The very next day Yixing proceeds to go to Jongdae's house. He needs answers as soon as possible and at the moment Jongdae is the only person that can answer his scattered questions.

The night before he had humored the idea of talking to Junmyeon since he knew Kai best, but even with things resolved Yixing didn't want their first full conversation to be about Yixing's possibly deceitful boyfriend.

Jongdae's younger sister opens the door and she looks at him with wide bashful eyes as she ushers him in and excuses herself. Jongdae's mother is out running errands, his father is working, and his sister just left to hang out with her friends. Jongdae's home alone and when Yixing finds him he's lounging across his bed with expensive black headphones on and a comic book in his hand.

Yixing lies beside him and playfully snatches the comic book out of his hand. "Are you so bored that you need to read this for the fifth time," Yixing asks, keeping his hand on the page Jongdae was reading so that he can look at the cover. "You need a new hobby."

"Be happy you didn't walk in on me doing something else," Jongdae retorts. "When did you get back and who let you in?"

"I got back yesterday. Your little sister let me in," Yixing says. "Did you spend your summer like this?"

"I have a life," Jongdae cries out in an indignant manner. "Today's just my off day. Anyway if you got back yesterday why am I just finding out? Were you with Kai, did you have that talk?"

"We didn't talk about that," Yixing says. "I don't think he knows I'm here and if he does he just doesn't care."

"Whoa," Jongdae says sitting up in alarm. He mutes the music still playing through his headphones so that they're sitting in utter silence. He then frowns before speaking, "did you two fight or something?"

"Answer this one question, don't over think it, just...what is Kai's real name."

Jongdae brows furrow together as he looks at Yixing in deep confusion, "Kim Jongin, why are you–"

"And who told you that," Yixing asks interrupts.

"Junmyeon," Jongdae answers. "Why are you asking such strange questions?"

"What else did Junmyeon tell you about Kai," Yixing asks next.

"Answer my question first," Jongdae replies. "Why are you grilling on what I know about your boyfriend?"

"Because apparently you know more than me," Yixing answers dryly. "He told me the story of how he was abandoned but he couldn't even bother to tell me his real name, I even asked him directly once, who he was, it was figurative, but still he could have told me."

Jongdae purses his lips as if he's in deep thought and then begins to speak. "Maybe he doesn't like to be called Jongin anymore. I mean, Junmyeon and the rest don't call him Jongin do they?"

"They don't," Yixing confirms, "but if he asked them to call him Kai around me, I wouldn't put it pass them to do so. Anyway I have another question."

"Ask away," Jongdae says.

"It has only been the five of them right, for as long as you've known of them, there was never a sixth person right?"

"It's always been Junmyeon, Kai, the two other kids from the orphanage, and Luhan. They've had friends but they're the closest. Why?"

"When I went to see Kai I found out his real name because some guy was in his room and called by it. They seemed close."

"Close like Kai and Junmyeon," Jongdae pauses in his speech and looks to Yixing as if he's afraid to continue, "or close like Kai and you?"

Yixing swallows thickly, a prominent frown gracing his lips as he looks directly into Jongdae's eyes. "I don't know," he admits honestly. "I feel like Kai acts differently towards them when I'm around." He groans and hides his face with the comic book. "I really am naive."

"Are you going to talk to him about it," Jongdae asks.

"I want to and Tao said I should, but what if the answers I get aren't what I want? I don't even know how to begin asking him about what I saw."

"So then we ask Minseok," Jongdae says with resolute. He wrestles the comic out of Yixing's hand and tosses it in the direction of his desk only for it to fall short and crash into one of the legs and flopping against the ground.

"What exactly are we asking your boyfriend," Yixing asks with a frown.

"We're asking Minseok, Luhan's best friend, if he knows who this random guy is and what his connection with Kai is. I'm supposed to meet him at work in the next twenty minutes." Yixing sits up and looks over Jongdae's appearance He's wearing an old hole ridden t-shirt and just his underwear.

