once again, my friend.

{ "Look who I ran into," crowed Coincidence.

"Please, it was meant to be," flirted Fate. }

*

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*

The midterm stress finally heralded after a month and Minseok was convinced that they had to go out to eat to celebrate the successful finish of their exams.

"Shouldn't we wait for results before we splurge?" it was a lost argument, but the banter was a fun avoidance of his resurfacing memories of eating Luosifen at the small diner near the high school dormitories. He blocked out the voice of Junfei haggling with the owners playfully.

Minseok looked like an affronted giraffe if the tall animal could display such sentiment. "I am taking you to my favourite place, and no is not an option."

He let out a long-suffering sigh in defeat, "lunch?"

A wide grin displaying his friend's canines and molars tugged a smile at his mouth.

Apart from photography, Mingzhou enjoyed fashion. He marched to the tunes of his old harmonica (he wasn't the fondest of loud drums) and dressed according to his likes, never really following trends in a strict order.

He looked out at the bright sun; it was as if the world had forgotten that it was nearing winter, and had mistakenly switched settings to intensify the heat to match a summer afternoon.

His favourite loose button-down and jeans made him take a vacation from his multiple trains of thought - ranging from his midterms to lunch and his laundry (which had piled up in the corner of his room. He had no idea how that happened, honestly).

When he went downstairs after his little dilemma on picking his outfit (because is 'casual' too casual or is he overthinking again) Minseok was tapping his foot against the pavement impatiently.

"Hey."

"Let's go!"

Minseok ushered him into the subway and prattled about the place they were visiting in Mapo-gu.

"It'll be less crowded in the day because people are more likely to visit BBQ places at night. Plus today is a weekday." His face split into a dreamy smile, "and the barbecue is to die for!"

Mingzhou smiled amusedly at him, the only other person this passionate about food was Junfei. He belatedly thought that Minseok and Junfei would get along brilliantly.

*

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*

After the 45 minute ride in the stuffy subway, they finally reached the restaurant. Just as Minseok had predicted earlier, the restaurant wasn't crowded. In fact, there were only two other people in the far corner of the K-bbq place.

Minseok and Mingzhou sat down at a table and perused the menu leisurely. They finally had all the time in the world and -

"- now there's no way I'm passing!" an exaggerated whine was heard from behind Mingzhou. He didn't bother with the trouble of turning in his seat and shooting a glare.

"Shut up, jeez."

Mingzhou thanked that person silently.

"Hey, Mingzhou." Minseok leaned forward, "Mingzhou."

He looked up from the plethora of options the menu card boasted of. "What?"

"Isn't that your best friend?"

Mingzhou had only one best friend. The only friend that Minseok was also aware of was the same. He snapped his head back.

There he was.

Wei Junfei.

In flesh.

His brown eyes wandered around the empty restaurant before it fell on Mingzhou and they widened slightly. His own body was on overdrive, shifting between excitement and confusion.

"Mingzhou?!" he sounded extremely pleased. It made him ecstatic that Junfei sounded pleased. Then he felt confused for responding that way. (God, emotions were such a pain to deal with. They just leave him more confused after processing it.)

"Junfei. Ge," he breathed.

Junfei's cheeks bunched up below his eyes. He scrambled to where they were seated and drew him into a long hug. The only thing Mingzhou registered was that his best friend didn't emanate his favourite smoky cedar; he caught a whiff of Junfei's hair from where it was buried in his neck.

"You smell different," he blurted.

"Huh?" Junfei pulled away, still grinning.

"Lemon. Citrus. Sage." Mingzhou spoke rapidly.

"Oh. My cologne is out of stock. Stole Wonhyuk's, liked the scent, now I'm keeping it, " he waved his hand like it was unimportant information. He heard a small noise of protest from behind Junfei, disagreeing on the last bit of his statement. Junfei just flashed a smile.

"Hi," Minseok waved his hand. "I'm Kim Minseok."

Junfei offered a warm smile, "Wei Junfei." He turned to the three people who had formed a little semicircle around him, "Lim Jiwon, Kang Sangtae -"

He waved at Mingzhou excitedly.

"- and Jung Wonhyuk."

"Come come, we can all sit together!" Minseok looked at him for permission. Mingzhou pointed at the bigger booth by the window.

He ended up opposite Junfei with Minseok and Sangtae on either side. Junfei had Wonhyuk and Jiwon beside him.

They glanced through the menu and as expected Junfei found a companion in Minseok. They talked about some things that totally went over his head because he was too busy drinking in the presence of his best friend.

His hair wasn't hanging in his eyes anymore and was combed back in an almost quiff, save for the shorter pieces that fell into his face anyway. There was a small silver chain earring dangling from his left ear and two thin necklaces resting against his collarbones that were exposed due to the deep cut of his Cuban-collared shirt.

"- and the bulgogi and squid portions for all of us," Minseok ordered.

