“Is that blood on your shirt?” Heejin asks curiously, pointing a finger at Kai’s torso and frowning before putting some popcorn into . Kai frowns as well, looks down at his grey Henley, and opens his mouth in a silent gasp.

“He’s on his period,” you explain, just as Sehun says, “That’s just ketchup.” Kai makes a face, Heejin shrugs.

“You must be really into ketchup,” she says. “A lot of your shirts are like that.”

There’s a hint of something in her voice that you can’t exactly name, but you know that she’s not being completely casual. You glance at her, but her eyes are still pinned to the TV. You reach out for some popcorn and she puts the bucket on Kai’s lap so you have it closer.

*

You heave an armful of clothes onto the dressing room bench and throw yourself down beside it, urging Kai in with a loose gesture. He looks at you like you’ve just eaten his last chocolate pudding.

“Why.”

You roll your eyes. “Because you need new clothes! Haven’t you heard Heejin yesterday? Most of the shirts you have are either torn or blood-stained and, as much as the pack doesn’t really notice it anymore, you still need new clothes.”

“I have clothes.”

“Yeah, like three shirts that aren’t destroyed, two pairs of jeans and a…a leather jacket. Come on. We’re gonna buy clottthees. It’s been a few months since you’ve last gone shopping.”

Kai squints at you, then at the pile.

“Has Sooyoung called you?” he asked. You roll your eyes again, this time also leaning back while doing so, and hitting the back of the changing room with your head in annoyance.

“No, she hasn’t. I’m your girlfriend and you need new clothes. You can't just walk around with blood on your clothes all the time and think no one's gonna notice. Hey, is that ketchup? No, it’s from that one time I slashed a wendigo’s throat.” You make a wide gesture with your hands.

Kai comes in and locks the door behind him. That’s as good an agreement as any, so you’ll take it. Reluctantly, he pushes off the door and drags himself over to the bench where you are already taking a red and yellow plaid shirt off the top of the assortment you'd picked out. All by yourself, no thanks to Mr. Sunshine.

Kai looks from you to the shirt, then back again to you with a deadpan expression. "You’re not serious."

You nudge the hanger against Kai's hand, but he won't take it. "Just try it."

"I don't want to."

"You're really a baby trapped in an obscenely mature body, aren't you? Just try it. Try it."

After a few seconds, Kai swipes the hanger from your hand and jerks the shirt off more violently than anyone has probably ever taken a shirt off a hanger before. That must be some sort of record. You worry a sec about having to pay for it, especially when one of the buttons comes flying at your head.

"Hey, watch it!"

Kai scowls and shoulders the shirt over the black one he has on. He doesn't even bother to button it up before he makes a face.

"You didn't give it a chance." You reach forward to do it up for him, but Kai lurches out of the way. "Oh come on.”

Kai sets his jaw, "No."

"It looks good."

"I look like a clown," he says.

"Hey, Chanyeol has a shirt just like that.”

Kai gives you an expectant look. Get the picture, genius.

You scoff. "Chanyeol is not a clown."

"Really? Really, Dal?"

"Really? Really, Kai?" you mock back. Childish, Dal. Way to prove his point. "Speaking of really, you must really hate me right now."

"Just right now? Try always."

"Did I ever tell you that that angry look is really hot? Because it is. I'll just say that now, get it off my chest, you know, all out in the open—“

"Dal, shut up." Kai peels the shirt off, lips quirking in a smile, and takes the hanger from your hand to hang it back up. He does a piss poor job, but you don’t care at all to redo it for him. Mostly because Kai is suddenly taking his shirt off too, and you are kind of out to lunch, worshiping at the altar of Kai’s six pack.

"If you're trying to intimidate me, it's having the total opposite effect right now,” you inform him.

"I know. And Dal?”

"Shut up?"

"That."

"Try something else, then." You don’t even know what shirt you’re grabbing and handing to Kai, but he takes it and then pegs you with another dirty look.

"Dal," Kai pops the shirt in his face, "who's this?"

"That’s Jake and Finn, duh. See, it says right there." You swallow a goofy grin. "Don't you watch TV? They’re the baddest.”

"Why would you give me a shirt with Adventure Time characters on it?”

"Because it's hilarious?"

Kai chucks it back at you.

"Okay, here. Here," you fumble another tee out of the pile, "how about the Batman one?”

Kai just glares at you for a minute before snatching it up. You grin.

"I knew you liked Batman.”

You catch him smirk a little. And then of course Kai looks unreal in the shirt. But of course it fits him like it was made for him, and the Batman logo sits right over his chest, just how it's supposed to.

If Kai is Batman, does that make you Catwoman?

"That's a keeper," you say to divert from that train of thought.

"This is stupid," Kai says and takes it off.

"I thought it looked good," you mutter.

"What did you even pick out?" Kai sweeps the whole pile of clothes on the floor and hunches down to start rifling through it. Your mouth goes a little dry at the way the muscles in his back move, the broad plates of his shoulders. "Plaid, check, stripes—you made a list with Chanyeol or something?”

"Uh, no. I hate to break it to you, big guy, but people are starting to think you're emo. Do you have anything that isn't black or gray?"

Kai sends you a pointed look. You smirk because you know that he’s actually pretty touchy with his style, and it’s not like it really bothers you anyway. Black is a color, okay, and it’ a great color too, and Kai looks particularly good in it.

"Okay, okay,” you say, cooing. “There should be some dark stuff in there, Satan. Way, way, way at the bottom. See, I do look out for you. Even if you go for the whole mime aesthetic."

Kai growls, but starts digging down until he finds the pair of black jeans and gray sweaters you had begrudgingly added in at the last minute. You are of the opinion that a paper bag could probably look good on Kai, but if Kai only wants what he wants, then you won't waste the time trying to change his mind. You might buy the Batman shirt and slip it into Kai's stuff, though, just for the hell of it. See if he eventually breaks and wears it.

Kai starts to his pants and you can’t help peeking looks, cataloguing Kai's emo black boxer briefs and the cut of his thighs, his calves. You redirect the spying game up at Kai's face, but Kai is doing this bitey lip thing. Even his bare shoulder has appeal.

"So?" Kai says.

You jerk. "What? So what? So?"

"Pay attention,” he says, smirking. “What about this?"

You agonize through a two second look-over, nodding. "It’s good. You look like a hot burglar."

Kai raises a brow. "A hot burglar?"

There's no explanation. None. "...I said what I said."

"Are you happy now? I have more clothes."

"I'd be even happier if you tried on the Adventure Time shirt," you say, waving it in front of his face for Kai.

"No." But then Kai nudges the shirt back and leans over to give you an impatient peck on the mouth.

It's a not even week later when you catch a glimpse of the Batman logo, where Kai's jacket isn't zipped up far enough to cover it all. You buy yourself a Catwoman one.

What's up marshmallows! You've all probably read the first two chapters. As you can see, this one is brand new. 

I'm currently on a roadtrip. The loveliest Kaitlyn, who's also my beta (standing ovation please for her because she's truly awesome) is handling the time of posting the chapters and so on. I'll be back in around 2-3 weeks but the updates will be weekly and I'm gonna reply to all of your comments once I'm back.

Thanks for reading. I really hope you'll enjoy the second ride.

Also, apparently if I don't censore '' in the chapter title, it'll automatically change to Chapter 3. The more you know.