If its only the player who has friends , you can use a global variable which saves the amount of following friends, otherwise you have to use a skill and let the player scan from time to time whether friends are following.
Then you can spread places around the player which the friends are targetting instead of the player directly. Or, you can give the friends numbers, and, depending the numbers make them follow in a different distance.
Probably, they have to make a check whether there is already a friend between them and the player to stop them from trying to get closer ti the player.