All in all, Jongkook thought he had handled everything pretty well after Gwangsoo’s rejection. Sure, it still hurt on a regular basis when he had to remind himself that yes, he was in love with his best friend, and no there wouldn’t ever become anything of it because they were simply just friends and the feelings would eventually fade. At least he hoped.

It was hard, but it had become a mantra he told himself every day as he stared at his reflection in the mirror while he brushed his teeth.

And it helped.

It helped him handle the closeness of the younger’s body and the heat of it, even if it would plague his dreams at night. It helped keep his mind out of the gutter while they wrestled during name tag ripping or when Gwangsoo’s shirt sometimes rode up a little too far when he reached for something, even if he would need a cold shower every time he thought of it in private. And it helped him keep sane every time they spoke, or the younger laughed, or hugged him, or stared at him, or just breathed near him.

It was all completely fine. It would continue helping him until it didn’t need to help him any longer. He just hoped it wouldn’t take too much time.

Then something changed one week ago.

Jongkook had no idea what had happened but Gwangsoo just suddenly went into a little shell. No one, not even his family it seemed, knew what to do and Jongkook worried someone had hurt the younger… worried he had hurt the younger by slipping up in his strict self control.

He worried even more when Gwangsoo suddenly exploded on his VJ. And then he became downright terrified when the other didn’t show up to film the opening and continued to be absent for an hour into recording.

Instead of letting anything show, however, he put his agitated energy into today’s mission while he kept a watchful eye out for a tall, gangly figure hiding somewhere… which meant he was not concentrated on doing his job properly at all.

But he wasn’t a celebrity for nothing. He knew how to act like he knew what he was doing when he didn’t at all.

“Oppa!”

It took Jongkook a moment to remember he might be the one being called, and turned around to come face to face with none other than Jihyo.

“What?” he asked.

She gave him a long look, which he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret, before she huffed and threw her hands in the air.

“Just stop thinking so much and start concentrating,” she scolded and Jongkook raised his eyebrows incredulously. “Gwangsoo’s back and he’s fine for now.”

His heart stuttered to a halt but before he had the chance to ask her how much she knew (had Gwangsoo told her?) she her heel and marched away. He stared after her in shock, nailed to his spot. Did that mean it had actually been his fault the younger had been so distraught the past week?

But why?

Jongkook had really put an effort into not showing how much he actually did love Gwangsoo. He thought he’d done quite well.

Maybe he had actually slipped up? And now Gwangsoo was afraid of and disgusted with him. That could be the reason he hadn’t picked up even once when Jongkook had called the past week.

But he hadn’t picked up when anyone called.

It just wasn’t making any sense.

Jongkook frowned as he crossed his arms, for a moment completely forgetting he was supposed to be on a mission while he stared at the floor, thinking hard. Although, every line of thought he followed ended up where he started, which was that it didn’t make sense whatsoever. Unless, Gwangsoo had suddenly woken up one day and decided to be reclusive and alone, he really didn’t know what was going on.

“Ah, Jongkook!”

Jongkook’s head snapped up and he watched Jaesuk jog up to him.

“What?” he asked, a lot harsher than he intended.

The other merely raised his eyebrows, then glanced at their VJs. Jongkook frowned at him.

“I found something on the second floor,” he said and Jongkook’s frown deepened. “Let’s team up and share it.”

Jongkook opened his mouth to ask what the hell the older was going on about, they never teamed up. It just wasn’t their image. Or maybe he was just trying to get him out by bringing him into a trap?

At Jaesuk’s pointed look, however, he shut it again and nodded tersely.

“Yeah,” he answered, getting a feeling it had to do with Gwangsoo by the expression on Jaesuk’s face. Did everyone suddenly know? “Sure.”

He followed the older as he led the way to the elevators, still not any closer to a solution as to what was happening.

“Gwangsoo has been crying quite badly,” Jaesuk said under his breath as he covered his microphone with his hand discretely. “I think you should talk to him.”

Jongkook stared at him.

“What?” he said dumbly. He was asking that a lot today. Maybe he should read more books, expand his vocabulary.

Jaesuk gave him an annoyed eye cast, which clearly said ‘are-you-deaf?’ before entering the elevator and Jongkook decided he should just follow the older without questioning since he couldn’t make sense of it anyway.

As it turned out, the thing Jaesuk had found was actually Gwangsoo walking around listlessly and not even pretending to search for clues. His VJ still hadn’t found him so he wasn’t putting up a façade, which made it easier for Jongkook to see how exhausted he was. There were dark bags underneath his bloodshot eyes, which were puffy as well, and his posture was hunched in on itself, as if there was a great weight on his shoulders.

Jongkook threw Jaesuk a questioning look, but the other simply shrugged. Then he lunged at him as if he was trying to rip his nametag off. His hand stayed flat on Jongkook’s back, though, so the maneuver Jongkook prepared in order to throw him off stopped midway and they were stuck in an awkward half wrestle.

“He went back to the fire escape,” Jaesuk said in his ear. “Go to him, I’ll distract you VJ.”

Jongkook pushed him off to give him another confused look and Jaesuk heaved a suffering sigh before pushing him quite hard in the chest, forcing him to take two steps back.

“Go!” he hissed.

Jongkook didn’t even think as he turned around and ran towards the door leading to the fire escape, still more confused than anything.

Hey everyone! I don't have anything to say about this really but I hope you liked it! It was a bit short, and I'm sorry for that, but yeah... I won't stuff chapters with unnecessary things just to make them longer, so I hope you understand :/

See you in the next chapter!