A/N: It's official, I have unchecked the box for "Mark Story Complete" and am planning to (semi-) regularly add chapters to this story! Big thank you goes out to everyone who has read this so far, especially @elle87 for encouraging me to continue this as a chaptered fic. I honestly don't know where this is going to end up, but I will continue to just write what is on my mind, and hopefully you will continue to enjoy it! :-)

“Now, now, no need to be so snarky so early in the morning,” Jongin scolds me. He has this stupid grin on his face that makes me want to punch him. But alas, it’s his home, so that would probably be rude. I continue to watch him, eyes narrowed, as he moves lithely around the kitchen to grab a carton of banana milk and pour himself a bowl of cereal, careful to not make any loud noises that would disturb his sleeping roommate. Who even drinks banana milk after the age of eight? “You know,” he says after a while, “out of all of my friends, I wouldn’t have pegged you as a Kyungsoo hyung kind of girl. Steph says you are feisty—definitely more of a Baekhyun hyung type.” Based on how hot it feels, my face must be scarlet and if I wasn’t secured to the couch by Kyungsoo’s hand that is still grasping mine, I would’ve lunged at him. Jongin wanders into the living room and quietly picks up the Super Smash Brothers, Perfect Dark, and Prince of Tennis cases that are sitting next to the TV. “Although, these,” he fans the cases out to show me, “these actually explain a lot. You are one very interesting woman, Riyoung.”

Oh hell no, I am not going to get out-sassed by Jongin. “Speaking of Steph,” I say wryly, “How is she? You have seen her more recently than I have.” I am expecting to see a blush creep up his face, for his eyes to pop out of their sockets, and for his speech to become stuttered. Much to my dismay, I am left disappointed on all three expectations. His face does light up though, and his eyes crinkle into half crescents when he smiles widely.

“She’s great! After we left the club last night, which I’m pretty sure we left before you rowdy kids did, we walked around and ended up eating chicken at a street stall, and then we went back to her—well, I guess, your—apartment and we cuddled and watched a movie before falling asleep. It was a totally chill, fun, night!”

If my jaw could reach the floor, it would be there right now. “Uh…I’m sorry, you and Steph did what last night?” I ask him to repeat himself.

“We ate chicken and watched a movie,” Jongin reiterates. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry, but the best sound I am able to muster sounds like a strangled duck. I’m not sure if he didn’t hear me or just ignored my reaction, because he continues to speak. “We heard the front door opening and then closing a bit later, so we just assumed you went straight to your room and went to bed. When you weren’t around this morning, we figured that you had gone out to run some errands or something. So imagine my surprise when I come home to find—”

“Keep it down, Jongin, people are sleeping here…” Kyungsoo groans from the ground. I mentally high-five him for stopping Jongin from saying something awkward sounding along the lines of ‘So imagine my surprise when I come home to find that you slept with my best friend.’ Because that is NOT what happened.

With an amused look on his face, Jongin apologizes, “Sorry hyung, I’ll just…stop talking to myself now,” and sends a double thumbs-up in my direction before he backpedals down a hallway and disappears into a room. It isn’t until I hear the shower running and it sounds like Kyungsoo’s breathing has leveled out that I let out a long breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. My relief is short-lived, however, when I am startled by the sound of Kyungsoo’s voice again, this time stating, “I know you are awake, Riyoung.”

I jump a mile off the couch and immediately relinquish my grip on his hand. “Holy crap, how long have you—“

He cuts me off, “Since he punched the first digit into the keypad.”

Yikes. “So you heard—“

“Everything,” he confirms.

I grab the pillow from under my head and press it over my face, lamenting, “Oh my God, just kill me now…” I can feel him try to pull the pillow away. “Stopppppp,” I whine as I press the pillow closer to my face, “can’t you just let me die from embarrassment? I am such a terrible person! I forced you to take me home with you last night because I thought that our roommates were doing…adult…things and it turns out they are totally pure and innocent and I am the one with the dirty mind!”

