"Get up. You've been in bed all morning. Weren't you going to visit Himchan before he left?"

"Too late now. He left at six this morning. Too busy to say goodbye." Yongguk mumbled as his older sister sat down on the edge of his bed. Natasha could be rough around the edges sometimes, but she loved her brother. And she had to admit that she felt for him. It was hard letting go of friends, especially ones as close as Yongguk and Himchan were. They had been best friends for ten years after all.

"Maybe that's because you're not really saying goodbye? You're still going to be friends and all. Technology today will make sure of that."

"That's so ing corny." He deadpanned. He wasn't even fazed when his sister threw her head back in laughter.

"Come on, your dog needs to go for a walk."

---

Yongguk stepped along the beaten path that his dog had led him down hundreds of times. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head and shivered a bit. It was chilly for this time of year, it looked more like fall than spring. And Yongguk couldn’t help but wonder if the weather was actually nice, but tainted by his current mood and his views on the world and what it could go do with itself. Or, alternatively, he wondered if the weather was actually this ty and that was just that.

He wasn’t sure of the answer, and quite frankly, he didn’t really give a . All he had left was his dog and his family. All of his other friends from school had gone off to do other things, and become different people. Some were still good - too good for him, he felt. And some had become bad. He thought back to those years he’d spent with his little “crew,” B.A.P, as they had called themselves. He and Himchan, Daehyun, Youngjae, Jongup, and Junhong (who they had affectionately nicknamed Zelo).

Daehyun had fallen in with a bad crowd in college and began to experiment with drugs and alcohol. And then… he perfected it. No more experiments. He smoked Mary Jane to dull the pain, and drank whiskey to forget it entirely. At first, it hadn’t been a big deal. He was still fun to be around for a while. But about two years ago, it got worse and the boys sat down to talk it out. They came to a mutual conclusion that until Daehyun could get his together, they couldn’t be friends anymore. And that was the last time they had spoken.

Youngjae was still kind of around. He’d gone off to college to become a lawyer and after returning, he started a new life. He’d met someone and was starting to settle down. He still spoke with Daehyun, but not as often anymore. Though, Yongguk guessed he could say the same thing about himself. The last time he saw Youngjae was about 6 months ago at a birthday party for a mutual friend. And they talked, and laughed, and joked, but they were no longer best friends. And the deeper they got into their conversation that night, the more it became apparent. Their relationship had just... fizzled out.

Sweet Jonguppie had moved. He’d moved to America as well actually, and was currently residing in sunny California, already getting a few modeling jobs here and there and even some work as an extra in movies and commercials. He was achieving his own dreams and going off to a distant place that Yongguk felt that he couldn’t reach. Though they texted some and talked online a few times, the distance was scarily intimidating.

And lastly was Junhong, who moved back to his hometown to be with his family when his mother had gotten sick. The last he heard, things weren’t looking good. His mother had to have three surgeries in one month while Junhong had tended to the house and took care of his younger siblings, doing the laundry and cooking for them. He did all the things a parent should do while his own parents were in and out of the ICU every other week. The poor kid even had to drop out of college because of it.

These were his friends. These were the people he had spent months, years with and the longest conversation he’d had with any of them recently was a like on a Facebook post.

He didn’t want that to happen with Himchan, but he was terrified that it would.

It was right around this time, as he stood there and contemplated this fear, and lightning cracked overhead and a loud clap of thunder sounded a few moments later. Suddenly,