A/N:

Heeeeyyy, guys. It's us, back from the grave. We'd like to welcome you back to the story and wish you a happy new year, as well as hope the beginning of your year has been fantastic! We're sorry for the really late update, holidays and other life things caught up with us. But we still hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and that you've had a good day so far.

Also, to the fantabulous news that we all got today, we both wish Jongdae and his family nothing but the upmost happiness!

Well we hope to see you not too much longer next time!

-Arya and Hannah.

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The next couple of weeks pass quickly with presentations and all of that makes the weeks fly by as they get closer to the end of the semester and closer to a break, the one good thing that had happened was that Kyungsoo and Jongin's presentation had gone off without a hitch. They celebrated afterward by having some lunch together after the class had let out. 

"That was perfect If we get anything lower than a B, I will personally riot." Kyungsoo remarks taking a bite of his sandwich. 

Jongin nods in agreement, sipping his own drink. “I was wondering… did you Baekhyun and Jongdae want to hang out at my house tonight?” Jongin is a little proud of himself at not being hesitant about asking. 

Kyungsoo’s eyes light up a little bit. “Sure, that sounds like fun… I’ll ask and see if they’re free this evening.” 

“Great! Mom was wondering when she was going to see you again.” 

Kyungsoo smiles at that as he types out the message to his friends, not even a moment later his phone buzzes twice. The pair of students complaining about final projects and other classes they still had to study for. Kyungsoo sets his phone on the table. “Looks like Baek and Dae have stuff to do, but I’m free.”

Jongin nods, after mentioning how good Soo’s food was at Junmyeon’s event, his mom had been nagging nonstop for him to bring Kyungsoo over. He had promised to do so after presenting their project, so they didn’t have that pressure. 

The pair split ways, agreeing to meet up once the day is over. Despite this small little dose of excitement the day doesn’t seem to drag on and soon Kyungsoo is walking to meet Jongin in the afternoon, both of his best friends following to accompany him. 

“I thought you two have important stuff to do this afternoon.” He remarks looking at Baekhyun who has his arm looped through his as they walk. 

“And miss a chance to see, Jongin? We’re friends with him too you know.”

Kyungsoo smiles as they continue their walk to the parking lot, Jongdae also mentioning how his class was beginning to prepare for the annual chance for an internship under an established architect that went on during their senior year, only two of them would get to go. But it was stiff competition, as making it that far into their program meant that they were some of the best of the best.

“Do you know who it’s going to be under?” 

Jongdae shakes his head. “No, we’ve only been alerted to the fact that we will be going out to the site that the design will be for.” 

“Please, you’ll blow it out of the water.” Baekhyun encourages. 

Kyungsoo nods in agreement as they approach the parking lot, he almost immediately spots Jongin waiting while looking down at his phone. Light blue jean jacket thrown over the light beige of his turtleneck, black jeans to match with his converse at the bottom. This time though it looked as if they were being worn properly. 

“Jongin!” Kyungsoo calls for his attention once they’re closer. 

The latter immediately looking up from his phone and face lighting up once he sees the three of them approaching, giving them a bright smile and a wave.

“Hey, guys!” He bounces a little. 

“Hey, Jonginnie!” Jongdae greets as well. 

“I thought you guys couldn’t come.” 

Baekhyun sighs from beside Kyungsoo. “We can’t, we just came to see this one off,” He ruffles what little hair that Kyungsoo has. “And to say hello to you.” 

Kyungsoo’s nose slightly scrunches at the action but he’s still smiling nonetheless. 

“Well, you’ll definitely have to join us next time. We can watch movies and stuff there!” 

Jongdae nods. “Definitely, also next time. There’s this awesome new book I just finished, I’ll have to give it to you.” 

Jongin nods excitedly, checking his watch. “Oh we should get going, Mom wants to start cooking early.” 

Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo a look, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Kyungsoo just rolls his eyes, ignoring his friend completely as they walk towards Jongin’s bike. Jongin stops in front of it, grabbing the extra helmet from under the seat and giving it to Kyungsoo, then proceeding to get his.

Kyungsoo smiles, saying a quick thank you as he puts on the helmet.

“Uhh… excuse me?” Baekhyun says, his eyes never leaving the black motorcycle. “This is your bike?”

Jongin looks at the motorcycle and then at them, looking a little confused. “Yes, it is…” 

Kyungsoo clips the helmet in place, chuckling a little bit. 

