Warm.

Kyungsoo snuggles closer to the warmth, feeling content. He inhales deeply but quickly snaps his eyes open as he registers no, this is not how my room smells like. His room does not smell like fresh lemon.

He hears someone chuckles. He pulls off immediately but trapped because there’s an arm lingers on his waist. Kyungsoo looks up and lets out a silent ‘Oh’

“Good morning, sleeping beauty. Did you sleep good?” Kai asks, seems like he’s been awake for awhile to watch Kyungsoo sleeping.

Kyungsoo’s face flushes red, he nods then replies with a shy ‘good morning’

Kai ruffles Kyungsoo’s hair. He then gets up first. That’s when Kyungsoo sees the clock on Kai’s night stand. It’s past 9 in the morning.

“J-Jongin! School! We-we’re late!” the small boy panics.

Kai chuckles, he helps the oblivious boy gets up from the bed, “Mom had called the school earlier before she went to work. You deserve a rest day.”

Kyungsoo stares at Kai in wonder. He suddenly remembers what Kai said and did to him last night so he blushes furiously to the tip of his ears.

Kai looks at the small boy who seems lost in his own world, he tugs Kyungsoo’s hand, “Breakfast?”

The latter wakes up from his reverie and looks at Kai. He smiles and Kai swears he’ll do anything to make Kyungsoo keeps smiling.

---

“Jongin…” Kyungsoo softly calls Kai as both of them on the sink, washing the plates. Kyungsoo’s voice is so silky, the tone was so child-like. The way the called Kai is so innocent to the point that it brings smile to Kai’s face.

“Hmm?” Kai hums as a reply, he wipes his hand to the rag on the counter.

But he gets nothing in respond. Kyungsoo keeps silence to the point that Kai thinks maybe he misheard something. But he’s pretty sure Kyungsoo was calling his name.

Kai cups Kyungsoo’s left cheek with his hand, “Hey, you can tell me anything, you know…”

Kyungsoo looks Kai in the eyes but immediately averts his eyes away. He bites his lips, “Can I, uhm, ask you something?” The small boy finally asks.

“Yeah, sure. Anything” Kai smiles. He puts away the clean plates and glasses back to their place. Kyungsoo watches Kai’s back as the latter put things away.

“Why are you nice to me?”

Kai stops what he’s doing for a second. Then he quickly finishes it and closes the counter tops. He turns his back to see Kyungsoo staring at the floor. His shoulders slumped. Kai sighs, he takes Kyungsoo’s hand and pulls the smaller one to follow him to the living room.

Kai stops at one couch in the middle of the living room. He sits first to pull out the handle inside the arm-rest so the sofa-bed comes out. He motions Kyungsoo who just stands beside the couch confusedly to sit in between his legs.

Kyungsoo does as the latter gestured him to do, having no idea that the position could considered intimate. Kyungsoo folds his knees up, he puts his chin on it.

Kai grabs one of Kyungsoo’s hand and entwines their fingers together.

“I have a story I want to tell you, do you want to hear me out?” Kai slowly asks. Kyungsoo nods. Kai can feel Kyungsoo relaxes, he plays with Kai’s fingers, tangles – untangles them.

“When I was in the elementary school, I was a stubborn kid. I took a dance lesson that time, but I didn’t hear my instructor and kept playing around. So I broke my leg. Doctor said they had to put cast on my leg for three weeks. I was so irritated; I couldn’t play with my friends! So during PE class, the teacher told me to sit on the bleacher.”

Kai stops a little bit to look at Kyungsoo, the small boy is still playing with his fingers but he knows Kyungsoo pays attention to his story.

“I thought that day would be another boring day, sitting alone by myself.” Kai continues, “But then I saw someone sat on the bleacher. He was all alone by himself; he just sat there watching the rest of the kids playing. I thought, ‘hey why not talking to him?’ So I did. He told me his name, right before his stomach growled” Kai looks at Kyungsoo and how the small boy’s face slowly blushing in red. Kai nudges Kyungsoo’s head with his head softly before placing a soft kiss on his hair.

“That’s how I met Do Kyungsoo” Kai wraps his free hand around Kyungsoo’s waist, pulling him closer. Kyungsoo is still blushing but he relaxes his body, his back touches Kai’s chest.

“I gave him banana milk. Ever since that day, I kept doing that. Whenever we met on the gym or the hall way, I gave him banana milk. My friends teased me a lot about it. At first I didn’t really care, they could say anything they want about me. But when they started to , I stopped giving him milk. I thought that time, if I stopped giving him milk, they would stop teasing him.” Kai lets out a long sigh. Kyungsoo stops playing with his fingers.

