Jongin didn’t hear from Chanyeol throughout the weekend. When Jongin returned that night from the boys following him into the convenience store, visibly shaken, his parents worried about him all night. They sat together in the living room where his father almost scolded him for all the incidents that had been happening so suddenly.

“Chanyeol isn’t always going to be there for you, Jongin,” he heard this over and over. It never came to mind that this could be the truth. Jongin didn’t want to blame Chanyeol for this, though. He didn’t have a phone so it was impossible to reach him until he got home. But, only if Chanyeol wasn’t busy this weekend, Jongin thought, then this might not have happened.

“Do you understand?” Jongin’s mother’s voice snapped him out of the thoughts. Jongin looked to this parents that sat beside him on the bleak colored couch. “Do you understand what we’re saying, Jongin?”

“Huh? No,” he replied finally. His mother tried to word it differently for Jongin to understand. She knew he wouldn’t like the idea.

“For now, we need to focus more on your health. Jongin, you’ve been in the hospital more recently. We just think it has something to do with Chanyeol.”

“We’re just trying to protect you, Jongin.” His father added on. Jongin’s eyebrow raised in question as he eyed both of them. He breathed out a chuckled.

“Where is all this coming from? Chanyeol has been with me since we were kids,” he stood from his place on the couch and left the two slightly confused parents. They continued to talk about what other ways they could help Jongin, to make him less prone to his episodes. Jongin’s room was just down the hall from the large living room and he had his head pressed to his closed door.

Listening to the soft murmurs of his parents, Jongin’s mind faded off to other places. His eyes gently fluttered closed and he sat in his room in silence. There was no one he could talk to. There was no one he could go to for now. Jongin felt the void between Chanyeol and him growing, growing, and tearing them apart. Jongin heard the way Chanyeol talked to him now, it was different.

Secretly, Jongin’s heart was aching and not from his disease.

Silent, hot tears escaped from underneath his lashes. Jongin’s face grimaced in sadness all alone. His body shook as he slumped against the wall. He felt lost, stuck, forgotten. But his hands couldn’t move for the door, his feet didn’t move to stand up, his mind didn’t think to fix it all. Jongin stayed in his room for the whole weekend. He studied and watched anything that he never cared about before to get himself from thinking of the bad things. Jongin was losing himself.

When Monday arrived, Jongin’s feet didn’t go to Chanyeol. The crowd surrounding them at the bus stop hid Jongin pretty well. His eyes didn’t gravitate to the taller boy whose head poked out above everyone else. His mind didn’t dwell on the thought of Chanyeol, he kept his head low and his eyes on his phone screen. Meanwhile, Chanyeol wondered where the other was. He zipped up his jacket as the bus stopped in front of the bunch of slightly shivering people.

Chanyeol took his seat by a window and leaned back on the seat, exhausted from staying up late the night before. He remembered Friday night and the morning after. He made coffee with Baekhyun and they could never keep their eyes each other for more than 5 minutes. This was something so new to Chanyeol. But the feeling wasn’t new to Chanyeol. He knew he had been bi-ual for a long time. Or maybe gay, he wasn’t sure. He remembered when he started looking at Baekhyun differently and how Baekhyun did the same. For some reason, it just took the two a while to understand it was mutual.

Chanyeol was afraid, also. He was scared of what others would think if people saw them walking down the streets holding hands. He wondered about all the nasty things people would say to him and he wondered mostly about Jongin. He was scared the most when he wondered if Jongin would not talk to him ever again. Chanyeol frowned, thinking of all these things. He also wondered where Jongin was this morning since it wasn’t like him to skip school.

His eyes raised his eyes to meet someone he wasn’t expecting. On some days when Baekhyun’s parents couldn’t take him to school, he rode the same bus. And Sehun usually had his brother take him to school, he also noted. A smile formed on both of their faces. Baekhyun’s eyes were almost gleaming as he stared right back at Chanyeol. He wondered if their happiness was beaming and if it was obvious that they were together.

“Good morning,” Baekhyun whispered and Chanyeol said it right back. “Where is Jongin? No show?”

