“I’m sorry. I don’t usually hug people but I really wanted to...comfort you? Well, on the Korean family part, you have me now. And my family. And when your family has events, you can come to my house. Even though my family might be invited.” Kai can see Kyungsoo’s train of thought on his face as he babbles. “But I’ll skip it. For you. And I can teach you some Spanish. If you want?” Kai looks up at him as he stands in front of him on the swing.

“I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? Sorr-”

“No! It’s cute,” Kai confesses but regrets it soon after. He watches the flush wave over Kyungsoo’s face. “Sorry. I-”

“No, it’s okay. Um...but can we be friends?” Kyungsoo finally asks.

“Wow, you’re putting me on the spot. Now I feel bad,” Kai jokes. Kyungsoo pouts and punches Kai’s arm.

“I shouldn’t have even asked. Let’s be friends,” Kyungsoo amends.

“Now you’re telling me what to do. I’ve acquired one demanding friend,” Kai continues teasing. Kyungsoo shushes him and holds his hand to his chest with an exaggerated gasp.

“This is the second time you’ve shushed me. How can I trust you if you’re always silencing me?”

“Oh my gosh, you’re really goofy, aren’t you? So dramatic. Makes me want to take back my offer,” Kyungsoo points out with a surprised look as he stands in front of Kai. Kai suddenly stands up taking both of Kyungsoo’s hands.

“Hyung, it was a joke. I was kidding.” Kai takes a step forward and Kyungsoo a step back. Kai sees that Kyungsoo is trying to get away from him so he takes another step forward. This time when Kyungsoo goes to step back, he forgets that under the swings, the ground is lower so he loses his balance. Kai, however, is there to catch him, arms wrapped around his waist. He can finally see Kyungsoo’s blush and laughs. “Sorry. I made you fall and I made you blush.”

“I’m not blushing.” Kyungsoo touches his hands to his cheeks. He gasps. “I’m blushing. Oh my gosh.”

“Hyung-“ Kai starts, but he’s still laughing. Even harder now.

“No! Kai, I’m blushing. Oh my gosh. Also, we’re not friends anymore. You made me fall, you made me blush which I thought was impossible for my anatomy, and you rejected my offer to be friends. Three strikes and you’re out so I rescind my offer.” Kyungsoo turns away but rolls his eyes as he listens to Kai trying to catch his breath. Once he hears coughing though he turns around quickly to make sure he’s okay. Kai signals with one finger for him to wait. Kyungsoo scoffs and turns away, crossing his arms. His vision goes dark and he hears Kai’s voice close to his ear.

“Hyungnim…” Kyungsoo shivers at how low his voice is. It’s somewhere between creepy and y. A lot creepy but perhaps the two words mean the same thing in Kyungsoo’s mind.

“Forgive me.” Kai pulls his hands away then. Kyungsoo had kept his eyes closed under Kai’s hands. When he opens them, Kai is an inch away from his face with some weird expression. He yells, or rather wails, at him and begins punching him repeatedly in the chest. Kai keeps laughing but Kyungsoo’s punches actually hurt. He’s a lot stronger than he seems. Julia comes running over.

“Are you beating up my brother?” she asks Kyungsoo. Kai is first inclined to think she’s come to defend him but then he thinks better of it and glares down at the girl.

“Yup,” Kyungsoo replies to the girl.

“Yay! I wanna join!” She gives Kai’s leg a punch. Kai looks shocked and backs away.

“Hey! Shame on you! And I also heard that you’ve been talking bad about me to my new friend,” Kai scolds jokingly.

“Maybe.” Julia sways side to side and Kai hates to admit that it’s so cute. He grabs her and throws her over his shoulder, spinning her around. He runs around the playground with her little fists punching into his back. At least she’s small and actually has strength proportional to her size. Once he finishes a round, he puts her down.

“How do you feel about your brother now?” Kai asks.

“He’s terrible!” she yells, laughing.

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Okay! Here we go again.” Kai lifts her up again and goes for another round on the playground. Kyungsoo just laughs from the sidelines. Kai stops in front of him and puts her down again.

“What are you gonna tell Kyungsoo about me next time?” he asks.

“That’s you’re mean,” Julia says.

