Sehun can't wipe the smirk off his face as he watches Kai fidget, and it's driving Kai crazy. He swipes the thumbnail of his left hand mere millimeters from his twitching, shivering jaw, and blocks out his annoying friend. He’s been nervous ever since they left the apartment, and Sehun's been more than vocal about which was funnier: Kai freaking out internally or Kyungsoo’s bored exasperation. The latter has been mostly disinterested in his roommate’s plight, except that Kai kept bumping into the smaller boy in the subway, so distracted had he become with his surroundings. Once they are safely inside the theater, Sehun promptly sits Kai down on a bench to wait while he and Kyungsoo get their tickets. 

“You’re hopeless,” he says, to no answer, and Kai shoos him away. 

Their tickets in hand, Kyungsoo positions himself as the lookout. There are still ten more minutes before they need to go find their seats. "He better hurry up. You're sure he's coming?" he asks Kai.

"Yes, I'm sure... It's not even time yet." 

Kai's about 90% sure he's coming. He'd gotten a couple of short text replies earlier, one thanking him for telling him the time and promising he'd show up, another saying Tao couldn't make it. Now that he thinks about it, he worries that without Tao Baekhyun might not come alone. Make that 75% sure. 

“Asian kid at 10 o’clock,” says Kyungsoo just a minute later. “Short. Black hair. Okay maybe he’s not that short. He’s just my height. Oh, there are two of them. Never mind.”

Sehun joins him, studying the crowd outside. “Wait, no, that sounds like him.” He spots Baekhyun, who’s looking very harassed, and a moment later he recognizes why. “Yixing. He made it.”

“Who’s Yixing?” Kyungsoo asks. Kai stands up too but Sehun’s already running outside. “Who’s Yixing?” he repeats but Kai doesn’t have an answer either.

The first friendly sight Baekhyun sees is the figure of the tall brown haired dancer bounding towards him. Why bounding though, he doesn’t know.  They’d only met a few times and couldn’t be considered anything other than polite acquaintances. They rarely even see each other since Sehun doesn't dance in the company. He’d been in the studio growing up, but elected not to dance professionally. Instead he now teaches in the pre-collegiate division in his spare time, and that’s all Baekhyun really knows, so he’s puzzled at how Sehun looks so excited to see him. He learns why just a moment later when the Chinese stranger hurries past Baekhyun’s side and envelops Sehun in a large, sloppy, brotherly hug.

He watches the spectacle that is Sehun floundering to get out of Yixing’s arms, and barely notices Kai approaching until the two are standing side by side on the pavement.

“Friend of yours?” Baekhyun says by way of greeting.

Kai shakes his head. “No. Must be a friend of Sehun’s. He invited him, I guess. How did you happen to come together though?”

“Actually, I thought he was a mugger!” Baekhyun looks too happy for this remark and Kai can’t help but grimace and do a doubletake. Baekhyun chuckles to himself. “Sorry. I’m just really glad he’s a friend of somebody here, because I really hadn’t ruled out the possibility he was luring me into a trap and I might end up dead before the night was over.”

“He’s that scary, huh?”

Baekhyun blushes. “I… might have freaked myself out a little coming here. I’ve never been up in this area before, and it was dark and… well, look at him! In poor lighting he looked kind of scary, and he knocked me down. Well, I fell down accidentally but…” His voice trails off as the others conclude their hug and all Kai can see is a goofy haired, dimpled and extremely happy looking man standing beside Sehun. Baekhyun blows out a loud breath at the outrageous turn of events, pouting cutely.

“Very scary,” says Kai a little mockingly. 

Sehun starts with a quick round of introductions. "Yixing. This is Kai, my best pal. He just moved back. And this is Baekhyun. I see you've met. By the way, nice to see you again, Baekhyun." Baekhyun nods obligingly. "And Kyungsoo's around here somewhere... We've kind of known him a long time. Where is--" 

“Hey!” Kyungsoo stands in the open doorway shouting. “Cut the introductions and let’s go in. My vocal teacher will kill me if I go in tomorrow with a sore neck from looking up at the screen from the first row.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Sehun reminds the little singer.

“I still have to practice and rehearse. Now, come on!” 

"Don't mind him. He's a stickler about time," Sehun says to Yixing.

