Jongin is in too much of a rush. Renjun called Jongin to his office a while ago and now he’s running too late for his next class. Mr. Lee’s quite okay with a few late-comers but he did say today’s class is important. Jongin rounds the corner, into the hallway that leads to his class but he suddenly crashes into something, stumbling back with a grunt emitting from deep in his throat. Jongin clicks his tongue and looks up, a deep frown making itself comfortable on his brows. His textbooks and all of his notes scatter messily on the ground.

His scowl falters, though, when he sees Sehun looking just as pissed as him. Sehun’s face softens just as much too, a cup of coffee in his left hand and his textbook in his right.

“You’re late, too?” Jongin asks with a knowing smile. He gets down on the ground, collecting his belongings as he gives Sehun one more glance accompanied with a cheeky grin.

“Yeah…” Sehun sighs, mimicking Jongin’s position in order to help him. “They didn’t prepare my coffee on time because some hot chick was in front of me and was flirting, and when I politely shoved her aside to ask about my coffee, she decided to flirt with me, then they didn’t want to serve me because they were jealous. Honestly? That hot chick wasn’t even that hot.”

Throughout the whole narration about a hot chick and his unmade coffee, Jongin listens attentively while he gathers the last of his papers. At the end of it, Jongin breaks out into a short chuckle, standing up after picking up his textbook at the side. Sehun does the same, handing Jongin what he managed to pick up.

“Was she from here?” Jongin asks, now walking side by side with Sehun. “Ugh, don’t answer that, it doesn’t matter.”

Sehun laughs, the one that’s choppy — makes his shoulders bounce and his eyes crinkle. Jongin stops to push open the door to the classroom all too suddenly, causing Sehun to bump into his back. Some of his coffee bounces in the cup and spills onto his hand. In the doorway with everyone watching, Sehun curses so loud that even the teacher pauses in his teaching. Sehun looks up at everyone, apologising insincerely before going back to cursing under his breath.

“Sehun?” Jongin calls out.

“What?” Sehun asks, now rubbing on his arm where the coffee spilled.

“Gimme the coffee.” Jongin snatches the coffee from Sehun’s hand and ignores him when he starts to protest. Jongin starts making his way to an available seat at the back, lifting Sehun’s coffee in the air as he taunts him.

Sehun points at him from the front of the class, but before he could speak, Mr. Lee interrupts him, “Mr. Oh, either take a seat or leave.”

“Sorry,” Sehun mumbles under his breath, waking himself to a brisk walk towards the only available seat left at the front of the class. He throws Jongin a glare while he walks, and the latter sips on his coffee in response.

Sehun throws him a glance every now and then all through the lesson, but Jongin would only throw a simple smile his way each time. After the lesson is over, Jongin stalks his way towards a very annoyed Sehun, still warm coffee in his hands. Well, it’s not that warm anymore. Jongin wordlessly takes another sip before finally giving Sehun his coffee back.

“You’re quite something, Kim Jongin.” Sehun chuckles. He’s gulping down his coffee as they walk out of class, completely finishing it to the last drop. Jongin laughs watching that.

“Jongin,” Chanyeol’s voice echoes from behind him. Jongin turns and smiles bright, asking what Chanyeol called him for. Chanyeol answers, “Renjun already put up the notice about the candidates who were chosen. Let’s go see it.”

“Really?” Jongin beams in excitement. “, Yeol, let us ing go!”

“Alright, alright!” Chanyeol laughs, letting Jongin hustle him down the hallway.

Before they get too far, Jongin turns to look back at Sehun. He grins. “The you standing there for, Oh Sehun? Let’s go.”

“Okay, Kim Jongin.”

Sehun tags along right behind Chanyeol and Jongin who are animatedly talking about who’s going to be in the top 5. They come up with elaborate lists of candidates with the most over-the-top reasonings they could think of, and Sehun thinks it’s funny how they humour each other. When Chanyeol mentions both Sehun and Jongin as the chosen candidates, Jongin encourages the thought while Sehun denies it when they turn to him with smiles of their own. It shows how badly each of them wanted it.

Once they’re standing right outside of Renjun’s office, Jongin pushes his way to the front through the small crowd of people gathering there. Chanyeol and Sehun waits at the back of the crowd patiently. Chanyeol spares Sehun a look, and Sehun does the same to him. When their eyes meet, Chanyeol quickly looks away.

“Uh, we haven’t talked much,” Chanyeol starts.

“Yeah.” Sehun nods.

“You wanna, uh, talk? Let’s go grab dinner together.” Chanyeol scratches the back of his neck, face distorting into what Sehun can only call uncertainty. “W-Without Jongin. Just because I want to know you on a personal level.”

“So it’s about him then.” Sehun couldn’t hold back a smile. “You’re very obvious, you know?”

“Shut up,” Chanyeol counters back. “I’m not usually the one doing this part of the job.”

“Hmm,” Sehun hums mockingly. “Then who does?”

“Baekhyun does,” Chanyeol grumbles.

“Let’s go to that dinner you suggested,” Sehun agrees, and it surprises Chanyeol so much that he stares at Sehun for a few seconds too long with his eyebrows twitched up in disbelief. Sehun chuckles. “What? Don’t look at me like that. I’m serious.”

“Well, sure, if you really think it’s okay.” Chanyeol juts his lower lip out, posture shifting again after he gets uncomfortable from the following silence. “I just want to know what happened. That’s all.”

“I get it,” Sehun replies, “you don’t have to explain yourself.”

