It’s nearly five o’clock when the dancers are released from their afternoon rehearsals. Baekhyun doesn’t have any plans of leaving anytime soon though. He has an extra ensemble rehearsal especially for Yixing, but he has at least half an hour until it starts. Yixing has been doing well since he was suddenly called. He melds into the company like the professional he is, and even Baekhyun would admit to how surprised he was that the chatty and rather vacant man he’d met several times before could literally flip a switch and turn into a beast on the dance floor. What he won’t admit is that it makes him feel just a little bit self conscious. Yixing is no Suho, and while he doesn’t want to put Suho down, their level is just nowhere near the same. Baekhyun works hard, and he’s used to seeing good results from his efforts, but Yixing gets everything so easily and so quickly that it almost makes him sick. Good thing Baekhyun likes the man though, or he’d have quite a jealousy problem. Not that he’ll say such things aloud of course.

He checks his phone again for any messages that might’ve come in the past few hours. There is nothing new from Kai, and that makes him sadder than he should be. Was he busy? In school? Doesn’t he even have a few seconds to send him a short text about nothing important? He doesn’t need an essay about Kai’s undying love for him; even a smiley would work.

There is a smiley text message, but it’s from his sister. Baekhyun feels dumb for not realizing this earlier but the reason she invited herself to visit this weekend isn’t just because she loves her brother; it’s because this Saturday the company is hosting a dance workshop for pre-professional dancers, and Minzy signed herself up months ago. So now, not only does he have to share his couch over the weekend, he’s got to dance with her as well. This reminds him though of a random thought he had several days ago.

Baekhyun stops for a moment at the water fountain, dodges the stream of dancers exiting behind him, and treks up the stairs, taking a couple steps at a time. His energy is spent, but the faster he goes, the quicker he’ll reach the third floor landing and then he can relax. He’s stopped halfway though by the sounds of an argument above him.

It’s Suho of course, shouting obstinate remarks to the still remarkably calm Yixing, but what’s actually surprising is that Yixing is carrying Suho princess style down the stairs. The ‘princess’ is not cooperating either.

“Damn you. Put me down! I told you I don’t need you to carry me!”

“I’ll put you down at the bottom of the stairs—oh, hi, Baekhyun.”

Yixing smiles pleasantly while Suho's face turns a shade of maroon. He kicks his feet a few times but Yixing doesn’t let him go.

Baekhyun freezes with his feet on two different steps and chuckles evilly. Suho’s words from a few nights ago asking ‘not to be babied’ come to mind, but he guesses Suho had less luck getting Yixing to agree with the concept too.

“Cute,” he says. Baekhyun knows he totally deserves the glare Suho gives him, and the eye roll.

“Baekhyun, tell him to put me down, please.” The ‘please’ comes out more like a growl.

“Yixing, you’ve got about 40 more steps total. Do put him down gently at the bottom. We gotta keep that foot from being overworked.” He laughs. “Damn, Suho. How did you even get up this far, and why?”

“I can walk perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

“With crutches,” Yixing adds. “This is faster though.”

He starts back down the stairs, juggling Suho like he weighs nothing.

“Where are your crutches then?” Baekhyun asks.

Suho sighs. “Still at the top of the stairs!”

“I told you, I’ll run back and fetch them,” Yixing explains patiently.

“I’ll get them,” Baekhyun offers instead. He skips up another half flight, and with the crutches under his arms, quickly hops back down to trail along behind Yixing and the ever complaining Suho. With his free hand he pulls out his phone, planning to capture this Kodak moment at the first and best opportunity. They run into others on the second floor along with a few cat calls, and Suho’s curses only grow in volume.

“Will you at least leave me alone when we get down?” he begs.

“After I get you a taxi.”

Suho whines.

“Hey, you might as well go take him all the way home,” Baekhyun suggests, smirking behind them.

Suho swivels his head over Yixing’s shoulder and practically glowers. “Shut up and don’t give him any ideas.”

“Why? What’s wrong with your prince in shining armor?”

Yixing must like this kind of sport, because he never stops grinning and laughing, even if Suho does beat him on the neck with his free hand. A few more seconds and they reach the landing but he doesn’t stop even there, content to carry his charge all the way out the front door and to the curb. Suho stands furiously on his own two feet, or rather, his one and a half feet. Baekhyun passes him the crutches which Suho snatches angrily from his hands, fitting them under his armpits in an aggressive display of manly independence. Baekhyun bites back a laugh, and turns to leave.

“Twenty minutes, Yixing! Don’t get too side-tracked!” he shouts at the back of the man already jogging to the corner to hail a cab.  Yixing, still running, raises one hand to acknowledge he heard.

