In a sort of small miracle, the second half of practice went almost just as well as the first half did for Jongin. Once the teacher supervisor for the Music Club arrived, Jongin and the other seven of their group left the auditorium to leave more room for the other groups performing in the recital. Yixing led them all to a small dance studio that Jongin hadn’t been aware existed in the school. Apparently the room was intended to be part of a much larger gymnasium, and the contractors only realized after the wooden flooring had been placed that the foundations of this part of the building wouldn’t be strong enough to hold such a large room. So, a sort of mini-dance room had been put into plan and finished, while the gymnasium was built on the other side of the school.

            The room itself wasn’t much, Jongin had to admit, but it was enough for the eight of them, he supposed. They’d all be taking turns learning their own individual choreography and cues anyway, so it wasn’t like they were looking for a large showroom to practice in.

            Practice itself was relatively simple and quiet as everyone learned their parts. Kyungsoo had pulled out his laptop immediately for Jongin to play a pre-recorded video of the choreography for their specific bit. At first, as Kyungsoo was pulling up the video, Jongin couldn’t help but let his eyes wander the computer a little, noting how everything on his desktop was nicely organized and placed, and how there were folders for practically everything. In addition to that, the laptop was spotless—not a single splotch, crack, or scratch anywhere on its screen or body. Hell, Jongin couldn’t even see a fleck of dust anywhere on it. If he hadn’t known any better, he would’ve assumed that Kyungsoo just snatched it from a tech store’s display window moments before.

            Snapping himself out of his awe for the man’s neatness, he focused on the video that was being opened up. They agreed to watch through it a couple times before practicing anything so they’d have an idea of the flow of it all, especially considering Jongin had never heard the song that they were going to be performing to before. It seemed like Kyungsoo had some choreography as well—nothing much, mostly just walking around to different places during specific parts of the songs and some showy hand gestures. The song itself was a bit muffled in sound, but Jongin could tell the voice singing the song wasn’t Kyungsoo’s. He vaguely wondered if it was Yixing’s, seeing as Luhan had said the man had composed some of the songs, but he wasn’t really sure still.

            “You think that’ll be alright?” Kyungsoo finally said after the video had ended for the second time.

            “U-uh, yeah, I can do it,” Jongin stammered out, refusing to admit that he hadn’t been paying any attention to the song, and instead was just switching back and forth between getting lost in his thoughts and observing Kyungsoo’s side profile. He has a surprisingly defined jawline…

            “Alright, good. I have to go with Baekhyun and the others to the clubroom to practice the songs, but I’ll probably be back in half an hour so we can work on timing cues and everything then. Is that alright?” Wait what?

            “You’re not staying?” he blurted out before he could stop himself, and Kyungsoo looked at him with half-confused, half-amused eyes.

            “Well, yeah, it’d hardly be efficient if we just watched you guys dance for an hour and did nothing ourselves, no? And it’d be too distracting if everyone practiced here—the songs would overlap too much and we’d all lose our timing.” Of course, as Kyungsoo explained it, Jongin realized how painstakingly obvious the answer was, and he wasn’t able to control the slight flush that came to his cheeks in embarrassment as a result.

            “R-right,” he muttered out finally, unable to look Kyungsoo in the eye. “Practice well, then.”

            “…I will, you do too,” Kyungsoo responded simply, and Jongin knew he wasn’t imagining the pause just then. “Baekhyun-ah, let’s go.”

            “Roger that!” Baekhyun was chirping back, hand coming up to his forehead in a mock-salute. “Work hard, you four! No slacking off, Sehunnie~”

            “Yes, yes,” Sehun was drawling monotonously, shooing Baekhyun away from him as Jongdae and Taeyeon followed, and eventually Jongin found himself left with just Sehun, Luhan, and Yixing.

            “Yo, Jongin, do me a favor and keep your pining to a minimum, ‘kay? You’re gonna burn my eyeballs out with all the cuteness at this rate,” Luhan casually spoke up, and Jongin just flipped him the bird.

            “Hm? Who’re you pining over?” Yixing questioned, his eyebrows furrowing together in an almost cute manner, and Jongin almost wanted to kick Sehun for the way he was looking at the oblivious upperclassman.

            “It’s nothing, sunbae; he’s just being an annoying piece of shi— ow!”

