“Why do I feel so nervous?”
He laughs quietly to himself. These were his best friends, sure it’d been a few years since they’ve seen each other or spoke… but nonetheless he still considered them to be his best friends. He got to the diner earlier than they had agreed to meet and thought about how he should talk to them; what he should talk about, how he should go about clearing up any misunderstandings or miscommunication, or how he should even address the situation.

“It’s been a while. How’ve you been? No, no that’s too formal.”
He spoke softly to himself as he slid into a booth and tried to organize the thoughts swimming around in his head.

“Just be cool; there’s no reason to be nervous, you know them and they know you.”
He wipes his sweaty palms on his thighs and takes deep breaths as the clock ticks closer and closer to 1 o’clock.

True to their word, they showed up at exactly 1 o’clock. He immediately stands to greet them as they made their way over to his table.

“It’s been a while, thanks for meeting with me today.”
He mentally slapped himself at his formal tongue and held out his hand in hopes one of them would remember the intricate handshake they’d created back in high school. Sadly, it was only a painfully normal, regular handshake; it wasn’t even a firm one either.

“Yeah.”
They answered in unison. The atmosphere immediately became quiet and slightly awkward as the three of them looked at everything and everywhere except at each other.

“Soooo…”
Jackson was the first one to speak after ten minutes of tension filled silence.

“What’d you wanna talk about?”
Jackson looks at Jinyoung, at Mark, and then back to Jinyoung again before he nudges Mark - as if silently asking for help. In response, Mark runs his hand through his hair and clears his throat before speaking.

“Yeah, what’d you wanna talk about?”
Mark briefly looks up at Jinyoung before directing his gaze out the window again.

“It’s just… it’s been a long time guys, I miss my friends.”
Jinyoung confessed. It was nothing short of the truth; they’ve been together for as long as he could remember and the two of them subtracting themselves out of his life really upset him. He didn’t know what to feel or even how to feel; he just thought that whatever it was, they’d be back to normal in no time. Why would it have taken this long just for them to speak?

“…we were inseparable. Where did we even go wrong?”
Jinyoung’s confession left Mark and Jackson speechless for a few moments as they tried to let it sink in. It became quiet again, all their gazes not daring to meet with one another. There was so many unsaid feelings and now that they were given the chance, it seemed even harder for those feelings to come out.

“We let a girl get in the way of our friendship.”
Jackson spoke again as he focused his gaze on his coffee. No matter how much they would try and deny it, it wasn’t a lie. The affections of a girl got in the way of their friendship; they all wanted her attention and without knowing it, they entered a competition where something had to lose.Mark and Jinyoung sighed as if silently agreeing with Jackson.

“But why? I thought we were better than that? We weren’t going to be the friends who let that happen. You guys should have talked to me about it.” 
Jinyoung was even more at a loss for words because he knew the feelings his friends held for her, they all had feelings for her even from the start.

“It’s kind of hard to tell your best friend that you don’t want him to be happy with the girl that make him happy, but also that the girl that makes him happy is the girl who completes your very being.”
Mark spoke as he continued to look out the window. The sharpness of Mark’s tongue had silenced the entire conversation. Jinyoung knew that Mark garnered feelings for her but he didn’t know that they went as deep as they did. Jackson looked from Mark to Jinyoung and nodded in agreement. Knowing the way Mark felt about her didn’t settle well in Jinyoung’s stomach but he withheld it because he had already gotten this far. How could he have missed it? Considering Mark, Jinyoung and Jackson had been together since they were young, Jinyoung almost didn’t believe that he couldn’t see Mark’s obvious heart. As he thought about it more, the signs became more clear to him:

Mark and Y/N’s ‘study’ dates
Mark and Y/N ordering for each other
Mark and Y/N’s awfully touchy/teasing behavior
Mark and Y/N’s disgustingly cute nicknames for each other.
Mark always watching over her
Mark always making sure she’s okay
Mark always asking about her
Mark always talking about her
MARK BEING ALL ABOUT HER

