It's been a while since Seokmin can feel a waft of night time gripping tightly around his skin and the busy streets of Friday night with the animated chatters hanging over the air.

Friday night outings are usually done with Jaehyun and Taeil. However, Taeil buried himself in his house when holiday arrived a month ago and Seokmin is fine with that. Perhaps, he just wants to have the whole holiday for himself, while Jaehyun traveled out of town with his parents (though he had said that he didn't want to, that it would be so boring there in his grandmother's house. He'd rather stay here).

He's in the arcade, playing some basketball shooting game, beside him Wonwoo then Ten. Hands shooting upward, a light toss, a hard toss, wrists and hands twisting to create a perfect shooting stance. The alarm rings, signing that their time has come to an end as they had started all at the same time. 

Ten is the one whose lips is raised into a smirk now. Seokmin tries to not get his temper up over that boastful smile. He doesn't seem as much as an as he judged him to be.

You don't need to wonder why Ten smiles that way, because he just won. Ten just won over Wonwoo with 48 points, Seokmin with 52 points, having scored 65 points himself. For the third time. 

"Damn, how can you score that much?" Wonwoo gushes, while the three of them walks off to the shooting game section. 

"It's only the trick of your wrist. Not difficult to learn if you play this kind of thing everyday," Ten shrugs it away, lips raised slightly in a coy way aimlessly. "Always a close call it seems, Seokmin?" Now it's raised to Seokmin. He only rolls his eyes.

"Whatever rows your boat, Ten."

They get on the zombie shooting game, but it's available for two spots only.

"I'm sitting back on this one. Got my win three times in a row already," Ten blows and pops a bubblegum Seokmin hasn't realized to be chewed all this time inside his mouth. His hair still falls a little bit below his pierced ears and he remembers that he heard Soojung is planning in getting him to cut his hair. Seems like Ten is a school's delinquent, his actions and habits just speak out so much in a bigger volume than he probably thinks he doesn't. Or perhaps, he just doesn't try to hide himself. What a contrast to Soojung's upright attitude.

"Good to know that you realize that," Wonwoo points the gun to Ten, pulling the trigger and he only fingershoots his own head with a loony and cockeyed look, eyes crossed and lips grinning in a maddening way. Seokmin confirms that Soojung's cousin has a loose screw in his head. Or all screws slowly coming off of his head.

"Bam, dead already," he grins maniacally. This guy is starting to slip into Seokmin's good side so smoothly. Not that he minds, but it just kinda ticks him off that he had judged him that harsh.

Seokmin fishes out a plastic of silver gaming coins to see that it's lack of three coins. "We're running out of coins, guys," he dangles the plastic before him, only to see it get snatched. 

Obviously, by Ten. "Let me buy it for y'all. I want to exchange these tickets of mine for something. Bubblegums, anything," and off he goes. Both the childhood bestfriends are left to their own.

"He's a chaos, really. That cousin of Soojung," Seokmin shakes his head, bewildered and in disbelief at how different he is to his cousin. 

"Of course he is. He's also culturally different from us. More liberal and free, he seems to be," Wonwoo places the gun back to its place, then leans back his body to the gaming platform. They were told by Soojung that Ten is mixed when he wasn't around. She looked so worried talking about him.

"You are speaking some alien words I don't understand. Sounds too much like Soojung you turn out to be, Wonwoo."

"It's not bad to sound like Soojung. She no longer forces us to like the stars, right?" Wonwoo glances at Seokmin from his crossed arms to his t-shirt, leaning back to the platform right beside him. Seeing Wonwoo finally wearing something that doesn't have long sleeves, he can see how skinny Wonwoo actually has become. Compared to him who is quite built and fit, Wonwoo leans to the almost lanky side.

If he intends to pull on his skin, there would be some flesh he can pull on surely. Still, for being taller than Seokmin, he's supposed to have more flesh and fat.

"I'm not speaking about her in a bad way. Just that, back then, you seemed to boycott Soojung for her interests with Mingyu."

"It happened only a few times. Mingyu did it continuously though, I still can't understand why," Wonwoo replies casually, with no hint of aggression or denial. A more toned down Wonwoo is what Seokmin is facing right now. Normal.