Baekhyun takes the stairs once again, back on task and determined to speak to his boyfriend’s mother about a rather delicate matter.

Later that evening, long before it’s even time to sleep, Kai burrows under the blankets of his own bed. It’s not to say that he missed this the night before, because he barely considers this dingy little room he’s been staying in for just over a month ‘home’. It’s more that after the long day he’s tired, and he’s a little too exhausted to deal with the people in his room and this is his way of wishing they’ll go away.

It’s not likely though because Kyungsoo has to live here too. He’s laying on his bed surrounded by several books filled with vocal scores and one massive textbook on music and civilization. What’s actually annoying though is that he made himself tea, and for such a mundane sound, the slurps Kyungsoo makes with each drink are akin to nails on a chalkboard in his ears. It’s unavoidable, but this is life. Kai briefly wonders if Baekhyun slurps his drinks ever, or if he’s just too smitten to notice.

If it was just Kyungsoo, Kai might be tempted to put in the earplugs that are sometimes essential for sleeping in a city like this. Except that won't do anything about Kai’s other problem, which is Sehun’s presence in the apartment too. He feels like he’s seen a little too much of his friend in the last twenty four hours. Shouldn’t there be a rule that says best friends need time apart? At least not two nights in a row?

Kai groans, fully intent to begin the task of ignoring.

“It’s 8 o’clock, Kai. Wake up and entertain me!” Sehun nudges him hard.

“Entertain yourself, Sehun,” Kai says lazily from under the covers. “Why are you even over here anyways? Anyone would think you actually live in this part of town.”

“It’s too boring without you,” he whines playfully. “After the week’s excitement I just can’t stand being by myself anymore.” Sehun laughs and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. As a longtime third wheel to the antics of these two, Kyungsoo’s seen more than his share of sickening playacting. 

“Don’t you have any other friends?” Kyungsoo asks skeptically.

Sehun pretends to think. “Well, let’s see… there’s…. nope. Nobody. Just you two. Well, not counting Luhan and Minseok, but after last night’s scene I don’t dare to intrude again.”

Kai drags the blankets down from his face, unable to stop himself from adding, “Well at least there’s no one else whose secrets you can spill in the nicest. way. ever.” 

“Hey, that needed to be said!”

“Time and a place, Sehun.”

“And who’s to say that wasn’t the best time and the best place to do it?”

Kyungsoo looks confused. His textbooks lay open over his lap, but they are otherwise neglected. “Those two guys at dinner the other night? What happened?

Sehun turns to explain. “Well as if it wasn’t obvious to everyone, but they are seriously in love with each other and apparently haven't figured it out themselves. They had a bit of a fight—“

“That’s an understatement,” Kai adds.

“—and well, it would just be better for everyone all around if they’d hurry up and kiss already, because they’re obviously made for each other, but no, they will be stubborn.”

“So you had to yell that in poor Luhan’s face.”

Sehun has the heart to look at least halfway remorseful. He drops his voice a little and whispers out a sad, “But he’s just so stupid.”

Kyungsoo hums.

“And according to Baekhyun today, they’re still being weird around each other,” says Kai.

“Still?” Sehun sighs, not really all that surprised. “Man, at this rate they’ll never work it out. Did Baekhyun say if they even talked to each other? Like, really talked? No, you know what? Stupid question. Of course they wouldn’t have.”

“Maybe they’re just not meant to work out?” Kyungsoo suggests. “You know, not everything has to be all 'meant to be' and crap.”

“Not them/Not them,” Sehun and Kai say in uniform.

Kyungsoo smirks. “You two are such romantics. Disgusting.” He picks up his textbook and attempts to find the paragraph where he left off.

Kai smiles, not bothering to deny the accusation, even if he wouldn’t necessarily introduce himself that way aloud. ‘Hi I’m Kai. I’ve been in love with Baekhyun for years and even before he knew who I was. P.S. Total romantic, am I.’ He cringes at the cheesy thought, privately reveling though in his possibly exaggerated romantic history. 

Sehun, however, denies it emphatically, and again Kai thinks there’s no surprise there, even if it’s also probably untrue. His friend may be in between girlfriends at the moment, but there’s no denying he could be cheesy as hell when he wants to be, and Kai had only the opportunity to witness this several years ago when they were all still in high school together.

“So where’s Baekhyun tonight?” Sehun asks.

Kai retrieves his phone from where he tossed it and unlocks it to reread some of his earlier messages. 

“Rehearsing late with Yixing and some others, apparently. Oh, and it seems your friend is totally gay and Suho’s totally falling for it, Baekhyun said.”

