"Who said you weren't part of my happiness, Jisung? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even have had the balls to ask Jieun out. Heck, I don't think I could actually function without you Ji. You mean a lot to me. Yes, Jieun's important to me, but you've been there for me since forever. I honestly wouldn't have made it this far without you Jisungie." Chenle didn't even know exactly what he said.

He just said whatever was on his heart, and to say the least, Jisung was touched. His eyes widened with every sentence that came out of the elder's mouth.

"So don't tell me giving my best friend some affection is wrong, because it's not. Friends do that all the time, and Jieun understands. I'm sure of it." The elder said, smiling, but on the inside, he felt this wrenching gut feeling.

Like something was awfully off.

"Are you--"

"Stop being a worry wort, Ji. We have like, twenty minutes left, let's go get some ice cream yeah?"

And with that, the two boys went off to get themselves a nice cold treat.

While Jisung was eating his ice cream, he kept thinking about what Chenle had said to him. It sure made his heart flutter and stomach do flips, but the one cursed word made all of that fall into a pit of despair.

Friend.

How badly could he be friend zoned? Really badly. The fact that the elder made it sound like some kind of love confession made it all the worse for Jisung. It was to the point now that he absolutely despised the butterflies floating around carelessly in his stomach. He hated his accelerated and irregular heart beat. He hated the scarlet color that painted his cheeks. He hated the tingles of bliss and excitement that shot through his body.

He hated all of it.

Jisung just wanted these stupid feelings to just disappear so that he can just be Chenle's best friend and nothing more. But not everything can go his way. And it sucked, feeling multiple arrows full of immense pain go through his heart at alarming rates.

Call the boy dramatic, but that's just how he felt.

He wanted Chenle so bad. So bad.

He wanted to shower the elder with all the affection he had to give. He wanted to taste and feel the elder's lips on his. He wanted to hold the elder in his arms and never let him go. He wanted to be the cause of Chenle's brightest smiles.

But he couldn't and he wasn't.

🐬

Jisung sighed as he slowly swung himself back and forth on on of the swing on the empty swing set. Fall was leisurely coming to an end, and Jisung noticed the small amounts of cooler breezes passing by kissing his nose and cheeks. He enjoyed the cooled air around him, it felt fresher for some reason.

He was just staring into a space, tuning out the squeaks coming from the old swing until he started to notice another set of squeaks. He looked to the side to see Jaemin smiling softly at him.

His eyes didn't match his smile though.

"What's wrong Nana-hyung?" Jisung asked, a look of concerned washing over his features.

It was then when he noticed the quite prominent bruise on his left cheek. Only then did he rushed over to the swing Jaemin was sitting on.

"What happened?"

"My mother. She found out that I was gay, and then one thing led to another. So now, I'm basically homeless." Jaemin summarized, heaving a long sigh afterwards.

"You can always crash at my place hyung. It's not like my parents are home half of the time anyways." Jisung offered.

"Thank you so much Ji. You're like the little brother I never had, always there to support me when times turns shitty." The elder ruffled up the younger's hair, smiling softly.

"I mean, you do the same for me hyung." Jisung returned Jaemin's smile.

He was thankful to have such a great friend like Jaemin. With that being said, he was sure going to somehow hook Jaemin up with Renjun and Jeno. It's not like he needed to do much anyways, as the other two already seemingly have a crush on the pink haired boy.

Jisung made his way back to his swing and began to rock back and forth like he did before, but now happily chatting with his hyung.

From a distance, Chenle was on his way home after walking Jieun back to her house. He wanted to stop by the park for some alone time and tranquility, but as he entered through the gates, he spotted the two males happily interacting with each other.

To the green haired male, they looked like they were in their own little world. Just being themselves, enjoying each other's presence. He didn't know why but he felt his stomach knot up again.

He felt upset watching the scene in front of him. Why? It wasn't like Jisung was in any way his property or anything.

But his gut was telling him otherwise. He felt a strong feeling bubble up from inside of him. He wanted to be sitting where Jaemin was sitting. He wanted to talk to Jisung about stupid irrelevant things and end up laughing their asses off.

It was odd. Chenle furrowed up his brows in confusion, was this jealousy he was feeling? He never felt jealousy this intense in his whole entire life. Not even when Jieun was hanging out with her guy friends, he just sat there not really giving a damn.

Oh shit. Was this normal?

The chinese male bit his top lip, as he tried thinking of a possible reason for this reaction. He was so deep in thought, he didn't even notice the two males waving their hands in front of his face as they called out his name.

"Chenle."

"Lele."

"Hello? Earth to dolphin boy?"

"H-Huh?" Chenle finally snapped out of his trance, eyes darting from Jisung's and Jaemin's perplexed faces.

"We just saw you standing here intensely staring at that tree." Jaemin said, jabbing his thumb at the direction of a tree near the swing set.

Chenle noticed the large purple mark on Jaemin's face and immediately asked the elder if he was okay.

"I'm fine Chenle. No need to worry about me, you should be worrying more about a certain boy's feelings instead." The elder stated bluntly, pinching the younger's cheek while he was at it.

"A certain boy's feelings? What do you mean Jaemin-hyung?" Chenle's head slightly cocked to the side, his face presenting a puzzled expression.

On the other hand, Jisung's eyes widened and he discreetly pinched the eldest male's side. He knew exactly what Jaemin was doing and he was sure going to have to go move to Alaska real soon.

🐥

the automatic cards on

sm superstar are so pretty

but ya gorl's too broke

for that