"Where have you been?" Sungjoo busted through Yibo's door. The younger looked up from his homework, furrowing his brows at the other.

"What?" He asked, pulling his earbuds out. Sungjoo still had his backpack on and he was panting.

"Where." Sungjoo took a step forward, "Have." Another step, the door swung close behind him, "You." He was looming over Yibo now, but Yibo was still unfazed, not understanding why Sungjoo was acting like that, "Been?" He finished. Yibo stared into his eyes for a while longer, still trying to process everything.

Right before Sungjoo opened his mouth to scream the question, Yibo's thoughts clicked and a little noise came from the back of his throat. "I..." Sungjoo glared at him, analyzing his every move, daring him to lie, "I've had a lot of homework lately, I couldn't afford to wait  for you." He tried his best not to break eye contact.

"You've had so much homework that you didn't even have time to wait just a little bit?" Sungjoo asked he didn't seem mad anymore, good. These were the times Yibo appreciated the fact Sungjoo was so oblivious.

"Sungjoo, I've waited 30 minutes. You're 'little bit' is not the same as mine." He looked back down at his homework and tried to make sense of the words on paper.

"You don't hang out with us at lunch either," Sungjoo whined.

"I work in the library because I need a quiet place to work," Yibo said idly, writing something down as if it was the right answer, he'll erase it later. "It's not as if I'm leaving you alone, though," Yibo's eyes focused on the point of his pencil, "Yixuan is there right?" He heard the 'us' earlier.

"Well yeah... but" Yibo glanced up, "Yixuan thinks that you're not sitting with us anymore because you don't like him." Yibo's eyes dragged back down to the paper, Sungjoo was only concerned because of Yixuan.

"I don't hate Yixuan, you know how I am around new people." Yibo began writing again, trying to clear his mind of negative thoughts while Sungjoo was there, "Plus, I have a lot of homework to do, I told you already, why do you think I haven't been on League either?" He kept his voice monotone so Sungjoo wouldn't be able to assume anything.

"Can you hang out with us tomorrow?" Yibo looked up again to meet Sungjoo's eyes. He sighed and nodded.

"I'm not promising any conversation, though like I said, I have a lot of homework." He shooed Sungjoo off. He stood in his spot before leaving Yibo alone. Yibo made sure Sungjoo was out the door before he started counting with his fingers and reciting the days of the week backward.

It took Sungjoo a week, with help from Yixuan, to confront Yibo about not being there after school or at lunch. A week. Yibo blamed it off of the fact he never spoke, but Sungjoo would always talk to him. He felt a tight knot in his chest again. He kept thinking about the fact Yixuan had said something about him, and that's what made Sungjoo burst through his door.

If Yixuan hadn't told Sungjoo about his concern, would Sungjoo even notice before Yibo left for the dance academy? He gripped his blond locks and rested his forehead against his homework. It would be a little tougher the next two days.

He had promised Sungjoo he would sit with them. Yibo thought of just walking home with Sungjoo again but he remembered he had to pack to school and finish up some documents. Sitting at lunch wouldn't be too much of a problem, it was only 45 minutes long.

-

"I don't want you to be sitting here just because Sungjoo told you to. If you don't like me you can go back to the library and I'll tell Sungjoo that you weren't able to focus with all the noise around here." Yixuan assured with a worried expression. Yibo pulled his binder and pencil pouch and shot a small smile towards the other.

"I don't hate you Yixuan," Yibo pulled out his favorite mechanical pencil, "I've just been really busy with homework, which is why I'm doing it now." Yibo looked at the tip of the pencil while pushing the end, trying to get just the right amount of lead out.

"Sorry, just sometimes, you look a little..."

"y?" Yibo finished for him, Yixuan tried to deny it, saying that y was such a harsh word. Yibo laughed and flipped open his binder to his English section before pointing his pencil to Yixuan. "It's fine, I'm not offended. Don't worry about it." He stared at Yixuan until he nodded.

- Few minutes later -

"Why are you guys never talking when I come?" Sungjoo whined Yibo rolled his eyes, not even bothering to look up from his paper.

"Because you always take half the lunch time to get food." Yibo countered, looking between one paper and the other, copying down some of the text.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered you're awkward" Sungjoo shot back. Yibo fake laughed and concentrated on his homework.

"You guys are so mean to each other" Yixuan sighed and shook his head. Yibo waited for Sungjoo to answer.

"It's normal, we're always like this." Sungjoo let his hand connect with Yibo's back a few times in a patting gesture, Yibo tried to control the pencil movements, "Isn't that right Yibo?"

