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March comes quicker than most people expected, with people either rejoicing or sulking over yet another season approaching on the horizon.

But, towards the end of the month, the same people that Zitao spent time with at that bar/arcade place all gather to hang out once again (with Junmyeon and Yixing joining them too). Only this time, instead of hanging out to celebrate the Lunar New Year, they're all crowding around two tables at an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant to celebrate Minseok's birthday the day after.

Minseok's finally turned twenty-five, and so that means that he got a bunch of birthday punches and now currently cheers as some of them lift their alcoholic/non-alcoholic drinks in the air.

The atmosphere of the place is really cozy in Zitao's opinion. Other people sit and chat in booths and tables near them and a TV plays K-pop songs at the back-center of the room.

As they all clink their drinks, their group's server for the night comes back and asks in Korean if they're all ready to order their food (Sehun whispers the translation to him).

A bit earlier, they all decided on what they'd get as a group while eating the complementary vegetables that their server handed out to them. And so, that Bacon guy gives their server their order for their table, and after writing down the order for chicken, marinated beef, pork bellies, and bowls of sticky rice, their server heads to the other four of their group who couldn't fit into their table.

Specifically, Yifan, Whiny, Amber and their girlfriend.

Then, Yixing asks Luhan about something or another in Mandarin but Zitao stops paying attention when Sehun rests his head on his shoulder. Sehun caught a cold a few days ago and so he's been understandably kinda tired with the medicine he's been taking to fight it. Zitao turns to look at his boyfriend's head and wraps his arm around Sehun's shoulders before lightly caressing his arm.

Sehun just lets out a sniffle and nuzzles his head a bit closer to his neck.

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To the right of Zitao, sits Jongin and Kyungsoo who currently watch as Baekhyun and Chanyeol argue over which complementary dipping sauce out of the six available is the best before Kyungsoo interjects.

"No way. Those both ," he says, dipping some lettuce into his sesame seed oil dipping sauce. "Now this--" He gestures to his tiny bowl. "--this is where it's at."

Baekhyun scrunches up his face in disapproval. "Uh, how about no."

Kyungsoo just shrugs and the conversation stagnates for a moment. Sehun then asks Jongin something--effectively dividing his attention before Baekhyun seems to remember something and turns to Chanyeol. "Hey, remember that one time Soo brought a big- jar of sesame oil to school with him?"

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows for a second before his shoulders start to shake and he laughs at what Kyungsoo knows is a lie. The two of them then start laughing together and Kyungsoo glares at them.

"Shut up. When the hell would I do something like that?" he asks, pointing his chopsticks at Baekhyun.

"Hey hey, there's no need to get heated, Soo," Baekhyun replies with a teasing smile. "I know you barely remember like anythin' before we graduated--it's fine."

Kyungsoo's lips curl downwards in further displeasure at that before he tells him that no, everything's not fine. There's no way that he wants Jongin to have some kinda image in his head of him being some...some kinda sesame-seed oil obsessed weirdo.

Then, the others at the next table turn to see what's going on as Baekhyun continues making fun and Kyungsoo has to take in a deep breath to calm himself down before he gets heated for real.

"Ya know what--whatever," he says before going back to eating some more lettuce.

He doesn't care anymore. Really.

The conversation stagnates again before Chanyeol brings up something related to what they were talking about. Kyungsoo just goes back to being quiet as he snacks on the spicy radish that the other two don't want and takes a few sips of his soda. Then, with a frown still on his face, he adjusts his glasses before his lips stretch into a thin line as he notices tiny smudges on the lenses. So, he takes off his glasses to clean the smudges with the bottom of his shirt before putting his glasses back on and glancing at a few of the others.

When his eyes fall on Jongin's face, his heart practically jumps in his throat when he sees that Jongin was already watching him with a curious look on his own face. Jongin's eyes widen a bit too at the eye contact before he gives a small, comforting smile, and Kyungsoo can't help but smile back before looking down at the table and reaching for some pickled pink radishes with his chopsticks as he feels his ears get warm.

All of a sudden, he feels someone lightly kick his shoe from across the table, and lifts his gaze to see a grinning Chanyeol who merely gives him a quick, teasing eyebrow lift. (Baekhyun's now chatting with Kris about something or another.) Kyungsoo feels heat rushing to his face at that, and by reflex, kicks Chanyeol right back under the table, resulting in a loud Ow! from the taller man.

The others turn to see what happened and Kyungsoo just brings one of the bowls full of sliced pink radishes closer to himself with a now-innocent expression on his face. A few turn to Kyungsoo with knowing looks on their faces but decide to just go back to whatever they were talking about (leaving Chanyeol to complain about the lack of concern for his shin).

After noticing that Jongin's staring at him, Kyungsoo looks up at him again and asks if he wants any radishes. Jongin just smiles and says, Sure.

And so, the two of them share the radishes and brush against each other's hands enough times for them both to smile some more at each other and inevitably get lost in their own little world.

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What feels like an eternity later to Junmyeon, their server comes back with their food and expertly turns on their tables' burners and sets the food onto their tables' plate grills. After she's done, she leaves for another moment and returns a few minutes later with their bowls of rice. Junmyeon rises to the task of flipping the meat since he's closest to the burner on the left side of the big table, and looks at the other two sitting right across from him once he's flipped each piece.

The two men are speaking in Mandarin to each other and he can only understand a few words here and there from the one with his hair dyed caramel brown and the one with dimples in his cheeks. Then all of a sudden, the birthday guy shakes the caramel-head guy's arm repeatedly while grinning and staring at that TV at the back-center.

Junmyeon and the others turn/lift their gazes to look and he blinks in confusion when he sees that it's just another K-pop mv with only two K-pop idols this time. Caramel-head actually lets out an excited squeal and the two easily sing along to the song that's playing while both swaying in sync.

Suddenly, a memory surfaces right then in Junmyeon's mind of him and his ex. It's of a time when they went to a Karaoke place and got drunk off their asses and sang cutesy girl-group songs at the top of their lungs without a care in the world. But now...

His eyes lower to the table as he remembers, his stomach curling uncomfortably, before he closes his eyes for a second and exhales with thin lips.

Right across from him, Yixing notices his change in mood with a frown before he eyes the food on the burner and grabs the tongs to turn them again. The sad-looking guy finally looks up from the table with lifted eyebrows and Yixing tries to give a comforting smile before silently flipping each piece of chicken. They all sizzle as he turns them a