A/n: This is just some short Kaisoo thing on how they got back together. I have many things planned for them, but not a heck of a lot happens while they weren't together. This covers two and a half years, I think, between the last chapter of Miscalc until the middle of their second year in university. More exciting things in the future~ (I would appreciate comments regardless <3)

When Kyungsoo “met” Jongin for the second time, he had no idea what to expect from his life. After all, he didn’t imagine anyone else in his life would approve of his decision to just start over like nothing had ever happened.

The first day, he had called his mom to pick him up from school – having missed his bus and not feeling like walking the long distance home – and it was hard for her not to notice his warm smile and general happy manner. He’d been so down for so long, she’d wanted to bring him to a doctor. Upon asking, he just told her that he’d “met a new friend”, not explaining further. He wasn’t trying to hide it, but she was his first warning that his overnight change wouldn’t go undetected by those around him.

The second day, Sehun picked up on the brighter Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo fed him the same explanation he’d given his mother. However, naturally, Sehun wasn’t so easy to let it go. He needed to know who it was, where they’d met, what had happened, what he was like, and most importantly, why Kyungsoo was so happy about it. Kyungsoo just said something about how it was a new page for him, a fresh start and all that. He wasn’t surprised when Sehun wasn’t satisfied, but again he said nothing more on it.

Key, understandably, took a bit longer to notice the change in Kyungsoo. He was on the other side of the world, after all, and didn’t actually get to see Kyungsoo very much. Only after a week did he sense that something about Kyungsoo – the way he talked in his texts, the optimism in his words after months of suffering – and then he too found out about Kyungsoo’s “new friend”. By this point, Sehun had already learned that it was in fact Jongin, and Kyungsoo was a bit surprised that he hadn’t told Key about it.

Kyungsoo decided that, in Key’s case, he wasn’t going to mention that he had reunited and renewed (or rather, began) his friendship with Jongin. If (or, when) he figured it out, Kyungsoo would deal with the older’s wrath.

Inevitably, both of his best friends found out about his reunion with Jongin. It resulted in a lot of yelling over the phone by Key, and a lot of yelling in person by Sehun. Key was (eventually) pretty calm and rational in his argument against Kim Jongin, and Kyungsoo took his warnings seriously, but assured him things would be alright this time. Sehun was just over-dramatic as he was in everything, and he name-called a lot and disagreed without even hearing Kyungsoo out; thus, Kyungsoo shouted a lot in return. In the end, both of them (sort of) accepted Kyungsoo’s new start with Jongin, but told him to be careful.

During their final year of high school, he and Jongin became close enough to be called friends, though nothing beyond that. For nine months, they hadn’t existed together at all. In the next nine months, they spoke though not daily, eventually exchanged numbers but didn’t text too often, occasionally studied together but didn’t hang out all that much otherwise, and saw each other in school but never went to one another’s homes. It was slow-going, but not uncomfortable. Kyungsoo was focused on school, but more importantly, he was taking his second chance with Jongin very seriously.

Last time he had messed up too much to ruin this again. He remembered Jongin once telling him that he’d had to take Kyungsoo’s walls down brick by brick. This time, Kyungsoo was going to build their relationship with every individual grain of sand, no matter how long it took. If he gave up before it was complete, then it mustn’t mean that much to him. So, for that first nine months, he made a strong base to develop upon. Only then did he even consider the idea of having possibilities beyond friendship with Kim Jongin.

If Jongin was opposed to how slow Kyungsoo took things, he never spoke a word condemning him for it. Really, Kyungsoo felt like they were on the same page, both wanting to be more careful this time. Perhaps they became friends slower than the average friendship would bloom, but it was unrushed, and more certain.

With that first summer came the first time they visited one another outside of school and for non-school related reasons. Though their families’ reaction upon seeing each other together again was less than positive, eventually it seemed to be accepted that things were different this time. They didn’t meet up too many times, and the times they did were very casual, friend-like and not romantic. They went swimming in Jongin’s pool, watched a movie at Kyungsoo’s house, played video games in Jongin’s basement. It was nice to be with Jongin that way, and Kyungsoo found it was very easy to be friends with him, and he sort of forgot about any ideas of romance with the younger, in favour of just enjoying the relationship they had.

(Mostly. There was still the odd night he thought about it. As much as he pretended and hard as he tried, he hadn’t completely forgotten how things had been before. The good parts – the touches, kisses, love-filled nights – but also the bad. The bad was what reminded him of why he was approaching this – them – in a new way.)

Fall arrived soon enough which meant starting school – or rather, university. And although he and Jongin were attending the same institution, Kyungsoo temporarily put their relationship aside in favour of adjusting to the new life of being a university student. Within a month, though, they went back to meeting now and then; at the library, in study halls, on campus, even outside the school. It was sometime in November that they first went over to one of their places again.

