Minzy leaves the next morning and somehow, despite how crazy the past week has gone, Monday comes as normal with everyone back to their own routines. Baekhyun doesn't see Kai for a few days though, and that's irritating to them both, but lots of text messages and phone calls during school or dance breaks keep them alive. Kai is fully into the school semester now. He complains about class work and homework and special projects, the kinds of things that make Baekhyun shudder whenever he remembers the couple years he was in college. The studio dance schedule may be killing him right now, but he won't trade it for the world. Book bags and pencils and sitting in desks all day, just like it was high school but way more important.

“Does it make me a bad boyfriend if I'd rather you be miserable in class than me?” he asks Kai one day. “I don't even want to sit there with you! I mean I'm really sorry, and it may be all romantic to some people to sit next to each other day after day, but ugh! I don't think my brain wants to function that way again anymore.” 

Kai abuses him over the phone, but he understands. He's just happy his own brain cells are still functioning after a several year break from studying. Small consolation for the fact that his body is less than sound.

On Wednesday Kai gets his first afternoon break due to a cancelled class, so he uses the time wisely to visit Baekhyun at the company. There is nobody in the halls when he arrives. Half the company is split up in different rooms, some rehearsing and perfecting their routines. He finds Suho sitting down observing one such room, still unable to properly dance and completely miserable. Suho growls at him when he tries to wave hello through the open door, and since Baekhyun isn't in the room (he could tell within the first two-second glance), there's really no point to sticking around.

Down the hall he finds his boyfriend finally. Barefoot with knee length shorts and overly loose navy tank top, he's so immersed in learning the choreography that he doesn't see Kai sneak in at all. Kai bites back a scowl and tries his hardest not to be jealous of how Baekhyun never takes his eyes off the kid at the front of the room. Jungkook is only teaching them the dance he won a prize for, so it's natural that the company members' eyes would be so attached to the boy's every frame, mimicking the movements down to every last flick of the hand or twist of the neck.

Kai pushes aside his jealousy and focuses instead on how beautiful he finds this serious side of Baekhyun. It takes him back to the first time he watched him dance so many weeks ago, so many years ago. Baekhyun concentrates so hard he bites his lower lip, and his eyes narrow, and he has so much energy left to distill that he bounces in place for the few seconds when Jungkook isn't moving. Sweat stains the front and back of his shirt, and his hair sticks up like he'd badly styled it with a misguided, lopsided cowlick. Baekhyun always messes with his hair when he's concentrating, or when he's just standing around.

“Hey, Kai.” Luhan sees him first. 

At the mention of his name aloud, Baekhyun finally turns around and the serious, professional look gives way to a blinding smile across the room. Jungkook takes this opportunity to call for break time, and he thanks the dancers for their work and for learning from him so attentively. Yixing immediately walks up to discuss with him the finer aspects of one of his signature moves.

“Haven't seen you around in a couple days,” Luhan says. He stands near him and drinks from his water bottle, but even during that simple activity, his eyes wander over to Minseok where the shorter man bends over to stretch out his calves. 

“School stuff. You know. So... how are you... guys?”

“Huh?” Luhan looks sharply back at him. “Oh. Fine. Fine!” He beams, then he looks back over at Minseok.

Baekhyun skips across the room, exhaling swiftly when he nearly slides right into Kai. “Hello, stranger!” He hugs Kai sideways, happy that despite the sweat Kai doesn't even flinch as to move away. 

Kai chuckles. “It's only been what... three days since you saw me in person?”

Luhan laughs as well. “Someone's obsessed with you, Kai.”

“And someone,” Kai stares hard at Luhan, “is obsessed with that boy over there.” He nods pointedly at Minseok, now sitting on the floor leaning back on his arms. He looks a little like Baekhyun with the same hard day's sweat staining through his white shirt.

Baekhyun follows their gaze, particularly Luhan's. “Hey, Minseok. You should fix that shirt. Your s are showing through and I'm pretty sure Luhan's about to hyperventilate!”

Kai snorts. “I was just about to say that.”

“Yeah, well why were you looking?” Baekhyun taunts.

“I don't know. Why were you looking?”

“Because Luhan was looking!”

Luhan screeches. “I was not looking! I mean... I...” He flushes bright red and attempts to look away, but there's nowhere his head can turn to in a room full of mirrors and everything in his senses drawing him to the man on the floor. Minseok snorts and carries on without altering his shirt or his position, and he drinks deeply from a bottle of water that soon has Luhan excusing himself from the room altogether. Minseok chuckles knowingly and lays out flat to stretch on the floor.

