With the Christmas holiday break coming to a close and the second semester of the school year began, Kyungsoo had plenty of time to do things now that all of his distractions were in class. He slept until noon, he wrote a lot, took a nap, and lazed around until Kai got out of school.

It was a slow, boring life. But he didn’t mind.

On the first day back, Kyungsoo’s door opened to Kai. He had given Kai the spare key, since he was just as welcome as Kyungsoo was into his home. Dressed in a grey sweatshirt, jeans, and a backwards cap, he grinned at Kyungsoo. “Good afternoon, lazy.”

“Good afternoon to you too, school boy,” Kyungsoo shot back, ignoring the fact that he was still in pajamas. “You shouldn’t have changed. I wanted to see you in your school uniform again,” he added with a pout, crossing his arms on his chest.

“Too bad. That thing is too stuffy,” Kai commented, shutting the door and taking his shoes off. “Your hair is so messy,” he commented with a laugh, taking the hat off of his head and sticking it on Kyungsoo’s head. It fit him perfectly, almost a little big, but not by much. He was eager to reply back that Kai had hat hair, but the fact that Kai gelled his hair and it was always perfect made him lose it.

“Whatever,” he decided instead.

Kai stuck his tongue out at him for a second before speaking. “Alright, get dressed. We’re going out.”

“Where?” he asked, walking into his bedroom. Kai followed him, and Kyungsoo removed the hat for the time being as he got dressed. It wasn’t like it mattered; Kai had seen him a few nights before. Kai was still speaking as Kyungsoo slipped the hat on, not bothering to comb his hair.

“I don’t know, somewhere fun. My brain still hurts from school,” Kai added with a heavy sigh. Kyungsoo remembered how rough it was going back on the first day after a holiday.

And having to think right away.

Kyungsoo shrugged. Kai walked to where he was behind Kyungsoo, slowly snaking his arms around. Kyungsoo put his hands on the arms and they slowly rocked as both of them pondered where to go. “Are you hungry?” Kyungsoo asked out of nowhere.

He felt Kai shake his head. “I had a big lunch.”

“Hm…” Kyungsoo continued to ponder. “When are those auditions again?”

“A week from tomorrow,” Kai mumbled. “Why?”

“Shouldn’t we be practicing? I don’t even have my singing audition planned out, much less my dancing,” he grumbled, leaning back onto Kai’s shoulders.

“Yeah, that would probably be a good idea… I know this dance studio downtown that’s fairly empty all the time. You can use it for free all you want; just be out by midnight,” Kai explained. “You want to go?”

“Do you have any homework?”

“I finished it in study hall, umma,” Kai teased.

Kyungsoo scoffed. “Good boy. Let’s go.”

~*~

“Doesn’t the fact that we’re doing the same dance and song seem a little repetitive to the judges?” Kyungsoo commented, panting from the exercise even though they had barely been at it for twenty minutes. Kai, however, shrugged, an unworried look on his face.

“They go by age when you get your number. You’re older. There will be at least twenty people in between you and I; we’ll be fine,” Kai assured him. “Let’s run through the dance again, shall we?”

Kyungsoo sighed with a nod, moving to the big stereo in the corner and beginning the song they were dancing to again for another round. It was an English song; Kai really enjoyed making new routines to the song, so he decided to teach the older the routine that stuck.

It didn’t take very long; they would get stopped quickly, anyway. Kyungsoo already had most of it down, and Kai wasn’t picky with him because he didn’t need to be. He wasn’t very coordinated, but he wasn’t horrible at dancing.

When the run through was over, Kyungsoo sighed. “I can remember that. You just have to dance it with me pretty often, just in case I forget.”

“I can do that. Now we sing?”

“Now we sing.”

Kyungsoo smirked. His speciality.

Kai wasn’t tone deaf. He wasn’t great, but there were places where he could effortlessly improve, to the level where he was better than most of the singers though. If you weren’t flexible in both areas, you weren’t going to get picked; Joonmyun had informed them of this.

As their practice came to an end, after an hour or so, Kai slipped on his sweatshirt and looked at the sweat pouring down Kyungsoo’s face. “I don’t want my hat back.”

“Good, I like it,” Kyungsoo defended with a smile. After grabbing their phones, the two left the building with grins on their faces, full of confidence and certainty. Kyungsoo spoke first as they stepped off the curb and into the parking lot. “I never expected this to be happening.”

“Expected what, baby?”

“This. Meeting you at that library, getting kicked out of college, choosing to become a performer with you… it just seems so surreal, like this never would’ve happened months ago,” Kyungsoo explained, feeling a little blank as he spoke.

Kai shrugged. “Do you regret anything?”

“No. Not at all. I belong here, I think. At least… I feel like I do. I love you a lot, and I don’t plan on leaving you any time soon, so… yeah. I think I like it here,” Kyungsoo decided with a faint smile. He looked at Kai, and he noticed that there was a content smile on his face as well. They got in Kyungsoo’s car, and as the engine ignited and their seatbelts clicked, they were driving away.

Kyungsoo drove with one hand as the other switched from messing with the hat to messing with his necklace. With the dancer on his neck, though, came another topic to interrupt the comfortable silence. “Do you think this performing thing will break us?”

Kai’s head immediately turned to look at him. “What?”

“I mean, you know… us. We’ll be together so much, and then… what if we do make it, and we don’t debut together? How hard would that make it to stay in touch?” Kyungsoo pondered, an uneasy churning in his stomach. He didn’t like this idea so much anymore.