Jongin met Kyungsoo outside of his lecture hall so they could go back to his place together. Neither had chosen to live on residence, since it was too costly for either of them. (Jongin was only getting a business degree, but Kyungsoo was in law, and the expenses for that were going to add up, even with his scholarships.) So they went to Jongin’s home, where both his older sisters had moved out now, and only his parents and now nine-year-old sister remained with him.

Their evening together was very informal, and it wasn’t even anything special. Kyungsoo’s class ended at seven, and they were at Jongin’s home by seven-thirty, where they grabbed some snacks and headed up to Jongin’s room. And then they just… talked. Not even about anything particular, just whatever came to mind. They spent hours up there, conversing about this and that, until it was going on eleven at night and Kyungsoo realized he needed to get going home.

And he left, and there was really nothing more to it. However, some of his long-slumbering feelings for Jongin awakened that night, even if there was no rhyme or reason to it. He went home that night fighting desires to ask Jongin out, or kiss him, or maybe go a lot farther than that – somewhere he hadn’t gone in nearly two years. And though he managed to restrain himself, those thoughts still crept into his dreams that night.

Thus, he supposed what he knew what inevitably would happen – despite how he told himself that becoming a friend of Jongin’s did not necessarily mean he would ever rekindle a romance with him – began to bloom in his heart. And for the second time in his life, he began to fall in love with Jongin.

Perhaps unreasonably, it took Kyungsoo nearly as long to accept this fact as it had the last time. Well, that wasn’t quite it. Before, he had refused to like Jongin. This time, he didn’t mind that his feelings had grown for the boy, he just didn’t want anything to be too sudden, so he took his time. And quite some time he took. In fact, by the time they had finished their first year in university (see: April, aka almost half a year later), he still had in no way acted upon his feelings or even brought them up to Jongin.

In his defense, there were a few reasons (see: excuses) for that.

First of all, he rationally reasoned with himself that the first year of university should come with limited distractions from actual school work. That was fair. Besides, it had been November when he’d begun feeling this way, and not long after was their first set of exams, so it was natural for him to delay anything relating to the whole ordeal. After those exams ended, it was important for both of them to focus in the beginning of their new classes so they would understand everything, and then they would have to keep up with those classes. And then there were exams again. So yes, school was more pressing than romance. That excuse, however, ran out in April. Now they would have four months of freedom.

More importantly even than school, Kyungsoo was reminded of the very possible fact that Jongin may not return his romantic sentiments. Therefore, Kyungsoo would have to be cautious. Yes, very cautious. He couldn’t just force anything upon Jongin and make a mess of their friendship. He couldn’t just, say, kiss him out of the blue without any pretext.

He may have accidentally done that. (It really was an accident!)

It was sometime in May. They were in his room and Jongin was just talking to him and things were normal as they always were, but then Kyungsoo started to think about how he liked Jongin and missed the way things used to be and he hadn’t kissed anyone in a really long time, and then suddenly he found his lips pressed against Jongin’s and that was it. He pulled away a couple seconds later, and Jongin was staring at him with wide eyes, stunned into silence.

Oops.

“Um,” Jongin finally managed to speak. Kyungsoo felt his face flushing with warmth as regret began to catch up to him. (Maybe not regret, but at least a lot of embarrassment.)

“Sorry,” he said uneasily as Jongin’s eyes stayed on him, unmoving and full of shock. “I – just – yeah, sorry.”

“O – kay?”

Oh boy. Kyungsoo felt like he was going to drown in the awkwardness. “I didn’t mean to do that, but I did so, yeah. Just – don’t worry about it.”

“Should I be worried about it?” Jongin asked slowly.

“I dunno,” Kyungsoo muttered. “You’re my friend and I just kissed you, and now everything feels weird. I just… don’t want it to be like – I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Let’s just… forget about it, I guess,” Jongin suggested quietly. “No harm done, right?”

“Right,” Kyungsoo agreed, though he wasn’t so sure. Jongin was looking kind of confused, but also kind of put out, and he wasn’t sure the reason for that. He felt like he’d just unintentionally made their friendship uncomfortable, and Jongin probably wouldn’t be able to look at him the same now. Great.

“I haven’t actually kissed anyone in over two years now,” Jongin said softly. Over two years? That meant… It had been about two years for Kyungsoo too, because since Key he hadn’t bothered with anyone else. But Jongin had had no one. It made Kyungsoo’s heart ache a bit.

“Well, now you have again. You can’t say you’re totally deprived.” And he meant it to be a joke, to lighten up the tension so they could go back to normal, but Jongin didn’t stay for much longer after the whole incident.

