after pouring his heart out, stell went down to the lobby with paulo where josh, ken, justin, and apollo waited for them.

josh happily greeted and ken walked towards the other two to give them a hug which they gladly accepted.

josh said, teasing ken with how excited he was to see paulo.

pau laughed and lightly hit ken's head in a joking way.

josh then proceeded to greet stell. it's quite an awkward moment for them as well since they know that stell's still probably mad at them.

stell only smiled and offered his hand to josh but the younger hugged him instead, catching him off guard.

josh said while still hugging stell and later on, ken joined the hug, squeezing stell in between the two of them.

stell's heart felt light. he missed them too.

fortunately, stell was the tallest among the three of them so they didn't succeed to squeeze him to death. they all laughed after that and started teasing each other.

ken pulled the other by the arm, bringing him infront of stell.

apollo said and extended his arm infront of the other. stell took a brief look at his hand before gently taking it but with a firm grip after.

he said and smiled timidly before letting apollo's hand go.

stell noticed how justin only stood behind them, carefully watching their short interaction. but when his eyes met justin's, the younger immediately gave him a small smile.

stell gulped and put his hands inside his pockets, fighting the urge to do something stupid that he might regret later on.

justin opened his mouth and was about to speak again but stell suddenly turned to their friends.

he said and they all agreed.

this is gonna be a long night indeed.