Jongin and Taemin have got the habit of meeting each other at the café where they had their first date, and usually the both of them would speak endlessly about their day but today, right now… Taemin’s the only one who’s been rambling on and on about his day.

Not that Jongin minds of course, but something’s just bothering him and no matter how hard he tries to shake it off, it’s not leaving his mind. Subconsciously, he furrows his eyebrows at Taemin just as he realizes that Taemin’s gotten to the happy ending of his story, “Today’s a great day for me!”

“You know, Jonginnie,” Taemin abruptly ignites yet another topic of conversation, successfully catching Jongin’s attention this time and right before he manages to drift away again. “If you didn’t want to meet me today, you could’ve just said so instead of openly showing me disinterest. I’ve got an ouchie now,” Taemin pouts.

Jongin reaches over almost instinctively, just to boop Taemin’s nose because he just can’t resist for some reason. He feels spontaneous today. “I’m just troubled. If you were in Australia, I’d take a plane down straight away just to see you so don’t think I’m uninterested or anything.”

“So, what’s on your mind?” Taemin catches Jongin’s hand in midair just before he brings it back to his side and clasps their palms together. Jongin’s fingers are warm in contrary to Taemin’s cold ones but conduction happens right? Jongin keeps it like that and doesn’t attempt readjusting anything. He’s so out of it, he can’t focus on anything right now… it’s getting on his own nerves.

“I don’t know,” he manages to say eventually. “I’m not even lying, I genuinely don’t even know what’s on my mind right now. It’s a mess of… I don’t even know.”

“Jongin, are you stressing about the whole boyfriend switch thing? You could always tell Kai I changed my mind, he wouldn’t push it anymore. I only agreed to see his reaction—”

“If I told him you changed your mind, he wouldn’t push it with you, but he’d keep pestering me. And if you told him yourself, God knows what he’d do to persuade you into this. Jesus, when it comes to you, he’d be willing to kill me just to have you even if we’re brothers,” Jongin doesn’t expect himself to blurt everything out at once but he’s somewhat glad he did.
 

“So this is what’s stressing you,” Taemin lets out a loud laugh. “You’re so damn cute when you’re jealous and overthinking silly stuff, baby.”

“You’d understand me if you were me,” Jongin mumbles, averting his gaze elsewhere just to avoid face planting the table in an instant. “So, okay, I guess you removed the virus within me now,” Jongin laughs sheepishly.

“Mm…” Taemin hums, blinking twice. “Let’s not include the part. The most we could go for physical affection is kissing on the cheek?”

“Kai’s forceful,” Jongin heaves a sigh. “He won’t listen. And you’re too submissive under pressure. .”

“So fine, mouth kisses. But no , I promise. I won’t give in no matter what, alright?” Taemin flashes Jongin a gentle smile and that’s enough for Jongin to feel just slightly relieved. “So now, how about we head back to my place? We haven’t… made love in a week.”

Jongin lets out a grunt. “You always know how to make me feel better, don’t you?”

Taemin’s smile stretches into a toothy grin. “Anything for my baby.”

Jongin rises from his chair and hoists Taemin’s school bag up to his shoulder, conveniently helping Taemin up by his free hand. He’s smiling when he turns to send a genuine smile at Taemin’s way. “Don’t steal my line, babe.”

“I hate when you convince me into several animalistic rounds of violent pounding and bed wrecking,” Baekhyun complains, although he’s smiling as he catches his breath with an arm draped over his eyes. “You horrible, horrible beast.”

“You love me though,” Kai chuckles, and Baekhyun lets out a hum of agreement because it is true. “And besides, it was only three insane rounds. I love you when you’re in and out of bed.”

“Kind of obligated to, don’t you think?” Baekhyun smirks slightly and pulls himself up to a sitting position, bending over to reach for his boxers that have been conveniently slung over the table lamp by Kai’s bed. “I bet Jongin and Taemin are—”

“ing right now?” Kai grins. “Nah, they probably finished an hour ago or something... they aren’t at our level, you know.”

“Mm,” Baekhyun wiggles his brows for a moment. “So, what are we having for dinner?”

