“I have to admit” Chanyeol said as he made a shot for the corner pocket and missed, watching as the yellow pool ball rebounded off the rest and rolled to a stop near the middle of the table, “I’m a little jealous of the relationship between you and Sehun”

Baekhyun was slightly taken aback by the random confession, “What?” he asked as he potted a red ball and shifted to try and pot another, “why?”

Chanyeol shrugged as he watched Baekhyun miss his second shot. He moved to line himself up with the table and glanced at Baekhyun as he readied himself to make a shot, “The two of you just clicked” he said, “You got really close, really fast and seem to like each other a lot” he made his shot and managed to pot a yellow ball, leaving him with only two left, though Baekhyun had only one. It would be a close game. He walked around the table to take his next shot, “Do you think there’s more to it?” he asked, feigning nonchalance as he took a shot and missed by a mile.

Baekhyun laughed musically as he took Chanyeol’s place and potted his last red ball before making his winning shot and potting the black ball. He turned to face Chanyeol with a grin, “We get on well because we have a similar sense of humour. But it isn’t like that” he said, taking Chanyeol’s cue and hanging both that and his back on the wall, “Besides, Sehun isn’t really my type”

Chanyeol couldn’t stop the grin that bloomed over his face, “Oh?” he said, following Baekhyun over to the small café at the end of the games room. It was a small place – a circle room with maybe a dozen tables, hidden out of the way. It was cosy and had a homely feel to its mahogany walls and plush chairs. It was very un-matching to the rest of the large boat’s decor, but Chanyeol supposed that was what made it so great.  Chanyeol especially liked the black and white photography that lined the walls. A grinning girl here, a candid shot of the beach there. It was pretty. Baekhyun seemed to like it there a lot, since it was much less crowded than the rest of the boat, and they did some pretty decent food, “What is your ideal type?” he asked, feigning indifference.

Baekhyun smiled as he looked over the menu. He already knew what he wanted, but Chanyeol was too easy to play with. He took his time looking over the menu before placing it to one side, “You” he answered, enjoying the way that Chanyeol’s eyes widened in shock.

Chanyeol didn’t have time to respond before the waiter was in front of them, taking their order.

Baekhyun grinned as he ordered himself a short stack with a side of bacon and an iced coffee, whilst Chanyeol went for a ham and cheese bagel and a glass of orange juice.

They thanked the waiter before he went off with their orders.

“What about me?” Chanyeol asked when Baekhyun could no longer hide behind his menu.

Baekhyun’s laugher tinkled around the tiny café as he looked at Chanyeol in amusement, “You’re my type” he rolled his eyes, “You’re cute, Chanyeol, do you know that?”

Chanyeol grinned back, “Jongin disagrees” he laughed softly, a pink tinge to his cheeks. He was a little bit over the moon at the obvious insinuation behind Baekhyun’s admittance. Granted it had only been four days, but he had wanted a holiday romance after all. And it looked as though this was his chance.

“Jongin obviously has his eyes set on a much shorter kind of cute” Baekhyun snickered, “which suits me just fine. Less competition and all that”

“Who said there was ever any competition?” Chanyeol raised a brow, “How about it, Byun? Fancy a holiday fling with me?”

Baekhyun laughed for the nth time at the idiot giant, “Park, that sounds delightful” he shot back as the waiter returned with their brunch.

“So tell me more about yourself” Chanyeol said as they began to dig in.

Baekhyun swallowed a mouthful of pancake and thought for a moment, “Let’s see… Okay, my favourite colours are green and grey. I’m one hundred and seventy-four centimetres tall. I have an older brother. I just turned twenty-one last month. I’m a Taurus. I grew up in Busan but moved to Seoul when I was six, that’s when I met Kyungsoo. Um, I’m scared of spiders, I jump at literally anything aaaaaaaaaaand my favourite superhero is Captain America” he listed randomly before wolfing down the rest of his food, “Now you go” he commanded lightly.

Chanyeol finished the last of his bagel as he thought about it, “I’m twenty, soon to be twenty-one in like five months,” he began, “I’m a November baby. I have an older sister named Yura. I’m a-hundred-and-eighty-five centimetres. I like to experiment with my hair a lot. My favourite colour is silver. I drive. I’m a little bit addicted to cherry cola. My biggest fear is knowing that you never know a hundred percent what someone’s feelings or intentions are towards you. Oh, and I’m a huge for caramel digestives” he nodded as though in agreement with himself before gulping down his juice.