“I take it things are going better with those two?” Kai whispers, dragging Baekhyun away to a more private corner of the room.

“Them? They're exactly the same as they always are.” Baekhyun pauses while Kai frowns. “The only difference is every now and then they disappear for a few minutes at a time and then Minseok comes in looking cool as you please, and Luhan bright red and the dumbest smile on his face.” Baekhyun relates the facts like he was disgusted with the two, hands on his hips and head shaking a bit. Then he cackles. “But enough about them!”

“Uhmm, well.” Kai smiles. “You look good at least.”

“Uhmm, yeah I know I do.”

“Oh woah, someone's cocky today.” His smile cracks even wider.

“And you better know it.”

Kai decides to change tactics. They are still standing in a room with a whole bunch of other dancers after all. “So how's rehearsal? That guy is the guest choreographer?” He points at Jungkook.

“Mmm yep. That kid's insane!” He lowers his voice to a screechy whisper. “Did you see the way he moves?! And that choreo! He's got the front half of the stage doing the steps - which are already hard, by the way - and suddenly the right line takes off with the same exact movies but in double time, while the others are still doing the original choreography. It's ridiculous! I mean, it's good. It's great actually, but... it's ridiculous!”

That sets Baekhyun off into a mini rant about how awesome the guy is, and Kai would be jealous, except that while he talks Baekhyun's hands skid over Kai's back in random massaging circles. If this is how Baekhyun multi-tasks, then Kai has nothing to complain about. 

“So...” Kai interrupts finally. “Dinner at my mom's house on Saturday?”

“What?” Baekhyun halts dramatically.

“Dinner... you said you wanted an official meet-the-mom date.”

“I did. So... Saturday?” He tries to contain his squeals. 

“Yep. She asked about Friday night but I explained that was our night instead, and she gracefully conceded.”

“Friday is our date night?”

“Yes...”

“I can do Friday.”

“I was asking about Saturday.”

“I can do Friday and Saturday.”

“You better be able to do both days,” Kai laughs. “Because I'm holding you to both!”

Baekhyun tsks disapprovingly, one side of his mouth held to a little grin. “Now that I think about it, you're the one who's obsessed with me, and always have been.” He scoffs. “Trying to monopolize my week two nights in a row. The nerve!”

“Aww you love it.”

Minseok finally walks past the the two of them with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Will you two quit it? You're making Luhan look like an ice prince.” He chuckles and stalks off. Kai and Baekhyun immediately shut up and stare after him, then at each other with a slight hint of repulsion. 

“Okay, well I gotta practice now. Talk to you later!” And Baekhyun shoves Kai out the door.

Tao gets home a few hours before Baekhyun that night. Baekhyun almost blames it on a late practice (not that he needs to explain himself to his roommate) but he sort of feels like he owes Tao an explanation of why the food he promised to bring home is an hour later than he promised, and unfortunately 'hanging out with my boyfriend' is probably not the best way to put it. Not when he walks in the door and sees Tao already munching on snacks, his phone in his hand. Baekhyun almost cringes, assuming Tao must have texted him a million times, but the phone Baekhyun put on silent has no missed texts, and now that he looks closer, Tao doesn't look too upset about being near starved to death. What a nice roommate, he muses absent-mindedly.

“You're late,” Tao says casually, when Baekhyun walks in the door.

“Sorry! I know! Here's food. I was --” 

“Kris is on his way over.”

Baekhyun dumps the bags of take out onto the counter. “What?”

“Said he'd be here around 8 so... twenty minutes or so?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why's he coming over?” Baekhyun asks suspiciously.

To Tao's credit, he isn't offended by Baekhyun's tone. In fact he almost mirrors the suspicion, or at least exudes a fairly incredulous attitude, as if he too can't believe that Kris is on his way to hang out. It's been a week and a half since either of them saw him, and only a couple days since the guy resurfaced just via phone. 

Tao shrugs. “Dunno. Want to watch a movie when he gets here?”

“Uhh, I guess we can wait to see when he gets here,” Baekhyun says awkwardly. He hates to mention how much he doesn't like being the third wheel to Tao and Kris's vaguely unpleasant relationship. “Has he had dinner yet?”

“I think so.”

They eat in relative silence for the remaining time. Tao surfs the channels on their TV and Baekhyun tries to relive his last big make-out session with Kai, but he's still a little bothered with the Kris situation, and when the man knocks on their door a few minutes after eight, he scarfs down the last crumbs of his food and attempts to bow out of the room entirely.

“Wait, Baekhyun,” Tao calls to him, his hand frozen on the front door, still unopened. “Stay. Please?”