Chuckling. Kyungsoo is chuckling. I slide the pillow off my face and glare at him. “What part of this is funny to you?”

“So, something you should know about Jongin is that he doesn’t sleep around with people; that’s not his style,” Kyungsoo states.

Excellent; we are already at that stage of oversharing. “Uhhhh…thanks for sharing?” I respond, not quite sure why I would’ve needed to know that interesting tidbit about my best friend’s (probably) boyfriend.

“No, you don’t understand—there’s no way he would’ve gone back to Steph’s with anything less than pure intentions,” he explains.

If I wasn’t glaring daggers at him before, I most certainly am now. “And the thought never crossed your mind last night that maybe you should’ve mentioned that fact to me when I was making wild accusations about them ‘going at it’? I could’ve just gone home and saved us both the trouble!” I try my best not to raise my voice, but am having little success.

The change in atmosphere is palpable and instantaneous. Kyungsoo shrinks away from me, arms wrapped tightly around legs that are folded against his chest, “I…I wanted to spend more time with you, though…and I…I had fun with you last night,” he whispers, “and I thought you were having fun too…” All of my irritation dissipates when I see his posture, when I see how he is avoiding eye contact with me, when I see him worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. A weight starts settling on my chest when I realize how he interpreted my words; that I didn’t have fun last night and wish I would’ve spent it sleeping alone in my room.

“Kyungsoo, that didn’t come out right, you know I had a good time last night,” I start to say while reaching out for his hand. He quickly scoots backwards to avoid my touch and I can almost see a big red ‘RETREAT’ sign flashing above his head.

“I put an extra toothbrush on the counter; feel free to wash up using any of my stuff,” he says with finality, effectively halting the conversation. I stand up and send one more apologetic look his way before locking myself in the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. Once I am done, I stand there staring at myself in the mirror and mentally lecture myself. Good grief, Riyoung, you really know how to screw things up, don’t you? You and your smart mouth; couldn’t even last one night outside in the real world before lashing out and pushing Kyungsoo back into his shell. He’s one of the nice ones, too! Steph was right—you are a beehive, wasp’s nest, whatever that flower is that draws you in and the eats you alive. Go out there and apologize to him. Tell him you had fun. Tell him you want to see him again. You better fix this. I give myself one more ‘Fighting!’ before heading back to the living room.

Kyungsoo stands up and goes to the bathroom immediately when I reappear, muttering, “Don’t leave until I’m done; I’ll drive you home,” as he passes by me. Jongin is watching me like a hawk from the couch and motions for me to have a seat next to him.

“You screwed up,” he says bluntly.

“Yeah, I know,” I retort. Way to state the obvious.

“What is wrong with you?” he asks, which jumpstarts a rapid-fire conversation, both of us speaking so quickly after the other that neither of us truly has time to think about what is coming out of our mouths next. The result is some of the most honest conversation I have ever had in my life, and I barely even know Jongin.

“That’s a loaded question.”

“What specifically is wrong with you that made you snap at Kyungsoo hyung?”

“I have a short temper sometimes.”

“Sounds like an excuse. What else?”

“I’m not good at relationships.”

“I didn’t realize you guys were at the point of this being a relationship.”

“I’m not good at getting to the point of being in a relationship, either.”

“You know, I have never ever EVER seen hyung bring a girl home.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“And honestly, if you don’t fix this, he will probably never bring anyone else home ever again.”

“Good. I don’t want him to bring anyone else home.”

“Unless it’s you?”

“Unless it’s me.”

“Wow. You like him that much?”

“I thought that much was obvious by this point.”

“Your track record of telling him he should’ve, what was it….’saved you both the trouble’ by telling you it was safe to retire to your apartment last night says otherwise.”

“I never said I wasn’t happy that he brought me here. I was just frustrated that he let me wrongly believe that you and Steph were being completely inconsiderate of my need to go home. I was legitimately mad at you two! And for what? For no reason, because he knew that there was a 0% chance that you guys were up to no good.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one to be mad about that, and not you? Hyung likes you, I can tell. He just wanted to spend more time with you, outside of the club. He hates that place. He was using me as an excuse to spend more time with you, and I would let him any day.”

