“Ya, Wong Lucas! What happened to you man? Why haven’t you been picking up my calls or answering my texts?” Jaehyun worriedly asked as he bumped into his friend at the hallway the following morning.

“Nothing much. I just wasn’t feeling it yesterday. Sorry dude, but maybe next time?” Lucas replied, trying hard to maintain a straight face.

“You sure?”

“Yeah…I’m fine. Just a little frayed out from all the practices lately.”

“Don’t push yourself so hard, Lucas. All of us, heck even the rivals, knows that you’re one of the best on the court.” Jaehyun complimented, hoping to hype Lucas up a little. “Hey, I was thinking if maybe you would want to go to the mall tomorrow instead? Oh- and maybe we should ask Jungwoo along. I mean he is friends with Doyoung, maybe he would know what Doyoung would like…? And since you’re getting quite close to him, I thought you would appreciate the extra company. Ah, there he is!”

“Jaehyun-ah, I don’t think that’s a good idea. He might be busy…with other people…” Lucas blurted out as he hoped his best friend would get the hint and just drop it.

“Nonsense. You wouldn’t know until you ask, and I’m sure Jungwoo would be more than happy to follow us. Ya, Jungwoo-ah!” Jaehyun’s shout had managed to turn a couple heads, including the small guy he was calling for. Seeing Jungwoo approaching them, Lucas could feel his palms turn clammy in sweat and he needed to get out of there. Fast.

“I-I gotta go. Uhh, I have extra maths class today and I completely forgot. I’ll text you about tomorrow, okay? See you!” Jungwoo’s expression furrowed in confusion as he sees Lucas taking off, sprinting as if he just saw a ghost. It was shocking enough to not receive a morning text from the said person earlier this morning, but now that Lucas is running even before speaking to Jungwoo, Jungwoo couldn’t help but feel that the other was avoiding him.

“Hey, what’s up? Is Lucas okay?” Jungwoo asked, worry clearly displayed on his face.

“I don’t know. He has been acting weird after he stood me up at the mall yesterday. Hey, I just want to ask if you would like to follow us to the mall tomorrow after school. I’m…I want to bring Doyoung out for dinner after the match this Friday. And I want to ask for your help to find something nice for me to wear, and also a gift for him.” Jaehyun said as he looked around, scared that Doyoung was somewhere close to hear about his plans.

“Crap. I have some dinner plans with my mother tomorrow and it’s kind of important for her. But, I’m sure I can still help you by listing down things that I know Doyoung has a liking for. I mean, Doyoung is what I would call chatty so, I’m pretty sure I know him well enough to help you out a little. I’ll text you the list by tonight. Sounds good?”

“OMG, that sounds great, Jungwoo! Thanks a bunch. You are clearly more helpful in this than Lucas have been. Don’t tell him I said that, though.” Jaehyun joked as he threw in a wink.

“I won’t. I don’t think I can even if I want to, seeing as to how he’s running away from me.”

.

.

.

It .

The thought of Jungwoo and Taeyong together was clogging up his brain and it was enough to make him stay up the whole entire night just thinking about it. Not only does he have to deal with an aching heart, Lucas also now had to deal with a splitting headache.

What a great way to start the day.

Lucas knew that there wasn’t anything going on between him and Jungwoo. Heck, he even felt guilty for feeling jealous about the couple. He didn’t feel that he had the right to do so. This may sound cheesy and corny, but Kim Jungwoo was one of the best, if not the best, thing that had happened in his life for the first time for as long as he could remember. Having to deal with parents who are constantly not there, he felt as if he was able to finally confide in someone about anything, and that person just had to be Jungwoo. The Jungwoo that is not available. The Jungwoo that is in a relationship with Taeyong. Ten was a really nice cousin when he has to be, but it just wasn’t the same talking to a cousin compared to talking with a…with someone Lucas thought was special.

. Ten.

Lucas didn’t want to admit it, but he actually felt bad for his older cousin. The thought of his older cousin finding out his crush was seeing someone else added more weight to his poor heart. The lunch bell rang, and Lucas gathered his things and rushed out of the class before Jungwoo could even notice he was gone. Making a left turn away from the cafeteria, Lucas decided to clear his minds off things and started heading his way to the dog shed.

Wait.

Jungwoo knows about the dog shed.

Jungwoo was there at the dog shed.

How stupid, Lucas thought.

He shouldn’t have told anyone about his safe haven. Now he did not even have a place of his own to run away to without having anything to remind him about soft brown eyes and toothy smiles.

Great. Just great.

//

It was the day of the match, and Lucas was definitely not feeling it.

Days of endless practices and sleepless nights were starting to take a toll on him. Not to mention how much he misses Jungwoo but couldn’t do anything about it except for running the other way each time he saw the other coming in his direction. Lucas was pissed. He was pissed that he couldn’t do anything about the situation, he was pissed that he was treating Jungwoo like this, but most of all, he was pissed that he was having all these feelings he didn’t even have the right to. Jungwoo didn’t belong to him and he could date anybody he bloody wanted. Lucas just hoped that he would come to terms with that, preferably sooner than later. He might have lost Jungwoo as a potential lover, but he sure as hell wouldn’t want to lose him as a friend too.

The situation in the locker room was nothing less of chaotic as players were doing their last-minute stretches and warm-ups. Lucas could feel the weight of his body sluggishly pulling him down as he got up to change into his jersey. The number ‘19’ flashed in gold as he pulled the red uniform over his head.

“Hey Lucas, can I talk to you for a minute?” Ten asked as he sauntered over to his younger cousin.

“Yeah, what’s up, hyung?”