Baekhyun snorted, inhaling his coffee as he did and choking as a result, “Ha! ‘I’m a huge for caramel digestives’ what even are you, Park Chanyeol?!” he cackled.

“Because ‘slap my and call me Polly’ was so much more normal” Chanyeol pointed out in good fun.

Baekhyun shrugged, “I just wasn’t expecting it” he grinned, drying his eyes from where the coughing had caused him to tear up.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes as he leant over the table and wiped Baekhyun’s chin with his thumb where there was still dribbles of coffee, “Ah, so messy” he joked, leaning back in his chair.

“Not taking the drama approach and kissing it away then?” Baekhyun teased.

Chanyeol waggled his brows, “That only works with cream” he sighed dramatically.

“Guess I’ll have to order a cake then” Baekhyun shook his head slowly as though devastated by the news, much to Chanyeol’s amusement.

He opted for a cream cake, making sure to give Chanyeol half before eating it and purposely leaving a dollop of cream on his lip, sending Chanyeol a teasing grin as he did.

“You’ve, uh…” Chanyeol pointed to his mouth, playing along.

Baekhyun gasped jokingly and dabbed at his lip with a napkin, obviously missing the cream, “Did I get it?” he asked innocently.

“No,” Chanyeol chuckled, “here, let me” he stood up and leant over the table, pulling Baekhyun up slightly and pressing their lips together softly, letting his tongue dart across Baekhyun’s lip to lap up the cream before he sat back down in his chair with a sly grin.

Baekhyun looked back at him, thoroughly entertained as he his lips, “thanks” he said, “I never would have gotten that”

Chanyeol hummed, “Well, if you ever need use of my lips again, I’m happy to be of service” he teased light-heartedly.

Baekhyun nodded thoughtfully, “Good to know” he said, “You wanna go for a walk?” he asked, making to stand up and stretch out his limbs.

Chanyeol followed suit, “Yeah, let’s go see what kind of mayhem we can get up to” he smiled down at his partner in crime, offering him a hand, which Baekhyun gladly took.

The two of them had connected easily in the time that they had spent together. They shared a lot of the same tastes, but had enough that they didn’t share to keep things interesting. Ultimately, they just got on very well. They’d connected in a way that they hadn’t with the others and they both really liked that.

Inseparable since day one Junmyeon had remarked that morning when Baekhyun announced that he was going to meet Chanyeol, and Baekhyun could only laugh because he realised that it was true. Kyungsoo had rolled his eyes and told him to use protection as he’d left, but Baekhyun had managed to flip him the bird just before the door had shut, much to his delight.

Chanyeol was still a stranger really, but Baekhyun felt like he had known him forever, what with the easy banter that they fell into and the general at ease-ness he felt whenever Chanyeol was around. He’d never really had that feeling so quickly around anyone before and he found that he really liked it.

He didn’t know what it meant exactly, if it meant he had a small crush or if they’d just developed a tight friendship between them, but when Chanyeol had proposed the idea of a holiday fling, Baekhyun found himself filled with glee and unable to decline.

Chanyeol was a catch in Baekhyun’s humble opinion, or at least he was from what Baekhyun knew about the tall boy so far. He was smart and funny, not to mention absolutely handsome and had a cracking personality to match.

If Baekhyun had been looking forward to his trip before, now he was absolutely thrilled at the idea of two weeks with not only his best friends, but his newly acquired friends also.

Baekhyun had always been good at making friends, he always knew what to say or how to read the room, though he always denied the praise and put it down to simply winging it. But with Chanyeol, he didn’t even have to try. He was able to be a hundred percent himself, which was really quite refreshing.

“Hey,” Chanyeol nudged him softly, snapping him from his reverie, “What are you thinking about so deeply?” he asked.

“You, actually” Baekhyun told him honestly, gently swinging their joint hands between them.

Chanyeol grinned, obviously quite chuffed at that, “All good things I hope” he promoted as they rounded the corner to see Luhan, Minseok and Jongdae.

“… come on, a Chinese name will be cool. Xiumin. Just accept it” Luhan was pleading.

