Hi everyone. I hope you're well and having a good weekend.

Please see end of the chapter for notes. Because I know where the story is heading (sorta), I don't always know when it's too confusing so I'll try to clarify some things.

Warnings: some swearing, nothing explicit but is mentioned and implied, drinking.

Enjoy.

Eighth Thread – Kai

As far as roommates go, Kai knows he got lucky with Kris. Basing their compatibility on nothing more than their mutual affection for Suho, it had been essentially a leap of faith when he accepted the psychiatrist’s housing offer. A year into their arrangement, they’ve come to resemble a long married but still mildly affectionate couple.

Their toothbrushes were bought as a set (Kai’s is blue, Kris uses the pink) and they share a tube of toothpaste. Laundry is a mix of both tenant’s clothes and neither of them can remember who owns which pair of socks anymore. They have dinner together as often as possible despite their workload, taking turns preparing a meal for two. They eat mostly in silence without feeling the need to fill it with mindless chatter about their day.

But on this particular evening, the quiet between them is different.  Agitated and charged with energy, most of it radiating off of Kris. His eyes dart around the room, landing on nothing in particular. One toe taps incessantly against the floor.

Kai puts a salad to share on the table as well as two large plates. “Are you okay?” he ventures to inquire.

Kris runs an enormous hand through his blonde hair. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just…” He stops and inhales deeply. “Dinner smells great. What are we having?”

“Lasagna but it needs another ten minutes in the oven,” Kai says as he grinds a generous helping of black pepper into the salad. “Why don’t you go wash up?”

“Good idea,” Kris jumps out of his seat. “I’ll be right back.”

Kai hears the bathroom sink running as he sets cutlery to the side of the plates. He wonders what happened in Section 302-D to rile up his roommate but knows better than to ask.

The oven beeps and Kai slips on a pair of heat resistant mitts. He pulls out the lasagna and scoops a manageable serving on to each of their plates. He hears the shuffle of Kris’s steps and turns around. “Dinner is ready” he announces.

“Looks amazing,” says Kris. He sits down, rubbing his hands together. He picks up his fork and shovels a steaming mixture of pasta sheet, cheese, meat, and tomato sauce into his mouth.

Kai raises an eyebrow.

Kris puffs his cheeks and his eyes water as he tries to pretend that he hadn’t just burnt his tongue.

“Are you sure everything is fine?” Kai asks.

Kris nods, still unable to open his mouth from the pain.

Kai doesn’t believe him but keeps further questions to himself.

“I’m just really hungry,” Kris manages to finally say halfway through the meal. He takes another bite, more cautiously this time. “I missed lunch today.”

“Work been busy?”

Anyone else would have missed the half-second pause before Kris’s response but Kai has been living with him too long not to notice. “You have no idea.” He stuffs his cheeks with salad and chews slowly.

They settle into their usual silence, punctuated by Kris’s compliments of the meal which Kai graciously accepts. Neither of them are culinary geniuses but both can put together a decent dinner menu without trouble.

After the salad has been eaten and they’ve had their share of carbs, Kris puts the leftovers in containers for tomorrow’s lunch and starts on the dishes. He looks cute with the pink rubber gloves pulled past his forearms and hums the commercial jingle for a well-known dish soap as he scrubs the plates clean of dried cheese and tomato sauce.

Kai leaves him to his chore and goes to his room, closing the door behind him. He props his pillows up against the headboard of his bed and settles back with a book. He tries to concentrate on the story but his mind keeps wandering to his roommate’s odd behavior.

Due to the secretive nature of his job, Kris normally exudes a practiced calm that many people mistake for arrogance or snobbery. He show his playful side to a select few, including Kai, and can be absolutely child-like when his mind is unburdened with work. But Kai has never seen him so twitchy and unfocused before.

He hears the low rumble of Kris’s voice speaking to someone on the telephone. He turns back to the book, trying not to eavesdrop, but the walls are thin and Kai isn’t trying as hard as he could, curiosity aroused.

“Yeah, we just had dinner,” Kris says. “...Kai cooked…lasagna…good…no, I swear I didn’t tell him anything…I swear! I was good…yeah…uh huh…so does that mean I can come over…I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Wear that black nightgown I like…bye.”

Amber. Of course. His ‘not girlfriend, we’re just keeping each other company.’

(Early on in their cohabitation, Kai had worked serious overtime one evening. Too exhausted to deal with public transportation, he took a cab home. He had figured Kris to be asleep and trying to be a courteous roommate, opened the door as quietly as possible.

