Whenever Jeonghan needed help, he would often find himself wandering towards wherever a certain Hong Jisoo was staying. That had been his game plan since high school and also one that always worked since the other man was never too far away from his reach. However, now that Jisoo was the problem, he was left trying to figure out which one of his other friends he could count on instead.

Of course, it’s not like his other friends were useless; he just rarely felt like bothering them with his trivial life problems. Once, he voiced it out to Jisoo and even apologized for always bothering him, but the other was quick to assure him that he was never a bother. Hence, Jeonghan ran to Jisoo at any given moment, so it was extremely ironic that he now found himself running away from the other.

He found himself knocking on an apartment door shortly after aimlessly wandering the streets.

“Jeonghan?” Wen Junhui said, answering the door with a clearly confused expression on his face since the blonde hadn’t bothered to send a text or call to say that he was on the way. Not that Jeonghan wasn’t welcome though, as he stepped out of the way to allow the older man inside without questioning further. There was enough gloom written on his friend’s face that he could already tell something was wrong.

“Hey,” came the half-hearted reply as Jeonghan shuffled inside.

Another voice soon came from the living room, “you look terrible.”

“Thanks, Hao,” the blonde replied with a short chuckle directed towards Xu Minghao, the thin, cat-eyed man resting on the sofa. Jeonghan’s met Junhui’s boyfriend enough times that he was also a good friend of his, so there was no real negativity with the younger boy’s words. Instead, the dark-haired man mirrored the earlier worried expression on Junhui’s face as he examined their apartment’s guest take a seat on an empty chair.

Junhui took the seat next to his boyfriend, patiently waiting.

Truth be told, Jeonghan didn’t even know where to start. He had felt oddly suffocated in his own home, waking up to the scent of Jisoo all over his bed, to the sound of Jisoo laughing outside the door with his mother, to the reality that last night’s kiss was just a drunken mistake done in the haze of his long-ignored feelings and that he was stuck pretending to be in a relationship with his best friend.

“It’s about the fake relationship,” he finally said, staring at his clasped hands in front of him.

The silence from the other two was a sign that he should continue, but Jeonghan was still trying to figure out what to say.

“Well, actually, it’s about a little more than that.”

It was easier than he expected pouring his heart out to the other two men, who listened in silence except for moments where they would hum in acknowledgment. Jeonghan didn’t know how much he said, but he was sure that his words went along the lines of being in love with Hong Jisoo, regretting the moments where he was stuck wanting more from something that wasn’t real, and of course, the kiss that made his perfectly placed walls crumble down.

He was doing so well. They’ve cultivated years of friendship and a bond that made everybody else in awe or jealous. They worked well together,  scarily well, and it always left Jeonghan clinging to what he can of their friendship and making sure he’ll never mess it up. He kept any shred of his feelings in check for so long. He was so confident that their plan would be nothing but fun and games, something to laugh about in the future once Evelyn Hong left.

Instead, he sat in the middle of Junhui and Minghao’s apartment, unable to laugh even a little.

“We’ll be honest, Jeonghan, we thought it would be Jisoo having this problem,” Minghao said, shortly after the blonde had announced that he was done ranting.

“Oh?” Jeonghan asked, feeling pathetic. “Why is that?”

There was a pause as Minghao and his boyfriend exchanged looks, with Junhui looking more worried and nervous as if the latter was walking on eggshells.

Thankfully, the dark-haired man was better at piecing together words for the both of them. It helped that he was just a tad bit closer to Jisoo despite being friends with them both. When Junhui had first mentioned the whole fake dating thing, shortly after he came home from their reunion dinner, Minghao had expressed the same sentiments. He paused to consider his next few words before he began to explain.

Where Yoon Jeonghan was bold and confident, Hong Jisoo was often the opposite. He was the new kid for so long, after all, the soft-spoken one hidden behind Jeonghan’s crazy antics. Although they had both grown since their previous high school and even college selves, it wasn’t like things were much different. Jeonghan was the one who often went on dates, received confessions, flaunted his looks and skills with a boyish charm and charismatic smile.

Meanwhile, even with his terrible dating history aside, Jisoo just wasn’t like that.

He was more serious, often dated just one person for a longer period of time, the type to really make things work. It felt a lot like he wore his heart on his sleeve. In the middle of Minghao’s explanations, Junhui finally found the words as he added in that he thought Jisoo was the one who wou