"it looks like he's on the phone," heeseung pointed out, tugging on the hand he was holding.

hearing heeseung, as discreetly as possible, jay slightly turned his head to glance at the man. he looked to be arguing with someone on the phone. it seemed that when the conversation was over the man began to walk away from the two.

"heeseung look! h-he's leaving! he's walking away," jay whisper shouted, his eyes wide. the man was finally leaving and jay couldn't contain his smile.

the entire time jay spoke, heeseung couldn't take his eyes off of him. i want to see him smile more. a slight smile was growing on heeseung's face as he watched jay. though as jay was beginning to turn his head back to the front, heeseung quickly cleared his throat and wiped the smile right off his face, sharply turning to the front.

after walking for a couple more minutes heeseung was about to say something but was quickly cut off by a voice unfamiliar to jay.

"yo, heeseung is here!" jay, startled, quickly looked up upon hearing the loud voice. unfortunately for jay, as soon as he raised his head, his eyes met with 5 pairs of unfamiliar ones. they were all spread out, sitting on the park benches. oh shit. what the fuck do i do. why are there so many?

in the midst of his distress, jay unconsciously tightened his hold on heeseung's hand. in concern, heeseung glanced at jay, tugging on their intertwined hands to get jay's attention.

"are you ok?" heeseung whispered, leaning closer to make sure only jay could hear him.

in response jay nodded his head, quickly putting on a smile. it's alright, i can do this. as jay was internally cheering himself on heeseung began to introduce his friends to jay.

"guys, this is jay." heeseung introduced jay and immediately after, he began to put a name to all of the unfamiliar faces jay saw, "starting from the left that's sunoo, niki, sunghoon, jake, and jungwon ."

as heeseung said each of their names they would follow up with a "hi" or "hello" and jay would respond with a small wave.

when the two went to finally sit down their hands were separated and before heeseung had the chance to grab jay's hand the person to the right interrupted and introduced themselves to jay again.

"jay, right? hi, i'm jungwon," the boy beside him spoke with a smile, jay's eyes immediately catching his cute cheeks adorned with a dimple. aw, so cute. i want to pinch his cheeks.

"yes, you can pinch them," shocked, jay covered his mouth, wondering how he knew what he was thinking. "it's what everyone wants to do when they first meet me," jungwon shrugged with a small laugh.

"go ahead," he said, leaning towards jay with a small smile, his head tilted so that jay can easily pinch his cheeks.

shyly, jay reached out a hand and softly pinched jungwon's cheek. after he retracted his hand, jay quietly giggled and whispered to himself, "soft."

the two continued conversing, getting to know one another. eventually niki and sunoo decided to join them. the atmosphere around the four of them became more comfortable after getting a good conversation going. soon enough there were smiles all around. while everyone else was distracted, seeing this as their chance, sunghoon and jake approached heeseung.

"why were y'all holding hands?" sunghoon was the first to speak up, wiggling his eyebrows, a slight smirk gracing his lips.

when the words left sunghoon's lips heeseung immediately looked to the others, making sure they didn't hear anything. "if the others heard what you just said they'd have a field trip teasing me," heeseung grimaced at the thought.

"you're lucky it was sunghoon and i who noticed. you would've been done for if the younger ones saw it. they're ruthless," jake shivered at the thought of the trio. as if they knew they were being talked about, the three quickly turned to look at the older boys.

"oh shit," heeseung, jake, and sunghoon said simultaneously.

"what are y'all talking about?" niki said, giving them the stink eye. the three gulped in nervousness.

"nothing," the three said, chiming in simultaneously once again.

"hmmm, ok." sunoo spoke, looking at the them suspiciously. deciding it was not worth it the three youngest turned back to jay who seemed to be completely lost.

"back to the earlier conversation-," jake started but was cut off by heeseung.

"forget about it. let's go," heeseung said nodding his head toward the group of four. as heeseung joined in the conversation the other four were having, sunghoon whispered to jake.

"very suspicious," sunghoon said, leaning toward jake who blushed at the close proximity. though he pushed his embarrassment aside, quickly recovering, and responded in agreement.

"mhm, very." jake said squinting his eyes at heeseung.

~

jay quietly laughed to himself as he watched sunghoon and sunoo argue with each other. he was getting prepared to break up the third argument they had this past hour, but his phone ringing stopped him. yeonjun was calling him.

jay briefly excused himself and got up to walk away from the group, heeseung following right after him.

"hello?" jay spoke into the phone, looking behind him to see heeseung approaching.

"seong, i don't think i'm gonna make it home tonight. dad has us all working our asses off on this project. i need to finish these papers, i'm sorry." when jay heard what yeonjun had said, the happiness he felt only seconds ago had completely dissipated, and the smile on his face was wiped off.

"oh, that's ok. i can just stay by myself tonight." not wanting to worry his brother, jay decided he would be brave and stay alone tonight.

"are you sure?" yeonjun asked, concern laced in his voice. even though he couldn't see it, jay put on a smile and did his best to reassure his brother.

"yes, i'm sure. it's fine."

"alright then, i gotta go. bye." before jay could even respond, yeonjun had already hung up, jays unspoken words dying down in his throat.

of course jay was disappointed, but he knew work always came first. he shouldn't even care at this point, but he couldn't help the overwhelming sadness he felt. before could jay think anymore heeseung spoke up in concern.

"what was that about?" jay flinched hearing his voice, forgetting heeseung was there.

"nothing, let's head back," jay said, putting a smile on his face. before heeseung could say anything else, jay turned around and left. as jay walked back to the group, heeseung's concern grew. why is he acting like that?

when the two had finally come back they got some questioning glances from jake and sunghoon but nothing was said. the group of seven continued talking late into the night until someone spoke up.

"it's getting late we should head home," jungwon said, apparently being the only one who had noticed the time. everyone hummed in agreement gathering their trash, getting ready to leave.

"let's go," heeseung said from behind jay who jumped again at the sound of his voice.

"ok," jay said, making it short, not in the mood to talk.

the two went around saying bye to everyone. unknown to jay, sunghoon and jake got heeseung's attention, sending him kissy faces and smirking. in response heeseung rolled his eyes, tempted to give them the bird.

"lead the way then," heeseung said softly as he spoke to jay, finally picking up on the fact that jay was easily startled.

~

"well this is it. thank you for walking me home, and for helping me with the strange man," jay was so grateful to have heeseung today. he didn't know how to put it into words so he settled for a simple thank you. it was a bit weak, but it did the job.

"it's no problem, jay." heeseung said, the beginnings of a smile starting to appear on his face.

"i guess this is goodbye then," jay spoke. he found himself feeling sad, it felt like he was saying bye to heeseung forever. who knew when they'd see each other again.

"it seems so. bye jay, sleep well." heeseung said, also saddened by the fact that this might be the last time they see each other for a while. so, he took the time he had left to just look at jay. to analyze every detail and commit it to memory.

"bye heeseung," jay said, with a bittersweet smile on his face, slowly closing the door as he watched heeseung walk away.

once the door was finally shut, jay sighed. sleep well he said. that will be next to impossible. true to his thoughts, jay spent the night tossing and turning, the overwhelming anxiety he constantly felt keeping him up that night.