When the name of their group was invented, Mingyu and Wonwoo were the ones who had their faces darkened and smashed by their loss in votes. They would often scoff and ignore Soojung whenever she mentioned the group's name. 

"What happened back then though?" 

Seokmin's head spins at the ambiguous question. "Back then what?"

Wonwoo gives him a knowing look, a you-know-what-I'm-talking-about look."You know what." 

Oh. That. "Damn, man. I'd need to spend the entire night to explain it. It's too long," Seokmin replies in all honesty. This, Seokmin thinks, can't be told over the sound of zombies eating and walking on the screen to them.

"Then summarise it, Seok-"

Seokmin shakes his head, interjecting his idea. "Summaries are for studies, Wonwoo. Stories about your real life friends can't be told in summaries. You won't be able to understand everything."

He purses his lips then fiddles with the rubber bracelet around his left wrist. "Well okay, what happened between you and Mingyu then, to be more specific?" Wonwoo is looking at him now, waiting for his answer. "I know that you were closer with Seungwan, but so were you and Mingyu."

Seokmin just brushes it off. "People drift away from each other, Wonwoo. Things like that happen. It's normal," he doesn't want to go into the specifics because it will be such a long story. Besides, he will see for himself when school starts; whatever things that make them stray away from each other. 

"I know," he nods, putting pressure on his voice. "But Mingyu hates groups in the first place. He doesn't like to be classified into certain cliques-"

"He used to. Now, it's another different story," he pushes himself off from the platform, ready to throw and shift the conversation away. Talking about something that can't be done anymore is pointless for him. It's better to talk about something in the future.

Past is a mere collection of moments that can never be touched from the present. Even if Mingyu is still present in his life, he is just a part of his past, a former close friend who stayed for a while.

Crossing his arms, it's his turn to ask him. "Now, it's my turn. What was that? What happened back there near the tree?"

Wonwoo puts on his unreadable expression again, blank like a piece of white paper. "Ten and Soojung happened, quarrelling like the cousins they are. In English, of course. I can't remember what they were talking a-"

Seokmin feels that it's a rash decision to ask this all of the sudden when he doesn't seem to be the type who scrutinizes details and intricate moments.

He's curious, though. If his best friend here indeed has something going on with his other best friend who is undeniably breathtaking in a haphazard and gruff way, he wants to be a part of that secret. 

Seokmin doesn't feel anything striking him when Seulgi patted his head back then and laughed with him like tomorrow was their last days on Earth.

However, he really thinks that Seulgi is pretty-wait, pretty is not the word since it's too soft for someone as bold and quite twisted like her. Yeah, breathtaking is the word. As in his breath was wrung out of his body for her proud and worldly smile, overflowing with intrigue and something dark.

There was something dark in the crevices of her eye sockets. Even though it adds to the reason why this friend of his is indeed breathtaking, he feels unsettled while reminiscing it. 

He slings an arm around Wonwoo. "Not that," then he nears closer and mumbles lowly to his right ear with a teasing smile. "Seulgi, I mean."

Wonwoo quickly jerks his head back, confusion drawn all over his face. Also irritation. Seokmin strangely doesn't see that. He should have, though. "What's with her?"

"I don't mean to sound creepy, but I saw you looking at Seulgi," now, Seokmin can feel Wonwoo tenses up under his arm. Bingo!

He recovers fastly and swiftly, though. But the irritation is still visible with his hardened eyes. "You look at Seungwan too, why can't I look at her?" Now, this question can be taken lightly or harshly. Seokmin chooses the easier one to get his answer. Seriously, it won't hurt anybody if Wonwoo is honest with him. He's a keeper of many secrets all throughout the years.

"I saw the way you were looking at her, okay? We're friends, Wonwoo. There is no need to hide it from me. Seulgi is my friend, too."

"Hide what?" Wonwoo is smoothing his eyebrows and the creases on his forehead now, relaxing them back into its place and massaging the high bridge of his nose. This is the sight of Wonwoo getting vexed and he is trying to hold himself down. 