Jongin looks at the pair of friends. “What type of bike did you think it was?” 

Baekhyun runs a hand through his hair, letting out a puff of air. “You know… bike with a basket,” His arm falls to his side. “It might even go, ding ding . The type you petal manually?” 

“Do you even have a license for this?” Jongdae questions. 

“Of course I do, my mom made sure of that before anything…” Jongin kind of pouts at the questions. 

The pair stare at him sort of incredulous, their minds trying to wrap their minds around the aesthetic, of the rather cuddly looking man on the sleek black machine. Their best friend on the back of it to boot, looking like it was the most normal thing in the world. 

Jongdae and Baekhyun look at each other. 

“You two be safe…” Jongdae remarks. 

“And you have to give me a ride sometime,” Baekhyn adds. 

Jongin gives them a smile. “We will… and sure,” He starts up the engine, flipping down the visor of his helmet. 

Before they’re completely gone, Kyungsoo sees Baekhyun give him a thumbs up and a wink, he shakes his head before they’re pulling off from the school. The ride not taking any time at all, as it seemed to become more familiar to him now, less foreign. They pull in smoothly into the garage after entering the gates of the community. 

“Why did Baekhyun and Jongdae look so shocked about the bike?” Jongin questions, smoothing down some of the hairs that had flown up from removing the headwear. 

Kyungsoo laughs. “To be honest I had the same reaction too…” He hands him the other helmet. “It’s uh, your aesthetic. It just would never seem like you would ride a motorcycle like this.” He explains. 

Jongin takes in the words, looking down at his appearance and then at his bike. 

“There’s nothing wrong with how you dress, it’s just that I would think that your brother would be more likely to drive something like this.” Kyungsoo tries explaining the almost odd juxtaposition.

Jongin blinks. “Oh…” and then he smiles a little. “I see.” He finishes putting away the helmets, entering the house through the garage door, calling for his mother to alert her of their presence.

The older woman immediately greeting them with a smile as she rounds the kitchen counter, it almost surprised Kyungsoo how much the smile from her was practically copy and pasted onto her son, and he can imagine it’s probably similar with Kai although he hadn’t seen anything other than a smirk from the other man. 

“Hi, Mrs. Kim.” Kyungsoo smiles a bit giving a polite bow. 

“Kyungsoo, it’s good to see you again. I was wondering when you’d be back, how are you?” 

He smiles. “I’ve been doing well, school’s been busy as I’m sure Jongin has told you.” 

She nods. “Good, hang in there. Your break will be here before you know it.” 

After that they’re sent upstairs to Jongin’s room, planning to do a little bit of work, although Kyungsoo didn’t have that much because for once he was actually ahead in something. But he always had the thought that there is work to be done on his menu. Checking it over for errors, and overall aesthetic check. 

“Hey, Jongin… do you mind looking at this for me?” 

Jongin’s head pops up from behind a book, glasses hanging off the edge of his nose. “Of course!” He nods eagerly, reaching over for the laptop. “What am I looking at?” 

Kyungsoo moves his position and sits directly beside him. “It’s a mock up menu… I’m just looking for things about the overall aesthetic, readability and spelling mistakes if I’ve made any.”

Jongin nods, and they’re in another round of silence before he’s done looking it over. “It looks great, honestly a lot of the food on here sounds really good.” 

Kyungsoo smiles. “Great, thanks…” He takes back the computer, saving the document before closing the device. 

“Do you want to go downstairs and get a snack, watch some television or play a game?” 

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah! Actually, there’s this new horror movie on Netflix, do you want to check that out?”  

Jongin nods eagerly and they both go downstairs, Jongin heading into the pantry to get snacks, his mother reminding them not to spoil their dinner. Leaving Kyungsoo to set up Netflix in the living room, finding the movie he was looking for through the catalog. 

“Kyungsoo! Do you want regular Chips or flavored ones?” Jongin calls from the pantry. 

“Regular is fine!” 

Jongin comes back out moments later with snacks and drinks sitting them on the table in front of them. 

“Soo.” 

Jongin stops arranging the snacks on the table, confused by the sudden statement. “What?” 

“Call me, Soo… my friends call me that.” He smiles. “I think it’s less awkward than my full name since we know each other better, right?”    

“Oh,” it takes a moment for Jongin to fully process his words, but once he does a smile crawls up his face. His friends call him that.

