Ch 11 ||

“Sehunnie! Let’s go play!”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Fine, is the name ‘Prince Oh Sehun’ better?” Jongin made a face at his best friend before nagging him again. He repeated his name over and over again, but it only made his hyungs anxious. “Jongin, would you please stop saying his name like that?” Joonmyun sighed before focusing his attention to the newspaper again. “Why don’t you go and find your little neighbor. I’m sure he’ll want to play with you.” Sehun snickered, though his eyes were still on his phone.

“You don’t hang out with him either. Are you sure he’s your neighbor? Or Chanyeol’s?” the eldest hyung called from the sofa while pointing out the window, showing Chanyeol and Kyungsoo outside on the beach. Jongin and Baekhyun whipped their heads towards that direction and frowned, ‘Why are they alone?’ Baekhyun thought.

“Yes I do! I-It’s just that you don’t see it.” Jongin defended himself, but his hyungs only laughed. “Is your way of ‘hanging-out’ considered as staring at him? Because that’s what you’re doing right now.” Jongdae patted himself on the back and grinned. The other quickly averted his eyes towards the floor. He wasn’t even aware he was watching over Kyungsoo’s movements.

“Actually, you stare at him all the time. What, you don’t stare at him enough at home?” Joonmyun high-fived Jongdae before flashed him a teasing smile. “I-I don’t stare at him!” Jongin exclaimed and stomped his foot angrily. “You’re just trying to look cute now.” Sehun smirked. Before Jongin could make any other comebacks, two loud friends stepped through the door.

“Did you really do that?” Kyungsoo asked before doubling up in laughter. His smile was the most beautiful thing Jongin has ever seen.

“You won’t believe what I did when I was younger. Obviously that was after I met Bae-”

Chanyeol stopped halfway before turning his head towards the silent bunch around the couch. “Oh, hey guys!” he beamed. Most greeted back with a slight smile before talking among themselves again, but a certain Byun Baekhyun refused to make eye-contact. “Where have you been Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asked, although he knew the answer already. “I didn’t tell you? I was outside working on our song together! I ended up telling Soo all about our pranks and adventure last year.” He replied with a big smile on his face, suddenly reminiscing about the old times. “R-Really?” Baekhyun wondered, smilinglike a fool, “Was it really that fun?”

“Of course! I was with you.” He replied, unaware that the last part had made the other’s heart beat rather quickly. “Yep, because we’re best friends.” Baekhyun stated, to no one in particular. He wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince the others that, or himself. But Chanyeol frowned at that, his smile slipping away from his face, “Yea, best friends.”

Kyungsoo entered the kitchen without a word and began to pour milk into his glass. “Were you singing with Chanyeol hyung just now?” someone asked behind him. He twirled around and locked eye with the male, “Y-Yea.”

“Is it going well?” Jongin asked while he leaned against the island.

“I guess…?”

“You know, I’m still waiting to hear you sing right?” Jongin pestered, a smirk slowly forming when he realized he had successfully made the other flustered. “Y-You’ll hear me on stage soon.” He whispered and began gulping down the milk.

“Can’t I hear you now? I’ll hear you sooner or later.”

That statement made the other choke on his drink, “N-No!”

“Fine, Fine.” He snickered, and held up his arms in surrender, backing away with a smile. “Stop making fun of me.” Kyungsoo pouted and reached out to hit the younger lightly on the chest. Jongin swore his heart skipped a beat the moment the elder had made contact with his skin. It was 1 second freeze thing, something Jongin never experienced till that day. “W-Whatever, I got to go practice anyways.” Jongin practically flew out of the room and down the stairs.

Downstairs Luhan was staring at himself through the mirror. He glanced around the dance room and sighed. He turned his phone on and tapped onto the video of Jongin dancing. He wasn’t being creepy or anything, he simply wanted to learn how to dance. After watching his fellow Chinese friend and the two best friends, he was more than determined to start dancing. He pressed pause when a fragment was played, he scrunched his nose together and began to follow the footsteps according to the video. He scratched his head and repeated the actions.

Watch. Pause. Copy.

When he had gotten around thirty seconds of it down, his breathing was beginning to get uneven. He placed his phone down onto the floor and started to dance, from the start to the place where he had left off. Suddenly applause was heard in the corner. The elder turned around and screamed, placing his hand over his pounding heart.