He nodded, still copying the sheet.

"C'mon Yibo, you can do your homework later, talk to us!" Sungjoo grabbed the younger's shoulder and shook him violently. When the earthquake stopped Yibo sighed and looked at Sungjoo.

"One, you know I don't like to talk much. Two, I really need to get this homework done because I'm busy after school so please, can I just work?" Yibo whined back. When the bell rang Yibo whined again and packed up all his stuff.

"I can't walk home with you today or Friday. I have to get a lot of stuff done after school since someone decided to distract me." He watched the pout make it's way to Sungjoo's face and forced himself not to smile. "You can hang out with me all you want after school tomorrow." Sungjoo leaped into the air and immediately turned to Yixuan.

"He can come with us right?" Sungjoo begged Yibo smiled at how excited Sungjoo seemed to be about hanging out with him. He looked a Yixuan and mouthed a small 'You don't have to' but Yixuan ignored it and nodded to Sungjoo.

"Yes! Yibo, you're coming with us after school tomorrow to the mall, okay? No backing out of this." Sungjoo threatened him with a finger. Yibo held his hands up in mock surrender before waving goodbye and heading off to math.

-

It became a usual thing, to walk home alone, and Yibo felt the small tightening in his chest again. He wondered what would have happened if Sungjoo hadn't come up to him the day he moved in. What would his life had been like if he was living beside Sungjoo this whole time but he never spoke to him. He knew that he most likely would have thought the other was attractive still, just never knowing his personality, much like a person you saw on a magazine cover. Would he still be feeling like this if he had never spoken to Sungjoo?

'You would have met him eventually,' he told himself, remembering that his mother and Sungjoo's were great friends. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to think of something else. He passed the dance studio already, it was too late to turn back to relieve some stress

Opening the door to his house, he greeted his mother, who already had boxes out for him to put his stuff. He knew she didn't want him to leave so early, but the flight was already booked and he wouldn't be able to handle another week after this. He hugged her tightly, grabbing the boxes when he let go. He smiled at her silently and she finally decided to ask him why he wanted to leave so early.

"I already told you, Mom, I'm just so excited to go" he smiled but knew she wasn't buying it.

"Yibo," she gave him a look and he sighed.

"Sungjoo..." He meant to continue but his voice wouldn't let him. He turned his back to walk up the stairs before he would be able to feel any worse.

"Yibo..." she called, making him stop halfway, he turned around to look at her with a blank expression. "At least, tell him you're leaving." She advised he nodded after a while, turning back around to pack some of his stuff.

-

"You wanted me... to hang out with you... while you guys were on a date..." He said as he got ready. Sungjoo brought his clothes over and took a shower in Yibo's bathroom, not wanting his mother to question his fancy getup.

"It's not exactly a date" Sungjoo drawled out, Yibo fixed his hair a little more before turning to face the other with a face exclaiming he didn't believe him. "We were just going to hang out," Sungjoo said, trying to put on his shoes.

"So... a date..." Yibo repeated again, despite the ache in his chest, it was still fun to tease Sungjoo. He quickly caught the flying shoe before it connected to his face. "That could have killed me you know" He stated before tossing it back to the owner. Sungjoo grumbled something along the lines of 'I wish it did' and managed to get the shoe on.

"I'm wounded." He held his hand to his chest before opening the door to go downstairs. "Mom, we're going to the mall now," He called out, listening for a reply.

"Okay!" He heard her yell from her room. "Be back before it gets dark! You still have school tomorrow!" She added after a while. Yibo immediately thought about the fact he didn't even need to go to school tomorrow, he was leaving early and all his teachers were notified about him leaving. He shrugged and opened the front door to wait for Sungjoo.

It was a nice day out, there were a few clouds in the sky and a slight breeze but nothing too cold, and the sky was a vibrant blue.

What a perfect day to third wheel on a date.

He checked his phone percentage just in case he needed it, as well as checking the time. When Sungjoo came through his door it was 3:20 and they had 40 minutes to get to the mall.

Sungjoo drove, Yibo hasn't gone anywhere with him by car in a while, of course, the only places he's been for the past months were within walking distance, so there was no real need for a car.

"I JUST WANT TO SCREAM~" Sungjoo sang from the top of his lungs while the music blasted, and for fun, Yibo turned the volume all the way down as Sungjoo sang the high note, every wrong tune noticeable to anyone listening. When Sungjoo realized what was happening Yibo started laughing uncontrollably. "HEY!" Sungjoo said, taking his hand off the wheel to slap Yibo's shoulder.

