if only you knew

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 19

after a few days, everything went back to normal between the three friends. all seungkwan had to do was act as if things were business as usual and ignore the looming presence of his feelings dangling above their heads.

surprisingly, this was actually pretty easy. maybe because his friends always wanted him to be comfortable. and seungkwan really appreciated that neither of his best friends pressured him to talk about his problems – probably because they knew he would clam up and run away.

so, with the idea of making things go back to normal, the three of them started stopping by each other's places again. wonwoo and seungkwan started visiting mingyu at work again and did their usual activity of begging mingyu for free food and making fun of him when the taller boy didn't bring them anything. the couple even began a new routine of visiting seungkwan at work. the three of them would play with the dogs and cats when things were slow. everything finally felt right.

but just when things seemed to reach a plateau, this usually meant that disaster would strike soon.

it was something small at first: mingyu tripped over his shoelaces the other day, and wonwoo, instead of smiling adoringly at his boyfriend, looked visibly annoyed. which, seungkwan didn't pay much mind to. everyone knew that the taller boy was extremely clumsy, so the novelty of the handsome boy's persistent clumsiness wore off pretty fast.  but this was wonwoo. this was the same guy who normally laughed embarassingly loud at the stupid jokes mingyu told or sometimes cooed at the taller boy's endearing mannerisms.

again, it was small things that were sprinkled out in their daily routines together. small enough for seungkwan to either not notice or things he willingly chose to ignore. things between the three of them finally felt normal, and seungkwan finally didn't feel pressured around his best friends anymore.

this in turn lifted his mood, which the rest of their friends instantly noticed. even his own family members noticed, which started the ongoing joke that seungkwan was, maybe, finally, seeing someone after a long drought.

the joke was funny at first. his friends were unsure if it was true at first, but as seungkwan smiled bashfully and waved them off each time the joke was brought up, they all began to suspect that the rumor (started by soonyoung, of course) actually may have had some truth to it.

so seungkwan's friends made a betting pool to guess who the possible stranger could have been. some of his friends, including one of seungkwan's older sisters, suspected that it was the cute boy who worked at the supermarket, while others suspected it was probably a random tourist.

once word of the betting pool had reached wonwoo and mingyu, neither of them were particularly happy at the concept. the older one said it was immature, and the younger one insisted that it was an invasion of seungkwan's privacy. soonyoung made an offhand joke that they were just jealous, which both of them got visibly irritated at and resulted in them storming off in different directions. 

soonyoung, and the rest of them assumed that they were just upset that seungkwan may have been dating someone and kept it a secret from them. anyone would have been hurt by the news, so the group of friends just shook it off and went about their day. though, soonyoung couldn't shake the idea that there may have been something deeper lying underneath their intense reactions. he felt that he wasn't in any place to ask, so he just kept those thoughts to himself.

of course, seungkwan wasn't dating anyone. he was just happy for the first time in a while. he was so happy that he didn't bother squashing the secret lover rumor or interfere with the betting pool that seokmin had already spilled the beans about. he'd let his friends run with it longer since it entertained them so much.