A/N: Ch 25 and 26 were originally all one and I want you to know all of it in one sitting, but it was too much and I wanted you to at least take a breath at the end of this one and absorb it before reading onward. I decided to compromise by splitting the writing into two but posting both at the same time. I don’t want to ruin the impact of the end of this ch or the next one with a long A/N. There's a huge A/N with Ch 27, please be sure to read it.

Ch 25 – Forecast Unknown

Kyungsoo wakes up with a light headache and no memory of how he got into his bed. He groans as he checks the clock: 8:30am. He knows he shouldn’t have agreed to a shots contest with Kwangsoo in that club. He needs to get ready for his Pure Love promos in a few hours. He gathers his stuff and heads to the shower, trying to shrug off the uncomfortable realization that he out at the end of the evening. His phone buzzes.

Insung
Hope your hangover isn’t too bad.

He stops for a moment, puzzling over the discrepancy between his lack of memory yet his relatively painless hangover. ‘Hmm, maybe Insung-hyung made sure I hydrated and all that before the end of the night.’ He hazily remembers trying to walk out of the club and Insung preventing him from falling over. The actor must have taken him home; he smiles to himself, thankful for his thoughtful hyung.

Jongdae sees him on the way into the bathroom. “Good morning. Whoa, that hair. You look like you had a wild night,” his fellow singer whistles. Kyungsoo huffs at him before pushing past and getting under the showerhead’s stream of hot water. He winces as he washes, noticing a deep black and blue bruise on his right shoulder that he can’t explain. Unsettled, he checks himself over for any other injuries and thankfully only finds one other small mark on his knee. Maybe he fell? Kyungsoo is uneasy: this is why he doesn’t normally drink a lot. He hates the loss of control over his usual careful behavior. Why’d he decide to go overboard last night? He can’t even remember. When he gets out, he notices more texts from Insung flashing at him on his phone.

Insung
Jongin seemed rather concerned for you.
Sorry we didn’t take into account your tolerance last night.
Apologize to him for me, he scolded me pretty badly, haha.

Kyungsoo’s stomach drops. He scans his memories for Jongin’s face, any conversations had between the three of them, but doesn’t recall anything. Oh no, did he make a fool of himself? And what’s with Jongin chastising Insung, his senior by more than a decade? He’s on edge as he heads out to the kitchen.

Just his luck, said boy is there eating some breakfast while Jongdae is brewing coffee on the other side of the kitchen. Jongin lifts his gaze from his meal and gives him a wary look before dropping his eyes back down to his food.

“Did I… say anything to you last night?”

“You said a lot of things. Most of them, I’ve heard before. Though you went out of your way to be rude to other people, too,” Jongin’s voice is flat.

Kyungsoo’s not sure what to make of that cryptic response and is nervous to probe deeper, so he focuses on the scene he really can’t imagine. “Rude? I’m sorry, I don’t remember… speaking of rude, why’d you scold Insung-hyung?”

Frustrated, Jongin throws his chopsticks in his bowl and gets up to take his dishes to the sink. “Because he was irresponsible. And so were you, last night. You should be more selective with who you hang out with,” he snarls.

Kyungsoo feels himself heating up with rage. He’s been so lonely without Jongin and rooming by himself, but he can’t even have friends now? He’s got poor taste in them? “Hey, don’t talk about him like he’s a bad guy. Yeah, I had a little too much to drink last night, but that was on me. He brought me home safe, right? Insung-hyung has always been very good to me.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he has,” Jongin says sarcastically, under his breath. A moment after the words have left his mouth, the dancer winces like he’s internally slapping himself.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen at the vulgar implication, and he scoffs in disbelief. “What, are you jealous?”

The next exchanges overlap, as both boys are talking over each other, at the end of their ropes and refusing to listen:

“Is that why you were a brat to him? Don’t be ridiculous, Jongin. That’s a terrible reason to be mad at him, he’s got a girlf—“
“No! But sure, play that card again and get mad at me. Nevermind that he allowed you to get hurt in the foyer—“

“OKAY, that’s enough you two!” Jongdae yells over their bickering. His interruption startles both of them, clearly having forgotten they had an audience. “I don’t know what the is going on lately, but get your together and either talk things through like grown men or just go back to avoiding each other for a while before you circle back, which you know you will because you can’t help yourselves.” He’s looking at Jongin, but Kyungsoo knows he means to be addressing them both. The younger seems to take it personally, though, retreating insecurely. Jongdae turns his head to Kyungsoo and says more pleadingly, “Come on, you’re best friends, right?”

Unable to keep eye contact with Jongdae, Kyungsoo drops his gaze to the floor by Jongin’s feet. He clenches his fists at his sides as he scowls over the term: “best friends” – it’s so much more than they are right now… and yet even that wouldn't be nearly enough for him. (His heart brushes aside the label and reaches past it on an imaginary shelf, trying to grab the “lovers” one before he mentally slaps it away. Dammit.) Brow still furrowed, his flits his eyes up to sneak a peek at Jongin. The younger is pursing his lips, staring back at him and taking in his facial expression and hands still balled up by his sides. The cold divide between them is suffocating.

