Kyungsoo enters the library and joins Tao at the usual table they like to sit at in the mornings.  He quietly begins making an outline for his research paper while Tao pulls out a plastic bag filled with some kind of sugary cereal.  "You're going to get yelled at for eating that in here," Kyungsoo says without looking up.  "The librarians have eagle eyes.  And ears," he adds as Tao crams some of the cereal into his mouth and chews it loudly.  "And you're sitting right next to the sign that says no food allowed," he points out.

"Don't worry, I'll just tell them I couldn't read it because I'm an international student and they'll probably believe me," Tao counters, exaggerating his accent.  Kyungsoo laughs and takes a handful of his cereal before he goes back to concentrating on his outline, already feeling anxious about how long it's going to take him to write the whole thing.  The research paper is the biggest assignment for everyone in their year, and the due date is fast approaching.

Kyungsoo looks up cautiously when someone enters the section they’re sitting in, expecting it to be a librarian ready to confiscate Tao's cereal.  Instead, he finds himself watching Jongin walk between the aisle of books like he's on a runway, and Kyungsoo swallows the lump that forms in his throat as he resolves to say hi.

He tries to smile but his muscles don't seem to want to work and he ends up just staring, wide-eyed behind his glasses.  Jongin looks back at him for a brief moment, then returns to browsing the shelf, heading to the front desk once he apparently finds the volume he needs.

"Why didn't you try to talk to him?" Tao asks once he's out of earshot.

"That was me trying," Kyungsoo responds dejectedly.

"Oh come on, you have no reason to be nervous," Tao continues.  "You talked to him as D.O. no problem, right?"

"Er…" Kyungsoo pauses to think.  "Not really.  Mostly we just danced."

"Well, either way, my point is how do you expect to get anywhere with this if you never talk to him?" Tao says seriously.

"You saw the way he looked at me.  Like I was about as interesting as the carpeting."

"Yes, because you can always tell what someone is thinking just by looking at them," Tao says sarcastically.

"Aren’t you late for tutoring?" Kyungsoo prods, taking more cereal.

"Just keep what I said in mind, ok?" Tao claps a hand on his shoulder as he leaves.

Kyungsoo does keep it in mind.  He spends the rest of the day distracted as he wonders more and more what he's actually trying to accomplish with his newfound double life.  Baekhyun and Tao might both be right that he can't keep it up forever, but he tries not to fixate on it too much when he still has his research paper to write.

When his study hall period arrives, he taps his pencil against his collarbone as he considers the outline he'd drawn up earlier.  It still looks sparse, he thinks, even though he had pulled seemingly every bit of relevant information from the school's library and incorporated it somehow.  All the same, he gets up from his desk and approaches the teacher for a library pass.  It might be quieter there, anyway, since no one else in this classroom seems to be using the study period for studying.  The teacher absentmindedly signs his pass and he leaves the room hoping to see Tao as he remembers that he sometimes goes to the library at this time, too.

Sure enough, he spots Tao sitting near the end of a row of computers when he enters the first floor of the library.  He makes his way over, swinging his bag off his shoulders.  "Hey," he greets him as he sits down at the computer next to him and Tao replies with a smile and a nod, not taking his eyes from the computer screen.  "Tao, have you even started your research paper yet?  It's due next week," he adds as he catches sight of the display on his friend's screen and doesn't see long blocks of text or an open word document anywhere on it.

Tao shrugs as his fingers move quickly over the arrow keys, apparently the controls for whatever game he's playing.  "I work better under pressure."

Kyungsoo laughs and begins taking out his notes.

"I'll be right back, I just need to look something up really quick," Kyungsoo hears a deep voice promise and he pauses with a folder halfway out of his backpack.

With his peripheral vision, Kyungsoo sees Jongin sit down beside him at the last computer in the row.  He sets down a stack of books on the computer table and Kyungsoo turns slightly to look at him, not expecting to find him facing his direction.  Kyungsoo smiles at him this time, but he's so nervous that he looks away again before he can see whether Jongin smiled back or not and he thinks that probably came across as more awkward and creepy than like a friendly gesture.  Embarrassed, he makes a show of logging into the system, as if he's intently concentrating on what he's doing and he swings the computer mouse a little too far to the right, knocking over Jongin's books like a stack of dominoes.  "Sorry!" he squeaks.  "Let me…" Kyungsoo practically dives under the table to pick them up.

