Kai 

My afternoon class had just ended up, so I decided to use the 30 or so minutes until the next one to clean up the studio a little bit. As I was sweeping the floor, the bell above the door chimed, letting me know someone had come in. I figured it was one of the students coming back because they left something behind, a pretty common occurrence when working with young kids.

"What did you forget this time?" I mused without looking up.

"Nothing, but clearly, you forgot how to respectfully address your elders." The moment I heard his voice, my heart stopped and looked toward the door. He was just standing there with his hands in his pockets as he smiled at me. His was shorter than I remembered it being and he looked he gained some weight. But his smile...his smile was still the same as it had always been.

"Hyung? What...what are you doing here?" I stood up straighter, my heart finally starting to beat again. 

"Visiting you obviously," Taemin replied as he began walking closer. I sighed briefly, letting out a small laugh. "No, I, um, had to come back so I could find a way to tell my parents I dropped out of Yale."

My eyes went wide in utter shock. "What the hell made you do that?"

"Nothing particular really." He shrugged. "I just wasn't happy there and I figured I should at least do my father the favor of being happy at college if he's paying for it."

". What'd he say when you told him?"

"You mean after the screaming lecture?" Taemin chuckled, removing one hand from his pocket to give the back of his neck a quick rub. "He said he understood, but he didn't agree with it. But surprisingly, he's still willing to help me if I find something he feels will actually get me somewhere in life."

"And what might that something be?" I asked, my arm now propped up on the end of the broom.

"Dance, the only thing I've genuinely enjoyed doing," he said as he smiled again. "Juilliard is the plan, but it's been a while, so I don't feel ready to apply yet. But I heard you have become quite the teacher, so I figured you wouldn't mind helping me out."

"I do believe I can do that," I said, taking on his tone of voice now. "You do have the same learning capacity as the eight-year-olds I usually work with." 

"You're still an , I see," he said after letting out a few chuckles. He then went quiet for a moment, the two of us just staring at each other. "I missed you."

I glanced down for a moment but then right back at him. "Me, too."

Kyungsoo

One afternoon after one of my study groups ended, instead of going home like I usually did, I headed to the coffee shop just off campus to meet Baekhyun for lunch. He was in town visiting for the weekend and texted me the day before, asking if I wanted to meet and catch up. Of course, I said yes. I asked Kai if he wanted to meet us there, assuming it had been a while since he last saw him in person, but he just used what was quickly becoming his favorite line, "I'll be busy at the studio."

Through the window, I could see him sitting a table for two on his phone, a small cup and some kind of sandwich in front of him. Smiling, I finished walking to the door and tried to stay unseen as I went up and ordered something for myself. Luckily, there wasn't a large crowd in there, so I didn't have to stand around for too long before I could go over and join him.

"The first time I've seen you in months and you couldn't even wait to order until I got here?" I said as I sat down across from him. He looked up, seeming a little bit startled but laughing anyway.

"I drove for two hours, okay? I was hungry," he reasoned, and I just smiled as I set my bag down on the floor. "So, how has everything been? School okay? You said your major was speech language pathology, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it is. School's great, much better than high school," I answered, earning a nod of agreement from him as he took a sip of his drink. "What about you? How's art school?"

"Mm, awesome actually," he said before swallowing the rest of his sip and setting the cup back down. "There's so much possibility with it that I didn't realize. I was a little apprehensive at first because of the lingering 'what can you do with an art degree?' question, but I definitely think I made the right choice."

I smiled. "That's great. I'm happy for you. And Chanyeol's doing well?"

"Oh, yeah. Still doesn't know what the hell he's going to do after his two years is up, but we're okay. You and Kai? What's it like living together? I'd ask Sehun, but I already know what he'd say."

"It's...definitely interesting, not exactly what I thought it would be like," I answered honestly, causing a faint look of concern to appear on his face. "Don't get me wrong, it's good, we're good, but it's just a lot more work than I thought it would be, I guess? Like there's all of these little habits he has that annoy me, but I'm still too afraid to nag him about them too much. And lately, he's just been spending so much time at the studio." I sighed as I wrapped a hand around my cup. "I don't know. I don't want to complain too much, but it doesn't feel like I thought it would."

"Well, I hate to be that guy, but I told you so," Baekhyun replied as he sat back in his seat. "I told you it wasn't going to be as romantic as the movies or dramas make it seem."

"I know you did," I said, smiling faintly and rolling my eyes. "And it's not like I regret it, but if I had known it would be like this, I definitely would have suggested waiting a little longer."

"I'm pretty sure that's the definition of regret, but okay," he said, earning another small laugh from me. "Have you talked to Kai about any of this?"

Silently, I shook my head. "He's so hard to read," I explained after a brief moment of silence, my eyes pointed at the table. "It's like I can tell he's got a lot of his mind, but he refuses to talk to me. And that makes me not want to talk to him because what if he thinks I'm annoying for it, you know? He was adamant about us living together and I thought that meant he was excited, but now, I'm starting to think it was something else."