There's not a human being alive who can resist his roommate's puppy dog face, especially when it's full of sincerity and slightly uneasy. Baekhyun exhales as casually as he can before nodding. “Okay... I'll just be right out.”

“Thanks...” 

Baekhyun disappears into his room just as the door opens and Kris's voice echoes throughout the living room, a casual greeting just like he's never been away. Baekhyun grabs a pair of clean sweat pants and a shirt and showers in lightning record time. Never once has Tao begged him to actually remain in the room with someone, or specifically, Kris. Always he's asked or suggested, but those times he thinks Tao was trying to be considerate of Baekhyun by not making him an outcast in his own apartment. Those were all friendly invitations though, not pleas.

Kris is already sitting in the middle of the sofa when Baekhyun emerges a few minutes later. They don't greet each other. Baekhyun just nods to him and plops himself into an arm chair. Kris returns the nod and all the while Tao digs through a plastic crate of DVDs, a steady stream of mindless questions coming out of his mouth: “Do you want to watch this? Is this too cartoony? Want a thriller? Something more action based? Oh wait, I watched that last week, maybe something else...”

“Uhmm, whatever you want, I guess,” Kris says. His voice comes out thick and inattentive.

Tao knocks around a few more DVD cases before he sits back and sighs. “Actually there's nothing here that really grabs my interest.”

“Oh. Oh well that's cool. Actually I'm fine just sitting around...” He clears his throat.

Tao raises his eyebrow at him from the floor, stands up, and walks around the couch to the fridge. “So, games? Or...”

Kris side-eyes Baekhyun, and it's all Baekhyun can do to not glare innocently back. It's obvious Kris doesn't want Baekhyun around, but Tao isn't any more comfortable than he is, and until Tao tells him to leave he's going to stay put like a good friend.

“We could just chat,” Kris suggests. “Or... or, hey do you have that new video game you mentioned? I haven't really seen much of it except for some previews. Want to play that?”

Tao pops the top of a soda can, narrows his eyes, and sighs.

“What do you actually want, Kris?”

The room goes silent, all except for Tao guzzling a whole third of his soda. Baekhyun holds his breath, and Kris becomes nervous. 

“I… came over to hang out.”

"Sure. Sure," Tao sighs again. But before the breath even dies in his throat Tao says, “Where were you for a whole week?”

Kris gulps, and Tao stares at him, impartially cool and collected. Baekhyun is rather impressed with him.

“I was busy…”

“Too busy to text?” Tao poses the scenario. “Too busy to call? And now, what? You’re suddenly not busy, and you just invite yourself over like you didn’t blow me over for an entire week?”

“I texted you on Saturday.”

“Yeah, after a whole week of nothing.”

They’re arguing like boyfriends, Baekhyun thinks. And the funny thing is he knows they aren’t. They hadn’t gotten that far yet, but Kris going on the defensive is telling enough, especially when he once again looks at Baekhyun like he’s an intruder.

Baekhyun sits up extra tall in his chair, but he plays with his phone making imaginary texts like he’s not interested in the scene.

“Tao can we… talk in private or something? Like in your room or…” Kris is very near to freaking out.

“No. I like it here,” Tao says succinctly.

Kris visibly balks, and he stares between Tao and Baekhyun like he can’t figure out which of the two is dumber. Baekhyun guesses that Kris is basically begging to have this discussion without an audience, but again he resolves to stay put until Tao tells him differently. If he tells him differently.

Tao doesn’t fail to notice Kris’s discomfort. “Okay. We could just play video games all night, but if there’s something you want to say, I'd rather you just say it now, because I'm kind of tired of waiting. Baekhyun won’t mind.” He crosses his arms and leans against the counter to get his point across. The angle forces Kris to twist on the couch, unnaturally rotating so he can see Tao. Before Kris has time to process, Tao continues in a soft voice. “You know, for a while I thought you kind of liked me.”

Kris starts to sweat, Baekhyun is happy to see. He tries not to stare so obviously, but nothing on his near battery dead phone is quite as intriguing as the scene he’s surely about to see. His feet are positively itching to abandon the room.

“Tao, can we please talk somewhere else?” Kris asks.

“No. Do you like me?”

“I… think so?”

Baekhyun tries not to scoff too loudly.

“You think so?” Tao repeats, finally starting to raise his voice. “You think so? How close is ‘think so’ and what does it have to do with you not talking to me for a week?”

Kris bounces off the couch and approaches Tao. His steps slow the closer he gets to him though, and he lowers his voice, obviously preferring not to discuss this loudly or across the room from Tao. He pauses with a few steps between them, and Tao tries not to blink. He keeps his arms crossed, and one eyebrow cocked, his best impression of a cool guy, but Baekhyun can see the tick on the side of his mouth, and the way Tao's knees lock unnaturally tight.