"You should probably put on some pants then," Yixing says staring at the boy's hairy pale legs, "and a different shirt."

They're a few feet away from the convenience store when Yixing realizes a flaw in their plans. "If Minseok-ssi is getting off wouldn't that mean Luhan is there?"

"I can ask him then when we're alone," Jongdae replies when he figures out a solution.

"No," Yixing says. "It's okay, if Kai really is cheating on me then he won't know. I doubt he knows more about Kai then you anyway." It hurts to even utter the words cheating but realistically speaking that could be as much of a possibility as the idea of the boy being some relative.

Either way Kai had lied or at least omitted the truth in some way and now Yixing was distraught on how much of Kai’s words were embellished. He could forgive a lot but as hypocritical as it might seem, being lied to was a trust breaker especially if whatever was being lied about threatened the very foundation of his already shaky relationship.

"Did you do your summer homework," Yixing asks, attempting to change the topic and prevent his thoughts from wandering off the deep end. He knew nothing, yet he was already expecting the worse. Kai hadn't verbally said he'd loved him but he has implied that Yixing was on the same level as his makeshift family which was probably as close to love he'd ever get.

"Why," Jongdae asks, "you want to copy off of me or something?"

"I haven't even started it," Yixing says grimacing. "I guess I really will have to spend my next few days in the library."

"Don't use the library as an excuse not to talk to Kai," Jongdae tells him.

"I'm not," Yixing lies. "This is my senior year. I have to really concentrate especially since I don't know what type of school I’m going to or where. What if he says the opposite of what i want to hear?"

"Worst case scenario, you break up, you're heartbroken. We cheer you up and Tao attempts to kick his . Better scenario is you fight eventually make up and finally sleep together."

Yixing doesn't ask Jongdae what scenario he thinks it'll be. They just continue on to the convenience store. Minseok is waiting for the younger male outside of the store and when Yixing looks inside the story he sees both Luhan and Sehun on either side of the cashier counter talking merrily.

When Yixing gets home Zitao is sitting alone in the kitchen summer homework in front of him as he texts.

"Did you get anything done," Yixing asks, laughing softly when Zitao jumps in surprise. He walks closer to the younger boy and peers over his shoulder, "all I see is your name."

"I've done more," Zitao says as he quickly flips over his work. "I've done at least one other thing since you've been gone. Speaking of which, what did you find out from jongdae-ge?"

"I thought I told you I wasn't going to tell you anything till I talked to Kai," says. He leaves Zitao's side to pour himself a glass of water. "Besides Jongdae didn't know much." He heads out of the kitchen and Zitao is quick to stand and trail after him.

"So what does that mean are you going to talk to him soon," Zitao asks him following Yixing all the way into the latter's bedroom. "When do you plan to do it?" Yixing ignores him and grabs his cellphone off his nightstand. There's a new text message from Jongin and his heart speeds up. He swipes to the message with sweaty hands bracing himself for the worse.

When do you get back it reads. Yixing's not a spiteful person by nature so despite the initial irrational anger that courses through his veins he doesn't go with his first response and instead chooses a passive noncommittal soon.

"I'll do it soon," Yixing says. He grabs his school bag that was leaning against the side of his desk and turns to his cousin, Zitao's dressed in old grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt. "I'm going to the library and you’re coming with me."

A few days later Yixing is sitting on the floor of his bedroom with Amber and Jongdae reviewing their summer work when Zitao enters his room.

"You have some strange traditions," Zitao tells them sitting down on Yixing's desk chair.

"This is called caring about your grades," Jongdae says. "Eventually you'll do the same."

Zitao snorts softly and begins to spin lazily in the chair.

"So going back to what I was saying," Jongdae says still looking at Zitao before he turns to Yixing. "I know you didn't want me to, but I asked Minseok-hyung about it. He didn't say anything new."

