Sehun’s POV

“Hey, there he is!”

I looked up and saw Kai sprinting towards me. He hugged me, not hiding any bit of his excitement. “Relax, man,” I said after returning his hug.

Kai playfully shoved me away. “You weren’t the usual you for a whole week, and you didn't even bother to come and play with us,” he said and turned around to reveal some of the other guys. The whole gang wasn’t there, but most of them were. “We missed you.”

“Yeah, where’d our beautiful little baby go?” Baekhyun, one of the seniors, teased.

One by one, they started coming over and making conversation. But I noticed that one person was still standing in the court, not planning to come over: Suho. He had a serious look on his face and I knew that he would want to talk to me about what happened in the cafeteria. He must’ve known. If not, why else would he be acting like that?

Suho was one of the seniors that I was really close to. I could really treat him like a big brother. I would feel comfortable telling him close to anything. Sure, I had drawn a line somewhere, but he was probably the closest I had to asking for advice and such. He was like a mum, you know?

Kai must’ve noticed that I had been staring at Suho because he tapped my shoulders and looked at me, concerned. One of the other seniors, Luhan, came to my other side and gave me a slight smile.

“Hey guys, wanna grab something light to eat first? I’m starving,” Luhan voiced out. All of them agreed, leaving me alone with Suho. Before he went off, Luhan placed a hand on my shoulder. “He’s okay, if you’re wondering. He’s not mad or anything.”

His words of assurance gave me a little comfort. It was enough to get me to walk over to my senior and greet him. “Hi Suho,” I greeted, unable to contain my awkwardness. I just didn’t have such a good feeling about this.

He looked up at me and walked over. He flashed a smile and took a seat on the bench, motioning for me to take the seat beside him, which I did. He was my senior after all, how could I say no?

“What did I do?” I asked him, sort of bracing myself for a scolding.

“I was just curious- why did you go and hang out with that Kang Jihyun recently?” Well, that wasn’t the question I was expecting. I had good reasons for doing that, but I didn’t quite know how to explain myself. I knew that Suho and the other guys- aside from Chanyeol- think that Jihyun was a horrible person for doing what she did to Chanyeol. I never believed her, though.

Why? Easy. I knew what Chanyeol was like. He was constantly chasing after girls and he would make the extra effort to do so when they didn’t seem as interested as the rest. But the moment he gets them, he loses interest so quickly. I guess that was what irritated me when I saw Jiho hanging out with him that first day of school. When it came to friendship, Chanyeol was a really good friend. That’s the reason he’s my best friend. But who knows if his feelings for her will blossom into something more? I’m not going to take that risk. I’m not going to let her fall for him and be like his other girls.

Hanging out with Kang Jihyun was just me trying to find out the truth. She did tell me quite a lot, and so easily. I just hung out with her for one day and she spilled her guts. Don’t mistaken me, I wasn’t just using her. I really found her quite nice if she wanted to be, but I guess the incident with Chanyeol had really changed her views about being nice. It was a pity, really. I don’t think she deserved all the hate she was getting.

Finding out that he cheated on her and such really affected how I thought of him, but still, he is my best friend. I can’t just give up on him based on that. It was commending, though, how he immediately stopped chasing girls after that incident. I never thought he would be able to pull through. One month without girls- until Jiho- was not bad for him.

I told Suho my motives, and he just nodded. “I see,” he muttered. “Does Chanyeol know you know?” I shook my head. “Well, it seems that he’s persistent on keeping his ground. I saw him getting confronted by Jihyun and it seemed that he was… protective over Jiho. And since I saw you strolling late into school with her, I guess that you guys have something going on? I just felt the need to tell you, anyway.”

Protective? Chanyeol being protective over Jiho? He had never cared about any of the girls he had. What suddenly made him like that towards Jiho? I felt a mix of confusion and fear welling up inside me. Don’t tell me he liked her too? And yeah, I figured he was concerned about her when he kept asking me if I had seen Jiho, but I never thought he would actually bother to defend her in front of a crowd. He had never been the sort of person to bring that sort of attention to himself.

“I’ll deal with it myself,” I told Suho. I turned to look at him and thank him when I saw him spin his head around and greeting someone else.

Turning around, I saw Jiho walking towards us, tugging Chanyeol along beside her. Seeing her link her arm around his managed to make me jealous. He seemed a little dazed though, as though he was at a loss.

“I thought you were going to play?” Jiho said, sitting herself down on the bench, opposite to me while Chanyeol sat opposite to Suho. She introduced herself to Suho, although I don’t think it was necessary. He seemed to know more about her than he led on.

“The guys are getting snacks first,” I told her. I shifted my gaze back to Chanyeol. He looked blank. This was definitely not the usual him. This was way worse. Usually I’d find his talkativeness annoying, but his silence even more.