Minseok scoffed, “Nah, mate” he said, “Xium-out. Adios es!” he flashed them both a peace sign before taking off.

Jongdae sighed, “You’re a ing dweeb” he told Luhan.

Luhan laughed, “that Xium-out thing was kinda funny though” he said, “He’s cute”

“I will literally punch you in the face” Jongdae deadpanned.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun came to a stop beside them as Luhan asked; “So what’s the deal with you and him, then?”

Jongdae frowned, “It’s…. complicated” he shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, “We’re just friends but we help each other out from time to time”

“You seemed to be a little more than buddies to me, bro” Luhan said with a roll of his eyes, “you obviously like him, dude”

Jongdae’s eyes narrowed slightly, “So what if I did?”

“Dae, you really should nip it in the bud before it gets too serious” Baekhyun said calmly, carefully.

Jongdae grunted, “why? I’m able to separate my feelings from having , you know”

“Are you?” Baekhyun raised a sceptical brow.

“Baek, what are you getting at?” Jongdae sighed.

Baekhyun shrugged, “Just be careful is all. Don’t do anything stupid”

“Yah, when do I ever?” Jongdae shoved Baekhyun half-heartedly.

Baekhyun snorted in return, “only all the time” he shot back, “Dude, if you look up stupid in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you”

“You wanna fight me, right now?” Jongdae threatened, though there was a grin on his face.

Baekhyun smirked back, “Bring it on, you limp- bastard!”

Jongdae wasted no time in hurling himself forward and diving at Baekhyun, tearing Baekhyun’s hand from Chanyeol’s as the pair of them went straight into the pool.

Baekhyun surfaced first, but it was short lived as Jongdae made a mad dive out of the water and at Baekhyun, pulling him back under again, where they hit at one another.

Baekhyun managed to stick his head out of the water for a moment to take a breath of air before he flung himself at Jongdae and span them in a circle below the water.

It was soon after that that they surfaced again, foregoing dunking each other in favour of spashling the cool water at one another like children.

Luhan looked at Chanyeol oddly, “You wanna bang the pretty one, right? Baekhyun?” he asked, turning back to look at Jongdae and Baekhyun who were laughing loudly as they continued on with their friendly war.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes, “Are you always this crude?” he asked in favour of answering Luhan’s question.

“Yes” was Luhan’s response, “But I’m right, aren’t I?”

“We’re just flirting a little is all” Chanyeol relented, “It’s nothing serious”

Luhan snorted, “Not yet at least”

Chanyeol opened his mouth to spit back an excuse to leave, but was caught off guard by Baekhyun shouting his name.

“Yeol!” Baekhyun squeaked, swimming away from Jongdae, “Chanyeollie, help!”

Chanyeol smiled slightly as he moved over to the edge of the pool to grab Baekhyun’s hand and pull him up in one swift movement before Jongdae got to him.

“Alright?” Chanyeol asked amusedly, not caring that he was getting soaked through as Baekhyun clung to him tightly around his middle. He took that as his change to hug Baekhyun back, stepping them away from the pool as he did.

“You saved me” Baekhyun beamed, “My hero” he tip-toed to give Chanyeol a kiss on the cheek.

Chanyeol blinked slightly as he peered down at the sopping wet lad in his arms. They were so close that Chanyeol could see the water droplets clinging to Baekhyun’s pretty eyelashes, “Didn’t you know? My side job is actually as a knight in shining armour” he joked lamely, his eyes following a drop of water as it rolled down Baekhyun’s cheek, catching the corner of his lips before moving on and falling from Baekhyun’s chin to land on his already soaked shirt.

“You’re so lame” Baekhyun giggled, “But I kinda like it”

Chanyeol chuckled, shaking his head slightly, “Come on, let’s get you into some dry clothes” he said, reaching to take Baekhyun’s hand and pull him along towards his room.

“uh, we passed my room already…” Baekhyun noted as Chanyeol continued to pull him down the corridor.

Chanyeol smirked, “I know” he said, “We’re going to my room”

Baekhyun raised a brow, “But my clothes?” he said as they stopped and Chanyeol opened the door to his room before pulling Baekhyun inside.