Kyungsoo felt pretty terrible about it, and he didn’t know how to come back from kissing his ex-boyfriend-now-friend he was crushing on again. Easily, he could have just let Jongin go; if he wanted, he could have spent the next four months without seeing him at all. But why bother making things worse? If things weren’t too unbearable between them, Kyungsoo figured he was allowed to stay. So he did.

Fortunately, Jongin didn’t seem to hold it against him, because the next time they saw each other it wasn’t anything bad. They both seemed to be unsure as to whether the kiss thing would be brought up by the other, but it quickly became clear that they weren’t talking about it, and it was put behind them.

The next time they kissed was at the beginning of July, and this time it wasn’t Kyungsoo’s fault.

It had happened while they were walking through the park. There weren’t many people around that day because the sky was filled with clouds, and they’d been calling for rain since that morning, but it had yet to fall. Kyungsoo couldn’t remember what they’d been talking about when it finally did start to rain, but then he was teasingly yelling at Jongin because the younger had said they wouldn’t need an umbrella, and now look at them. He cupped his hands to begin catching the rain so he could throw it at Jongin, and then he’d been laughing and running away before Jongin could retaliate.

Eventually, they were both soaked from the heavy-falling rain, accepting their fates and walking back home. After ten minutes, they were walking along the side of the road, amusedly (at least somewhat) grumbling about the cold and wetness when a car jettisoned by and splashed them both, drenching them further. Kyungsoo broke out into laughter even though he was kind of irritated, and Jongin joined him at first but then he stopped. He stopped laughing, stopped walking, stopped… everything. He just stood there for a moment, and Kyungsoo turned back to look at him questioningly. Then, quite abruptly, Jongin took a step towards him and leaned down to kiss him very hard, full of urgency and painfully burning passion. By the time he pulled away, his hands were twisted into Kyungsoo’s hair, both breathing heavily. He pulled his hands back slowly, and this time Kyungsoo was the speechless one.

“I never got to kiss you in the rain before,” Jongin told him softly, eyes burning as his rain-soaked hair reached down to them. Kyungsoo’s mouth fell open in surprise as he stared up at him, taking in what he’d said.

They didn’t talk about before. Not ever. Sometimes they mentioned things they had done before – it wasn’t like they acted like none of it had ever happened (well, they might pretend a little), so it wasn’t like the past was off-limits – they just didn’t really (ever; like, ever, as in they never had since they’d started talking again) bring up the fact that they had dated in the past. And Jongin hadn’t exactly said it now, but it was acknowledging it. Kyungsoo didn’t know how to respond to any of it.

There had never been official boundaries set, when the whole friendship had started. No one had ever said they would never be allowed to date again, if that was what they ended up wanting. If Kyungsoo had been second-guessing himself before, he knew now that he did want it. Jongin. He wanted Jongin.

Somehow, he thought he always had.

He didn’t say anything, though, because he didn’t want to jump right into this. He couldn’t. When he was ready, he would talk to Jongin about it, and see where they both stood. For now, he just laughed, rolling his eyes teasingly and grabbing Jongin’s hand, dragging him along as if it had never happened.

(And also for now, he would fantasize about that kiss, let it hold him over until the next one. If there was a next one. He kind of hoped there would be a next one.)

Somewhere along the lines, Kyungsoo’s willpower began to wean away, and he kept finding himself in situations where he would just… kiss Jongin. Usually it was just a sudden thing, and then he would apologize and pretend it hadn’t happened. But gradually he grew bolder, and he would kiss Jongin a little longer, a little rougher, until finally one day Jongin spoke up against it.

They were back in Jongin’s room, and Kyungsoo had pulled him into a kiss while they’d been trying to study, crushing his papers beneath him as he crawled closer. He’d pinned Jongin between the wall and his body, slowly drawing Jongin’s lower lip between his teeth and nibbling, bringing low sounds out of the younger. When Kyungsoo’s hand slipped under his shirt to press his palm against the soft skin of his stomach, Jongin pushed him (albeit gently) away.

“Kyungsoo – Kyungsoo, what are you doing?” he gasped. Kyungsoo captured his lips again and Jongin whined, pushing against him a second time. “Kyungsoo-”

“Jongin,” Kyungsoo exhaled heavily, meeting the boy’s dark eyes, pupils blown.

“What is this?” Jongin asked breathily.

“I…” Kyungsoo retrieved his hand, resting it on Jongin’s shoulder, but not otherwise removing himself from the younger. He kept his knees straddling Jongin’s thighs, bodies pressed close together, noses almost touching. “I want you,” he whispered, as if afraid Jongin would hear it, even though he couldn’t not.