“You know that Kyungsoo and I are friends now. You shouldn’t talk badly about Kyungsoo’s friends, right? How would you feel if I talked badly about your friend Taylor?”

“Bad.” Julia pouts.

“Right, so what do you say?” Kai asks again, breathing hard from running still.

“I’ll tell him you’re the best brother in the world but you should play with me more often.” Julia gets quiet at the end.

“What? You want me to?” Kai squats down and asks her about what she said.

“Yeah. You should come to my tea parties. Kyungsoo comes. He knows all of my friends. Taylor and Fluffykins and Princess Paulina.” Kai smiled to himself at the thought of Kyungsoo’s low voice amidst all of Julia’s high-voiced friends, holding a tiny tea cup and sitting in one of her pink chairs. But he shouldn’t be distracted. He focuses on his sister.

“Okay, I’ll come next time. But you have to invite me too.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Pinky swear?”

“Pinky swear,” he affirms as he completes the action with Julia’s much smaller hands. “Now, let’s go home for dinner.” He reaches out for her hand and she takes it. He gets up and looks around for Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo had gone to sit down at the bench to give them some privacy. It was clear to him that they were making progress. Kai walks over to him with Julia.

“Ready?” Kyungsoo asks. Kai nods and smiles at Kyungsoo in thanks. Kyungsoo waves it off literally with a short gesture. There goes that cuteness again.

“I think we should hold hands too,” Kai says randomly. Julia and Kyungsoo look up at him with confusion on their faces. Kai doesn’t realize that he wasn’t keeping his thoughts to himself.

“I just said that out loud, didn’t I?” Kai asks rhetorically.

“Yeah… I’ll pass,” Kyungsoo says and it shouldn’t feel like rejection but it does. He feels Kyungsoo’s hand on his shoulder guiding him to the path back home. At least Kyungsoo isn’t completely grossed out by touching him. He tries to be positive but can’t help the gloom that comes over him. Somewhere in the middle of the walk though, he picks himself up because look at how much progress he’s made with Kyungsoo and it hasn’t even been a day since they met. Plus his little sister invited him to her tea party. Kai does a little dance. Kyungsoo laughs at him. He spends the rest of the walk explaining to Kyungsoo why his parents aren’t clever.

“They thought they were being cool by naming us both ‘J’ names but they call her ‘hulia’ not ‘julia.’ It doesn’t work!” Kyungsoo laughs at Kai’s seemingly genuine frustration.

“That’s just how the Spanish alphabet works,” he explains. “There’s really no ‘j’ sound.”

“I liked the name Miercoles,” Kai says matter-of-factly.

“That’s Wednesday,” Kyungsoo deadpans.

“Oh! It starts with an ‘M’ and ends with an ‘S.’ I can’t remember it.” Kai babbles to cover up his mistake. Kyungsoo soothes him with a hand on his forearm. “Ah! It’s Milagros. You know, miracles. It’s nice.”

“It is,” Kyungsoo agrees. They’re getting close to the house now and it looks like Kyungsoo has to go home. Julia lets go of Kai’s hand to go run inside.

“It’s getting dark so I have to go now,” Kyungsoo says but his feet aren’t moving in that direction. His house is about one street over and a few houses down.

“You’re right. I should walk you over there,” Kai offers.

“No, no. No need. My parents are probably waiting for me. You should go eat with your family. I’m sure Julia is super hungry after all that playing and kids can get irritable. Especially her.” They both laugh.

“You sure?” Kyungsoo nods and smiles.

“It was good meeting you today. Even though it seems like it’s been a long time. You’re my first friend here. Other than Julia.”

“Really? But you’re so…” Kai stops himself. Kyungsoo squints his eyes at Kai.

“I’m so what?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. You’re so nice. And fun and stuff.” It was Kai’s turn to blush. He should have paid more attention to what he was saying. He figures he can change the subject to give himself time to cool down his cheeks. “Wait! We should hang out tomorrow.”

“We should?” Kyungsoo asks hopefully.

“Well, I mean my friends and I are getting together. I want you to have more friends here. They go to your school. Then you’ll have some friends who are your age. And some older. You don’t need to always hang out with little ol’ me, a high schooler, unfortunately.” He smiles sheepishly as he finishes and scratches the back of his neck.

