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"Have you ever felt the pain of losing the things that mean the most to you?"

The weather was mocking him, Jihoon thought. It was definitely, positively, mocking him.

The sun that blared down on him sent tiny trickles of sweat sliding down the side of his face as he slumped over his cup of coffee.

Jisung's cafe was filled with customers today, like every other day. It was with so much reluctance that led to Jihoon breaking the news out to his friends. Hiding it wouldn't help him, moving away was inevitable now.

But as he dragged his eyes over the shocked faces staring back at him, it was like a knife slid across his heart and cut it into two. Like a tomato. Or a cabbage. The pain went chop, chop, chop.

Sungwoon was the first one to react after Jihoon's announcement. He sucked in a breath so deep it all came out as a loud huff when he gets exhaled.

"First Daniel, and now Jihoon. How many people are we going to lose?" He couldn't look at Jihoon in the eye, and the younger clenched his fingers from under the table.

It was like Sungwoon had just said what everyone wanted to say at that moment. For a moment, Jihoon thought about what to say. He had told them everything; from the bankruptcy of the company his father worked for to the part-time job he kept secret for so long.

"We could've helped if you told us earlier, Jihoon-ah," Minhyun said, deep regret laced in his voice.

"I couldn't. It wouldn't be right to drag you guys into my problems like that. I'd have to handle it myself," Jihoon said.

"But still, we're your friends. We should've at least noticed," Daehwi sighed. "I'm sorry that we didn't, Jihoon hyung."

Jihoon smiled and shook his head. "It's fine."

Silence dawned on the group again. A silence so thick that if everyone else emptied out of the cafe, Jihoon would've been able to hear a pin fall to the ground. Neither one knew what to say. Not after the whole incident with Daniel. He had gone back to New York a few days prior after bidding his farewells for the second time to his friends.

Jihoon wanted to laugh at himself. The irony. He was going to go to New York too. To join Daniel. To leave you. It was funny how the world worked sometimes. Once you had something that made you happy in your grasp, the universe just snatches it away.

As soon as Guanlin scooted closer to him and said in a soft voice, as if he was on the brink of tears, "I'm going to miss you, hyung," it was like the dam holding up everyone's emotions teared apart.

The next thing Jihoon knew was that the 10 of them huddled together in a tight hug, hands over each other's shoulders, heads pressed together with promises of "We'll meet again soon, right? In this very cafe. We're all going to be adults by then. All 11 of us including Daniel. It's going to be our happy little reunion."