“Good job.” Sehun commented before stepping out of the shadows.

“H-How long have you been there?” the elder asked and panted a little, his eyes still a little panicky, darting from places to places. Something that Sehun thought was interesting and cute.

“Long enough to see that.” Came his slick answer as he pointed at the spot the other had stood at previously. When he turned to look at Luhan again, the other was already scrambling to get his belongings.

“I-I’ll leave now, you could use the room.” He said as he headed towards the door.

“Oh, I don’t need the practice room. You could use it.” Sehun replied as he motioned the other to come back in. After a moment of thought, Luhan took hesitant foot-steps towards the center again. He stared at the reflection for a minute before speaking, “Y-You’re still in here.”

Sehun looked up and raised his eyebrows, “I thought I could watch you, give you a tip or two.”

“Me? You’re teaching me how to d-dance?”

“I never said anything about teaching you, but if that’s what you want.” He smiled to himself and approached the elder.

“What I ne-”

“So, judging from what I’ve seen previously. You were trying to dance to ‘Christmas Day’ by EXO? Kai’s solo part, right?”

Luhan gaped at the younger but he nodded none the less. “Well, first of all. Your hand’s has to go like this.” Sehun instructed, and then showed what he was explaining. When he was finished he stared at the boy through the mirror.

“Your turn.” He gestured the other forward. The elder lifted his arms and flicked his wrists down, coping what Sehun had done. “It’s still not that good, but better than before. Your turn at the beginning was off balance, and it looked like you were trying to dance like a ballerina. Do it properly like this.” Although the way Sehun described his dancing was a little harsh and straight forward, Luhan took his advice and tried his best. Ten minutes passed quickly and Luhan was sweating already, who knew dancing would be so tiring?

“Tch, you have really low stamina.” Sehun said as he eyed the other, up and down.

“Well I’m sorry,” pant, “I, never danced, before in, my life.”

“No wonder why your wrist flick is still sloppy. You have to put more force on it.” Sehun ordered, demonstrating again.

Luhan attempted, and he smiled when he realized he had done it the exact same way as Sehun. But he frowned at the insult.

“Fail. Do it again.”

Luhan attempts.

“Again.”

He was tired of repeating the action over and over again, and he was also starting to get impatient. “I’m not going to do it again. Can we just move on?” he pleaded, half exhausted. “Not until you get it. Now do it again.”

Luhan didn’t know why he would listen to him, it wasn’t mandatory, he had a choice. He huffed and began again, only getting cut off the moment he had lifted his arms. “Even the way your arms are, it’s not right.” Sehun was beyond irritated when he witnessed all the failed attempts. He finally took matters into his own hands and stood behind the other, chest touching back. He took a grip of Luhan’s wrist and lifted them up until they reached their shoulder height.

“Now you do this.” Sehun spoke, his breathing hitting the back of Luhan’sear, sending shivers through his body. After a simple flick of the wrist, Luhan is now in the perfect position.

“Now this.” Sehun whispered, as if he was afraid that he would break the beautiful silence in the room. He laced his fingers through the other’s and helped him put them in position. They stayed like that for a moment or two, long enough that Luhan had began to lean back into Sehun’s chest, smelling the lavender scent surrounding both of them. Suddenly the door flew open and stood Jongin at the door.

Both of their bodies jerked away from each other, and that’s when Luhan realized what they had been doing previously. “H-Hey Jongin.” Sehun stuttered, stealing nervous glances at the elder. “What were you doing?” Jongin asked, trying to hide his upset tone.

“N-Nothing!” Luhan blurted out with big wide eyes, as if he was a little boy caught taking the cookies in the cookie jar. Jongin sent a frown to the both of them before nodding, “Then I’ll practice.” He said before pushing past both of them. “Y-Yea, I’ll be going now.” Luhan ran towards the door with red cheeks. When Sehun turned around with his famous poker-face, he found Jongin already dancing, except this time he was dancing with angry motions and a frown.

“Joonmyun, Tao and I are going outside.” Kris called over his shoulders, “Yea, Yea. Go ahead.” The other hollered back. After they closed the door behind them, their fingers immediately found each other. They were walking down the sidewalk with interlaced fingers; Tao was trying his best not to frown over the looks people were giving them.