“You’re having my , and I’m having yours,” Kai only manages to his lips before a feet swings across his face for a kiss.

“Get the out, Kai.”

The mentioned male laughs and resumes poking on the screen of his phone for the next few minutes, and Baekhyun takes his time to get dressed before proceeding to fix his hair. All of these aren’t necessary, but he feels he may need a shower from all that perspiration.

The shower for the day.

“Oh, look, Jongin said something,” Kai pauses. Baekhyun’s mouth forms an O because oh, so the one he’s been texting this whole time is Jongin. “Oh. He says, you can’t have with Jongin and I absolutely no ing way can even touch Taemin’s . Ah, well.”

“Jongin’s a buzzkill but I don’t think that’s a problem for me,” Baekhyun narrows his mockingly, just slightly. “Unlike you. You probably feel like dying right now.”

“On the contrary to probable popular belief, I’m fine with that,” Kai’s smile is so genuine that Baekhyun really has to force his next comments to stay in his throat. “After all, you’re enough for me and I’m not fooling around.”

Baekhyun is completely aware that Kai, despite being an evident delinquent, has got his sappy side but he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to his sweet side—not that he shows it often, anyway.

He managed to attract Baekhyun through his tough side, but Baekhyun won’t deny that for someone who’s lowkey a hopeless romantic behind his façade, he kind of... likes it. A lot.

"Do you like it when I’m speechless?” Baekhyun shakes his head, a corner of his mouth quirking upwards just because he can’t refrain from smiling.

Kai takes a while before he comes up with a response, but Baekhyun knows his answer probably be something creative. Dumb, maybe. "I like you speechless as much as you .”

“ing dumb idiot,” Baekhyun laughs, combing his fingers through his hair. “I hope things don’t get weird after tomorrow... after all, we’ve all been close friends ever since.”

“It’s gonna be fine,” Kai flails his hand dismissively, shrugging the matter off lightly. “Remember that time you said you were gonna Wonhae? I told you I’d his twin and we’ve all been close mates since high school. Now we’re way past high school graduates and we were fine after.”

But that’s because I never got around to even meeting up Wonhae, dumb. All those times that I said I’d someone, I never really did. But Baekhyun bites back those words—Kai doesn’t need to know them considering the fact that this shows just how much loyalty meant in their relationship.

Which, in that sense, yet again, proves just the extent of how ed up they kind of are. How Kai could be happy even without Baekhyun as his boyfriend... and everything else he refuses to recall.

Times like that reminds Baekhyun about how much he actually loves Kai, even though normal people would've advised him to steer clear from people like him in spite of the similarities between them in the appearance aspect; badass looking.

Except, Kai has always been the genuine badass and Baekhyun, the poser. He likes this fashion, that’s all. His behavior has never been changed to suit this look, it’s just him.

Suddenly, he feels like crying for the first time ever, and he musters enough strength to get dressed in silence meanwhile trying his hardest not to whimper from containing tears. He makes sure he looks like he hasn’t just ed somebody before slipping out of Kai’s bed and walking towards the door while muttering, “I’m exhausted, so I’ll head home first.”

“What? Baby—” Kai’s a second too late to grasping Baekhyun’s wrist, but he doesn’t give up; rising from the bed to pull his boyfriend back by his waist. “You could just crash here, don’t go home. You always—”

“I just wanna rest at home,” Baekhyun manages a bright smile, the last he’s probably able to flash for the day due to mental exhaustion, and Kai furrows his brows. “Besides! We’ve got new partners for tomorrow.”

“So?” Kai’s frown visibly deepen as he steps forward, but his grip on Baekhyun’s waist remains as firmly gentle as ever. “You alright? Did I say something wrong or?”

“Of course not,” Baekhyun taps Kai’s face lightly, in an attempt to lighten the mood. It’s almost humorous how obvious the gears are churning above Kai’s head that he’s overthinking. “Seriously, I don’t feel well. It’s almost like I’m floating on clouds right now, lightheaded.”

“, just stay over you ,” Kai tries pulling Baekhyun closer but the latter remains still.