            “Now that is no way to speak to your elders, now is it?” Luhan huffed, and Jongin would’ve rolled his eyes if he wasn’t so afraid of another smack to his head.

            “Oh, so now you wanna be treated like you’re older,” he muttered to himself instead, ignoring Luhan’s bratty ‘I heard that’ in favor of going over to Kyungsoo’s laptop.

His fingers twitched slightly as he found himself tempted to browse his crush’s computer, but eventually, his reasoning won out and he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he just restarted the video, watching the unknown dancer—which he assumed was the recently graduated upperclassman that choreographed this—and taking mental notes on the moves. They were a little complicated, sure, but nothing he couldn’t do, so long as he worked at it hard enough.

            His initiative appeared to inspire the other three, as well, seeing as rather than teasing him or talking, they were all following his lead and working on their own parts. It was a little hard to focus at first, what with four different songs playing—all with different tunes, rhythms, and styles—but once they all began to practice, things quickly fell into place. Jongin focused on tackling the song piece by piece, starting with all the bits that repeated at multiple parts throughout the song.

            The rest of the half an hour was relatively quiet, besides the sounds of music starting and stopping, sneakers squeaking against the floor, and open mouths panting for air. None of them even noticed the four vocalist come back into the room, not until Kyungsoo, quite loudly, cleared his throat.

            “Jesus ing !” Sehun screamed for his life, clutching his heart in shock as everyone else in the room just stared at him. Jongin vaguely realized that was probably the loudest he’d ever heard the boy talk.

            “Well, I guess we know you were concentrating well,” Taeyeon joked lightly, walking over to pat the boy on the shoulder in comfort.

            “How’s the practice going?” Jongdae asked the four awkwardly, still trying not to burst out into laughter from Sehun’s outburst, and Yixing was the only one who chose to answer.

            “I’m pretty much finished,” he said proudly, and Jongin stared at the man with eyes wide open in shock. Was this guy even human?

            “That’s my Yixing hyung!” Jongdae chirped cheerfully, even clapping his hands together enthusiastically. Looks like you may have competition, Sehun-ah.

             “What ‘bout you guys?” Baekhyun questioned, staring with an eyebrow raised at Jongin, Luhan, and Sehun, and Jongin suddenly understood exactly why everyone in the school seemed to fear the older boy.

            “Uhhh…” he trailed off dumbly, and he could practically feel Luhan rolling his eyes.

            “I’m about halfway through, maybe a little less,” the oldest Chinese male said smoothly, and Jongin inwardly wondered if Luhan feared anything. It seemed Sehun was on the same wavelength with him there, staring at Luhan in a mix of fear and awe. Baekhyun just nodded and turned his head.

            “Sehunnie?” Suddenly the nickname felt 1000% more sinister.

            “S-same?”

            “Hm…” The look on Baekhyun’s face was not a look anyone should ever trust. “Kai?”

            “Uhhh…” Dear lord he was going to die. He shook his head slightly to try and get himself together. “I-I skipped around a bit, b-but I’m thinking I should be around ¾ of the way d-done?”

             “I see,” was all Baekhyun said, and Jongin could only hope his death would be slow. “That’s fine then!”

            …What.

            Jongin snapped his head up to see Baekhyun grinning, back to his usual cheerful self.

            “Not as much as I would’ve hoped, but we’ll fix that now, okay?” Ah, there it is.

            Kyungsoo sighed as Baekhyun practically skipped over to Sehun, only to grab the youngest by his ear to one corner of the room. Jongin could only hope that the youngest would survive the encounter—he didn’t want to lose one of the few friends he had in the school to the infamous Byun Baekhyun’s wrath. He raised an eyebrow in amusement, though, as he heard harsh whispers of ‘I know you’ve done less than that don't lie to me you little ’ and ‘why are you always so lazy.’

            “Do they know each other?” Jongin questioned quietly as Kyungsoo made his way over to him.

            “They’re family friends, if I remember correctly,” the older answered. “Baekhyun’s always been saddled with babysitting Sehun, though.” An image of Baekhyun dealing with a baby Sehun—same face and all—popped into Jongin’s mind, and he couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that left his lips. Kyungsoo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Something funny?”

            “N-no, I just—I mean—no, there’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” the words tumbled out of his mouth, and Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes.

            “If you say so,” Kyungsoo just said with a shrug, before walking over to the laptop. “Shall we get started?” And get started they did.

