On the following evening—that Wednesday—Kyungsoo and Junmyeon found themselves in a Chinese restaurant with their friends. The whole group had come together to celebrate Yifan's birthday and were now seated around a large table covered with steaming plates of Yifan's favorite foods.

            Junmyeon cared more about the company than the catering, but Kyungsoo sniffed daintily at the dinner spread before wrinkling his nose in disgust. He recognized most of the dishes from the many times he's eaten over at Junmyeon's while growing up, and he could, of course, name all of them in flawless Mandarin, but that did not at all mean that Kyungsoo was actually going to eat any of them. Thankfully, Junmyeon knew his best friend well and had pre-ordered Kyungsoo his very own jjajangmyun, thereby leaving the actual Chinese food to those with more enlightened palettes.

            Kyungsoo's opinion on the quality of food, however, did not affect his ability to enjoy the dinner party or to congratulate Yifan on finally achieving half-fifty. (Minseok and Luhan were already there, despite the other Chinese boy looking physically younger than his actually younger boyfriend.) Nor—to Junmyeon's chagrin—did Kyungsoo's particular tastebuds deter him from sharing the events of the previous day with those who had been absent from "the fun"—as Jongdae put it.

            Secretly, Junmyeon believed Jongdae would find anything fun as long as Minseok was present for it, but that didn't help lessen his embarrassment any. Especially when Luhan laughed so hard at Junmyeon's stuttering that he'd started choking on his dumpling and Sehun'd had to ask the waiter for extra water just to get his boyfriend breathing again.

            As someone so gifted in the art of verbal communication, it had always amused Kyungsoo when people couldn't articulate themselves—yes, he'd told Junmyeon, he did realize that made him somewhat of a jerk. So when Luhan had been unable to express with words the hilarity of Junmeyon suffering from that same problem, Kyungsoo had naturally been unable to hold in his laughter. His best friend obviously realized the source of Kyungsoo's amusement, but Sehun didn't. The group's maknae had assumed Kyungsoo was poking fun at Luhan's near death experience, and had stuck his tongue out at the owl-eyed boy in what was doubtless meant as menacing retaliation but ended up more like aegyo.

            The brief glimpse of his boyfriend's tongue—and the adorable pout that followed it—was enough to get Luhan choking again. (Sometimes he forgot how effortlessly attractive his young lover could be.) Luckily for Junmyeon, this meant another scurry for water and a more permanent shift in conversation away from the unfortunate encounter of the previous afternoon.

            It wasn't until they had all finished eating and had gone next door for ice cream—courtesy of the Hotels Kim heir—that the topic came up again. Kyungsoo had apparently decided that one best friend wasn't enough in the way of moral support and had asked who else was available as Junmyeon's wingmen.

            Minseok was never available on Thursdays—he had class from 8 to 8—but Jongdae needed to meet with two other boys for a group project and figured Cacoepy Cafe was as good a spot as any. Luhan was supposed to have Thursdays free that term but had just signed up for a recreational dance class on a whim.

            "I'm taking Minho's one, so I'll be busy Thursdays," he told his friends apologetically, turning his doe eyes on Kyungsoo and Junmyeon specifically as he said it.

            "Minho?" Yifan asked incredulously. "Please tell me you don't mean Choi Minho, right?" At this point the birthday boy was practically begging.

            Luhan had the decency to look at least a little guilty, but Sehun and Kyungsoo were just confused.

            "Who's Choi Minho?" both asked curiously, each turning at the same time to his respective partner with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

            "Stop that, you two," Minseok said. "It's creepy."

            "Yeah!" Jongdae chimed in, lifting his head from where it had previously been resting on his best friend's shoulder. "Creepy!"

            Minseok shushed the younger boy with a smack on the back of the head which, conveniently enough, returned Jongdae to his original position. Junmyeon raised an eye at the eldest boy's actions and Minseok blushed, but said nothing.

            "Minho is Yifan's ex," Junmyeon said, as if that answered everything.

            And maybe it did. Minho couldn't be called Yifan's ex-boyfriend because the two had never actually dated. (Yifan had been a sophomore at the time and while he was already out to his friends and completely comfortable with his ual orientation, Minho—still a freshman and unaccustomed to the freedom university brings—definitely wasn't.) The two had spent inordinate amounts of time making out behind the stacks of Kyungsoo and Junmyeon's very own science wing, but hadn't progressed very far past that. Eventually, Yifan had gotten tired of Minho constantly wanting to hide whatever they were, and when the latter's hometown girlfriend had shown up to their shared Biology class one day, Yifan decided he'd had enough.

            Ironically, if the rumors were true, Minho had since broken up with his girlfriend and was now playing Yifan's role in his pursuit of some freshman named Taemin. Regardless, Yifan didn't look too kindly on Minho and was less than pleased to be reminded of the other boy, and on his birthday no less.

            "Sorry, Yifan-ah," Luhan said quietly in Mandarin.

            (That was another thing Kyungsoo liked about speaking so many languages—private conversations were never private when he was around. Junmyeon had something to say on that, too.)

            Yifan ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair and sighed. "You don't have to apologize, Lu-Lu," he replied, also in Mandarin.

            "I'm still sorry though," Luhan said, apologizing for the second time.He switched back to Korean. "When I first signed up I didn't realize that the instructor Minho was the Minho from when we were sophomores. And then when I went to the first class last week and realized who he was, the guy was so polite and apologetic that I didn't think it was right to drop just because the teacher might have once broken your heart."

