7. Of Boys and Men

The alarm loudly went off and the piercing sound of carillons echoed in the room. A grunt was heard before the noisy music stopped and a softer sound of small steps reached the bed.

"They really need to find a less aggressive way to wake people up," a half-asleep Sehun complained.

A small bundle of white hair jumped onto the bed and found its way between his master's arms.

"Good morning to you too Vivi," Sehun smiled before lazily petting his dog's head.

It was 6 in the morning, which meant that he had one hour to get ready to go out.

Sehun yawned and pushed the sheets aside. He grabbed his phone before Vivi could jump on it and chose to check his messages before deciding what to wear.

The group chat he had with Chanyeol and their other mutual friends had an urgent notice going on from the giant.

"Since Jongin is too sick from his hangover to play and Minseok is not coming because of a conflict of schedule, I declare the usual SSM cancelled. The rest of you better come for breakfast at Loco, though."

"Cancelled?" Sehun incredulously repeated. Now that was unusual. The last time their monthly Sunday Soccer Match had been cancelled, he was still in university if he remembered correctly. Sehun had to admit that all of them became a lot more busy with life and responsibilities but it was always Chanyeol who decided if the group seemed unfit to play or not, and he rarely chose the last option.

Nevertheless, Sehun groaned when he saw that the new meeting time had been pushed back to 10 AM.

"Will nobody ever let me rest in this lifetime?" Sehun complained before walking back to his bed, determined to get himself at least two more hours of sleep before really waking up. Last night had been rough and he was both emotionally and physically tired after cleaning Baekhyun's apartment. Simply thinking of the mess that was this place made him shiver under his warm and comfortable sheets.

"I need to change the alarm," Sehun said although his eyelids were too heavy for him to actually do what he suggested. He knew he would wake up with the same rant in two hours but he just wanted to go back to his pleasant dreams. He would wake up with carillons scorching his ears once again but it was okay. On a positive note, it was always pretty effective.

"Everything that happens at Loco stays at Loco." Chanyeol recited their usual mantra before lifting up his glass of orange juice and smiling to the males in front of him. "Alright guys, bon appétit."

And all of them started digging in. The table was full of all the things they loved for breakfast: pancakes, fruits, chocolate, croissants and waffles, ham, eggs, yogourt. Basically heaven.

When 5 adult men who hadn't eaten a few hours into the day reunited in front of a lot of food, the first few minutes at the restaurant were always quiet because they were all busy killing down their hunger. Eating this, trying that, tasting this, munching that, it was a feast.

"What happened with Minseok?" Baekhyun asked, being the first to take a break from eating to socialize.

"He went to Busan yesterday and couldn't come back in time for the match because there was an incident with the train," Jongdae explained. "Nothing too intense, he's probably having the time of his life in a hotel or something."

"He definitely would," Chanyeol chuckled. "What about you Jongin, are you feeling better after sleeping? You looked half dead yesterday."

"Well, yeah I guess I was," the said man answered with a shrug. "I don't know if my head is growing out a second brain or if I hit something when I passed out. Is it normal that I hear my voice repeating the words I say in my mind?"

"Although I'm no doctor and that seems kinda weird for a hangover aftermath, I can assure you that you didn't hit anything," Baekhyun said with a frown at the younger's male strange revelations. "Seulgi made sure of it when you passed out on her."

"You passed out on her?" Sehun asked after putting down his fork. "That's lame, man."

"As if it wasn't bad enough that I made her drag me all the way to my apartment and I crashed on the floor," Jongin recalled with a sour expression. "What does that make me?"

"A weakass," Chanyeol said.

"A ," Jongdae added.

"An ," Sehun finished.

Jongin grunted before grabbing his head in his hands.

"At least she didn't call you just to say that you were a liar," Baekhyun chuckled. "I thought you could handle alcohol Jongin."

"He obviously can't," Chanyeol said as he finished a strawberry.

"But he usually can," Jongdae commented. "He probably went overboard."

"What was that thing about?" Baekhyun tried to remember from his previous call with Seulgi. "She said that you fell down on her?"

"I fell down with her," Jongin corrected. "And why do you know all that?"

"They probably talk a lot," Sehun remarked as he cut himself a piece of pancake.

"Yes we do. I texted her good morning, and guess what," Baekhyun said to get his his friends' full attention. "She answered back."

"What an achievement, you're amazing Baekhyun," Jongdae sarcastically said from the side.

"Honestly, I'm proud of myself. Seulgi and I are on good terms," Baekhyun smiled to dismiss his friend's mockery.