And he asked him to call him that too. 

Friends. 

Kyungsoo had no idea, but Jongin is a lot more cheerful when he sits down next to him, with all the snacks set. Jongin hands Kyungsoo the bag of regular chips and he takes a bag of gummy bears he also snatched from the pantry, taking one potato chip and one gummy bear and putting them together in his mouth. 

“Jongin, what are you doing?” Kyungsoo questions, frowning at the strange behavior. 

“It tastes good together… try it.” 

“I’ll pass,” Kyungsoo laughs as he eats a few chips too and hits play. 

Soon the movie starts, and they are instantly immersed in it. Jongin eating gummy bears and chips absently, while Kyungsoo takes a sip of his drink. On the screen the woman slowly walks into a dark basement, it’s obvious that the beast/demon is there, and it doesn’t matter how much Jongin warns her, she keeps going in. 

There’s a sudden movement and Kyungsoo’s hand flies to Jongin’s arm, a tight grip on his sleeve. Jongin turns to look at him, but it looks like he didn’t even notice, his eyes wide open as he looks at the screen. Jongin smiles, returning his attention to the movie as well. 

The woman screams, coming face to face with the demon, causing both Kyungsoo and Jongin to jump slightly in their seats. 

The rest of the film goes pretty similar, the pair completely focused on the movie as time goes by. Neither of them hears the familiar roar of Kai’s car, or his footsteps as he approaches the living room and standing just behind them.

“What are you guys watching?” Kai asks, making both of them almost jump out of their seats. Kyungsoo puts a hand to his chest and Jongin turns to glare at his brother.

“Never do that again in your life,” Jongin’s voice comes out rather breathless. 

Kyungsoo’s heart still races slightly from the sudden shock, somehow the arrival of the other Kim twin being much more of a shock to his heart than the movie. 

He slightly slumps against Jongin as his heart rate comes down. 

“A horror movie…” Jongin slightly huffs, his own heart rate calms. 

Kyungsoo doesn’t notice the way Kai’s expression changes. 

“Oh… well, I’ll leave you.” The other twin makes a pretty swift exit of the room, allowing the pair to finish the movie.

The pair finish their movie, Jongin going to turn the lights back on, Kyungsoo beginning to clean up some of the snacks and other things that they had been casually munching on.

“That wasn’t too bad.” Kyungsoo remarks. 

“Not at all.” Jongin brushes stray crumbs and a chip into his hand from the table. “A lot more jump scares than I was expecting, but I think the scariest part was my brother unexpectedly showing up in the middle of it.” He lets out a slight chuckle. 

Kyungsoo gives a slight smile in agreement, finishing up cleaning the area before heading over to the kitchen. Noticing that Mrs. Kim was pulling out pots and pans and setting them up on the pristine counters. 

“Mom, you’re cooking?” Jongin leans against the island, his expression seems a little surprised. 

She gives the pair a smile, a decorative apron already tied around her waist. “Yes, your father is actually going to be on time for dinner.” 

“Really?” Jongin’s eyes widen. 

Kyungsoo looks between the two of them, from what he gathered from the last time he was here, it didn’t seem that the other parent of the household was able to be around much because of his work. 

“Kyungsoo, dear… if it isn’t too much trouble, I wonder if you would help me?” 

“Not a problem…” He heads around the counter, taking another apron that Mrs. Kim takes out for him with a smile. Mrs. Kim takes out a few ingredients, telling him what she was planning on making before they both fall into a nice workflow. Jongin grabs a stool and sits down to watch.

“Jongin sweetie, are you staying to watch?” His mom smiles when she sees Jongin nodding enthusiastically.

“Of course, if I leave you alone with him only God knows what you might tell him,” Jongin pouts which causes Kyungsoo to smile.

“Oh, do you mean one of your many embarrassing stories?” Mrs. Kim holds back her laughter when her son’s face falls. “Like that time when…”

“Mom!” Jongin exclaimed, making both Kyungsoo and Mrs. Kim laugh.

“Don’t worry honey, I don’t remember any story right now, you’re safe,” She waves him off, watching how Kyungsoo sets some water to boil. As they work together, Mrs. Kim asks a few questions about his culinary program and everything, to which Kyungsoo replies without losing concentration on his cooking, cutting vegetables and meat fluently. “I can cut vegetables perfectly, but never that fast.”