“We grew apart, we didn’t even meet each other anymore. Everytime I passed him on the hallway, I always had this feeling that he avoided me. So I gave up. I regretted it though, I still do.”

Kai intertwines his fingers again with Kyungsoo’s, “When I was in the middle school, he went to the same school as I did. I was happy, I thought I could finally restart everything with him. But then, I started to hear rumors about him. I also heard he was bullied in school. The stupid thing is, I did nothing about it. I was too caught up with my so-called popular peers. I was such a coward, I was afraid that they would turn their back on me if I did something good to him. It was stupid, really.”

Kai can feel Kyungsoo goes stiff, so he tightens his arm around Kyungsoo, rubs his hips in a soothing way.

“But suddenly, he disappeared. I had no idea where he was, or what in the world happened to him. I had no idea.” Kai’s voice croaks.

“There were so many things I wanted to say to him; I wanted to say sorry for ignoring him, I wanted to say that I wanted to be his friend so he didn’t have to eat lunch by himself, I wanted to say that his height was perfect-he didn’t have to hear what other people said about his height. But above all, I wanted to say that I regretted everything that I didn’t do. I regretted the fact that I was not there when he needed someone, I was not there with him to go through everything”

Kai rests his head on Kyungsoo’s shoulder, “So that day, when I saw him for the first time after what it feels like forever, I swear I’m not going to let him go this time.”

Kai grabs Kyungsoo’s forearm that full of lines so that Kyungsoo shifts a little bit towards him.

“I’ll protect him this time.” Kai kisses one line.

“I’ll do my best to gain his trust.” Another kiss.

“I’ll stay by his side so he doesn’t have to be alone” Kiss again, again and again.

Kyungsoo starts squirming while Kai keeps kissing his scars, his painful memories.

“I’ll make sure he knows he’s loved.” Kai kisses the last lines.

“I’ll make sure he knows that I love him, right from the second I saw him on that bleacher.” Kai kisses Kyungsoo’s palm then looks the small boy right in the eyes.

Kyungsoo’s big eyes b with tears. He stares into Kai’s eyes, as if looking for any lie but he finds none. Kai’s eyes tell him everything that he’s been yearning for life.

Kai shifts Kyungsoo so he faces Kai, “I love you, Do Kyungsoo. Trust me when I said it last night, trust me even when I say it for another million times, I love you”

He brings Kyungsoo into his arms and softly caresses the hair of the boy who is now crying.

After the sound of Kyungsoo’s crying subsides, Kai pulls off slightly, “As much as I know you look really beautiful even when you cry, let’s promise not to cry, okay?”

Kyungsoo chuckles then nods.

“Alright, I’ve been meaning to ask you this but I forgot yesterday. Don’t you think you need to tell your family? That you’re going to stay here for the time being? I heard from Luhan-hyung that your family is not here now…”

Kyungsoo’s eyes immediately bulge out. He abruptly struggles out from Kai then stomps to Kai’s bedroom. Kai follows him in curiosity, “What are you looking for?”

But Kyungsoo already plops down on the floor of Kai’s bedroom, rummaging through his bag to find his phone. Exactly as he predicted, there’s a lot of miscalled and unread text messages in his phone.

58 messages from Kris

24 miscalled from Kris.

Just as Kyungsoo tries to open the text one by one, his phone vibrates that he nearly throws it out of surprise. Kyungsoo swipes his phone to answer, Kai raises one brow looking at Kyungsoo is panic with his phone. He can hear someone from the other line of the phone asking a lot of questions, almost screaming even. But Kyungsoo looks so lost, he keeps opening and closing his mouth repeatedly but no words come out.

Kai bends down to grabs the phone from Kyungsoo.

“Hello?” Kai speaks.

“Who’s this?” the caller asks, venom lingers in his voice.

Kai frowns then pulls off the phone to see the name of the caller, Kris. He clears his throat, “Kai’s speaking. May I know why do you call Kyungsoo?” Kai tries to be calm.

“Kai? Who are you? Why are you the one who’s answering Kyungsoo’s phone?”

“For your record, he was panic because a certain someone bombarded him with questions loudly to the point that I could even hear it. And second, he’s not feeling really well. In case you’re wondering, he’s not coming to school today. Aren’t you supposed to be in class now, Kris?” Kai answers with as much as hatred to his voice.

“That’s none of your business” Kris ends the call.

Kai scoffs but then he realizes something, Kyungsoo is still practically on the floor, staring at him with confusion in his big owlish eyes.

He sighs at the scene of the lost boy. He bends down on his knees and gives Kyungsoo’s phone back at the owner, “I’m sorry for answering your phone like that”

The said boy just looks at him blankly.

Kai pulls Kyungsoo to stand up with him gently, “C’mon, let’s get ready for the day, we have things to do”