Kai feels very awkward as the party makes their way inside. Unsure of whether he should stick to Baekhyun as close as he comfortably can without making it seem too odd, his plan is immediately cut off when Yixing returns to chatterbox state. The man monopolizes Baekhyun as he's apparently been doing since the two met. Maybe Baekhyun felt like he was going to die on the way here, but to Kai it seems Yixing just likes to talk to whatever willing participant he can get ahold of. It's a turn of events that would make Kai inwardly gleeful, except that Baekhyun's so focused on Yixing’s scintillating conversation he doesn't have time to pay attention to Kai. 

"So when I couldn't find the stairs down to the red line..." Yixing resumes an earlier topic of discussion, "I just wandered and wandered, and I'm really glad I left so early, because I think I circled the block two times before I saw a sign and..." 

"Yixing! I didn't know if you would make it, so I didn't buy you a ticket. Come on, I'll stand with you in line."

Kai wants to kiss Sehun right now for dragging the man away. Kyungsoo, however, groans, and informs the guys he’ll be inside saving seats. For the first time this night it’s just Kai and Baekhyun alone. They stand side by side, Kai with his hands in his jeans pockets, and Baekhyun with his swinging loose. He sways a bit on his feet before bringing his hands up to clasp in front of his chest.

“Does that mean you already got me a ticket?” he asks. He raises his eyebrows hopefully.

Kai’s tongue gets stuck in the back of his throat for a moment before he frees it, saying, “Yeah… Kyungsoo thought it would save us all time.”

“Ahh. So how much do I owe you?”

“You… don’t. My treat since I invited you out.”

“So, this is a date?”

Kai decides to play it cool. “Sure.” He flashes a close-lipped smile with what he hopes is a casual if decidedly flirty look. “In any case, it wasn’t much.”

Baekhyun looks like he doesn’t know how to react, frozen with a half open crooked smile, and Kai believes he just bombed it all.  Whatever happened to asking if Baekhyun likes him? Whatever happened to asking himself if he liked Baekhyun?

His ‘date’ however, recovers quickly. “By the way, what are we seeing?”

Kai laughs hesitantly, glad the awkward moment is passed, though it’s with a slight pain under his ribs how he notices Baekhyun didn’t respond to his date/non-date-confession. “Not Rio 2. Took a while to persuade Kyungsoo not to go to a different movie theater altogether to watch it by himself. No, it’s Captain America.”

“Oh,” Baekhyun replies, his lips holding the delicate ‘o’ shape.

“Is that alright?”

“Yeah, yeah that’s fine,” he lies. There’s no point claiming otherwise, Baekhyun thinks. Truthfully none of the movies out there interested him at the moment, so it really doesn’t matter what movie he sees with Kai. And Kai’s friends. 

Before Kai can press him on the matter, they see the other two returning from the ticket counter. Yixing is clearly pouting and Sehun thunks him on the back a few times as they walk. Kai recognizes Sehun’s signature ‘comforting’ trademark and winces. The boy may look fragile but how he manages to pack a punch with his bony hands is anyone’s guess, and his back pats frankly hurt. Kai’s learned that from experience. He whispers into Baekhyun’s ear before the two get any closer. “Did Yixing say who he is or what he does?”

“I think he’s some sort of dancer, but he kept changing the subject. Aren’t you friends with Sehun? He didn’t tell you?” Baekhyun is a bit doubtful.

“No. I’ve only kind of met back up with Sehun recently.”

“I thought you were bffs?”

“We are! I just- I was doing other stuff for a long time. I kind of, didn’t talk to my old friends enough.”

“Well they look close.”

“Yeah, they do.”

“You look a bit jealous, actually.”

“What? I’m not!”

Baekhyun cackles, while Kai contains his look of mortification to the best of his ability. “Kidding! Just kidding.”

Kai fumes but he doesn’t have time to respond when Sehun and Yixing are upon them, the Chinese dancer still pouting.

“I wanted to see Frozen…” he sniffs.

“I said, it’s out of theaters already, I’m sorry!” Sehun is inches from losing his cool.

“But everyone’s been talking about it.”

“Everyone’s been talking about it for months and months. That’s why.”

Yixing moans. “$16.75 for Captain America. This better not be too scary.”

“It’s an action movie. Super heroes. What can be too scary about it?”

Yixing continues to be miffed; meanwhile Baekhyun’s eyebrows skyrocket. Behind their backs he mouths dramatically to Kai, ‘Sixteen. Seventy-five?’ Kai feels like he’s been caught eating up the cookies left for Santa. 

