[ s t r e e t s ]
[ 28th F e b r u a r y ]

The streets were wet. It had rained not too long ago, but Chan didn't mind. He liked the smell, that came after rain and the sound of cars, humans and animals walking (or driving) through the wetness. It was calming and somehow freed him from his worries for a short period of time.

He was walking to the bowling centre, meeting up with his friends and some people they brought along.

He hummed along the song he was listening to, somewhat excited to go bowling.

Chan considered himself as really good in bowling. He and his friends did it a lot, when he was younger. So, even though he hadn't done it in some time, he thought he had the experience to win today. He smiled to himself. Ohh the others didn't know who they were competing with, this would be so much fun.

A familiar melody pulled him out of his thoughts. "Feel like I'm your cat, I'm your dog." This was "Cat and Dog" by TXT, Yis favourite song of theirs. She used to say, that even though the lyrics went in another direction, it reminded her of their childhood.

Right now, it wasn't fun to listen to. Chan immediately skipped the song, but it was already too late.

Don't go anywhere. Stay with me.

For some reason, he felt the sudden need to stretch his arms out to her and never let them go.

He looked around. There still was a possibility that they were here, somewhere.

But no, they weren't and before he knew it, he had reached the bowling centre.

Determined he shook his head, trying to get rid of the bad thoughts. He wanted to have fun now. No bad thoughts needed.

[ b o w l i n g a l l e y 3 & 4 ]

Changbin and Jisung were already there, busy with hyping each other up.

Chan was quite surprised he didn't see Hyunjin anywhere around. Usually the taller would always stick to Jisungs side. It was some kind of protective mechanism and even though Chan didn't want to admit it, he found it cute.

He quietly approached them, just to make a sudden, unexpected move, while exclaiming: "HEY GUYS"

Jisung winced, turned around and pouted: "Jeez Chanie hyung, you startled me." "That was the intention", Chan smiled. Changbin just rolled his eyes at him.

They started talking about how each of them would win this contest, waiting for the others to arrive.

First Jeongin and Felix arrived and left almost immediately after, to get them some snacks and drinks.

Then 2 guys came, that Chan didn't know. He assumed Jisung was friends with them, as he was the one to excitedly greet them.

Still no Hyunjin, so Chan decided to ask Jisung.

"I don't think we need to wait for him", Jisung replied, nervously scratching his neck, "we had a fight earlier. I don't think he's coming. Let's wait for Felix and Jeongin, I'll introduce you guys then."

As soon as Felix and Jeongin came back, fully loaded with drinks for the originally eight of them, they gathered up in a circle to introduce each other.

Chan learned that the 2 guys were called Minho, who was 23 years old, so a year younger than Chan and Seungmin, who was 20 years old. Jisung and Hyunjin had met Minho on a dance course a few months back and they immediately got extremely close. Seungmin was, as far as he understood, Minho's best friend and roommate, but Chan was questioning that. Both of them were non stop teasing and bullying each other. No, not in a way friends would do. It really looked like they hated each other. In his opinion, that wasn't a good friendship. One of them would end up hurt eventually. Why even bully each other in the first place? They were grown men, they should know better than that.

They then decided to part the group into half, so they could play against each other. But before they could do that, Hyunjin came running up to them.

"Sorry guys, I'm late. Did you already start?", he asked, breathing heavily and avoiding eye-contact. "Oh no it's fine, we just wanted to part the group, so you came exactly at the right time", Felix replied. "Sadly", Minho added. "Hyung!", Hyunjin exclaimed and hit him, almost immediately regretting it, as Minho started to chase him. "You haven't eaten tissues in some time, want some?" "Noooo please spare meee."

This went on for some time and Chan got quite annoyed by it. He just wanted to do some bowling, couldn't they hurry up? Their behaviour was extremely childish.

After some time they finally made teams. The method: A spinning wheel on Jisungs phone. For some reason he, Seungmin, Changbin and Felix would get really emotional over it. Changbin moderated it dramatically and Jisung, Seungmin and Felix cheered loudly whenever it span. Usually Hyunjin would join them, but this time he just stood at the side smiling sadly. Chan really wondered what happened.

Chan ended up on a team with Minho, Changbin and Felix and he already could feel the mess incoming.

He and Hyunjin started.

Hyunjin clearly had no technique, which was why he ended up hitting only 2 pins on the first try and 4 on the second.

Then it was his turn. He knew he was good in this, there was no way he would fuck this up. He used the technique he always had used and prayed.

He didn't hit any pins.

