A/N:

WELL. Well well well. 

To everybody that subscribed, thank you very much~ I appreciate it!

Warnings: Kyungsoo says the F word twice. 

Second Thread - Kyungsoo

Kyungsoo recognizes the beat-up Converse with scuffed toes by the doorway. He slips off his own sneakers and finds the person he expected on the ancient leather couch, head down and eyes glued to the screen of a computer tablet. “Hi Sehun.”

Sehun glances up at him through his long fringe. “Hi hyung. What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Kyungsoo repeats, eyebrows raised. “You’re asking me what I’m doing here in my own apartment. What the hell are you doing here? Did Chanyeol let you in?”

Sehun nods and turns back to the screen, scrolling with the pad of his thumb. “He’s taking a shower. Why don’t you sit down?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t understand why he’s being invited to sit in his own home but nevertheless, he lowers himself onto the empty space next to Sehun. “Playing a game?”

“Hm?” Sehun shakes his head. “Just finished reading an interview that Chanyeol-hyung did with some progressive website. I’ll send you the link. It is hilarious-and kind of pathetic-because the interviewer is clearly in love with him. She totally wants to  – ”

The bathroom door opens with a loud squeal and interrupts Sehun. A damp warmth pumps into the rest of the tiny apartment and a lanky body steps out of the mist, into the living room. “I thought I heard your voice,” says Chanyeol. He had wrapped his hair in a pink towel turban but hadn’t bothered to cover the most important bits of his anatomy, letting them air-dry. “How have you been, roomie? I feel like we haven’t seen each other in weeks.”

“It’s only been few days,” says Kyungsoo, looking away and wondering why agreed to room with someone who doesn’t feel the need to cover their body when they have guests although Sehun hardly counts.

“Aw, I still missed you though.” Chanyeol strolls over to the couch and steps into the narrow space between Kyungsoo and Sehun. The cushions groan as they cave beneath his feet. His fingers search for the power button on the AC unit mounted high on the wall. The leftover water from his shower drips and lands on the sitting figures below him.

While Sehun responds with complete indifference to the wet spots on his shoulder, Kyungsoo leaps up and stumbles away. “Chanyeol, you-you’re getting your water everywhere!”

“Sorry,” Chanyeol laughs. He hops down from the couch and the room vibrates. “But seriously, how have you been? Come give me a hug.”

“No.” Kyungsoo crosses his arms. “Get away from me. Stop it!” He backs away as Chanyeol lumbers toward him.

“Alright, alright, calm down.” Chanyeol turns and heads toward his room. “Sehun, we’re leaving in ten minutes. Be ready,” he instructs before closing the door.

Kyungsoo unfolds his arms and reclaims his seat next to Sehun, ignoring the drops of water all over the cushions. Sehun turns off his tablet and safely stows it away in his backpack. “Hyung, are you busy tonight?”

“I’ve got some homework,” Kyungsoo replies. “Why do you ask?”

“We’re meeting with the student government association of a women’s college and thought you might want to come.”

“You know I’m not interested in politics,” Kyungsoo says patiently. 

“Yeah, I know but,” Sehun smiles, “there will be girls. You’re still interested in women, right?”

“Last I checked, yeah.”

“And when was that?”

Kyungsoo ignores Sehun and tips his head against the back of the couch, letting the frigid air from the AC swirl over him. He changes the subject to something he knows Sehun can’t resist. “How’s your blog doing?”  

“It’s great,” says Sehun, shifting towards Kyungsoo in excitement. “I have almost 7,000 followers which makes me the 34th most popular news blog. Have you read my latest post?”

“I’ve been meaning to,” Kyungsoo lies, “but between lessons and school, I’ve been so busy.” That part is true.

Sehun gives him a sympathetic look. “I worry about you sometimes, hyung. Aren’t you lonely? You work too hard.”

Kyungsoo bites back a retort along the lines of asking what kid like Sehun would know. A kid like Sehun whose family supports him despite the fact that the most productive thing he’s ever contributed to society is a paranoid conspiracy theory blog.

But he knows that Sehun’s concern comes from good intentions, from his kind heart buried under layers of insolence and glib comments about Kyungoo’s height and lack of social life. 

He just wishes that he didn’t find all the attention so burdensome.

“I know,” he says, managing a smile. “I’ll try to live a more balanced life.”

Sehun grins and pinches the skin of Kyungsoo’s cheek.

