The next time they meet for their project is the weekend and Tiffany comes over to Kibum’s apartment. When Kibum opens the door for her, she’s brought cupcakes.

“Taeyeon sent these for you guys, she was trying out a recipe and ended up making like four dozen on accident somehow so we’re trying to get rid of them all before we end up getting fat.” she explains.

“Oh sweet, thanks. Jinki’s making like 90 gallons of vegetable soup, we could trade some if you like it.” Kibum says, taking the tin out of her hands.

He brings her over to the kitchen, where Jinki and Minho are pouring all sorts of chopped vegetables into a pot.

“Ok, so you already met Minho, but this is our other boyfriend, Jinki. Jinki, this is Tiffany.”

Jinki looks up and smiles. “Hi Tiffany, nice to meet you. Also it’s only supposed to be two gallons of soup, Kibum. I thought Minho was supposed to be the bad at math gay.”

Kibum rolls his eyes as Minho snickers from behind Jinki.

“We can work right here at the table, don’t mind him. He doesn't know what he's saying anyway.”

“I thought you said he was the suave one?” Tiffany teases.

“Oh no, don’t say that in front of him, it’ll go to his head!” Minho says.

“Do y’all want soup or not?” Jinki asks. Minho immediately offers an apology and cheek kisses.

“Am I allowed to go read now, chef?” he asks once Jinki seems satisfied.

“Yeah, it’s just gotta cook now. It’ll be done in a half hour or so probably.”

Minho gives both Jinki and Kibum kisses on the cheek and waves at Tiffany before grabbing a book off the counter and heading into their bedroom.

“So, Tiffany, Kibum tells me you’re a first year?” Jinki asks.

“Yeah. And you’re a senior, right?”

“Yup. I’m the man of the house. Or at least the functional gay of the house.”

Tiffany laughs and Kibum rolls his eyes again.

“Before we get started, can I ask you guys a question, since you’re both here? It’s advice but not for myself.” she asks.

“Yeah, sure.” Jinki says, looking up from his stock pot.

“Ok, so I have this friend and the other day I guess she blew this guy that’s she’s not dating, like she’s single, and it was super consensual and casual and they both loved it and all this stuff but she told a friend about it and they gave her the whole ‘premarital stuff is bad and even one kiss will send you straight to hell in a handbag’ spiel so she texted me to ask me what I thought about it since I guess she thought I’d be less of a hardass about it but I’ve only ever had any sort of relations with Taeyeon and we haven’t done much so I don’t really know what to tell her. I mean you guys have like experience, right? What do I tell her? I can’t say like #can’t relate because she doesn’t know about Tae and I...”

Jinki and Kibum look at each other, trying to find words.

“Hold on, let’s ask an expert,” Jinki says, before turning and yelling “Hey baby, come out here for a second!”

Minho’s head pops out from their bedroom. “What is it, honey? I put the dishes away like you asked, promise.”

Jinki quickly explains the situation and Minho replies without missing a beat.

“Sometimes you just gotta a and move on with your life.”

Jinki throws a piece of candy to Minho and once he’s caught it he disappears back into their room.

“There you go. Just tell her that.” Jinki says nonchalantly, moving back to his soup pot. Both Tiffany and Kibum burst into laughter, Kibum almost falling out of his chair. Jinki looks at them amusedly.

“It’s not even that funny it’s just the way he said it,” Kibum manages after a minute. “Like it’s something that should be obvious to everyone.”

“Like I said, an expert.”

“So why is he the expert if all three of you are by Kibum's definition equally gay?” Tiffany asks.

“Well first off he’s a literature major so he knows how to word things and second he just likes it that much. Like this is gonna sound bad and sorry if it’s tmi, but like it’s practically a hobby for him. You know, some people have stress hobbies: they build things, they go work out, they drink, stuff like that. Minho? He likes to clean the apartment and blow when he’s stressed. It’s the oddest thing.” Jinki explains.

“That’s why instead of saying Minho’s stressed we just say he’s in vacuum mode.” Kibum remarks. The whole thing has Tiffany laughing so hard that she’s in tears. She does her best to text her friend and then they get to work. By the time soup is done, they’ve gotten to a good stopping point. Jinki goes into their room to retrieve Minho.

“Just listen to this,” Kibum whispers to Tiffany, pointing at their room. Kibum watches her face bloom with amusement at Minho’s multitude of protests that he’s almost done with this bit and Jinki’s increasingly stern commands to come out for dinner. By the time Jinki finally pulls a pouty Minho out, Tiffany is doing her best not to giggle.

“See, I told you he’s whinier than he looks.” Kibum says as Minho sits next to him.

“I’m not whiny!” Minho counters, though his pout and petulant tone don’t help his argument at all.

“Baby, I love you, but you’re the whiniest person I know and that includes all of the children I’ve ever met combined. Now be good and eat your soup, ok?” Jinki interrupts, bringing in Kibum and Minho’s bowls. “Tiffany, do you want some? We obviously have a ton and you’re more than welcome to some.”

“Sure, I’ll just have a little. I’m not sure what Tae’s dinner plans are but that smells too good to pass up.”

Jinki comes back with two bowls of soup and a big bag of rolls and sits on the empty side across from Kibum. Minho’s already more than half done with his bowl and grabs two rolls out.

“Oh my god, Jinki, this is so good. This is like the best soup I’ve ever had, no joke!” Tiffany exclaims.

Kibum and Minho both nod in agreement and Jinki beams with pride.

“I’ll put some in a container for you to try to share with your girlfriend if you want.”

“That’d be amazing, thank you so much.”

“That is, if there’s any soup left,” Jinki jokes as both Kibum and Minho fight over the laddle to get more. When they’re all done eating, Jinki gets up to pack up soup for Tiffany while Minho collects all the bowls to wash. Kibum helps her pack up and Jinki says goodbye to her so he can go shower. With soup and project materials in hand, Tiffany finally heads out. Once the door is shut, Kibum looks over to where Minho’s starting to wash dishes.

“You know, I’m glad that she’s also gay.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because otherwise I think she would’ve drowned in our gayness.”