"Why are you wearing Kyungsoo's shirt?" Jongin asked when she got home after thirty minutes.

Jongin was in the living room watching tv and was glaring at her direction the moment she came in, like he's really waiting for her.

He is so in a bad mood, again. He was totally draining her with the mixed signals he's giving her or maybe it was her getting it all wrong all along. She even contemplated if she were to drive home right away after his call earlier or just go directly to Bomi's place instead. But she remembers her plan to talk to Jongin so she went home but obviously won't still be able to start up a good convo with him after all.

"Oh this? How did you know?" She asked casually.

Wow, their relationship escalated real quick from no talk to all fight. Both doesn't seem bearable at all.

"I asked first." He said. Kyungsoo is a meticulous person. As a matter of fact, Kyungsoo never lent his shirts to anyone. But he lent his favorite to Eunji. Interesting.

"Oh. Sorry. Well, my shirt got stained and Kyungsoo was nice enough to let me borrow his shirt. I didn't have an extra." She explained nonetheless. Is Jongin seriously trying to pick a fight with her over a shirt? A shirt that's not even his?!

"Why didn't you call me? I have one in the car."

"Sorry, I didn't think I could call you or if you were still in the university. I'll take note of that." She said, confused at where the conversation was going. Although she was thinking, why would she need to call him just for a shirt? Is that shirt so important that it pissed Jongin off that she's wearing it? Is he the one who gave Kyungsoo that pororo shirt?! And if she calls him, would he even answer? Because last time she tried, he didn't pick up at all. All she got was his voicemail. "Don't worry, I'll return this right away." She just said, still confused.

"You were with Kyungsoo all this time? I thought your class ended at two thirty? " He probed more.

Eunji was taken aback. How did he know her schedule? Ah right, it's in her calendar in their library. If she didn't know better she would think Jongin was jealous of Kyungsoo. But that's impossible so it must be the shirt, Jongin must have really gifted Kyungsoo that shirt. Doesn't really make sense but sure, maybe Jongin has that kind of attitude? Did he become weird because of her or is this something she wasn't aware of at all?

"Yes. We're doing a project." She said. It was true anyway. Not just a school project. This must be the longest she's ever held a conversation with him ever since and she's not even happy about it. 

Jongin smirked and that made her grimaced. She's still standing by the door with her heavy backpack and she's tired and she felt like she's being interrogated or rather scolded by her father because she came home late. And of course, she didn't expect Jongin's attention, he normally didn't care. Strange.

"So what does a pre-law student have to do with architectural design? Besides he could ask Lay. "

"No, I was asking for Kyungsoo's help." She looked at him with disbelief. He's obviously enjoying what he's doing to her. Is he really interested with her whereabouts now or just making fun of her? Looks like he's really tripping her.

"If that's all, let me excuse myself 'cause I'm really tired and I wanted to rest now." She muttered. She didn't wait for his reply and she just walked past him to go to the room. 

How is she going to talk to him again now?

She took a warm shower and slid on the bed. It was after a while and she's still awake. She can't sleep again and she can't afford to not to because the dark circles on her eyes aren't getting any better, she doesn't really use much make-up aside from BB cream and lip balm but recently she started to use concealer for her eyes just not to look like a zombie as per Bomi. She really have to schedule a glow up session with Bomi one of these days.

~~~

A day passed by and Jongin didn't talk to her again. They're back to square one. She couldn't bring herself to talk to him too since he's been so distant again. 

It was Wednesday and she asked Kyungsoo to help her prepare a simple dish for Jongin and ended up making fried chicken which is Jongin's favorite. Kyungsoo was more than willing to help so after their cooking class, they both headed to the grocery to buy the ingredients when they bumped into Chanyeol with his sister and joined them home afterwards.

Chanyeol learned that she's learning to cook with Kyungsoo and he even how married life is making her do impossible things. Well, they all knew that Eunji can't cook. Anything related to cooking or being domesticated just wasn't on her range of skill set. 

Despite living alone she never learned, they're not sure if it's because she's busy following Jongin or because she also had someone get those kinds of things done for her, as per Eunji, it was her mother's strict instructions so she can focus on her studies very well.

Who would have thought she'd marry early and her studies were of no use to cook for herself and her husband?

Chanyeol would normally feel bad for Jongin about that matter but he knew Jongin declined to have a helper at their home. No wonder he's always eating like a savage at the university even though the food in the cafeteria wasn't as appetizing as it seemed to be.

Well, Eunji's a brilliant student and she's with Kyungsoo in that cooking class so there's still hope for Jongin's tummy. He'll probably offer some help too sometime. He's also a decent cook after all.

~~~

She knew Jongin was with Lay for their dance practice so he will come home late. They'll have plenty of time to prepare. 

"So how's married life?" Kyungsoo said while helping her in marinating the chicken.

Chanyeol was leaning on the kitchen counter, staring at them while eating a small jar of nutella. He's a big baby.

"We're working on it." she just simply said. Their friends knew the reason why they got married but not the whole reason.