“I’m not sure, I didn’t see him before we got on.”

“Me neither,” Baekhyun sat back in his seat, placing his hands in his lap and while Chanyeol kept eyeing them he decided to not tease the other. They stayed quiet the entire way to school. Jongin had taken a seat behind them, hoping to go unnoticed for the rest day.

Jongin couldn’t ignore his best friend forever. It was lunch and Chanyeol was already sitting at the table alone. He wondered why Baekhyun wasn’t with him since they were such good friends all of a sudden this morning. Remembering how he scolded Baekhyun and Sehun that day a while back in lunch made Jongin smile a bit, thinking he had overreacted. He sat by the taller boy then began eating his food.

“Oh,” Chanyeol’s brows raised in surprise, “you’re here.”

“Mm, yeah, I was late to school…” Jongin lied, drinking up the soup from his tray. “My mom just drove me to school today.”

“Ah, okay,” Chanyeol replied and after that, they didn’t say much. They both felt the awkwardness between each other and it just made things even tenser.

“Uh, so, how was your weekend?” Chanyeol asked. Jongin immediately thought back to Friday and couldn’t believe he actually forgot the terrifying experience. He stopped eating completely and turned himself to Chanyeol.

“I think someone is trying to mess with me,” Jongin said. Chanyeol looked at Jongin suspiciously, maybe he was just pulling his leg. But why would he joke about something like that, especially when tension was high when it came to that crazy Kim Jongdae.

“What happened?” Chanyeol asked.

“I don’t know, I was walking home Friday, right? I just, something… something didn’t feel right. These guys were following me, somehow I just knew. And something told me to get away from them so I went to a corner store and locked myself in the bathroom. They kicked on the door until after a while, they left.”

Chanyeol’s expression did his emotions no justice. He was beyond shocked to hear all this. “Are you serious?”

Jongin grunted, “Of course, Yeol.” Ah, that nickname. Chanyeol hadn’t heard it from Jongin in a long while. He felt a little warm inside.

“You couldn’t tell me sooner?”

“I wasn’t sure how. You still don’t have a cell phone, I just figured I would tell you today when I could.”

“Well, what if something had happened this morning? I guess it was good your mom took you.”

“Yeah,” Jongin murmured. He continued eating his lunch but Chanyeol couldn’t touch his. He couldn’t believe how calm Jongin was about this. There was definitely something wrong here but Jongin didn’t bat an eye. He seemed so over it already like it wasn’t serious at all.

“We have to go to the police, Jongin.”

The other choked on his soup, “What? No. Don’t worry about it.”

“You know this is Jongdae, I know you do.”

“You’re right, but what can I do, Chanyeol? There is nothing that leads to him. I don’t even know what happened to those guys. They just ran off. I had never seen them before.”

Chanyeol groaned in frustration, placing his head in his hands. “This is so serious, Jongin. You can’t act like you don’t care at all. He could really hurt you. He could hurt us.”

Jongin threw his hands in the air, “then what do we do?!”

“I don’t know! We have to tell someone,” at this point the two were getting annoyed with each other.

“No one will believe us.”

“How do you know when we haven’t tried?” Chanyeol asked but Jongin didn’t answer. He waited for a reply but when he got nothing, Chanyeol sighed. “Never mind. I’m tired of this fighting, Jongin. Is there something going on? Something I don’t know about?”

“I don’t know, Chanyeol, is there?” Jongin snapped back but it answered Chanyeol’s question. The way Jongin was so irritated said something to him. Jongin shook his head, letting what he had in mind go. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” So they spent the rest of lunch completely silent. Across the large hall, Kyungsoo watched as the two argued then fall silent. He, too, was beginning to wonder what could be going on between the two.

Chanyeol insisted on Jongin waiting for him after practice. Despite the mess from earlier that day, Chanyeol still worried a lot for Jongin. He was afraid those guys would come back for him, since Jongin didn’t know anything about their whereabouts. They could just be waiting for him right now.

So Jongin waited. He didn’t mind much since Kyungsoo was around. Surprisingly, Kyungsoo took a couple of breaks to sit with him and talk. Jongin told him about what happened Friday which shocked Kyungsoo.

