It was late in the evening and Jonghyun had just gotten out of work. He was exhausted; he didn’t understand why people had to be so rude. He decided to work as a waiter, but only for the summer because he needs the extra cash, especially since all his college textbooks were not cheap. He was now currently standing in the cereal aisle about to duck down to get a box of Cap'n Crunch (coincidentally on sale today), when a little kid beats him to it. Jonghyun chuckles a bit and say, “cute” as he sees the little boy run with the cereal in his hands. As Jonghyun reaches for a box once again, he feels a light tap on his left arm. He sees the little boy he saw a few seconds ago and notices him staring, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he tries to speak. “Excuse me, can you help me find my daddy?” Before Jonghyun can even say yes, the little boy starts sobbing. Not wanting to catch attention, Jonghyun tries to calm the boy down. “Hey, it’s going to be alright.” He wipes the boy’s tears away and picks him up. “So uh-” Jonghyun then realizes he doesn’t know how the kid’s father looks like, let alone the kid’s name. “What’s your name?”

“Taemin.” He say in between sobs.

“Ah, what a pretty name, let’s go find your dad okay? Just let me know when you see him. Now don't cry anymore, I'm sure your dad wouldn't want to see you this way.” Taemin nods and they begin looking at what now feels like mostly empty aisles. He would be lying if he said this grocery store wasn't huge. Jonghyun could already feel the exahustion that would come along with finding Taemin's dad.

...

“I can’t believe I let him get cereal on his own, I should have just gone with him. He’s only 4. Oh my god, he’s only 4.” Jinki starts to mumble to himself rather loudly, gaining a strange look from the lady passing by.

“Daddy!” Taemin yells from across the 7^th aisle. As Taemin yells, Jonghyun freezes in his tracks. Jonghyun immediately recognizes the stranger’s face, it’s Jinki, and he’s approaching them rather too fast for his liking. Out of all days, why did it have to be today?

“Daddy I was lost!” Taemin’s voice starts to crack, but it was clear he was trying to hold back tears in front of his dad. “Oh Taeminnie, why did I leave you alone! I’m so sorry!” Jinki hugs Taemin so tight, making it seem like he is practically squeezing the boy to death. Jonghyun starts to turn and is about to leave, but feels a tug at his coat.

“Thank you!” Taemin smiles. Before he can walk away, he hears none other than the supposed stranger calling him.

“Jjong? Thank god you weren’t with a stranger Taemin.” Jinki sighs in relief, picking Taemin up into his arms.

“Ji-Jinki.” Jonghyun stutters, hating himself for it in the process. Jonghyun can’t believe who he is seeing standing in front of him. Lee Jinki, who was none other than Jonghyun’s crush in high school, but before he could confess, he found out Jinki had a girlfriend. He couldn’t believe it at the time considering that Jinki was one of the nerdiest kids in the whole school and didn’t know anyone paid attention to him in the first place besides him. He always liked Jinki because he was funny and kind. At first he thought they were hitting it off, but after Jinki got a girlfriend, their friendship just faded away.

“So... how are you?” Jinki asked, surprising Jonghyun and bringing him back to reality.

“I’m fine thank you for asking. I’m sorry, but I have to go. My break is almost over.” Jonghyun lies, trying to get out of the grocery store as fast as he possibly can. In reality, Jonghyun’s shift ended an hour ago.

“Ah- wait! I know this is sudden, but can I get your number? I would like to catch up with you again; we were friends once weren’t we? Let’s be friends again.” Jinki does his famous eye smile, the one Jonghyun hasn’t seen since high school and if he really still weren’t head over heels for Jinki again then he wouldn’t have given him his number.

Jonghyun leaves the store as quickly as he came in. He didn’t even buy anything, cursing under his breath as he heads home.

“Dammit, I can’t believe I still like that idiot.”

...

“Jonghyun, open up or I swear I’m going to bust this door open!” Jonghyun is still half asleep when he wakes up to Kibum yelling and banging on his door.

As soon as Jonghyun opens the door, Kibum comes in.

“Why didn’t you answer my calls? We were supposed to hang out after you got out of work or did you completely forget?” Kibum is Jonghyun’s best friend and he honestly doesn’t know why. He promised Kibum they would hangout and have dinner at Kibum’s home. Jonghyun would buy the ingrediants.

“I’m sorry” Jonghyun says, still half asleep.

“I’m sorry? Is that all you can say?!” Kibum laughs sarcastically. “I can’t believe you! I think you’d have the decency to call!” Kibum rants for another 30 minutes before he realizes that his best friend isn’t even paying attention to him. Instead, he is staring at his phone.

“Jonghyun.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay? This isn’t like you, normally you would at least have an excuse or something to say, but you won’t even look at me.”

“Kibum, I met Jinki yesterday at the grocery store.”

“What?”

“He has a son and he said he wanted to catch up with me again sometime.”

“That jerk, how can he say that even after what he did to you.”

“I thought I was over him, but I still like him. I’m such an idiot." Jonghyun laughs "Who still has a crush on someone they met in high school?” Jonghyun starts to cry and all Kibum does is hold him.

“I’m pathetic.”

“No you aren’t, so don’t say that. Just meet up with him. Who knows, maybe you can rebuild the friendship you once lost.”

Jonghyun smiles at Kibum, realizing exactly why he is his best friend.

“Now stop crying, you’re getting my shirt wet and I don’t feel like charging you.” On the other hand, forget what he said about having any friends.