It was a Friday night and the music in the club was blasting loudly from the speakers, the bass from the hypnotic pop song making my ears hurt. The dance floor was filled with people grinding their hearts out and I could see couples everywhere doing things that I would never do in public and making sounds that only made me shudder and search around even more frantically. 

Once my eyes landed on a lone figure nursing a drink in between his hands, his raven locks obscuring the view of his face, I let out a sigh of relief. I had been through this same exact situation enough times to know that it was him. Taking a deep breath and completely ignoring the guy who had brushed past me, purposely knocking arm against mine, I stopped my fast pace only when I reached his side. Glancing at the counter in front of him, I counted over half a dozen glasses and sighed.

"Oppa..." I called out and not surprisingly, he ignored me, only lifting his head to bring the glass to his lips again. I let out a huff of annoyance and before he had a chance to drink, pulled it out of his hands and set it down on my other side. He grunted in annoyance and buried his head in his arms again, still refusing to acknowledge my presence.

I tried to talk to him again.

“Don’t you want your hyungs to stop worrying about you? You’ve been gone for so many hours already, oppa. You need to go home and rest.” Once again, the only response I received was silence.

The two of us remained in our positions for a moment and just when I was about to try to speak again, he lifted his head. I smiled, relieved that he had decided to stop running away and return home with me but he only waved for the bartender to come closer.

“Can I have one more beer, please?” I winced at the way he slurred his words and when the bartender looked up at me, I shook my head, signaling that there would be no need for another beer. He had always been able to hold his alcohol pretty well and to be this drunk, he must have had a lot more than I had originally thought he had. There was no way that he could go to work tomorrow anyway if he was this drunk, but that certainly wasn’t an excuse for him to drink his night away.

"Oppa, let's just go." I pleaded with him as I tugged on his sleeve, not bothering to hide my hurt expression when he roughly shoved me away. Too occupied with downing more drinks, he didn’t seem to notice either.

"Please, Kyuhyun oppa." For me... I add on silently, even though I knew that it wouldn't make a difference. It had never in the past, and it certainly won't now.

"I love her, Why does she have to do this? Why does she have to do this to me?" He whispered in a voice that broke my heart all over again, picking up his glass and tilting his head back as he emptied the drink, ignoring me completely. "Why can't she just see me?"

Choking back the sob that was threatening to escape my lips, I just smiled tightly at him, ready to slip into the role of his loyal friend again. His words dug into my heart and it made it harder to breath but I kept it in, determined to help get him back to the apartment.

"Come on, oppa. Let's just go before anyone recognizes you." I tugged harder on his sleeve this time, taking the glass from his hand and placing it on the table, and this time, he gets up without protest. Placing some money on the counter to pay for the drinks, I allowed him to lean against me and while supporting his weight, I started making the trip back to the car I had left parked outside, his drunken slurs echoing in my head.