"That you like her," at this, Seokmin expects him to interject or to blast and laugh it off, because that's what he would have done like in the past when Seokmin for always bothering and following Seulgi around to fight her. Fight for her attention.

He only exhales heavily, eyes to the floor then runs his hand to his hair, turning it into a storm again.

Wonwoo only sighs. What kind of answer is that? Seokmin is forming and joining theories in his head to form a conclusion but if he's not answering any further, it either means a yes or no or 'I don't know," or "I'm not sure."

Seokmin knows a thing or two about this because his friends (both boys and girls) consult a lot of their love problems.

"Wonwoo likes who?" Ten's voice bumps to his ears when he suddenly jumps in front of them, chewing and gnawing on another bubblegum. A new one as it's in the colour of blue, no longer purple. Ten holds a small pocketbook in the colour of pastel red on his left hand. 

Seokmin jumps a little from Wonwoo and he guffaws seeing his reaction. "You scared the life out of Seokmin, look at his face!" 

Seokmin has his hand over his chest and his eyeballs bulging out of its sockets. Ten snaps his fingers in front of his face and he snaps out of it, hands scratching his short black hair with a huge grin replacing his lips in its previous oval shape. Priceless, his reaction is too priceless. He would have laughed if he sees it himself in the mirror.

"And I like cheeseburgers. Now, where are the coins? What took you so long?"

He fishes out the plastic filled with lots of more coins from his pants, then sway and jingle it before him. "Cheeseburgers are things, not p-"

"Well, whatever. I like them,"  he snatches the plastic from his hand and start inserting it to the slot.

"You like red, Ten?" Seokmin asks, pointing to the pastel red pocketbook.

Ten looks down to his hand and raises it. "Oh this? It's for Soojung," Ten slaps it to his other palm, flipping through the empty pages randomly, looking at it. "She likes collecting these. Her room is all filled with these kind of pocketbooks. She runs out of this a lot since she writes everything that happens in daily life. We're not always on bad terms, you know. So giving her presents like this out if the blue is normal."

Soojung writes journals? Since when? Seokmin ponders about this while building up another question. He still remembers Soojung getting mad over him whenever he entered a tight spaced areas because of his asthma. That is enough evidence to show how close they were.

Perhaps, she has been writing those all along even since they were just mere elementary school kids. Journals are meant to be a private hobby, after all.

"Write what, Ten?"

"I wouldn't be here if I know. She doesn't let me into her room. I would have been strangled to death by her "

Seokmin now turns to Wonwoo, inserting another coin then he moves to his place back. There is also a process of him putting back his unreadable expression again. Something must be going on in his head. 

"If I get the highest score, you have to tell me your answer."

Wonwoo only smiles while shaking his head, taking the gun and preparing  his stance for the gameplay. "Just forget about that. It's been a while since we play together like this. Just enjoy the moment, okay?" he glances at Seokmin, and raises his hand for a fist bump. Fists bump, smiles on their face and they are ready to fight to their death in the gaming zone.

Ten is watching from Wonwoo's side, chewing and blowing his gum and feeling intrigued and amused by these two people. It reminds him of his old pals back in middle school. He kinda missed them.

"Things are not as simple as it seems. Nothing is as simple as it seems," Not everything about a boy looking and stealing seconds and breaths to look at a girl is as simple as a boy liking the said girl.

Only Wonwoo knows this reason. His voice is buried under his deep voice and the loud gunshots and and incomprehensible voices from half-eaten and grotesque-looking zombies.

Seokmin is already in the zone, as if he is inside the game itself, of some abandoned hospital with zombies of many variations keep jumping out of nowhere. He's more used to sudden jump scares in games rather than in real life. That's why Wonwoo still thinks that Seokmin is the best player out of the four of them, he has a consistent focus to things he set his eyes on.

Seokmin doesn't hear that voice of him buried under the loud stereo game soundtrack.

Ten does, even amongst the sound of guns being reloaded and bullets shooting off to the zombies and squelching sound of flesh being tattered and blood splattered across the whole area when Wonwoo or Seokmin s their last survival weapon to the zombie's body, a knife. 

He only hears though, not listen, whilst blowing his gum, bigger and bluer, colour more defined until it pops to his face. Again and again.