_{Jongin was enjoying the experience of dating for the first time. His girlfriend was a sweet girl who brought him lunch and let him take naps during their dates. Life was going really great for him, almost perfect except for one important thing.}

_{Kyungsoo kept being strangely distant and just, well, not there.}

_{At first he had figured he just didn’t want to intrude on his new romantic entanglement but it persisted after the first week, and then the next, and the next. It was nearing a month now since Kyungsoo had begun to just not be around and Jongin wasn’t sure what to do about it. Every time he tried to talk to his best friend Kris or Tao would distract him somehow and by the time Jongin was done brushing one of them off Kyungsoo was gone.}

_{It was starting to make him really worried, and beyond that really angry. Why was his best friend in the world abandoning him? Was it because he got a girlfriend? Because he could dump her if that would make Kyungsoo stop acting so damn weird. Not to get him wrong he liked that girl, she was cute, and nice, but Kyungsoo had been his friend for over a decade; and that took a bit of precedence.}

_{But he just couldn’t get close enough to ever really talk to him and Jongin was tired of it. He was tired of not being able to talk to his best friend, and he was really tired of watching Kyungsoo talk to people who weren’t him.}

_{So when he spotted Kyungsoo walking out of a convenience store alone and without anyone to give his friend an escape route Jongin took the opportunity. Sprinting forward he captured his friends arm and was met with a look of terror before Kyungsoo saw who had grabbed him. Only upon seeing Jongin the wideness of his eyes didn’t quite go away and that pissed Jongin off a little bit.}

_{“Where have you been Kyungsoo?” he asked wasting no time on pleasantries.}

_{Kyungsoo frowned a little and bit back, “Yeah the football game last nice was awesome and hello to you too.”}

_{Undeterred Jongin pressed on. “Seriously I never see you nowdays and you didn’t come over for dinner last week, mum thought you died until your mother called. What is happening Kyungsoo?”}

_{Before he could get the answers he desperately wanted suddenly his girlfriend had latched onto the arm that was holding on to his friend. In his haste to get to Kyungsoo he had forgotten she was there, on a date, with him.}

_{“Boy you run fast Jongin!” She panted before noticing Kyungsoo and asking cheerfully, “And hi Kyungsoo, how are you doing?”}

_{He smiled, but in a fake I’m not really happy way, before saying he was doing fine but was busy getting some last minute dinner stuff.}

_{Jongin was about to interject that they’d walk home with him, it had been what feels like ages since he’d seen Kyungsoo’s mum, when his girlfriend did the exact opposite.}

_{“Oh we’re sorry for keeping you! Come on Jongin lets go get some icecream,” she said already halfway into pulling Jongin away from his best friend.}

_{Calling out to Kyungsoo he demanded they would talk tomorrow and he nodded in agreement.}

_{And then Kyungsoo didn’t show up to school to the next day.}