This is completely unedited, and I tried to finish it as quickly as possible just because you guys deserve an update for how long you've waited. So I apologize for inconsistencies and grammar/spelling mistakes that I know are present. 

"Kai, what's this one?"

"Which?" I ask, leaning over my desk to look at his English notes.

"It's this one," he says, using his pen to point at one of the idioms we were learning.

"To fight fire with fire," I read, sitting back into my own seat as I tried to recall the lesson from last week. "That's like fighting with someone using the same tactics that they use." When he looked at me, still just as confused as a moment ago, I continued. "Like when one politician tries to make fun of another, he shouldn't just slam him right back. Right? Because that would be 'fighting fire with fire.' See?"

"Oh..." he mumbled, still glancing through his scribbled notes. "Thanks." 

Never had I seen Taemin studying this hard for English, and we wouldn't even have a test on those sayings for at least another week... "No problem," I replied, sitting back in my chair. He still hadn't drawn his eyes away from the pages in front of him, as he hasn't for the entire class. "Why are you studying so much? We don't have a pop quiz tomorrow or anything, do we?"

"Hm?" he hummed, looking up at me for the first time. "Oh, no," he assured once he took a moment (an endearingly long moment) to process my question. "No, I have tutoring session with Onew-hyung this evening and I wanted to impress him," he said with a sheepish laugh before turning back to his work.

"You're so cute," I mumbled. I knew he heard me by the tiny blush on his face, but he didn't look back up from his paper. Some ten minutes later, when class was nearly over anyway, I noticed him sitting up straighter out of the corner of my eye. I dropped my own pencil (that, to be honest, I was only using to doodle on the edge of my notebook) and turned slightly towards him.

"Kai," he said predictably.

"Yeah?" I answered, tapping my fingers on my desk.

"Do you want to maybe go to the cafe with me before my tutoring session with hyung today?" he asked, sounding pretty casual. "Like, a date?"

I felt the immediate urge to flip a table, maybe spit out the imaginary water in my mouth. But there was a little part of me inside that was convincing me to just play it cool. I thank god for that part. "Um.. Yeah, of course. Are you sure?"

He nodded with a smile. "Yeah. I've been feeling good these past couple of weeks. Like, I might be ready for something more... I'm not sure if I can promise you much, but I think I'd be willing to try it out again."

I grinned widely at his response. "You don't have to promise me anything, hyung. I'm just happy that you're doing so well."

His smile hadn't decreased in brightness and I found myself getting more and more excited for the end of this class so we could go.

As soon as the final bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, I walked Taemin to his locker so he could gather all the materials he would need for homework that night before we left to follow the familiar path to the little cafe. 

We walked fairly quietly for a while, joking every now and then. "How's, um, how's work going?" I asked when we got closer, wanting to check up on his progress but still seem conversational. I just wanted to make sure that it was doing him some good as opposed to stressing him out with more things to do. He still got to choose when he wanted to work, but it could become overwhelming nonetheless. 

"I like it a lot," he answered simply, giving a small smile. "Don't tell Leeteuk-hyung, but I've always wished he was my dad... I think he would look at me funny if I told him that, but I haven't had an adult figure in my life since my own parents died who treats me the way my own father did. He's kind and he always gives me life advice even if I don't ask for it. I really like spending time with him at the cafe. He's teaching me a lot, I think."

His answer caused my heart to swell with conflicting emotions- sadness that he has to search for a father figure in his life after his own was taken from him, but happiness that he was able to find it regardless. "I'm glad, hyung, I really am. That sounds like a great relationship to have."

"And thank you for getting me that job, Kai. I know I haven't really thanked you properly yet, but I really do appreciate it. I like working somewhere that's familiar with someone I know so well. I think it's made it a lot easier to put myself back out there."

I wanted to respond, to tell him that it was no problem and that I only wanted to help him in any way that I could, but we had already arrived and Taemin was opening the front door.

"Good afternoon, boys!" Leeteuk's voice sounded the moment I stepped inside. I looked up to greet him back to see more people than I was used to present at the cafe. Five of the tables were occupied with people- couples, families, friends... 

"Wow..." came out of my mouth instead of a reply, causing the older man to laugh. 

"Why don't you two go sit down and I'll come by in a minute. I've got to finish this, but I'll be there as soon as I can with the usual?" He phrased it as a question.

We both nodded and made our way to a vacant booth and sat down. "It's crowded in here..." I commented once we got comfortable. And it wasn't necessarily crowded, by normal business standards, but there were certainly more customers than I'd ever seen here at once. 

