression on Sehun’s face had Jongin’s mouth hanged open, gaping in disbelief. “What? All this time you have a girlfriend and you didn’t tell me?!” he exclaimed, suddenly feeling betrayed and his heart clenched.

“I didn’t. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Sehun informed impatiently.

“So you like someone?” Jongin asked then. There was no way he would let Sehun get away without giving him any information.

Sehun let out a sigh before he answered, “Yeah.”

Jongin’s heart slowly broke as he asked yet another question, “And she likes someone else?”

A sigh escaped Sehun’s lips yet again at the question, “Yeah.”

“And she may or may not know that you like her?” Jongin was not sure if he was actually asking a question to Sehun or if he was actually talking about himself.

“Yeah—“ Sehun answered but then he stopped and looked at Jongin, “Wait, what?”

“I feel you, man.” Now it was Jongin’s turn to heave a sigh. His face turned to that of a sullen one and his shoulders slumped.

Sehun raised a brow at that, “What do you mean?”

Maybe this was the right time to tell Sehun, to voice out his feelings that he had kept all this time. After all, Sehun was the only one that he could talk to about such matter. “You see, bro, Soojung actually doesn’t know about my feelings. Well, maybe she knows since I always pestered her into talking with me before but she seems to like someone else,” Jongin explained. He let out another long frustrated sigh at the end of the sentence.

“Oh,” was the only word that he received from his best friend. Perhaps Sehun just didn’t know how to react to that.

“Yeap, unfortunately,” Jongin laughed, empty and humourless, before he continued, “I never asked her who though ‘because the girl seemed broken hearted every time she’s quiet. She always had this glint of sadness in her eyes but I never saw her cry, not even once.”

“Maybe she just doesn’t want people to see her cry,” Sehun reasoned.

“Maybe,” Jongin agreed with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He then blinked his eyes and a grin-splitting-face shone under the light when he looked at Sehun, “What about you? Who’s this unlucky girl that you fall for? Do I know her?” he asked, making sure to emphasise the word unlucky in an attempt to annoy the other guy.

“Maybe,” Sehun answered in a nonchalant manner, but Jongin had missed the way Sehun’s brows were knitted together in a brief moment before they went back to its place in a blink.

“You should let me meet her!” Jongin uttered aloud in joy, momentarily forgetting the sadness that engulfed him few seconds ago.

Sehun didn’t say anything in return but Jongin had missed the string of words that escaped in mutter under Sehun’s breath. “Maybe next time,” Sehun uttered after a moment.

Just then Jongin let out a weird noisy yawn as he lied back down. This earned him a judging look from Sehun. “Okay then,” he dismissed with a yawn.  He then looked at Sehun with a sleepy grin on his face and with both his arms held out, Jongin playfully called out, “Come here, Sehunnie. Let me cuddle you like a pillow~”

Sehun rolled his eyes then, playfully shoving Jongin by the shoulder. “Go away, Kim Jongin.”

Even though Jongin almost fell off the bed, a laugh inevitably escaped his parted lips and the ringing sound of laughter from his side had him smiled, feeling grateful that they were back to normal again.

Author's corner:

Sooooorrryyyyy for the long wait. April was a hell of a month for me plus I had a hard time getting back on track. Not writing for a long time had such effect on me *sigh* but fear not, people! Now that i'm on semester break update will be sooner, hopefully :D

On another note, sorry for the less Kaistal moment in this chapter. I just needed to write Sekai because for one, I wanna show that Jongin doesnt only care about Soojung but also his best friend and two, they need to be in a good relationship for the sake of the next chapter LOL OKAY I BETTER SHUT UP BEFORE I SPOIL EVERYTHING.