"Are you talking about Yixing-ge's boyfriend," Tao asks, stopping in his spinning to look over to Jongdae. He stands up and squeezes in beside Amber to be next to his cousin. "You still haven't talked to him?"

"I haven't had the time to," Yixing replies refusing to meet Zitao's eyes.

"You've had days to," Zitao retorts, rolling his eyes.

"I was busy, I'll do it tomorrow," Yixing says.

"You're hanging out with Yifan and I tomorrow," Zitao reminds him. "You have to."

"I'll do it before I go to Yifan's," Yixing says shrugging. There's a silence and Yixing looks up to see each of them gazing at him with worry, "unless you expect Kai to say something terrible."

Amber's the first to speak up and she laughs loudly. "We weren't thinking that. We figured you'd forget about going to Yifan's once you two make up."

"I won't forget," Yixing says. "I'm going to do both things tomorrow, and then give you your obligatory report the next day.”

“You can give up all the sordid details of your make up on Monday,” Jongdae says, a teasing grin on his lips. “We need something to start the school year with.”

The next day comes much too quickly, and Yixing finds himself standing outside of Kai’s home. He doesn’t really have a plan laid out but he doesn’t think he’ll need one, he’ll get his answers, and leave.

The door is unlocked, and the metal knob feels heavy in his palm. He attempts to push it open but it pulls him forward unexpectedly, and he almost trips into Luhan.

“Yixing,” Luhan says, as if he’s seeing a ghost. “You’re back from China.”

“Uh yeah,” Yixing answers, letting go of the door knob and giving Luhan an awkward smile.

“I saw you outside of our window,” Luhan tells him. “When did you get back?”

“Recently,” Yixing answers stepping into the house, “Is Kai home?”

“He’s in the living room,” Luhan tells him. “We all are, you can…”

“Can you tell Kai to meet me in the kitchen instead,” he hears more unknown voices, but chooses to ignore them. He doesn’t want to meet anyone new, when there’s a chance that he will probably be rude and unresponsive thanks to his anger with Kai. “I can’t stay long.”

Luhan frowns but nods his head, and Yixing heads towards the kitchen. To get to the kitchen he has to pass by the living room regardless of rather he wants to or not, and along his way he makes it a point to look into the room.

Yixing makes eye contact with Kai as soon as he passes the room, but he breaks it to look at the younger boy’s side. Beside Kai is the same boy that had been on Kai’s bed. Yixing hadn’t seen his face, but it’s easy to tell that he’s the same guy. Kai’s leaning into him for comfort, while the boy talks to Junmyeon, smiling softly.

“You should have met my friends,” Kai tells him, the moment the younger male walks into the kitchen. He’s smiling and the moment he sees Yixing, he wraps his arms around the boy, leaning into him.

“Those guys were your friends,” Yixing asks.

“Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun, we’ve known them for years,” Kai explains. “They’ve lived outside of Seoul though.”

“Are they like extended family members or something,” Yixing asks, his curiosity dying for answers. “You seem close.”

Yixing notices Kai’s frown and inhales deeply. “When did you get back,” Kai asks him, changing the subject. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me Kai wasn’t your real name,” Yixing asks in return.

“My real name,” Kai asks, the arms that had been holding Yixing going slack as he stepped back to look at Yixing. “You never asked.”

Yixing scoffs, rolling his eyes. “I’m sorry for assuming that after you feed me the story of your mother, I figured she didn’t name you. I just want to know why I’m the only one that didn’t know your real name.”

Kai looks away from him, shuffling back just a bit as his hand reaches up to scratch nervously at his nape. “I don’t think of my birth name as something important. You didn’t need to know that name.”

“You’re ashamed,” Yixing asks, “but you let others call you that. Is it Baekhyun or Kyungsoo that calls you Jongin while you call him hyung?”

“I,” Kai starts, before he narrows his eyes. “How did you…Are you jealous?”