"Wonhyuk can't eat squid. Grilled mushrooms for you instead?" he turned to Wonhyuk questioningly.

"Yeah," he beamed. Mingzhou's chest tightened at the gaze he directed towards his best friend. He was sure that the midterms had caused irrevocable damage to his head because he was feeling oddly jumpy looking at them.

"Oh also, can one set be mild," Jun turned to Mingzhou, "you still can't handle your spice, can you?"

Mingzhou snapped out of his stupor and grinned, "thanks."

"Disgrace," Jun shook his head but he was smiling. The waiter took their order and left them to their devices.

"So how did you meet?" Jun leaned forward, tapping his fingers on the table.

"We were partnered together for our photography project."

"Aw," he pouted, "that's no fun."

He saw Jiwon roll his eyes and grumble something unintelligible. He did catch a few words that sounded strange when strung together in a sentence. What reasonable first meet had 'mustard, slides and leopards' involved. But then again, no one met Junfei in any less weird instance.

Minseok smiled, but his eyes were curious, "did you have any funny first meets?"

Mingzhou felt his grin widen as he turned back to Junfei, already recalling their unusual meeting. Junfei's eyes were trained on Wonhyuk, whose head was bent down, but he saw the shadow of a smile turning the corners of his lips upwards. Mingzhou deflated.

"My first meetings with all of them," he pointed around the table at everyone but Minseok, "have all been exceptionally weird."

Wonhyuk's chair scraped against the stone floor, "I'm going to use the washroom."

The three older boys cackled and brought their heads together to whisper a "but what about the hotdog?"

Minseok was extremely entertained, judging by his expression. Mingzhou not so much and apparently neither was Wonhyuk who muttered a shut up and quickly shuffled to the washroom.

"Hey," Sangtae wheezed, still recovering from his bout of laughter, "what about drinks?"

"Oh no sir, you're not getting shit-faced so early in the day," Junfei laughed.

Right, he's twenty. He's started drinking as well. Mingzhou felt hollow; his body was tingling with weird energy.

Sangtae frowned, "I've had a shitty midterm, cut me some slack!"

"No one is carrying your drunk ass home," Jiwon picked his nails in boredom as if this was a common occurrence. Not like Mingzhou would ever know if it were or not.

Sangtae's frown deepened, making his lips pucker into a sad pout. Mingzhou remembered the time he used to find it cute, now it was just normal.

"You're all roommates?" Minseok enquired.

"Oh yeah," Junfei nodded, "the four of us got an apartment near uni, it's more convenient that way really. Works well for us. I do the cooking, Jiwon does laundry, Sangtae cleaning and Wonhyuk dishes."

He was able to afford rent on his own now too. Well, it was a flat-share situation but still.

"Drinks though?" Sangtae prodded.

"Non-alcoholic," Jiwon warned but he waved the waiter over, "we're not going to make a fool of ourselves with juniors around."

"It's okay, my image is long gone anyway." Junfei shared a secretive smile with Mingzhou.

They were probably thinking back to the day Junfei had to dress up as a bush for the school play because he was sick when the auditions were being held for the lead role but the drama teacher wanted his help and used him as an understudy of the main character and for background work. But he 'performed' as a bush in the end anyway. It was quite the joke between them.

"Lemonade for me." Minseok handed the drinks menu to Mingzhou, who got sparkling water.

"I want a cola," Sangtae decided after a few minutes of indecisiveness.

"Me too," Jiwon said. Sangtae passed it over to Junfei.

"Peach cooler for me and..." he browsed the menu before turning to the waiter, "do you have chilsung cider?"

The waiter nodded.

"Okay, then one of that."

Sangtae muttered a "Jesus Christ" from beside him, in a manner that made it clear that he was not, in fact, praying. Junfei rolled his eyes at him, but his neck and ears were darker than his crimson shirt.

Jiwon eyed him warily, "what are we going to do with you, Jun-ah."

Minseok looked at Jiwon's exasperated face in front of him and his eyes snapped back to Junfei, grinning knowingly, "aha, this is that kind of thing."

"No, no, no." Junfei pointed at him accusingly, "not you too! Mingzhou help me!"

But he himself was kind of lost.

Then Junfei pointed at Minseok's keyring, a painfully obvious distraction, that had a small silicon fry pan on it. Minseok dropped the interrogation and followed Junfei's line of interest, instantly brightening at the topic, and they launched into another talk about food.

Mingzhou picked up a few words like 'cabbage' and 'spring onions' amongst the flurry of recipes being relayed between them.

Jiwon and Sangtae and he watched them talk about food in unmasked amusement. Mingzhou was still a little bit confused at the previous drift, but he let it go seeing his two close friends hit it off.

"Is Wonhyuk scrubbing the toilet or what?" Jiwon leaned back looking for the bespectacled boy.

"You're really impatient, Jiwon-ah," Wonhyuk muttered dryly, appearing from behind. He was drying his hands on his pants, but the fabric just let the water trickle down the pant leg.

