They had been friends for four years. Chanyeol and Jongdae, eleven years. The beagle-line, five years. Then Kyungsoo had transferred in from another school and latched onto them, and they hadn't complained once.

They had stuck together through thick and thin.
Through Year 8, when Jongdae's parents had gotten divorced.
Through Year 9, when Chanyeol had a girlfriend from the wrong crowd.
Through Year 10, when Kyungsoo was hospitalised after a suicide attempt.
Through Year 11, when they stayed out of trouble and spent days at a time doing nothing in each others company.
Now, in Year 12, half-way through their Senior year, Kyungsoo was sat across from Baekhyun and Jongdae as if he was really seeing them for the first time.

"I don't understand" Jongdae claims, slumped over the cold pot of pasta he had just bought, the only food left when you arrive late to lunch, "I haven't done anything wrong". He looks upset and pissed off at the same time and Baekhyun feels like he's on the outside looking in on his world being set alight.

"It's not just you, it's Chanyeol, too. I can't take your any more. But Baekhyun and I can still be friends". Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun looks back completely bemused. Chanyeol isn't even here. He hasn't eaten lunch with them in years, preferring to go off campus for chips or pizza with whatever girl he's into at the time. They don't love him any less because of it, and somehow Baekhyun's the only one who's left feeling out of the loop.

Two weeks ago, they were planning a graduation trip to Japan, just the four of them. Baekhyun had been sure he wouldn't be able to afford it but had been helping the three in their plans nonetheless. Now, Kyungsoo is telling Jongdae he doesn't even want to sit with him for ten minutes at lunch, never mind spending God-knows-how-much for two weeks with him in a foreign country.

Senior year had been rocky, Baekhyun admits to himself. A week in, Kyungsoo had stopped talking to him and it had taken Chanyeol tricking them into a two-person peddle-boat ride on a lake for Kyungsoo to make up with him. He still doesn't know what he had done wrong. Then Kyungsoo fell out with Jongdae 'because of something he said', and then with Chanyeol for picking sides, while Baekhyun had pleaded with both sides to make up. Kyungsoo had written a heartfelt apology on KakaoTalk to all three of them and he thought that had been it. They had ditched Baekhyun last month to go ice-skating when his parents said the weather was too bad for him to go, and he had been sure that that meant they were good, they were over it, they were through it.

Kyungsoo turns to continue his gossip with Jongin and Sehun as if the whole conflict never happened, and Baekhyun almost sees red at the way Jongin is smirking at them.

Jongdae takes a couple fork fulls of pasta before quickly rising and exiting the canteen, making no eye contact with either of them, despite Baekhyun staring a hole in his back. Baekhyun feels uncomfortable and wants to go with him but he left so quickly that he fears he might be mad at him, too.

Baekhyun had finished eating before Jongdae had even arrived, so he just sits and stares awkwardly at his phone while Kyungsoo finishes. There's never any internet connection in the canteen so he only has his SNSD phone background for entertainment. He sits obsessing over the feeling of Jongin still staring at him until he tunes into Sehun talking about some HarryxVoldemort fanfiction he was reading in religious class instead of about the life of the Buddha. Baekhyun almost wants to laugh but he's not sure if he should even be listening.

Then Jongin gets up to leave and Baekhyun is confused when Sehun doesn't move to trail after him. Normally, Kyungsoo only talks to Sehun because Sehun's friends with Jongin and the two are a bit of a package deal. So when the conversation doesn't falter and Baekhyun's boredom overrides his nerves he asks "Where's Jongin going?"

Sehun replies "He's going outside to talk to Minseok, he can't come in 'cause he's having a ." (Minseok used to be Kris… #OT12)

Kyungsoo's smiling at him so Baekhyun smiles back and asks, "Are you finished? Can we go back to the library now?"

"Yeah" Kyungsoo stands with the remains of his lunch in hand and they make their way out the double doors. They're all silent but then Sehun trails off to go to the bathroom and suddenly he has two minutes alone with Kyungsoo and too much to say.

"Why?" he asks shortly, because he's not really sure how to describe what's happening. He's struggling to keep his face passive, to keep it from crumbling or exploding.

"Why what?" Kyungsoo laughs, and Baekhyun feels his anger flare and his left eye twitch. How can he act like nothing's going on?

"Why are you not talking to Chanyeol and Jongdae? What happened?" he says a little too quickly. He skims his eyes over the lockers instead of Kyungsoo's face and tries to find the will to be understanding of whatever his best friend has to say for himself.

Kyungsoo's quiet for a moment, but his posture does not change. "It's a bunch of things, really. I don't know. Like I said, I'm just sick of their ".

Baekhyun doesn't want to doubt Yeol and Dae but he doesn't want to piss off Kyungsoo, either, "What kind of things? Should I know about them?"

Kyungsoo slows as they near the library doors. His lips rise just a smidge in the corners and he looks Baekhyun in the eyes "It's more about me than them, Baek. Don't worry about it."

Baekhyun wonders if Kyungsoo doesn't know him well enough by now, if he still doesn't know that Baekhyun worries about everything. Baekhyun watches a 1st year walk into the left door that doesn't open, doesn't even laugh, only holds the right door open for Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo beams at him before walking ahead to Jongin and Minseok's table in the corner and Baekhyun doesn't know what to do with himself. Jongdae and Chanyeol aren't here and Baekhyun would worry about that too but they're probably out getting lunch. Since Baekhyun has already ate, he sits at a computer and pretends to work on his biology project until he has to leave for class.

Beakhyun walks into the library the next morning to an empty table, so he sits alone for the fifteen minutes he would normally spend catching up with his friends. When he makes his way up to morning registration, Chanyeol and Jongdae are sitting in their usual seats, laughing at some video on Chanyeol's phone. He thinks little of it and strides over to the seat across from them, greeting them as he sits down.

They ignore him.

Baekhyun's always been the quiet one. Well, they're all a little quiet, except Chanyeol, but Baekhyun can't help but feel different. He has less to say rather than less will to say it. He tries again, "Hey guys, how're you?"

Jongdae looks up, eyes clearly upset but smiling from the phone. Chanyeol looks back at Baekhyun like he had just crawled out of a drain somewhere and rolled all over the desk in front of them. The look has Beakhyun's eyes prickling with unwanted tears, so he lowers his head to fish his school planner out of his back and stares at it with forced interest, waiting for his only friend to arrive.

As the teacher starts the morning announcements, Kyungsoo is still nowehere to be seen.