chapter 7

Jongin, still vengeful and bitter over Sehun’s mistreatment of him, decides to seek revenge by meeting up with Kyungsoo again and not telling him about it.

This time, Kyungsoo stops by the college before work, and Jongin meets him outside after dance practice with an excited smile on his face. He leads Kyungsoo onto the campus, his ID card clenched tight in his fist for emergency purposes, and up into the building that Kyungsoo has so desperately wanted to explore.

“I’m so scared we’re going to get busted,” Kyungsoo breathes, wrapping his fingers around Jongin’s wrist as they scale the staircase.

“Just act natural. Nobody cares, seriously.”

A student wearing an apron and hairnet dashes past them as they reach the kitchens, and Kyungsoo stares after her longingly, watching her disappear through a set of doors.

“Smells good up here,” Jongin comments. Kyungsoo nods dazedly, barely listening, and he floats towards the shut doors containing all of his hopes and dreams. He peers through the windows into the kitchens, and watches as students work, aprons covered with flour and sauce, laughing and joking with one another. Large assortments of pots, pans, spoons, ladles, forks and knives and chopping boards line the walls, the cupboards, the workbenches – it’s like the kitchen in the restaurant, but a hundred thousand times better.

“Wow,” he whispers, eyes following the path of a particular student with lightning-fast reflexes, dashing past the others with bowls and plates balanced in his arms that seem so close to falling, but never do.

“That’s not acting natural,” Jongin advises, laughing when Kyungsoo quickly steps back and regains his focus.

“That’ll be me one day,” Kyungsoo says, his voice thick with determination. Jongin smiles and watches Kyungsoo walk down the hallway, gazing at the photographs and awards lining the walls, running his fingers along the surfaces that he already wants to call home. At least he knows he’s made Kyungsoo happy.

Kyungsoo, overcoming his shyness and taking charge, loses himself walking through the hallways and peering into rooms as Jongin trails behind him.

Sehun: Are you home or not?
Sehun: I’ve been at your door for 5 minutes
Jongin: You should have told me you were coming!!
Jongin: I’m with Kyungsoo
Sehun: WHAT
Sehun: WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME

Jongin stops and lets Kyungsoo go ahead when Sehun calls, and he covers his mouth to suppress his voice.

“Yes?” Jongin whispers, frowning when he hears Sehun stomping around noisily.

“I waited all that time, Jongin, and you didn’t even tell me you’re on a date with Kyungsoo.”

“It’s not a date!” he hisses. “I have to go. I’m at school.”

“With Kyungsoo? Are you ing in the classrooms? Since when were you that ?”

Jongin grimaces in disgust and hangs up without responding, looking up from his phone and smiling awkwardly when he realises Kyungsoo has stopped and is waiting for him.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. It was just Sehun.”

“Come and look at this photo.”

Jongin walks over and peers into the photo frame on the wall, his gaze following Kyungsoo’s pointed finger.

“This man here. He’s an award-winning chef. I have his recipe book and autobiography. He graduated from this university eleven years ago.”

Jongin leans back and smiles, admiring the brightness in Kyungsoo’s eyes. “You’re next.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Can I help you two?”

Jongin and Kyungsoo both jump in surprise and they turn to the source of the foreign voice. A man that Jongin recognises as a professor (who, thankfully, he doesn’t know) stands at the end of the hallway, just a few mere metres away from them. He doesn’t appear to be accusing them of anything, but Jongin notices Kyungsoo is stricken with panic, and he quickly grabs his wrist.

“No, sir, we were just heading to the library.”

Jongin yanks Kyungsoo away from the photograph and hurries down the hallway in the complete opposite direction of the library, and they bolt the minute they’re out of the professor’s sight.

“What have I done?” Kyungsoo whines, as they finally stop outside of the campus to catch their breath. “They’ll never let me in now. They’ll recognise my face and know I’m an intruder—”

“Don’t worry,” Jongin laughs. “They couldn’t care less.”

“Did you know him?”

Jongin shakes his head, patting Kyungsoo’s shoulder lightly. “Relax. There are so many students, he wouldn’t recognise you even if you walked back in right now.”

“Hey, Jongin!”

