The Project 'Buddy'

~11~

"At least it's nearing its end," Jay said dramatically, putting a hand on his forehead. Heeseung snorted.

Finally, K turned to Jungwon, Sunoo and Jake.
"And you guys are?" He asked politely, smiling.

"Oh! We're friends of Niki!" Sunoo answered, smiling brightly, his smile wide.

"Who are friends of me?" A deep voice was heard from behind them. Jungwon turned around and his jaw dropped to the floor when he saw Niki approaching them, a chocolate ice cream cone in his hand.

"Oh? Niki, these are your friends?" K asked.

Niki looked over at his three friends and smiled sweetly. "No."

"Yah, Nishimura!" Sunoo scolded and Niki laughed. He nodded towards K and corrected himself, "yeah, yeah. They're my friends slash old seniors."

"Pfft, who you calling old, you giant maknae," Jake scoffed, and Niki gave him a dramatic offended look.

K laughed. "Okay, okay. Well, my name is K and I'm friends with Heeseung, Jay, Nicholas and Sung-wait, where is that penguin?" K looked past Jay who was at the end, but didn't see no Sunghoon. "And Nicholas?"

"He couldn't make it. Senior shit," Jay informed and K rolled his eyes, relating.

"And Nicholas' cousins are over sooo," Heeseung added and K nodded, a small 'o' forming on his lips.

"Well, yeah. That's me! Anyway, I suppose you guys tagged along here because our dear bambi invited you all?" K looked around and the three of them nodded.

"Wait....bambi?" Jake grinned at the pet name used for Heeseung.

Heeseung flushed bright red as Jay and K snorted out laughs. "Yeah, we nicknamed him that because he always looked like some deer in headlights whenever he was surprised or confused. It's honestly cute, hyung," Jay teased and Heeseung glared at him.

K laughed. "Okay, don't fight. I'll go get your ice cream now. What would you guys like? Consider it my motivational gift for the last year of studying," K told the 6 men, winking.

They cheered and each of them told K their orders. While he went to buy the ice creams, the guys decided on how to sit down at the round table.

"Let me be in the middle," Heeseung offered, and the others allowed him. They started filling in the spaces beside him. On Heeseung's left, Jake, Sunoo and Niki sat beside him. Much to Jake's utter dismay, Heeseung forced him to sit beside him, and Jake was not just facing his left to avoid Heeseung's eyes.

On his right, Jungwon sat in next to Heeseung, leaving Jay to fill up the spot next to him. At one point, Jake was bickering with Heeseung and pushed the older by the shoulder, causing a chain reaction of Heeseung bumping into Jungwon and Jungwon.....

Getting caught by the shoulders by Jay as his hands supported himself by gripping Jay's knees so he wouldn't fall face flat into Jay's lap.

The touch made Jungwon froze. Jay also seemed in some shocked state because he only helped Jungwon adjust himself after a few seconds. The older made sure Jungwon sat upright again, careful to only move him by the shoulders.

"Uh...thanks," Jungwon mumbled and Jay equally mumbled back, "yeah, no problem."
Jungwon glanced over across the table at Sunoo, who was already grinning like an idiot. He made a face like he was saying, "ooh, what was that?"

Jungwon made another face back, clearly stating it was 'just a friend catching a friend because some other friend pushed one friend causing dominos so what do you expect?' Sunoo just grinned mischievously, his foxy eyes turning sly.

That fox is going to get it, Jungwon thought in his head, nodding and smiling fakely at Sunoo.

"Oh don't give me that look, Yang Jungwon," Sunoo said out loud, rolling his eyes.

Jungwon grinned widely. "It just means....I'm going to stab you three times and not only are you going to die but you will experience high amount of trauma in your afterlife," he threatened.

"Like that'll ever happen. You love me too much," Sunoo teased and Jungwon sighed.

"Yah, come. Come!" Jungwon insisted, gesturing to Sunoo who shook his head.
"I need to go to the toilet!" He told him and Sunoo made a small 'o' with his mouth.

"Why must I follow you though?" Sunoo stood up and walked over Niki to get out of his seat.

"Because, we got a crime scene to attend to," Jungwon informed, and Sunoo's eyes widened as Jungwon grabbed his wrist, not letting him escape.
At the corner of his eye, he saw Jay snorting with laughter.

"Don't kill meeee!" Sunoo whined, as Jungwon dragged him to the toilet.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not crazy," he snorted, fixing his hair in the mirror and washing his hands. He always had that habit before eating anything.

"Mmmm....maybe you are?" Sunoo giggled when Jungwon glared a him.

"Says the guy who can't confess."

Sunoo rolled his eyes. "We are not bringing that up."

Jungwon laughed. Then, he suddenly thought hard and slowly asked Sunoo. "Hyung...do you really like Sunghoon?"

Sunoo gave him a look. "Of course? He is my crush after all!"

"I know it's just...maybe it's just like, an infatuation?"

Sunoo frowned, his eyes narrowing into thin stilts. "What are you getting at, won?"

Jungwon shook his head and headed for the door. "It's just...yeah."

"Huh? Wait, does someone else like me?"

Jungwon froze. He may have looked calm on the outside, but his insides were panicking like crazy. Alarms blared in his mind. What was he suppose to tell Sunoo? That Niki liked him? But the thought of Niki getting embarrassed because Sunoo would probably straight up reject him wasn't something Jungwon wanted.

He slowly turned around and calmly assured, "I just don't want you to break your heart. Hopeless romantics tend to become depressed easily." Jungwon grinned at the last part and Sunoo smacked his back.

"Yah! I won't go into depression! I'll stay singley single if it's necessary."

Jungwon rolled his eyes as they approached their table. The ice cream had arrived and looked amazing.

"Hyung! Quickly! Before it melts!" Niki urged Sunoo and made the older quickly sit down.

Huh. If anything, you would take the ice cream away from Sunoo. Bro is whipped.

Jungwon looked at how Niki glanced lovingly at a happy Sunoo. Once upon a time, he would have wished the younger would give him the same look, but now, the new Jungwon was willing to do everything he could to make sure his younger brother's heart didn't shatter into a million pieces.

Just like how his did.