"It's ok, I got it," Jongin says, ducking under the table as well.  Kyungsoo looks up to find their faces only inches apart.  His skin feels hot and he takes as many books as he can immediately grab before he comes back up, restacking them neatly on the tabletop.

"Your shoes look like they've seen better days," says Jongin's voice from under the table where he's still gathering the last of the books.

Kyungsoo hesitates, surprised that Jongin is making teasing comments rather than being annoyed.  He looks down at the beat up black converse he always wears and forces a laugh.  "Yeah, they're…pretty old.  But they still serve me well."

Jongin resurfaces a moment later, creating a second stack for the rest of the books.  He looks at Kyungsoo again and smiles, hair falling handsomely into his eyes.  He remembers the last time they were this close to each other and he only briefly returns the smile before he turns quickly back to the screen, face reddening.  Jongin doesn't say anything else in the few minutes that he spends on the computer, leaving once he gets the information he needs.

"I think you can tell him who you are," Tao says once it's just the two of them again.  He still has his eyes glued to the game on the screen.

Kyungsoo types his query in the search engine and presses the enter key with an unnecessary amount of force.  "What makes you say that?"

"He seems to like you."

"He doesn't like me.  He likes D.O."  Kyungsoo sifts through the search results that come up, most of them unhelpful.

"I think you're underestimating him a little," Tao says, and Kyungsoo guesses that he lost the game because he’s finally looking at him.

Kyungsoo stares at the screen and sighs, logging off despite having accomplished almost nothing.  "The bell is about to ring.  See you tomorrow?"

"Alright." Tao nods to him as he gathers his things.

*

"Your mom let you out on a school night?  You must be growing up," Baekhyun teases when Kyungsoo shows up at his apartment on Thursday.

"Hey, she trusts you and Chanyeol," Kyungsoo replies.  "Don't make her regret it."

"I don't think we're the ones who will be making her regret it but okay, let's do your little transformation."

Baekhyun is putting the finishing touches on Kyungsoo's eyeliner when Chanyeol knocks on the open door again.  "Is it ok if I bring along a plus-one tonight?" he asks and Baekhyun looks up, handing the mirror to Kyungsoo.

"Depends who it is."

Chanyeol leans into the hallway and motions with his hand for someone to step into the room.  "Him?" Baekhyun says.  "Nope, not ok with me, sorry."

They laugh and Kyungsoo puts the mirror down to see a familiar redhead in the doorway.  "Taemin?" he says in surprise.  "Wait, you three know each other?"

"You two know each other?" Baekhyun asks, looking from Kyungsoo to Taemin and back again.

Taemin smiles.  "Small world.  I was there giving D.O. the instructions for the dance battle with Kai.”

Chanyeol lets his mouth fall open in rather exaggerated surprise.  "And here I was thinking you were just some loser kid who wanted to be shown around, but you're friends with the Dancing Machine," he teases.  "Taemin's going to college here next year," he adds to Kyungsoo, who had been looking on with a confused expression.  "Baekhyun and I ran into him on campus the other day when he was looking around."

"Oh, I see," Kyungsoo says interestedly, noting that Taemin is apparently the same age as him and Jongin.

"We ready to go, then?" Chanyeol asks, jingling his car keys.

They step outside and Baekhyun grudgingly gives up the driver's seat to the owner of the car as Kyungsoo and Taemin slide into the back, buckling in when the car begins to move.  Kyungsoo thinks that Chanyeol's driving has improved slightly since the last time he was his passenger.  He's not sure whether to attribute that to the speeding tickets or to Baekhyun bothering him about the speeding tickets, but either way, Kyungsoo is grateful.  His phone vibrates in his lap and he looks down at it to see a text from Baekhyun: "Don't worry.  He doesn't know your real name."  Kyungsoo blinks, not having thought of that possibility or what it would mean for his little charade.  He glances over at Taemin, who's looking out the window and tapping his fingers on his knee as though sitting still for too long is difficult.  Kyungsoo smiles a little, thinking he can see why Taemin and Jongin are close.  His phone vibrates a second time and he looks down at it again.  This time the text is from Tao: "Hey, does Kai have any single friends?  Preferably dancers with nice bodies.  Remember what I said about telling him who you are, though!"  Kyungsoo stifles his laughter and pockets his phone as they arrive and Chanyeol parks the car.

