He didn't wake up till afternoon the next day, and he found himself in Kris's arms, his shorts successfully still on. Maybe the cash was even still in his back pocket. He doubted any of those pot heads had robbed him.

"Good morning," Kris mumbled and smiled.

"Hi," suddenly he was shy ... he wasn't sure how he'd lost his clothes, "What time is it?"

"I think it's two ... or three," the tallest reached his long arm over Soo and grabbed his phone, "Yup, it's three."

"Oh my god," Kyungsoo rolled out of bed and started searching the floor for his shirt, "he must be worried sick about me."

"Baekhyun?"

"No?"

Kris pondered for a moment, "Oh ... you mean the Chattel ... Ahh, Kyungsoo, he'll be fine, stay with me a little longer," the tallest patted the spot in bed next to himself, "he can have you later, but stay here with me now."

So apparently Kris suspected things were happening between them as well. Put him on the list with everyone else they had ever interacted with apparently.

"Kris-ssi," he remembered that he got his way more last night when he spoke like this, "I promised you a proper date, but I won't be able to go if my parents find out that I stayed over at a boy's house a full day ... especially a boy I barely know."

Okay, so maybe his parents weren't going to ever find out about this ... much less care if they did, but it was a solid bailing excuse. The tallest seemed to think about it for a second and he shook his head in agreement and stood up from the bed.

Oh yeah, there was also that lovely detail; Kris still didn't have clothes on.

Not that he minded the sight ... he'd never admit it, but he liked seeing Kris like this. He was sculpted so well. He felt bad though, that Kai was naturally so much better.

"There is no use to be on your knees like that unless your giving head," well that was certainly a way to put it, "your shirt ripped during our little party last night ... I'll buy you a new one, but for now, you're just going have to wear an old one of mine."

There goes the whole 'making it seem like nothing happened' defense because if he came home to Kai in another guy's shirt, he knew what the younger might infer. But if he came home in a torn shirt, there would be more implied. Thank God the shorts were intact and were clean of stains because if they weren't, he'd have no proof that he'd protected his 'flower'.

He tried to giggle at that title, but he found the stress weighing on him too much and suddenly his giggling was burbling into quiet sobs. If weed had proven anything, it proved that it made Soo very emotional about everything.

"Don't cry," Kris squatted next to him, trying his hand at being a comforter, "why don't you just take one of my shirts and then Tao will call your friend to come pick you up."

That would certainly be nice because a car ride right now with someone so unfamiliar sounded really nauseous. But the only person he wanted to have pick him up was Kai; he damned himself for not teaching the younger how to drive yet.

Another failure he could add to his belt.

"I think I'd prefer to call them, but that sounds nice to have them pick me up."

"Do what you have to," he handed him the t-shirt.

He stood up and slipped the shirt on which ended up being so big on him that it reached the tips of the shorts. He looked like a mess, he knew this, and his palette still tasted of smoke and cannabis, but the shame wasn't stopping his need to see Kai.

Lately, the younger had been the only thing to give him calm and being apart while he was sober was like having a hot poker driven into his abdomen.  

He dialed Baekhyun's cell number and began cringing because of the trouble he knew he was in.

"Soo?"

His heart stopped when he heard the younger pick up the call, "Kai?"

"Oh my God," he could hear the other adjust, "I - I was so worried about you, I thought you were ... I ... I've worried about you all night, I'm so sorry."

He was worried the younger was going to begin crying and he couldn't handle that, not when he was the guilty one, "Hey, what are you sorry for?"

"For abandoning you ... I should have stayed and searched the party over to find you, but Baek and Yeol told me you'd be okay and then Chanyeol promised to go pick you up later, but when he got there he couldn't find you again."

"You didn't abandon me Kai," it was proving difficult to keep his voice steady because of how bad he felt, "we got split apart ... I don't want you going around blaming yourself when you didn't do anything wrong ... I know you wanted to leave and honestly maybe it was better you were at home."

"Babe, where are you now?"

More waves of shame, "I'm still at Kris's house."

"Give us ten minutes, we'll be right there," Kai hung up the call in a hurry and Soo tried to let his emotions have a second.

He knew he should have been more happy about how easily he got off, but his heart felt so heavy because this was his plan. Of course in a perfect world, his plan would have gone down with Kai there as well and maybe he would have fallen asleep with the younger and not Kris, but that wasn't how things went

And worse, he hadn't really forgotten anything. , he remembered more to regret as time went by than he did before ...

.... Wai