~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~

It was the first day of school. Wonwoo walked into his new classroom. He was in his first year of elementary school back then, and he was so anxious. Although Namjoon already told him that elementary school days were really fun because you could make friends and have fun playing around with them, he's still nervous. He's an introvert person who was super afraid talking to people. 

In class, everyone was talking to each other happily and even singing songs merrily, while Wonwoo was sitting at his seat by the corner, reading a storybook while having his lunch prepared by his family maid. He didn't like the noise but chose to ignore the noise because he couldn't dare to. He was just too timid to talk to the others. Meanwhile, the other children were busily having fun till they did not notice there's a boy quietly sitting in the corner. 

Till someone appeared in front of Wonwoo.

"Hey, that lunch box looks nice," said that boy.

Wonwoo's busily munching a meatball, and when he looked up he's shocked to see someone looking at him -- and even talking to him. He had never been talking to anyone in school (excluding teachers), and he didn't know how to react.

"I'm hungry, let's have lunch together," that boy continued and rummaged in his bag to find his lunch box. Unfortunately, he couldn't find it.

"I guess I didn't bring my lunch," that boy scratched his head and said. "What should I do?" The boy started being nervous.

At this moment, Wonwoo moved his lunch box towards the boy in front of him. 

"What?" the boy asked.

Wonwoo looked at the lunch box and then the boy again. Then he pointed at the lunch box. "Have some..." he said.

"Really?" the boy said. "Thank you," he said before taking a meatball. 

"Hey! It's delicious!" that boy exclaimed in delight.

Wonwoo just gave him another meatball. "Have some more."

"Can I really have it?" that boy asked. Wonwoo just nodded. Then he took the meatball from Wonwoo and shoved it into his mouth. "Thank you so much!!!"

Wonwoo only nodded again, but this time with a smile. Then there's silence for a moment.

"My name is Mingyu," the boy said and held up his hand towards Wonwoo. "Nice to meet you."

"I'm Wonwoo," Wonwoo replied while shaking hands with Mingyu in front of him.

"Let's be friends!" said Mingyu. 

Wonwoo stayed still for a while, probably (most probably) being overly shocked to have a new friend just like that. Then he nodded real hard.

From that day, the two of them were always being with each other every recess. Most of the time Mingyu's the person talking and Wonwoo's the listener. They also exchanged food during lunch. That's when Wonwoo knew that Mingyu's mother owned a fried chicken stall, which was why Mingyu always brought fried chicken to school. Lucky Wonwoo always got to have a piece and he couldn't deny that the taste was awesome.

Slowly, Wonwoo became more open to Mingyu, and Mingyu was his only friend at that moment. Of course, he talked to the other children, but Mingyu's definitely having an irreplaceable status in his social life.

===

"Hey!" said Mingyu. "What are you thinking over there?" 

Wonwoo was blankly looking at the cream wall of their kitchen. So it's been the twelfth year since we've been best friends. After hearing Mingyu's call, he looked at the tall guy beside him, adding some last flavour to the pot of kimchi ramyun.

"Chan! Time to eat!" called Mingyu loudly in the kitchen.

After five minutes, a sleepy Chan came out from his room. He had fallen asleep while completing his Biology assignment. 

"Did you finish your work?" said Wonwoo, holding a plate of fried chicken. 

"I know I didn't! Perhaps I'm too tired these days."

"Then sleep early tonight," replied Wonwoo with a smirk.

"No! Not going to!" 

"End the argument. Dinner's ready!" said Mingyu while bringing out the pot of ramyun.

Dino was clapping his hands like a seal while looking at that pot of ramyun. But then he realised something was missing. After thinking for a long time, he went to the fridge and took some cheese slices. Then he added those cheese slices into the pot of ramyun.

"You won't mind, right?" said Dino while looking at Wonwoo and Mingyu.

"Not at all," said both of them.