            By the time practice was over, Jongin was sweating everywhere, barely able to catch his breath, but somehow, still smiling. It’d been a while since he done any formal practices or prepared for any sort of performance, and he couldn’t deny that the nostalgia was nice. He’d even been so wrapped up in his own excitement that he almost didn’t get distracted when Kyungsoo started humming along with the music. Sure, he did end up getting distracted and falling on his in the middle of the song, but at least it was during a pretty complicated turning sequence, so he was able to blame it on that with only half of the room laughing at him and knowing the real reason he was making a fool out of himself.

            “It’s getting pretty late, we should probably wrap up for today,” Taeyeon eventually said as she stood up from where she was sitting against the mirrors.

            “You’re right,” Kyungsoo agreed after checking his watch. “I’m sure Teacher would have released the others already, so we should probably finish as well.”

            “You gonna head back to the Student Council room, Soo?” Baekhyun questioned, tossing the rolled up magazine he was using the hit Sehun with into his bag.

            “Not today, everyone’s already gone home, so there’s no point,” Kyungsoo responded simply. “Plus, thanks to Jongdae’s help, we’ve been getting work done a lot quicker.” Yixing seemed shocked at the statement, turning to the mentioned boy with wide eyes.

            “You’ve been working with the Student Council? Since when?” the Chinese boy questioned, and Jongdae furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

            “I dunno… a couple weeks, I guess? Since the old Treasurer left, probably,” he responded uncertainly. “Why?”

            “Hm… no reason, just surprised you had the mental capacity to work for such an important thing,” Yixing teased, but looking closely, Jongin could see there was more the older man wanted to say. It didn’t seem as though Jongdae noticed though, indignantly protesting as everyone else ignored him.

            “Hey, let’s all go out!” Baekhyun suddenly suggested, and Kyungsoo looked over at him skeptically. “Oh don’t look at me like that—it’ll be nice! We’re gonna be stuck together a lot for the next month and a half, might as well hang out!”

            “Sounds fun,” Luhan agreed, Sehun nodding silently. “Where do you wanna go?”

            “It’s not like there’s that any chill places to hang out here,” Yixing added in reminder, and Baekhyun pouted at that.

            “True… Oh wait, that new ice cream parlor opened up a couple blocks away, right? I passed by it on my way to school today morning!”

            “Ah, the place with the little ice cream swirl doorknobs and bells?” Jongdae pitched in. “It looked super cute!”

            “I’m down for ice cream,” Sehun said.

            “I guess it’s not too cold outside just yet, so it’s still okay,” Taeyeon added in resignation, and Baekhyun grinned.

            “Right, then it’s settled—off we go, my minions!” he exclaimed triumphantly, grabbing Kyungsoo by the wrist before the man could protest. Jongin would’ve laughed, had Luhan not done the same exact thing to him just a second later.

----

            They ended up unintentionally crowding the small ice cream parlor, seeing as the place was only a new, local business and hence quite small. Still, there weren’t too many other people around besides their group, so it wasn’t like they were taking up space that others wanted. Besides, they were good business for the new parlor. They all bought quite a bit—one might say too much for students, but money couldn’t deny these private school kids of what they wanted.

            “Mmm, this is good!” Jongdae practically purred as he slowly ate away at the… five (?) scoops of cake batter ice cream he had gotten.

            “You’re making a mess of yourself,” Yixing chastised as he wiped away at the ice cream on the boy’s chin and the side of his lip. Jongdae just stuck his tongue out indignantly, and Jongin had to stifle a chuckle as he turned his head to see Taeyeon doing almost the exact same thing to Baekhyun. What childish upperclassmen.

            “What’d you get, Jongin-ah?” Luhan asked and leaned in, and if it were anyone else, Jongin would’ve thought nothing of the action, but he knew his friend, and stretched the arm with his cone out, far, far away from Luhan.

            “None for you, finish your own first,” he snapped, nodding his chin to towards the melting cone in the older boy’s hand. Luhan pouted, but relented, moving to off the strawberry cream that had melted onto the back of his hand.

            “You’re no fun, Kyungsoo would let me have some of his, right Kyungsoo-yah?” Luhan immediately did a 180 to turn to the mentioned boy, but not before giving a quick wink in Jongin’s direction.

            “Huh?” the Student Council VP muttered in surprise at the conversation suddenly being turned to him, obviously only half-paying attention, the rest of his focus on his laptop where he was typing away at god-knows-what. “Uh, yeah, sure, here you go hyung.”