Had he made his arrival more obvious, he probably wouldn’t have been greeted by the muscles of Kris’s bare clenching and unclenching as he ed into someone beneath him on the couch, uttering lines so explicit that Kai blocked them from his memory.

The clatter of Kai’s messenger bag falling to the floor startled everyone, including himself. Kris stopped moving and looked over his shoulder. “Kai,” he said with only the faintest note of embarrassment. “I…had no idea you’d be home so quick.”

“I took a cab,” Kai explained weakly. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to – let me just – oh god. I’m so sorry.” He spun around, trying to remember how to get to his room or leave the apartment or gouge his own eyes. He slammed his shoulder into the doorway between the living room and kitchen. He stumbled, apologies still spilling from his mouth.

“Maybe I should go,” a familiar voice said.

Kai found the courage to look over at the couch and saw Amber, of all people, clasp shut the top of her pants. “Hey, how’s it going?” she asked, casually combing her fingers through her short hair.

He had been too stunned to speak. Not that he ever bothered to ask but Kai hadn’t expected Amber to be Kris’s type. He imagined someone taller, more feminine, a little on the dim side but with a generous set of s. She’d match him visually although Kai was sure that he would secretly think Kris deserved better.

“Good,” he answered once he realized she had addressed him. Her blouse was still ed and he tried not to stare.

She seemed to sense the reason for his discomfort and fixed her top without breaking eye contact. As the last button slid into its appropriate slot, she smirked.

He blushed furiously. He decided Kris could do a lot worse than her and she could probably do better than him. )

Kai shakes his head in an attempt to dislodge the traumatic memory. He hears footsteps approaching his room and he pushes the open pages closer to his face in order to disguise his thoughts. A soft knock rattles the door. “Come in,” Kai says with forced nonchalance.

Kris pushes the door open just a bit and sticks his head through the gap. “Hey, I’m going to meet a friend. I’ll probably be back late so don’t wait up.”

“Yeah sure.” Kai nods, playing along, and Kris flashes him a smile. His roommate closes the door behind him.

Keys jangle, another door shuts, and then silence.

Kai reads the same sentence three times before flinging the book aside. He supposes he could turn on the television or work out or just call it an early night but none of those things appeal to him at all. What he really wants, he realizes, is to…

…not be alone.

For a moment, he considers calling Yoona and breaking their promise to stay away from each other. Her, because she loves him too much and him, because he does not.

No, that isn’t true, he thinks. He loves Yoona deeply. Just not in the way she wants him to love her.

(Their relationship had been doomed from the start; acknowledging the older girl’s affections for him simply because he didn’t want to think about his own heartbreak. He liked her more than he initially thought he would. She is incredibly pretty as well as kind and funny. The age difference didn’t seem to matter until Yoona entered university two years before him.

They made it through somehow and they stayed together until Kai’s last year of university when Yoona casually brought up the idea of marriage.

He could have reacted better to the conversation, he admits.

“Why can’t we just keep going with the way things are now? Isn’t it enough?”

It had been the wrong thing to say to the woman he had been dating for almost seven years. But once the words were out of his mouth, he couldn’t take them back no matter how much he apologized.

She broke up with him a few weeks later with tears in her eyes. She still loved him, she always would. But she couldn’t be with somebody who didn’t feel the same way about her. It wasn’t fair to either of them.)

He reckons there are other girls he could call. But all of them are girls he knows through mutual friends. Friends who would eventually hear of his less than honorable intentions and shake their heads in shock, saying they had no idea that Kai was that kind of person.

But Kai doesn’t want to who he is. At least, not for a few hours.

He grabs his keys and heads out, feet transporting him to a bar a several blocks away from his apartment building, one he’s passed many times but never entered. He shows his identification card to the bouncer out front and slips into the noisy, smoky establishment.

The place is crowded but most of the patrons have congregated around the pool table so he easily finds a seat at the bar.

“What can I get for you?” the bartender asks, stretching his arms wide and placing his palms firmly on the varnished wooden counter.

“Whiskey soda,” Kai replies. “And a glass of water too, please.”

The bartender pours a shot of well whiskey into a glass chocked with ice and fills the remaining space with fountain soda. He puts the drink in front of Kai and fills a cup meant for pints of beer with tap water, no ice. A ring of condensation immediately appears as he sets it down.

Kai hands over a 10,000 won bill. “Keep the change,” he tells the bartender and turns in his seat to survey the dimly lit room.

The place is a dive, the kind of bar Kris would never willingly enter. Most of the customers are cheery day laborers with blistered hands and skin freckled from exposure to the sun. Sleeveless cotton reveal thick biceps and forearms. Kai tries to blend in despite his sweater with suede elbow patches. He sips his drink which has too much soda and not enough alcohol.