The foursome line up to show their tickets to the checker, trudging along as the crowd pans out in front of them. Baekhyun comes up beside Kai and hisses, “That much for a movie ticket? Okay I am definitely taking you out for dinner or something later to make up for that.”

“Is that a date then?”

“Only if you want it to be!” Baekhyun chirps. 

They join Kyungsoo and sit five in a row, a little lower down than Kyungsoo likes, but not bad enough for him to complain, much. He sits on the end, next to Yixing and Sehun, Kai and Baekhyun. Halfway through previews a couple of girls squeeze past and Baekhyun finds a stranger’s elbow jabbing at him with every other move as one of girls removes her jacket, rearranges her purse, and balances her drink and snacks. He inches a tiny bit closer to Kai as a result, hoping this won’t end up being too awkward a night, from either end.

The theater is a too warm, and though he’s the last person to admit this out loud, Baekhyun thinks he overworked himself today. His body aches, and with his nerves already in a bundle from the trek here and with meeting Kai, he’s suddenly exhausted. He sinks back into the chair and head rest, realizes it rocks just a little bit – always pleasant – and tries to focus on the feature film. His eyes glaze over, however, and within just fifteen minutes, he can’t focus.

He thinks about Kai instead. Other than a few humorous exchanges, there’s really nothing about this evening that screams ‘date’ and he’s not sure yet if that bothers him. He wants to make some more friends, that’s for sure. Other than Tao and the people he sees daily in company, he doesn’t know too many people, and of them only Tao is a close friend. He knows he should probably make an effort to meet up with his friend Chanyeol who’s in college down on the lower part of the island, but their schedules so far haven’t matched up. Baekhyun spends too much time practicing or in rehearsal, and though Chanyeol should be only a junior this year, he’s pushing close to senior status with the amount of extra courses and summer school he’s been taking. His friend’s a bit of a genius.

Not for the last time, Baekhyun wonders about his own career as a dancer, how long he can sustain it. If he weren’t surrounded by so many other like-minded dancers, all striving hard and long, and driving each other forward, he doesn’t know how he would manage on his own. The dance world just has that quality about itself. It’s insulated, isolated, and he doesn’t have time for anything else. It’s what makes this night such a rare occurrence in Baekhyun’s social calendar: going out with other people he’s not accustomed to seeing. Even if half of them are dancers (or were dancers), it’s nice to do something else, see someone else. 

He doesn’t notice when he nods off, snoozing lightly, but Kai does. Baekhyun looks so peaceful it would be a shame to wake him up, so he lets him doze. Truthfully, he’s finding it hard to concentrate on the movie. Baekhyun’s sitting too close. Even with the armrest down between them, he can feel his warmth, if not directly, and without a single part of them touching. Baekhyun’s head begins to droop, mouth open a crack. He looks over and sees the girl on the other side of him staring rudely at the sleeping boy, but when she sees Kai glaring back, she quickly averts her gaze.

Much better, he thinks.

Why couldn’t Baekhyun’s head have fallen on his shoulder like sleeping people always do in the movies? It would be too awkward now to try and adjust his body, plus it might wake him up and that’s the last thing Kai wants right now. He doesn’t go to the studio, but he still has his contacts, and he knows how Baekhyun is. The dancer works too much, too hard. He’s scolded for coming to class with baggy eyelids and dark circles, looking hungover without the alcohol, but he doesn’t change anything about his schedule. Maybe he should talk his mother into making a rule stating that no one can remain in the building before or after certain hours. It wouldn’t work though, and besides, the boy's too stubborn. 

Kai tries to relax in his chair, since he can't actively worry about Baekhyun, at least for now. He looks comfortable enough for the moment, so he lets him nap, only nudging his shoulder gently when the movie ends. 

“Baekhyun…” he whispers. “Baek… wake up.”

The sleeper opens his eyes just a fraction, then panics when he hears people shifting around in the theater.

“Wha? Ooh – the movie's over already??”

Kai chuckles. “Yeah. I would’ve let you sleep more, but, you know, I think there’s another showing afterwards. Would be a shame to waste another $16.75 on you, just for a nap.”

Baekhyun groans. He stands up, stretching out his legs and looking mortified.