            A small twinge of jealousy ran through Jongin’s veins as Kyungsoo absently held out the cone of vanilla to Luhan, but he suppressed it and instead took to angrily at his own chocolate. His grip tightened on his cone when the older Chinese boy took the boy up on his offer, making a show out of whatever cream was melting down the sides, his tongue brushing oh-so-close to Kyungsoo’s fingers—

            “, Jongin!” The sudden scream tore him from his thoughts, and he immediately looked over to see Sehun staring at his hand. He followed the gaze to see that the ice cream cone he had been gripping tightly had snapped in his hold, ice cream now dripping and flowing all over him, onto his chair, his clothes, and so on.

            “,” he cursed to himself, immediately grabbing the several napkins Yixing offered him while Taeyeon asked an employee if there was a bathroom. Luckily, there was one in the back, so he quickly got up, making quick work of throwing away the cone and ice cream—or what was left of it—before rushing to the bathroom.

            Slamming the door behind him, he grabbed paper towels and wet them. He wrung them out just a little bit before dabbing them all over his pants and sleeve. Vaguely, he realized that this was just opening himself up to all the ‘you wet yourself’ jokes that Luhan and Sehun would eventually indulge in, but his focus wasn't on that at the moment. Instead, he was replaying the scene in his head over and over again, debating whether to go punch Luhan or go punch himself.

            He was being stupid; he knew that. His friends always liked to make fun of him, to push his buttons to see when he’d snap, Luhan more so than Sehun. The younger boy was someone he’d known since he was younger—the only one he’d known in the school going into it, really—from back when they were kids and Sehun still came to Jongin’s dad’s dance classes. They’d gotten along quite well back then, but then Sehun’s parents pulled him out and Jongin never saw him again, only ever hearing his name again when entering the school, hearing his teacher call out the boy’s name in the attendance list, and figuring out they were in the same class. After that, Jongin’s had met Luhan and Chanyeol, and the rest was history. At the very least, Sehun had some history with Jongin, so he knew when to stop with his teasing.

            Jongin had a hunch Luhan knew, too. When to stop, that was. The older man was a lot more perceptive than he gave himself credit for, and even though they’d only known each other for a little while, Jongin knew Luhan did what he did for good reasons. Or at least, good reasons according to the older boy. What Luhan didn’t seem to understand, however, was just why Jongin was so terrible at these things. It’s not that he didn’t want to take initiative with Kyungsoo, get close to him, ask him out, all of that.

            He just couldn’t.

            From childhood to now, he’d always been quite the shy person, not necessarily out of his nature, but rather from out of his fear of rejection. It was hard to get close to people because he couldn’t stand the thought of being pushed away by them. Somewhere, deep inside him, he knew why he was like this. He’d been quite the bubbly, likeable child, never having any of these issues, but as soon as he joined primary school—he’d been homeschooled by his nanny until he was around 8—he’d been given his first tastes of the real world through punches and wedgies and stolen shoes in the locker rooms. For whatever reason, he’d been an easy target for bullies, but the words stuck with him more than the violence did.

            ‘Cut the nice act.’

            ‘No one likes you.’

            ‘We’re not your friends.’

            ‘Why would anyone be friends with you?’

            It was something that had struck a chord with him, one that he wouldn’t let go for the rest of his life, most likely. Sure, the actual actions could and did stop—his parents had found out two years into primary school and pulled him out to alternate between private schools and homeschooling. He started being more quiet around classmates when he was in an actual school, and with the mix of puberty, manhwa popularity, and whatever else, that was seen as a good thing rather than a bad thing. Eventually, he’d never faced a single issue of bullying, or even insults. In fact, he slowly grew in popularity at each school he went to, even as he talked and smiled less and less. But an experience like that couldn’t, wouldn’t leave him just like that, with the snap of his shaky fingers. Thoughts of ‘everyone hates you they want you gone’ pulsed through his brain like the blood pumping through his body, rooted in his very soul.

            He’d grown since then, and he knew better. He knew that most people weren’t like that—he had friends and classmates around him now to prove that. The assumptions his mind made were far from true, but that didn’t matter. Even the tiniest chance of betrayal, of abuse, of rejection, and he froze. It didn’t make sense to many people—Jongin wasn’t even sure he understood it himself. All he knew was that he couldn’t take the first step. He just couldn’t.              