“It’s true. You know… I’ve been with you guys for as long as I can remember and after Elena… I just wanted something solid, and she was so solid; she was solid and constant and everything I never had.”
Jinyoung looked to Jackson as he too thought back to how close Jackson and she was. And even though it made him uncomfortable to think about his friends having such intimate feelings for his fiance, it helped him to understand them. Jinyoung always envied how easy it was for Jackson even though he had a rough relationship with his first love. He thought about her and Jackson and again, was at a loss at how oblivious he was to her and Jackson:

Jackson and Y/N’s playful nature together
Jackson and Y/N’s obvious skinship
Jackson and Y/N always contacting each other
Jackson and Y/N holding hands
Jackson always calling her his girl
Jackson always wanting to take her out
Jackson always being extra cautious about the way he looks around her
Jackson always wanting to be next to her
JACKSON BEING ALL ABOUT HER

Jinyoung was silent as he thought about the obvious signs his friends presented, not to him specifically but whenever they were around her. What was it about her that had the three of them so smitten?

“I didn’t realize the feelings went that deep…”
He managed as he cleared his throat. Jinyoung was silent as he thought about the obvious signs his friends presented, not to him specifically but whenever they were around her. What was it about her that had the three of them so smitten? Was it because she was so easy to get along with? So easy to talk to? She made it so easy to like her that the three of them would have fallen to their knees just for her to look in their direction.

“I don’t blame you, no one could see the other’s feelings because they were so busy trying to deal with their own and making sure the other person didn’t beat them to it.” 
Mark finally looked up and Jinyoung as he spoke. Jinyoung held his gaze for a moment before looking back down at his hands. The three of them were in so deep back then that it was hard to swim out.

“I just wanted to win for once. Mark, you and Jackson have this aura that just draws people in. You get girls and you don’t even have to try. Imagine how I felt when you brought her around; it was so obvious that you liked her, and Jackson couldn’t shut up talking about her, and her love for simplicity practically had me falling, tripping and maybe even tumbling over obstacles for her. It was so easy.”
Mark and Jackson knew what he meant. They knew that of their trio, Jinyoung was more to himself, he was content with being by himself. And he wasn’t wrong about them being ‘chick magnets’, wherever they went the attention was always drawn to them. But Mark never thought that Jinyoung had those kinds of feelings; that he was inferior to him or Jackson in any way whatsoever.

“I didn’t know you felt that way about it.”
Jackson says as he folds his hands in front of him.

“…in fact, I felt that you were always better at understanding her and that alone made me feel like you were better than I was.”
Jinyoung looked at Jackson as if he couldn’t believe the words that had just come from his mouth. Not only that, but he felt extremely stupid that they didn’t even talk about this stuff.

“You were the problem solver of our trio, the most rational and that alone makes you that much more likable.” 
Mark spoke as he fumbled with the zipper on his sleeve.

“We should have had this talk so long ago, it’s so overdue that it isn’t even something to joke about anymore.”
Jinyoung laughed a little as he rubbed his temples.

“We’re guys… we don’t really talk to each other like that.”
Jackson says as he laughs along with Jinyoung. The laughter became contagious that even Mark chuckled a little beside them.

“I really missed this…”
Mark and Jackson nodded in agreement. It definitely should not have taken them this long to reach an understanding, for them to get rid of all the tension.

“…I really hope you two will come to my wedding still.”
Both Mark and Jackson’s expressions hardened at the mention of the wedding. Though it was a subject that was always known, it was still something that Jackson and Mark avoided all together. Instead of answering, Mark nodded and cleared his throat.

“Well, it was nice to talk. We should continue to talk so it’s not so weird between us anymore. I have some stuff to do so I’ll be leaving.”
They all stand and look at each other with half satisfied expressions.

“Yeah and I came with Mark so I’m gonna go too. It was nice Jinyoung, really.”
Jackson held out a hand and smirked at Jinyoung; he knew exactly what that smirk meant. As Jinyoung put his hand out, he and Jackson exchanged the intricate handshake they’d done millions of times in high school. Jinyoung held out his hand to Mark and Mark shook it firmly; not the same handshake, just a regular (but firm) handshake.

“We’ll be in touch.”
Mark smiles before they leave the diner. And though the comment about the wedding remained unanswered, Jinyoung felt satisfied with even being able to talk to them after so long.