There are a few women near the dart board but they seem to already be companions of the other men. Still, they glance over at him and smile, appreciating his youthful presence. He smiles politely back but doesn’t encourage their attention. The last thing he needs is a jealous boyfriend or husband getting the wrong idea.

He drains the rest of his drink in a long, hard gulp and hisses. Most of the whiskey had settled at the bottom of the glass and the sting of alcohol lingers on his tongue. He washes away the burn with the metallic tap water.

Kai stretches his neck and looks for the bartender but the man is nowhere to be found. The other customers, having been served their drinks, don’t seem to notice his absence.

He suddenly feels foolish and disgusted with himself. He isn’t one of those men who prey on drunk women for an easy . He thinks of how disappointed Kris or Suho would be if they knew where he was at the moment.

The bartender reappears, lifting the gate and stepping behind the counter. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he says to Kai with a friendly smile. “Next drink is on the house. What can I get for you?”

He should go home. He really should. But in a fit of self-loathing, he replies “another whiskey soda please.”

His second tastes more of whiskey than soda and he drinks it quicker than his first. He’s trying hard not to pull a face and almost doesn’t notice the stool next his rattling as someone slides into the seat.

“Hey Vee,” the bartender says. “What can I get for you?”

“Oh, the usual,” a sweet, girly voice answers. “Put it on my tab.”

“You don’t have a tab.”

“I don’t?” she asks with a feigned surprise.

The bartender laughs as if it’s an old joke. “Okay. One whiskey soda then.”

Kai peer sideways at the new arrival. She seems about his age and her white skin and shiny brown waves are a bit unusual amongst the fried skin and bleached locks of the other women. But despite her appearance, she looks completely at ease. She pours her drink down without hesitation.

“You want another?” the bartender asks Kai, interrupting his observation.

“Um.” Kai gives a clumsy shrug before noticing the “cash only” sign tucked away behind the row of well liquors. “Sorry, all I got left is my credit card,” he says, rising out of his seat.

“Put it on my tab,” his neighbor, the funny girl, suddenly inserts. “Go on, Junjin. I’m feeling generous.”

The bartender looks at him and waits for a response, hand resting on the soda fountain dispenser.

Kai sits back down, biting back a sigh. It’s not as if he has to drive home so another drink couldn’t hurt. “Thanks,” he says quietly, watching the bartender create another whiskey soda. Once the drink is in his hand, he turns to his benefactor, more out of courtesy than a desire to make conversation.

She’s already smiling brightly at him. “Hi, I’m Victoria,” she says, holding out her hand.

He shakes it, momentarily stunned by her beauty which his quick glance hadn’t foreshadowed. “Kai,” he remembers to say. “Thanks again for the drink.”

“You’re welcome.”

He notices a Sino dialect when she speaks, more pronounced than Kris’s and less than Tao’s. “Are you…” he starts but changes his mind. “You come here often?” he says and inwardly winces at what is commonly known as the most hackneyed pick-up line in the world.

But Victoria doesn’t seem to mind. She orders two more drinks, one for herself and the other for Kai before he can protest.

“So Kai,” she says once they have clinked and emptied their glasses. “What do you do?”

“I’m a biomechanical researcher,” he replies, wiping his mouth. “I specialize in athletics.”

Victoria’s eyes widen. “Smart boy.” She sounds impressed.

Kai shakes his head. “Not really. I originally wanted to be a personal trainer. However my mom wanted me to be a doctor which I’m definitely not qualified for. But I wanted to please her so…we compromised.”

“And you love your mother.” She tilts her head to the side. “Could you be more perfect?”

Kai looks down, his cheeks flushing partly from the alcohol and partly from the compliment. They buy another round of drinks, whiskey without the soda, his water completely abandoned.

Still, he feels a familiar tingle below his stomach. “I’ll be right back,” he tells Victoria and heads off to find a restroom. The laminated signs on the wall direct him towards the rear of the establishment and he finds himself in a narrow hallway. One door is marked ‘Employees Only.’ The other is a uni bathroom.

He knocks first to make sure nobody Is inside before pushing the door with his fingertips. The tiny bathroom has no stalls, just a grimy sink, a grimier toilet, and the unmistakable stench of inaccurate aim.

Kai takes the third longest piss of his life. He uses the toe of shoe to flush the toilet and steps in front of the sink to wash his hands. The water screeches as it pours out of the faucet in full force, spraying all over the counter when his palms make an uneasy grab for it. He looks around and finds no sign of soap so he settles for rubbing his hands together under the violent stream.

