Are You There - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

"Why won't you just come to the party tomorrow? Eh?"
Jooheon peered down curiously at his closest friend, the pair strikingly different though they sipped from the same glasses of iced tea and bit at the same cherry biscuits. Jooheon, a brightly colored young man hidden beneath a mop of blonde leaned forward, eager for an answer.
Changkyun merely shrugged, taking a long sip of his tea. His dark hair fell into his eyes as he attempted to avoid his best friend's gaze, his broad shoulders slumped forward under his large sweatshirt. "You know I get nervous in crowds."
Jooheon tossed his hands in the air, annoyed that Changkyun couldn't just suck it up for the night and have some fun. If Jooheon didn't have a mild attraction to the younger man, he'd have abandoned their friendship long ago. They were so converse, and they both knew it. Jooheon was the type to flock towards everyone, strike up a conversation, and never let them go. Changkyun was the worrier who consistently blocked out new faces so he wouldn't be let down in the future.
Changkyun himself was shocked to have held onto Jooheon this long. He knew if he kept dismissing outings like the next day's party, he'd eventually be dropped, but he couldn't bring himself to betray his own feelings.
"Changkyun, don't you wanna find a girlfriend? You've been single since we met!" Jooheon leaned forward even more, his elbows at the center of the table between the pair. "It's been more than four years!"
Changkyun shrugged again, his heart rate picking up as Jooheon grew more and more agitated. In the four years that they'd known one another, the pair had spilled everything between each other. Everything except Changkyun's sexuality. Changkyun had been hiding behind his stoic attitude and nervous glances since first meeting the cherubic face before him. He would never get a girlfriend, because after only a week of knowing Jooheon, he knew that what he felt was an aching, raw love.
It hurt even more watching Jooheon openly date during their friendship, his own strong ability to love anyone despite gender an amazing quality Changkyun hated yet praised. He wished he could be as diverse as his older friend, though he only had eyes for one.
"I don't want a girlfriend," Changkyun muttered, staring hard at his cup on the edge of the cafe table. "And I don't want to go to the party." He didn't want to disappoint his best friend, but he knew if he went to the house party the next day, he'd end up having some kind of panic attack. It hurt him to realize that Jooheon couldn't accept this fact.
"Bud, you're almost twenty-three years old. You can't keep hiding behind your hair and a stack of books." Jooheon sighed as he leaned back in his seat, ripping a hunk of his biscuit apart only to let it fall onto his plate. "Is it so much to ask my best friend to hang out with me?"
Jooheon couldn't understand why the dark-haired man was being like this. They'd gone to parties before, and they hadn't died yet, nor had they even come close to it. Sure, Changkyun needed an inhaler to face large crowds, but with Jooheon at his side, nothing would actually happen.
"Jooheon." Changkyun's tone was low as he merely held the gaze of his cup. "If you ask me one more time, I'm standing up and leaving."
Jooheon's lips parted, angry at the blatantly empty threat, but he just sighed instead of retaliating. "Whatever," he muttered, folding his arms over his chest. "Don't go, I don't care. I'll just drag Kihyun along."
Changkyun bristled at the mention of Jooheon's ex-boyfriend. Shifting in his seat awkwardly, he felt too pained to try and fight Jooheon on it. He didn't want to start a new argument, so he just sighed and lifted his gaze. Jooheon was already watching the younger man, waiting for a reply.
"I'm sure Kihyun would have fun," Changkyun said quietly. He stood slowly, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair and gathering his garbage. "I actually should get going. Hyunwoo said that if I make him take my shift at the store one more time, he'll shove me off a bridge."
Unlike Jooheon's threats, Changkyun knew well enough that his coworker's threats were empty ones every time. Jooheon stood as well, reaching out for his best friend. "But I feel like we never hang out anymore," he whined loudly. "The party would be a perfect place to just chill-"
"See you later, Jooheon."
With one small wave of his tanned hand, Changkyun turned on his heel and left the cafe, heading towards a bus stop down the road so he wouldn't have to run into Jooheon only a few minutes later. It hurt him to say no to his best friend.
It hurt Jooheon to watch Changkyun leave.