Seeming to notice this, Kai took the hand that was fiddling with the dancer gently and put it in his hand. “That will never happen, Kyungsoo. I promise. The only thing they’ll change about us is our appearance, and the most that happens there is hair. Relax. We’ll be together until the end. Right?”

“Right.” Kyungsoo pulled up to Kai’s house, and he sighed, realizing it was time to depart. After a goodbye kiss, Kai got out of the car and waved to him.

“I’ll see you a couple days from now. Tomorrow I’ve got stuff after school. I’ll text you, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, Jongin.”

“Jongin?”

Kyungsoo smirked. “Mixing it up a bit.”

Kai stuck his tongue out. “Two can play. Bye, D.O.”

“Screw you.”

“Love you!” Kai called with a grin before shutting the door, making Kyungsoo roll his eyes and drive away. Halfway through the drive home, Kyungsoo picked up the dancer in his fingers and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently as if it were actually Kai.

This won’t break us.

~*~

It was Tuesday afternoon when Kyungsoo got a text from Chanyeol. It was around lunch time, so he should have expected some form of communication from him, but it wasn’t his normal greeting. It was something a lot different, a lot less expected.

Soo, come to Jongdae’s house. Now.

Confused, Kyungsoo slipped on his shoes—he was in comfortable clothing, but it sounded too urgent to get to re-dress himself into something nicer. Judging by the text, none of the three were at school, so he got in his car and drove to Jongdae’s home, thoughts racing through his head.

What happened?

Is he hurt?

Sick?

What’s going on?

As he pulled into the driveway, he noticed that it was just Chanyeol’s car parked. Jongdae’s parents were probably still at work. That meant it couldn’t be serious enough for them to leave, which eased Kyungsoo’s anxiety the tiniest as he slammed his car door closed and ran to the front door.

Chanyeol was waiting by the door for him. Baekhyun was nowhere to be seen. Kyungsoo, now frantic, turned to look at his best friend. “What’s going on?”

“Jongdae’s not in good shape.”

“Why? What happened?” Kyungsoo asked, his heart pumping. Jongdae could be mean, but he still cared a lot about him.

“Minseok dumped him and he’s not… taking it well.”

Kyungsoo’s face fell. “That’s it?”

Chanyeol looked at him weirdly. “Oh, and getting broken up with doesn’t hurt? Baekhyun’s in there with him trying to get him to stop crying. That’s why we called you; he’s close to you. Or, at least, he was. Not sure what happened,” he admitted quietly, scratching his head.

“His attitude happened,” Kyungsoo replied bluntly. “But I’ll go in there.”

Chanyeol clapped him on the back silently, and Kyungsoo nodded to him in assurance before stepping into Jongdae’s bedroom. He’d been here so many times, it felt like his own apartment. It seemed, foreign, though, because it had been months since he went into the home.

The door creaked as it opened, and as soon as it did, both pairs of eyes were on him. Jongdae’s were red, and Baekhyun’s just looked mad tired, like he was going through the same thing without crying. He nodded to Baekhyun as a sign that he could go, and he looked almost relieved before he got off of Jongdae’s bed and left the room. Kyungsoo took his place.

It was awkward. Kyungsoo didn’t know what to say. “I heard.”

Jongdae was quiet for a second before he spoke, a breathy and weak laugh escaping. “I figured.”

Kyungsoo thought carefully about what he wanted to say. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry for what happened; I’m sure you’ve heard that already, but what I do want to say is that you don’t deserve that. You’re someone that gets attached easily, and when things don’t go your way with that person, you get upset. That’s not bad; it just hurts worse when it ends. You’re a great guy, you really are. If you hadn’t gone to China, and what happened between us got any farther, I would never do anything like that to hurt you. Minseok is a complete fool for doing that. Understand?”

Jongdae nodded and sniffled. “You’re the first one not to apologize for something that wasn’t your fault.”

“Exactly why I didn’t. You just have to get over him. Your right guy will come along, I promise,” Kyungsoo assured him, completely sure it would happen.

Jongdae smiled at him, although his eyes were red. “Thank you.”

“Any time. Now go clean up; I’m taking you out to dinner. Your choice, I pay.”

“You don’t have to…”

“Nope. I’m taking you. Go on.”

Jongdae grinned, but left the room to go clean up. Kyungsoo stood up from the bed and peeked his head out into the living room. Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but when one saw Kyungsoo, the other’s gaze followed. “How’d it go?” Chanyeol asked silently.

Kyungsoo smiled. “He’s going to be fine. I’m taking him out to go cheer him up.”

Baekhyun smiled as well. “You’re a really good friend, Kyungsoo.”

“I try.”

“You succeed. We’ll see you later, okay?” Chanyeol spoke up.

“Yeah. Bye, guys.”

As they left, Jongdae appeared, dressed better and his eyes only still a little red. “Please tell me you’re going to change before we go out in public,” Jongdae laughed, eyeing Kyungsoo’s clothing.

He looked down in alarm, only to remember that he was still in pajamas. He laughed. “Yeah, I will.”

“Good.” They walked out of the house and to Kyungsoo’s car, all sadness left behind.

~*~

Hi guys! How has your first day of December been? :D Good, I hope. Here's another chapta.

Hope you enjoyed!

Please comment~ Thank you!