“What?”

Kai repeats it like to a child with limited vocabulary. “Yixing. Gay. Suho. Also maybe gay.”

“What nonsense is Baekhyun making up now?” Sehun scoffs.

“You don’t have to believe just me or Baekhyun. Here’s the picture evidence!” He shows him the picture Baekhyun managed to capture: goofy smiling Yixing carrying his squirming charge down the stairs.

Sehun’s jaw drops. “What… is going on… Suho actually allowed this??”

“That’s what I said.”

“No way.”

“Also what I said.” Kai stares at the picture again and dissolves into a fit a laughter at the pair, while Sehun continues to look bemused. They share the picture with Kyungsoo just for fun, and then wince when the boy loudly slaps his textbook closed.

“Guess I’m not studying tonight,” he complains.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” Sehun asks him. He’d quickly succumbed to Kai’s giggles, and looks annoyed that Kyungsoo won’t share in the merriment as well.

“Too much gay! I’m surrounded.”

“Hey!” Sehun protests.

“Well, look at yourself. You’re just as bad as Kai. What’s with all this skinship, anyway? You seem to get off on it.”

“Oh no, this isn’t even anything,” Sehun tries to explain. “You want skinship, you should hang around Kai and Baekhyun more often!”

“Hey!” Kai protests now.

“Yeah, well you guys are disgusting! Kyungsoo, you should see how bad they are! Whatever happened to our poor innocent Kai!”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “I’ve seen them, thank you very much. And when was Kai ever innocent? When were either of you innocent, huh? Geez, ever since middle school even you’ve had people falling at your feet.” He leans back on his bed pillows acting the air of unconcern, as if he were above such things, but Sehun smiles evilly in return.

“Yeah maybe, but you’re one to talk. I remember high school well. What was that group you used to sing with in choir? BIXX or something? You want to talk about touchy-feely? Well, hah!” 

Kyungsoo actually blushes. “It was VIXX,” he clarifies. “And when did you even come to my choir concerts?”

“I went to some!”

“Why, because your mommy told you to come?”

“N-no… Hey, Kai and I both got extra credit in music class for writing those concert reviews!”

“You did not write concert reviews- wait, you seriously went to those??” Kyungsoo looks like he'd never in a million years have known they actually went to his year-end choir events. He looks mortified now.

“Yeah, we went, and I wrote a whole essay on the skinship of VIXX,” Kai cackles. “Featuring Kyungsoo of the Soo-harem!” 

“‘Kyungsoo—voice of an angel, smooth as chocolate and as pokeable as a marshmallow,’” Sehun recites, eyes closed and voice melodious as if recounting fond memories of a concert review from heaven.

Kyungsoo actually leaps off the bed. “Sehun, do you want to die?? You better shut up!” 

“Stick him on a graham cracker and you’d be good to go!” Kai interjects, fully expecting the lunge and the fortunately missed punch that Kyungsoo throws his way. The poor boy actually trips over Sehun’s feet, to which Sehun claims wasn’t his fault, and ends up in a heap on the floor between their two beds. Sehun doubles over clutching his stomach and Kai wheezes heavily, half off his bed. He reaches down to help Kyungsoo to his feet, but for his pains gets pulled down as well. Sehun nearly falls out of his chair laughing and finally Kyungsoo relents as they all pant to catch their breaths. 

Half a minute passes before anyone can talk, and when it looks like Kyungsoo’s fury has passed Kai says to him, “But seriously. You sang really well.” 

The others look at him, as if expecting a punch line to arrive any second now, but instead they can only observe while Kai’s face turns nostalgic and he says lightly, what might be casually, “Makes me wish I’d taken up singing too actually…”

Sehun looks at Kyungsoo now and they share a brief note of worry. 

“I still sing well,” Kyungsoo says, just to break to the silence. He churns his upper and bottom lips around though in an expression of concern. 

“Hey, you weren’t bad either, Kai,” Sehun says.

He nods to Kyungsoo, and the vocalist quickly adds, “Yeah, you used to sing pretty good… at karaoke.” 

“Quite the rap monster too!” Sehun exclaims.

Kai finally laughs. “Thanks guys. Oh, whatever. We should go do that sometime though.”

“What?”

“Sing. Karaoke.”

“Oh, right. Hey we can take your little boyfriend now. Think he can sing?” Sehun asks.

“Uhmm…” Kai really doesn’t know.

“Bet he can’t,” Sehun decides. “He’s probably too dumb to be a singer.”

“What?”

“Maybe just as a comedian singer.”

