Taeil was sitting down cuddling with two of his favorite dogs at the shelter, lost in thoughts. A strange feeling of guilt had been lingering inside of him ever since Jihoon left the night before. It was not guilt because of the argument, it was the level of intimacy that left an uneasy emotion. He felt like he'd started kissing and touching Jihoon in the moment, just to make his brain shut up. He had acted like a complete yesterday, loud and needy.. Never in his life had he been behaving like that before - they hadn't even been sleeping with each other? . The thought made him shiver.

Did he want to have with the other boy? When Jihoon had touched him yesterday, he had felt on top of the world with ecstasy. He had felt scared, but still leaned in to the touch. Why? Maybe because he never thought he'd be in this kind of situation, ever, but was too curious to resist. But the thought of going further, letting Jihoon have with him, entering him was nerve wracking.

He sighed and leaned against one of the dogs, inhaling the earthy warm smell.
'Wait', he shot upright, startling the dogs, 'Why do I automatically assume that I'll be on the receiving position?!'

----

"Um... How long are you going to wash that cup?"

Taeil looked up, "Huh?"

"You've been washing that cup, dazing off, looking like a zombie, for 5 minutes now," the tall boy said.

Taeil looked down, not realizing what he even was doing, "Oh."

Jaehyo looked at him, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Sure you are,"

Taeil glared at him, "Shut up,"

Jaehyo rolled his eyes, "Come on, you know you can talk to me if-"

"Hi Taeil,"

The voice cutting in on their conversation cut Jaehyo off mid-sentence. It was Jiho, all in black clothes, standing in front of the counter with an awkward expression.

Taeil was slightly taken aback as he stared at Jihoon's friend.

Jiho cleared his throat, "Taeil," he repeated once again, "Can I talk to you?"

Jaehyo looked between the two, noticing the slight tension, "He's working right now," he said with a bitter face.

Taeil looked at Jaehyo in surprise.

Jiho answered, "I know and I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can come in contact with you,"

Taeil sighed, talking to Jiho was nothing he wanted to do, he had other things to think about.

"Taeil, please," Jiho pleaded.

"Did something happen between you two?" Jaehyo asked, looking at Taeil who glared at him in return, "What? Can't I be curious too?"

"None of your business, really,"

Jaehyo snorted, "You're not even categorizing me as a friend do you?"

Taeil frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

Jaehyo shook his head, "Never mind", and his usual goofy smile was back, "I'll cover for you, so go talk with mister bleached hair."

Taeil watched him go and sighed, turning to Jiho, "What is it?"

"Can we sit down or go somewhere where people can't hear us?"

Taeil shrugged and went outside to the backyard, where he and his co-workes usually ate their lunch or smoked, and sat down by the small wooden table.

Jiho followed and folded his hands, "Um, I'm sorry."

Taeil snorted.

"I mean it, Taeil."

"Ok," Taeil shrugged, "That's all? Then I'll go-"

"No." Jiho stood up, blocking Taeil from leaving. "You have to know that Jihoon doesn't have anything to do with me being here,"

"So?"

Jiho sighed, "So just sit down and listen, please?"

Taeil shot him a glare, but did as he was told.

Jiho continued, "I'm sorry that you got hurt by what I said. I didn't mean anything bad with it." he paused, taking a breath, "As you said I don't understand your situation and I know I said things without thinking. But I never meant any harm trying to fix you together."

Jiho massaged his temples, and Taeil finally looked at him.

"I wanted him to come closer to you as a person, NOT just ually. I knew he liked you, even through your y personality, but he was always happy whenever he talked about you. So that's why, you know, I kind of invited you to join us. Jihoon didn't know I had, actually, so he got pretty mad when he found out but yeah.. Just so you know."

Jiho looked at him with serious eyes, "I know I can be an and I never really think before I speak, so please try not to take me too seriously. You already mean a lot to Jihoon and I don't want to be on bad terms with you since I hate seeing him affected by this. He's like my little brother and I, you know, want the 'always smiling' version of him."

Taeil knew that him not liking Jiho affected Jihoon, even though he never said it out loud.

Jiho let out a breath, "I don't ask you to forgive me or anything but I'm sorry that I hurt you, and him in the progress," he looked up at Taeil again, "Can we be cool around each other?"

Taeil bit his lip and nodded, "Okay."

"Thank yooou," Jiho smiled brightly and let out a loud sigh of relief, "Handshake?"

Taeil snorted, but shook the other's hand with a smile.

----

"Jihoon darling, Jiho is here!" His mother was calling from downstairs.

"What does he want now?" he mumbled to himself as he sat up from his bed, heading down the stairs.

"Hey," Jiho smiled as he saw Jihoon, "You're about to get happy!"

Jihoon raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Jiho smirked, "Taeil doesn't hate me anymore."

"What?"

"I went to talk to him,"

Jihoon frowned, "You did? When?"

"I just got from there,"

"What did you say to him?" Jihoon asked, looking at his friend with judging eyes.

Jiho laughed, "Well, the usual bla bla I'm sorry bla bla, you know," Jihoon's looked even more judging and Jiho sighed, "I didn't do anything bad to him."

"Should I believe you?"

"Yes," Jiho groaned, "you should!"

Jihoon let out a giggle, his face turning into a smile, "Hyuuung, thank you!!" he beamed and hugged him.

---

Taeil!
Jiho-hyung said he spoke to you today?
What did he say? He didn't want to tell me!!..
And how's work today?

Taeil looked at his phone and typed the answer;

Yeah he did. He just told me he was sorry.. so I accepted it.
I don't want you to be angry at your friend just because I don't like him.
And not too much to do today at work.

It didn't take long until he got a reply.

Hmm ok.. I'm once again sorry for his dumb , but I'm very grateful you forgave him.
Thank you really.
Do you think we can meet up with all the others again then?
Kyung's parents are going away this weekend so he said we could drink at his place!
A few other friends will come there also ^o^

Taeil bit his lip, even more new people? He hesitated to answer, he remembered how it'd gone the last time they drank together. He scratched his neck and choose to put his phone back into his pocket, giving him some tome to decide on wether to go or not later.

Just as he went to clean up some tables though, he felt his phone vibrate a notification;

You don't have to worry about the people, Taeil.
They are all nice, I can promise you that ^^
And if something goes wrong, I also promise I'll help you.

Taeil smiled to himself.

I'll go with you :)

----------------------------------------------

A/N: I'm sorry once again for taking long before updating. I just didn't have any motivation to write because of life really.
My beloved dog died at the end of september and he meant everything to me. Accepting that has torn on my strength, but now I know that someday we'll meet again and I'll be able to hug my baby darling once again♥