I was about to ask him what was wrong when he stood up and excused himself, claiming he had to be home soon, something to do with his mother needing help. He didn’t even say bye or wave, he just walked off. If he was angry it’d probably still make sense, but the way he walked away… It just looked as though he had given up. He was slouchy and all.

Sighing, I turned to Jiho. “What happened to him?” She just shook her head in reply. I guess she didn’t feel comfortable having to say it in front of Suho, and I’m sure he was feeling the same way too, so he smiled and excused himself, going to the cafeteria to find the rest of the guys.

“I know that you’re going to ask, but could we please not talk about it for now?” she asked in a cute way. I expected her tone to be much more uneasy, but surprisingly, she seemed pretty chirpy. Looking like that, how could I say no? So I just nodded.

“What do you want to do?” I asked her. It was around 4.30pm, so we still had plenty of time to hang out and such.

“I was thinking, since you came over yesterday, why not I go over to your’s today?” she suggested, intertwining my fingers with hers.

I chuckled at the thought and started to play with her fingers. “You sure you wanna come over? I mean, my house is a mess.” I wasn’t intending to reject her on her offer or make her want to come over less. I was really concerned that she would mind how dirty it was. I still remembered she hated overly-unorganised rooms. Unfortunately, that’s what my room was.

She made a face and stuck out her tongue at me. God she’s too cute. Can I kiss you right here right now? 

“Fat chance. I’m coming over, and that’s final,” she said in a sing-song voice.

I smiled, although I felt a little worry. As happy as I was that she was coming over, there was a problem tugging at my mind. It was my only concern for now: Were we going too fast?

Jiho’s POV

A half hour later, we were at Sehun’s house. I hadn’t seen this house before, because he had moved away from his old house which I often visited when I was young. This one looked more sophisticated and all, but for personal reasons I still felt the old one was better.

Sehun was trying to find the keys to the gate, fiddling in his backpack. While waiting, my mind managed to stray off to Chanyeol. I was reminded of what he said back at the rooftop garden, about disappearing and not saying goodbye. I had asked him what he was talking about, but he shrugged it off. He probably knew I was going to probe further, but he told me not to worry and that worrying would only stress him out more, so I just shut up and changed the topic. I wasn’t going to lie, I was still worried, very much. But what could I do?

You know that’s a dumb excuse, I thought to myself. Truth is, was I being selfish though? I only seemed to care about things between me and Sehun now. Was I paying a little too less attention to Chanyeol? I’ve never really had close guy friends like him before, so I didn’t know what to do. Still, should I be enjoying myself with Sehun now while my friend is over there feeling like crap?

“Are you okay, Jiho?” Sehun asked, walking over beside me and putting an arm around my shoulder. Was my worry that obvious?

I smiled up at him and shook my head. Immediately, to avoid the topic on Chanyeol, I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the porch, demanding him to give me a tour around the house. He just chuckled and obliged.

Before you knew it, an hour passed just in the blink of an eye. It was around 6pm and we just settled on the couch, eating chips and watching a movie on cable. It wasn’t one we ever heard of before, so we were attentive the first few minutes. Apparently, the starting was about these two small kids playing with each other, and accidentally setting of the sprinklers in the garden. The guy pulled on the girl’s hair, blaming her for it when his mum barged into the lawn looking furious.

The sight made me chuckle. “What’s so funny?” Sehun asked, mouth full of chips. He had his legs perched up on the sofa, his right arm resting on his right knee.

“No, it’s just that those two kids remind me of us,” I explained, gaining his attention. When he turned over to look at me, I continued, “It was real, wasn’t it? Such a long time ago, we were just a couple of kids. But we really loved each other, didn’t we?” I was shocked by my own straightforwardness, but I figured what the heck. After experiencing a loss I didn’t want to keep anything to myself. Maybe I should just wear my heart on my sleeve.

Sehun smiled warmly at me and nodded, then gave me a grin. I arched a brow at him. “Do you love me that much that you would say something as cheesy as that?” he asked smugly, putting another batch of chips into his mouth.

I rolled my eyes and playfully kicked him on the legs. “Shut up or I’m going home,” I threatened. He pouted at the mention of it. I sighed, looking away. “You’re a guy and you look even cuter than me,” I complained jokingly.

Upon hearing that, he sighed and scooted over closer to me so that there was no space between us. “What is it?” I asked him as he leaned his head to rest on my shoulder.

“I just hope that one day I can make you see how beautiful you really are,” he mumbled, eyes fixated on the television screen. His words made my heart flutter.

And I hope you know how special you are to me.

A/N: I love you guys for reading :D and don't worry, I won't be killing anyone... maybe ;) anyway, keep the comments coming alright, I really appreciate it <3 extra thanks to those who subscribed ^^ I hope I don't disappoint