There was a tension surrounding Beomgyu and Taehyun, and the first to notice was Kai.

And said tension was not the kind Hyuka wanted them to have, especially not them avoiding each other whenever they had the chance. Well it was more likely Beomgyu doing the avoiding, Taehyun on the other hand must've thought of it as a coping mechanism of sorts and decided to give his roommate space by avoiding him as well.

At some point Kai is confused by his Beomgyu-hyung's actions from the past few days. Especially the avoidance, and for one Kai knows the older male never leaves Taehyun's side; they were pretty much attached to the hip.

'Seriously what is happening?' Hyuka says internally.

This suddenly started right after their field trip, and it's been going on for days.

'Did something happen at Busan?' Kai wonders, because as he recalls there was nothing unforeseen that happened during at that time.

Sighing, Kai continues to climb the stairs, he was going to the rooftop to atleast get a breather. Beomgyu was nowhere to be found, and so was Taehyun. Hopefully, the two of them decided to talk it out and reconcile so it wouldn't be too awkward if ever.

As he opens the door to the rooftop area, a breeze hits his face making his hair get pushed back showing his forehead. The rooftop area was large and empty, however Kai spotted a figure leaning against the railings, a familiar female with brown hair.

Kai takes a few steps fowards right after closing the door, it was quite unusual seeing her here. But at the same time he was glad that he did.

Said student seems to notice his presence as she looks over her shoulder, eyes meeting Hyuka's. They stared for over tem seconds maximum before Kai spoke up.

"You skipped class?" he asked, stopping beside her, arms rested on the railings.

Moh-wa shakes her head, "Free period," she looks at Kai accusingly. "Did you?"

"We got dismissed early," Kai groans, stretching his arms up high. He lets out a huff right after, arms down as he takes in the view of the football field.

"There's something going on with Beomgyu-hyung and Taehyunie," Kai began, eyes not looking at Moh-wa. "There avoiding each other, well more specifically Beomgyu's avoiding Taehyun and Tyun's making it worst by lettimg him do it."

"Never took Beom as the avoidant type," Moh-wa says, she frowns at the sky, pursing her lips. "Never took Tae for a tolerant either."

"No they aren't which makes it confusing," Kai ruffles his hair in frustration. "Did somwthing happen at Busan that we didn't know about?"

Moh-wa shrugs, "Well whatever it is, it must be serious for Beomgyu to do the avoiding. That guy never avoids Taehyun."

Kai hums, "Yeah," and then there was silence, the two friends stayed quiet, the wind playing around with their hair.

"I don't like this." Moh-wa snaps her gaze at Kai who said those words, he had a frown on his face, eyes glancing down at the football field.

"It feels like something's slipping away," Kai mutters, voice low and Moh-wa can see his hands forming into fists. She looks at the latter, in terms of reassurance and assurance Moh-wa has no skill in both.

"If someone wants to let it slip then they'd do it intentionally," she says, earning a look from Kai. "But sometimes, there are people who take awhile to come into terms with a certain feeling. Either they're not used to it, or they've never experienced it before."

"So you're saying is that, Beomgyu-hyung has a feeling he has yet to come into terms with?"

Mo-hwa shrugs, "Dunno, most probably so. Gyu's forté is more on intellect and logic, he must be dealing with something very illogical in his perspective and the problem may or may not be coming from himself. Some smart people tend to do that y'know?"

"Damn," Kai laughed. "So you're saying Beomgyu-hyung's in love?"

"I didn't say that, what got you that idea?"

Kai looks at her with a smirk, "Aren't we all scared of falling in love at one point? Knowing hyung, he's probably overanalysing everything."

"Not exactly a good thing, huh?" Moh-wa comments.

"Beomgyu-hyung's smart, Hwa," Kai says. "He'll come around eventually."

"Hopefully," Moh-wa murmurs.

Kai lets out a sigh, not of relief or defeat but just one that he didn't know he was holding. Then his eyes moved instinctively down to Moh-wa's left wrist, it was blank, the young Huening blinks, mouth agape as if he expected something to still be there.