“You do?” Jongin’s voice was filled with insecurity, but Kyungsoo gave a tiny nod. “In what way?”

Kyungsoo swallowed hard. He wasn’t sure how he felt, talking about this. But of course, he couldn’t just keep kissing Jongin whenever he felt like without questions eventually being asked. “Like this…” He glanced down at their bodies, emphasizing his words by leaning in to kiss Jongin deliberately. “And…”

“Hm?” Jongin prodded softly when Kyungsoo didn’t continue.

“Do you-” He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second before he could go on. “Want to go on a date – with me?”

Kyungsoo was almost scared of his answer, whether he’d say yes or no. It hadn’t been his intention to ask Jongin that, and part of him thought maybe it wasn’t even a good idea. If Jongin said no, Kyungsoo would be wrecked. Really, though. He had kind of reached the point where his heart would be broken if he got rejected by this boy. Like, he liked Kim Jongin; it was fair that he wanted the boy to like him back, was it not? On the other hand, though, he was a bit nervous about what would happen if they did go on a date, or if they did start dating. Not because he thought that they were doomed for destruction again, but… Surely it was on both of their minds that last time had been a disaster, and they were both worried about things going wrong, or falling into the same old habits…

No. Things weren’t like they’d been before, Kyungsoo reminded himself. Circumstances were different, it was all just different. If they came across trouble in a relationship now, it wouldn’t be for the reason it had been before. And if it wasn’t worth risking a possibly great relationship for potential fights and hiccups along the way, then Kyungsoo would never be able to be in a relationship for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t deserve to be.

Jongin must have been contemplating these things to himself too, because he took a while to respond. “Well,” he began hesitantly. Kyungsoo bit the inside of his lip. “That would be… nice, yeah.”

“Does that mean you will, then?”

Jongin gave a careful nod. “Yes. I’m just – processing, and trying to… stay calm and stuff.” Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. “You have a sorta backwards way of doing things, you know? You’re supposed to go on dates and then do the kissing thing, not the other way around.”

Kyungsoo snorted. “Since when do I ever follow the rules when it comes to this kind of stuff?” he pointed out, and Jongin gave him a smile. “So then, date? We – we’re gonna do that?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Jongin nodded again, and he sort of looked like he was glowing from the inside out. Kyungsoo took that as a good sign. “You asked me, though, so you have to plan it all out.”

“Oh is that how it works?” Kyungsoo smacked him playfully, leaning in to kiss him briefly. “I’m assuming I’ll have to pay for it all too. Is that why you haven’t gotten the balls up to ask me yourself?”

“No, no! That’s not – I didn’t – you’re just confusing, okay?!” Jongin cried in exasperation as his thoughts and words refused to comply. Kyungsoo was grinning from ear to ear. “I mean, I couldn’t tell if you were kissing me because you liked me or if you were just being Kyungsoo and-”

“Being Kyungsoo?” Kyungsoo repeated judgingly. Jongin just shrugged, though he seemed to shrink a bit under Kyungsoo’s teasing glare.

“I don’t know, you’re just so open,” Jongin noted cautiously. “I didn’t know if you kissed other people, or if it was just me.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “The first time I kissed you, this year – I hadn’t kissed anyone else since Key, and that was back in eleventh grade. I’m not really in that habit anymore. Or I wasn’t.”

“Well, I didn’t know that,” Jongin told him. “Anyway, if you want me to plan our date and pay for everything, I can; I was just joking about you having to. You’re just hard to figure out – I can’t, or couldn’t tell if you liked me or not.”

“Well I do,” Kyungsoo said firmly. “I have for – probably almost a year now, like this.” Jongin looked extremely pleased to hear that, and he pulled Kyungsoo into a very long hug, kissing his shoulder gently and repeatedly.

Their relationship didn’t take long to pick up after that. At least, it didn’t take nearly three more years. They took their time, as they did with everything, but by Kyungsoo’s birthday (or rather, on his birthday) just a short three months later, their status changed from friendship to dating.

(And Jongin had been the one to ask, just as he had before. The night of Kyungsoo’s birthday, they were together – they had been all day, on Kyungsoo’s request – and though they had celebrated various ways throughout the day, they celebrated in their own private way that night, the first time in over three years that they had been together that way. Needless to say, it was very different than the last time. However, when they were done, lying in bed snuggled close together, Jongin asked if Kyungsoo would be his boyfriend, and Kyungsoo couldn’t say no. Not that he wanted to.

He really liked Jongin, after all.)

A/n: The next Kaisoo (actually, more just Kyungsoo but sort of both) thing is gonna be exciting, I promise. I'm already doing a lot of research very aggressively on things and oh man, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.