“I bought something!” Suho giggled excitedly as he handed him a shopping bag.

Kai did not oppose to getting presents for no apparent reason, grabbing the bag and emptying it in under a second. He looked at the contents, horrified. It was a striped T-shirt, and a dress with those exact same stripes in the exact same color. Couple clothes. How tacky. How ickily corny.

Suho let out a goofy chuckle, impatiently waiting for his reaction.

“I just... really wanted to try it. I've seen couples walking down the street like this all the time... but I've never...” Suho blushed.

“Uuuhm yeeeeah, there's NO way I'm ever wearing that.” Kai put his foot down. He was not going to get infected by Suho's lameness. No way. It might be endearing, but no. Not a chance!

“But I wore the silly head band in Lotte World for you...” Suho pouted with his whole body. It was so cute that Kai could feel his defenses weaken. Suho's pout-bombs were blasting down the defensive fortress he had built.

“That was Lotte World.. everyone does that at Lotte World... This is a fashion disaster!” Kai crossed his arms with intent. He was putting his foot down. There was a limit to everything, and this went way past his most stretched out limits.

“Fine...” Suho snatched the bag and started throwing the clothes back into it, clearly upset. The disappointment in his eyes made Kai's heart ache.

“Uuuuuugh... okaaaaaay.. if that's what rocks your boat, I'll do it.” he said dramatically, like he was doing him the biggest favor of the century.

“Really? You will? Really?” Suho's face transformed into a radiant smile. There was no limit to his dorkiness. Even though it was annoying, it did feel a tiny bit good making him this happy. Still, he tried to keep his cool and shrugged, like he was the best girlfriend in the world. And Suho clearly thought so too, almost bursting at the seams with joy.

“You don't happen to have like a really big hat and a mask to go with it?” he pleaded theatrically.

“Ha. Ha.” Suho playfully stuck his tongue out at him, quickly getting the dress back out of the bag, grinning full circle.

“Oh man, I can't believe I'm doing this.” Kai used his hand to cover his face as he stepped out of the car in the tacky, striped dress.

“I don't care what anyone says, you look exceptionally beautiful.” Suho beamed, nearly skipping over to his side, offering him his arm. Oh, it was even worse when he stood beside him, in the exact same T-shirt as his dress. Kai wished the Earth would just hurry up and swallow him.

“I care! I care what anyone says!” he objected, but Suho pretended he hadn't heard anything. That weird goofball. He tried to be mad at him, but it was exhausting to constantly throw logs on the fire to fuel the anger, when Suho's dorky smile kept putting the fire out. He might as well just have fun.

Suho slid his hand in his, looking away, pretending to be figuring out where to go, but his pink cheeks gave him away. It was so cute, Kai couldn't resist. He planted a quick kiss on his cherry cheek. Suho stiffened up for a second from the shock, and then he burst into a fit of giggles. His goofy hyena laughter tickled Kai's insides, making him giggle as well. Great. Now they looked even more idiotic.

They entered the aquarium hand in hand. Suho's feet barely touched the ground, he was so happy. His happiness was infecting Kai, who had almost stopped caring what people thought.

“Wow! See the huge ray, it's like an elegant bird! Look! It looks like it's flying.” Kai followed its majestic movements fascinated as it swam over them in the glass tunnel walkway through the fish tank. He was so mesmerized that the moment it disappeared from view, he suddenly realized he was face to face with a medium sized shark, only a thin glass separating them.

“Aaah!!” he let out a high-pitched scream and involuntarily jumped backwards, right into the arms of Suho.

“Don't worry, I'll protect you.” Suho whispered into his ear, all manly, in protector mode. It made Kai feel strangely warm. Even though he knew he was full of crap, he started to feel more at ease, like he was safe as long as Suho was there. It made no sense, since he was actually both way bigger and much stronger than Suho, although Suho could totally hold his own, his clothes always hinting at the chiseled muscles hiding beneath them.

“Oh! Oh! Let's take a picture there.” Suho jumped up and down with excitement, pointing at a seat by one of the smaller tanks, with a super cheesy red and pink heart behind it. Ah, he was so lame! But who was he to rain on his parade, they were already wearing couple clothes, they might as well go the whole nine yards.

“Agh, I can't get a good shot of the heart.” Suho complained after taking hundreds of selfies of them. “Let's get someone to take one for us.” he decided. Kai was going to object, not liking the idea of some stranger taking their picture in this compromised state, but Suho had already stood up and found a potential victim.

“Smile.” a young girl instructed. Kai tried as hard as he could to put up a natural smile, but it was difficult. He was feeling really self-conscious and shy. He felt Suho's warm hand return to its rightful place, enveloping his hand. It made him feel a little bit better. They both smiled. And then they looked at each other and the rest of the world vanished. He didn't know if it was possible, but Suho had grown even more handsome than last time. His thick, but well groomed eyebrows framing his beautiful, deep eyes. He could look into them forever. At a quick glance, Suho seemed almost boringly nice, his eyes seeming to harbor nothing but kindness, but the harder Kai looked, the more he got convinced that there was much more to him than that. Right now, they were full of smoldering passion. So much so, that it was making Kai uncomfortable. This celibacy thing was getting harder and harder by the minute .

