KaiJing
Dog DaysYes, I'm back with another chapter, by popular demand. Here's the continuation. And the ending of the story. Thanks for reading.
Kai was still grinning away, and sometimes giggling to himself, when he entered EXO's waiting room.
"Yah. Why are you grinning like an idiot?" Chanyeol came up to him and asked. Baekhyun stood behind Chanyeol and also scrutinised Kai's face.
Kai's head was still reeling from the idea of Jiyoung and him dating for him to pay full attention. "Wha?" he asked in a daze.
Before he could smack himself out of his dreamland and pull himself together, Baekhyun gasped loudly and shouted, "Sehun-ah! We were right! Kai does like her!"
That certainly jolted him awake. "Wait, what? I didn't —"
"Who? Who? Who?" the others asked excitedly.
"Jiyoung-sunbaenim!" Baekhyun and Sehun shouted in glee.
Kai felt his right eye twitch as he looked in horror at the two members who now had everyone's attention.
"Whoa!" the others screamed hysterically, jumping excitedly and giving him painful congratulatory claps on the back.
Kai sighed heavily and placed Jjanggu on the floor. The rest wouldn't let him live it down even if he did deny it.
"Yeah, I like her. She's nice. She's cute. She sings well. She dances well. So what?" he retorted, trying to act nonchalant and hopefully turn this thing around.
To his irritation, the others reacted like the boys they were. "WHOAAAA!!!"
He closed his eyes in horror. He had thought it was the right move to save himself from further humiliation by acting careless, assuming that they would figure he was just bluffing.
Apparently they did not. It was in fact the biggest mistake he could have made.
Sometimes he couldn't figure out which was a better and safer choice when dealing with s: a denial or an admission.
It annoyingly seemed that neither would work to his advantage now.
Excited Baekhyun began telling the rest what had happened earlier in the hallway — with exaggeration and extra bits of information that Kai was sure didn't take place.
Once Baekhyun was done with his overly zealous story-telling, Kai had gone to sit on one of the chairs at the back of the room away from the door.
The other members spotted him and quickly gathered around him to loudly endlessly.
Kai just huffed grumpily. He was about to tell them to shut up when Jjanggu's bark could be heard.
He looked over and saw his dog pawing and shuffling at the door, now whining as if he wanted to be let out.
"I'll go see what he wants," Sehun volunteered happily.
Kai made a mental note to let Sehun play with his dogs more often, and tiredly faced another onslaught of teasing from his hyungs.
"When did you start having feelings for her?"
"Have you confessed to her?"
"Do you think she would like you back?"
"And what makes you think you have a shot?"
"Yeah, what's so great about you? What if she likes me instead?"
"Does she even know you exist?"
Fuming, Kai shot back. "Yah! I was just joking earlier."
s sneered and looked back at him in disbelief.
"She likes Jjanggu, not me. You know how much she likes dogs. And she's just a sunbae that I respect. You can't blame me for respecting her."
s snickered among themselves. "Yeah, right," they said skeptically.
They went on to loudly yet jokingly debate about how a junior was supposed to act around seniors, when Sehun's voice broke into the chaos.
"Kai ah!" Sehun called loudly, effectively stopping the boys' argument.
The others turned to him, gasped loudly and began snickering excitedly.
However, Kai's view was blocked to see what the fuss was about.
"What is it?" Kai asked grumpily and stood up.
The small sea of EXO boys parted to allow him to see. For the second time that day, he felt his heart stop beating.
Jiyoung was standing outside the door looking in at him worriedly, with Jjanggu at her feet.
Standing frozen to the ground, Kai gulped nervously when he felt himself being pulled and pushed towards the door by s who all whispered – loud enough for her to hear, to his irritation – "Go get her!"
As he neared her, he saw Jiyoung blush under the stare of s. She smiled shyly as she bowed to them in greeting.
"Annyeonghaseyo!" the boys chorused happily.
Walking pass Sehun who was standing by the door, he heard the EXO maknae whisper quizzically, "How did Jjanggu know she was outside the door?"
He and Kai shared a confused glance before he stood nervously right outside of the room in front of her, his heart now pounding.
When he noticed that she was still looking downwards and sometimes stealing glances at the spot behind him, he turned around to look.
s were all gathered behind the doorway, looking at the both of them with deep interest as if waiting to see what would happen next.