"WHAT? HOW?" "Chan hyung I thought you were good at this", he heard Felix crying. "I knew, that that old man would not be able to hit a single pin", someone laughed. Probably Minho.

Now Chan was a bit angry.

Try 2, he still could save this.

He got a good ball and tried again. A bit more enthusiastic this time.

3 Pins.

"Well at least something", he heard Minho shrugging.

This was more disappointing, than he thought.

"You're not helping at all", he then said to Minho, who was next in line. "Well, at least I'm better than you, old man." Chan mustered him and replied: "We'll see about that." Minho only smiled his condescending smile.

Minho was not better than Chan. It wasn't good for their team, but it was good for Chans confidence.

Minho had spent most of his time teasing Seungmin for not holding the ball correctly, but didn't even hit one pin, when it was his turn.

"Huh so you're better than me, I see. I didn't know better meant not hitting a single pin." Chan couldn't help but be a bit mean. Minho had been the whole time, now it was his time to shine. "Let's see, the game is not over yet."

Next up was Jisung vs. Felix.

Jisung wasn't bad. He hit 7 pins in total, while Felix hit 8.

The other team was still leading, but maybe they would be able to turn the tables.

Then, Changbin vs. Jeongin.

"I'm gonna be nice to you Innie, since you're the youngest of the group. I'll probably still beat you so don't be too disappointed", Changbin said confidently. Jeongin laughed: "We're still leading, what are you gonna do? Even if you win, we still have more points." "A sassy maknae, I see. Don't be too confident. I'm sure they'll hit something eventually." "Yeah probably a wall."

Changbin did indeed score more points, but Jeongin wasn't bad as well. The other team was still leading.

They continued to play like this.

Chan was unexpectedly bad and Minho wasn't much better. Felix and Changbin did score most of the points, but the other team was better.

That didn't stop Minho from teasing the heck out of everybody. It did keep up a somewhat chill atmosphere, since the most responses were laughs. It surprised Chan, he wasn't used to this kind of treatment.

Even though Minho managed to do a strike in the last round, which brought up excitement in everyone, they lost, for well... obvious reasons.

They had to pay the food for everybody as a penalty and of course his teammates somehow managed to leave it up to Chan.

Chan still was curious what the cause to Hyunjin and Jisung fighting was, so he asked Hyunjin to come with him.

"Hey Hyunjin, I was wondering, why did you and Jisung fight? Is there a way I can help you? If you want to tell me of course." Hyunjin nodded. He must've assumed that Chan was going to ask about that. "Well, you know how we try to stay close to each other to make sure, that the other is safe?" Chan nodded. "Today an old creepy man approached Jisung in a Café, while I was ordering and I, of course, left the line to help him, but I think he didn't like that. Afterwards he asked me, if I thought of him as a child, which couldn't deal with his own problems and I tried to explain that that wasn't the intention, like at all, but he wouldn't listen. Instead he started to list various similar situations and I started to feel misunderstood. The only intention I had was to protect him. In the end I just left, because I couldn't stand it anymore." Chan nodded again.

They had reached the bar and Chan started to order the food before replying: "Yeah, understandable. You guys should definitely try and talk about it once again. Both of you are calmer now, it should help the situation." Hyunjin nodded. "I was planning on doing so, but I haven't had a chance yet." "You can go now, maybe send someone to help me with the food, but you guys have the time to talk it out." "Thank you Channie hyung, I'll send someone over." Chan smiled and nodded.

Hyunjin left and Chan was again alone with his thoughts.

It's too late for me to tell you

He knew this would come. He couldn't spend one evening without it. Of course not.

You've been drawn in my dreams

Chan always would paint a picture of them in his dreams of them being old and maybe having a kid or two. It was one of his biggest wishes: Growing old together.

It's changed

Of course it had, they weren't together anymore – as hard as it was to realise, he had to admit that.

He would've fallen deeper into his hole, if it wasn't for Minho to interrupt his thoughts.

"Hey Looser."

"What are you doing here?" Chan could've hit himself, it was obvious why Minho was there.

"Hyunjin said you needed help and the others made up excuses, so I had to go. What do I need to do to get this over with?" "We need to wai-" "ORDER FROM BANG CHAN?" "That's me."

The man behind the counter stared handing him the different orders and soon enough Minho and him were walking back to their table in total silence.

"Guys the food's here", Chan exclaimed, when they reached their table and started handing out the food.

Jisung and Hyunjin sat in peace next to each other, hands intertwined and smiling. They must've made up and Chan was really happy about it.

The rest of the evening was spent with them eating and just having fun together.