"Yeah, it's been getting more and more busy. You should see it on the weekends," Taemin replied, concealing a smile behind his hand casually as he leaned forward onto the table. 

"I wonder why that is?" I mused. "Not that I don't think this place deserves it, but why so suddenly?"

"I don't know. But I'm happy for hyung. Sora-noona comes by every once in a while with their baby, and it's great to see them all doing so well. They deserve good business and a good life."

I grinned at his words, feeling touched at his genuinely pure thoughts. "Yeah. Yeah, they do."

"Here we are!" Leeteuk-hyung said as he approached with our usual drink orders and placed them on the table. "How are we today?"

"Great," Taemin smiled.

"Glad to hear it, kid," the older smiled back. "I have you to thank for all this anyway," he continued, gesturing around the cafe at all the people there.

I cocked my head to the side, drawing Leeteuk's attention towards the action. He laughed, picking up on my confusion. "This kid here is a wonder with the customers," he explained. "Charms everyone with a single smile. Why did I never think about hiring cute young employees in the first place?"

Taemin blushed at his praise, and I could only grin wider. 

"Well, I'm going to get back up there in case anyone needs me," he continued, pointing back to his counter. "Enjoy. Anything for my favourite customers."

With that, he turned and walked away, causing me to turn my focus back on the guy in front of me. "What was that you were saying about not knowing how they got so busy?"

Taemin's blush deepened and he sunk down in his chair a bit, taking a huge gulp of his americano in an attempt to hide the reddening cheeks. "Hyung was exaggerating."

"I don't find it hard to believe, though. I can just imagine how cute you would be serving little old ladies. You'd probably sit and listen to all of their stories, wouldn't you?" I was laughing at the image I'd created in my head, but with his embarrassed reaction, I could tell it wasn't far off from the truth. "You do, don't you? I totally knew it. You're too cute, hyung."

"Okay okay, that's enough," he replied good-naturedly. "I'm not responsible for this, but it doesn't matter. Let's just talk." 

"We are talking!" I countered. "We're talking about how cute you a-"

"Kai!" he interrupted with a whine.

"Fine, fine," I finally relented, picking up my own drink for the first time to take a sip. "What are you and Onew-hyung studying today?"

Taemin straightened up a bit in his seat once the subject was no longer about embarrassing himself. "English and then chemistry. I have a chemistry quiz tomorrow too, so I'm a little scared."

I grinned. "Don't be scared, you've been studying really hard to catch up." He smiled at my compliment. "Besides," I continued "you've got the smartest guy in the whole school tutoring you for free. There's no way he'd let you fail a single assignment."

"Hyung is the smartest. I'm really thankful for him."

"When are you guys meeting?"

He checked his phone for the time. "In a bit, actually. We're meeting here though, so I don't have to leave or anything."

"Ah," I acknowledged. "So... I don't want to come off as skeptical, but I just wanted to talk about something. Is it okay if I get serious here for a second?"

"Um.. Sure. Go ahead."

At his permission, I took a deep breath. "Not that I'm not happy about this, but are you absolutely sure you're ready for us to start going on dates again? I swear I'm not doubting your progress, I just wanted to double check. It's okay if you say you don't want it, even now that we're already here-"

"Kai," he interjected. "I told you that I really do like you. The only thing holding me back was coming to terms with myself. I wanted to make sure that... You know, that I was okay with myself before I started dating someone. And I still have my doubts and my self-consciousness, but I don't think that will go away all on its own. I promise I'm not jumping into this, though. I've been giving it a lot of thought. I even talked to Key-hyung about it and he encouraged me that I was ready."

"What? Key-hyung gave us his blessing?" I was astounded at this information. The one who would hardly stop giving me dirty looks. The one who disapproved since day 1.

"Why is that so surprising? He likes you, Kai." Taemin looked genuinely confusing, which in turn, confused me even more. Had he seriously missed something here?

"There's no way he likes me, he hasn't shown any signs. Proving to someone that you like them means being nice and inclusive and... and I don't know, not glaring at me 24/7."

Taemin laughed lightly and I didn't understand how it was funny. "Kai, listen. If he didn't like you, I can promise that we would never see each other. Hyung is the kind of person who looks out for me, and if truly thought you were wrong for me, he wouldn't let you near me. It's happened before. Back in middle school, I came out by telling my crush that I liked him, even though hyung told me that he wasn't worth it. He was right of course, and I was turned down, but then a week later, he came back and told me that he was sorry and that he liked me back but was afraid of what people would say. Key wouldn't let me accept his confession, and it was just as well, because I found out a while later that he was just going to play around with me and humiliate me. Hyung didn't even tell me that those were his intentions, but he still knew and kept him away from me so that I could work my way through my feelings myself without having him around to lie to me and convince me of something that just wasn't there. Hyung really loves me, and there's no way he'd let you get close to me if he thought that you were wrong for me."