After dinner, Wonwoo went into his room to clean up for his weekly guest. Mingyu's going to sleep on the upper bunk in his room that night, so he had to make sure everything is in good condition. Then he went out to watch TV with the others. Forget about the Physics assignment he's going to have in a few days, it's time for a break. 

"Namjoon hyung is coming back late tonight. He has to replace someone's shift. He told us he won't be having dinner," said Chan to Wonwoo.

Wonwoo sighed. It's been almost eternity since the three of them had dinner together at home on Saturdays.

Music Core ended in 90 minutes, and they decided to play mobile games after that. Mingyu and Wonwoo connected to Chan's Minecraft PE server where they had a mansion built inside. "So where did we stop last week?" asked Wonwoo.

"Oh! The enchanted table! I'll find some lava down in the cave," said Mingyu. 

"I'll come with you to mine nearby, and hunt some animals," said Chan. "Wonwoo hyung should better keep the whole mansion safe!"

"Alright, it's not like I'll blow up the whole mansion anyway."

"You better not. I'll kill you if that happens," said Mingyu.

"I'll just farm crops and walk around."

Then off went Mingyu and Chan (in the game) to a cave located quite far away from their mansion. Meanwhile, Wonwoo remained within a radius of 30 blocks from the mansion, just to make sure he would not be lost or killed by some zombies. He had to admit having nothing to do while playing was quite torturing. All he could do was feeding animals and farming crops, but their chests were already plenty of food supply. Maybe he should go somewhere further to get more wood and maybe some flowers? Wonwoo could have gone with the others to hunt or mine, but he when it comes to self-protection. While being attacked by a zombie or a spider, he couldn't have enough time to react and then he's killed. Mingyu and Chan preferred not to bring Wonwoo along when they're going far away because they don't want to always keep an eye on Wonwoo. Besides, Wonwoo can craft blocks and equipment in the mansion. 

"Guys, it's night time (in the game) already," said Wonwoo. "When are you guys done?"

"Don't know, we've found a lot of orbs now. They're everywhere!" said Mingyu.

"No, Wonwoo hyung, don't ever come out of the mansion. Just stay put!" Chan added.

Wonwoo heard from his friends that the latest Minecraft update for Pocket edition includes the function to write a book in Minecraft. He anticipated for this since a long time ago because this function could definitely kill his boredom while he was playing and waiting for the others to come back to the mansion.

"Mingyu hyung! Where are you??? There's a zombie pigman (more powerful than a zombie) here! And he's attacking me (in the game) like he's crazy!! "

"Coming ahead!" Mingyu said. Five seconds later he was also attacked by a cave spider.

"Damn why are there so many creatures here?"

Chan just managed to kill the zombie pigman with a little health left. Then he went to rescue Mingyu in the game. On the way, he ate golden apples (In the game, still) to heal himself faster. "Wonwoo hyung is there any gold stored?" asked Chan.

"Yes, need more golden apples?"

"Yeah, can you craft some more?"

Then Wonwoo went out of their mansion to cut some trees and collect apples from the tree while Mingyu and Chan continued fighting over a sudden wave of skeletons. They had to exit the cave fast and go back to their safe mansion.

After collecting enough apples, Wonwoo went back to the mansion. That's when he found a creeper at the entrance of their mansion. Without thinking much, Wonwoo tapped on the creeper to attack it.

Unfortunately, Wonwoo was attacking it while holding an axe. "Crap," he said.

Before Wonwoo could even attack the creeper once more the creeper had blown up, causing the front of the mansion to be destroyed. The place where Wonwoo planted crops also became a mess. "Damn, Mingyu will kill me!"

"What? What happened?" Mingyu said while his avatar and Chan's walked nearer to their mansion. Then they saw Wonwoo's avatar next to water flowing everywhere. 

"I'm sorry," said Wonwoo.

"Damn! A creeper did that?" asked Chan.

"I forgot to change to the sword before killing it so..." before Wonwoo could even explain himself Mingyu's avatar killed Wonwoo's with his sword.

