“This is literally the worst idea you’ve ever come up with.”

A stack of unopened presents addressed to Kris sat on the couch between Jongin and Junmyeon, both who were in the process of wrapping their gifts to the giant. It was his birthday celebration that night, and Junmyeon wanted everything to be perfect.

“Going to dinner with Kris? Jongin, that’s what we do every year,” Junmyeon frowned as a piece of the wrapping on his package ripped. He stuck his tongue out in concentration while leaning over the huge mass of gifts, trying to keep them from falling while also trying to get a large enough piece of tape to fix his mistake.

A noise of irritation issued from the back of Jongin’s throat and after successfully taping the last bit of paper on his present, he let himself fall back amongst the cushions, making a few presents tumble to the floor in the process.

“I’m talking about you randomly stealing my phone and inviting Kyungsoo along! He doesn’t even know you, and not even Kris for that matter! Its Kris’ birthday, isn’t it? Shouldn’t he have some say!?”

“Jongin, I told you I already asked Kris if he minded. He doesn’t, and he even agrees that Kyungsoo will be good company for you since this night is mostly focused on Kris and I—”

“Please don’t start talking about your life again,” Jongin groaned, giving Junmyeon a disgusted glare.

Junmyeon huffed and turned back to his gift, his face going red at the mention of his ual activities. Jongin just snorted as he ducked his head in order to retrieve the gifts that had fallen to the floor.

“You’re just upset that I invited your crush after you embarrassed yourself in front of him a few days ago,” Junmyeon said smartly after plopping his present on top of the remaining stack, flashing Jongin his most winning smile.

Jongin squeezed his eyes shut, pouting slightly as he tried to fight off the memory resurfacing.

Junmyeon voice tore through his thoughts with the soft tune of Billionaire and Jongin felt like smacking him in the face. And he did just that. Gently of course, he didn’t want Kris to hurt him for damaging his boyfriend.

“Hyung it’s not funny!” Jongin whined, stomping his feet in frustration. “I told you that someone came to meet Kyungsoo the same day, so my fail was even worse than it should have been! He probably looked between the two of us and realized the other guy was way better. They even hugged Junmyeon, they ing hugged. How am I supposed to compete with this guy?”

Junmyeon raised an eyebrow and fixed Jongin with his most judgmental stare.

“Jongin, for goodness sake! They probably were friends, you can’t just automatically jump to conclusions you idiot. He seemed really excited when I called him anyways. I think he likes you, I mean, how couldn’t he? You’re adorable.”

“You think?”

“I know. Now go get your dinner clothes on, Kris and Kyungsoo could be arriving any minute.”

Jongin reluctantly obliged, heading to his room to put on the same outfit he had worn for every formal event for the past two years, and he felt himself cringe just thinking about it. He, Kim Jongin, had no one for the past two years to tell him to get a new outfit.

Jongin watched his own face fall in the mirror as he wove gel into his hair. Wow, that is really depressing.

He heard the sound of the front door opening and he quickly checked his reflection in the mirror one last time, hoping to impress Kyungsoo.

God Kyungsoo, what are you doing to me?

Jongin opened his bedroom door and stepped out into the living room. He could hear voices drifting in from the kitchen, but they mostly sounded like Junmyeon and Kris.

Feeling slightly confident, he headed towards the voices, and as soon as he stepped into the kitchen the conversation that had been going on faltered and everyone focused on him.

Everyone being Junmyeon, Kris, and Kyungsoo.

Jongin’s eyes locked with Kyungsoo’s and the shorter smiled brightly at him, the skin around his eyes crinkling into half-moons. Oh god, why are you so perfect?

“Hi Jongin."

It took a moment for Jongin to register what he had said because for the first few seconds after walking in, all he could do was ogle the older.

First and foremost, Kyungsoo was wearing almost all black, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Kyungsoo looked absolutely wonderful in black. His dress shirt was nicely tucked into his pants, and the one bit of color was the red bow tie just under his chin. His face looked brighter than normal, probably having to do with his attire and how his dark hair was styled upward so it didn’t cover his gaze. Jongin could see a smudge of charcoal eyeliner around his oval eyes, and he could literally feel himself melting when he saw the heart shaped smile.

“K-Kyungsoo,” Jongin finally stammered, cursing himself when he saw Kyungsoo stifle a giggle at his awkwardness.

