The next week during school, Kyungsoo was simultaneously relieved and disappointed to find that Kai was now avoiding him too.

The whole week at school flew by in a blur to Kyungsoo, not knowing what to do with himself now that Kai was no longer talking to him, and he couldn’t help himself from feeling a certain sense of loss.  No matter how much Kyungsoo wanted to move on from Kai, now that it was actually happening, he began to second guess himself.

To make up for the sudden emptiness he felt, Kyungsoo texted Kris as often as he could in his free time.  For the most part, the texts were cute and flirty, but every so often they would broach a more serious topic of conversation.

Kris would often try to find out what happened between Kyungsoo and Kai, but Kyungsoo would skirt around the topic, unwilling to let the boy he was trying to flirt with discover something that only the three people closest to him knew about, with the exception of Kai himself.

Despite Kyungsoo’s unwillingness to discuss the events of two Saturdays ago, Kris never got upset with him, realizing that Kyungsoo would tell him if and when he was ready.  Kyungsoo appreciated this aspect of Kris’s personality, but sometimes wished that Kris wasn’t always so nice.

Kyungsoo has a very strong personality, and he wasn’t exactly too fond of the fact that Kris was so willing to take his instead of throwing it right back.  In fact, he even brought this up one day when they were on the phone together, but Kris just insisted that he liked Kyungsoo being so strong-willed.

Other than this mild annoyance, (really though, who can complain about someone being too nice to them?) Kyungsoo was really optimistic about things with Kris. He missed Kai, but he was determined to completely forget the boy, and so he threw himself into this thing with Kris.

They hadn’t actually gone on another date since their first one to the movie theater because Kris often had evening classes or too much homework, and Kyungsoo didn’t care much for going out on weekdays anyway.

So it happened that an entire school week passed where Kyungsoo was ignored by Kai and instead, talked to constantly by Kris.

It was Friday again, and Kyungsoo was looking forward to his time afterschool.  He and Kris had another date planned, this time to an art festival in Hongdae, and Kyungsoo found himself really looking forward to it.

After five days of Kai not attempting to approach him, Kyungsoo had grown almost used to his absence; and anyway, isn’t that what he had wanted?

When the final bell rang at the end of the day, Kyungsoo happily went to his locker to exchange his books for the weekend, and felt only a mild twinge of disappointment upon noticing that once again, Kai was not waiting for him by his locker.

Ignoring his own ill-advised discontent, Kyungsoo shut his locker and made his way home, hoping to take a short nap before he had to get ready for his date with Kris.

When Kyungsoo stepped into his apartment, he was confused to see another pair of shoes next to his mother’s in the foyer.  His dad shouldn’t be home from work yet, and besides, those were too casual to be anything he owned.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Kyungsoo kicked off his own shoes before making his way into the living room.  Dumping his backpack, Kyungsoo’s confusion increased ten-fold when he saw that there was nobody in the room.

“Mom?” he called out timidly?

When she didn’t answer, Kyungsoo began to get scared, picturing about a hundred different scenarios that could have happened to her.  Sprinting to her room, half expecting to find her unconscious form, Kyungsoo was relieved to hear the shower running in the bathroom, his mother’s voice wafting out to him as she sang along to her music.

Heaving an immense sigh of relief, and laughing slightly at his over-active imagination, Kyungsoo leaned against the bathroom door.

“Mom,” he called loudly enough for her to hear him through the door and running water.

“Soo, sweetie, are you home?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad you made it home safely, your friend is already in your room.”

Kyungsoo was more than surprised to hear this.  Both Jongdae and Baekhyun knew he had a date tonight, and though they both supported it with varying levels of enthusiasm, Kyungsoo knew that it was unlikely that either one of them would come over.  And besides, even if they did feel like coming over, wouldn’t they have just walked home from school with him?

“Who is it, mom?”  He called once again through the door, but he was answered only with the sound of his mother resuming her shower song.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to get an answer from her, Kyungsoo shrugged to himself before making his way over to his room.  When he got there, strangely, the door was shut.

Opening the door, Kyungsoo was surprised and more than a little irritated by who he saw.

“Get out!” He said before Kai even had a chance to realize that Kyungsoo was home.

“No,” Kai responded matter-of-factly, getting up off of the bed and walking over to Kyungsoo.

“GET OUT OF MY ING ROOM!” He shouted.

“NO!” Kai screamed back.  “YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, AND YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ME GOOD, GOD DAMMIT KYUNGSOO!!”

“AND WHY THE HELL SHOULD I LISTEN TO ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME!?”

“Because you deserve to hear it,” Kai answered, his features softening along with his voice.  “Because I hurt you, and you deserve to know why.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Kyungsoo responded, but Kai could tell that now he was just going through the motions, he was willing to finally hear him out.

“I’m going to tell you anyway.  Then you can tell me that you want me out of your life for good, but please Kyungsoo, I’m begging you, give me a chance to make you understand why I am the way I am.” Kai looked at him with such an earnest expression on his face that Kyungsoo knew that he didn’t have a choice anymore, if he ever really did at all.

Shutting his door behind him, Kyungsoo walked over to his bed and sat down, patting the spot next to him, indicating that Kai should join him.

As Kai did just that, sitting hesitantly on the bed facing the boy he so desperately wanted to explain himself to, Kyungsoo simply said:

“Okay, help me to understand.”

A/N:

Guys, are you ready for it? Kyungsoo (and all of you too) is going to find out why Jongin acts the way that he does.  I have been waiting to write this chapter literally all week, and I'm so excited that it's finally going to be here! I'm also a little bit sad though, because after this next chapter, there will probably be only one or two more before the story is over. OTL