*edited 1/15/2021

~*~*~*~*

Jongin held out his hand for Kyungsoo to hold after he closed the door behind him. Kyungsoo's eyes lit up for the first time in days as he gave Jongin a half smile and entwined his fingers with the other's. The two walked out to the car, and Jongin opened Kyungsoo's door for him. Once Jongin got in, he started the car and said, "It's going to be a long drive so get comfortable."

Kyungsoo jerked his head in an exasperated fashion, "Where the hell are we going?" He paused for a moment to ponder to himself as Jongin began backing out of the parking space, "Wait, Jongin, I have to pee. Let me pee if it's going to be a long ride!"

The younger chuckled, admiring the other's sudden enthusiasm which contrasted from his recent behavior. Going outside for a change must really have a big impact then, he thought to himself. "Okay, okay. We'll stop somewhere before we go anyways. What kind of food are you craving for?"

The redhead stared out the window blankly, humming as he thought. "Fried chicken or pizza!" he exclaimed. The past few days, the two had been eating fresh and healthy foods since Jongin was concerned about Kyungsoo's overall health, and now, Kyungsoo was craving something greasy and fattening. Although from the looks of Jongin's face, it didn't seem like Kyungsoo was going to get what he wanted. Jongin's face was scrunched as he said, "Fried chicken? Pizza? Are you sure?"

"Hey, I thought this date was supposed to be about making me feel better," Kyungsoo grumbled and demanded, "Let me have what I want!" Jongin's heart lurched at the thought of finally going on an official date with Kyungsoo, with Kyungsoo calling it a "date," and with Kyungsoo's adorable demand. Jongin sighed, "Alright, I'll get fried chicken, and you can pee while I order." The older became more confused with the addition of Jongin's statement. He's going to order the food, but they're not going to sit down and eat? Where else would they go? Back to the apartment? "What kind of lame date..." Kyungsoo accidentally murmured under his breath. 

Jongin raised his eyebrows, "Hm?"

"Nothing," he smiled.

After Jongin ordered the chicken and Kyungsoo peed, the two were on the road again. Kyungsoo spent most of the drive staring out of the window, watching the city pass by as buildings slowly became grassy plains and rolling hills. Kyungsoo's paranoia suddenly kicked in. What if Jongin was going to give Kyungsoo his last meal and brutally murder him in the countryside where no one would be able to find his body? He shook his head and laughed to himself, that's ridiculous Jongin wouldn't do that... would he? He turned his head to look at Jongin and unconsciously squinted his eyes. Jongin noticed this and smiled, "Something wrong?"

Kyungsoo hummed, thinking for a moment before replying, "Just trying to guess what's going to happen on this 'date' you've planned."

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it." Kyungsoo supposed this was supposed to ease his nerves, but it only made Jongin even more suspicious. But Kyungsoo always had a wonky gut sense. He always assumed the worst in people.

An hour had gone by and Kyungsoo was absolutely restless. Cities change scenery depending on the buildings and art structures and grafiti and civilians but the countryside? It felt like a slideshow repeating the same picture over and over again. It was the same fields and trees. Jongin began to notice his companion's restlessness by the increasing occurrence of Kyungsoo's grunting and the amount of times he changed the position of his legs. Kyungsoo finally bursted, "How much longer until we get there?"

Jongin, equally as restless due to his cramping leg on the gas pedal, replied, "We're almost there it's just 15 more minutes probably."

The redhead pouted, "My is asleep."

Jongin laughed, "I can fix that for you, sweetcheeks."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, "Just drive. I might get sick if you keep doing that."

When Jongin finally slowed down on the main road and pulled into a narrow inlet with trees lining both sides, Kyungsoo wiggled in his seat, glad to see a change of scenery. The car pulled off into a meadow of cherry blossom trees. The trees were in bloom and white flowers graced not only the branches but the ground beneath them too. Just as the car stopped moving, Kyungsoo ran out of the car and fell onto the ground, grateful to have finally stopped moving. Jongin stretched out his legs and laid down next to Kyungsoo, just watching the other stare up into the sky with the most peaceful expression he had ever seen on a human being.

