Another's. He will be another's. As he was before my kisses.

His voice, his bright body. His infinite eyes.

 

 

---

 

 

"Whoa, hyung! Calm down!" Jongin laughed as he hauled both of them up to their feet. "I didn't know you were studying here too. If I knew I would have..." Spotting a man a few feet away staring blankly at Kyungsoo, Jongin bowed his head slightly, looking in askance at the other.

 

Letting go of the other when he felt Jongin bow, Kyungsoo smiled brightly and took the younger's hand, pulling him towards where Chanyeol stood dumbfounded. "Jongin-ah, this is my friend, Park Chanyeol." Kyungsoo then took Chanyeol's arm in his free hand and pulled the other closer, completely ignoring the ice cream. "Chanyeol this is mine and Baekhyun's childhood friend, Kim Jongin. He's a year younger than me."

 

"Uh... Nice to meet you." Jongin pointed at the slowly melting ice cream in Chanyeol's hand and laughed when he heard a yelp, Chanyeol immediately at one ice cream and pushing the other in Kyungsoo's hand.

 

"Nice to meet you too Jongin." Chanyeol gave him a wide smile as he battled with the ice cream making its way to get his hands sticky. "You knew Baekhyun too?"

 

Jongin nodded, studying Chanyeol closely and the way he seemed to hover and stick closely to Kyungsoo. Not that he could help but hover, he practically towers almost everyone. And here Jongin thought he was already tall. "I haven't seen him since last year though. You two have classes? I'm done for the day. Should we drag Baek somewhere and just hang out?" He said, eyebrows dancing.

 

"No, no classes. My classes start next week. We're just here for a tour." Kyungsoo laughs, looking wryly at Chanyeol. "Should I call Baekhyun then?" He started, fishing his phone from his pocket before sitting back down on the grass and pulling the other two with him.

 

Kyungsoo waited for Baekhyun to pick up on the other line before he started babbling about university and Jongin and hanging out and other small irrelevant stuff when he got side tracked. All this time, Jongin has been observing Chanyeol from Kyungsoo's other side with an unreadable look.

 

Chanyeol shifts backwards so that Kyungsoo blocks Jongin's intense stare. He tried to return Jongin's gaze once but ended up cowering and hiding behind Kyungsoo who just gave him a weird look. "What?" He finally asked Jongin.

 

Giving an innocent smile when Kyungsoo looked his way with Chanyeol's question, Jongin shook his head and muttered "Nothing." He gave Chanyeol a meaningful look before leaning towards Kyungsoo and muttering inappropriate words to the receiver.

 

Their faces were almost touching, Kyungsoo laughing at what Baekhyun said from the other line. Jongin pressed closer in the disguise of wanting to press his ear near the phone too.

 

Close, too close. Chanyeol's mind unnecessarily supplied and his right palm itched where he felt Kyungsoo's heat just a few hours ago pulling the other out of harm's way. His left wrist burned, and Chanyeol grasped it with slightly sticky hands where Kyungsoo held just hours ago dragging the taller male across the campus. The ice cream in his stomach gave a wild lurch and he felt something collapse in his gut.

 

Except that nothing's physically wrong with him. Jongin gave him a knowing smirk, Kyungsoo pulled him up to his feet holding the wrists that still burned.

 

Chanyeol nodded to something he didn't quite hear and beamed a wide smile as he was ushered to the soccer field. Jongin started when Kyungsoo almost fell flat on his face and Chanyeol barked an obnoxious laugh.

 

Except that it didn't quite reach his eyes and it took more effort not to mess up because he didn't feel like laughing at all.

 

They sat on the empty bleachers watching random people playing all kinds of sport in the humongous field and Kyungsoo turned to him, worry in his eyes when Jongin excused himself to make a short call. "Hey, everything okay?"

 

Words laced with concern melted the stiffness that has been starting to build up inside Chanyeol and a small but genuine smile creeped up his face. "Yeah, just.... just—" he was saved from replying when Jongin returned, flopping down beside Chanyeol instead of his previous seat on Kyungsoo's other side. Truthfully, he didn't know what he was going to say.

 

"So... I haven't seen you around here before. Different majors I guess? I'm in advertising." Jongin began, turning to him fully. Seemed like a safe topic.

 

"Must be it. I'm in business ad. Our buildings are on the opposite poles." Chanyeol laughed, light and a leeway to diffuse the awkward that seemed to settle above the two. "Kyungsoo here got accepted into the conservatory of music's scholarship program." He said with probably swelling pride for the other.

 

The swelling in his chest burst painfully though, when Jongin reached across him to ruffle Kyungsoo's hair. "You finally did it!" He laughed, beautiful face contorted into a weird mixture of a smile and a grimace. "I always thought you'd do well in it. Since you proclaimed in our class that you wanted to marry the grand in the music room when we were in kindergarten." Jongin laughed, heaving and chortling hidden behind the back of his palm.

 

Kyungsoo's face flushed an unhealthy shade of red and a whine left his lips in protest coaxing a laugh out of Chanyeol despite the heaviness in his chest. "Don't start with me Kim Jongin." Kyungsoo threatened, ineffectively.

 

The heaviness pressed tighter, the pressure going higher and higher.

 

"I didn't know about the grand, but there's definitely a keyboard waiting for him at home." Chanyeol managed not to sound too out of breath, nudging Kyungsoo with an elbow and both sharing a soft smile.

 

They totally missed the mischievous glint in Jongin's eyes.

 

"Figures. When we were younger he does everything but music halfheartedly. He got a face full of soccer ball during gym trying to remember the lyrics of a song." Jongin pressed. Fully aware of the turmoil happening in Chanyeol's head. He gave a snort though when Kyungsoo threatened him with bodily harm.

 

"I could tell that wasn't a one time thing. I had to rescue poor lampposts and phone booths from crashing into Kyungsoo. It wasn't his fault that the posts weren't watching where they're going." Chanyeol and Jongin shared a loud laugh, looking like old friends having fun to any outsiders watching.

 

Face flushed and just a little confused at how the two were acting, Kyungsoo  linked his arms in front of his chest, pouting. "I'm glad to see you both are getting along well and having fun. At my expense." He gave Jongin a warning glance before glancing at his watch. "Baekhyun should be here in any minute."

 

Despite everyone's belief, Kyungsoo's actually quite observant and he didn't miss the hidden jives in Jongin's seemingly innocent statements which may actually be considered normal for his overprotective friend, constantly bringing up excerpts from their childhood, the part of Kyungsoo's life Chanyeol had no way of knowing. What he couldn't understand is the way Chanyeol bit back to the jives, giving simple but meaningful statements that he knew Jongin didn't know. It was like a fish caught on a bait but not without letting out wistful statements of his own. The tension was so palpable and that's what Kyungsoo couldn't comprehend.

 

He chanced a glance at Chanyeol and noted the little crease in his forehead. A tiny spark of hope flickered in Kyungsoo's heart, which suddenly disappeared when Jongin cracked a joke and Chanyeol laughed along with him.

 

Jongin likes playing this kind of mind games. Chanyeol's another victim. Kyungsoo would like to think he doesn't know but he knew clearly what kind of game Jongin's trying to play with Chanyeol. And Chanyeol willingly bit on Jongin's bait-less hook.