“Thanks so much!!” Suho suddenly jumped up and reclaimed his phone from the helpful girl, bowing lightly to thank her. He then rushed back, grabbed Kai's wrist and pulled him up and away.

“Where are we going?” Kai giggled, not understanding this sudden urgency that had taken over Suho. Suho pulled him along, skipping half the aquarium, not listening to any of Kai's objections when he saw something cute or worth stopping for. Finally they reached a very extravagant display, made out of high, thin, portable walls in the shape of all kinds of sea creatures. Suho ducked behind a big turtle, pulling him into a dark corner with him, away from the crowds.

“Alone at last.” Suho sighed with pleasure, almost out of breath, before he lunged forward and kissed him. Kai closed his eyes. The moment their lips met, a wave of electricity ran through him. Now he could understand how those electric eels felt, having a constant current running through them without it being fatal. It felt kind of nice. Intense, but nice. As Suho's lips parted his, making room for his tongue to go exploring unknown territories, Kai stuck his out, way out, to make sure Suho wouldn't feel anything weird. And then he just went for it, letting their tongues play and get acquainted.

“Whoa. Hehh...” Suho broke loose, stumbling slightly as if he was dizzy. “Maybe we should, ehm... get some air.”.

They bought some snacks to eat in the car and took a drive, ending up on a mountain view point, watching the sunset together.

“Can I ask you something.” Suho said a bit timidly.

“Sure.” Kai said, not sure what to expect.

“Is... uhm.. is your brother... eh...” Suho scratched the back of his head, looking for words.

“Is my brother...?” he could feel his ears growing. He had no idea what he was going to ask, but he wished it would be some kind of a sign. A sign that there was hope for them.

“Is he... gay?” Suho carefully asked, as if he was wading through a mine field.

“Uuuuh... yeah. Why?” Kai answered, his tone mixed with curiosity and caution. He felt himself get all defensive. If he was going to say something politically incorrect about gay people, he was in for a rude awakening.

“No. No reason... I was just wondering...” Suho shrugged and changed the subject, leaving Kai baffled. What was that? Had he felt something when he almost kissed him as Kai? Or did he hate gay people, but was making sure he wouldn't be stepping on any toes before expressing his feelings on the subject? Kai was confused. He decided to ignore it, hoping it was the former, with such intensity that it physically hurt.

The sun had set and they were running out of food, but still they kept talking. Kai was having another of his loquacious episodes, where he just couldn't seem to be able to stop talking. It was especially bad when he was with Suho, he just wanted to tell him everything.

He was in the middle of an embarrassing story from his past, not really sure why he was telling him it at all, when his ex came up. Suho didn't ask, but he could see he was curious. He decided it was time. He was going to have to face it sooner rather than later, now was as good a time as any. And so, he started pouring his heart out.

He told him about when he first met Baek, or that was his nickname for Baekhyun. He told him how enchanted he had been at first. Baek had been so bright, and so full of energy. He was everyone's friend, or enemy. He was so sociable and blunt, like he had no filter at all, that everyone knew him or of him, and had an opinion of him. The guys flocked towards him like a moth to a flame, and he had burnt quite a few. Kai knew all this, but he still couldn't believe it when Baek's flame was pointed at him. He was everything he was not. Kai was shy and awkward, and he had a really hard time letting strangers get close. But Baek didn't care about all his defenses, boycotting all the walls he had spent a lifetime building. It wasn't long until they were two peas in a pod. He was having the time of his life. He thought he had found the one. The yin to his yang. But it turned out his yin had a lot of yangs. With difficulty he told Suho he had been cheated on, and how his whole world had come crashing down, how he still felt like he was free falling.

“Don't worry, I'll catch you. I won't let you fall.” Suho reached over the gear box and pulled him into his arms and hugged him especially tight. “...and I would never... never!...do anything to hurt you.” he whispered.

“I know, I know you wouldn't...” Kai could feel the tears he had been holding back come rushing out. He let go and started full blown crying into Suho's shoulder. It had been such a long time since he had felt safe enough to think about that time in his life, let alone talk about it. This was the first time he had said it out loud since he had told Taemin at the time. Taemin was the only one who knew. He felt oddly embarrassed about it, like it was his fault he got cheated on, like he hadn't been enough.

Kai pried his eyes open, but only saw darkness. He could feel his eyes were swollen from all the crying. He started rubbing them, but froze when he realized he was still a girl and had tons of make up on. Great. He probably looked like Picasso's more abstract works.

“Hello, sleeping beauty.” Suho giggled.

“What time is it? Why didn't you wake me?” Kai looked around disorientated, trying to figure out how long he had slept. He had cried until he didn't have the energy to cry any more, falling asleep like an idiot.

“You were so sound asleep, I didn't want to wake you. I figured you needed a bit of peace and quiet.” Suho gave him a kind smile.

“You just sat here for TWO hours while I slept?!?!?” Kai exclaimed in disbelief, after he finally found a clock to tell him the time. It was way past midnight.

Suho just shrugged, putting his hand on his cheek and it gently with his thumb.

“Uh, don't look at me. I'm a mess.” Kai shied away, painfully aware of how awful he must look. He could feel the stickiness of a thousand dried tears on his cheeks.

“You're always beautiful to me.” Suho said with complete sincerity, placing a soft kiss on his lips.