When Kyungsoo marches into church that following Sunday it is much more awkward than he could ever have possibly imagined.


The tradition of going to church had been something that his dysfunctional family had kept alive even through all the marriage break downs, divorces, and that stupid old cat that both his mother and aunt wanted to own that somehow ended up in the bonnet of his father’s car and subsequently fried after the key went into the ignition.


An unfortunate tale, but one nevertheless brought up repeatedly during dinner conversations with much fervor.


Church felt awkward. Well, awkward-er than it ever had before with Kyungsoo, that is. Church had always been awkward because everyone stared at the wide-eyed Kyungsoo after that one time he had accidentally tripped on the altar’s tablecloth, knocking the candles over and setting it on fire. One time!


No, this was a different type of awkward. And Kyungsoo felt it the second his and Aunty Kim’s eyes met. There was a fire behind his aunt’s eyes that he had never seen before.


She looked violent, hot-blooded, and in control. Before they had even entered the sacred building, she had grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side, a picture captured on her mobile’s screen into his face.


“Look Kyungsoo, I saw you do it.”


The picture was blurry, but it was there nevertheless. Kyungsoo had no idea his hair looked so terrible from behind, but then again Kyungsoo didn’t have eyes in the back of his head, and even if he did he’d be pressed to be able to see through those brown locks.


“Kyungsoo?” Aunty Kim waves a hand in his face.


“What?”


“I saw you do it. I saw you… kiss a boy!” she shouts in hushed whispers. As if on cue, a girl walking past’s phone goes, off, the chorus of ‘I kissed a girl and I liked it’ filling their ears.


Irony.


“Kyungsoo, if you don’t change your ways, you’ll be going to hell!” she screeches in his ear. Kyungsoo lets out a sigh, remembering just how many times he’s been through this over the years.


“Aunty Kim, you know I’m agnostic. You can’t threaten an agnostic person with going to hell. It just doesn’t work… It’s like… a hippy threatening to punch you in your aura.”


Aunty Kim in air, her lips pursed in annoyance.


“Kyungsoo, you know I’m getting along in life. Now I’d like to hope, well, know, at least one member of this family will be joining me up there and it sure as hell isn’t going to be that mother of yours, not after that little stunt a few weeks ago.”


“What? No,” Kyungsoo groans.


“What do you mean no?”


“No means no, Aunty Kim. You can’t just force your religion on someone. Anyway, didn’t you always think I was gay anyway? You always basically said it.”


“But that was before you were gay.”


“Urgh, can we not?” Kyungsoo groans.


“Kyungsoo, you’re such a disappointment!” she shrieks, before stalking off into the church.






“How long have you been waiting here?” Kyungsoo asks, tilting his head to the side.


When he had told Kai about his weekly family outing he hadn’t exactly expected the guy to come dressed in that smooth black suit and freshly pressed white shirt, nor had he expected the taller or the two to be standing, albeit awkwardly, out the front of main doorway, hands in his pockets.


“Kai, what are you doing here?” Kyungsoo asks.


“Dude… I thought we could, you know, go into the church together.”


Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows.


“Dude? Please don’t call me dude… we make out sometimes… and your lips taste like cherries and it’s really nice. Anyways, please don’t call me dude.”


Kai shrugs.


“But… how? How did you know it was this specific sermon? I mean there were three before this one.”


“I didn’t,” Kai explains, eyes too warm for Kyungsoo’s comfort.


“What? So you’ve just been waiting here for the past three hours?” Kyungsoo asks, pecking Kai gently on the cheek. Kai gives a sheepish nod, lips turning upwards in a smile.


“You waited here that long just for me?” Kyungsoo clarifies. Kai nods again.


Admittedly, Kyungsoo is a little freaked out by this, but the way Kai is looking at him urges him to rake his teeth against dark skin and loosen that tie, but that would be entirely inappropriate in such a situation as this.


Kyungsoo kind of wishes Kai didn’t have that shirt on.


But then again if Aunty Kim caught him like that…


“What are you doing Kyungsoo? Stop loitering around with that… thing.”


As if on cue, Aunty Kim rips through the crowd, forcing Kyungsoo to follow her indoors. Kai trails along behind, lips between his teeth. Kyungsoo finds that sort of thing hot but he’s not going to even bring that up, not when he’s wedged between Aunty Kim and his father.


“Hey Kyungsoo,” comes a familiar voice.


“Sehun?”


“Yeah,” Sehun says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.


“What are you doing here?” Kyungsoo asks.


“I figured you’d be here,” Sehun explains.


“Have you talked to Luhan?” Kyungsoo asks.


“I got a message,” Sehun says, flipping open his phone and chucking it across the hall.


“I loved everything you are with every part of my being. Go yourself you skinny retard,” Kyungsoo reads aloud.


He gets shushed by a couple of people, including Aunty Kim, as he chucks the phone back at Sehun.


“To be honest I’ll probably miss annoying him,” Kyungsoo says, blinking a couple of times.


Sehun rolls his eyes at him, as Kyungsoo looks around, completely stunned that the words left his mouth. Kyungsoo’s father pats Sehun on the back, dragging him across to sit with them. Kai just sits a row behind, watching as the scene unfolds in front of him.


“Sorry to hear about that, Sehun,” Kyungsoo’s father exclaims.


“How about you Kai, got a girlfriend?” he says, turning to face Kai for the first time.


“No, actually I’m gay.” Kai announces as if it is nothing, receiving some funny looks from the people around him.


“You know I could have sworn Kyungsoo was gay too,” Kyungsoo’s father says with a laugh.


“As a kid he was always prancing around in his underwear, baking things with that pink frilly apron, and that time I caught him dancing to ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ by Shakira. I stuck it on Youtube.”


“You what?” Kyungsoo chokes.


Kyungsoo slinks back into his seat, hoping the mahogany will hide his tiny form from the world, and also from that massive display of Jesus Christ on the cross, silently judging him.


“But Kyungsoo is gay,” Kai remarks, causing a stir from Aunty Kim.


“He is?” Kyungsoo’s father asks in surprise.


“Yep. I’m Kyungsoo’s boyfriend…”