◓

The coffee shop is a quiet place, and they’re seated in a corner, which amplifies more privacy.

“No,” Kyungsoo says, taking a sip of his coffee.

“What?”

“I said no. As far as I know, you haven’t fulfilled your part of the contract.”

Kai’s lips twist, a protest forming.

“You haven’t forgotten our conditions, have you?”

Right. How could he ever forget?

◓

“You already have someone you love.”

That certainly isn’t what Kai expected to hear from the other boy in a casual dinner together. “Do I?” Kai answers lightly.

“You brush off people who flirts with you, no matter how famous or pretty they are. You don’t spare anyone a second glance. And you talked of wanting to win the trophy for a special someone in interviews before.”

“Very observant of you,” Kai comments.

“Not only that… the person you love is someone you can’t be with.”

Kai stills, paying attention to the other man for the first time.

“I can recognize that longing look you sometimes have, when you think no one’s looking. I know that look, because I do it myself. I’m also in love with someone I can’t be with.”

“You are…?”

Kyungsoo gives him a wistful look. “The person I love doesn’t love me back. Not yet, anyway. I’m working on it. I don’t know about your circumstances, though.”

“The person I love is not here. He’s back in Korea.” Kai pauses, swallowing back a sigh. “I miss him.”

“Doesn’t it get tiring, having to throw people off all the time? Or deal with your parents trying to set you up with people you have no intentions of seeing?”

“What are you getting at?”

Kyungsoo locks eyes with him, solemn. “Let’s make a deal, Kai. A contract between two people in similar situations.”

“Yeah? What would that be?”

“Let’s pretend to date to keep people off our backs,” Kyungsoo suggests. “I know for a fact your father has never approved of you being gay and kept wanting to introduce you to girls. If you date me it’ll make your father have to accept this. I come from a wealthy family anyway so that should ‘soften the blow’, so to speak, and get him more used to the idea of you dating guys.”

“And what’s in it for you?”

“The same it is for you, really,” Kyungsoo glances off to the side in boredom. “Dating a guy, who’s more or less a rebel, but also comes from a wealthy family… should help my family get more used to the idea of me being gay and don’t want to marry off to a nice girl somewhere.”

“I see… A mutually-beneficial contract, huh?”

The other nods. “And the ending condition of our contract is… if either of us can be with the one we love. Then we will break up. So it’s a race to see who will get to be with the one we love first, really.”

“That seems alright,” Kai says, mulling it over. Having a fake lover to keep his father and potentially-interested people off his back seem like a nice deal. They can break up once he returns to Korea and gets Sehun back. “Okay, deal.”

“Good,” Kyungsoo smiles, offering a hand out, and Kai promptly shakes it.

A contract is made.

◓

“I haven’t forgotten,” Kai replies, gaze focusing back onto the man in front of him. “But what makes you think I haven’t fulfilled my part of the contract?”

“Because you aren’t with the one you love,” Kyungsoo answers nonchalantly. “Are you?”

“How would you know that? I told you the person I love is in Korea. I’ve been in Korea for a few weeks now. I could’ve met up with him by then.”

“I think you did,” Kyungsoo says carefully, eyes on him. “But I don’t think you’re with that person.”

“Why not?”

“Because that person is Oh Sehun.”

Kai stills, breath stopping inside his lungs for a moment. “You think that person is Sehun?”

“Isn’t it? You act strange when around him. Or rather… He acts strange around you.”

Silence.

“I always thought it was puzzling… that you kept approaching him, talking to him. Why? He is your brother’s secretary, but… he is more or less in an unimportant position. It’d be more beneficial for you to befriend a Shareholder… someone with power in the company. But Sehun… What is it about Sehun…?”

“Sehun is―”

“―the person you love, isn’t it?” the other finishes. “But he’s dating Jongin. So your part of the contract hasn’t been fulfilled.”

Kai grits his teeth. “Maybe I can’t fulfill my part of the contract because Sehun thinks I’m dating you.”

“Maybe, but that’s not part of our deal,” Kyungsoo shrugs, uncaring. “All I know is that our termination condition is either of us getting to be with the one we love, but… you’re not. And neither am I.”

“Kyungsoo…”

“Isn’t it ironic? That the person you love is dating your brother?”

“Ironic?” Kai growls, recalling Jongin’s words to him just hours earlier. “Yeah,