Jongin and Kyungsoo both turn and stare as the lanky owner of the voice stumbles towards them, grinning.

“Found you. Hi, Kyungsoo. I’m Sehun.”

“Hi,” Kyungsoo says quietly, slightly intimidated by Sehun’s blatantly loud nature and the fact that he already knows his name when they haven’t even met before.

“Why are you here?” Jongin asks, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of fear, because he’s almost positive that Sehun is going to ruin their… “date”. He didn’t even intend on making this a date – he doesn’t even like Kyungsoo in that way, he’s just doing this to make Sehun happy – and the last thing he wants is for Kyungsoo to get the wrong idea because of Sehun’s big mouth.

“I took a shower for you, Jongin, I’m not just going to go back home after finding out you’re busy. I’m going to disturb your date since you wasted my time.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen, and Jongin’s cheeks burn in mortification.

“It’s not a date, you idiot!” he cries, pushing Sehun back.

“Sorry, your rendezvous.”

Kyungsoo watches them argue, taking a couple of steps back, and he relaxes once he realises their bickering is only half serious. Something about Sehun’s personality reminds him of Baekhyun, and the smallest part of his mind wonders if he’d ever manage to get Baekhyun and Sehun to meet up. Perhaps when he’s a bit closer to Jongin, he’ll discuss the idea.

“Hey, Kyungsoo, your cheesecake was amazing. I don’t know if Jongin passed the message on,” Sehun exclaims suddenly, elbowing Jongin out of the way and smiling at the shy man. “The raspberry one was bomb.”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says bashfully, managing a smile.

“Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s go back to your restaurant and have the cheesecake there.”

Kyungsoo stares in shock, taken aback at just how much Sehun knows about him – does Jongin really talk about him that much? Jongin, realising this, kicks his friend in the shins and mutters an embarrassed “shut up” under his breath.

“What? This isn’t a date, is it? Can’t I join in?”

Sehun notices Jongin is glaring at him, and he smiles slyly, finally stepping back.

“Alright. I’ll leave you two to your rendezvous then. See you later, Kyungsoo!”

Sehun turns and nudges Jongin before he stalks off, and Jongin immediately apologises, his face bright red. Yet thankfully, Kyungsoo is laughing, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Do you remember my friend from the first night we met—well, saw each other?” Kyungsoo asks, “at the restaurant? He’s just like him. Sehun, I mean.”

“You’re not upset?”

“No. Of course not,” Kyungsoo says. “In his defence, this is kind of like a date.”

Jongin frowns. “How?”

“You’re about to buy me lunch at a nice café.”

Jongin raises his eyebrows in disbelief, and Kyungsoo shrugs, smiling innocently. “I know a good place to go.”

“Fine,” Jongin sighs, pretending to be reluctant about it – but in reality, he’s more than delighted to be spending more time with Kyungsoo. Maybe it’s just because he doesn’t want to be with Sehun, or maybe it’s because he feels insanely comfortable and relaxed around Kyungsoo – whatever it is, he’s just thankful that his friend isn’t suspicious of his uality, because he’s sure it could be the maker or the breaker of their friendship.

If only he knew.

[] [] []

“He might not be gay, you ,” Jongin growls, pacing up and down Sehun’s living room, unable to find the tolerance to sit beside his friend on the sofa. Sehun grits his teeth impatiently, and sighs, forcing himself to relax.

“Look, Jongin, it wasn’t that bad—”

“What if he got the wrong idea, huh? I don’t care about having a relationship, Sehun. He’s my friend and I don’t want to scare him away.”

“But—”

“I don’t even like him!” Jongin cries. “Not in that way! He’s not even gay, Sehun, you can tell he isn’t.”

“You can’t just assume that!” Sehun fires back, burning with frustration. He’d be fine with it if Jongin genuinely wasn’t interested in Kyungsoo, but he can tell Jongin just isn’t making the effort because he’s afraid of rejection. For once, Jongin is afraid of being rejected by a guy he’s taken a liking to – and for once, the guy is actually gay.

“Why are you trying so hard so set me up with him?” Jongin demands, storming over to the sofa and crossing his arms. Sehun immediately switches his phone screen off so Jongin won’t see he’s been texting Baekhyun their entire conversation the whole time.