“Then again, I might have gotten two dinners out of you that way, so maybe it’s my mistake waking you up.”

Baekhyun glares at the tease standing next to him, opens up his mouth in retort, but yawns instead. Kai laughs softly and places one hand behind Baekhyun, on the small of his back, to gently lead the yawning boy out of the theater.

“As long as dinner doesn’t mean tonight,” he says when he's recovered his facial expressions. “I’d probably fall asleep in whatever I ordered.”

“Why’d you come out if you were so tired?”

“What, and make you sad?”

Kai swallows, lacking the words the respond, but he’s saved by the other three in the party who have been waiting just outside the door. Yixing looks a little happier than he did before the movie, jabbering to Sehun, who's regained some of his earlier lost composure. He listens attentively to Yixing's movie commentary, but cuts him off with a motion of his hand as Kai and Baekhyun reach their little group. Kyungsoo looks quite exhausted but he stands good naturedly next to the weird mixture of friends and not-yet-friends. 

“Well?” Sehun asks. “What do we do now?”

“We could… go out for coffee or something?” Yixing suggests.

“At this hour of the night?” Kyungsoo looks baffled.

“What other place are we going to find open this late that not’s a bar, club, or restaurant?” says Sehun.

The group is shuffled down the hallway following the crowd of exiting moviegoers. They pause outside again on the sidewalk and as the chill night air settles on his skin, Baekhyun pulls his jacket just a little tighter around his torso.

“Why don’t we at least get back to our side of town before making any plans,” Kai says quickly.

Yixing nods happily, but upon glancing at the boy he becomes suddenly puzzled.

“You said your name was Kai, right?” He snaps his fingers as if just realizing something in his head. “Sehun’s friend. Oh, now I think I remember. Your mom is Tae Hee-ssi and she runs the dance company Sehun works for.”

Baekhyun watches as Kai’s face pales before their eyes.

Sehun attempts to interrupt Yixing, but, “That means you’re Kai the dancer friend of Sehun’s. Ah man, you were good. I’ve seen you before. On videos with Sehun–“

“—Yixing, stop.“ Sehun says low and rapidly.

“Wait, but I haven’t seen you before and I’ve known Sehun a couple years—“

“—Yixing…”

“Where are you dancing now? You still dance, right?”

“—Stop.”

“I mean you couldn’t quit with that talent. That would be such a waste—“

“—Yixing, I said quit it!”

“Wh-what did I say?” Yixing looks genuinely confused, but Baekhyun can’t tear his eyes away from Kai. His jaw is frozen open, wretchedness in his eyes, terror as he watches Sehun and Yixing wrestle with their words. Baekhyun dares to lay a soft hand on Kai’s shoulder, questioning this uprising of a situation, but Kai doesn’t budge or even look his way.

“I just want to know. What’s wrong with that?”

Sehun looks torn as he peeks between both friends’ expressions, and with an apologetic glance towards Kai he says softly and decidedly, “Kai doesn’t dance anymore. Just leave it.”

Kai chokes.

“Huh? I don’t understand?”

Sehun sighs heavily, but before Kai can interrupt him, he says with even more determination, “He can’t dance anymore. He won’t. Sorry, Kai. I just needed to clear the air here.” 

Silence would fall, except it's nighttime in a busy intersection. The five boys stare around at each other, shocked. 

Kai wants to evaporate right now in this very moment, because he's not sure what he can say now or what he even wants to say. With everyone staring at him, and Sehun acting miserable in a bratty way, it's unbearable. The sinking feeling becomes even worse when he realizes the little pressure on his shoulder that is Baekhyun's hand is still there.

“I… have to go. Goodnight,” he says to no one in particular, and takes off down the street.

Baekhyun has no idea what’s going on, but he wants to lay the blame on Sehun. He stares at the culprit accusingly for one good moment before deciding to take a leap of faith. He follows Kai into the night.

3,191 words

Cliffhanger...

What can I do to make it up to you? Oh, wait I can't do anything for a few more days at least... kkaepsong. :)

Sorry this was late, but a B.A.P concert happened before I could fine tune everything. In return it's longer than any chapter before. Some heavy stuff coming out today... Sehun's a little s*** here, isn't he? Sorry, maknae. You're probably not like in real life (unless you are?)

Uhm, plot happened... And some fluff... And a major almost-relevation.. So now what, huh?

Rosie <3