"For now," Sehun added. "Wait until she asks you to get lost like the rest of us."

"I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon though, she added a smiley."

"So you put all your faith into an emoji?" Jongin laughed from the side. "That's very reliable."

"At least she didn't hit me with a slipper," Baekhyun retorted with a grin when Jongin stopped smiling. "But it's totally normal. I wouldn't take it personally if I were you, I'm always everyone's favorite."

"You're probably just the one she hates the least," Sehun commented with a shrug. "Did you know that she calls us the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I heard it from Wendy who thought I was going to feel insulted by it," Sehun laughed. "Why don't you text her that too?"

"Horse... men?" Baekhyun repeated.

"Horses," Chanyeol laughed. "But Baekhyun's a pony."

After his last comment garnered him a violent hit on the arm, Chanyeol decided it was better to change the subject. "So did she bring you back home correctly?" he asked Jongin.

"From what I remember, yes," Jongin answered truthfully. "It's just that I realized she stole something from me later on."

"Your heart?" Baekhyun joked.

"Your purse?" Chanyeol tried.

"I thought you weren't a anymore Jongin," Jongdae said.

"Don't fool around," Sehun warned the older male for his innuendo.

"A letter. She stole a letter I had written for her years ago."

"Where was that letter for her to be able to steal it?" Chanyeol asked with an incredulous expression. Seulgi successfully stealing something was a first. "She isn't a great thief if you ask me. Seulgi would always leave big evidences behind her."

"I caught her in the act," Jongin explained. "Only God knows how she opened that locked drawer."

"Do you know why she would steal it?" Sehun asked Jongin after checking his phone that vibrated in his pocket.

It was Joohyun.

"Well, it had her name on it."

"Curiosity killed the cat," Baekhyun thought out loud. "You should have kept it elsewhere maybe? Or not have her name written on it."

"I didn't think she would ever find it," Jongin whined. " Who would have thought that Kang Seulgi, a girl I hadn't talked to in years would be inside my bedroom at 3AM after I got drunk at Baekhyun's party of all things?"

"Honestly, it's not that crazy..." Jongdae started.

"Enough with this," Sehun warned once again.

"What is the letter about?" Chanyeol asked to Jongin who awkwardly remained silent. "I mean, there must have been something important in it for you to hide it in that drawer."

"Locked drawer," Baekhyun reminded. "That's weird."

"It's not important, it was just an old draft I had written before we ended things," Jongin explained with a shrug.

"So the first version of that letter," Jongdae gasped with a wriggle of his eyebrows. He might have been the only one finding all of this funny for not being related to the conflict in the least.

The letter in question was quite famous among Jongin's friends. Not that they had read it or knew the content exactly but they had always mocked him for breaking up with someone through a letter. Was is more romantic or stupid? They didn't know but Jongin was surely one strange guy.

"Then why are you so mad if it's nothing important?" Baekhyun asked what all of them were already wondering.

"It's just that..." Jongin started. "I don't know, we talked just before and yet she still went behind my back to steal it. I just felt betrayed."

"Betrayed?" Baekhyun chuckled. "What are we gonna do? Someone hurt Jongin's feelings!" he mocked. "Totally a reach."

"Full offense but you reap what you sow Jongin," Jongdae agreed with Baekhyun, unbothered and still focused on cutting himself a piece of food. "I don't know the details but you did the same to her right?"

"The betrayal you mean? 'Same' seems a bit like a reach," Jongin said as he glared at Baekhyun who only smiled at him. "It wasn't like that, and even if it were similar, we were both young and reckless."

"You were young and reckless," Sehun commented after sipping on his chocolate frappé. "You shouldn't have dated someone you couldn't love and that's the only thing I'm going to say on the matter."

"I agree," Chanyeol nodded between two bites of his toast.

"There's a context to all that," Jongin countered. "It's not like it happened out of nowhere after a talk of a few hours."

"Context or not, giving false hopes to someone who liked you the way Seulgi did was wrong," Baekhyun affirmed.

Sehun nodded. "I remember how surprised I was when he accepted her third confession after saying no all this time."

"Disappointed or surprised?" Jongdae asked from the other end of the table with a raised eyebrow.

"Surprised," Sehun answered after clearing his throat.

"Now that was stupid," Chanyeol said. "I honestly thought you would reject her until the end."

Baekhyun nodded approvingly even if he wasn't even there when all of this happened. He was just agreeing with his best friend.

