When Joonmyun opens the door to let Jongdae in, his cousin sighs at his appearance. It had been just over a week since Soojung had come back and Yixing had left him, and he was still no better than that night.

Joonmyun had been a mess. When his brother wouldn’t pick up his phone, he had called Jongdae instead. Hearing his tears, hearing the panic in Joonmyun’s voice, Jongdae had come running over to the apartment. The next hour was spent with Joonmyun crying, shouting, panicking. It had taken Jongdae ages to get him to calm down, but since then, Joonmyun had gotten worse. He wasn’t eating properly. He wasn’t sleeping properly. Jongdae had to get him to take more time off of work, making up a convincing excuse so that Joonmyun wouldn’t get into trouble.

“Have you eaten today?” is the first thing Jongdae asks, walking straight towards the kitchen. It was always the first question he had asked. Knowing Joonmyun well enough, if he worked himself into a big enough state, he wouldn’t eat at all.

“Had a slice of toast this morning” Joonmyun mutters, silently following behind him.

The day after all this mess had happened, Jongdae had gone straight to the café to see if Kyungsoo knew anything. From what he was told, Yixing was in just as bad of a state. Whilst Jongdae had forced Joonmyun to take time off of work, Kyungsoo couldn’t stop Yixing from throwing himself into his job, even taking on more shifts than he usually would just to forget everything that’s happened.

“I was talking to Sehun yesterday” Jongdae begins, nosing around in Joonmyun’s fridge, making a mental note to take him shopping some point today. “He told me that the barista guy who regularly visits, Minseok I think he’s called, he asked Yixing out the day before.”

Jongdae watches Joonmyun’s reaction. Though his face is masking any emotion he didn’t want to show, Jongdae sees his movements freeze, sees him hesitate before he carries on with whatever he was doing. “It was bound to happen, he’s had his eyes on Yixing for a while.”

Jongdae sighs and shakes his head. He’s been trying to get Joonmyun to go and talk to Yixing for days. Kyungsoo had been trying to do the same with Yixing, but both of them were too stubborn to do anything. Jongdae had to resort to telling Joonmyun about Yixing’s daily activities, hoping that it would stir something inside of Joonmyun.

“He said no, by the way. Apparently Minseok’s a pretty decent guy and took the rejection like a pro.”

“You’re telling me this because?”

“Because you need to go and talk to him” Jongdae states, anger slowly beginning to rise. “Sure, he walked out on you, but he was tired. All this time he had spent trying to get you to notice him and like him, all for Soojung to come back and drop the bombshell. Sure, you can fight against your parents, but he’s tired. If you really like Yixing as much as you told me the night you finally confessed to him, then you need to do something about it. Otherwise you’re gonna lose him forever.”

Silence fills the kitchen whilst Joonmyun plays with the cup in his hands. Jongdae watches him, waiting for him to say or do something.

“I’m gonna go have a shower. I really need one” Joonmyun eventually says, ignoring Jongdae’s sigh and shake of his head as he puts the cup down and walks down the hall towards the bathroom.

“Fine. Be that way” Jongdae mutters, starting to work on making Joonmyun something for lunch.

Cheers sound throughout the café as glasses filled with alcohol clink together. The café had closed early today, and it was also the one occasion where Kyungsoo had allowed Sehun to drink with the rest of the adults. It was an evening to celebrate; Sehun had absolutely smashed his exams and had comfortably gotten into university.

Yixing tries to be as happy as the others were for him, but he eventually stands alone by himself, staring at his phone. When Kyungsoo joins him, he sees the wallpaper on Yixing’s phone, the photo of him and Joonmyun from their first date together.

“How is he?” Yixing asks quietly.

“Not good, from what Jongdae’s told me” Kyungsoo sighs and Yixing says nothing more, only nodding his head. “You can still talk to him Yixing. He doesn’t hate you.”

Kyungsoo had tried this conversation with Yixing a few days before, and even then, it was an unsuccessful one.

“I think I might go back to China for a while” Yixing had replied instead of answering Kyungsoo’s questions.

“How long you gonna be there for?” Kyungsoo had asked whilst Yixing shrugged his shoulders.

“Dunno. When I went back for the wedding, it made me realise just how much I missed being in China. Maybe it’ll be nice to go back for a while, get to spend some proper time with my family.”

This conversation was going nowhere just like that previous conversation had done. Being unable to do nothing more than pat Yixing on the back, Kyungsoo leaves him to stare at his phone, interrupting Baekhyun and Jongin’s attempts to teach Sehun a couple of drinking games he could take away with him to university. It was so annoying at just how stubborn Joonmyun and Yixing were. Just watching both of them give up on each other like that. Their friends could only watch and hope that something would happen soon. 

I've already got the chapter names for the next two chapters sorted and, oh boy, is gonna go down! I'm so close to getting to the chapter that I have been waiting for! Not only has this chapter been 35+ chapters in the making, but also 3 years in the making... 3 years!! 

Until then!!