"Sounds like Kai." My eyes moved up to Baekhyun again. "In all of the years I've called him my friend, he's never been one to talk about how he feels or share the burden of his worries with anyone. I mean, I suppose it's different with Taemin, but then again, that's just how they are with each other. He's also understood Kai in a way that no one else can, not even his own parents. It's like Taemin just understands what he's feeling without him having to say it, and I think Kai's gotten used to that, so he feels as long as he has that, why does he need to open up to anyone else? It's an odd way of thinking if you ask me, but that's just how he is, how he's always been."

I looked at him for a moment more before lowering my head. Admittedly, Taemin was always in the back of mind. Was I treating Kai as well as Taemin did? Was I loving him better than he did? Hell, I even wondered if Taemin had cooked him better meals than I had. I hated myself for doing it, but when it came to Kai, I always compared myself to Taemin.

"I suppose that's why Kai couldn't come today?" Baekhyun continued, earning my attention once again.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Baekhyun looked confused now, too. "Didn't he tell you? Taemin came back to town like almost a week ago." 

My heart fell a little from its natural place at that exact moment. "What? Really?"

"Yeah, apparently he dropped out of school or something. I heard that Luhan, but god knows that any story that comes from Luhan is bound to be way different from what actually happened. Did Kai really not tell you?"

"Huh," I said, sitting back against my seat. "No, he didn't. It would explain why he's been so much busier at the studio, though." I lowered my head again, sighing heavily in worry.

"Well, I'm sure it's not like that," Baekhyun said in a softer, more comforting voice, somehow reading my mind. "You know how they are. It's...complicated with them, but I know Kai cares about you and would never cheat on you, even with Taemin."

"I know," I said, only partially believing my own words. "It's just weird that he wouldn't tell me. I mean, that's pretty big, so you'd think he would, even if it was tell me how excited he was."

"Maybe he didn't want to hurt your feelings?" Baekhyun suggested. "I'm sure he knows it's sensitive topic, so knowing him, he probably thought it would be best to avoid it altogether."

"Yeah...maybe," I said, my voice trailing off.

We ended up changing the subject not long after, but all I could think about was why Kai wouldn't tell me about Taemin coming back. Was this just another one of the Kai-like things he did or was it something more? I couldn't lie to myself and say that I wouldn't have been a little worried even if he had told me, but I definitely wouldn't have been as worried as I was. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt like this was all just the start of something much, much worse.

:::::::::

I ended up going back to school and study some more after meeting with Baekhyun. I knew if I went home and Kai was there, I would not have been in the right headspace to be around him. Though, as I stared out the window on the ride back, it was clear to me that it was going to take more than a few hours of reading about alternative communication methods to rid my head of my worries. 

The kitchen light was on when I approached the building, but instead of feeling excitement or joy, I felt anxious. What would I say? Should I say anything? Would Taemin be there? I just didn't know, but part of me was telling me that I wouldn't want to. But I headed for the elevator anyway, walking a bit slower than I usually would. When I opened the front door, he was sitting on the couch, his eyes moving from the TV to me.

"Hey, you're back later than usual," was the first thing he said.

"Yeah," I said with a long sigh, only briefly looking at him as I slid my shoes off. "I went back to do some more studying after I had lunch with Baekhyun." He just hummed and nodded his head, but it was clear to me that he knew something was up. I hated that, how easy I was for him to ready and how hard he was for me to read.

"How was he?" he asked as he sat up to lower the volume coming out of the television. 

"Good. He said school was going well and Chanyeol was good, too."

"Cool. I wished I could have gone today. It would have been nice to see him." He was standing now, slowly walking over to where I was in the kitchen. 

"It's okay. He understood. He said you were probably busy with Taemin," I said, not intending for it to come out as a snarky remark. He visibly tensed up, though, and briefly shut his eyes. "I just want to know why you didn't tell me that he came back." I was trying really hard to push them back, but I could already feel tears beginning to sting my eyes as I looked at him. 

"I...it just slipped my mind, okay?" he said, temporarily lifting his hands in the air. "It didn't seem like that big of a deal."

"Well, given your complicated history, I would say it's certainly not a small deal," I replied. 

He his lips quickly and sighed a short breath. "It's not like, Kyungsoo. It hasn't been like that for a long time."

"I know that and I want to believe that, but I've spent the better part of my afternoon trying to figure out why it is my boyfriend didn't tell me that his ex/best friend came back to town. Baekhyun said it was probably just a you thing, but mmm...it feels like more than that to me."

"It's not. It's not what you're thinking it is," he said, taking a few steps closer to me. "Okay, he just wants help before he applies to a new school for dance, that's it. It's nothing more, nothing less." 

For what felt like a long time, I stared at him, trying to somehow see if his eyes gave him away like mine seemed to give me away. But even they, too, were filled with such false conviction that they had me fooled. Conviction like that only came with practice. It made me wonder how long he spent lying to himself and to others. 

I exhaled shortly and glanced down. "Alright. I trust you," was all I said before walking past him into the bedroom. I wanted him to call after me, but he didn't.

Later that night when he snuck into bed, he didn't pull me into his arms like he usually did. He didn't even try to reach out for me.

Just like that, my fears were confirmed. This was the start of something worse.