"We? I didn't see the 'we' here sweetie. I'm sorry Eunji." Kyungsoo comments. "I'm helping you because you're both my friends but that doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate Jongin's behavior these days. I don't even see you two together. You know you can tell us if there's anything we can help, right?"

Eunji just nodded. She can't really argue with them nor hide as much.

"No. Jongin was just busy. He has a lot of things going on these days at school. We have a lot of projects and he's busy with the dance. He's also been helping those freshmen." Chanyeol backs up. "But yeah, if there's anything we can help, you know we're here for you both." He said, shuffling her hair a little.

"Then why are you here if you have a lot of projects?" Kyungsoo snapped.

Chanyeol pouted and that made Eunji and Kyungsoo laugh.

"This is my first time cooking for you guys. I'm actually glad you're here. Should I ask Lay to come over too?" Eunji said instead.

"Yeah. That's a great idea!" Chanyeol said. 

"Alright, I'll call him." She said and went to the living room to get her phone. 

She's glad to be able to change the topic. She's uncomfortable talking to the guys about their relationship especially if they're dissing Jongin when it was actually all her fault. She knows the guys meant well, they're Jongin's close friends after all. Jongin may have been difficult to deal with lately but that's because of her. It's her fault.

After an hour and a half they're done with their fried chicken, salad and Kyungsoo's famous kimchi spaghetti. Eunji excused herself to shower quickly and after a while Lay arrived alone, to everyone's surprise.

The three were surprised because they were expecting Jongin with Lay but the latter obviously came alone. The three of them gave Lay a questioning look.

"What? You all looked like you've seen a ghost! What's the occasion by the way?" Lay asked as he walked towards the living area.

"Well, there's no occasion but where's Jongin?" Kyungsoo asked after.

Lay looked confused. "Oh. I don't know. I thought he's here? He lives here too right?" 

"You're supposed to be with him right?" Still Kyungsoo, a little irritated now with Lay's dumb look on his face. Sometimes they're not sure if Lay was serious or not. 

"Yeah, well he was. But he left practice earlier so I don't know." Lay chuckled, ignoring Kyungsoo's little outburst. Lay even thought that Jongin forgot to invite him since he left early and Eunji called afterwards telling him to come over.

"Alright. That's fine. I'll just call him so we can already eat dinner." Eunji said to prevent the tension. Kyungsoo is obviously starting to be pissed off. Kyungsoo's a little hot tempered sometimes.

She stood up and dialled Jongin's number a few times but she's just being diverted to voicemail as she expected. And that so-called-husband of hers said she can call him! Great!

All eyes to her direction and she shook her head to them. "He's probably really busy." She said instead. She's not just sure what he's busy about because all his close friends are in their house and Jongin wasn't exactly the Mr. Congeniality despite his popularity. If he's out he's either one of the guys or at home. In short he doesn't go out much, especially alone. Did maybe something happen to him? 

"But do you have any idea where he could be, Lay?" Now she sounded worried.

Lay just shook his. "He didn't mention anything, I really thought he's here. Sorry Eunji." He said seriously this time.

The three guys looked rather pissed off than worried like Eunji. They all took their phones as if on cue and dialled Jongin's number alternately but no one had the luck after a few minutes.

"That guy really knew the right bad timing!" Kyungsoo exclaimed.

Eunji faked a smile to cheer the guys. "It's my fault, I think I should have told him beforehand," She didn't like how the dinner was turning into a pity-party for her. How come nothing turns right when it comes to Jongin no matter how much she tried? Maybe she should try harder. 

"No. This is supposed to be a damn surprise for that blockhead! Where the hell could he be right now?" Kyungsoo growled. 

"Let's just eat then. I'm already hungry and it's a bit late for dinner. I'll just save some for Jongin." She said smiling, trying to sound a little cheery. She's starting to have a migraine and she didn't know if that's because she's hungry or because of the churn that she felt on her stomach. She's being dramatic again but oh well at least she can hold it off until the guys leave later.

They all headed to the dining area, no one wants to argue anymore since everyone's hungry.

"I'm starving! I feel like I can eat everything now. Can we not save for Jongin anymore?" Chanyeol said and settled himself at the table.

"You idiot! You've been eating since we started cooking and you're still hungry? " Kyungsoo snapped.

"Oh. As we all know, Chanyeol is growing an anaconda in his stomach so he's typically always hungry. " Lay snickered. 

"Yah. You all are being mean to our baby!" Eunji added laughing.

Chanyeol just pouted and snickered. 

The guys knew Eunji was just trying to look okay just like she always does and they've been there and saw whenever Eunji tries something to please Jongin but miserably fails because its either Jongin won't show up like now or he just leaves without a word and the poor girl was always left with any of them, so that's why she became close to each of them too after a while. It's not hard to be friends with her anyway. She's a great company as a matter of fact.

The great mystery with Jongin is how he's married to Eunji when as far as they all know Jongin was not interested with her since the beginning and from the looks of it of their relationship, it seemed like Jongin is still platonic. 

What they all surely know though is that Jongin's parents love Eunji, especially his mother. Eunji is an unofficial family member of the Kim's before they got married, so yeah it's official now of course.