This time, they don't have to search or wait around for Jongin, as Kyungsoo spots him almost immediately when his eyes sweep over the dance floor.  He has another small crowd around him already, just watching him dance by himself.  He notices Kyungsoo and the others when they're a few meters away and waves to them.  "Hey, look who it is!" he says when they're close enough to hear each other, looking at Taemin, who greets him first.  Jongin flashes a smile to Kyungsoo, who tries to return it.

"And who do we have here?" Jongin asks, looking to Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

"Chanyeol-hyung, Baekhyun-hyung," Taemin points to each of them.  "These are my cooler, older college friends who I'm replacing you with," he explains to Jongin, making them all laugh.  "They're actually D.O.'s friends," he adds after a moment.

"Oh, are they?" Jongin says, raising his eyebrows at them.  "Should I be jealous?"

He turns back to Kyungsoo, who shrugs.  "That depends."

"On what?"

"On whether you're going to stand there all night or dance with me?" Kyungsoo smiles, not missing the way Chanyeol and Baekhyun exchange a surprised glance with each other.  Kyungsoo is faintly surprised himself, not having known he was capable of saying anything as flirtatious as that.  A day ago in the library he could hardly manage to talk at all in Jongin's presence.  He suddenly panics, wishing he could take those words and shove them back into the depths of his brain where they definitely should have stayed.

But Jongin seems to be the only one unruffled.  "Normally I don't like to reward impatience, but if my ranking among your friends is on the line here, let's go," he says with a mischievous smile, taking Kyungsoo's wrist in his hand and leading him onto the floor.

The other three follow and fall in beside them as they dance to what sounds like some kind of dubstep remix of a Super Junior song.  Kyungsoo watches Taemin, impressed.  His movements are as sharp and crisp as Jongin’s are and it’s not hard to imagine them practicing together.

"Looks like your friends have taken a liking to Taemin," Jongin says beside him, bringing him out of his reverie.

"He's cool," Kyungsoo says.  "We're the same age, but I thought he was older."

Jongin nods in understanding.  "He has a lot of experience."

Kyungsoo isn't sure if he intended for that to sound dirty or not but he wants to avoid thinking about it at the moment so he just assumes that he meant experience in dancing.

"I guess that means you and me are the same age, too," Jongin adds and Kyungsoo feels a rush of relief that he didn't accidentally reveal that he already knew that.

It doesn’t take them long to start dancing as close to each other as they were last time, and he can feel Jongin’s thighs up against his own and the ghost of his breath on his neck. Somehow the mood is different from the dance battle or when they were just showing each other their moves.  When he next looks at Jongin, his eyes are sparkling dangerously.  It makes Kyungsoo’s heart slam so hard against his ribcage that he almost wants to pull away a little, but the other boy’s stare is magnetic in the way that it seems to hold him where he is and then pulls him closer.  Kyungsoo feels suspended in between the spastic beats of the song blasting through the speakers, perceiving nothing beyond the small moment it takes for his eyes to flutter closed and Jongin’s plush lips to crush against his own.

His eyes open again when the warmth of Jongin’s mouth is gone and he only then becomes aware of the other’s hand still resting on the back of his neck.  “Do you want to come over to my place?” Jongin says lowly into his ear.

Kyungsoo shivers slightly in his state of disbelief. He manages to recognize that the proposal sounds awfully suggestive and under all normal (and until now, hypothetical) circumstances, the person he knows himself to be would have panicked.  D.O., however, is nothing like the person he knows himself to be.

“Okay,” he replies, quietly enough that he’s unsure if Jongin could hear him but he assumes he understands that he answered in the affirmative because he’s leading him through the crowd again.

They stop when they see Baekhyun and Chanyeol near the DJ booth and Jongin waves to them.  “Hey, you two can thank me because I’m taking this guy off your hands for the evening.  It was good to meet you both.  At least I know my replacements are cool.”