“It’s just, Jongin wouldn’t tell us. And he said you really want to earn his forgiveness so I just thought that maybe you would tell us if you really wanted his forgiveness because now the only way you can help him is to get him back up on his feet with a healthy mind and everything and—” Chanyeol stops talking when he notices the odd look Sehun’s giving him. “Sorry, I talk a lot.”

“It’s— it’s fine.” Sehun chuckles. “You’re right.”

“Of course I a—” Chanyeol cuts his sentence midway again when his phone rings.

Sehun watches him read the contact name, then he watches the way Chanyeol comically widen his eyes, then he watches Chanyeol scurry away in a rush to a quieter place. Sehun stands there, watching Chanyeol’s retreating back getting smaller and smaller. He honestly didn’t expect Chanyeol to go that far but Chanyeol does, now practically too far for Sehun to see him.

“I got in!” Sehun’s attention snaps back to the front where he sees Jongin dashing to him, his arms spread out. Sehun gets ready for a hug, because well, it looks like Jongin’s about to hug him, but once Jongin realises it’s only Sehun there, he stops in his tracks. “Where’s Chanyeol?”

Sehun blinks once to regain back his cool. “He had to answer a call.”

“I didn’t see your name there, though,” Jongin’s voice softens out of sympathy.

“I don’t care that much about it. We didn’t really put in all our effort into it so it’s okay.” Sehun waves Jongin’s sympathetic look away and points to where Chanyeol is. “He’s over there— oh, wait, he’s coming here.”

“Park Chanyeol!” Jongin waves his hand to Chanyeol, telling him to walk or run a little faster.

“Did you get into the top 5?” Chanyeol excitedly asks. “Wait! Don’t answer that. Of course you did! Why else would you be so excited for?”

Jongin shrieks in excitement, face scrunching up till his eyes are closed. He throws himself into Chanyeol’s arms, tightening his hold around Chanyeol. The latter does the same to Jongin, now hopping around together as they spin around in circles. Jongin spreads his arm out as Chanyeol lifts him up in the air, throwing himself and Jongin into another spin. Chanyeol stops, however, when he hears Sehun’s curse echo after a loud smack.

Jongin finally realises that he accidentally slapped Sehun across the face.

Jongin immediately cradles Sehun’s face in his hands, face contorting into an embarrassed grimace. Sehun flinches away, holding the left side of his face in his left palm while he stares at Jongin with a horrified expression. Jongin gives him a gawky smile as an apology. Chanyeol laughs after that, slapping Sehun in the shoulder — which sends the latter into another wave of pain — and making Jongin laugh along too.

“So, uh…” Sehun tries to hide his grimace by pulling the ends of his lips up, trying to mask his gurn as a smile.  He directs a question to Chanyeol, “where are we going to eat?”

“Oh, about that…” Chanyeol gestures to his phone. “I can’t. An urgent matter came up.”

“Eat? I’m up for eating. I’m starving.” Jongin shifts to lean on his left foot, his body now facing Sehun. “If Chanyeol won’t go, I can.”

“You’d eat with me?” Sehun asks, his face showing bewilderment. He finds it weird that Jongin would dine with him. They’ve eaten together before, but that’s only because Jongin was such a wreck Sehun just couldn’t leave him alone. And they technically ate with Yixing too.

“Of course.” Jongin gives Sehun a look that makes him feel like a , the one where he’s overlooked the common sense of something. “It’s just a meal, Sehun. It’s better than eating alone. Don’t make it weird.”

“Well, okay.” Sehun catches the look Chanyeol pins on him but he can’t tell what it is. It’s not a warning, it’s not a threatening look like Sehun expects Chanyeol would send to him. Instead, it seems like Chanyeol’s just trying to figure his character out. Chanyeol doesn’t notice Sehun’s shift in character, though, when he gets caught staring. “Uh, where?”

“I don’t know. You pick,” Jongin answers with nonchalance, his eyes focused on his phone as he texts someone. “What’s the urgent matter about, Yeol?”

“Two things. Baekhyun and Joohyun.” Chanyeol clicks his tongue. “Baekhyun broke down and he’s with Jongdae now. I assume he’s stressed. Medical Science can you up so bad. And Joohyun calls for me so I shall attend to her.”

“Tell Baekhyun he’s a smart boy, he can do it and that I’ll help him any way I can— wait, who’s Joohyun?” Jongin finally looks up from his phone with a frown, confusion written all over his face.

“My girlfriend. Haven’t I told you?” Chanyeol’s phone dings, and he checks it. Chanyeol chuckles while he types a short message back to whoever he’s talking to. “I think I forgot to tell you.”

“Wow. And here I thought I could introduce you to a few of my friends.” Jongin dramatically sighs. “Why are all the tall guys taken?”

“Hey, Sehun’s tall too. Introduce them to him.” Chanyeol grins. “Or Jongdae if they don’t mind an average height.”

“Sehun?” Jongin calls out, turning to the mentioned boy.

“I am not interested,” Sehun retorts without missing a beat.

“,” Jongin grumbles in frustration. “Will Jongdae’s bright personality make up for his lack of height?”

Chanyeol breaks out into a little fit of laughter, slapping Jongin’s shoulder hard. Jongin laughs along, eyes disappearing behind his grin. “Anyways, let’s go, Sehun. I have a lot of homework to complete.”

“Sure.”

Sehun waits for Jongin to say his final goodbyes before they start to walk to the bus stop together, side by side. It’s a little weird. Sehun’s trying not to make the situation weird like how Jongin told him not to, but he just can’t help feeling like he’s in some parallel universe. While he’s battling with himself to make up some last minute excuse to ditch Jongin, the latter’s trying to fight the squirms away. Like he’s felt before, it’s purely nostalgia. Like when he comes back to school after a long break and the famil