Kyungsoo raises a fist and takes back every nice thing he’s thought about the blogger in the year they’ve known each other. Sehun releases him and scrambles back, laughing.

Chanyeol joins them in the living room, dressed in fitted dark-wash jeans and a plaid button down. He drops the navy blue backpack in his hands and spins around once, holding out his arms. “How do I look?”

Sehun rolls his eyes while Kyungsoo mumbles a perfunctory “fine.”

Chanyeol smiles, pleased, and remains standing with his arms spread as wide as wings. He looks at them expectantly.  Although for what, Kyungsoo can’t imagine.

Sehun takes out his phone and starts typing, incapable of being away from Twitter/Instagram/Kakao/his blog for more than couple minutes. Kyungsoo taps out steady quarter notes in common time on his knee and looks out the window. His mind wander to nowhere in particular although it briefly stops at his pile of homework before meandering to his lesson with little Jo-eun tomorrow and then a mental note to buy more milk.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol calls.

He turns, plucked from his reverie.

Chanyeol hasn’t lowered his arms and his face still wears the same eager expression.

“What?” Kyungsoo asks.

“I’m still waiting for my hug. I’m fully clothed now so you don’t have to feel weird about it,” says Chanyeol.  

Kyungsoo feels a need to repent for refusing to play along earlier. He stands up, grudgingly walks over and leans into his roommate, his arms hanging by his sides. Chanyeol bends down and wraps him in an affectionate embrace. Kyungsoo can’t help but hug him back.

Something warm and heavy slams into him from behind and Kyungsoo realizes that Sehun has joined their cuddle, effectively trapping him between the two taller men. He grunts in displeasure and tries to escape but they squeeze together even tighter. Kyungsoo wonders if they planned this.

 “We’re never letting you go,” Chanyeol declares.

Kyungsoo squirms and hopes they will sense his annoyance without having to verbally confront them. But this only seems to motivate Chanyeol and Sehun into further tormenting him.

“Stop struggling. Just let us love you.”

“Let us love you, hyung.”

“Get off!” Kyungsoo tries to swing his fists but his arms are still pinned to his side by Chanyeol, and now Sehun as well. He kicks his feet but the motion does little to propel him out of their grasp.

“You can't get away,” says Sehun. They crush him tighter to prove their point.  

“Guys, I…can’t…” Kyungsoo closes his eyes and goes completely still. His sock-covered feet slide back as his body sags under their hold.

“Hey,” says Chanyeol. “Kyungsoo.”

“Did he pass out?” Sehun asks. “Hyung, are you okay?” He steps back and Kyungsoo nearly crashes to the floor. Chanyeol catches him at the last moment and pulls him close. 

“, I think the shock from the hug might have actually knocked him out,” Chanyeol hisses. He looks down at the small face pushed against him, chin digging into his chest. “Has he always been this pale?”

Sehun shrugs and nervously chews on a nail.

Long eyelashes flip upward to reveal wide brown eyes. “Yes,” Kyungsoo answers calmly.

Sehun nearly bites off his thumb and screams while Chanyeol, after taking a second to recover, laughs hysterically. His laughter bounces off the walls and ripples back through the air. “You're so weird. I knew you were faking,” he boasts.

“Sure you did.” Kyungsoo untangles himself from Chanyeol’s limbs. “Anyways, don’t you guys have a meeting or something?”

Chanyeol snaps his fingers. “Yes, thank you for reminding us. Let’s make plans to hang out soon.” He scoops up the backpack at his feet and hurries to the door. “Don’t study too hard!”

“Bye, hyung,” Sehun calls, scuttling after Chanyeol.

The door slams shut and the silence that settles in the apartment is empty and bleak. Kyungsoo misses them already. Not that he would ever admit it.

The most he is willing to admit is that Chanyeol makes the perfect roommate for someone who enjoys their privacy. Between classes and extracurricular activities and a wide social circle, he hardly uses the apartment for more than sleep and showers. Kyungsoo practically lives alone.

He goes to the kitchen and opens the fridge. Containers of side dishes, half a carton of eggs, an almost empty carton of milk, and a variety of sauces fill half the space. All of the food belongs to Kyungsoo. If he were to search, he could maybe find an old apple core that belongs to Chanyeol.

He makes himself a simple dinner and eats while reading the article Sehun sent him on his phone.

It’s not hard to understand why Park Chanyeol has become the most popular figure of this nation’s student activism movement. With his devilish good-looks and impressive height, he looks the part of the campus heartthrob in a TV drama.

