Frost

lonely boy (stay lonely)

"Morning." San called from the kitchen as he worked the coffee maker. "You look chipper." There was a smile tugging at his bottom lip, and light humor in his eyes.

Yeonjun promptly flipped him off.

"Coffee?" San asked, nodding towards the counter where three cups already stood lined up.

"Sure." Yeonjun answered, slipping into the pantry to get cereal.

San added a fourth cup to the line up.

Presently Wooyoung wandered out of his bedroom, and seeing Yeonjun expressionlessly chewing dry cereal poured himself some, walking over to the fridge for the milk.

It was quite early, and the only noise outside was the nurse down the street returning from her night shift and attempting to parallel park.

"Yeosang up yet?" San asked his boyfriend, and Wooyoung shook his head, eyes sleepily closing as he struggled to stay awake.

Coffee made its way around the table, and Yeonjun accepted his cup with a weak thank you, gulping the hot liquid as he unlocked his phone with a few taps of his left hand. His notifications showed two missed calls from his boss and a shit ton of messages from the group chat about some project they were supposed to research together.

"Wooyoung-ah, was I supposed to meet someone at the library yesterday?"

"What am I, your secretary?" Wooyoung grumbled, eyes still closed. "I don't think so, though."

Nodding, Yeonjun scrolled further back through his messages, trying to unscramble the mess of a conversation that took place without him the previous night.

As he finished his sad breakfast (if you could call it that), Yeosang stumbled into the kitchen, his crumpled tshirt riding up as he rubbed at his eyes. "What did I do last night? I feel like shit."

"You should." Yeonjun and San retorted immediately. Wooyoung merely groaned in agreement. He wasn't a morning person.

"I don't remember a thing." Yeosang grumbled, accepting his cup of coffee from San. It was unfair, Yeonjun thought off-handedly. Even half asleep and hung-over, Yeosang still looked ethereal while they all looked like they had some kind of spell backfired on them despite being stone-cold sober.

"Danny, what did you do yesterday?"

"Hmm?"

"Valentine's Day. What did you do?" Three pairs of eyes turned on him.

He flushed red. "Nothing."

Yeosang snorted, and Wooyoung shook his head, attempting to formulate a disapproving sentence but giving up half-way through.

San tilted his head a little, studying him. "Come to think of it, I've never seen you with anyone." He said, as if he was just realizing this now.

"Daniel's our resident bachelor." Wooyoung answered for him. "Sangie and I think he's got a sweetheart back in Korea, but he keeps denying it."

"Because it's not true!" Yeonjun protests. It's not true, despite how much he wished it was.

"Sure." Yeosang narrows his eyes. "Then who do you talk to for hours every weekend?"

Yeonjun doesn't even have to answer – Wooyoung smacks Yeosang on the head with a spoon, rolling his eyes. "His cousin, dumbass. We literally stalked his Insta, remember?"

"You what?"

"You surprised?"

Defeated, Yeonjun stood up to wash his bowl in the sink. The running water and the bubbling soap reminded him of Soobin – the way the blue-haired boy refused to ever use the dishwasher he had bought, and washed everything by hand despite the wrinkles covering his hands every single time.

"We need to get Danny a girlfriend." Yeosang decided suddenly. "Choi, what's your type?"

That was his cue to leave. "Bye Woo! Thanks for the coffee San, I hope to see you again! Give me back my keys Yeosang–!"

"What's the hurry?" he heard Yeosang pout as the door swung shut behind him.

"I told you! Got a sweetheart in Korea!" Wooyoung struck his fist against the table, and then their voices faded away as San murmured something, and the dishwasher was loaded with bowls and cups.

"Morning."

"Morning."

"So... I heard you graduated last week."

"Mm." Yeonjun sat on his bed, idly doodling on an old grocery list.

"How does it feel?" Soobin asked, voice cracking over the line as he moved.

"Same old." Yeonjun confessed. "Doesn't feel real yet."

"Mm." Soobin hums. He's nervous for some reason, and it puts Yeonjun on edge, to hear the nerves in his cousin's voice when he speaks. "So... you've been there for a year now."

Ah. That's what this was about. "I have." Yeonjun agreed.

"Are you still paying your mom's.."

"Mm."

"Oh."

"I'm paying for her rehab." Yeonjun told him, stupidly proud for some reason. "She got arrested when she tried to visit me, and they put her in this program to get sober, and I'm paying for her rehab now."

"That's good, isn't it?" Soobin asks weakly.

"I think so, yeah."

"So... what's next?" Soobin asks, and this time, his voice cracks for a different reason. "Are you staying there?"

"No." Yeonjun glances at the suitcases that stand by his door. "I love my friends, but no."

"Oh." Soobin's voice is quiet and small. "So... where to next? New York? You always said you wanted to visit New York."

"No, not New York." The plane tickets folded into his passport held a different destination.

"Then...?"

"Don't worry about it." Yeonjun said, feeling a small twinging feeling of guilt in his chest. "I'll call you back later, okay? I think Wooyoung's having trouble packing."

From somewhere deeper within the apartment, a crash sounded as Wooyoung attempted to jump on his suitcase to (unsuccessfully) close it, and Yeosang stood watching him with an impressed look on his face.

"You're moving with them?"

"No. We're splitting up at the airport."

"Ah. So you're still the infamous Mary Poppins." Soobin surmised. "Loner boy Choi."

Yeonjun winced as the line went dead. Why did people say it like it was so easy – being lonely?