"Hyung... Are you sure he doesn't like you?" Honestly, I knew it wasn't true, but that's how it sounded. I didn't know what I could say in response to his story, so humour was just the first thing that came to my mind. I was a bit overwhelmed with feelings of acceptance that I hadn't felt from Key-hyung before (and never would have known had Taemin not told me how important his approval was).

Taemin only laughed at my question and shook his head. "There's no way. He likes someone else," he said with a wink. 

Now, that had me curious. "Who??"

"Ahhh, Kai, I can't tell. What kind of friend would I be to just spill his secrets like that?" he teased, swirling his straw around inside his drink. 

"You're the worst," I accused, bringing my own cup up to drink again. "But seriously hyung, I'm glad to hear that Key-hyung likes me. I don't know why it means so much to me that one of your friends approves of our relationship, but regardless, it does mean that much to me and I'm happy that he's accepted me."

"I'll be sure to tell him you said that..." he said with a sly grin, which had my heart dropping instantly. "Noooo!" I protested. "Don't tell him I said that! That's so embarrassing!" 

"Really, Kai, are you sure you don't like him instead? Why are you so flustered about me telling him your feelings about him?"

"I don't know," I grumbled. "It just seems weird."

"Fine, I won't tell him. But you have to promise that you'll stop doubting that you're good enough for me, okay?"

I gaped a bit. "It's just.. I'm not doubting us, I just..." He raised his eyebrow at my words. "Okay. Okay, I promise. I'll work on it." His smile was brilliant and it had me smiling back in moments. What was there to doubt when we could be like this together? We were perfect for each other. I just have to keep reminding myself of that every time I blame myself for what happened. He forgives me, so I should forgive myself, right? I won't lie to myself though- it will take some work.

"You guys done?" 

My head snapped up to see Onew-hyung approaching from the entrance to the cafe with multiple textbooks in hand. Taemin looked a bit shocked as well.

"Don't worry, I didn't hear anything. You looked like you were talking about something important so I waited a minute. Are you ready to start your tutoring session?" He said with a smile, sliding into the booth next to Taemin.

"O-Oh! Yes, I'm ready. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, hyung," he exclaimed, taking his backpack out and plopping it onto the table.

"Alright. I'll take that as my cue to go. I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?" I interjected.

"You don't have to leave if you don't want to?" Taemin offered, feeling bad that our date was interrupted a bit earlier than he expected.

"It's okay," I assured him. "I'll just be a distraction. Study hard, okay?"

He gave a little wave of goodbye as I made my way to the front counter to pay for my drink. 

"All done?" Leeteuk said, typing in my order to show me the price even though I'd memorized it by this point while I was pulling the money out of my backpack. 

"Yeah, he has a tutoring session with Onew-hyung," I said while handing the exact change over, watching him count it.

"Alright, then come back soon?" Leeteuk-hyung looked back up with a smile.

"You know I will," was my simple reply as I turned around and walked out of the shop into the crisp air. As I started my walk back to my apartment, I couldn't help but think about our conversation today. I didn't know I was making it as apparent that I was hesitant about dating Taemin again. I mean, I'm sure that it's what I want, but I've been trying so hard to give more consideration to what's best for others rather than just myself. But if Taemin is willing to the point where he attempts to quell my own worries on the matter, he must be serious about us too.

While I would have preferred we kept the conversation lighter and happier, maybe even held hands, I can't be upset with the way things went. I was the one who brought it up, and we would have had to talk about it at some point. With that out of the way though, I could focus on myself on my own time and be able to enjoy my time with Taemin even more. 

I'll take things as slowly as he wants, I'll hold myself back from holding his hand or kissing him without him initiating it, because for now, he's already given me everything I need. I can't ask for anything more.

Author's Note:

I'M SO SORRY!!!! 

Seriously, classes, jobs, and travelling. I've been so busy. I'm so sorry for that wait. Literally, so so sorry >,< I haven't updated since November. How many months is that? God, life is kicking my right now. I'm trying really hard to update in a more timely fashion, but I make no promises except that it WILL NOT be this long again before the next chapter