sion has missed his best friend.

at least this version of wonbin—not the one he sometimes see through his phone screen, screaming obnoxiously into a mic and saying stuffs like, “chat, i think we’re cooked.”

this wonbin is definitely calmer, still with the lisp sion has always teased him about since years ago.

“lu udah nggak pernah kesini lagi ya, yon?”

“pregamed here on the new years but that’s it, lagi nggak pernah kepikiran kesini aja."

"yushi doesn't drink?"

"oh he drinks, i just prefer we do it at home."

wonbin grimaces, putting the dots together, "message received, anjing. didn't need to know that."

jujur aja, sion emang nggak punya banyak teman dekat. apalagi yang bisa dia percaya kayak dia percaya sama wonbin. having connections come with the nature of his family and his job, but at best they'd only be the people he mingles with at parties. the kind of conversations that stay on business, or light small talk like padel, pickleball, or golf. you know, those fake sports made up by rich people.

but he has a reason to be picky—he was taught that way. there are hard rules on who you keep around, who you open up to, who gets to know your home address. even with his elite surrounding, there's still some filtering required.

orang tua mereka mungkin setuju dengan persahabatan eunseok dan sungchan karena posisi gallery department store di dunia bisnis. mungkin juga mami dan papi ngebolehin wonbin main ke rumah mereka karena... let's face it, the name samsung has weight in it.

but that's not why sion trusts wonbin.

5th grader sion realized all his friends started distancing themselves on the year four cast members of an nct drama got booked for illegal drug possession.

sure, nct were cleared of being complicit, but it took a year to recover from that pr nightmare. maybe that's why his friends were told to avoid sion outside of school grounds.