After they got back to Seoul, they were both back to their individual schedules and activities, leaving them with little time for anything other than work. However, they made it a point to keep each other updated. They texted almost every day, and when they had trouble staying awake for throughout night shoots, they relied on each other to keep themselves awake, whether through text or phone calls.

Whenever they had free time, but weren’t able to meet, they ended up having really long conversations on the phone. The conversations lasted hours, they talked throughout the night, or until one of them fell asleep. It wasn’t a spoken rule, they didn’t agree on anything, but both of them, knowingly or not, had gradually made the other his first choice. It was more straightforward for Jongsuk – he didn’t have many friends to begin with. Woobin, on the other hand, had his own group of really close model friends who he still kept frequent contact with. He didn’t exactly drift away from his other friends, it was just that Jongsuk had very quietly become of priority. Woobin of course didn’t realize it. All of it happened so naturally.

Woobin was out with his model friends, just chilling in a café along Apgujeong. They had been there for a bulk of the afternoon, doing nothing in particular. They were making dinner plans, discussing where they should go for dinner when Woobin received Jongsuk’s text, saying that he had ended work early and had asked if Woobin was free for dinner.

Woobin wanted to meet Jongsuk. Yet, he didn’t like cancelling on his friends, but seeing that he had already spent the entire afternoon with them, he looked up from his phone and said, a little guiltily, “Umm guys, I probably won’t be joining for dinner.”

“Girlfriend? Girls over friends now eh?” Youngkwang teased.

Woobin snorted and shook his head. “Nah. Jongsuk.”

“Get him to join us, I haven’t seen him in quite a while too.” Jonghyun cooed. Jongsuk and he were close friends as well, so he knew that Jongsuk didn’t exactly like big groups. However, he felt that Jongsuk wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable with that group of people. After all, they were all models turned actors and Jongsuk had worked with Youngkwang before.

Woobin actually liked that idea, but he wasn't sure that Jongsuk would like it. He looked around at the other people and seeing that they all nodded in agreement, Woobin texted Jongsuk asking if he would want to join them.

“Want to have dinner with Jonghyun and the rest?”

“Oh, you’re out with them? It’s okay, meet you some other time then,” was the reply Woobin got.

“You really don’t want to come? Jonghyun says he misses you.”

“Nah, it’ll be awkward. Don’t like it. Tell him I miss him too.”

“He’s not coming, says it’ll be awkward,” Woobin reported, a hint of disappointment flashed across his face. He didn’t want to force Jongsuk into doing something he didn’t want to. Moreover, he knew Jongsuk wouldn’t agree to dinner now that he knew that Woobin was out with friends. He made a mental note to ring Jongsuk up for supper instead.

“Hyung, you’re lousy. Watch me.” Jonghyun grinned and grabbed the phone from Woobin’s hands and excused himself from the table while he called Jongsuk. After 5 minutes on the phone, he hung up the phone and had a victorious look on his face. “He’s coming.”

Woobin looked at Jonghyun with a questioning expression, wondering what he had done to convince Jongsuk, but Jonghyun just shrugged innocently and said nothing.

Jongsuk arrived at said restaurant half an hour later than the group of them. He quickly apologized for the delay and instinctively took the empty seat opposite Woobin and next to Jonghyun, who was sitting next to Youngkwang. They had probably deliberately left that seat empty for him. He smiled politely at the other people who were already eating their barbecued meat before starting on his food.

Polite conversations were going on, with people asking him how he was doing and this irked him a little. He didn’t like the attention he was receiving, and it felt like it was constantly reminding him that he was an outsider who didn’t belong to that group. Woobin was watching Jongsuk carefully and could sense his discomfort from across the table, and he had many times tried to pull the focus away from Jongsuk by changing the topic. He also engaged in small conversations with Jongsuk. It gradually got better as time passed and the conversations moved into more casual ones, in which Jongsuk found himself being able to join them and laugh along with them – after all, they did have some common topics and Jongsuk was able to relate to some of them. Woobin smiled when he noticed that Jongsuk was easing in, and only then did he start actively engaging in the conversation, while casually barbecuing some meat for Jongsuk and placing the best parts of the meat in Jongsuk’s plate.