"What? Mingyu???" exclaimed Wonwoo. Then Wonwoo respawned his avatar and it was alive in the mansion again. Mingyu was fixing the walls of their mansion. When Wonwoo's avatar walked nearer to Mingyu's, the latter killed Wonwoo's avatar again ruthlessly.

"Wait Mingyu I'm really sorry for this..."

"Accept the punishment for not taking good care of our mansion, you peasant!" said Mingyu.

"Someone's having a killing streak like how he killed those dumb skeletons in the cave~" Chan added.

Wonwoo's avatar was respawned and killed again, by Mingyu.

A moment later Wonwoo left the server. Mingyu did not care much until he noticed something was wrong. Wonwoo was not returning to the game even after Mingyu and Chan fixed the whole mansion and replanted the crops.

"Wonwoo hyung, are you really furious about how Mingyu hyung treated you just now?" asked Chan.

Wonwoo didn't give any reply, causing Mingyu to worry also.

"Aww... We need our lovely Wonwoo here~"

"Nah, I'll just blow up your mansion and get killed there," replied Wonwoo coldly.

Mingyu tapped on Wonwoo's shoulder a few times but Wonwoo didn't even react.

Not much later Wonwoo (in real life) felt a head's weight on his lap. He looked down and found that it's Mingyu lying down on the couch with his head on his lap.

"You're still mad, aren't you?"

Wonwoo continued looking at his phone while tapping on the keyboard of his phone, without giving Mingyu a reply.

"Yah!" called Mingyu. "So you're mad?"

Looking at this scene, Chan returned to his home screen of his phone without exiting the game and his camera function.

"No," said Wonwoo.

"But you look like you are."

Wonwoo stared at Mingyu for a while. Then he returned looking at his phone.

"The classmates are spamming my Messenger asking for solutions to their Maths questions so I'm replying them. You really think I'm mad?"

"Yes."

"Well then yes I am." 

"Yah!" said Mingyu while giving a deadly stare at Wonwoo.

"Just kidding," said Wonwoo, eyes glued to the screen.

There was a dead silence after that. Mingyu's head was still on Wonwoo's lap.

"Wait," said Wonwoo. "Something's peculiar." He looked towards Chan just to see Chan giggling while holding up his phone.

"Sh-!!!" Chan, what have you been doing?" said Wonwoo. Mingyu sat upright and then looked at Chan.

"Nothing," Chan was holding his laugh.

Just then, Wonwoo received a notification from his Messenger group chat with Mingyu and their gang of friends.

Then they saw a video posted in the group chat.

"Damn!" said Wonwoo. "LEE CHAN WHAT WAS YOU DOING JUST NOW?"

"Well... I was just recording a short clip and then I sent it to Minghao..." 

"Junhui just posted that?!" asked Mingyu while looking at the video on loop.

"What?!" exclaimed Chan.

"Well, I did not expect that to happen... Maybe Minghao sent that to Junhui..." he added.

"Now look what you've done! He sent the clip to the whole gang!" said Wonwoo.

"Hyung!!!!!! I'm terribly sorry!!!!!!!!!! Please forgive me!!!!!!!"

"Not going to, currently," said Wonwoo.

Meanwhile, the whole group chatroom is full of new messages. *The chat log below is on Wonwoo's phone*

Wonwoo closed the chat window. He didn't think he could continue looking at the conversation. He couldn't help but wonder why did he have such extra friends?

===

Namjoon finally had time to do some stretching after serving so many customers in a row. Customers nowadays were really picky and they might bicker whenever the staff members can't satisfy their requirements. Just then, his phone rang. He took a look at the text sent to his phone. The new guy Jackson sent him a text to inform him that he was having serious flu and would not be coming to work. He asked Namjoon if he would replace his shift for the day. Namjoon as the helpful person he is accepted Jackson's request without a second thought. 

No worries! I'll cover up.

Thank you so much, Namjoon! 

I'll treat you a meal when I recover.

No need to do that!

Get well soon.

XD.

