Chapter 31

Kris could only stare awkwardly at the man in front of him. He hadn't come across Kyungsoo the past few weeks since the library incident. This was his chance. And before he could stop himself he grabbed Kyungsoo's wrist, yelling out loud.
"PHONE NUMBER!"

Silence.
"... You said to keep in touch. I need your phone number to do that..." Sheepishly, Kris let go of Kyungsoo's wrist, ducking his head down from the embarrassment. A puzzled Luhan looked at the two of them.

"Kris? You guys know each other? You have other friends?!"  Luhan let go of Sehun to focus all his attention on the exciting new development.

"Kyungsoo and I kinda... met before school started..."

Luhan leaned in, narrowing his eyes.

"When? Where? How? Why?"

"Erh... the end of August. On the plane from Canada to Seoul. We sat next to each other. And why... I may have..."
"Kris is scared of flying so he held my hand most of the flight. Against my will."
Kyungsoo patted Kris on the head.

"Yah! Only during take off!... and a bit after that."

Kris pushed Kyungsoo's hand away.

"And you said it was okay!" Kris crossed his arms, slightly pouting.

Jongin glared at the sulking giant. His hyung and this Kris person seemed a little too close. Jongin did not like that.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at Kris yet he couldn't stop a smile from appearing on his lips.

"You're being a baby."
"And you're being a... a... hey. You keep talking your way out of not giving me your number. Here, at the library and at the airport! I thought we had, maybe, a connection of a sort. No homo. No offence, Luhan."
Luhan just waved his hand dismissively.

"I didn't think we'd meet again."
"Is that why you kissed me?" Kris blurted out before he had the chance to process his reply.

More silence.

"You kissed?" Jongin voiced out what pretty much everyone at the table was thinking. All except Jongdae who took the opportunity to sneak into the kitchen and have Minseok to himself while Luhan was being distracted.

Kyungsoo didn't seem faced with Kris's impromptu confession of Kyungsoo kissing him. In fact he seemed almost pleased.

"Yes. I kissed him. And you're right. I didn't give you my phone number because I wanted to kiss you and I was afraid I might like it."     

The group all made big eyes at Kyungsoo's words. Especially Jongin.

"Kyungsoo hyung..." Jongin fidgeted with his apron, biting his lip. Kyungsoo sent him a smirk before continuing.  He let his hand gently caress his forehead brushing away his bangs like he had seen Luhan do in front of Minseok countless of times. He cocked his hip to the side, rested his weight on one leg, shifting his body from side to side. Kris took in Kyungsoo's change of body language.

"And... Did you like it?"  he asked hesitantly. Everyone else at the table tried to hold back their laughter at Kyungsoo's skit. Well, everyone excluding Jongin who still hadn't caught on to Kyungsoo's joke.

"Did I! Darling. If I were off duty and you were into it, I'd have you right here on this very table, this very instant, before you could ever say 'no homo'." 

That did it. Everyone burst out laughing while a confused Kris and Jongin looked at each other.

"What's going on in here? What's so funny?" A flour covered Minseok and Jongdae came rushing out from the kitchen after having heard the loud laughter.

Luhan stalked up to his man, pushed Jongdae away with a powerful push of his hip and put his arm around the smaller man.

"Kyungsoo. Just came out of the closet."

"What?!" Minseok disbelievingly looked at Kyungsoo who smirked and shook his head ever so slightly.

Luhan whispered into Minseok's ear.

"He's not. But. He did however make out with Kris, the tall piece of eye candy over there. Why? I have no idea but it certainly is funny to watch Kris squirm. Was Kyungsoo always this much fun?"
"I guess..." Minseok's voice trailed off. So Kyungsoo was pretending to be gay? Minseok thought it couldn't hurt to play along.

"Wow Kyungsoo. Who had thought you'd be the first to give in to the gay? I'm so proud of you." He walked up to Kyungsoo, pulled him into a tight hug and painfully slowly let his hand slide down Kyungsoo's back, resting ever so nicely on his buttocks. Minseok whispered into his ear.

"You seriously kissed that guy?"

Kyungsoo was internally squirming. This. Was too awkward! A guy was fumbling his behind. Maybe he had taken the joke too far but Kris's expression had been priceless. Jongin on the other hand seemed very repulsed about the situation. Kyungsoo made a mental note to explain the situation to him after work.

"It was on the list. And please! Get your hands off of me you old ert!" Kyungsoo hissed out his words much to Minseok's  amusement.

"You and that list. If Chanyeol finds out, he'll be so pissed." Minseok let go of Kyungsoo but not before slapping his a few times. Kyungsoo shuddered at the touch. Pretending to be gay was going to be difficult to pull off.