He reaches for the paper towel dispenser but sees the empty roll through the clear, plastic cover. He shakes the excess water off his hands and sighs. He can’t leave the bathroom quick enough. He opens the door.

Victoria is standing on the other side, a determined look on her face. Kai opens his mouth to excuse himself when she pushes him and he stumbles backward.

She steps in after him and closes the door. “That was a long piss,” she remarks, getting ever closer.

Kai backs up and his head knocks the useless paper towel dispenser. He nods. “Third longest of my life,” he replies, trying to lighten the suddenly loaded atmosphere. At first, he tries not to look at her, glancing at the ceiling or the door but this avoidance seems too obvious and rude. He lowers his head and forces his eyes to meet hers.

She bridges the distance between them.

The first thing Kai notices is that she kisses differently than Yoona. His ex-girlfriend’s kisses had been soft, languid, unhurried, as if she knew they had the rest of their lives to embrace each other. They had made love in the same way.

Victoria alternates between pressing against him with intense desire, the kind that making out in public bathrooms seem to generate, and quick, playful nibbling at his lips. He finds himself enjoying her unpredictable style and he works to keep up.

Her hands disappear from his shoulder and a few moments later, he hears a zip and feels the waistband of his pants relax. He turns his head. “Wait, wait,” he whispers. “Not here. It’s really gross. Somewhere else.”

She nips at his jaw before bringing her lips to his ear. Her breath is hot against his skin. “Your place or mine?”

“Yours,” he answers without hesitation.

*

She lives farther from the bar than Kai does, in a rougher neighborhood. Her apartment complex sits on the corner of where two busy streets intersect. The exterior could use an upgrade and the flower beds need weeding. But the interior is surprising modern and well-kept.

No walls separates the kitchen from the sitting area, making the apartment appear larger than the actual square footage. Kai stands awkwardly by the coffee table, between a loveseat and an armchair, while Victoria goes into the kitchen.

She opens the refrigerator. The weak yellow light projects her shadow onto the adjacent wall. She comes back with a single beer, twisting off the top and tossing it into the trash. “I wasn’t really expecting to bring anyone home tonight,” she says, handing him the ice-cold bottle. “Can you give me five minutes to straighten up my room?”

He nods, not trusting himself to speak lest he lose his nerve and bolt out of the apartment.

She smiles and gently pushes him down on the loveseat. “Thanks,” she says. “It won’t take long.”

Kai watches her disappear through the door farthest from the front and shut it behind her. He quickly takes a sip of his beer and forces the bitter drink past the lump in his throat. He’s fairly sober at this point and a million thoughts fly through his mind.

What the hell am I doing? It’s fine. This will be fun. I don’t even know this girl. She probably wouldn’t be all that upset if I just leave right now. No, that would be a jerk move. But this is for all the wrong reasons. Well, are there such things as the ‘right reasons?’ Just keep drinking. No, stop drinking or else you won’t be able to get it up. Did she seem too drunk? This is such a bad idea. What is taking her so long? Did she –

His thoughts are interrupted by the scraping of a key inside the lock. Kai freezes, hand clutching the half-empty beer bottle.

The front door opens and a young man enters the apartment. He glances at Kai impassively and nods. “Hey, how’s it going?” he asks.

Kai doesn’t return the greeting. He can’t tell if the other man is actually indifferent or just hiding his anger very well. His head swivels as his gaze follows the young man through the living room and kitchen, and into Victoria’s room. He leaves the door slightly ajar and Kai hears the low rumblings of a conversation.

, , . She has a boyfriend. He’s going to kill me. Or maybe mug me. Maybe this is a set-up. I need to get out of here.

The young man reappears and softly closes Victoria’s door just as Kai stands up. He shakes his head. “I’m not her boyfriend so don’t worry. Please sit,” he urges. He goes to the refrigerator and pulls out another beer. “Finish your drink.”

Kai hesitates but he finds it more tiring to cobble together a decent refusal so he sits back down on the loveseat, still holding his beer like a weapon.

The young man takes the arm chair and twists off the cap to his bottle. He takes a lengthy swig before finally introducing himself. “I’m Lay,” he says. He points over his shoulder to the door next to Victoria’s. “I’m her roommate.”

Kai’s face warms as he fills up with relief. “Oh okay. I…my name is Kai. I’m…” he pauses “a friend?” He cringes at how unconvincing he sounds.

But Lay simply nods and smirks, a dimple forming in his left cheek.