Kai looks offended. “Where are you even getting this from?”

Sehun pays him no mind. “And besides, he looks too weak. Frame’s too small.”

“Kyungsoo’s small too, and he sings just fine.” Kai interjects.

“I agree. I sing just fine.” Kyungsoo pouts, though he appears rather amused. 

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out one of these days,” Sehun ends.

Kai nods decisively, praying his boyfriend really can sing well. Kai’s pride is on the line here, although maybe he should think of it as Baekhyun’s pride instead. He agrees though that a karaoke night would be fun.

“Make them do a duet, and then you can write a review on it,” Kyungsoo says to Sehun.

“Excellent idea! Oh, finally, I can pull my top notch writing skills out of the closet again!” 

Kai gets scared. “Uhm, can we please not start writing essays about me and Baekhyun?”

“Why, don’t you want to know our opinions about you two?” Sehun’s eyes twinkle.

“From you? Definitely not.”

“But I’m such a good analyst of people,” Sehun says.

“Maybe so, but your delivery style is still a bit rough.” 

“But that’s why I need practice! And where better than to start than with you guys? Why, Kai, are you scared because I know too much about your life now?”

Kyungsoo yawns. “Do I even want to hear this?”

“No, you don’t. I mean—wait… Sehun, I told you that was a misunderstanding,” Kai whines pitifully.

Sehun nods “Alright, alright. I get it. You two are just really too sweet and innocent for words. He’s your first boyfriend… Anyways, I guess you should go slow.”

“Your first? Really?” Kyungsoo looks surprised.

“Yep,” Sehun answers for him. “But not Baekhyun’s first.”

Kai gulps and tries not to act like this is fresh news to him. He never really did ask Baekhyun about his relationship history, but then Baekhyun didn’t even give Kai a chance to ask him out properly in the first place. Is it any wonder they skipped several of these otherwise important conversations? Kai doesn’t think this changes anything, except that now he’s just a little curious about his boyfriend’s past partners. Were they all male? Female? How far did they go? Why… did they break up?

Baekhyun is twenty years old, but now Kai feels almost like a loser for never having dated someone in all his nineteen years of life. It just never seemed important when he was younger, not when he had plenty of friends to keep him occupied. Girls seemed like too much work, and then after he saw (and fell) for Baekhyun from a distance, his brain turned to guys and he never looked back. Or at anyone else. The past two years had kept him too busy for anything else too.

“Earth— Earth to Kai.” Kai barely notices Sehun snapping his fingers in front of his nose. “Snap out of it. Why, don’t tell me I put my foot into it again?”

“Huh? Oh, no. Nope, sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About your precious Baekhyun? God, you guys are so lovey, it’s sick. It’s so real, I’d probably throw up trying to write an essay about you anyways.”

“Fine with me,” says Kai. “I’m cool to keeping our best essays in the past.” He winks at Kyungsoo who blushes again and then scoffs.

“Please tell me you guys really didn’t write those reviews… It’s a joke, right? Just a joke?”

Kai and Sehun look at each other and cough, shifty eyes starting to appear as they avoid Kyungsoo’s gaze.

Sehun clears his throat and the corner of his lips stretch as he smiles guiltily at Kyungsoo. “Yeah, we may not have really gotten the credit we deserved for those reviews…” He sighs.

“That teacher had no sense of humor,” Kai complains in retrospect.

“Oh, God,” says Kyungsoo. 

3,256 words

Ta da! Sorry for the lack of forward moving plot, but I really wanted to write the Sulay scene, and then I really wanted to write a moving dialogue about Kai and Baekhyun’s relationship status while Sehun was around (and then I got distracted by the Soo-harem) Oops! In any case, I missed Kyungsoo as a character and this was a perfect opportunity to write him in more.

On that note, however: Is anyone really upset with the length of this fic so far? I had no idea what I was getting into when I started writing, and now it just gets longer and longer because I’m striving the tell this story the way I want to, and at the pace I think it needs to go. But what do you think? 

I actually know the main plot points now, and how everything ends, but I don’t want to rush it, especially Kai and Baekhyun’s relationship. I like capturing them at all these random and odd moments, and I think they need time to grow together, and if that means letting myself get carried away with fun scenes in between all the Big chapters, I do it… Thoughts? Comments? Anything? 

P.S. Some of you asked where Kris is in the story. Never fear, you’ll see him around again. I’m just cycling around to that particular story arc (in my very roundabout way; as you might could tell by now, that’s how I work).

This is my last update this week, mostly likely. I fly to Miami tomorrow. Yaaay!

Miss me lots, because I’ll miss you! 

<3 Rosie