“No,” Yixing answers. “I’m confused and embarrassed.” He pushes pass Kai and fixes his hair, “Why am I the only one that doesn’t know something as basic as that?

Kai’s standoffish once more, avoiding Yixing’s eyes as he fidgets obviously in front of Yiing. “Never mind,” Yixing sighs. “We can talk about this later, I have to go.”

“I haven’t seen you all summer,” Kai points out, “and when I do see you, you get mad at me then leave.”

“Is that really my fault,” Yixing asks, he swallows thickly, waiting for the younger boy to speak when Kai doesn’t he continues, turning away from Kai in the process. “I really have to go.”

Yixing still feels extremely aggravated and flustered as he stands outside of Kris’s apartment. He’s standing there shifting from foot to foot waiting for Kris to answer the door despite him knowing the code for the apartment.

Kris opens the door in a matter of moments and Yixing finds himself giving a shaky grin at the older boy as he steps into the apartment. He confines all thoughts of Kai to the tiniest space in the back of his mind as he asks Kris if Zitao is already there.

“No,” Kris answers, walking deeper into the apartment with Yixing trailing behind him, “he said he’d be here in fifteen minutes.”

“Good,” Yixing says, the fake grin that he had first plastered onto his lips slowly easing into a real and playful one. “I can play older cousin now. I never got to talk to you about your relationship.”

Watching Kris stiffen despite being older and taller has Yixing grinning even more as he sits on a chair in his kitchen, while the older boy gets water out of his refrigerator. “So my first question,” Yixing says, the grin slipping from his lips as he stares intently at Kris to convey the seriousness of the subject. “If I told you to break up with my cousin would you?”

“What,” Kris asks, gazing at Yixing in bewilderment. “You want me to do what?”

“Break up with Tao,” Yixing answers airily. “The age difference is too huge, and you don’t love him enough. Besides we both know you’ll end up with some girl in the end.”

“Are you joking,” Kris asks slowly, he looks as if he can’t comprehend a thing Yixing has said and Yixing almost pities him.

“No,” Yixing answers. “I’d rather you do it now before he falls even deeper.”

“I,” Kris begins, words faltering as he looks from Yixing to the table in front of him. “I can’t do that.”

“It’s actually really easy,” Yixing says. “He won’t cry. I mean he can be a bit of a crybaby but he knows how to hold his tears when he needs to, he won’t even put up much of a fight.”

“No,” Kris says. “Did something happen? You’re acting really strange.”

“No,” Yixing replies. “Why won’t you do it, do you love my cousin that much?”

Kris gives Yixing the biggest look of horrified distress that Yixing pretends to be oblivious to. “I care deeply about your cousin, Xing. If you want us to break up, you have a better chance of talking to your cousin about.”

Yixing bites his lips to keep the laugh on the tip of his tongue in. “Are you sure you know my cousin?”

“I’m not even sure I know you,” Kris admits, finally taking a sip from his water.

“I wasn’t joking,” Yixing says, “but I wasn’t completely serious either. I know you know that Tao has more feelings for you than you do him, so if you’re not going to be serious then just break it off.”

“I’ll treat your cousin well,” Kris says. “Does this mean you approve of me?”

“No,” Yixing answers, getting off the counter and getting his own water, “but I don’t disapprove either.”

Zitao and Kris treat him like he’s a parent chaperoning instead of a friend just hanging out. It’s awkward for everyone in the room, especially when he’s forced in between the pair during a movie, as if they’re afraid they can’t control their hormones when next to each other.

Whenever Yixing leaves the room, Zitao and Kris look even worse when he returns. However, because Yixing is a kind older cousin, when Kris drives them home later in the day he sits himself in the backseat and then leaves the car first, buying the two some time alone together.

“I’m never hanging out with you two again,” Yixing says, Zitao and him are in the confines of his bedroom. “You hadn’t even touched each other and yet I still felt like a third wheel.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Zitao tells him.