Kyungsoo laughs, “They teach us several ways to handle the knife so we can do it fast since restaurant kitchens are usually very hectic.”

“And what’s your plan after you graduate?” She questions as she pours some onions and garlic into a pan along with some oil.

“Uhh… well, there are a few restaurants I would like to apply, but it would really depend if they have openings during that time.”

“Oh well, you will do just fine,” Mrs. Kim gives him a warm smile he can’t help to return. Taking a closer look at her, he could see many other features Jongin took after her, he hadn’t seen their father yet, but he was almost sure the twins took most of their beauty from their mother. 

Kai then enters the kitchen, watching his mother and Kyungsoo move around while they cook. He looks at them confused before he sits next to Jongin, who is scrolling down his phone with one hand, resting his chin on the other.

“What’s going on?” He questions, he imitates his brother, glancing curiously again at the two people moving around the kitchen.

“Apparently dad is having dinner with us,” Jongin says without taking his eyes off his phone.

“He is?” Kai’s eyes widen at the sudden news. It was rare to see his father around for dinner during the week especially. “Is it someone’s birthday?”

Jongin chuckles. “No, it looks like he doesn’t have much work today.”

Kai nods, his attention is soon captured by Kyungsoo as he once again looks very immersed in his cooking. It’s obvious he enjoys it and his enthusiasm captures people’s attention. Even Jongin puts down his phone and watches them cook and interact, their mom also seems to get along well with Kyungsoo.

“They get along,” Kai whispers, frowning.

“I know.”

“This is dangerous.”

“I know,” Jongin narrows his eyes.

A while later, Mrs. Kim and Kyungsoo are giving final touches, and cleaning up along the way as well, Kyungsoo gives her a few tips and tricks about presentation and she smiles at him when she gets it right.

“This was delightful Kyungsoo, thank you, I’ve been cooking for a while, but I learned a lot of things today,” She says, turning off the stove and helping him serve the rest of the food.

“I had fun too, Mrs. Kim,” He replies with a smile. She then turns to look at her sons.

“You two go wash up, dinner is ready,” She instructs. 

The pair do as they’re instructed, coming back just in time to help set the table. At the same time the door opens, the pair of brothers immediately looking up to find their father there. 

“Dear!” Mrs. Kim rounds the corner, giving her husband a kiss on the cheek and a bright smile. 

For some reason, Kyungsoo felt himself a little nervous. Where as the twins got their smiles and soft features from their mother, it was also true that they resembled their father as well. They were like a perfect mix of the two.

“How was work?” She questions, her husband smiles kissing her cheek as well.

“Ah, you know, same as always,” He looks over at his sons, patting their cheeks with affection. “How are you, boys?”

Jongin smiles. “Good, dad this is Kyungsoo, he’s a friend from school,” He says, pointing at Kyungsoo.

Mr. Kim looks at him and giving him a smile when Kyungsoo bows politely. “Nice to meet you Kyungsoo.”

“The pleasure is mine, Mr. Kim.”

The older man smiles at the younger, loosening his tie. “It smells good in here.” 

“Mom and Soo made dinner,” Jongin explains. 

“I see, I look forward to it.” He looks at his wife. “I’m going to wash up and then I’ll be right down.” Departing with a swift peck on the lips, leaving her with a smile.

The rest finish setting up the table, dinner beginning in a comfortable silence as they begin to eat. Mrs. Kim taking the initiative to make sure that all of their plates are filled with what she saw adequate before getting into her own, smiling as she watches them eat.

“This is really good,” Kai compliments, his eyes observe Kyungsoo who is sitting in front of him and next to Jongin. Kyungsoo doesn’t do much. “Props to the chefs.”

“Mrs. Kim did almost all the work,” Kyungsoo says.

“Oh, nonsense,” She smiles, looking at her husband. “Kyungsoo will be a great chef, he taught me so many things today,” The older man nods, glancing at Kyungsoo curiously.

“Is that the plan Kyungsoo, to become a chef?”

“At least a decent one,” Kyungsoo nods, he feels a little bashful under Mr. Kim’s stare.

“Kyungsoo showed me a mock menu they have them do for class, the things in there sound really good and professional,” Jongin adds, he gives Kyungsoo an encouraging smile, somehow it works.

“That’s good then, did you two meet in class?” Mr. Kim was looking down at his plate as he asked, but Jongin knew his attention was on them.

