ALL THIS TIME ― heejay ✓

no matter where you are,

Things are now officially very weird between the two of them. They quite literally don't know what to say around each other anymore, and it's the worst point of time in their long friendship, ever.

"Here's the last of the clothes," Heeseung says, hauling the box out of the makeup room into the living room and dragging it next to the spot where the TV used to be. Before they officially commence their comeback, they're moving to a different dorm, and Heeseung is responsible for packing all of their clothes into seven different boxes.

It reminds him of when he and his family had moved to a bigger house, when he was about twelve years old and too big to share a room with his then-fourteen-year-old brother, and he was in charge of packing his own things with the help of his brother for the more fragile items. This time, he's on his own.

Jake pops his head around the bedroom door. "Everyone clear some space by the door," he yells. "They're going to bring out the pieces of the beds!"

Instantly, Heeseung and Jay scramble to remove the stacks of boxes by the front door. Ni-ki comes over to help them, and in a few minutes, they're safely stacked in a different corner. Even as they do this, Heeseung and Jay don't exchange so much as a word. They barely even look at each other.

Sunoo and Jungwon emerge from the kitchen, each carefully carrying the boxes in their arms. "Here's all the plates and cups and stuff," Jungwon says, wincing at the clatter the box makes as he sets it down. "And yes, we did remember to put cloths and stuff at the bottom. We used a lot of bubble wrap from Ni-ki's punching bag."

Ni-ki's head shoots up. "Hey, I was saving those to pop," he complains with a frown.

At that moment, Heeseung and Jungwon's fathers emerge from the bedroom, lugging the different pieces of their bed frames. The two of them agreed to help with the moving process. The members move out of their way, continuing to pack up everything else left while the men load the bed frames onto the truck waiting outside.

Sunghoon appears in the doorway as soon as Mr. Lee and Mr. Yang move through. He'd been watching everything get loaded on, kind of like a security guard in case of emergencies. "Hey, it looks like it's going to rain soon," he says. "Hurry up with the packing. Heeseung hyung, your dad said to start bringing the boxes out so they can drive it to the new dorm before it does rain."

"Sure, thanks," Heeseung responds. He beckons to Sunoo, who helps him to take their boxes of clothes outside first. Each of the members grab their own box, including Sunghoon, and they take it outside, sliding them into the back of the truck.

Then Sunghoon and Jay each carefully carry the boxes of kitchen supplies while Jungwon and Sunoo carry the box with theirs and Jay's school textbooks and stationeries in them. Ordinarily, they would have given them away, but their school had reminded them not to since they'd need it for revisions the following year.

Within fifteen minutes, with the work of seven boys plus two men, the entire dorm is cleared out. Heeseung stares at it for a few minutes, feeling a sense of déjà vu, to when they first moved in, and even then, it hadn't been completely empty, the way it was now. He's going to miss this place a lot. He has a lot of good memories of the place.

"Heeseung hyung, come on," Jake calls from behind him. "We have to go."

Heeseung turns around and quickly walks toward their van, waiting to take them to their new home. When he gets into it, his heart skips a beat seeing the only free space beside Jay. Of course, even when he sits beside him, Jay doesn't say anything. Neither does he.

What is there to be said? Heeseung doesn't know, that's for sure. Ever since the fact that Jay likes him as more than a friend, as a crush, hit him like a truck a week ago, there's been almost no communication between them whatsoever. Even the members have noticed, but they're too afraid to ask what happened.