When Jongsuk was done with his food, he excused himself for a bit to take a smoke break. Woobin watched as Jongsuk left the restaurant, and also excused himself as he followed behind Jongsuk.

“Eh? Why did you come out?” Jongsuk was leaning against the wall outside the restaurant, puffing out the smoke he had just inhaled when he saw Woobin next to him.

“Checking on you.” Woobin said as he placed a cigarette stick between his lips. He turned to look at Jongsuk and leaned in so that he could light his stick from Jongsuk’s cigarette flame. “Thought you didn’t want to come?”

“Didn’t want to. But Jonghyun insisted, and I owed him a favour so…”

They both leaned against the cold wall, next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, smoking their cigarette in silence as they looked up into the dark sky.

“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Woobin broke the silence.

“It wasn’t. Thanks.”

“Hmm? What for?”

“For watching out for me…”

“I didn’t want you feeling uncomfortable.”

“But I made your dinner uncomfortable. Sorry. And don’t say I didn’t, because you obviously weren’t behaving normally.”

“I didn’t mind it. I actually like that you’re slowly getting comfortable with them.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, because they are an important group of friends to me, and you are a very important person to me, so it would be very nice if you were okay with them. And maybe so that I can bring you along next time?”

“Tsk, you make me sound like a girlfriend whom you can bring along to gatherings with your buddies.”

“Maybe? Just not a girlfriend. A best friend.” Woobin smiled as he threw his cigarette stick on the floor and stepped on it to put out the flame.

Jongsuk laughed and shook his head. “Go back in first, I’ll be back in a while more. Don’t want to take your time away from them. I’m fine, really.”

He watched as Woobin headed back into the restaurant. He knew for sure that nothing would change. He still didn’t consider himself as part of that group and definitely wouldn’t meet up with any of them – other than Jonghyun that is – but he probably wouldn’t mind if Woobin were to invite him to their gatherings. He guessed he didn’t exactly mind anything new so long as Woobin was around. It was as if Woobin was a safety shelter and making sure that he would be alright.

He stayed outside for a while more, taking in the cool air before returning to his seat. By then, they were all done with dinner. After settling the bill, they decided to go get some drinks, to which Jongsuk politely declined. He didn’t like the taste of alcohol, and neither did he like going to bars or clubs. Jonghyun nodded and didn’t insist, he knew that Jongsuk didn’t like those places. Woobin cited having work the next day as an excuse for himself.

“Hyung! Don’t forget me again! See you soon!” Jonghyun shouted to Jongsuk as the group of them left the place towards their next destination.

Jongsuk just smiled and nodded.

“Want to take a walk at the park or something?” Woobin suggested when the rest of them disappeared into the car. All he wanted really, was to be able to spend some time with Jongsuk, just the two of them. He didn’t really have a reason, he just didn’t want to leave yet.

“I thought you needed to go back early? Don’t you have work tomorrow?”

Woobin just smiled and shrugged, to which Jongsuk nodded in response. They headed to the park, getting an ice cream to share along the way, and found two empty swings on the playground. They took one swing each and started swinging, the cool wind hitting against their faces. As compared to their usual chitter chatter, neither of them spoke. The dinner that just ended had probably used up their words quota for the day. It wasn’t an awkward silence. Rather, they were both enjoying each other’s company. They didn’t need words.

Woobin was staring and admiring the glow of Jongsuk’s fair skin under the dim lighting of the playground when Jongsuk turned and met his gaze. They looked at each other in silence and just smiled. Jongsuk could feel it coming back again, a feeling that he had suppressed many months back, the feeling that made him keep his distance from Woobin. He knew it was different from what he felt for his friends. It was a feeling that he had developed only for Woobin, it was exclusively Woobin. He didn’t know what he was going to do with it. He didn’t want to think about it. Neither was he going to think about it now. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to avoid Woobin like he did the previous time. All he knew was right at that point of time, he just wanted to enjoy Woobin’s company.

They sat on the swing until the playground lights went off. Only then did they head back to where their cars were and reluctantly said their goodbyes.

“Text me when you get back. Be safe.” Woobin said.