his iphone fucks up again before deleting all of his contacts earlier this week and kyungsoo knows he shouldn't risk sending such a picture of himself when he can barely recall the numbers but heungsoo /insists/ on wanting to take a look at the new bathroom their parents have just renovated. what could be wrong? kyungsoo has sent his brother a gazillion texts before and he knows for sure heungsoo hasn't changed his number since his last girlfriend (which was three years ago, heungsoo is very proud to say though kyungsoo just thinks he's whipped... but that's not his fucking business) so yes. he's in a tub, taking a good, long bath after a long day at college and then, he snaps a picture. complete with a peace sign and a huge smiling face, making sure that the mural on the wall that their mother has personally designed can be seen from the photo. exellent.

---

he presses /send/.

---

a few seconds later, his mobile phone buzzes and this is what that makes kyungsoo scream aloud, very nearly dropping the device into the tub.

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/nice wall.. but who are you?/

---

kyungsoo hurriedly checks the number that he has sent the selfie to and groans. of /course/, it's not heungsoo's number but some stranger who-- wait. a new message from the guy? what the hell? he slides his thumb across the screen and is greeted with a picture of a boy not older than himself, smiling as widely as he had earlier with a caption:

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/hey, i'm jongin. you?/

---

-

---

thank you for the prompt yesi!!! sorry it took so long ;~; i hope you'll like this! <3

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it's hard, minseok knows, to accept rejection when it's right in your face. this isn't quite that, though. minseok is telling sehun that there is someone better for him, that there is someone else he's involved with now and that to accept sehun's feelings would be disrespectful to himself and the person he loves. sehun is quiet, unlike his usual bubbly, mischievous self. he must have struck a chord within the younger boy.

---

"i'm sorry," minseok whispers, leaning back against his seat. sehun has left his cup of coffee untouched. he looks like he's about to cry and heaven helps minseok because he wouldn't /know/ what to do if that happens. he considers reaching over to give a comforting squeeze but he's not sure if sehun needs that, right now from him. "sehun?"

---

"no," he finally says, looking up at minseok. his gaze is soft, defeated. "/i'm/ sorry for putting you in this position. i... i just thought i should let you know before you leave."

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"i appreciate that, sehun. i really do and i'm sorry i don't reciprocate your feelings. you're nice, handsome, smart and you're funny..."

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"but you're with someone now." sehun says, almost sharply before taking a shaky breath in an attempt to calm himself down. he's so child-like when he's being like this, minseok realises, a smile inevitably forming upon his lips. like a patient teacher, minseok himself inhales slowly and explains.

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"sehun, me not loving you back doesn't make you any less of a person. i like you a lot, as a student, as a young friend, as a /brother/, but not more than that. i'm just setting this clear, i'm not rejecting you out of my life... i'm not doing that. i'm just telling you that i don't have romantic feelings for you."

---

sehun is quiet once more at his words, finally taking a sip of his coffee, seeming to be deep in thoughts. "we can still be friends?" there is a hesitant smile on his face as he says this but minseok thinks he hears the understanding in his voice, as if whatever minseok has said had finally settled inside of him.

---

this is a good start. sehun isn't that bad of a person and minseok truly enjoys his company; he doesn't mind being friends.

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taking the train towards the city from line one is always the hardest at this time; employees returning after work and students bustling into the train to get home before the sky turns really dark. yixing doesn't remember staying in school so late during his time. school's sure getting harder these days. carefully hoisting his guitar case against his shoulder, yixing slips a hand into his back pocket for his mobile phone. a text message from minseok.

---

/are you on your way home?/ yixing smiles at the picture minseok has attached along with the text message -- fried rice and chicken wings, complete with his favourite jug of lemonade! he's about to type a reply when someone taps him. yixing turns. and nearly stumbles backwards as soon as he catches sight of who it is.

---

it's luhan.

---

"what the hell?" yixing blurts out before covering his mouth at the outburst when several commuters turn towards them, eyebrows knitted in disapproval at the less than welcoming language. luhan raises an eyebrow but the smile doesn't falter. yixing pockets his phone and stares.

---

"nearly a decade of not seeing me and this is all you have to say?" there is a playful lilt to his voice; luhan is not offended and he looks more than happy to see him (they had been good friends before and to be honest, yixing misses luhan a lot, even now as he looks at him -- slightly chubbier, crow's feet already forming with his famous eyesmile and five o'clock shadow grazing his disappearing jawline...). "how are you?"

---

yixing has approximately fourteen stops left. he doesn't respond to luhan's question immediately, choosing to give him a tight-lipped smile instead and moving further into the train cabin so he is leaning against the walls. luhan follows suit and now, they are standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder. rewind ten years and yixing didn't think that this would happen; /black pearl/ thought luhan has left for good and all of them had given up trying to keep in touch with their former vocalist. minseok had been gutted -- this is one fact yixing can never forget (and forgive luhan for).

---

"i've been... good," yixing says, slowly. luhan gives him a look and yixing thinks he knows the question teetering on the edge of his old friend's lips, it's a question that had been around for a few years since he left, only disappearing in the recent years because maybe that's how long it takes for you to get over your friend and bandmate leaving you. it had hurt. maybe it still does. a little. "i didn't expect to see you, here."

---

"i'm always around, you know," luhan says. he takes out his mobile phone and types something real quick before pocketing it once more. "sorry. some work matters. so... yes. i heard you and minseok..." he trails off, a hint of a smile playing upon his lips and yixing bristles at that, though he's unsure why he's so annoyed.

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