“Yeah it was,” Yixing replies. “I was close to shoving your faces together during the middle of the movie because there was so much tension. It wasn’t even that bad when before you two weren’t together.”

“It was one-sided then,” Zitao says laughing. “How did your talk go?”

“With Kris or with Kai,” Yixing asks.

“You talked to Kris,” Zitao asks, his lips curving down just slightly. “About what?”

“I threatened him a little,” Yixing answers.

“No really gege, what did you talk about,” Zitao asks. “Never mind Kris, tell me about your boyfriend.”

“I’ve decided on something from talking to Kris,” Yixing admits. “I can’t tell you yet.”

“You never tell me anything,” Zitao says crossing his arms.

“The day after tomorrow is the first day of school,” Yixing says. “Maybe I’ll have a really interesting tale for you then.”

Hours later, when Zitao has returned to his own room, and Yixing has occupied himself with watching random videos on his computer, he decides to give Kai a call. The phone rings, three full times before Kai picks up and mutters a tired hello.

“I have a question for you,” Yixing says, the one video he was watching paused despite the 14 seconds remaining.

“Are you going to get irrationally angry if you ask it,” Kai asks after hesitating.

“No” Yixing answers “and I wasn’t irrationally angry earlier.”

“Go ahead,” Kai tells him a moment later.

“If Junmyeon or Luhan told you to break up with me would you?” That’s the thought that had been haunting him since he’d talked with Kris. He wanted to know just how much Kai valued the other boys’ opinions, especially Junmyeon over their own relationship.

What," Kai asks.

"Hypothetically speaking, if Junmyeon or Luhan told you to break up with me for whatever reason would you?

"Do you want my honest answer,” Kai asks. Yixing already expects the answer he’ll get. The question’s already thrown to the air, so now he can’t exactly change his mind, nor does he want to.

"You would, wouldn't you?”

"If they wanted me to then they must have a good reason. I trust them so if they ever asked me to...I wouldn't just do it right away, they would need a really good reason first." Kai rambles a little, and it’s surprises Yixing.

"So ultimately you'd break up with me," Yixing asks. Kai's silent so Yixing continues. "Okay, let's reverse it, if you were sick and tired of me and Junmyeon or Luhan told you to stay with me, would you?"

"Haven't I told you before that I would never be tired of you," Kai asks.

"It's hypothetical Kai," Yixing breathes out. "If you can hypothetically break up with me then you can hypothetically be sick of me, so answer the question."

"If Junmyeon and Luhan told me to stay together with you even though I didn't want to," Kai asks for clarification. "If that were to happen then my answer is similar to my first answer. It would never happen though…”

"You can stop now," Yixing says drily, interrupting the boy before he could continue rambling. "I've been thinking recently that it's probably best if we took a break."

There are a lot of things Yixing never thought he’d say when he was in a relationship and that was one of them. Taking a break never sounded like something anyone in a decent good relationship would do. You took a break when communication got screwed up, and you were more than certain that you were heading to a break up.

He couldn’t understand why anyone who wanted to be with someone would bring up taking a break instead of working on their problems, yet there he was.

Kai's silent but Yixing can hear his breathing. "A break? Like something more than a summer away from each other? I don't do breaks, we either be together or break up."

"Then let's break up," Yixing says. The words for a little while linger on the tip of his tongue but he swallows them back down quickly. Adding that would sound more ridiculous than taking a break and Yixing knows that what happens in that moment will be the cause of a permanent change.

"Okay," Kai mutters, after a long silence. The call and their relationship ends just like that, and the regret that prickles at his fingertips, tempting him to redial the younger boy’s number and retract everything he’d said, isn’t as strong as he’d thought it would be.

I originally planned to seperate this into two, but since I missed my update date and I'll be missing it again I decided combined would work best. I'm going to say sorry now because I'm leaving you like this and I probably won't update till.the first week of August if I'm lucky.