Glaring at them, Kai reached over and attempted to close the door on them.
"Oh, come on. You're no fun!" Chen complained, pouting.
"Yeah! Might as well let us see. We'd beat it out of you later anyway," Kris said without a trace of humour in his voice.
"Shut up and go away!" Kai whispered angrily. Slamming the door close, he turned to see Jiyoung giggling.
"They're funny," she said good-naturedly, looking directly at him and successfully making his heart beat faster than normal.
"Funnily annoying," he muttered under his breath.
She burst out laughing. Kai found the sound wonderful and simply stared at her.
Her laughter subsided and she smiled back at him, somehow equally nervous, and dropped her gaze.
Jjanggu whined at her feet, having been leaning against her leg ever since she arrived.
Both of the idols looked down at him, but Kai shamefully found himself checking out her long legs instead.
She cleared suddenly, and he looked up at her, feeling as though he was caught in the act.
"Just now I haven't knocked on the door but Sehun-ssi opened it as if he knew I was coming," she explained, looking confused.
Kai chuckled, thankful that his heart has calmed down a bit to allow him to speak casually enough with her.
"Oh, it wasn't Sehun. Jjanggu was pawing at the door so Sehun opened it for him."
Jiyoung's eyes widened and her face took on a look of surprise. "So it was Jjanggu who knew I was coming?" She was now smiling.
Kai smiled back. "Yeah."
She grinned and looked down at the dog at her feet. "That's a very special dog you have there," she told Kai.
"It's weird because he's never sensed the presence of anyone else before. Maybe you are special," he blurted.
Kai's eyes widened and blinked when he realized what he had just said.
Curses! He has got to think before he speaks, he thought in irritation.
He heard her giggle softly and he glanced at her to find her blushing prettily.
"You just have a way with words, don't you?" she asked teasingly.
He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Oh yeah, I came to give Jjanggu some treats," Jiyoung said, handing him a small bag of dog biscuits. "I have it in my bag just in case I have my dogs with me. I thought maybe Jjanggu would like some."
As if knowing that he was being discussed, Jjanggu barked happily.
Kai gave her a smile, amazed at how nice she was towards someone she hardly knew, and towards a dog she just met.
"Thank you," he said softly, accepting the gift. "That's so kind of you."
She smiled back shyly. "No problem. I just love dogs. And yours is adorable."
He nodded mutely and they stared at each other, not knowing what to say.
Again, he marvelled at her beautiful round eyes, cute nose and pink lips, which she nervously.
His own lips twitched, as if itching to kiss something – hers.
It was almost getting awkward between them when one of the concert assistant directors came running towards the EXO waiting room.
Kai didn't know whether to thank him or to strangle him.
The assistant director gave him and Jiyoung a suspicious look and said to him, "Um, get ready. Your turn is up soon."
Jiyoung bowed to him politely while Kai finally resorted to sending him death glares.
The crew member didn't notice the latter's efforts as he roughly opened the door, promptly banging into the members who were leaning against it.
"Get ready, please, and head backstage now," he said, appearing confused at seeing the boys groaning about getting their heads knocked on the door. Frowning, he then left quickly.
Kai smirked at seeing s holding their heads in pain. Served them right.
"Well, good luck," Kai heard Jiyoung softly say.
He turned to her as she was about to leave after patting Jjanggu on the head.
"Wait!" Kai quickly reached over for her forearm, stopping her in her tracks.
Jiyoung turned to him quizzically, her eyes wide in question.
"Uh, well..." Kai quickly turned around to close the waiting room door before stepping closer to her.
"Yes?" she prompted, glancing at his hand which was slowly moving down her arm to clasp hers.
Stay calm and be brave, Kim Jongin, Kai mentally advised himself before taking a deep breath.
"Er, I am speaking on behalf of Jjanggu here. I know my dog. We have a special bond and all, so I pretty much know what he wants," he began, desperately putting an air of confidence in the way he spoke.
A smile crept onto her face and she giggled. "Okay."
"So what I do know is that... Jjanggu would like to see you again," he continued boldly with a straight face. "After this. After today."
He couldn't believe those words actually came from his mouth. He was never this daring before!