Junfei, who was absorbed in a conversation about culinary things with Minseok, plucked a few tissues and handed them to Wonhyuk without turning to look at him.

Mingzhou felt his eyebrows creep up below his hair. Diagonally across from him, he saw Jiwon's lips being pressed to a thin line like it was taking all his willpower to not laugh.

"Old habits die hard, I guess." Wonhyuk looked sheepish as he seated himself in front of Sangtae.

(There was something else too, in his expression, but the amalgam of his emotions was so carefully presented that he couldn't identify what was swirling so close to the surface, beneath his embarrassment.)

Sangtae asked Mingzhou how his school was going, reminisced about high school and lamented how annoying his roommates were. "They gang up on me all the time! So rude..."

Wonhyuk groaned, extricating himself from the other conversation, "this again?" He turned to Mingzhou, "ignore him. It helps to think of him as a dull white noise."

Mingzhou felt a laugh escape his lips. His statement just acted as evidence to Sangtae's claim. He found himself quite liking these boys, who were so different but kind of fun.

The food and the chef arrived with selections of meat and vegetables and started the fun process of cooking it in front of them. It had been a while since Mingzhou had eaten good food that wasn't just grease piled onto two buns with cheese and a self-proclaimed healthy patty (yes, he's talking about burgers) so his own eyes were glued to the skilled professionals grilling the meat.

The topic of conversation over the meat and drinks (when Wonhyuk received his cider, his face was nothing short of surprise and a bashful grin when Junfei mentioned he had placed the order himself) were just normal stray lines of how university was going.

Minseok complained about his culinary professor and Sangtae jumped on the hate train and chattered about how his human resources professor always took classes at ungodly hours. It was all good and light.

That was until Junfei had cleared his plate and looked into Mingzhou's eyes.

"Mingzhou, have you talked to your mom recently? She called me to check on you." Junfei slurped the last of his peach coolpis.

His mom always had good intentions, but that didn't mean it didn't irk him slightly, "I talked to her just last week!"

Junfei simply nodded his head and crushed his can of soda, "she's just worried about you, xiao Zhou."

The air thickened quickly, suddenly, heavy with weird tension.

Junfei continued, ignoring the buzz in the air. "Just...you've changed a little, right? We all do, but you need to keep her up with the change."

Somehow it didn't sound like he was referring to his mother.

And of course, he'd been the one who'd changed because he was the one who'd moved away from their dorm first and made a group of close-knit friends and taken on a few modelling gigs. Yeah, that was all him apparently.

He crossed his arms ready to defend but Junfei turned to Minseok, "feed him, will you? I asked you about those recipes to see if they would suit his taste..."

Minseok blinked.

Wonhyuk stared at Mingzhou.

Sangtae and Jiwon exchanged glances.

"Just... I haven't been able to be there for him for a while." Junfei smile was small. It was sad. Mingzhou decided he hated that smile.

"Look," Sangtae butted in, almost nervously. "Jun-ah, we have that meet up with Jungjinnie hyung later we should leave now hm?"

He had more than a few friends. Mingzhou felt cold and bitter suddenly, the food lurching up into his mouth.

Jiwon exhaled a little too loudly. "Let's find a taxi." He got up and pulled Wonhyuk away by the elbow, and Sangtae followed, smiling tensely at Mingzhou and Minseok.

Junfei was rooted to his spot.

"I'll just... just -" Minseok pointed somewhere. Mingzhou didn't really see.

He went outside.

Junfei tilted his head, "Xie Mingzhou, I'm so... so proud of you."

That was the last thing he'd expected to come out of Junfei's mouth.

"You've made such a brilliant friend, I very much approve of Minseok by the way, and you're acing your classes and..." his voice became all wobbly to the end.

"Ge?" Mingzhou sat beside him, a little concerned.

"It feels like...like you don't need me anymore, you know?" he confessed in a small tone.

And to think that Mingzhou thought the same way.

"But it's not to say that I love how you've grown into yourself," he rushed, "you've become so big and independent and you're not that little runt with big eyes and a bony body and it feels like -"

"I will always need you, Ge."

The tension left his shoulders. "Good, I want to be there for you," a little joy had seeped back into his voice.

Mingzhou felt considerably more light than he had been.

It felt freeing to know that Junfei needed him in his life just as much as he needed Junfei. It felt like they were finally in each other's orbit again. Like the eclipse had passed and the sun was shedding light on the both of them, shadows falling behind their towering statures.

"And I mean it, you know." Junfei was looking into the distance.

"What?"

He nodded towards where Minseok was paying for the meal. He totally didn't have to, but he was.

"I really do approve of him."

Junfei looked at him thoughtfully before gathering his things and moving over to split the bill with Minseok.

Mingzhou stood frozen, deciphering his words. He thought he was finally bridging the gap that had grown between them, but why did he feel so far, so lost.

*

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{"You never know how deeply you are intertwined with someone until you try to walk away from them."}