“Kidding!” Baekhyun tries to widen his grin but Kai isn’t buying it, and he feels his energy limit reaching. “I’m gonna buy food and head home.”

“I’ll order out, anything you want.”

“Kai, just what exactly is the big deal of me heading home right now?” Baekhyun retires, shoulders slouching and back hunching. He’s going to break down any minute now, just watch. And Kai is going to freak out because Baekhyun has never ever cried, not even when they met years ago at the age kids usually cry even over fallen crayons that broke into half.

“You've never left after we ed,” Kai’s jaws click and Baekhyun has no way of ignoring that.

“It’s because you’ve kind of.. always been the who left first,” Baekhyun blinks, pulling a mask of confusion as he tilts his head slightly. “Not that it’s an issue though, since you’ve always got valid reasons.”

“I don’t...” That hesitance. So he’s finally realized?

Baekhyun bids farewell in Japanese before he turns around jogs down the stairs which leads directly to the front of the kitchen.

He grips on his phone tightly, knuckles probably turning white but he doesn’t care. They've never talked about this—whatever they just did—and it’s foreign but somehow, it feels like it had to be said at one point and turns out today is it.

Baekhyun pulls the door open and steps out, not before he slips his feet into his favorite pair of leather shoes. The sun is only beginning to set and he knows, the day is going to be long before midnight reaches. 

Baekhyun’s heading towards the main gate in a hurry, where he approaches his surprise just a foot away from being able to reach the gate lock.

“J-Jongin,” Baekhyun stares up in surprise, vision blurry and, , he’s already crying! Hands fly up to dry his cheeks in an instant to hide the fact that he’s clearly unhappy, but Jongin’s already rushing to his side after shutting his car door.

“Baek,” Jongin rests a palm on the mentioned male’s back. “What’s up? Did Kai hurt you? I swear I’ll—”

“No!” Baekhyun blurts. “He didn’t, don’t swear. I promise. I’m just, uh... I think I’m just overly emotional today, so we kinda just... fell out? But don’t ask him about it, I’m begging you. I think we should both have some alone time.”

“What happened,” Jongin whispers, a hand reaching up to brush Baekhyun’s tears away. Baekhyun simply smiles at the kind gesture because there’s nothing much he can do at this point. Baekhyun’s confused... very confused about everything. “Anyway, I’ll send you home.”

“No, no it’s fine, I’m gonna drop by the mall to grab some food so I’ll just—”

Jongin takes no , he expresses that with actions instead of words and times like that Baekhyun can tell the difference between Kai and Jongin’s will and determination on certain things.

“You’ll technically be my boyfriend tomorrow, right?” Jongin settles Baekhyun comfortably and nicely in the passenger seat, even pulling the seatbelt on for Baekhyun, who has expected no less and is only mildly surprised. “Why don’t we have a little head start? No one would know, anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun doesn’t know how he manages to keep the stuttering from minimal to none at the rate he’s silently hiccuping but when Jongin slams the door and rushes to the other side so he could get into the drivers’ seat, he realizes—he feels better.

“Your meals are my treat, babe,” on the road, Jongin reaches for Baekhyun’s fingers to entwine without looking down and he wonders how it’s possible. He probably does it a lot with Taemin.

“I can pay for myself though,” Baekhyun says in a small voice, with a small smile playing on his face.

“Didn’t you hear me, babe? I’m your boyfriend right now,” and Baekhyun has never been so attracted to Jongin, ever. “So, what do you wanna get? I’ll grab it for you while you stay here.”

“S-Subway,” Baekhyun gulps. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen this side of Jongin—then again, he isn’t the one who has Jongin as his boyfriend so that’s why he hasn’t. “Meatball.. marinara? With everything—”

“Except cucumbers,” Jongin grins, eyes crinkling into crescents that look simply adorable. “I know. Be good and stay, okay? I’ll be back before you know it,” and before Baekhyun can say anything else.

Jongin leaves a fleeting kiss on Baekhyun’s lips. And Baekhyun doesn’t know how to feel about it.