Yibo continued to laugh as Sungjoo got more frustrated. "I could kick you out of this car you know!" He threatened, Yibo finally managed to calm down enough to counter with a small, please.

"How rude! Do you not want to hang out with your best friend anymore?" He used the hand that slapped Yibo to cover his chest and heart area.

"Not when he's being annoyingly gushy with his crush no," Yibo stated immediately calming down and looking out the window, he didn't mean to bring up Yixuan.

"Once you get a crush, you'll understand," Sungjoo said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah okay." Yibo rolled his eyes again before turning the volume back up, hoping it would cut through the awkward silence that was sure to follow. Sungjoo just sang along with every song as if the whole conversation never happened.

"You're ruining it" Yibo whined as they pulled into the parking garage. Sungjoo, despite the static of the radio, still sang along to 'DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love' perfectly. When they parked, Yibo checked the time again. If Yixuan was the type to be there early so he wouldn't keep his company waiting, then he would most likely be there already. If he was punctual, he would get there in a matter of 20 minutes.

"You love my singing," Sungjoo said, shoving Yibo with his elbow slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say" Yibo shrugged, "Where do we go?" He asked he hadn't been to the mall in a while, he looked around at the shops and remembered why he didn't necessarily like the mall in the first place, there were too many people and everything was overpriced despite the 'SALE' signs.

"Yixuan wanted to meet up at..." Sungjoo unlocked his phone and checked his earlier messages, "the frozen yogurt place?" He read it again and confirmed it by repeating. "Yeah, the frozen yogurt place." Yibo nodded and waited for Sungjoo to take the lead.

The two made their way towards the escalators and Yibo tried to hold in his laugh when they circled around a few times and Sungjoo still didn't know where to go.

"Sungjoo, we passed it 3 times. It's over there" He said, pointing behind them. Sungjoo laughed nervously and shook his head.

"I knew that it's just..." He searched for an excuse, "I didn't see Yixuan in there yet so I was trying to kill time but since you're SO impatient," He grabbed Yibo's arm and began dragging him back towards the area Yibo pointed.

"Sungjoo we passed it again." Yibo said, pointing to the opening with the huge sign that read 'FROZEN YOGURT' Sungjoo stopped and slouched, letting go of Yibo's arm and dragging himself to the small store.

Yibo checked his phone for the time, they've been walking in circles for 10 minutes. When he looked up he found Yixuan standing there with a worried expression on his face. Sungjoo began to walk faster, taking Yibo with him.

"Why do you look so worried?" Sungjoo asked immediately, still holding onto Yibo's wrist.

"...Nothing, I was just thought I was late and you guys had gone off without me." Yixuan waved his hand and Yibo tore his wrist away from Sungjoo's grip.

"You're early 10 minutes, don't worry about it. Did you get here just now?" Yixuan nodded and Sungjoo seemed to relax. Yibo stayed quiet as the two began to talk about the class they shared together, he watched from behind them as they walked towards Sungjoo's favorite store.

Yibo looked around, the two went off somewhere but he didn't really care. He picked up a shirt and looked at the price when his wallet whimpered he sighed and set it back on the rack. He looked around, not expecting to find anyone he knew. Sungjoo was most likely in the part of the store that had pants on display, Yibo was never a pant person.

"Hey." A slightly familiar voice came towards Yibo's ears and he looked around a little shocked at who he found.

"Oh, Seungyoun right?" Yibo asked, pointing to the other. Yibo took his time to notice that the other was around the same height as him. He saw a number of clothes in the other's hands and he wondered how much money he had. "You're going to buy all of that?"

Seungyoun looked down at the numerous clothes and laughed nervously. "Sort of, my mom gave me money. She wanted me to buy as many clothes as I could before I go off to a dance academy. She doesn't want me to buy anything but food while I'm away."

"Dance academy?"

"Yeah, the plane that I'm on leaves tomorrow and I'm just doing some last minute shopping." Seungyoun shrugged, some of the clothes fell from his arm. He reached down to pick them up but more shirts ended up falling with them. Yibo laughed slightly and helped him pick everything up.

"I'm glad there's one person I know that's going," Yibo said more to himself but Seungyoun took the chance to continue the conversation.

"Thanks, and you're going too? That's great! I'm sure you'll be the best one out of everyone that's going." Yibo smiled but shook his head.

"I haven't seen you dance yet." He thought back to the time Seungyoun took his phone and moved to the beat, "Well, not really. I bet you're really good too if you're going to the academy."

