My little Youngjae

Dread

Daehyun looked up from his bland meal of the gross combination of goop the cafeteria offers and a box of milk. His last day of Junior high and it's spent with him blankly staring down his disgusting lunch. Really, are they even thinking about whether the food they offer is edible or poisonous? Daehyun doesn't know.. but he holds his head up high nonetheless because what he does know is that he's going to see Youngjae by the end of today and that's enough to keep him from mourning over his food again.

Eight years. He hadn't seen Youngjae for eight long and dragging years and if it hadn't been for his excellence in just about everything (academically at least) and his begging techniques, his mother would have never agreed to them going back to Busan again.

Today was the day, and he just couldn't wait to get everything over with so he could run to his bestfriend's house and see him there, and be happy, because that's probably the only thing that would make him happy all these years.
He never forgot Youngjae. He thought about him everyday actually. He never forgot all their adventures and all the things they did eight years ago and without a doubt he knew he never would have forgotten no matter how long it took.

As he got older, the more he got to realize how stupid he was in his early years. He's hurt himself a few times when the thought kicked in that if he hadn't let Youngjae go home alone that one night, he wouldn't have gone missing at all. His mother always managed to stop his 'tantrums' at least. He just couldn't live with the thought of having to take part in Youngjae's disappearance. He could have stopped him from leaving, he could have even went with him just so Youngjae could have somebody by his side if something bad really did happen, but instead, he did none of that.

Bad thoughts aside,
He was going to see him today
And that was enough to have all the people in the cafeteria question why Jung Daehyun, the school's untouchable prince was smiling to himself all giddily like that.
In eight years, he had never made a single friend, he didn't want to, and that was okay because Youngjae was his bestfriend, that was all that really mattered. But... the real problem was that..

Everybody wanted to be his friend.

He didn't like them trying to act all close to him as if they knew everything about him. He didn't like any of the many girls and guys who've confessed their 'undying love' for him. He didn't like their silly antics in trying to make him crack just once.
All he really wanted was Youngjae.

And to tell truth, he was afraid of that.
He was afraid of getting so attached to a person with such uncertainty of even being alive. Heck, he was afraid he was starting to think of Youngjae in another way since he felt he loved him so much.
It was fine when he was younger  since he never really bothered to think much of it.. but he's sixteen now.. Is it normal to be this attached to a friend at such age?
He didn't want to think about it, especially because he'd be even more prone to getting hurt if things didn't go as he wanted.
His mother never really told him they found Youngjae too. He just guessed that since it's been so long... Youngjae's got to be back.
He has to be, right?

He didn't question why his mother never brought him up again, the reason having been too obvious that she didn't want him to feel pain once more. Not even a mention of his name. He understood her though. She was his mother. What mother wouldn't want what's best for her child?

A hand poked his shoulder lightly, interrupting his train of thoughts, causing a groan to escape from his previously up curved lips.

"Hey Daehyun. Dude. I've never seen you smile that wide before. Now that I've mentioned it, I rarely EVEN see you smile. Whut's up?"

Ah. The usual.
Jackson, the guy that sits two seats away from him in social economics class. Jackson's always been yapping about being Daehyun's one and only friend, proudly announcing it on stage after finishing a performance for the school's yearly foundation celebration, this of course having led to numerous rumors circulating around the student body.
Daehyun originally thought Jackson only did that to gain popularity and recognition, but that thought eventually faded out of account after realizing Jackson genuinely assumed they were friends just because he let him borrow his eraser for awhile. Him giving out a 'no problem' after Jackson exclaimed his gratitude had apparently embedded an idiotic facade of a 'friendship' on the noisy dancer's unvarnished  head.