"Hey, the butterfly I drew last time's gone," Kai points out.

"Of course it's gone, Hyuka," Moh-wa chuckles, "You can't expect it to just stay there forever, the ink from your pen got washed away right after we left Busan." she says, holding out her left wrist to Kai, showing him that the drawing he drew during the campfire back in Busan was now gone.

"Should've used a permanent marker," Kai pouts as he held her wrist, bringing it closer to him for closer inspection.

The butterfly he drew really was gone.

"Please don't, dad will kill me if he sees it, even if it's pretty," Moh-wa jokes, although she was hald serious about her dad when he sees it, Mr. Jung was never fond of tattoos.

"Is it okay if I redraw it?" Hyuka asked, eyes on Moh-wa, ignoring her statement about her dad possibly killing her because of a tattoo.

She smiled amusingly, "Not that I'm complaining but why is it always a butterfly?"

Kai doesn't give her answer but he gives her a cheeky smile, "Because why not?"

Rolling her eyes, Moh-wa eventually gives in. "Fine, do as you please."

Beaming, Kai quickly takes a pen from his vest and began drawing butterflies on Moh-wa's wrist. The young Huening drew three of them using the pen to color as well.

There was something so therapeutic about Kai drawing butterflies onto her wrist, she doesn't know why.

But it was therapeutic.

After a few doodles here and there, once Kai deems his work satisfactory he lets go of Moh-wa's wrist with a smile.

"Done!"

And also, maybe because Kai's smile becomes even wider whenever he draws said butterflies.

+×+

Beomgyu feels. . . frustrated and exhausted.

Who knew feelings were such a tiring thing when you try to get into the bottom most part of the 'whys' and 'what ifs'. Funny thing about it is that there was no logical reason as to why he has such extreme feelings for Taehyun.

Beomgyu knows that he could very much label this as such as a case of extreme puppy love.

But somehow he doesn't like the sound of extreme puppy love, Beomgyu refuses to label his feelings as just temporary and could easily fade whenever.

He hates it, and he hates how selfish it is.

And somehow Beomgyu also starts hating the word temporary and crush altogether, because these two words only had one thing in common; they don't last.

He feels like he is at a lost right now, well maybe in a slump to be more specific. Somehow Beomgyu can't quite understand his feelings when it comes to love, he could only describe it as explosive and boiling away from room temperature.

Wasn't this a bad sign?

Isn't love supposed to be calm?

Does that mean Beomgyu's feelings aren't love?

Shit, no wait, what? Okay this is confusing and down right terrifying because Beomgyu can feel himself freaking out by the thought. And this is where Beomgyu gets confused of himself, he's telling himself he can't be with Taehyun but at the same time he doesn't like the fact that his feelings weren't a form of love.

Beomgyu ruffles his hair violently, falling in love is supposed to be as easy as breathing! And how come does Beomgyu feel like he's suffocating?!

This isn't fair, isn't falling in love suppose to be the most awesome and romantic feeling ever?!

Then why the heck is Beomgyu getting pissed and frustrated?!

It isn't making sense at all!

Why the heck–

"Beomgyu-hyung?" a voice calls him out, and just a mere mention of his own name Beomgyu freezes. His mind blank and his heart was beating faster by the seconds.

'Oh shit,' Beomgyu thought as soon as he sees Taehyun walking towards him.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!'

"Taehyun, hey!" Beomgyu chuckles, failing miserably in keeping cool.

"Beomgyu-hyung," the younger male smiled at him as he said his name. The smile was effective enough to make Beomgyu's knees feel psychologically weak, this might be one of those symptoms he was looking for.

And he is definitely regretting it.

Somehow, the smile was gone when Taehyun came closer and was replaced with a frown.

'Oh no, he even looks cute when he does.'

"You okay?" asked Taehyun, stopping right in front of the older male. Eyes boring into the older's brown ones.

"Uh, yeah of course," Beomgyu chuckles, internally panicking when he sees the eyes that literally hold a universe staring at him.

He can't look away, never really planned to.

"You sure? You've been acting strange for the past few days. Is everything alright? Is there something. . ." Taehyun asked again, this time he could hear the concern in his tone, his brows arching.