“I don’t mind hanging out with just you. And who cares if you’re a high schooler? I used to be a high schooler. You’re only a year younger than me. Don’t worry about that.” Kai nods, smiling wide with teeth.

“You should text me the details for this hang out though. I wouldn’t mind having more friends.”

“I don’t have your number.” Kyungsoo reaches out his hand and Kai fishes his phone from his back pocket. Kyungsoo doesn’t notice this or the warmth of the phone. He puts his number in.

“Hmm…what should I call it? Julia’s brother.” He pretends to type and Kai’s face falls. “Kidding. How about just Kim Kai until I think of something creative? I’ll put my name in as Kyungsoo.”

“That’s so boring.”

“Then you change it.” He sends himself a text from Kai’s phone and then gives it back. He gives Kai a look.

“Also, by the way. My Korean name is Jongin. It would be okay if you call me that.”

“It would be okay? Or do you want me to?” Jongin is surprised by his bluntness even though he’s heard it multiple times now.

“I want you to,” Jongin admits.

“Okay, Jongin-ah.” Jongin melts at this but tries to hold it together.

“It’s completely dark now. We’ve wasted even more time. Final offer, should I walk with you?”

“It’s really okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kyungsoo starts to walk away and it’s so sudden that Jongin wonders if he did something wrong. “Good night Jongin!” Jongin looks up to see that Kyungsoo has turned around and is now waving at him. He’s in the middle of the street but the streetlights cast just enough light on him. He looks pretty like this.

“Hey! Don’t walk through the street backwards. Look both ways on the way!” Jongin pays no mind to the time and yells through the silent night.

“Okay, mom! Bye! Go inside! I mean it or you’ll never leave!” He stops on the sidewalk. “I’m waiting!” Jongin huffs and starts heading towards the door. He stops and turns around and waves. Kyungsoo shoos him away with his hands. Finally, Jongin musters up the courage to turn away and go inside the house. But the second he closes the door, he runs upstairs to check on Kyungsoo. When he looks out, Kyungsoo is skipping down the street. Skipping. He even stops to do a little dance. Kai laughs at him and figures he can use it as blackmail. He goes back downstairs to eat dinner.

His mom, stepdad and sister are all already at the table. His mom looks at him as he sits down and he gives his mom a weird look.

“What?” Suddenly he wondered if there was something on his face. He wondered if it had been there when he was with Kyungsoo.

“I heard you hung out with Kyungsoo today?” she asks. Jongin doesn’t see how that is a question.

“I did?” Now, Jongin is playing into his mother’s weird making-statements-in-questions thing. He shakes his head.

“You know he’s single, right?” his mom slips in.

“Mom!” He looks at his stepdad. His step dad, Andres, looks up to the ceiling as if thinking for a bit. Then he nods.

“Your mom’s right. He is. He hasn’t mentioned any boys lately,” he says, chuckling.

“Lately?” Jongin asks, out of curiosity.

“Are you jealous?” his mom butts in. Now he’s having about eight (two) conversations at once. Or really three if you count his current internal conflict on Kyungsoo’s dating history. He can’t deal.

“No!” the table goes silent. “No more talking about Kyungsoo. No more talking!” His mom shakes her head and Andres keeps eating while Julia is in her own world feeding her imaginary friend. He scarfs down his food and then excuses himself to his room. He turns in early tonight because he has to prepare for his date with Kyungsoo. One in which six other people are coming but Jongin tries not to think about that. He checks his phone. The text Kyungsoo sent to his phone said, “Hi, it’s Julia’s brother.” He frowns. Maybe he can make use of his blackmail for this one. He looks again and it looks like he has a new message.

From: Kyungsoo

Teeehee I changed your name from Kim Kai to Jongin-ah. You should be happy.

To: Kyungsoo

I am. Very. I’ll change yours to Soo-La-La

From: Soo LaLa

I’m unhappy. Very.

To: Soo LaLa

Good night, hyung.

From: Soo LaLa

Good night Jongin-ah

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D.O. dancing in the streets

I hope you all liked it! Jongin's introducing Kyungsoo to his friends!!! Comment and Subscribe! Teehee