“Don’t worry.” Kris whispered, still looking a head while rubbing his thumb over the other’s hand. They finally found a cafe and decided to sit in there for a bit before going out again.

“What are you staring at?” Tao asked as he lifted his head from his latte.

“You.”

He giggled at the answer, “Why are you suddenly like this?”

“Like what? Romantic?” he smiled.

“You call this romantic? How’s it romantic when people are always giving you looks.” The other joked, but when he met the eyes of his lover his smile faded. “So that’s how you feel every time we go out?” the other questioned with furrowed eyebrows. “No! I was just joking.” With just a simple sentence, Tao didn’t know that it could turn the atmosphere around.

“Zitao, tell me honestly. Do you feel uncomfortable whenever we go out together?” Kris pressed, hopefully getting a truthful answer this time. The expression the older had on was unreadable for the younger, which made him even more worried.

“Are you okay?” Tao asked, reaching over the table to place his palm on top of his forehead. Kris just simply pushed the other’s hand away, “Answer my question Tao, stop stalling.”

With a sigh, the younger bowed his head in embarrassment and whispered the answer in shame, “Sometimes.” He looked up, yet to be met with another unreadable expression.

“W-What do you see, usually.”

Tao had no idea why his boyfriend had suddenly had such a big interest in public affection, but he continued none the less. “Whenever we hold hands on the streets people would stop and stare, some people would even whispered among themselves.” He paused for some kind of reaction, but after seeing none he continued. “I remember there was once we were in a restaurant eating dinner, we were looking at the menu when suddenly you called me over. So I did,” he smiled at the memory, “I thought you were going to tell me something, instead you kissed me.” He looked up and bit his lip. “Do you remember that day?” when the other nodded he proceeded with his story.

“While I was blushing like a high-school girl, I felt stares. I turned around and a woman was staring at me with a frown. Of course I just shrugged it off, and we finished dinner. After you paid you went to the washroom so I waited outside. I felt a tap on the shoulder, and apparently it was the same lady that was staring at me earlier.” He chuckled and shook his head, “You know what she said? ‘You’re a good kid, you shouldn’t date someone like that, not a guy at least.’”

By now, his smile had vanished and his lips were pressed into a thin line. “Do you really not notice any of this?” he asked this time.

“N-No.” the other managed to choke out, guilt slowly building inside. But he was surprised when the other laughed, “Of course you wouldn’t.” Kris had no idea how this date had managed to end like this, but he was glad it had, at least he finally had a hint of what his friends were talking about, the stares, the whispers.

“Where did Kris and Tao go! Why aren’t they home yet?” Joonmyun panicked as the others continued to eat. “Hyung, didn’t they say that they were going to go out? They’re probably going to eat dinner too.” Kyungsoo suggested as he also sat down to eat after taking off his apron. Yixing glanced up from his plate of spaghetti and noticed how the elder still had a troubled expression, after thinking he decided to help ease his anxiety. “I could call them if you want.” Everyone turned their heads towards his direction and merely nodded. “Please, Joonmyun hyung’s always worried.” Baekhyun whispered beside him, making him laugh.

“Thanks Yixing, I would appreciate it.” Joonmyun said, finally digging into his own serving.

Ring ding dong Ring ding dong Ring dididing dididingdingding

Yixing rolled his eyes at his friend’s ringtone. After the third ring the line was finally picked up.

“Yah, Zitao. Where are you?” He asked in Chinese.

“I’m out with Yifan, why?”

“Well hurry and come back, Joonmyun probably thinks you’re lost or something.”

“Fine, Fine. We’re coming anyways, tell your precious Joonnie to wait a little.” Tao snickered and hung up, leaving Yixing gaping.

‘Seriously? My precious Joonnie? If anything it’s, my precious Myunnie.’

“We’re home!” Tao exclaimed as he burst through the front door, with Kris following closely behind. He practically jumped when Joonmyun popped out of nowhere had run to hug them, “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Why were you out so long?” he asked rapidly. He turned to Kris with a frown, “Next time I’m not going to let you out if you’re going to be like this.”

Ignoring the shorter’s complain, Kris patted his brown hair and passed him, “Is that spaghetti I smell?”

Some Kaisoo far you all!

I swear, the way that Jongin stares at Kyungsoo.

If it's not love, I don't know what it is.