“You’ve been writing a lot more than usual lately,” Jongin notes, turning a chair around and sitting next to me.

I’ve been huddled over my desk writing for the past few hours. I keep putting stuff down then scratching it out. Nothing is coming out the way I want it to, and it is frustrating the hell out of me. I sigh.

Still looking at the scribbles in my notebook – illegible to everyone but me – Jongin smacks on a piece of bubblegum loudly. Ever since everything happened, and we realized what we had in common, he and I are relatively close, and at my behest he has been trying to stop smoking. The task has proven to be more difficult than he’d imagined, and he’s been replacing the habit with other addictions, like drinking, which thankfully didn’t last long, exercise, which he was too lazy to maintain, and finally chewing gum, which actually seems to be working for him.

Unfortunately, the popping sound is about to drive me crazy. “I’m trying to write, but I can’t think,” I say, finally breaking the silence.

The smacking stops.

I smile to myself.

“What’s blocking you?” Jongin asks curiously. The smacking resumes.

He’s been pretty quiet lately so it’s strange to hear him talking to me right now. It’s nearing a certain date that neither one of us wants to talk about, and yet we’ve been sticking closer to each other than usual because we need that proximity to stay sane. But that has mostly consisted of Jongin trailing me wordlessly. To Joonmyun or Sehun, it might be annoying, but I find Jongin’s presence calming mentally so it doesn’t bother me, especially since he doesn’t speak much, though the gum is hard to ignore sometimes.

“I’m not sure,” I reply honestly.

“What are you writing about?” The guys all know that I often have articles and stories to work on for the paper, and that’s what I’ve been telling them I’m working on anytime they come by and see me writing.

I decide to be honest with Jongin for once though. “Everything that happened.”

The smacking stops again. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“What part?”

“The party.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Want to get a drink?” Jongin asks.

I pause. There’s an implied offer to talk, but I don’t know if that’s what I need right now to get through this. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just keep trying for now. Thanks.”

“Well, I’m going out for a drink,” he says. He spits his gum out.

I frown. “On second thought, I’ll come with you.” It’s never a good sign when he spits his gum out.

Baekhyun awoke that Saturday with a splitting headache. He had followed his usual Friday night routine and gone to sleep at a normal hour, so he didn’t understand what was causing it. I would’ve taken it as an omen, but he’s far too positive to see it that way. Instead, he took some medicine and shrugged it off as an anomaly before changing and going for his typical morning run.

As he sat on the ground stretching, he noticed a strange sight: his sister Miyoung already coming around the curve of the track as though she had been there earlier. Even stranger, she wasn’t alone. I was with her. I had never been particularly fit, but I tried hard enough to be a passable athlete.

Miyoung had asked me last night in study hall, where we had been paired up again for the suspiciously fourth night in a row since the first, if I would like to go running with her the next morning. After spending so much time with her – she’d been seeking me out in class and at meals – I’d begun to succumb easily to what Baekhyun now describes as her so-cute-you-don’t-realize-she’s-manipulating-you aegyo, and I said yes. Plus, at that time, I hadn’t figured Miyoung out yet, and that bothered me. Almost everyone in the class avoided me, not because I was weird or anything, but simply because I was extremely quiet, and that made them uncomfortable. Miyoung, on the other hand, brushed past that fact easily and actually seemed to want to be friends with me for some reason.

“Oppa!” she called, sprinting down the track to Baekhyun and leaving me in the dust. For being so little, she's always been very quick and nimble.

Baekhyun stood up and folded his leg, pulling his foot toward his as he stretched his quads out. “Miyoung, what are you doing here so early?” he asked. He looked at me suspiciously from a distance. “And who is that?”

Miyoung grinned, slightly out of breath. “Oh, that’s my friend Kyungsoo that I told you about. I invited him to come running with us, but he has a newspaper meeting at nine so I told him we could come earlier so that he could come with me. Sorry that I forgot to tell you,” she explained as I came down the last leg of the track toward them.

I bowed to Baekhyun as I joined them. “Good morning, sunbae, I’m Do Kyungsoo,” I introduced myself, feeling awkward that I was so winded.

“So you’re the Kyungsoo that Miyoung has been bothering?” Baekhyun said with an eyebrow raised.

Miyoung glared at him.

I looked between them, wondering if he was serious. “Um.”

“Kidding,” he said and put his hand out.

I shook it. “Oh, sorry, I’m kind of out of it this morning,” I said.

Baekhyun shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Oh, and call me hyung. Any friend of Miyoung is a friend of mine,” he said with a smile, “especially since she never tells me about any of her friends, and you’re the only one I’ve heard anything about.”

I regarded Miyoung curiously, still trying to understand her. I realize now how dense I was to not see the signs even back then. Then again, I was only there for a moment. I looked at my watch and apologized. “I have to get to a meeting soon so I’m sorry to have to leave right after we meet. I will see you later, Miyoung. See you later, sunbae.” I bowed and walked off.

“I’ll find you at the party!” Miyoung called.

“Oh, yeah, that’s tonight,” Baekhyun murmured as he tightened his laces. “I guess everyone really is going.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Miyoung asked, head cocked to the side.

“Well, Kyungsoo doesn’t really seem like the partying type, and I heard that Joonmyun hyung will also be attending,” Baekhyun explained.

“Whoa. Joonmyun sunbae? That’s surprising. Well, Kyungsoo is going because I talked him into it,” Miyoung said, preening and proud of herself. “He’s a lot like you, you know.”

“Meaning it’s easy to convince him of anything with just a little bit of aegyo?” Baekhyun said and poked his tongue out at her.

“Hey, I don’t try. I’m just naturally cute,” Miyoung pouted.

Baekhyun laughed and hugged her. “I know, I know.” He smiled down at his sister proudly. Even though they were only a year apart, he was incredibly protective of her, so he was glad that she had found a friend like him, someone to keep her in line. Of course, this was before Baekhyun realized the full situation.

“What I meant was he’s in a lot of clubs and organizations, more than you actually,” Miyoung explained. “He’s also smart and does a lot of sports, but of course he’s not top of the class or a natural athlete like you with your stupid speed.”

Baekhyun laughed. “It is pretty funny that you would find someone to be friends with who’s a lot like me when all you do is complain how annoyed you are by my constant monitoring,” he said. “Anyway, do you think you could muster a few laps with me?”

“Of course!”

As they took the first turn around the track, Baekhyun asked one more question about me before changing the subject. “You said he was on the newspaper staff?”

“Yeah, he’s a really good writer. Actually, he’s kind of always writing.”

“Hmm. That’s interesting.” To Baekhyun, it was just a coincidence. I was in one of the few organizations that he was not in, as he had favored the yearbook over the newspaper. But that fact ended up being more important down the line than anyone would have imagined.