Jiyoung's smile morphed into a huge grin before she broke her gaze to laugh at the situation.
"Your dog is full of surprises, isn't he?" she asked him, her face turning redder than before.
Promptly, Jjanggu gave a delighted bark.
Kai chuckled and shrugged innocently. "See?"
She burst out laughing again at his actions.
Jjanggu chose that moment to lift himself up and placed his two front paws on her thighs, looking up at her with pitiful eyes and whining softly.
Jiyoung sighed and smiled down at him, using her free hand to rub its head. "Uwaa, this dog is really something."
Jjanggu whined again, louder this time as if to prove a point.
Kai laughed at that and looked back at the girl in front of him, his heart thumping loudly against his chest.
"So how can you say no to that face?" he asked softly, praying hard that she would give in.
She smiled down at Jjanggu for a second before looking shyly back at Kai and squeezed his hand.
"You're right. I can't say no," he heard her say.
His grin mirrored hers as they continued to stare at each other, both blushing hard.
The EXO members chose that moment to burst open the door and step out to head to the back stage for their performance.
To Kai's chagrin, they whooped loudly at the sight of him and Jiyoung, and more specifically their joined hands.
Kai quickly let go of her hand in embarrassment while Jiyoung busied herself by playing with Jjanggu.
He looked away and braced himself as s began their teasing.
"Uwaa, he worked fast!"
"Even the dorky Kim Jongin is able to get a girlfriend? What is happening with the world?"
"I can't believe I'm actually thinking of asking Kai for dating advice."
"Jongin-ah, don't forget to kiss her goodbye before you leave!"
"Oooh! Lucky boy. He finally gets a chance to be with the girl of his dreams!"
Both Kai and Jiyoung's heads whipped to the direction of the voice.
While Jiyoung looked amused, Kai was livid. "Yah, hyung!"
The other boys laughed loudly before walking away. Suho kindly reminded him to hurry up and join them.
"Bye, Jiyoung-ssi!" Kai heard Chanyeol call out with a teasing tone.
Kai looked on at them in disbelief, his embarrassment still in its peak. He felt a hand on shoulder and he turned to see Jiyoung smiling at him prettily.
"Don't mind them, they're just playing with you," she said good-naturedly, effectively bringing down his anger.
He felt himself smile back. "Yeah, I know. It's just... embarrassing, you know."
Jiyoung blushed and giggled. "I know. Erm, I wonder if what they said is true."
He knew exactly which statement she meant. Too embarrassed to say anything, he just laughed it off nervously. He was sure that his reddening face was enough to give her an answer.
She grinned and asked him to bring to her his phone. He did so mutely and stared as she tapped in something on the device.
Handing it over back to him, she smiled again.
"Call me whenever Jjanggu wants to meet up."
Kai stared at her, a grin forming on his face. "Okay," he said breathlessly.
Giving him one last wave and Jjanggu a big kiss, she began walking back to her own waiting room.
Kai continued to stare after her and his heart skipped a beat when halfway she turned to see him still standing there like a statue.
She laughed and called out, " Bye, Jongin-ssi!"
Kai lifted up a hand and robotically waved. "She knows my name," he whispered in bliss.
When she finally disappeared from his sight, then only his heart start to beat like normal.
He looked down at Jjanggu, who looked back expectantly at him, as if asking when he was going to make the call.
Kai grinned and jumped ecstatically. "Yes!" he exclaimed, punching his fist through the air.
Jjanggu barked and jumped happily, mirroring his master's joy.
Kai squatted down and hugged the dog. "We did it, Jjanggu-ya! We did it!"
He was too into his feelings that he didn't notice s approaching him.
"Kai-ah, so happy, I see. Did you kiss her?" Chanyeol asked gleefully.
Baekhyun snickered. "Yeah, are you a couple now?"
He turned to them and stood, before leaving Jjanggu in the waiting room and closing the door behind him.
His grin never went away. When he noticed Chanyeol and Baekhyun's expectant looks, he only giggled happily in their faces and skipped away towards the back stage.
Nothing could bring his mood down now.
Fin
Author's note: Yeah, that's it. I'd thought of a scene of how the dog play date would go, but I'm too lazy to write it. :P Still, thanks for reading.
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