Lay remembered when he started to become friends with her. It was in the latter part of their middle school year when Eunji kept on showing up in their soccer practice to watch Jongin with her sketch pad and sometimes a camera. He learned that Eunji was actually a part of their school newspaper and they're featuring their soccer team for that month. He liked drawing too so one time he snuck on her and playfully snatched her sketch pad to peek into it and he was expecting to see Jongin on there but there was actually none. All her drawings were the common things that you can see in the soccer field like the bleachers, the soccer ball, the players that are playing, the soccer field itself like it has come to life with so much detail that he even thought her drawings looked better than the original scenery itself. She drew in an intricate manner that even simple random things turn into something interesting and that's the first time that he wished he was Jongin. Randomly.

Later on they became really close friends that even when Jongin wasn't there to practice anymore because of an injury, she was still coming to watch and sometimes play with him after his official practice hours. She can play well too, he learned that she's really interested in soccer and it amazed him 'cause it's not usual for a girl to like such sports since it's physically tiring and all the sweating but Eunji didn't care and enjoyed herself. He even gifted her a jersey of the soccer team's uniform and that made Eunji giddy after, it's so easy to make her happy. The second time around that he wished he was Jongin. Randomly again.

One time he even almost got into a fight because of Eunji, good thing the other guy wasn't really a difficult one to handle. There was an exchange student from China who had a crush on Eunji. Well, there are actually some guys he knew who like Eunji for reasons he also knows so well. She's very likeable. She has an amazing personality, she's talented and too cute for her own good. Her eye smile always gets him!

However, everyone knows that Eunji only likes Jongin, but this exchange student was new and didn't know better. He kept on teasing Eunji and even followed her to class asking Eunji to go on a date with him and one time Kyungsoo saw the guy following Eunji around, Kyungsoo told him since the guy was in the soccer team with him. They ended up confronting the guy, telling him to back off and leave Eunji alone. Chanyeol was there brooding too. Chanyeol was always funny and friendly but no one would dare to get on his bad side. The poor guy did back off to their relief. Of course Eunji doesn't have to know what they did. And now that he thought about it, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol and himself were so close to threatening that guy before and they didn't even know why they did that because if that guy was really troubling her, they would surely hear it from here. Maybe they actually got it wrong and that made him feel like an idiot.

Although he had this silly crush on Eunji, he respected her feelings for Jongin and how she's already married to their friend. Their friend who's just ignoring Eunji all this time. This is one of those many times and Eunji was still smiling happily across the table with them. For the upteenth times he wished he was Jongin. 

They were in the living room after a full meal when the door swung open and everyone's eyes on the person by the doorway. Everyone became quiet all of a sudden.

Jongin was shocked to see all his friends chatting happily with his wife at this late hour of the night. No wonder he saw some familiar cars in the driveway. What are they doing there? He just looked at him one by one but the guy's faces were burning holes into his. They're all sending him deathly glares aside from Eunji who just looked awkward and uneasy all of a sudden. Like she was caught red handed for something. 

What happened? 

What did he miss? 

"Well the almighty Kim Jongin has finally showed up." Kyungsoo snickered with full of sarcasm.

"Yeah, well I live here." He snickered. "What's going on? Why are you all here?" Jongin asked, he decided to ignore Kyungsoo's sarcasm instead.

"We're keeping your fine wife a company cause obviously you're not doing a very good job." Still Kyungsoo. 

Jongin glared at Kyungsoo this time after his remark. What were his friends up to? They all looked indifferent. Did Eunji say something about their relationship? Or the lack of thereof? He's not sure if Eunji babbled something and he doesn't really care but he can surely sense the tension since he arrived. 

Kyungsoo in particular seemed worked up. Jongin's not looking for a fight and definitely won't pick one especially with his best friend but Kyungsoo acting up strange, he was with Eunji last time for a long period of time, alone, and his wife was obviously lying about that project, and then he even had her wear his favorite shirt, what could they be doing to the extent to ruining Eunji's shirt? He doesn't want to put unnecessary suspicious things to it but.. Is Eunji cheating on him with his very own best friend?

Eunji senses the thick tension in the air and sighs loudly unconsciously. Reading Jongin's face, he's absolutely not happy with what's going on. She can see his face turning red and jaw slightly tightens, it's scaring her to be honest.

"Don't tell me what to do." He finally said, more like a low growl as he slowly walked towards the staircase. "Especially about my wife."

She heard a throat clearing from Chanyeol as he stood up, following Lay. Kyungsoo was still calmly sitting, looking unbothered at all with what Jongin said but Chanyeol hauled him to get up too.

"I think we better go now Eunji. Thanks for the food. Your cooking was great! Next time try some Chinese cuisine please?" Lay suddenly said and stood up to give Eunji a quick embrace. 

Jongin just chuckled watching his friends giving his wife an embrace as if he's not there. They didn't even say goodbye to him. When did he become an outcast to his own circle of friends and stranger to his own home?

And what did Lay say? Eunji cooked for them and it was great? He knew Lay was too kind to give out harsh comments but he's not a liar either. Eunji's cooking was way far from great as he experienced it first hand. It wasn't even edible for goodness sake!