“I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.”

-Kay Redfield Jamison

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If someone were to tell Kai “curiosity killed the cat”, he would respond saying “They have nine lives for a reason”. Even though most people don’t notice it, Kai is always natural curious. He watches people with a stoic face, reading them, trying to figure out their motives in what makes them do the things the did.

But the thing that has been bothering Kai for days, two weeks to be exact, was who this “Him” person was.

“Kris mentioned that this guy was like a scar toward Kyungsoo.” Kai placed his elbow on the island counter in his kitchen as he slouched and rested his chin on his palm. “Who could it be? Maybe Kris was just ranting about stuff... Should I ask Kyungsoo? What if he starts to freak out and-”

“Jongin? Are you okay?”

Kai snapped out of his internal thoughts to see Kyungsoo staring at him in concern. Both Kai and Kyungsoo were at Kai’s house doing their usual hang out time. Kyungsoo wanted to cook something for Kai more like he wanted to use his kitchen because it was fancier than his and the younger started to stare off in space in his direction.

“Huh?” Kai blinked. “Oh, I’m fine. I’m just thinking.” He gave a small grin to the shorter boy.

“I don’t think thinking is your thing, I could see the gears turning in your head.” Kyungsoo laughed when Kai glared at him. “I’m just kidding, but what are you thinking so hard about?”

“I-I uh.. I,” Kai looked around. “I was just wondering what you were cooking because it smells delicious.”

Well there goes your opportunity to ask him.

“You can smell it?” Kyungsoo sniffed the air which Kai found cute. “Maybe it’s done earlier than I thought...”

Kyungsoo turned around to grab an oven mitt and pull the oven open. “No it’s still needs time. Weird.”

Kyungsoo walked over to the cutting board and placed what Kai believed was chicken on the board and began to cut it.

“So what are you cooking?” Kai asked actually curious this time.

The other boy called him and hour ago and announced not ask that he was going to use Kai’s kitchen to cook something. Thirty minutes ago the boy finally arrived carrying bags full of whatever he planned on cooking. Kai didn’t mind though, he would easily comply to Kyungsoo’s request, that’s how fond he grew of the other boy. Sehun and Chanyeol comment to him how Kyungsoo has Kai on such a leash, but Kai doesn’t see it that way at all.

“I flipped on the T.v. and this cooking program popped up and they were making all these foods and hold on,” Kyungsoo said as he began to salt and pepper the meat in a bowl. He reached over to his ingredients and grabbed two eggs, cracking it over the meat.

“What is that?” Kai pointed to the powder that Kyungsoo was coating the meat in.

“Cornstarch.” Kyungsoo answered, eyes focused on coating the meat well. “And to answer your question I’m making two things actually. I made some brownies first-”

“BROWNIES! HELL YEAH!”

“Jongin calm down. And right now I’m making sweet and sour chicken that I saw on the show. So I- KIM JONGIN GET OUT OF THAT CHOCOLATE BATTER!”

Kyungsoo quickly rinsed off and wiped his hands as he marched over to where the tan boy was eating the remaining chocolate batter out of the bowl he saw on the other end of the counter.

“NEVER!” Kai shouted as he took the bowl in his hands and ran away from Kyungsoo.

“It’s not healthy! You can’t eat raw eggs!” Kyungsoo protested.

“They didn’t tell me that my whole childhood so why should I stop now?!”

“Ugh! Fine! Go eat it, I have to cook this meat.” A ding rang through the room. Kyungsoo looked over at his phone. “Oh, the brownies are done.”

“BROWNIES!”

“No Jongin!” Kyungsoo said in a stern tone, hands on his hips as he stared sharply at the boy.

“Brownies...” Kai whimpered as he took the bowl of batter and went back over to the kitchen island.

Kyungsoo shook his head, hiding the smile that formed on his face. He grabbed the oven mitts and took the brownies out, the smell of chocolate filled the room. Kai felt his mouth water from the smell.

“Can’t we eat those now?” Kai asked with puppy eyes.

“Ew, stop that. And no, not until you eat real food first.” Kyungsoo placed the pan of dessert on the counter and went back to the stove to start cooking the meat in the oil.

“How long is it going to take you to make that?”

“Um... an hour or s I believe they said. I have to turn it at certain times and-”

“Ugh,” Kai groaned. “That’s going to take forever.”

“What are you, five?”

“I’m hungry Hyung!” Kai whined. He smiled in triumph when he saw the red creep up on Kyungsoo’s face. Kai found out that Kyungsoo always gave in more when he called him “Hyung”.

“I-I guess you can have a piece until the chicken is ready... But just one!” Kyungsoo quickly turned around to cut a piece out (