“I wanted to show you something” Chanyeol said, letting go of Baekhyun’s hand to shut the door then move over to the closet to pull out a t-shirt and a pair of shirts, “Here, change into these whilst I find it. Bathroom is there” he said before grabbing a towel also and handing it to Baekhyun with a smile.

Baekhyun accepted it gratefully and disappeared into the bathroom to dry off. Chucking his wet clothes in the sink for the time being.

Chanyeol’s clothes were a little big on him, but they were warm and comfortable and smelled like Chanyeol, which was nice.

He half-heartedly dried his hair with the towel before setting it out to dry and then stepped out to join Chanyeol back in the bedroom.

He found the other boy sat on the bed when he came out, looking at a small notebook with a little pout on his face.

Baekhyun smiled easily as he walked over and joined Chanyeol on the bed, vaguely noting the other two, which must have been Sehun and Jongin’s.

“So what did you want to show me?” he asked, leaning in and resting his chin on Chanyeol’s shoulder as he wrapped his arms around him.

Chanyeol turned his head slightly so that he could better look at Baekhyun, “This” he lifted the book slightly, “I uh… I wrote a song last month – the music for it is at home, but I wanted your opinion on it. I um, I haven’t shown this to anyone before,” he handed Baekhyun the notebook, “It goes like…” he cleared his throat before humming the tune to the song.

Baekhyun unravelled himself from Chanyeol so that he could look at it properly, keeping in mind the tune that Chanyeol had hummed.

“Hello angel” Baekhyun sang softly, “Geurim gata, hanneureul bomyeon neoman boyeo. City street lightly, buri kkeojigo, dari sarajeodo nuni bushin geon, haneuri tteoreotteorin byeol, keuge baro naeonikka….”

“Useumi nawa waenji maeil bam, nanuel gamado jami an wa, ni saenggage tto bameul sae na…” Chanyeol trailed off embarrassedly, “Uh… I know it isn’t much, but I’m just… I dunno…”

Baekhyun looked back at Chanyeol in awe, “Chanyeol,” he said, “That was amazing. You wrote and composed it yourself?”

Chanyeol nodded, “Yeah”

“ me… you’re incredibly talented. And you rap? I… why aren’t you studying music?!” Baekhyun asked incredulously.

Chanyeol laughed, “I play guitar, drums and piano too” he bragged jokingly, “But honestly, because science is my passion and music is something that I like to be just mine, you know?” he blushed, “You, um, it isn’t just this that you’ve only seen. It’s the first time I’ve shown anyone any of my work” he admitted shyly.

Baekhyun smiled, he couldn’t deny that that made him feel so wonderfully special to Chanyeol. And it was a feeling he really liked, “You’re kind of incredible, d’you know that?” he voiced, placing the notebook on the bedside table and shifting closer to Chanyeol.

“Nah, I’m not that great” Chanyeol waved him off embarrassedly, letting out a small noise of surprise as Baekhyun dived at him and pulled him into a hug as they both fell to lay on the bed, giggling as they did.

“You are though” Baekhyun said once they’d calmed down, “You’re really great”

Chanyeol smiled, wrapped an arm around Baekhyun’s waist and pulling him closer, “You’ll change your mind after a whole two weeks with me, I bet”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “I bet I don’t” he challenged, pressing closer against Chanyeol, “So, how much more do I have to press myself against you before you take the hint and kiss me?” he asked casually.

“A tiny bit” Chanyeol said, laughing when Baekhyun rolled so that he was half on top of him, “Better” he said before giving in and finally kissing Baekhyun as he’d been wanting to.

--

“Okay, admit it. You’re jealous of how cool I look right now” Yixing said as he floated past Junmyeon on a giant inflatable swan.

It was late, so much so that the sky was dark and stars were twinkling in the black blanket above them. Junmyeon had a sneaking suspicion that they shouldn’t’ve been in the pool without supervision, but he was enjoying himself too much to care.

“God, how could I not be jealous?” he grinned at Yixing, “between your boyish good looks, witty charm and giant swan, you’ve got it all!”

Yixing laughed, reaching out to grab Junmyeon’s hand so that he didn’t float away, “Yeah, be jealous, . You can’t handle all of this” he punctuated his statement by running his free hand over his bare torso.

