Jongin was the one who had grabbed Sehun’s phone the moment it vibrated. He fumbled agitatedly with the password and almost threw the device across the room when he failed at his third attempt. “Why is this so complicated?” He stands up and walks towards Sehun, “Stop changing your password.”

“And start using your own,” Sehun rolls his eyes at him but unlocks his phone anyway. “Seriously.”

Jongin ignores him and leans against the study table, rather. He opens the newly arrived message and fights the urge to smile broadly at the mere sight of Luhan’s name. I miss you too was read over and over and over again for a good two minutes before Jongin turns to Sehun.

“No,” Sehun says, alarmed. “I don’t wanna hear it.”

But Jongin doesn’t really care about Sehun if Luhan’s in the picture. The younger already knew of it, of how love comes first before pals in Jongin’s rule book. Still, he was a little astounded when Jongin all but whispers about rainbows and unicorns and everything lovely under the sun. It doesn’t help that his eyes seems to be twinkling stars at Sehun’s.

“You better delete that or I won’t allow this again.”

“You always say that.”

“I mean it this time.”

Jongin pouts, “Fine.” He reads the message once again and looks down at Sehun, thumb hovering above the delete button. When Sehun only stares at him blankly despite his attempt of acting cute, he taps on the button.

“Wasn’t that easy?” Sehun grabs his phone and turns back to his unfinished paper, “Try using your own phone would you. Your mom didn’t give you one only to let it be contaminated with spider webs under your bed.”

He frowns, “Is it really that important?”

“Duh,” he see’s Sehun rolling his eyes, “You’re the only guy I know who doesn’t send his lover good morning messages. I wonder how Luhan hyung survived.”

The frown was left permanent in Jongin’s face. Brooding silence over took the unuttered comeback. He pushes himself off the table surface and starts on his heel.

“Where are you going?”

“Home, I need to make a call because apparently my best friend doesn’t have a heart.”

Sehun had always been the party pooper.

---

Luhan was in the middle of doing the dishes when the landline phone rings. He jumps at the sound and breaks a grin, all the while removing the gloves off his hands. He hears his mother’s voice calling for him and the sound of the phone stopped right after.

“Oh, he’s here,” his mother motions for him to move faster. “It’s nice to hear from you Jongin. Say hi to your mom for me.”

He takes the chair beside the small table and inhales. “Hey.”

 There’s a squeak on the other line and a little rustling before Jongin’s voice makes its appearance. “Hyung!”

Luhan bites his smile and fixes his facial reactions. “What’s with the noise?”

“Huh? Oh ah… Jjanggu was chasing Monggu. Now they’re both under my feet.”

“I see,” he looks ahead of him, an English movie was playing but he can feel the stares of his parents from his side. He lowers his voice, “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for my sister, for my chicken.”

Luhan frowns and looks at the time, “You haven’t had dinner yet?”

A faint barking noise reaches his ear and Jongin’s reprimanding voice cuts through the noise. It takes a few seconds but then it’s quiet once again. “Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh yeah, they’ve already had dinner but there’s not enough chicken left for me.”

“Aww,” Luhan coos, smiling softly at the forming imaginary image of the younger. He looks at his side; his mom had a smile on her face when the scene was supposed to be gore. He tries to lower his voice, again. “You went somewhere?”

“Yeah, waste time with Sehun. Hyung, why are you whispering?”

He sits up straight and stares as the second hand ticks away. “Because,” it’s a little too early for his parents to call it a day. “Anyway, did you receive my text?”

“Y-yeah.”  There’s a pause, he bites his lower lip. “You know it too right? That it’s the same for me?”

A heat forms in his ears and spreads fast across his cheek. “Of course,” he gazes down in his lap and fumbles with the hem of his shirt.

“Then, does it bother you that you have to text Sehun instead of me? Personally?”

He stops, there’s a hint of something unclear in Jongin’s voice, like some kind of uncertainty in the middle of clarity. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing. I just wanna know.”

He raises an eyebrow, “Did Sehun bully you again?”

“Uhh…kind of? He just told me to use my phone.”

Then he tries to contain his laughter. “I should have known.”