Soon after the food was served and the attention was finally not on Kyungsoo anymore. It wasn't that he was embarrassed about the kiss... okay that was a lie. He didn't want his friends to think he had suddenly switched team because of a break up, so instead he opted to make Kris seem like the fool. He did feel a little sorry about it. In fact he felt so sorry about it that after Kris had finished his salad and water, Kyungsoo brought Kris a little treat.

Hot chocolate with an impressive dollop of whipped crème that hid the handful of marshmallows floating around in the sweet stuff. He brought plate after plate with several delicacies from the glass display.  A sinfully moist blueberry cupcake with vanilla frosting, a pop tart covered in marzipan and chocolate, sweet lemon macaroons, a crunchy Danish with a delicious yellow custard adorning the middle, an éclair so heavenly it'd make your taste buds cry, a banana split, heavy on... everything, and a perfectly cut, piece of strawberry shortcake. Kyungsoo had also forced Minseok into baking chocolate chip cookies which were still steaming hot as Kyungsoo presented a stunned Kris with the sugar . He may have gone a little over board but now that they were probably going to see more to each other, Kyungsoo saw it as his mission to make Kris eat sweets again.

"What is all this? I didn't order that. Did I?" Kris turned his gaze away from what he reckoned was what the interior of Charlie's Chocolate Factory would like, in order to look at the petit man placing the last plate in front of him.

"You didn't. You ordered water. And salad. Seriously Kris, you're in Korea now. Everything here is sweet. Even our garlic bread tastes like sugar for crying out loud. And in exchange for my number you have to at least try each one of these pastries. And hurry with the banana split or the ice will melt."

"Hold up. Are you trying to give me diabetes? There's no way I'm eating this." At that moment Kris's body chose to act on its own as his left hand scooped up the pop tart and it into his open mouth.  At the taste, all air was knocked out of his lungs and a pained sound seeped out from his throat. A trail of drool escaped the corner of his open mouth. And before anyone had the chance to make fun of him, Kris had stuffed his face with whatever his right hand had gotten its hold on.

"This is horrible! Do you know what these kinds of things do to your arteries? And then there's cavities, obesity, wah this is delicious, heart disease, acne, seriously what's in this stuff?" Kris took a long swig of the hot chocolate, finishing the hot drink in one go. When it was empty he the rim of the cup for leftover whipped crème.

Kyungsoo looked with disbelief at the grotesque scene taking place in front of him. He took out his waiter's notepad and scribbled something down, slowly placing it in front of a chocolate covered Kris.

"What's this?"

"My phone number. You've deserved it."

In just under 8 minutes, Kris had managed to gulp down everything Kyungsoo had presented him with. And he was a mess. He had spilled pretty much everywhere. There was vanilla frosting in his hair, his white t-shirt looked like a toddler's bib and his fingers were covered in sticky sugary stuff much to Kris's delight as he thoroughly every one of his fingers, too far away in his own world to notice 8 pairs of eyes staring intently at him.

Deeming his fingers clean Kris his lips before turning to Jongin.

"Excuse me. Do you have a napkin?"

Jongin snorted at the request but handed him a napkin. In fact he threw in 10 towelettes and a small bottle of sterilizer, just to be safe. While Kris dried of his hands Jongin took hold of Kyungsoo's and dragged him into the kitchen.

"Before you say anything, I'm not."

Kyungsoo softly smiled at his younger colleague.

"You're not what?"
Kyungsoo grinned at Jongin's confused expression.

"Into guys. You of all people should know that."

Jongin didn't like to think about that. In reality he hated going out with Sehun and Kyungsoo. In the beginning it had been fun to finally see his hyung outside of work but now Kyungsoo didn't go out with them to have fun with them. He did it so he could 'have fun' with someone else. Someone else usually being a scantily clad, drunk girl with way too much make up on. Jongin had more than once tried to stop Kyungsoo from sleeping with the first random drunk chick that hit on him but to no avail. Kyungsoo would just laugh at him, ruffle his hair and say 'I'll see you tomorrow'. Jongin hated seeing his hyung like that. It was easy to see that behind the smile and the careless laughter, Kyungsoo was hurting and apparently the only thing that could make it go away even for a little while, was a warm body.

"You really sure you're okay hyung?" Jongin chewed on his lip.

Without any hesitation Kyungsoo said he was fine as he poked Jongin's nose.

"I said to stop worrying about me. I've never been better." Kyungsoo shot him another smile before leaving the kitchen.

Jongin stayed where he was, touching the bumpy surface of his nose.