Junmyeon pulled him closer, reaching up and letting his hand that wasn’t holding Yixing’s rest on the plastic swan, “Stop it, you’ll have me swooning in a minute” he snorted out a laugh, “What with all the y moves and all”

Yixing broke into a tinkling laughter, “Jesus, you’re worse than I am” he grinned, “Wanna take a ride on my swan?” he added, wiggling his brows.

“Shift up, stupid” Junmyeon rolled his eyes, he waited as Yixing scooted forward then carefully hiked himself up and sat behind Yixing, his legs coming to rest on either side of the dimpled beauty.

Yixing let himself slump back against Junmyeon, reaching over and pulling Junmyeon’s arms to wrap around him, enjoying the feeling of his back against Junmyeon’s muscular chest and stomach, “Oh, is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” he teased.

“Lame” Junmyeon rolled his eyes, hiding his smile by burying his face in Yixing’s shoulder, “Besides, you wouldn’t need to question it if it was the latter” he added cheekily.

Yixing coughed as a laugh got caught in his throat, making Junmyeon laugh also, “Is that your way of telling me you’ve got a big ?” he wheezed, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

“Pretty much. But I’m not one to brag” Junmyeon grinned against Yixing’s shoulder.

“Oh yeah, you’re clearly so humble” Yixing snorted, reaching up behind him to tangle his fingers in the back of Junmyeon’s damp hair.

Junmyeon hummed, his lips vibrating against Yixing’s skin, “this is a one-off situation that you brought on yourself” he said, enjoying the easy banter between them.

Yixing’s fingers moved idly against Junmyeon’s scalp as he let out a content sigh, “Well, at least you didn’t whip it out. I’m down for a lot of stuff, but amazingly exhibitionism isn’t one of them”

“Good, because I’m all about keeping my private life private” Junmyeon said lowly, lifting his head slightly so that he could say the words into Yixing’s ear.

Yixing couldn’t supress the shuddered thrill that ran through him as his fingers continued to play with Junmyeon’s hair, “Are you trying to insinuate something here?” he breathed.

“Not at all,” Junmyeon replied easily, his lips brushing against Yixing’s ear, “Why, do you want me to be insinuating something?”

“I-”

“Yo! Guys, there you are. Xing, Kris is going mental looking for you!” Yixing was cut off by Luhan’s piercingly loud voice, “He kept saying that it was only a matter of time before you managed to pull one of your usual stunts and fall overboard”

“ing hell,” Yixing groaned, “alright, tell him I’ll be in the room in ten”

Luhan nodded, about to turn away when he paused, “Uh, was I interrupting something?”

“No” Junmyeon said softly, tearing himself away from Yixing and clambering off of the swan before pulling it to the edge of the pool and holding it steady so that Yixing could get off onto the deck.

“Oh… were you two getting frisky?” Luhan waggled his eyebrows at the pair.

“No, we weren’t” Yixing sighed, “go away, Luhan. I’ll meet you in the room” he added as he helped pull Junmyeon out of the pool.

“But I wanna see this” Luhan pouted.

Yixing gave him a look of sheer bordom, “Lu, seriously, piss off”

“Ouch, that’s cold man” Luhan mocked, clutching at his chest as he began to back away, “You hurt me so bad, Xing” he added before turning and taking his leave.

“Sorry about him” Yixing sighed, “I never get a minute to my ing self with those three. I swear Kris thinks he’s my mother or something”

Junmyeon chuckled, taking Yixing by the hand and pulling him along back to their rooms, “Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed that my friends are just as bad”

“Oh really?” Yixing challenged, “Because Luhan hooked up with Sehun literally three hours after we left him to think about the whole gay thing, and now Sehun is having a melt down and Lu is just going on about how ‘the was fab though’.”

“Jongdae once ended up having to go to the doctors because he wanked that much he got friction burn on his ” Junmyeon offered in return.

“Kris accidentally pissed on Tao once when he was wasted” Yixing countered, “Tao was sleeping and woke up when it had dried into his hair. He cried for two days. Two days, dude”

Junmyeon grimaced, “Ew” he shuddered, “Oh, I know. When Minseok found out that his ex had been cheating on him, he took a on the guy’s doorstep every day for two weeks. He told the cops that it was the guy’s at the time girlfriend - basically said he had seen some girl doing it and described her down to the nail varnish - and she got arrested and they broke up. I mean, the two had been taking bets on how long the guy would be able to string Min along… so really it served them right”

“Dude… Two weeks? That’s dedication” Yixing was torn between being impressed and disgusted.