“If he would’ve just told me the truth, the three of us would probably still be here this morning, same as we are now, but less mad!”

“So you’re saying that last night, given the completely educated choice of being a lady and calling it an early night, or going back to some guy’s apartment for God knows what, you would’ve still gone with Kyungsoo hyung?”

“A) Nobody has ever accused me of being ladylike. B) Kyungsoo isn’t just ‘some guy,’ he’s the guy that I have developed, I don’t know, some kind of attachment to. So C) yes, I probably still would’ve said yes if he would’ve asked me properly if I wanted to come back here to hang out, play video games, and watch anime. Those are three of my favorite things.”

“Hyung is shy! He isn’t just going to outright ask you to come back to his place! Like I said, he has never brought a girl home before.”

“I wouldn’t have thought he was a sleezebag that was asking me back to his place to get in my pants! I know he’s not that kind of guy. He’s one of the good ones. So I don’t need you to go all ‘papa bear’ on me, because I know I screwed up, okay?”

“You crushed his confidence earlier, so it’s up to you to rebuild it.”

“I will.”

“You hurt him, you die.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

Without realizing it, at some point during our heart-to-heart, we had both stood up and gotten in each other’s faces, so we are currently inches away, glaring defiantly at each other. We were too busy talking that we didn’t hear the bathroom door open, or the shuffling of Kyungsoo coming back into the living room. “Uh, is everything ok here, guys?” he asks.

I stick my hand out to Jongin, while assuring Kyungsoo, “We’re cool.”

Jongin takes a step back before shaking my hand and confirming, “Everything’s cool.”

Jongin turns on the TV, which I recognize as a dismissal, and Kyungsoo hands me an empty duffel bag to pack yesterday’s clothes and a pair of socks and sneakers. “I’ll drop you off, but you probably don’t want to take the walk of shame up to your apartment wearing yesterday’s clothes,” he says simply before walking away again. I don’t even have time to say thanks.

“Well, that went well,” Jongin comments sarcastically from the couch.

“I’ll handle it,” I reply, voice on edge again.

Kyungsoo reappears wearing a pair of basic jeans and a t-shirt just as I finish lacing up my sneaks. “You good to go?” he asks.

“Yeah, I am, thank you,” I say quietly.

“I’ll be back later, Jonginnie,” he informs his roommate as he slips on his shoes.

“Sure, take your time, hyung,” his roommate responds.

Ever the gentleman, Kyungsoo lets me walk out first before pulling the door closed behind him. I speak up immediately as soon as we are alone together, “Can we go somewhere to eat breakfast? I don’t…I’m not ready to say goodbye to you just yet.” He looks at me perplexed, because in his mind, our whole friendship, relationship, alliance, whatever we have, just blew up in our faces about half an hour ago. “I mean, I understand if you already have other things you planned to do today, I just thought I would ask in case, you know, you didn’t,” I manage to spit out before turning a violent shade of red. Since when did I struggle with speaking?

“I don’t have any plans,” he replies, a hint of confusion still lingering in his voice.

“Would you be ok with going somewhere to eat…and talk? I want—I want us to get to know each other better,” I request boldly. I am not usually this forward; I am old-fashioned, so I usually wait (and expect) for a guy to make the first move. But he tried opening up to me and I said the wrong thing, so it’s on me to extend the peace offering and get us back on the right foot. I need to reassure him that I’m looking at him, and only at him.

For the first time since our (i.e. my) explosion this morning, he gives me a small smile while he admits that he isn’t very good at talking. “Don’t be silly, you were a lot of fun to talk to last night! Besides, I am pretty excellent at talking, so I can talk, and you can listen…if you want,” I suggest.

He nods to himself a few times before looking me in the eyes and vocalizing, “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”