UNBLOCKED

10 | square club

ding dong!

"are you sure this is a good idea?" mark asked skeptically as he and jinyoung stood waiting at youngjae's front door.

"of course it is," said jinyoung. "we're supposed to be his friends and--"

"jinyoung," mark interrupted, "i just meant that he might be busy. maybe we should've called first?"

"oh. well, yeah... but--"

the door swung open to reveal a skinny boy in tight jeans and a hoodie that wasn't supposed to be oversized, but looked that way on him. "wassup, guys? yo!"

jinyoung and mark exchanged a glance. "uh, hi, bambam," said jinyoung, "haven't seen you since the game, i guess."

"ooh," said mark, clicking his fingers, "speaking of which, your friend - that yugyeom guy - he was looking for you."

bambam instantly gulped. "you told him i was at the doctor's, didn't you," he stated, hoping for hell it would be true.

"yeah!" said mark, "just like you told us. did he text you about it after or something? he looked kinda confused."

"oh... yeah, he did!" said bambam, throwing on a quick smile. "it's all good now. do you wanna come inside?"

"sorry to be rude," jinyoung cut in, "but what are you doing here?"

"dude, that sounded super rude," mark whispered in his ear.

"just dropped over to visit youngjae," bambam shrugged. "he doesn't get out much anymore, like we talked about, and i was bored, yanno?"

"you live next door?"

"yup!"

"can we come in?" mark asked.

"sure," bambam answered. "youngjae wanted to watch minions, so we're in the living room. i kinda only agreed to it because i'm gonna teach him how to dab afterwards."

rolling his eyes, jinyoung followed bambam into the house, and through to the living room. youngjae was tucked up on the sofa, his knees close to his chest, engulfed in an enormous sweater. his eyes were glued to the screen, fixated on the animation that was playing.

jinyoung felt a pang in his chest. youngjae didn't used to be like this. he used to be lively and loud, always making jokes and then getting told to shut up by his hyungs.

jaebum.

jaebum was the one to blame. he had done this to youngjae. he'd ruined youngjae's life. jaebum had managed to drag youngjae into the dirt, and resurface completely clean.

it was, quite frankly, ridiculous how jaebum had gotten away with it all. youngjae was just an ordinary, nice guy. nobody should've believed the dirty rumours that had spread. youngjae wasn't like that. they should've known it wasn't true.

mark suddenly nudged him. "you okay?" he asked gently.

that's when jinyoung realised his fists were clenched, his nails digging into his soft palms so hard it hurt.

someone just tell me the truth.

---

"well... awesome movie!" said bambam as the credits began to roll.

"yeah, it was great," jinyoung agreed, his lips curling up into a comforting smile.

"can we play a game?" bambam asked abruptly.