Namjoon was proud of himself for a moment for being so helpful. But then he realised that he promised his younger brothers that he would have dinner with them. Never did he know that Wonwoo's actually waiting for a time so that they could talk about something important. Anyway, it's been a long time since the three of them sat together and had a meal last time. He could guess that Chan was going to be really disappointed because they made a promise.

He decided to call Chan and apologise for that. 

"Hyuuuuung!! Why are you calling?" asked the clingy boy on the line.

"Chan, I'm so sorry. I have to replace my colleague's shift and I think I could not..."

"Come back for dinner?"

"Yeah. I'm really sorry for that, We promised right?"

"It's okay, hyung. There is always next time." Surprisingly Chan did not sound disappointed as Namjoon predicted. He really grew up, didn't he?

"Then... I'll buy you something for supper?"

"I'm not sure for Wonwoo hyung but I want ice-cream!"

I'll take back what I said. When would Chan stop craving for desserts?

At the end, Namjoon decided to focus on his work first while thinking about what to do for Wonwoo.

===

It was half past eleven at night. Namjoon was still nowhere seen in the house. Knowing that it was late, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Chan got ready for bedtime. After cleaning up himself, Mingy u took his clothes from a corner in Wonwoo's wardrobe (there's always a tee or two because Mingyu was too lazy to bring any of his clothes every time - even his underwear) and changed into them.

Lights were then turned off, but Wonwoo and Mingyu weren't off to their dreams yet.

"Gyu," said Wonwoo with a slightly deep voice, "time to talk."

"Alright, what problems do you have over there?"

"No, we're talking about YOUR problems today." Wonwoo sensed that his friend was looking quite down throughout the day, and it's even worse just now, and he's sure what's wrong.

"Me?" Mingyu's acting. "What's wrong with me?"

"Dude. Everyone knows. You can hide from others but stop hiding everything behind me."

"Fine," Mingyu pouted, adjusting his position on the upper bed of the bunk bed. He's now facing the pillow.

Wonwoo blankly looked at the Window, waiting for Mingyu's reply.

"Still thinking about her?" Wonwoo asked.