Kris approaches him hesitantly. “I… look I’m pretty sure I like you but…” his voice softens, but his delivery speeds up. "I’m kind of confused right now. I mentioned to my sister a few weeks ago that I may like a guy, and she got really flustered and told my family, and now they’re not happy with me, and…” Kris peaks over his shoulder, unhappily aware that Tao's roommate is hearing all of this. 

Tao snaps. “Quit staring at Baekhyun. This doesn’t have anything to do with him.”

Kris exhales sharply, and he rolls his eyes. “He makes me nervous okay!”

“Why should that matter?”

“Because he doesn’t like me, okay? And, can we please just go somewhere else to talk? I really want to. Outside, your room, any place?”

“I already told you, no, and if Baekhyun doesn’t like you then maybe he’s got a good reason to not like you. What do you mean you’re confused? You disappeared for a week because you’re confused and you don’t know what to do about being gay? Are you any less confused right now?”

Tao’s questions turn softer, more imploring, but Kris’s hesitation is all that Tao needs to become properly upset. The air grows thick in the room, and Baekhyun swears the walls are shrinking. “Kris, just tell me what you want to do right now. Because I kind of like you too, and I thought that was obvious already.”

“It was…” Kris nearly pleads.

“Then, what? So you think you like me. You want a secret relationship? Because I don’t, and I think it's only fair to be honest with you up front.”

“I…” Kris runs a hand through his hair which is becoming more frazzled by the minute.

“If you were confused, how come you couldn't talk to me about it? Why did you have to ignore me for a week?” Baekhyun really hopes those aren't tears he sees forming in the corner of Tao's eyelids.

Kris huffs, guilt and regret mixed in with exasperation. “I wanted some distance to think about it. To think about you!”

“Then why couldn’t you tell me that?” Tao whines, equally as exasperated.

“I just need some time to figure out if I … If I like you -  like you, like that – okay? I’m sorry, please just give me some time!?”

Baekhyun doesn’t dare look up now. He keeps his head bowed low, and he hears Tao inhale deeply and slowly. It’s the moment of truth, and he really doesn’t know what Tao is going to do. Usually his roommate is never this upset, or if he is he doesn’t show it, and maybe that's the problem. The week without Kris must have hit him really hard if he’s suddenly cracking like this.

Tao visibly calms himself down, a severe mental exercise not unlike when Baekhyun catches him meditating after a particularly long and trying day. Then he looks up slowly and issues a challenge right into Kris’s eyes. “Okay… Okay I’ll give you some time. Take as much time as you want to... figure yourself out. But don’t call me until you’re certain, and don’t come around and confuse me until you’re certain. Got it?”

Kris’s mouth falls open. “You want me to ignore you again?”

“No, I don’t want you to ignore me. Ignoring me is what you’ve already done. I’m just telling you to go away and think about what you want to be or do. Then you can come tell me, and maybe then I’ll listen.”

Twenty minutes later, long after Kris is gone, Baekhyun sits down on the couch next to Tao where the man has returned to surfing the television. Tao looks up at him. “What? What’s that look for? I’m not heartbroken, Baekhyun.”

“I know that, Tao.”

“I’m just irritated.  Why does he have to be so confusing and contradicting all the time?”

“Not everybody has it all figured out, Tao.”

“I know that. But… Damnit, I really was mad when he wouldn’t talk to me all week…”

“I know.”

They sit for a few minutes until finally Baekhyun says, “Hey what about we watch a movie after all, huh?”

3,491 words

This update is late! Omg so late please forgive me! Travelling to and from KCON wore me out, and then I've had so much to do since I got back - ugh. excuses excuses, I know. Anyways, how was the chap? The first part was super fun to write, and I know I missed writing Kaibaek scenes. The second part - siiiiiighs. Drama. But it had to happen like this, because like Baekhyun says, not everybody has it all figured out, and we can't all be as cute as Xiuhan. 

I will definitely update faster next time!!!

By the way - wow this is now 29 chapters, and pretty soon it will be 30. How much longer can this last??? I have no idea. But definitely not more than 40 +/- an epilogue. What am I even saying. I have no idea how long this will be. Especially when half the time the chapters get away from me. But guess we'll all find out some day.

<3 Rosie

P.S. to any Xiuhan shippers - I have half of a weird little twoshot posted: We Used To Be So Good Together, if you haven't already read it. I'm still exploring my OTP as a main story pair. Consider it practice for the day I write a REAL, full length Xiuhan fic ;)