“Because he’s a decent guy?”

“Are you really doing this for the cheesecake?”

Sehun blinks at Jongin, taken aback, and he knits his eyebrows together. “What?”

“Are you trying to set us up so he can give you free cake?”

Sehun, realising what Jongin is thinking, shuts his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, exhaling heavily.

“Jongin,” he whispers, “you’re so ing stupid.”

“What?”

“Just—just—oh, God, forget it. I won’t act like a around him anymore, okay?”

“You can’t help yourself,” Jongin scoffs, finally relaxing his shoulders and sitting beside him. “Your natural state of being is .”

“Actually, you being the gay one—”

“Shut up, Sehun.”

[] [] []

Baekhyun: Just don’t freak out and reveal anything
Baekhyun: Sehun?
Baekhyun: Did you die?
Sehun: I’ll come over when Jongin leaves
Sehun: We’ll talk it over

[] [] []

“Just tell me how Kyungsoo’s handling everything,” Sehun sighs, retreating into Baekhyun’s kitchen to find himself something comforting to stuff his face with. “Jongin’s such an idiot, it hurts to talk about him.”

Upon the disappointment of finding the fridge absent of Kyungsoo’s divine baking, Sehun trundles back to the couch and seats himself beside Baekhyun, folding his arms. Today is not a good day.

“I’m not trying to push Jongin onto him,” Baekhyun says. “Fortunately – or unfortunately, in this case – Kyungsoo is relatively intelligent. So he’d pick up on the plan if I initiated conversation about Jongin.”

Baekhyun makes himself comfortable half-sitting on Sehun’s lap, and plays with his fingers to keep his hands busy. Sehun doesn’t complain, even though the intimacy is kind of troubling, because it seems to be helping Baekhyun concentrate and that’s all he cares about, really.

“He’s only brought up Jongin in conversation casually, like, when I ask him where he’s been all day. And he’s always honest about where he’s been and what he’s done. I’ve asked him if he has any romantic interests in Jongin but he just gave me that freaky look he has.”

“What does the freaky look mean?”

Baekhyun throws his hands up. “I don’t know! It could mean yes, it could mean no. It’s frustrating, because he tells me everything, literally everything, except if it’s about a guy he’s interested in.”

Sehun purses his lips in thought, dissatisfied.

“You’re his best friend. What do you think he feels?”

Baekhyun nibbles on his bottom lip. “He’s been indifferent so far, so it’s hard to tell. But I’m hopeful. ‘Cause he usually wouldn’t follow up a guy like this.”

Sehun buries his face in his hands and Baekhyun leaves him to whine, standing up and walking over to the TV to set up a video game. He returns and settles himself directly on Sehun’s lap with two video game controllers in his hands, already forgetting about the issue at hand.

“This is killing me. Jongin’s never this discreet, ever. And I know he’s only going to develop feelings if Kyungsoo shows signs of interest, because he’s too afraid of losing him as a friend. God, what a nightmare.”

“Hey, relax,” Baekhyun says, waving a controller in front of Sehun’s face. “I’ll pester Kyungsoo more about it and find out if he likes Jongin. Deal?”

“You should have done that weeks ago.” Sehun snaps, grabbing the controller bitterly, teeth pressed into his lower lip. Baekhyun smirks as he notices this.

“You look hot when you bite your lips.”

“And you think I’m gay,” Sehun grumbles, shoving Baekhyun off his lap and standing up. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Have I caused a bathroom problem in your pants?”

“Make one more joke about my ,” Sehun threatens, “and I’ll make sure you wake up tomorrow without one.”

“You’re so y when you’re angry.”

✏ ( a/n ] I HATE BEING SO OVERWHELMED WITH SCHOOL WORK THAT I LITERALLY CAN'T FUNCTION AND DO ANYTHING SO I JUST RESORT TO WRITING GOT7 FANFICTION?!?!? SMH THIS IS ALL UR FAULT IM JAEBUM !!!!!!! UR RUINING MY LIFE!!!!!!! ITS OK THO ALL OF U CUTE READERS AND COMMENTERS ARE MY #1 TRUE LOVE AND NO Y KOREAN MAN CAN EVER TAKE THAT AWAY

word count: 2119