'Shit, you're so beautiful.'

Beomgyu somehow wasn't answering him, too caught up watching Taehyun's face change with every emotion he lets out. And concern is very much shown a lot, this somehow got Beomgyu thinking.

'Do you like me?'

He was still staring at Taehyun as the younger rambles on, somehow Beomgyu might've accidentally muted him out from himself.

'Do you like me too, baby?'

"Gyu-hyung? Are you listening to me?"

The question eventually managed to snap Beomgyu out of his reverie, completely forgetting the fact that Taehyun was talking to him.

"Uh yeah, one hundered percent," Beomgyu says, distracted.

Somehow his answer made Taehyun looked even more worried.

"You're lying," the younger said.

"What? Taehyun what do mea–"

"You're avoiding me," Taehyun pointed out, "Ever since we got back from Busan you've been avoiding me. You think I didn't notice the changes hyung?"

What? Since when did he — oh.

Beomgyu's eyes widen slightly as he recalled all his actions from the previous days. He really did avoid Taehyun, but it wasn't intentional he swears, he was just too caught up with in decoding what he feels that he completely forgotten about Taehyun.

"Did I do something?" Taehyun asked, a little more distressed. "Or. . .or said something that offended you? Hyung please tell me–"

"Oh my— Tae I'm so sorry I–" he couldn't believe what the younger was saying, and Beomgyu couldn't help but feel guilty that he was the cause that made Taehyun think as such.

"You've never done anything that offended me, I swear Taehyun-ah and I am so sorry that I made you feel that way." Beomgyu takes Taehyun's hands and held them tight, just enough for the younger to feel his assurance as he looks at him in the eye. "It was never my intention to avoid you, trust me. I just got too caught up with what I'm dealing with, but I can assure you it has nothing to do with you."

That was a lie, his feelings for Taehyun got him too caught up but he really doesn't want the younger to think that he was the cause of a problem Taehyun had no idea with. And Beomgyu knew that if he did said the you get was the root of it all, and Taehyun was smart, he'd asked why is he the root and what was the problem and Beomgyu knew that he couldn't give him an answer to that, he would refuse too.

It was pretty much like adding even more fuel to the flame, and Beomgyu didn't want that.

"Then what's troubling you? Maybe I can help," Taehyun asked, eyes still on Beomgyu to which the older male happily held his gaze.

'I don't wanna risk this us, Taehyun-ah.'

"As much as I wanna tell you," Beomgyu gently lets go of the younger's right hand to tuck a strand of hair away from Taehyun's face. "I can't right now, I'm still coming to terms with it really. Trying to figure out something about myself, it's still on going but don't worry—I'm okay."

Taehyun pursed his lips, and somehow Beomgyu had the sudden urge to lean closer and kiss him. And then Taehyun's eyes went back to look at him, Beomgyu's heart isn't doing well.

"Alright," Taehyun says. "But if it gets too much hyung," the younger lightly squeezes Beomgyu's hands. "Talk to me, I'll listen to you."

Even though Beomgyu knows he can't tell Taehyun as of now, his heart melted like a puddle when the younger said to talk to him, and he'll listen. They were just words, but Beomgyu can't help but feel warm because of them.

"Okay," Beomgyu breathes out, embracing the younger boy into a warm hug. "I will, and I'm really sorry for avoiding you."

Taehyun could only hum as he burrowed his face onto the older's shoulder, he then looks up at Beomgyu. "Y'know this is the first hug we had for the past few days."

"Then I'll hug you everyday," Beomgyu says, hugging Taehyun a little tighter.

He won't think too much about his feelings right now, not when he almost ruined his friendship with Taehyun. As long as he doesn't push the younger away, as long as he doesn't hurt him unintentionally.

Beomgyu won't drift away from Taehyun either.

__________________________________________________

Note: somehow I expected myself to write their miscommunication arc but ended up writing Beomgyu assuring Taehyun not that I'm complaining. I think my heart's had enough with miscommunication😂😅

I hope you liked the chapter:)

-Ria