"Nothing compared to you, you'll see when we attend the academy." He smiled and struggled a little more to keep the clothes on his arms. "I'm gonna go pay for these before they fall again. It was nice seeing you. We should meet up at the airport if you're leaving tomorrow." He tried to put the clothes on one arm as he reached for his phone. Yibo held some of the clothes  and Seungyoun successfully brought out the cellular device.

When Yibo gave Seungyoun his number Seungyoun sent a message spelling his name. He got the clothes back from Yibo and walked towards the counter. Yibo checked his phone and sure enough, a message from an unknown number read 'Seungyoun'.

Yibo put his phone back in his pocket, he could talk to Seungyoun later, now he had to go find Sungjoo and Yixuan.

-

"Did you have fun yesterday?" Yixuan asked from across the table. Sungjoo was quick today and was able to sit down before Yibo could get a word out.

"Yeah, I got some new clothes," Yibo smiled to set Yixuan's heart at ease. He knew the other was worried he felt left out, and honestly, he did, but he couldn't let Yixuan know that. The other was too caring for his own good.

"That's good."

"What were you guys doing? You disappeared for a good 30 minutes."

"We were watching you talk to that one guy," Sungjoo said bluntly. Yibo had to think about what guy Sungjoo was talking about but he remembered Seungyoun.

', I didn't text him back yet.' Yibo looked at his phone, there was a few more messages from the unknown number but it didn't seem like the other was mad.

"Oh," Yibo nodded, he saw the message asking for his name and realized that he never did give out that piece of information.

"So who was he? Do you finally have a crush? Is my lifelong friend finally succumbing to the world that is normality and receiving the deadly poison of hormones?"

"Sungjoo what are you even talking about?" Yixuan asked before Yibo could. Yibo let out a little snort before shaking his head. 

"No, I saw him occasionally and we ended up talking because he dropped the clothes he wanted to buy."

"You guys were talking before the clothes fell, I remember that" Sungjoo tried to corner Yibo but the blond just rolled his eyes explaining that it was just some small talk.

"You're going to die alone," Sungjoo stated, eating his food in disappointment.

"Yeah, well." Yibo shrugged. Yixuan was being unnaturally quiet and Yibo looked at him in an attempt to get him talking.

"Nothing," Yixuan saw Sungjoo's raised brow, "Just, sometimes I like to observe too." Yixuan put his hands up in surrender. Yibo nodded in understanding but Sungjoo complained.

"Yibo your boring-ness is infecting Yixuan."

"Boring-ness isn't a word, nor is it a disease, I can't infect anyone."

"Sure it is! I almost caught it myself. It was last winter." Sungjoo laughed and stuck more food in his mouth. Yixuan chuckled and Yibo smiled slightly.

Yibo felt a vibration in his pocket and remembered Seungyoun again. He walked toward the bathroom so he could answer without Sungjoo accusing him.

Yixuan followed suit, he had something to say to Yibo.

"Are you leaving today too?" Yixuan asked quietly, Yibo looked around, making sure there was no one around.

"What?" Yibo played innocent but Yixuan smiled sympathetically.

"I can read lips Yibo when you were talking to Seungyoun, you said you were going to the dance academy too, are you leaving today?"

Yibo held his tongue for a long time. He wasn't expecting Yixuan to figure out. Slowly, he nodded his head.

"I think you should tell Sungjoo," Yixuan stated. Yibo shook his head, still silent. "Why don't you want to?"

"Because it's easier when Sungjoo isn't begging me to stay." He shrugged. Yixuan looked at him, hard, and Yibo sighed.

"Okay, I have a note." Yibo pulled the folded paper out of his pocket and gave it to Yixuan. "Give it to him after I leave okay?"

"Yibo-" The bell rang and Yixuan didn't get to finish his sentence.

"I'm serious Yixuan after I leave. I'm leaving now in fact. Be nice to Sungjoo for me okay?" Yibo smiled before walking out of the bathroom towards the table where Sungjoo was throwing away his lunch.

"What took you guys so long in there? Were you both having a conversation while taking a dump?" Sungjoo teased. Yibo laughed but looked at Yixuan pleadingly.

"Yeah," Yixuan went along and Yibo genuinely smiled.

"Oh Yibo, I'll be able to walk home with you today! Yixuan's coming with too!" Sungjoo grinned and Yibo smiled softly.

"I'm doing something after school remember?"

'I'm going on a plane.' He saw Sungjoo's face fall.

"I'm leaving right now." He picked up his bag and waved as he walked backward. "Maybe next time Sungjoo" Yibo smiled one last time before turning around and heading toward the office.

No hug.

No goodbye.

No nothing

​