It’s hard to say who turns and walks away first, but both boys leave the kitchen for their respective rooms without another word. On the walk there, Kyungsoo hears Chanyeol emerge out of another bedroom, followed by a light thwap. “Hey, what was that for?” Jongdae protests.

“Mind your own business and stay out of theirs,” the giant warns. “They’ll work things out, they always do.”

Kyungsoo sighs at his old roommate’s assessment. Oh how he wishes that were true this time.

-------------------------------------

Between the harsh drunken words in the wee hours of the night, the fight this morning where Soo was so quick to take sides with his precious ‘Insungie-hyung,’ and Jongdae’s incisive accusation as to how pathetically needy Jongin is, the dancer is done. He can’t let himself linger and pine anymore; it only leads to more pain. With trembling hands, he picks up his phone and texts Krystal.

Jongin
I can’t promise I’ll be good at this.
I don’t think I will, honestly, for a while.
But I want to try. You have been my comfort and joy in tough times.
Thank you for being my safe haven. I want to be that for you, too.
I’ve loved you as a friend for years.
I’m ready to try and love you as more than that, if you can be patient with me.

Krystal
For you, I can have all the patience in the world.
Does this mean I can tell Amber you’re my boyfriend?

‘She already wants to tell someone,’ he thinks with a pained smile, as he swallows the lump in his throat, mind already drawing an unwanted comparison…

Jongin
You might want to wait a week or two to make sure you don’t regret it. Ha.
But yes, you can tell her.
Oh God, we’re going to need to tell Taemin. He’s going to be insufferable.

Krystal
LOL, you’re right. He will be.
We can wait a little on telling him. ;)

Jongin
I probably won’t tell anyone in EXO just yet.
I need to tell my manager first, seeing as how I got in trouble last time for not doing so?

It’s an excuse, but a convincing one.

Krystal
I know things are more complicated over there.
Whatever you need to do :)

.

.

.

What Jongin needs to do is get away from Kyungsoo, since he feels like a powder keg every time he’s around the elder, always on edge waiting for the singer to let slip something else that’ll hurt or anger him. A few days later, Kyungsoo does bother to apologize for their argument in the kitchen. Jongin keeps their conversation to a minimum, not daring to get into the details and simply replying, “It’s fine.” This exchange happens under the scrutinizing eyes of Jongdae who is pretending to be engrossed in a magazine (unconvincingly). Jongin shares a look with Kyungsoo, and it’s clear they have a mutual understanding they should be more aware of their behaviors around the other members.

A few weeks pass fairly uneventfully, aside from Jongin injuring himself again. This means more attention and assistance from D.O on stage, which Kai accepts awkwardly. Jongin starts wondering when and how he’s going to tell him about Krystal… but he hasn’t even seen the girl since they texted to make it official, so for some reason, it doesn’t feel totally real yet. Also, Kyungsoo’s harsh words resound in his head, ‘was she a good lay?’ and it makes him furious all over again. Jongin avoids thinking about it. ‘Besides, he already knows apparently, since according to him, you’re already sleeping together,’ an angry voice excuses.

Another issue that’s not helping matters is how often Kyungsoo seems to be talking to Insung these days. Why should Jongin have to tell the older about his new relationship if the other boy isn’t going to bother sharing about whatever he has going on? (Late at night, he battles the voice in his head that reasons ‘you should talk,’ reminding it that each time they do, things only seem to get worse.)

EXO finally has some free time after the Exo’luxion tour has completely ended. Because f(x) is still busy, though, Jongin only has a chance to see Krystal one other time for a very brief outing at the mall during the day; it felt like a typical friend meetup given that they wouldn’t dare to even hold hands in broad daylight. The members are scattered, taking much deserved breaks with family or friends. Jongin is relaxing in the quiet of the dorm, playing a mindless game on his phone, when Jaehyuk comes in, surprised to so easily find him. “Hey, Jongin. Just so you know, there are rumors going around that you and Krystal are dating. Something about you two having a cat?”

“Well, it’s her cat not mine, but yeah,” he says without looking up from his phone.

Jaehyuk’s eyes bulge out of their sockets. “What do you mean, ‘yeah?’”

“I’ve meant to tell you but just hadn’t gotten around to it. We started dating a little while ago. So if stuff comes out, go ahead and confirm it,” he says nonchalantly, knowing Krystal’s already on board.

The manager is rendered speechless for several seconds, taking in the news. Jongin braces for a reprimand or snide comment, but when Jaehyuk finally comes up with words, they confuse him. “Have you told Kyungsoo about this?”

‘What.’ Jongin’s head snaps up. He realizes that Jaehyuk might be under some delusion that they’d continued seeing each other no matter how impossible that had become, but this doesn’t really make sense. If Kyungsoo had been so adamant that they couldn’t be together because of their jobs, why the hell hadn’t he told Jaehyuk right away when they broke up? Irritated and not sure what to think about this, Jongin tosses his phone down and gives the manager his full attention. “No, I haven’t told him. We haven’t been together since way back in January. All that distance that was demanded? It happened, as ordered by you and the VP. Kyungsoo’s a very diligent employee, in case you didn’t know,” he says while trying to control the hostility in his voice.

“Jongin, you need to tell him before this goes public.” Jaehyuk gives him a serious, concerned look.

“Why