Upon hearing the word, Mingyu went deep into his thoughts again.

~~~FLASHBACK~~~

Mingyu was sixteen when he had the most dreadful day in his life. School already ended but he's still staying to solve some issues.

"But I don't know, I don't know what's the next step to take. I don't know how should we continue this."

"Why? We've always been sure about our direction in the future! Why are you suddenly so unsure?"

"I just don't know. I love you, and please trust me fully for that."

"Yea I trust that, and I love you more than you can ever imagine."

"I know!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just feel like..." Mingyu can't even describe the expression of the girl in front of him. "we should stop here."

"But how can I agree to that if I don't even KNOW what's happening now?"

"Look, Mingyu," said the girl, "now, we should just focus on how to develop ourselves to become a better person."

"So from what aspects am I not satisfying you?"

"No, Mingyu, it's not your problem. It's not anyone's problem among the two of us. I just feel like although we look like we are ready for everything, we are NOT AT ALL."

"As long as we trust each other what can we not do?" 

"You'll never know. What if, in the future, something happened between our relationship? Something big, and you can't even imagine that it's happening. What will you do?"

Mingyu was silent by now. The girl was right. Maybe, he's still unable to handle lots of stuff. 

"It doesn't mean you are not a good boyfriend. It's just that..." the girl continued, "can we wait until we're really ready for this?"

"Why? Why wait when we can learn through the progress together? You know, you said that it's okay if we don't know anything at first!"

"I admit that. But I realised now that at this stage, we can't just always stick to each other and fill our lives with each other! We have lots of other stuff to focus. We have to study, to pursue our dreams, to make our ambitions come true, and lots more!"

"So now you're sick of me always by your side?"

"No! I'd love that! But we have more things in life other than this relationship! We have other social groups. We have other tasks. And when we grow up and have a career, we'll face the cruel reality of life. I can't always be the centre of your life. And vice versa."

"Am I that not reliable in your opinion?"

"No!"

"Then what did I do to make you ever feel so?"

"You did NOTHING! It's not your FAULT! Why can't you understand what I'm trying to say? We're good now but we can be better!"

"Then why can't we continue in this state? What's wrong? We can fix it!"

"I said NOTHING'S WRONG!" the girl shouted out as loud as she could.

They stared at each other for a long time without mentioning a word.

"I don't know. I have to go now. Please cool down yourself and understand."

The girl grabbed her bag and went out of the classroom.

"So are we really breaking up like this?" asked Mingyu when she was about to leave."

"Yes," the girl said and Mingyu's heart sank. "Sorry if my reply hurts, but I hope that we can wait for each other. Goodbye." Then she left without turning back.

"Then, good luck to you, Dong- no, Hyejeong."

There's no reply heard. Mingyu stayed in the classroom for a long time, recalling what happened just now.

He didn't know anything. Why had this happened? Why would his girlfriend want to break up with him when everything's alright apparently? Why did his (so-called) unconditional love towards her would result in this?

===

Mingyu was sitting at the opposite end of Wonwoo's bed, looking at him.

"I don't understand. It's been a year or two but why haven't I gotten over her?" he asked

"Perhaps you just didn't have a conclusion and that's why you can't end this," Wonwoo said. He couldn't see Mingyu's expression clearly at the moment. He could hardly see anything around because there was only a ray of dim moonlight entering the room.

"Seeing her going well with other guys really makes my heart aches, dude," said Mingyu, "I know this ain't right. Everything ended so I shouldn't care too much about what she's doing and whom she's with. I should be happy for her if she's good now, but why am I feeling bitter? Or was I jealous? Or was I regretting?"

Wonwoo didn't know how to reply for a moment. He just stared blankly at wherever he could.

"What should I do? I thought I'm okay but..." 

"Now I realised after such a long time I'm still not okay."

"And you thought you won't miss her but at the end, you're still totally missing her," Wonwoo added.

Mingyu nodded.

Wonwoo totally understood how Mingyu's feeling now. He himself had the experience except it wasn't a girlfriend. "Do you hate her for that?"

"Well, I did when that happened at first, but... I tried to understand her. She wasn't supposed to be blamed. In fact, she was true."

"Then..." Wonwoo realised that words might not help a lot so he went forward and gave Mingyu a hug. "Awww, our Mingyu really went through a lot..." he said.

"LOL it's not that bad," said Mingyu.

"But still, I feel sorry because I couldn't help much for that and you have to always suffer through this yourself..."

"It's alright! As long as you're always there for me."

"But," Wonwoo said, "you should really live happily and tell her that you are living well too!"

"Yeah, I know,"

"Stay active in your SNS, so that she knows you're doing well."

"We're classmates, dude," Mingyu said, "and also friends."

"Ah, good. Then let it be." True. In fact, they always diss each other at classes. 

So maybe Mingyu was faking out everything just to not make everyone else worry about him? Wonwoo thought. They always act so naturally in class while they're interacting.

Wonwoo also hoped that they're still together - or they'll be together again in the future. He knew Mingyu really cared for the other when they were together.

"It's late now. Go sleep. I'm going." said Mingyu in an elderly tone.

"Oh yeah I will," Wonwoo said, "but promise me to stop hiding every hardship of yours all by yourself. I'm your best friend - I mean, the whole gang is so open up if you think you want to find someone to talk."

"Yes sir!" said Mingyu now at the upper bed.

"Nights, Gyu."

"Goodnight! Don't have bad dreams!" 

I hope I could. Wonwoo thought.

======================

Updated A/N

After a hell long month, I'm FINALLY BACK!!!! EXAMS ARE OVER SO I'm FINALLY FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a lot in my mind about my fic but also lots of other stuff I'm doing recently. Anyway: Thanks for waiting so patiently. I know I'm not a very good author so... updates are so frickin' slow.

So here's the completed Chapter 8~ Hope you guys enjoyed :) Also do comment if you have any response or opinions :)))) Thanks a lot for your support.