Jonghun and Hongki had been friends since middle school. They were an odd pairing, Hongki being loud and sporadic and Jonghun being quiet and level-headed, but they worked so effortlessly together that people stopped questioning it soon enough. In high school, when they were experiencing hormones and “serious relationships” for the first time ever, Jonghun had told Hongki he liked him and then kissed him under the tree where they first met. But Hongki hadn’t liked him like that. For Hongki, it was easy to pretend it didn’t happen, because to him it didn’t matter. They were still best friends right?

            And so they went back to being best friends, terrorizing the school and dating around, well, dating around in Hongki’s case. Jonghun had no interest in anyone but his friends, and Hongki pretended he had no idea why, even when he caught Jonghun watching him with that weirdly fond smile or when Jonghun forced that small, plastic grin around Hongki’s girlfriends. Hongki pretended not to notice and Jonghun pretended not to care, and it worked. All the way into college where Jonghun got a scholarship to a prestigious university and Hongki got a part-time job and tried to make it big with his band, whom Jonghun was a part of.

            The only problem was, Jonghun had grown distant lately. He had skipped out on their weekly Friday hangouts three times in the past month and was constantly checking his phone when they did happen to get together. And when Hongki’s birthday had come around, Jonghun had given him a fleeting “Happy Birthday” before leaving their shared flat claiming he had errands to run but that he would see him later. Hongki was surprised he even remembered about his birthday to be honest. Jonghun was being incredibly annoying, suspicious, and evasive in Hongki’s opinion and Hongki was determined to figure out what had caused such a drastic change in his best friend.