𝐉𝐀𝐘 had been observing his best friend for the past week. one day, all happy and giddy and jumpy. the next, showing up to their hangout looking like absolute shit and falling asleep every 5 seconds but jolting awake the next second due to a red, burning sensation in his puffy eyes.
he was worried, to say the least. what had happened on the day he was supposed to meet sunoo? jay was determined to find out.
jay rapped on niki's dorm door, shouting for him to open up. and when he did, jay wasn't surprised to see him still in his sleepwear at 2 pm on a tuesday, bed hair not tamed and eyebags prominent.
"you look like shit. let me in." niki, without saying a word, stepped aside and gestured for the older to come in.
"ew, niki, when was the last time you cleaned up your area? and where's nicholas? doesn't he get annoyed at this mess?" jay rambled on about niki's room. it was messy, but even that was an understatement.
"'course he does." niki yawned, shoving his laptop off the bed and climbed into bed as it clattered to the floor beside him.
"oh my god, niki. we'll fix this later. you got any classes today?"
"no." came a muffled answer from niki.
"alright, get dressed then. we're going out with the others." jay couldn't see it, but niki had the most annoyed, most deadly expression on his face below the covers.
"no."
jay huffed. this is what he expected.
he threw off the covers, revealing niki's curled-up body and the millions of shriveled-up tissues beneath the blanket.
"come on! i'll even help you pick out an outfit." jay exclaimed. niki perked up at that. he'd always wanted to be the victim of jay's fashion selection.
"fine. it better be a damn good outfit, though."
"only the best. now let's see what we have to work with..."
an hour later, niki's hair was styled and his outfit was chosen. jay put a bit of makeup on him to cover his eyebags, by the younger's request. and niki looked good. really good.
"wow, a whole new man! come on, the gang's waiting." jay pulled him out of his door, dragging him along the corridor while texting furiously on his phone.
eventually, they reached the exit and jay pushed the door open. and standing outside, in all their good friend glory, were niki's friends.
"niki!" jake was first to notice, bounding over like a happy puppy. "niki, i missed you! it's been awhile."
"it's been a week, jake. i missed you too, though." niki smiled at jake. despite their 2 year age gap, niki had become used to craning his neck down a bit since their obvious height difference was, well, obvious.
"hey, riki. you been doing alright? jake was really worried since he saw you drinking and then vanished at the party last week." sunghoon then appeared behind jake, putting an arm around the younger's waist.
"y-yeah..." niki trailed off, looking elsewhere and suddenly feeling hot and bothered at the memories flooding back.
jay noticed, and hurriedly barged into their conversation.
"guys, my boyfriend and his friend are waiting for us at heeseung's shop. let's go?" jay asked with a desperate smile plastered on his face.
"yeah. lets go." niki deadpanned, walking in the direction of the shop without saying anything else.
jake and sunghoon looked at each other, worried they had said something that made niki uncomfortable. sunghoon then sighed and intertwined their hands, pulling jake along to follow the others.
"jungwon!" jay said as he ran over to his boyfriend, as he was the first to enter. next was niki. and then was jake, who bumped into niki's back as he saw the younger was planted at the doorway to the shop.
his mouth was opened in shock, eyes widened. jungwon's friend was sunoo.
sunoo looked back at him to the sound of the ding, an equal expression now on his face as well. jay and jungwon looked up from their embrace, sensing something had happened. heeseung was also waiting to be acknowledged behind the counter, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.
in their silence, you could hear a needle fall onto the floor. or, you could hear sunoo's icecream filled spoon find its way to the ground below where sunoo dropped it.
"why..." sunoo started slowly. all eyes, if not already, turned to him. "why the FUCK is he here?!"
sunoo had launched up from his chair, pointing an accusing finger at niki who looked like he was about to melt.
"sunoo-" jungwon started.
"no. fuck this. i'm leaving." sunoo snatched his bag from the chair, stomping towards niki and then shoving his arm to the side. sunghoon saw jake in the way of sunoo's fury, and pulled jake into his chest toward the side.
they all watched in silence as sunoo stormed down the path and back toward the campus dorms. niki let out a shaky breath as nobody dared to say a word.
"riki. care to explain?" heeseung said with his chin in his palm, and elbow leaning on the counter.
niki didn't say anything as he pulled a chair to where jay and jungwon were, beckoning everyone to come over. and then he explained everything.
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