            Unceremoniously slamming the toilet lid down, he sat down on it, leaving the wet paper towels splayed on his thighs as he reached both hands up to grip tightly at his hair. Fear was filling every inch of him now as thoughts raced a million miles per minute—what if Kyungsoo noticed what if he realized what if he’s confused what if he’s concerned what if he’s disgusted.

            Disgusted.

            Tightening his grip, he resisted the urge to scream, biting down on his lips instead as he willed his heart rate to go down. Kyungsoo isn’t like that, he told himself half-heartedly. He’s not very observant, so he probably didn’t notice. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be like that. Kyungsoo’s nice. Kinda scary, but nice. He’d be polite if he rejected m—

            Rejected.

            He shook his head violently, trying to control his stomach from flipping at the word. He wouldn’t be like this—he couldn’t expect anything from Kyungsoo, however nice he is. He just needed to learn to accept it and control his own reactions. Eventually, he’d get over it and move on, and everything would be fine—

            “Jongin-ssi?”

            —or not.

            Y-yes?” he stammered, trying to raise his voice enough to be heard through the thick door, but not enough to show just how shaken up he was at the moment.

            “Are you alright? You’ve been in here for quite a while, we were all quite concerned…” Kyungsoo trailed off, and Jongin took a deep breath before answering.

            “U-uh, yeah, I’m fine, thanks sunbaenim.” He cursed inwardly as his voice hitched again, and unluckily for him, it seemed Kyungsoo had heard him.

            “What was that? Did something happen? Jongin-ssi—”

            “I said I’m fine!” he snapped, only realizing afterwards how rude that must have sounded. “I-I’m sorry, sunbaenim, really, I’ll be out in a minute, there’s nothing to worry about—” A small squeak sound cut off his rambling, and his head shot up to see the doorknob turned ever-so-slightly. , he didn’t lock it, he didn’t—

            “Jongin-ssi,” Kyungsoo said, and Jongin froze at the man’s tone. “I’m coming in, I’m sorry for the intrusion, but even if it’s not my place to do so, I wish to help you.”

            “N-no, don’t—” Too late.

            Kyungsoo pulled the door open quickly, sliding in through the narrow gap he had created before shutting the door behind them and locking it. Jongin gulped at how seriously concerned the other man looked as he walked towards him. Embarrassed, Jongin looked down at his feet, even as Kyungsoo came to stand right in front of him.

            “Jongin-ssi, please look at me,” Kyungsoo pleaded, kneeling down in front of him. Jongin jumped a little in his seat when the older man’s hand came to press against his arm. Reluctantly, he lifted his head, but kept his eyes down, refusing to look the other man in the eye. “…Your eyes are swollen—have you been crying?”

            The sudden words surprised Jongin, and he involuntarily brought his hand up to feel around his eyes. Now that he thought about it, his eyes did sting a bit and as he felt the area around under his eyes he realized they were a bit puffy, but his cheeks weren’t wet, meaning he was probably on the brink of tears. Great.

            “No one’s upset with you,” Kyungsoo was saying suddenly, a bit confusingly. “They only laughed because they thought you'd fine it funny as well, but they are worried. The employee here felt quite bad as well, so if you’re worried about that, please don’t be. We’re concerned, no one’s mocking you or upset or angry at you—”

            “It’s not that,” Jongin cut him off. “That’s not the problem, I promise. Just…” He trailed off, not really sure what to say, if he should say anything at all.

            “Would you like me to get someone else?” Kyungsoo spoke up again, and Jongin could’ve melted from the smoothness and sincerity of the man’s words. “Maybe Luhan hyung? Or Sehun? Or—”

            “N-no,” he eventually mumbled, keeping his eyes down and away from Kyungsoo’s prying ones. “D-don’t get them… I don’t w-want anyone… to see me… like this.” Why was he telling Kyungsoo this? “Just… stay here, I guess, if you wanna. Or leave, if you want that.”

            “…I understand.” The words were abrupt, and a sudden spike of panic suddenly ran through Jongin at the thought of Kyungsoo actually leaving. It didn’t seem that was on the man’s plan though, and instead, Kyungsoo was standing up, leaning to take the now barely damp paper towels from Jongin’s lap and throwing them away, before grabbing some fresh, dry ones and handing them to the younger boy. Wordlessly, Jongin took them, laying most of them out on his lap and using a piece of another to wipe away at his damp sleeve.