Junmyeon nodded, “Minseok is not the kind of guy that you want to get on the bad side of”

“No, yeah, I got that” Yixing laughed, “Think I got a free pass ‘cause we dated?”

Junmyeon snorted in disbelief, “I highly doubt it” he said as they came to a stop outside of Yixing’s room. “Well, this is you”

“This is me” Yixing nodded. “I had a lot of fun today… I’m glad we bumped into each other that first day”

Junmyeon smiled bashfully, “Me too” he said, “So… is this the part where we hug?” he raised a brow, his hands fiddling with Yixing’s, making the slightly younger of the two of them laugh sweetly.

“Yeah, I’d say so” he nodded, pulling his hands away from Junmyeon’s in favour of wrapping his arms around the elder’s neck and pulling him into a tight embrace.

Junmyeon, in turn, wrapped his arms securely around Yixing’s waist, pressing his body flush against the other boy’s.

They stood there for a fairly long time, just hugging, not really wanting to let go of the other, but not really knowing why.

Eventually though, the ruckus in Yixing’s room grew louder and Kris’s voice began to sound up asking Luhan how long Yixing was going to be, so it was with a sigh that Yixing pulled back ever so slightly, though the pair were still wrapped loosely in one another’s arms.

“We’ll hang out tomorrow, alright?” Yixing prompted.

Junmyeon nodded, “Of course” he said, “Ah, I don’t know why I’m finding it so hard to say goodbye to you today”

“Me either” Yixing smiled, “Should I say something cheesy like ‘let’s meet in our dreams’ to make you feel better?” he asked playfully.

Junmyeon rolled his eyes, but the grin on his face spoke a million words, “Shut up” he let out a breathy laugh, “Just… Go inside”

Yixing hummed before leaning in and pressing a soft, lingering kiss to the corner of Junmyeon’s mouth, “See you tomorrow” he whispered before pulling out of Junmyeon’s arms and heading inside.

Junmyeon lifted his hand to press his fingertips to the corner of his mouth where the feeling of Yixing’s lips still lingered. A smile bloomed over his face as he his heel and walked down the hall to his own room.

He’d never been more glad that he’d decided to book his trip that he was in that moment.

--

Kyungsoo let out an annoyed sigh, “Why are you still following me?” he asked, turning to face Jongin.

Jongin frowned back at him, “Because everyone else is busy and Sehun is freaking out in our room and he doesn’t want any company right now” he told the elder, continuing to follow him over to the bar, where the two of them sat side by side on the high stools that resided there.

“You can hang out alone, you know” Kyungsoo pointed out before turning and ordering two drinks, despite having had practically told Jongin to go away. After all, it had been ingrained into him from a young age to have at least basic manners.

“Why do you dislike me so much?” Jongin asked dejectedly as Kyungsoo slid him one of the drinks, “Thanks” he added as an afterthought.

Truth be told, it wasn’t that Kyungsoo didn’t like Jongin, in fact he found the younger boy to be pretty nice to be around. Jongin was a shy guy when it came down to it, and he liked that. He liked Jongin, but the trouble was that Kyungsoo had never really been good at expressing his feelings well, and as a result all that came out of his mouth was a mixture of sarcasm and insults.

It didn’t help that even when he intended to say something nice or completely innocent, his brain would shut down and he’d up whatever it was he wanted to say.

Verbal diarrhoea some might call it. It was one of the things he absolutely hated about himself, because he had no ing control over it.

Kyungsoo wasn’t a mean person by any standard and to have people think he was one due to the fact he was an awkward little penguin with no ing control of his mouth was one of the worst things that he could think of happening. It wasn’t that he was too bothered about people’s opinions of him or anything, he just never wanted to be perceived as mean.

“Because you remind me of a broken dream” Kyungsoo sighed forlornly.

Jongin blinked, “Whoa, really?”

“No . What is this, a rom-com? I just think you’re ing annoying” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. Ah, there was that no-brain-to-mouth filter of his again.

“Prick,” Jongin grumbled, wrapping his lips around the straw poking out of his glass and giving it a hearty , “So what do you do?” he asked after a moment.