            "Wow, Lu," Minseok butted in, "way to be sensitive."

            But the birthday boy just rolled his eyes and told Luhan that if he wanted to learn how to dance, Yifan certainly wasn't going to stop him.

            "Besides," Yifan said with a slight chuckle, "we were all idiots back then anyway."

            "I wasn't," Kyungsoo replied, instantly receiving a flick on the forehead from Minseok and an eye roll from Junmyeon.

            "Idiot," Jongdae said teasingly.

            "Yah!" shouted Kyungsoo as he reached over to where Jongdae's head was still on Minseok's shoulder and pulled on the younger Kim's ear.

            "You're both idiots," Sehun sniffed. "Anyway," he continued before the other two could protest, "if this Minho is so awful, I'm not sure I want my Luhan-nie anywhere near him."

            Luhan found protective Sehun incredibly attractive—actually Luhan found everything about Oh Sehun incredibly attractive—but in that moment his boyfriend was being particularly  y. The older boy leaned over to give his boyfriend a quick peck but it soon turned in to a full on make-out session that Junmyeon swears lasted at least two minutes.

            (Yifan silently wondered if anyone even remembered it's his birthday, and this time it was Kyungsoo who rolled his eyes. Love, the Do boy thought—with no small amount of sarcasm—really does bring out the worst in people. Gross.)

            Once breathing became an absolute necessity and the pair were forced to separate, Luhan told his boyfriend that it was sweet he wanted to be protective but Minho was harmless, really. Dejected, now that his Thursday afternoons were suddenly Luhan-free, Sehun begrudgingly agreed to accompany Kyungsoo and Jongdae as Junmyeon's—unwanted—wingmen.

            That left Yifan as the only person who hadn't said, one way or another, what his Thursday plans were. The Chinese boy was still reminiscing about his memories of Luhan's new dance teacher when suddenly the sound of EXO's "Call Me Baby" filled the air.

            He answered the phone in Korean—"Hello, this is Yifan speaking"—before hearing some type of confirmation on the other end of the line and switching to converse in Chinese.

            "Yes," he said, a little exasperated, "I'm still free tomorrow to meet with you."

            He nodded at something the other person said before continuing, "By the way, you know that when I gave you my phone to enter your number, that wasn't permission to change my ringtone."

            The speaker on the other end said something else and Yifan's cheeks tinted pink.

            "Oh," he said, "that one's just for you? "Call Me Baby" though, really?"

            Again, the other person said something, although it apparently annoyed Yifan because he said "Alright, I'm hanging up now. Yes, Zitao, I'll see you tomorrow. Mhmm. Okay, bye," and quickly disconnected the call.

            Junmyeon raised an eyebrow at his friend and the rest of the group leaned forward with barely concealed interest.

            "Does our little Yifan-nie have a date?" Jongdae asked patronizingly.

            "Watch who you're calling little, Chen-ssi." Yifan replied. "And it's not a date," he said, though for some reason he was still blushing. "Zitao just wants to interview me for a project he's doing about college athletes and stress. Apparently he's studying psych and this is research he needs to complete a big project for his major."

            Kyungsoo knew of Huang Zitao. Kyungsoo knew that the boy was tall, looked like a panda, and was rumored to have been a martial arts champion back in China before he'd come to SKSU for study abroad. Kyungsoo also knew that Zitao was studying fashion, not psychology, and that the project the younger Chinese boy was working on might possibly exist, but very likely didn't.

            But Kyungsoo liked the way Yifan's eyes lit up when he saw Zitao's name on the Caller ID, and how his Chinese friend had started blushing almost as soon as he'd answered the phone.

            So the owl-eyed boy said nothing except that he should get paid for this and that it was just too bad Yifan couldn't be at the cafe Thursday. The others had dutifully agreed with Kyungsoo before wishing Yifan one last "Happy Birthday," and going their separate ways.

            The next morning, Sehun was overly affectionate, peppering his boyfriend with kisses and holding his hand tightly as the two walked to class. Luhan knew that Sehun had never been the best with words and that this was his boyfriend's way of saying "I'm here if you need me." Even though the older boy doubted anything would go wrong in his dance class that day, the message behind Sehun's actions  was appreciated.

            The weather that day was a little colder than one might expect from a day in early September, so Yifan had quickly run home after class to grab a light jacket before he left to meet with Zitao. The younger exchange student was a little unpredictable to be sure, but Yifan loved university almost as much as basketball, and he was excited to share those passions with someone, even if that person was only interested because he wanted an A.

            Finally, that Thursday saw Junmyeon in Minseok and Jongdae's shared apartment—yes, the two lived together—furiously brushing his teeth after yet another failed attempt at drinking coffee. Junmyeon had considered asking Kyungsoo to help him learn how to drink the acrid black liquid, but had reconsidered when he imagined the glee Kyungsoo would take in Junmyeon's embarrassment about the whole situation.

            So he'd gone to Minseok and begged his hyung to make him coffee. Minseok had class early that morning, but he'd at least given Junmyeon a Starbucks menu before rushing out the door to his lecture. It was actually Jongdae who was most helpful in resolving the matter because he'd told Junmyeon to simply order everything on the menu and try all of it until he found something he liked. Unfortunately that seemed easier said than done, and resulted in Junmyeon spending his entire monthly allowance on stupid coffee.

            Not that he couldn't always go to his father's secretary for more money, but still, the things he did for love.