After a moment of silence, Kyungsoo changed his view from the blue sky to the golden complexion of Jongin and the mahogany deepness of his eyes. Jongin gave him a soft smile, "Was this worth the drive?"

Kyungsoo hummed, "I think so. Thank you," he smiled back. Jongin pushed Kyungsoo's bangs out of his face before he got up again and grabbed blankets, pillows, water, and the fried chicken from the car. Kyungsoo scrunched his eyebrows, "When did you put the blankets and pillows in the car?"

"I just keep them in there for emergencies." To Jongin this meant either sleeping on someone's couch when his parents kicked him out or having in the car emergencies. No one wants to bump their head against the window, ya know?

There were two pillows for the both of them, a blanket for them to lie on, and separate blankets for each of them just in case it got cold. Jongin placed the box of chicken in between them and handed Kyungsoo chopsticks. They ate in silence for a while before Jongin finally spoke up, "So... How are you feeling?" he asked cautiously.

Kyungsoo finished swallowing the food in his mouth before answering, "I feel much better. Thank you," he grinned. They continued to eat. "You know, none of my friends have been able to cheer me up like this, but I guess it's because they've never tried taking me out to the countryside to a field of cherry blossoms with a box of chicken."

Jongin's heart tingled. "That's good. I'm glad." With Kyungsoo, Jongin felt like he could tell him anything. When he actually got to open up to Kyungsoo more, the vibe was more comfortable. All Jongin wanted to do was let himself go and blab on and on about how he was so sorry he was a and how he's never felt this way with anyone before and all of the troubles of his past, but maybe that was for another time.

After another moment of eating, Kyungsoo spoke up, "Have you ever thought about how we don't really know each other? Like we've seen each other , but we don't know anything about each other's lives other than what we've seen or heard about from school."

Jongin paused and nodded, holding up the last piece of chicken to Kyungsoo's mouth which then ate it. "Yeah, that is a bit weird." He wiped a crumb off from the corner of Kyungsoo's lip and then handed him a water bottle. "You wanna just... talk then?"

Kyungsoo smiled, "That sounds like a great idea." They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds in silence. Jongin had never noticed how Kyungsoo's eyes were so dark he felt like he could fall right through them and land into a sea of dark chocolate. Kyungsoo was the first to break away and do that thing where he breathes out of his nose a little forcefully to mimick a laugh, "Do you want to ask me something first?"

Jongin fiddled with a flower that landed next to his hand as he thought of a question to ask, "How did you meet your friends?"

"Luhan and I met when we were I think 5 because our moms took us to the same daycare. Then we were in the same class for like 3 years in a row in primary school. I met Chanyeol and Baekhyun in middle school because we were in the same class, and they helped me fend off you on the playground when you were being mean." Kyungsoo's eyes narrowed playfully at Jongin, "It's my turn. Why did you bully me?"

Jongin blushed, flustered by the question. It was a topic that was going to be brought up anyway, but he still found it cringy to talk about since his reasons for it were so immature. "At first I thought it was fun. I didn't know it was mean at the time because I was stupid as all hell. Then I saw that it was, uh, getting me more attention and I got popular. I didn't want that popularity to go away so I just continued to be the douchey-ist I could be." He bit his lip, "I'm really sorry for that, Soo. I still can't believe I did those things to you. I was such an ."

"Yup I 100% agree!" He teased. "I guess... I guess I forgive you. People change, and I can understand that." Kyungsoo shifted around to lay on his stomach as he picked up a twig from the ground and absentmindedly dragged on the grass. "So what made you change? Like why do you..." He drifted off. What could he end that sentence with? Why do you have an attraction for me now? Why do you care so much about me when you were so distant before? Why do you feel the need to be around me? Why do you want affection from me so often now?