"Listen, it might have been stupid but I don't think it was a mistake nor do I exactly regret it," Jongin admitted as the whole table looked at him with widened eyes. "Dating Seulgi made her realize that I wasn't the one for her and even if it hurt her along the way, I think it made her stronger."

"That's kinda the perfect thing an would say to not blame himself for his mistake," Baekyun pointed out.

"That wasn't my goal," Jongin sighed.

"Still stupid," Sehun mumbled before looking outside the restaurant's window.

Right then, he felt his phone vibrate again in his jeans's front pocket and picked it up just in time to see he had missed Joohyun's call.

"Like I said, there were some circumstances that we were both aware of," Jongin retorted with a sigh as Sehun brought his attention back to the latter. "Seulgi knew exactly what she was going after and she still went for it. Was I supposed to keep rejecting her forever?"

"Maybe," Sehun answered. He sincerely didn't know and he was glad he never had to be in his friend's shoes. To have your best friend confess to you without being able to return her feelings but not wanting to lose the friendship? Yes that seemed complicated. Was it bad that Sehun felt a little better for being the one to chase after the ones he loves compared to Jongin's situation? Once again, maybe.

"Well, I too wanted to fall in love," Jongin confessed. "It's just that things didn't work out that way and I figured she deserved better. I didn't know that better was in the form of Oh Sehun who wasted no time to comfort her. I was glad at first to know she was in good hands but you also made a mess yourself with that text message so forget that," Jongin said before passing a hand in his hair. "Could you pass me the butter Chanyeol?"

Sehun's upper lip twitched.

"I honestly don't think she has met 'better' yet," Baekhyun thought out loud. "We all have been horrible on different levels with her so we're all canceled."

"Can we talk about other things than Seulgi? This is becoming redundant," Sehun asked before checking his phone again. Joohyun had left a message

"Yeah I'm not too keen on talking about my sister's relationships," Chanyeol scrunched his nose.

"You say that but you always asked me how it went whenever we went on dates two years ago," Baekhyun chuckled before nudging Chanyeol.

"The past is the past and now we don't talk about it anymore," Chanyeol dismissed as he nudged back his friend. "Onto more important things, has anyone watched the soccer match yesterday?"

Jongdae and Jongin both rolled their eyes at the same time.

"What? I watched it and I want to talk about it," Chanyeol defensively said.

"Since we can't play soccer, you want talk about it?" Jongdae whined as usual. "I'm out."

"What's wrong with talking about it?" Chanyeol pouted.

"They lost anyways , there's nothing to say," Jongin sighed.

"I have faith in Korea's future."

"If they can score more than 3 times, I'm all up for discussing. If they don't, I don't even want to hear about it."

"You're too harsh Jongin! You should open up your heart a bit for your nation," Chanyeol nagged. "What about you Baek?"

"The hell I care," the shorter man said before pushing the empty plates on the side. "I don't even know if I have the sports channel."

"All of you are so disappointing," Chanyeol sighed. "And you Sehun?" he asked to the youngest whose eyes had been glued to his phone for the last five minutes.

"Me? Huh, I think I'll have to go," Sehun distractedly said before getting up on his two feet.

"Just like this? Suddenly?" Jongdae asked.

"Something came up," Sehun explained. "It's no emergency but I think I'll just go."

"Yeah, me too I have to go," Jongin added as he got up.

"Now what do you have?" Chanyeol asked fully knowing the younger man usually slept his whole Sunday away.

"I'm going to Seulgi's place."

All the men seated (and standing up) around the table looked at him incredulously.

"She has something that belongs to me," Jongin explained with a smirk. "And I'm going to get it back."

"Bull," Baekhyun scoffed. "She won't give it back to you."

"Yeah you can forget it, she won't," Chanyeol added.

"What do you mean she won't? It's mine."

"Seulgi has changed Jongin," Baekhyun let him know with a grin. "Just go and see for yourself. I bet you'll leave her apartment empty-handed."

Jongin frowned at his hyung's warning.

"Come on, why would she keep it?" Jongin reasoned. "She doesn't want to have anything to do with me considering that she avoided me for years."

"I didn't say she would keep it, I just said you won't get it back." Baekhyun pointed out at the younger male's confused expression.

"Forget about the letter, do you even know where she lives?" Sehun asked.

Jongin turned to Chanyeol with a pitiful expression, begging for the address.

"She'll kill me."

"Please Chanyeol, it's important," Jongin pleaded. "She'll kill me first if it makes you feel better."

Sehun chuckled.

"I think I might know whe