The feeling is mutual.

• • •

It dawns upon him one day, as he watches them hold hands and run and he picks her up and she doesn’t mind, that this girl he’s known for the longest time had found someone else. It's an unsettling feeling, the way it lingers on his back and messes his heart.

“I can’t seem to call you by your real name,” she says, giggling. It’s those eyes again, the ones she uses when she’s skeptical about something. He extends his arm and as his hand nears her palm, she takes it. Their backs lean on the painted brick that borders the entire rooftop of the building, heights not even letting them see the entirety of gangnam just yet. He’s almost there, but she isn’t, heck he assumes she never can.

“Wait until I’m on that stage. I’ll have a different name by then.”

She turns her head to look at his profile, eyes squinting and lips pursed. As he peers to his right shoulder she sticks her tongue out, barely, and tries to suppress her smile. She holds his hand as she raises both of hers up to the highest end of the wall, which she can reach, but letting his go once she turns around to stand on her tiptoes.

Somewhere in that expanse, with her small head peeking out from the edge of the wall, she sees the tip of a broadcasting station she recognizes.

“Next week,” she says, pointing at the landmark. He nods, lips thinned into a line. They stay standing quietly afterwards; the wind in their hair, the sun hiding behind the clouds. He takes this chance to look at her in detail, from her profile to her delicate fingers. She’s happy, at most, and since the announcement of her debut, he sees her smile more often than he should.

“Krystal!”

The name breaks his reverie and they turn in unison to see Sunyoung, or Luna, exasperated.

Jongin doesn’t pay any attention after that and turns to his view of the city. The girl named Krystal shifts her focus to the other girl’s urgent request and after an audible “bye,” he takes a last look at her face. She halts to let him and she is smiling, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“See you later?”

And with that he is left with the door and the sound of footsteps, disappearing as they run down the stairs.

It’s the last thing he remembers of them, of her and him, before turning back to the television.

“It’s just some couple special bull,” Sehun remarks, eyes glued to the screen. He pats his friend's shoulder and folds his arms into place on his knee.

"Don't get too sensitive, you fart."

Jongin manages a laugh.

“We were never a thing anyway.”

• • •

In between the schedules and her comeback practices, he sees her walk past him or in front of him, both aware of their own presence. She would make an expression every now and then with each glance, but it gets colder after a while. It’s his fault, really.

A day comes when she talks to Sehun with him on his left. This time he looks at her carefully, from her now brown locks to her rose tinted lips. She’s also, if not, a bit taller than the last time they stood a time ago. He smiles at the thought.

She starts it off. “Hey there, stranger.”

And they look in each other’s eyes.

Her lips are curving into a smile, and his are too, but it’s different now.

“Hey, Krystal.”

• • •