“Hyung!”

“It doesn’t bother me Jongin, okay? But the cost of your phone bill might, its international remember?”

“But my sister’s not here yet and I’m hungry, I need distraction.”

“Go play with your dogs, I still need to finish the dishes.” There’s a long pause at the end of the line this time and it’s not that hard to visualize Jongin pouting at Luhan. “Write me another letter. Tell me everything that you’ve forgotten to include in your last letter. It’s the last week, I’ll be back before you know it. Okay?”

“Okay,” Jongin says, passive.

It feels a lot worse hearing the rejection rather than seeing it mar Jongin’s face personally. “Don’t be like that. Watch out for your email, I’ll tell you something.”

He hears a sigh. “Okay, I’ll hang up now. Goodbye hyung, take care.”

“Do you want to reconnect the line to your room?”

He almost slams the phone back at his father’s voice. He whips his head around so suddenly it felt like breaking in two. His mother was smiling at him but his father’s watching the film, poker face and all. “W-what?”

“That phone only rings because of Jongin.”

Luhan stares at his father, long, then at his mother. He contemplates for a moment, but nods shyly at the end.

---

Luhan receives an I love you too hyung just before the clock hits midnight from Jongin’s mom. He reads it aloud, then barely above whisper before closing the message. Not long after, he pulls his phone out under his pillow and opens the latest message and reads them again, aloud, silently, whispered.

He smiles after his fifth time.

---

Jongin agreed when Tao called him (read: his mother) up for a shopping day. Only that he didn’t plan to buy any clothing, his sole purpose belonged to the stationary aisle at the bookstore.

“Luhan hyung’s still in China?” Tao peers at his shoulder and plucks a card from the shelf. Unlike Sehun, Tao’s a romantic. Perhaps he could be just a little over something, either way, Jongin appreciates that at least one of his friends understands his love for writing letters to the one they love.

“Yeah,” the bells attached above the entrance door chimes, he turns the envelope to see the price and gasps at the amount it actually coasts. “Why does these things kept on getting expensive, it’s only a paper with designs.”

“Because you’re actually the only buyer,” Jongin rolls his eyes at the uninvited guest. “Hey.”

“‘Sup.”

“What are you doing here Sehun?”

Said boy tilts his head a little to the side and says, “I was at the café across when I saw you two entered, might as well get myself company. What are we buying?”

Tao points at Jongin, “He’s buying stationary for Luhan hyung.”

“Of course,” Sehun uncrosses his arms and drapes one onto Jongin’s shoulder. “My dear old-fashioned boy is in love.”

Jongin shrugs his shoulders but fails to detach Sehun’s arm from his, “Get off.”

“Nah, wanna see what you’ll pick.”

“I don’t want you too!” He tries again but Sehun had locked his arm around his.

“Oh, c’mon.”

He looks at his side, “Tao, help me get him off.”

“Just let him be, Jongin.”

Sehun smiles in gratitude, “Yes. Let me see.”

“No, you’ll only laugh at me.”

“I won’t.”

“You will.”

“Trust me, I won’t.”

“Never!”

“Don’t be a baby, I’m younger than you,” Sehun makes a grab for the stationary but Jongin was faster and had seen what’s coming. He pulled his arm away from Sehun and behind Tao.

“I’m not being a baby, Sehun.”

“Yes you are.”

“Am not.”

“Just let me see it.”

“Not gonna hap–”

They get interrupted by a throat clearing from behind them, “Excuse me, but if you’re not buying anything would you kindly get out?” Taemin says. Sehun’s tight grip loosens a bit and Jongin sees the opening and shoves the younger away and drags Taemin into the cash register.

“You just saved me big time, hyung. Now ring this up.”

---

It only took a day for Luhan to receive the letter. He was in the middle of cleaning his closet when his mother opens his door and shoves the letter in his face.

“Isn’t he cute?” She coos, “He doesn’t call you on Skype but uses landline instead, and he’s sending you letters, actual letters not emails. Your father never did that to me. Why is Jongin born in this generation?”