            “Will you be okay?” Kyungsoo questioned softly as Jongin worked, and the younger boy froze, an acceptable response already on the tip of his tongue. “Please, don’t lie.”

            “…It’s happened before, I’ll manage,” he muttered finally, and god why was it so hard to lie to Kyungsoo—

            “I’ll admit, hearing that doesn’t give much comfort,” Kyungsoo responded sharply, and if it were any other situation, Jongin would’ve laughed from how formally the other man spoke. “Would talking help, or would you prefer quiet?”

            “Quiet, if you wouldn’t mind,” Jongin found himself replying despite himself. “I’d like to… compose myself.”

            Out of the corners of his eyes, Jongin could see Kyungsoo nodding, and just like that, the room fell into an only slightly uncomfortable silence. The older boy seemed perfectly fine with just being there in silence, moving only to lean his body against the railing on the side walls made for handicap individuals. Jongin considered telling the older man to just leave, to tell the man that he’d be out in a minute and that he should go tell the others that Jongin was just taking a very long bathroom break or something. It’d cause some laughs, some inappropriate jokes, and everything could go back to normal, as though this never happened. Jongin didn’t have to risk ing up the only chance for this many new friends he’d had in a while. A self-deprecating chuckle, and all would be well.

            So why couldn’t he do it?

            “…Say,” he finally spoke up, not really sure why he was doing it. “Why don’t you ever listen when I ask you to call me Kai?” It was Kyungsoo’s turn to be surprised at the sudden question, his large eyes growing even more as he widened them in surprise before narrowing them and furrowing his brows in confusion.

            “Well, that’s not your name, is it? Your name is Kim Jongin, so why would I call you anything else?” Kyungsoo’s response was so solid, so clear as though it was entirely self-explanatory and obvious. It made Jongin simultaneously frustrated and happy.

            “Everyone else calls me Kai,” he shot back, but Kyungsoo didn’t seem fazed.

            “Just because a bunch of people do something, doesn’t mean it should always be done.” What a direct answer. “Sure, some people may like it as a nickname, but what’s the point when you allow it to become all of you? Rather than trying to become this character, this ‘Kai’ individual everyone looks to, shouldn’t you, as Kim Jongin, focus on just becoming who you are, regardless of name and title?”

            Jongin went silent after that as he mulled over the words. In a lot of ways, Kyungsoo was right. He did use the nickname he’d been given by his reputation to create a wall between him and other people. Still, for Kyungsoo to call him out so suddenly out on it… it should’ve made him angry. It should’ve frustrated him, confused him, disgruntled him. Instead, fondness just expanded in his heart at the words. Even if the older boy was reading him like an open book, none of it was judgmental. Simply observational, even advisory at times. It was… nice.

            “Do you think…” he started, and Kyungsoo hummed as a gesture for him to continue. “Do you think… or I mean, would it be okay… would it be okay if I called you hyung?” The older man seemed surprised at the sudden request, but when Jongin finally looked up all the way to meet his eyes, Kyungsoo was smiling sweetly.

            “Sure, that’s fine with me, Jongin-ah.” The younger boy gulped, immediately looking away as his cheeks flushed. Before another awkward silence could fill the room, however, banging on the bathroom door was startling them both, and they looked over as Baekhyun’s voice rung through.

            “Yo, are you guys dead? Please say no, I can’t run this recital myself! Soooooooo!” Jongin giggled—actually giggled—at the older man’s whining, looking up only to see Kyungsoo smiling down at him endearingly. Clearing his throat, Jongin forced himself to talk.

            “I…” He trailed off, shaking his head a little to collect his thoughts. “I guess we better get going, hyung?”

            “Yeah, I guess we should. Shall we?” Kyungsoo was holding out a hand to him in support, and for once, Jongin didn’t feel terrified, or embarrassed, or concerned, or anything. He just felt… happy, as he reached out and took the hand confidently.

            “Let’s.”

wow this got rly long and dramatic real fast
we're not even at the actual drama/angst bit of this story yet dear lord what am i doing im sorry i cant make like a single fic at this point where it's just simple romance and drama i gotta make more problems outta everything welp 

anyway hopefully this kinda long update makes up for me missing updates and all 
next chapter should be a little more fluffy (i think) so that'll be nice