“We were just telling Kyungsoo about how handsome you look when dressed up, and then you showed up almost as if on cue!”

He could see Junmyeon smiling out of the corner of his eye, but he only had eyes for Kyungsoo, who was shyly returning his gaze, his bottom lip in between his teeth as he blinked those puppy eyes up at Jongin.

“We should probably go,” Kris pointed out, the only one who had been keeping track of the time. He put his arm around Junmyeon’s waist and led him to the door.

Kyungsoo looked at Jongin expectantly, and the younger quickly extended an arm towards him. This time Kyungsoo did let out a giggle, but he took Jongin’s arm nevertheless, his hand tightly gripping on to the younger’s firm forearm.

Jongin visibly gulped, and he quickly led Kyungsoo out of the apartment after Kris and Junmyeon, his senses tingling every time Kyungsoo would accidently press his body against his.

It was a good thing the restaurant Junmyeon had picked for Kris’s birthday was in walking distance, because Jongin might have had a heart attack if he had been forced to sit next to Kyungsoo in a confined space for a long amount of time.

They arrived at the restaurant literally two minutes later, and they were directed to their reserved seats as soon as they stepped inside. This whole time Kyungsoo hadn’t said anything, he had been content to just hold onto Jongin the whole time without a single sound leaving his mouth. If he had known how nervous Jongin was he might have spoken up in order to ease the younger’s mind, but since he was unaware he decided to keep his beautiful lips sealed shut.

It was finally when they were sitting next to each other with menus out that Kyungsoo said something.

He poked one of his fingers in Jongin’s side, making the younger flinch and look down at him in surprise.

“What are you getting?” Kyungsoo inquired, pointing one of his fingers at the menu in his hand.

Jongin glanced up at the couple across from them, and decided that telling each other their orders wouldn’t result in teasing later.

“I was thinking of getting Doenjang jjigae….” Jongin trailed off, glancing at Kyungsoo’s face and then back at the menu. There was an awkward silence so he quickly added, “What are you getting?”

Kyungsoo tutted, and flipped through the pages in the menu before landing on what he wanted, “I’m thinking about getting Jjajangmyeon.”

“Ah, yummy,” Jongin nodded in approval, almost instantly looking away again as he closed his menu and set it to the side. God, why do I have to be so awkward?

“What do you normally eat?”

Jongin looked up again, and he felt slightly guilty for not trying to engage the poor soul in an interesting conversation as Kyungsoo watches him with eagerness.

“Do you mean what I normally eat here, or just in general…?”

“In general.”

“Oh. I-uh….”

Kyungsoo cocked his head to the side in confusion and Jongin quickly clarified.

“It’s kind of embarrassing but… I really like-” he glanced at Junmyeon and Kris for good measure before lowering his voice, “chicken. Fried chicken.”

A huge smile broke out across Kyungsoo’s face, and he let out an unsuppressed chuckle which caught the attention of the two love birds across the table who were still deciding on a meal.

“What are you two laughing about over there?” Junmyeon inquired, all the while grinning that stupid grin of his, and Jongin wished he could reach over and wipe it off his dumb face.

“Jongin was just telling me how he really enjoyed fried chicken,” Kyungsoo smiled, obviously not realizing how later he was going to be dragged through mental hell because of that detail.

“Well that’s the understatement of the century,” Kris smirked, meeting Jongin’s glare across the table as he wiggled his eyebrows teasingly.

Junmyeon laughed and joined in on the fun, "Has he told his least favorite food yet? He is the only person I know who doesn't like it."

“Pizza,” Kyungsoo grinned, looking absolutely delighted when Junmyeon appeared taken aback with the Kyungsoo’s knowledge of the younger.

“It took me months to figure out what he liked and didn't like. You probably know his whole life story by this point,” Junmyeon said, shaking his head as if he felt betrayed.

Kyungsoo’s laughter tinkled around the table, and he quickly shook his head, “I barely know anything about him! I wish I did, but he’s so quiet I don’t know if I ever will.”

“You hear that Jongin? Stop being so quiet!” Junmyeon scolded playfully, making the younger’s face flush with embarrassment while Kyungsoo just grinned cutely at the two of them.

Another voice reached their ears, and they all looked up in surprise, “I