Kai stares at the indentation and the smooth, white expanse of skin around it. Lay shifts in his seat and Kai is suddenly aware of how close their knees are to one another despite the presence of the coffee table. He drinks to hide his discomfort, finishing the bottle in a long pull.

He sets the bottle on the coffee table and a reedy burp escapes before he can stop it. “Sorry,” he murmurs.

Lay makes no indication of offense. He sets his own bottle down and leans forward. From the table, he open a hidden drawer and pulls out a pad with a pen. “Write down your number,” he says, “I’ll make sure Victoria gets it.”

Kai takes the pen and scrawls his number on the pad. He stands, feeling a bit dizzy but relatively sober. Lay walks him to the door. “Thanks,” says Kai and feels the need to add, “sorry about all this. I didn’t realize she was so drunk.”

Lay shrugs and says evenly, “She likes to pretend she isn’t a lightweight but truthfully, she can’t handle more than a few drinks.” He presses his lips into a thin line and glares at him.

Kai feels inexplicably dirty, as if his insides had been rubbed with gravel. “Look, nothing happened. I wasn’t going to barge into her room and take advantage of her while she was passed out.” He stares hard back at Lay. “You might not believe me but it’s true. Anyways, I’m still sorry. This whole thing was a bad idea.”

Something softens just the slightest in Lay’s eyes. “I’m not accusing you of anything. But she’s not just my roommate, she’s also my friend.”

Kai nods. “Yeah, I understand,” he says quietly. “She’s lucky to have you.” He exhales loudly and wonders how he will get home when exhaustion is etched into every bone in his body. He’s just about to leave when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He glances back in surprise.

“Thanks for getting her home,” Lay says with genuine gratitude. “I’ll see you around.”

Kai isn’t sure why that last sentiment, more like an empty afterthought than a promise, makes him warm. He chalks it up to the alcohol and leaves before he can say anything stupid.

A/N:

So Kai and Lay finally meet.

I will make a bullet points for things I feel like I should have made clear but maybe didn’t very well:

• Tao, Kris, Xiumin, Kai, Suho, D.O work for something called the Hera Institute for Scientific Development and Research. The Institute is a large, private company but have some influence on the government and they have agents working for them.
•  
• Tao, Kris, Xiumin, Suho, D.O came in through the Artemis Youth Program and eventually came to work for Section 302-D. D.O had been initially rejected from the program but was given another chance. That will be explained in the Kaisoo chapter.
•  
• Nobody on the outside knows what Section 302-D really does.
•  
• Those on the inside know that their work involves exploring parallel universes. Tao is one of the few people crazy enough to actually go first into an unknown universe, take notes, and report back to the Institute.
•  
• We’ve figured out that Joonmyeon, Minseok, and Kyungsoo (known as Targets by the Institute) have been replaced with identical agents: Suho, Xiumin, D.O. They tried to do the same with Yifan and Kris but Yifan escaped before it could happen. That will be explained more as the story progresses. This entire concept will be (hopefully) made clearer in a few chapters.
•  
• The Targets (Joonmyeon, Kyungso, and Minseok if Tao hadn’t killed him) are taken back to the Institute where something happens to them.
•  
• Suho and Kai are brothers. Their parents were some kind of traitors to the government – this will also be explained later. Because of their involvement with illegal activities, their parents had a system where if everything was all clear, but one day they didn’t. Suho did what he was supposed to do which is take Kai and run. They were caught and Suho was basically blackmailed into joining Artemis in exchange for Kai’s freedom.

• The last part of Tao’s chapter, which is actually told from Kris’s POV, was supposed to help explain the parallel universe thing. Basically, there are an infinite number of parallel universes out there. Not everyone exists in every universe but if you and the people most important in your life exist in another universe, the powers that be (for lack of a better term) find a way to bring you together.

• That section with the poster is a shout-out to this universe, the very one that you and I are in. In this world, Suho, D.O, Kai, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kris, Sehun, Xiumin, Chen, Luhan, Lay, and Tao are bandmates in EXO.

In another world, they are agents for a shadowy research institute. And in still another world, they’re political activists and piano teachers. Or they’re victims of a chemical spill and developed mutant powers. Or they went to the same boarding school and gave each other s in the bathroom. Or maybe they’re lawyers on opposite sides of a multi-billion dollar international case. Or they're gangsters.

As I’m typing this, I think what I’m trying to get at is why we write AU stories in the first place. It’s this idea that the bond between these twelve boys is so strong that it crosses worlds and universes.

Anyways, enough of that. Thanks for reading and I hope I’ve cleared up a few things.

Next chapter is D.O again.