He pushes her out and closes the door, not forgetting to press on the lock. He doesn’t touch the letter though, he just sat in his bed and stares at it. Luhan was like any other out there when he first learned about Jongin’s fondness over these things. But he had been pleased and actually gone fascinated at the reason why, the first time he received a call from him during his vacation in China, and their phone bill went skyrocket just before he left for Korea.

He remembered asking him if he ever uses his laptop, how he had laughed to know that the younger doesn’t really touch the gadget unless it’s for school purpose. Jongin had whined and Luhan may have not seen his reaction but hearing the younger’s voice with his eyes closed, it sounded so endearing he had been addicted and refused to end the call.

It was then that Luhan had appreciated their old phone despite not seeing Jongin’s face for a few days prior.

Jongin sounded a whole lot deeper over the phone, more affectionate, a lot confident. Definitely unlike everything but still sends the same amount of butterflies to his stomach. Not getting addicted was hard, his own mother had said so.

He scans the address penned at the envelope and traces the outline with his finger tip.

The same thing happened with letters. Jongin got Luhan through those well written letters. The first had been a blabbering mess and was hastily left in his locker but something had sparked within Luhan that it became his most favorite, so far. Jongin’s penmanship wasn’t good – not even neat, Luhan could tell how it changed into a beautiful work of art with the amount of letters he has in boxes stored quietly somewhere in his room.

However, receiving them through mails had escalated the feeling to another level. No matter how much Luhan sends him replies through emails whenever he’s in China, Jongin writes in ink and sends them express. It felt sacred, made him feel special, a treasure of Jongin. It gives him the reassurance that Jongin’s writing while thinking of him. Thinks of him as he erases the mistakes and writes everything over again.

It ignites the excitement in Luhan, the knowledge of someone remembering you and had made his way and effort to send you something as simple as a greeting card. The anticipation built up while waiting for it to arrive and the bliss as he starts to read. The sealed privacy it holds was more than enough.

It really was just different.

He thinks of the people that might have seen his letter before it arrived and smiles at the thought. It may be irrelevant to some now, but Luhan would like to think otherwise. Inked letters sends the same meaning but is actually so much divergent, so deeply. And Jongin talks more freely in letters than personally.

Jongin may not be like his friends or any other guy out there, but Luhan sees his reserved way of showing affection as more intimate than any of them could ever try.

---

The day before Luhan’s arrival, Jongin fishes his cellphone box underneath his bed.

---

Jongin was wearing his signature black outfit when Luhan spots him from the arrivals. He saunters over and waves at Sehun. Jongin quirks an eyebrow.

“Hyung, faster!”

He laughs and for a moment, Luhan realizes he had missed Jongin more than he had let the other knew. Luhan jogs towards them.

“God,” Sehun exasperatedly drawls when Jongin met Luhan in the middle and caught the older in a hug of the century. “You two define cheesiness to a whole new level. Stop being disgusting so early in the morning.” He deliberately pulls the tan from the older.

Jongin glares at him while Luhan hugs the pale, “What wrong have I done to you Sehun?”

“You drag me here, that’s what.” He spat but the spite wasn’t near in his words. “Now let’s go, I need more sleep.”

Although Sehun had protested, Jongin sat at the backseat with Luhan and let the younger serve his duty. He smirked at the mirror and laced his fingers with Luhan’s.

“Jongin?” Luhan leaned his head at the younger’s shoulder, closing his eyes.

“Hm?”

“You’re the one who sent me that message last night, right?” He tightens his grip when Jongin’s hand turned lax.

Jongin stares at the window, “Yeah.”

“Why?”

In his peripheral, Jongin catches Sehun’s inquiring gaze. He takes a breath, “Nothing special. Sehun said I should use them, besides I don’t want you go thinking I only know how to write in pen. Gotta keep up with the generation, you know.”

Luhan opens his eyes, and after a while, he smiles. He takes something out from his pocket with his other hand and pushes them to Jongin. “And I will start writing you letters in return.”

Jongin stares at his hand, at the small piece of note, at what’s written in neat curving, at the I don’t really care, and back at the window. He closes his palm and tucks the note in his pocket, hand already itching to write another letter for his Luhan.