Ah, factual things, Kyungsoo could so factual, “I’m at Uni” he said, his lips curling up slightly, “I’m studying music, but I’m also doing a minor qualification in English” he said.

“Oh? Why English?” Jongin asked curiously.

Kyungsoo shrugged, “I wanna go to England someday, just have a trip around there and explore a little. Maybe all of Europe. I just like the language” he said softly, “I don’t know”

“That’s really cool! English pronunciation is hard through, right?” Jongin shifted slightly in his chair to face Kyungsoo more fully, glad to see the elder was actually engaging in conversation with him.

Kyungsoo smiled, “It’s not so bad” he said in flawless English, before laughing at the look of pleasant surprise on Jongin’s face, “What about you then? What do you do?” he asked, not wanting to keep talking, because he knew that he’d end up putting his foot in his mouth again, and they were being fairly civil as it were, Kyungsoo even dared say he was enjoying himself.

Jongin’s eyes lit up slightly as he gave Kyungsoo a heart melting smile, “I dance” he told the elder, “I’m doing dance at uni, then I do an unpaid work experience at this studio down town. I really want to own my own studio one day, like, I do ballet and jazz for my main pieces, but I dabble in other types of dance too. I’ve been dancing since before I could walk, and I absolutely love it.

 “I was talking to Yixing hyung yesterday, he dances too! But he takes hip-hop and stuff, plus our classes are at different times. He takes early morning classes and I take afternoon classes. So that explains how we never really saw each other before. But anyway, I’m hoping  that after I’ve finished at uni, they’ll offer me a job at the studio I work at now, at least until I can save up enough to make it on my own, you know? Like, I could even get a loan and stuff…”

Kyungsoo was almost breathless at how passionately Jongin spoke about his dancing, the younger was so alive, so vivacious as he went on to explain to Kyungsoo about a piece he was working on at the moment, which he was leaning towards using for his final project, only he needed someone to help him with the music compassion side of things, because although he was capable of putting together music, he needed something that would bring a bit of wow-factor, a bit of shock-and-awe to it, and, he told Kyungsoo, everyone knew that the key to a great dance piece was the music that it came with. Besides, he was telling the elder, he had most of the dance in mind, the steps he wanted to put into it, he just needed a piece of music that would make it all pop and fit together.

Kyungsoo wasn’t really sure what to do other than indulge in the younger’s easy chatter, but he liked it that way, because he had always preferred to just listen, and it was amazing to listen as Jongin gushed about the thing that excited him, he spoke like it was the first time somebody had actually let him, and Kyungsoo didn’t know if that made him happy to be the one that was finally listening, or sad that nobody had gotten to listen to Jongin speak so passionately before.

Kyungsoo had always liked to listen for many reasons. He liked the visuals that came with listening. Whether it be a shaky hand as someone told a particularly sad tale, or the flare of nostrils as someone ranted angrily about one topic or another. He liked that part of listening was that you could watch how people reacted, you could see how much or how little the words that left people actually meant to them.  It was spectacular.

But one of Kyungsoo’s favourite times to listen was times like this, when someone got talking about something that they loved. Because it was something special to watch the way that a person’s eyes would light up, or hear how they would trip over their words in a rush to just get them all out and tell you how amazing their thing was.

Kyungsoo loved to watch people get excited, because it excited him to see people happy.

It was like when Baekhyun spoke about music, or about how he was going to sing on a stage in front of thousands of people one day.

It was like when Minseok spoke about his family, and how his baby cousin had taken her first steps right towards him.

It was like when Junmyeon spoke about books, about all the adventures that you could go on without even leaving your home. In the way that he spoke about fictional characters and how much these amazing universes meant to him.

It was in the look in Jongdae’s eyes when he told Kyungsoo that Minseok had invited him over for a night of movies and popcorn.

And it was in the way that Chanyeol had lit up when he told Kyungsoo that he was studying science.

And in that moment, it was in the way that Jongin spoke with his entire body as he taught Kyungsoo little phrases and names of certain movements. It was something that Kyungsoo absolutely, irreversibly, adored whole-heartedly.

Jongin beamed at him with everything he had, “… And I just want to help people find themselves like I found myself in dancing” he told Kyungsoo.