“That’s insane. You should be careful.” Kyungsoo reminded the other. Jongin couldn’t agree with him more. Kyungsoo looked toward the field where his teammates ran around. “Good thing you have Chanyeol around again.”

“Ah, right…” Jongin’s voice treaded off. He watched Chanyeol chase around the soccer ball with the other guys. He wondered how he could ever be mad with that guy. Jongin felt a little bad about earlier and just wanted to apologize already. And then, he thought about what happened on the bus. Why was Baekhyun buddy-buddy with him today? It was so out of nowhere, Jongin thought. Of course he considered how close they were months ago but... Baekhyun never visited Chanyeol when he was hurt.

... Right?

According to Jongin, it was fact. Baekhyun never showed up to see Chanyeol, or at least he was never around when Jongin was. It was strange, really, that now all of a sudden he was in Chanyeol’s life. Jongin even wondered if Baekhyun had known about anything that happened. Did he have anything to do with Jongdae going after them? It was all so questionable and Jongin was so curious to find out.

And as he was thinking all this he didn’t notice Chanyeol collapsing on the field. He didn’t notice Kyungsoo as he jumped from the bleachers and raced to his fallen teammate. Jongin’s mind was somewhere else when everyone swarmed around Chanyeol, panicking and seeing if he could respond to anything. When he did notice how the game stopped and everyone paused from playing, Jongin immediately caught onto things.

He walked over as fast as he could and pushed passed other players. The team coach was already ready to call an ambulance when Chanyeol finally responded to a question. Jongin’s thoughts were spiraling into insanity and his heart was pounding so hard, he was sure everyone around could hear it. Visibly shaken, Jongin grabbed onto Chanyeol’s arm and pulled him from off the ground.

“Yeol, are you alright?” He asked. Chanyeol’s eyelids scrunched and his face twisted in pain. He moaned out in agony, grabbing onto his head. Everyone backed away to give him some air. They were all wondering what the hell was going on. What’s happening to the star player, Park Chanyeol?

“I have a bad headache,” was all Chanyeol muttered. The coach backed off and told practice was cancelled for the day. When everyone dispersed, Jongin stayed put right beside Chanyeol on the dried, yellow grass. Kyungsoo was on the other side of him.

“Should I help him home?” Kyungsoo asked Jongin but Chanyeol wiggled his finger at him.

“I’ll be okay,” Chanyeol said. Jongin eyed him, still going mad over what just happened.

“Let’s just get you home, Chanyeol.”

On the way home it was already getting dark. The streetlights lit up the roads they walked down. Jongin carried all of Chanyeol’s things and even though he argued about it, Jongin didn’t listen to a single word. Though Chanyeol’s mind and vision was a bit fogged he still was on the lookout for anyone suspicious. But Jongin paid no mind. He was more worried about Chanyeol.

“No one is coming around if they see you’re here, you know.” Jongin mumbled.

The other couldn’t help but chuckle, “Am I that scary?”

“Just a little,” Jongin cracked back. For a moment they just looked at each other and laughed. This was the way it should always be. “Do you have any idea what happened to you?”

“Ah, maybe a side effect from the meds I’m still on?” Chanyeol guessed.

“Sounds likely,” Jongin looked straight ahead. “Whatever it was, I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

“Yeah, it hurt pretty badly. One minute I was fine but then the next I felt so dizzy… I couldn’t see clearly and just fell.”

“Maybe you should switch medications?”

“I’m not sure,” Chanyeol sighed. Today was stressful for the both of them. Chanyeol mentioned seeing a movie on the weekend to which Jongin accepted. It had been a while since they last hung out, just the two of them; outside a hospital or class room at least. Things were looking up, Jongin thought. Things were getting better. He knew no matter who or what Jongdae brought their way, Chanyeol and Jongin were inseparable and not to be messed with.

a/n: sorry if anyone ever gets upset if I say soccer. I’m American!! I can’t help it. :^) sorry if there's any mistakes, i will try to edit when i can.