"Oh ," Kyungsoo cursed under his breath with every intention of turning the opposite direction and just getting the hell out of there. Jongin was really the last person in the earth he wanted to see at the moment. If he were made to choose between a burglar and Jongin, he would've chosen the burglar. But then again, probably not.

"Kyungsoo?"

As he spun on his heels to leave, the dreaded y voice rang throughout the silence of the area. Kyungsoo felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably, whether it was in dread or anticipation, he didn't know. He really just wanted to get out of there, even hoping that a giant hole in the ground under him would just open up and swallow him whole, erasing him from the face of the earth. But it would be rude to ignore or not acknowledge the boy, since there was literally no one else in the vicinity. Kyungsoo couldn’t have made an excuse about not being able to hear him without making a complete fool out of himself.

Heaving a sigh only audible to him, Kyungsoo spun on his heels once again, forcing his face to plaster a fake smile.

"Hey Jongin," he managed. He could feel a lump in his throat, threatening to make tears fall on his face, which was not a very manly thing to do.

Jongin stood up from his seat abruptly, making the chair fall accidentally. He had a sort of desperate look on his face that Kyungsoo couldn’t really figure out the cause for. He was fidgety, and his right eye twitched as if he wanted to say something really badly but just couldn't.

"I… I tried contacting you," started Jongin, scratching the back of his head, which Kyungsoo -surprising himself- found quite endearing. Oh God.

"Yeah, uh… about that. I've been really busy with essays and all that . Haha. College life." Kyungsoo thought that the excuse was pretty believable, he was a college student after all. Besides, scaring the boy with his possible homoual and borderline ic feelings was hardly a thing he'd really like to do.

What confused Kyungsoo however, was the fact that Jongin actually wasn't running away from him like he did the other day. He didn’t know why, especially since the younger seemed to be so eager to get away from him last time. It gave his head some peace of mind though and it was completely welcome.

Jongin's eyebrows furrowed for a moment but then relaxed and Kyungsoo knew then that he bought the excuse. "Oh, okay." Kyungsoo felt terrible lying, he was never really that sort of person. Sure, he was able to cuss like there was no tomorrow but lying was just too unnatural for him. Still, if it meant not driving him away, he figured he could forgive himself.

An awkward silence ensued.

Oh my God. What the actual are you doing Do Kyungsoo? Get the out of there! Is what kept going through Kyungsoo's head, his body and mouth (and heart) had other plans for him though.

"Can I sit?" he asked Jongin.

Jongin looked a bit surprised at the question but quickly recovered, managing a "Yeah, of course!" and gesturing for the shorter man to sit on the chair next to him. Kyungsoo hastily complied, almost afraid that if he didn't do it quickly, Jongin would disappear.

"You want some cake?" Jongin asked, pushing a slice of black forest cake on a cute plate to the latter. On usual circumstances, Kyungsoo would have declined, but at the sight of the sweet smelling slice of pure bliss, his stomach grumbled loudly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten properly in what seemed like ages.

"Yeah, thanks," muttered Kyungsoo as Jongin chuckled softly.

A few moments ensued with a comfortable silence, Kyungsoo silently munching on his cake which tasted glorious and Jongin sitting quietly looking at everything, stealing glances now and then of Kyungsoo.

"So… we should hang out more."

Kyungsoo almost spat out all the cake in his mouth, taken by surprise at the random suggestion. He almost succeeded keeping all of it in his mouth. Almost.

"Ew, calm down hyung!" exclaimed Jongin, trying to brush off the stray pieces of cake that had made their way to his shirt.

That was the last thing Kyungsoo had expected to hear from Jongin. He'd expected something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I really actually don't want to see you ever again". Not this.

Unable to form any words, he just stared at Jongin gaping, now and again trying to close it but ending up just looking like a goldfish with HUGE eyes.

"Umm… Is that a yes..?"

Snapping out of his reverie, Kyungsoo nodded maybe a bit too quickly and vigorously but he didn't care. The gods had given him another shot at this perfect creature, he sure as hell wouldn't let the golden opportunity slip by.  "Yes!" then a short pause after realising that he sounded way too excited. He cleared his throat and then continued, trying to regain some of his dignity back. "I mean, yeah. That's cool." Nope. Damn.

Jongin just looked at him with an amused expression, his face contorting into a full-blown smile and then bellowing laughter. Kyungsoo just pouted cutely at Jongin, and when the said boy noticed the older man's not-so-threatening glare at him, his laughs slowly subsided and he wiped the tears in the corners of his eyes where they had started to appear.

"You're so cute, hyung."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm MANLY you stupid boy! I am the manliest man alive!"

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, hyung," and the laughter ensued, this time with Kyungsoo joining right in.

----

The air had grown lighter and the two boys were back to normal, teasing and talking to each other like they'd known each other for years and years. Jongin had brought up the subject of 'hanging out' again and Kyungsoo had agreed, although because a part of him didn’t want to be left all alone by himself if Jongin decided to ditch again, he had asked Jongin if he could bring his friends along. The younger didn't seem to mind, much to Kyungsoo's both relief and slight disappointment.

Wait, why the am I disappointed? Deciding to shrug the feeling off, him and Jongin parted ways, both feeling a lot lighter in their hearts.

----

"Yeah, so that's what happened," finished Kyungsoo after telling his friends about the make-up. Was that even a make-up? Oh well.

When Kyungsoo arrived at his home, the place was more trashed than how he had left it. At first, he thought it was a burglar but upon seeing limited edition Gucci socks laid neatly on his couch, he knew that Tao and Baekhyun was still there. He was only mildly surprised to find Sehun and Luhan in his room with Baekhyun and Tao as well. Playing ing Monopoly. ("THAT'S RIGHT ! ROT IN JAIL!" Luhan had screamed.)

"I'm pretty sure we're all free. You know, us being us and all," Baekhyun answered for all of them.

The others just nodded in agreement, knowing full well that Baekhyun had a valid point. They were all awkward turtles and they all knew it.

As they always say: All awkward turtles think alike.

I FINALLY HAVE MY LAPTOP BACK. MY GOD. I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK THIS LONG. LIKE SERIOUSLY. MY INTERNET WAS DOWN SOMETIMES. THEN MY PARENTS WOULD HOG THE COMPUTER AND IT'S BEEN REALLY HECTIC SO I'M SO SORRYYY TT^TT

I love you all though. I'm so sorry this chap was so short >.< I'll make it up to you in the next chapter? :* Anyways, I love you guys and thank you for subbing! Even though this author here is a slooowww update-r <3