"Why do I what?"

"Nevermind it was dumb. Ask me a question."

"No, continue with your question. I'm curious."

"Well curiousity killed the cat--"

"But satisfaction brought it back!"

Frustrated, Kyungsoo bursted, "Why are you attracted to me now? Why do you care about me? Before all of this I wasn't even a human being, according to you."

Jongin blinked rapidly, not expecting Kyungsoo's sudden outburst. "I--" He stopped himself before going on, wanting to think about what he was going to say to make sure it wasn't going to come out wrong. "I didn't know you before. I didn't see you as a person because I didn't know your life, your personality, or anything about you. But now I've seen parts of you that, I don't know... make me like you, I guess?" He looked up at Kyungsoo only to see the other, still absentmindedly drawing in the ground but listening intently, "There's the way you sing while you cook as if no one can hear you. Or the way you do a little hop to get out of bed every morning and stretch your arms above your head and lean side to side while humming. Or the way you scrunch your face when you're thinking. And your laugh? Man, your laugh. I've never felt anything that felt like the way I feel when you laugh. It just lights me up inside." He looked up again at Kyungsoo to see him fighting back a smile, face red, as he pretended to be focused on the ground. Jongin reach over and put his hand underneath Kyungsoo's chin in which he responded by finally turning towards Jongin with tears in his eyes. No one had ever talked about Kyungsoo that way before. "But those are just little parts of you, and I want to get to know all of you. I want to know your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your likes, your dislikes, what makes you happy, what makes you sad--- I just want to know everything." He smiled gently, "I've never felt this way before with any other person. It's new and scary, but I don't want it to stop." A tear escaped from Kyungsoo's eye and Jongin wiped it away with his thumb. 

Jongin beckoned Kyungsoo to come closer so he could wrap his arms around him. Kyungsoo sniffled, "No one has ever told me anything like that before. It's just... God, it's indescribable. I've never been in a relationship before, but I wouldn't mind if my first one was with you."

Jongin ran his fingers through the other's hair, "So... What are we? Do you want to give this thing a go?" Jongin's heart never raced as fast with anyone else when he asked other people to go out with him. He was actually nervous this time.

"Yeah... Yeah. I think I'd like that," Kyungsoo replied, looking up at Jongin with that heart shaped smile that Jongin loved.

Jongin placed a tender kiss on Kyungsoo's forehead, "I'm feeling a lot of new things with you. With other people, I didn't care about them, but with you, I feel nervous. I want to do this right," he paused, "There's also this strange feeling in my torso. Like it's a feeling of care and love but it also kinda feels like I have to take a ."

Kyungsoo laughed and rolled his eyes, pushing himself off of Jongin, "Well then maybe you do have to take a !"

Between the bickering of the two over whether or not Jongin needed to take a or if it was an actual feeling of affection, the sun was setting behind them. Jongin initially wanted to come so they could watch the sunset together, but he supposed looking at the stars would suffice since Kyungsoo was too busy teasing Jongin.

The sunset occurred hours ago, and the couple was blanketed in the darkness of the night and the brilliance of the moon. The two were lying on their backs, covered in blankets as they absentmindedly conversed while watching the stars. After a few minutes of silence and watching some planes cross the sky, Kyungsoo slowly turned his head to watch Jongin. 

Kyungsoo used to think that nothing mattered because death was at the end of the road anyway.

But now, he's starting to think that there's maybe more to life than the inevitability of death.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

YAY! FIRST CHAPTER I'VE WRITTEN IN YEARS! I wrote this all in one go and my fingers are aching but it's worth it! I absolutely loved writing this chapter and I forgot how fun writing for my own could be. I ALSO CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WHEN I WROTE CHAPTER 9 I HAD 400 SUBSCRIBERS BUT NOW I HAVE 700??? IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Again leave what you'd like to see Kyungsoo and Jongin do in the comments and maybe I'll write about it!

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