His friends just stare at him for a moment in astonishment.  Baekhyun recovers first.  “Oh, um, alright... just... give one of us a call if you need a ride or anything, okay, Kyung—uh, D.O.?”  Kyungsoo nods to him as if in a trance.

“Where did Taemin go, by the way?” Jongin asks at the same time that Kyungsoo realizes the redhead is nowhere in the immediate area.

“He ditched us for the DJ,” Chanyeol tells him.

“Ah, gotcha,” Jongin says with a knowing smirk, then turns to Kyungsoo.  “You ready to bail?”

He guesses that his vocal cords temporarily lost their ability to vocalize because he simply nods again, but then he manages to say goodnight to his hyungs and he feels a little more like this is reality as he follows Jongin outside.

However, the surreal feeling returns in full force when Kyungsoo actually registers that he’s sitting in the passenger seat of Jongin’s car.  He buckles the seatbelt, preparing himself for Chanyeol-esque recklessness, but Jongin turns out to be a cautious driver.

“I wonder if my parents are home yet,” Jongin muses as they wait at a stoplight.  “They’ve been working long hours recently.  Kind of the reason I’ve taken to going out on weeknights...gets lonely at home by myself sometimes.”

“You don’t have any brothers or sisters?” Kyungsoo asks, fairly surprised that Jongin is even sharing anything about his life with him.

“I have two sisters,” Jongin answers as the light turns green and he steps on the gas.  “They’re both away at university now, though.”

“Oh.”  Kyungsoo nods in understanding.

“So do you go to school and have a family, D.O.?  Or are you just some kind of rogue performer who dances a bit, gets a few drinks, and calls it life?”

Kyungsoo can’t help but laugh at that.  “That description...couldn’t be further from the truth, really.”

“Well, if that isn’t the most disappointing thing I’ve heard all night.”  Jongin smiles at him as he turns into a driveway.  “Here we are.”

Jongin’s house is a pretty decent size for the area, Kyungsoo notices as he climbs out of the car.  They enter through a spacious two-car garage with a sleek black SUV parked on one side.  “Looks like my dad’s here after all,” Jongin says, nodding to it.  Kyungsoo follows him into the house and he stops suddenly as he’s almost blinded by the shiny, spotless floors and expensive-looking glassware perched on top of elegant counters.  He stares around at the room and toes his shoes off carefully, not wanting to get dirt anywhere.

As if he read his mind, Jongin says, “I can take those.  My mom is kind of particular about it.”  He scoops up Kyungsoo’s shoes with his own and sets them on a small rack in the corner filled mostly with high heels and a few pairs of dress shoes.  He spots several pairs of sneakers that he would guess belong to Jongin.

He hears Jongin offering him something to eat or drink and he politely declines, still impressed by the extravagance of the house.  “My room’s upstairs,” Jongin says.  Kyungsoo’s breath quickens a little, feeling a little more like himself when his nervousness starts to build again. He remembers how he had scored this invitation in the first place and he finds himself wondering what exactly he had agreed to.  His mind is already moving a thousand thoughts per second worrying about what would happen if Jongin is planning to try to have with him and how obvious it would be that there are 12-year-olds with more ual experience than him and how awkward it is that he’s going to have to tell him that he’s not entirely ready to change that just yet, even if he had agreed to come over.  But the next thing out of Jongin’s mouth surprises him.  “Do you play Starcraft?”

Kyungsoo blinks, never having imagined Dancing Machine Kai to be interested in anything as dorky as science fiction video games.  “Yeah, I love Starcraft.”

Jongin smiles.  “Awesome.  I have Heart of the Swarm, if you’re interested.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen.  “That hasn’t even been released yet.”

“Yeah, well...having a dad who works for Blizzard Entertainment pays off sometimes.”  Jongin bites his lip and starts up an ornate staircase.

“Your dad...?” Kyungsoo stares in disbelief as he follows him.

Jongin nods.  “He was just on a business trip to the headquarters in California and brought back a demo version for me.”

“Wow,” is all Kyungsoo can say.

Despite the openness and grandiosity of the rest of the house, Jongin’s room is pretty normal-sized and modestly furnished.  Jongin flops onto the bed and flips up his laptop screen, waiting for it to reboot.  Kyungsoo stands awkwardly in the doorway, a little embarrassed for thinking what he was a few minutes ago, even if Jongin had been the one to kiss him and bring him home with him.  Jongin scoots over a little and pats the space beside him.  “I don’t think you’re going to be too successful battling aliens from all the way over there,” he says.

