You didn’t understand how it had happened but Kim Yugyeom was currently walking you to the bus stop. 

Okay, no, that wasn’t entirely true. You knew how it had happened. When you’d emerged from the back room of the ice cream shop where you worked after your shift, you’d bumped into one of Yugyeom’s friends and band members, BamBam. And BamBam, noticing the absence of your friend and workmate, Mina, had asked where she was as he thought you usually walked home together. 

You’d told him she was visiting family and somehow this had led to BamBam offering up Yugyeom to you as a walking buddy. 

You’d tried to protest, you were only walking as far as the bus stop, it would take ten minutes at the most. You’d be fine. Yugyeom didn’t have to trouble himself. You were sure he had better things to do. 

Yugyeom had tried protesting too, saying you were probably sick of talking to him by now and he didn’t want to bother you.

But BamBam hadn’t listened to either of you. He’d apologised about not being able to walk you himself, he had places to be apparently, and he’d pulled Yugyeom up from his chair and pushed him towards you, telling you Yugyeom really didn’t mind walking you to the bus stop, their dorm was in that direction anyway. Then he’d left. 

So that was how you’d found yourself walking out of your workplace with Kim Yugyeom at your side. 

What you didn’t understand was why Yugyeom was being so quiet. He hadn’t spoken since you’d left the ice cream shop and he hadn’t looked at you either. It was weird. Yes, you’d noticed that he could get a little shy around people he didn’t know but he did know you. And okay, maybe he didn’t know you that well, you weren’t best friends or anything but he had known you a long time. You’d gone to school together. You’d shared classes, you’d talked. 

You hadn’t really shared the same set of friends so when you’d graduated you hadn’t had a reason to keep in touch. Bumping into him a year later on the second day at your new part time job had been a surprise, but it had been a nice one. You’d been scared to say something first, you hadn’t been sure that he’d recognise you, what if he thought you were just a fan, one acting like you knew him? But he’d recognised you as soon as you’d asked for his order, greeting you with a wide smile, asking how you’d been. 

And it turned out his dorm was right around the corner, making him a regular. When he wasn’t busy promoting you saw him at least once a week and if he came in when it was quiet you always exchanged a few words, talked about Yugyeom’s work or your classes. 

So the fact he was so quiet now, when you’d been getting to know each other better over the last couple of months, well it was strange. Unless it was because he didn’t want to be there… maybe he didn’t like talking