Kyungsoo smirks and takes a bite of fried egg.

But spend a few minutes with him and it’s clear that there is more to this young man than his handsome appearance. His wide smile puts people at ease and his deep voice soothes anyone fortunate enough to hear him speak. Youth Movement was lucky enough to spend some time with the rising activist star.

YM: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. We know you’re very busy.

CY: Not at all. It’s really my pleasure.

YM: So what was it that sparked your interest in political activism?

CY: I wouldn’t say there was any single event or ‘spark’ because I’ve always been interested in politics. But the older I became, which isn’t very old since I’m only 25, I started to think of politics less as governments and institutions of power and more in terms of people and the individual.

YM: That’s fascinating. Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

CY: [Smiles] I just mean that for me, activism is very personal. I have a hard time being motivated by ideals such as democracy or equality. Some people are deeply principled and can act on values alone and I envy them because I’m not nearly as good.

As a former journalism major, I met all kinds of people, many of whom were in difficult situations because of another party’s greed and self-interest. They lost things that were very important to them. And I’m not going to pretend that I know what they’ve gone through. I was just some yuppie kid who used fancy words to sell their pain.

But it’s hard to ignore the injustice they’ve endured when you’ve seen their homes, met their spouses and children, parents and siblings. Behind every sappy background music filled human interest story is a full-fledged person and once that veil of distance is lifted, you can’t just stand by and do nothing.     

Kyungsoo skims the rest of the article. Although he admires Chanyeol and Sehun for their attempts to make the world a better place, politics remains outside his realm of interest.

YM: I want to thank you again for letting us speak with you. But for the sake of journalism, I have one final question: are you single?

CY: [Laughs] At the moment, yes.

Kyungsoo closes out of the page. He sends Chanyeol a text:

Campus heartthrob, huh?

He clears off the table, washes the dishes and slots them into the drying rack next to the sink. His phone beeps.

[Chanyeol 6:43 PM]

Did Sehun send you that interview? I’m going to kill him.

Kyungsoo laughs but with nobody to hear him, his solitude feels like a blow to the chest.

I worry about you sometimes, hyung. Aren’t you lonely?

Sehun’s words creep to the surface. Kyungsoo pushes them away. He can’t afford to think about it too much. He has homework to do.

He settles at his desk with his ‘Film and Music’ instructions. The class is less interesting that he thought it would be and he finds himself reading the instructions for his essay over and over again. He pushes the piece of paper away, frustrated with his lack of concentration.

His phone beeps a text message notification and he lunges for it, desperate for a distraction.

[Sehun 7:32 PM]

Youre missing out. So many hot girls here.

Kyungsoo replies:

Dont make me feel worse than I already do. I havent even started my homework.

[Sehun 7:32 PM]

Dont do your homework.

Kyungsoo replies:

Id rather not fail my film music class. Its supposed to be an easy a.

[Sehun 7:33 PM]

Flim music? Go see a movie then. Same thing right?

Kyungsoo scoffs at the suggestion. Watching a movie and writing an essay that psychoanalyzes the effect a score can have during a traumatic scene are not even close to being the same thing.  

He opens a new Word document and types his name, the date, the class, and the professor’s name in the far left corner of the page.

The document autosaves six times while he struggles to begin his essay. A movies starts to seem like a more productive use of his time than his current course of action.

He sighs. ‘ it.’ He grabs his wallet and heads out of the apartment.

Kyungsoo welcomes the chatter of the world after the brutal quiet of his empty apartment. School girls roaming in packs, children trading playing cards, grandmothers with their hair in rollers and bowl-legged grandfathers in tow.

He is half-way to the bus stop when he realizes that he should have checked movie times before he left.

Again. ‘ it.’ He’s come too far to turn back. He marches on to the bus stop which is mercifully less crowded than usual.

Despite the sweltering heat, a familiar shiver creeps down Kyungsoo’s back. The light layer of sweat on his skin turns cold.

He knows he’s being paranoid. There’s no reason why he would be followed.

But sometimes when Kyungsoo studies at the library, he feels a strange presence watching him through the shelves, over the rows of books. Sometimes he feels it when he leaves the music academy where he works part-time as a piano teacher. This is the first time he's felt it so close to home.

The discomfort follows him like a haze, stepping onto the bus and sitting in the empty seat to his left. The bus pulls away, trapping Kyungsoo with an ominous dread. 

A/N: Thanks for stopping by. Happy Easter!