Kyungsoo smiles, unsure if he should close the door behind him or not but he ultimately decides to in case Jongin’s dad is trying to sleep somewhere nearby.  “This is so epic,” Kyungsoo gushes after he settles next to Jongin on the bed and takes over the controls.

“I barely slept or studied the first few days I was playing it.” Jongin laughs.  “Bad timing since I just started at a new school, but somewhat worth it.”

Kyungsoo hits pause eventually.  “Damn, it’s really late,” he says as he catches sight of the clock and remembers that he goes to the same school as Jongin and has no plan for how he would spend the night here and get ready for school in the morning without him finding that out.  On second thought, his uniform and all his things are still in Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol’s apartment. “I just remembered I don’t have any of my school stuff with me.”

“Oh, I guess that’s true,” Jongin says. “We can get up early and I’ll drive you to pick it up in the morning, then.”

“Thank you...I’m really sorry to make you get up even earlier than normal, though,” Kyungsoo apologizes.  “I didn’t think about that.”

“It’s ok, neither did I,” Jongin replies.  “I didn’t plan on getting much sleep tonight, anyway,” he adds, reaching over to smooth some of Kyungsoo’s artificial bangs away from his eye.  In an instant, Jongin’s lips are back on his own and it seems to quiet his buzzing thoughts.  Kyungsoo tries to respond to the contact this time, gently pressing back and Jongin deepens the kiss, resting his hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders.

He lets his head fall back onto one of Jongin’s pillows under the light pressure of his hands at the same time that Jongin’s tongue slides gently in between his slightly parted lips, melding their mouths together for just a moment before they pull apart to take a breath.

Kyungsoo is panting slightly as he opens his eyes and looks at Jongin above him, eyes dark and lips red and kiss-swollen.

“I-Is this okay?” Jongin’s voice is quiet, unsure, and Kyungsoo just nods, almost in awe of how vulnerable he seems.

“Yes,” he breathes, finding his voice.  He reaches up to thread his fingers through Jongin’s soft, thick locks of hair as the other touches warm lips to Kyungsoo’s neck.  “Kai...”

“Jongin.”  Jongin pulls away again, looking surer of himself this time.  “Call me Jongin,” he says in a low voice.  “That’s my real name.”

“Jongin,” he repeats in a whisper that Jongin kisses into silence.  He doesn’t know how long they spend like that, just finding new ways to kiss each other.

The next time they break apart for longer than a couple seconds, Jongin shuffles over to lie next to him, resting his head on Kyungsoo’s chest.  His heart starts racing again and he’s sure that Jongin can hear it as he turns his head to face him.

"So. I told you my name,” says Jongin and his voice comes out slightly rough, as if he just woke up.  “When will you tell me yours?"

"You know my name,” Kyungsoo replies.  It isn’t a lie.

"Dee Oh," Jongin says, reminding Kyungsoo of the way Chanyeol had said it on that first Saturday night.  "Doesn't sound like any Korean name I've ever heard."

"Maybe I'm not Korean.  Maybe I'm an alien scientist who's been sent to Earth to research the dance styles of humans."

"That would explain why your moves are so out of this world."  Jongin smiles suggestively before they both dissolve into laughter.

"Oh my god, did you really just say that?  Hold on, I'm getting a phone call.  Oh, it's from every cheese company in the universe.  They want their cheese back."

Jongin shoves Kyungsoo hard enough that he narrowly avoids falling off the bed.  "Okay, really, why won't you tell me?" Jongin says once they stop laughing enough to talk again, propping himself up on his elbows and looking directly at Kyungsoo.

If he doesn't figure it out, you'll have to tell him eventually.  I think you’re underestimating him a little.  His friends’ words seem to be on an infinite loop in his head.  He opens his mouth, but he can't bring himself to say the truth.  “I...just...like D.O. better than my real name,” he decides to say.

“I’m going to get it out of you eventually,” he jokes, but Kyungsoo doesn’t miss the hurt in Jongin’s eyes as he turns over.