“Yes, we were partners for a class project,” Jongin responds. “We presented earlier today.”

“We don’t know the grade yet, but we’re hoping it’s good,” Kyungsoo adds.

“Oh well, I hope you can still come over to hang out, I’m sure Jongin will appreciate it,” Mrs. Kim looks at her son, who frowns.

“Mom!”

“I’m just saying,” She tries to hold back a smile.

Kyungsoo laughs, putting a hand on Jongin’s arm. “It’s okay, we get along really well, so if you don’t mind, I would like that also.” 

“We don’t mind at all,” She replies, then noticing how Jongin is skipping part of his meal. “Jongin, we have a guest today, please eat everything on your plate,” Jongin pouts after hearing this, but he nods either way.

They continue the rest of their dinner like this, Mr. Kim sharing a couple of stories about his day at work, mostly for his wife who now has her undivided attention on him. Jongin offers to clear the table and Kyungsoo decides to help him as well. Kai who had been silent most of the night, observes as they take the plates into the kitchen, smiling at each other and whispering things. 

It’s weird to see his usually quiet brother be so open and relaxed around Kyungsoo, although for what he had seen on the times he got to hang out with Kyungsoo’s friends too it looked like he was really comfortable with all of them. The weirdest part about it was that whenever he had tried to interact with Kyungsoo, it almost seemed like he didn’t even exist to him. 

He, Kim Kai, does not exist for Kyungsoo. 

He was always polite, but he mostly got short responses and courteous smiles. Kai wasn’t used to this kind of treatment, especially after their earlier encounters. However, it was true that Kyungsoo thought he was someone else, but still. 

Was it that he felt more comfortable around Jongin? Maybe that was it since they spent more time together because of their project. Maybe he could talk to Jongin and find out exactly what is it that it takes to get to him.

And that's exactly what he does once Kyungsoo had been sent home, courtesy of Jongin, and the whole family settling in for the night. He leans against the door frame of Jongin’s room, catching his twin in the middle of doing his skin care routine, patting in the leftover essence from a skin mask. 

“Jongin.” He gives two subtle knocks against the frame of the door. 

His brother’s expression shifts from focused to a smile. “What’s up?” 

Kai crosses the room, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, material giving way under him as he crosses his legs. “Hmmm,” It was all so simple in his head but now that he was getting ready to actually make the words come out, he realizes that he hasn’t ever been in this position before. “I was wondering if I could have your advice on something.” 

Jongin now turns his chair so that he is giving his brother his full attention, hair pushed back away from his face with a bear ear headband. “What about?” 

“There’s someone I’m trying to get close to, but nothing I do seems to be working. We’ve hung out a couple of times and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” His face forming into a sort of a pout.

This was a rare moment, as Jongin knew, his twin has always been the confident and sure one, he was a natural at communication. And people were naturally drawn to him, effortless to start a conversation while Jongin struggled and continued to do so with that aspect. 

“Well I know you, and you’re an awesome person. You’re going to have to lower a little bit of those walls you have with other people.” Jongin removes the headband from his head, allowing the strands to fall forward, as he combs them out with his fingers. “From the sound of it, you want to be closer and you wouldn’t be doing this if you didn’t think they were trying to play you in someway.” 

Kai mulls over his brother’s words for a moment, he thinks that he could possibly do that given the circumstances. 

“Answering questions like the ones Baekhyun was asking, doesn’t mean they want to consume your soul.” 

Kai lets out a little chuckle. “Alright, alright… I get it… be more open.” He sighs. “What about you? Are you any closer to the person you were talking about?” 

At this Jongin’s face heats up slightly, he can see that tell tale blush they both have from the bottom of their necks to their ears showing up. “Ah, I think it's going well… Better than I thought it would be. But now I’m having trouble, I think that I might seriously have a crush on them and I don’t really know what to do. Because I don’t want to mess up the friendship we’re still sort of building.” 

Kai smirks a little. “Look at my baby bro.” 

“By two minutes. You’re older by two minutes.” Jongin states with an affectionate eye roll. 

Kai leans forward a little. “Take it slow then, and I’m sure that it’ll follow through… once you get to know each other a little better, then ask them on a date.” He takes in a breath. “Who is it anyways? You still haven’t told me.” 

That question instantly makes his brother a little fidgety, biting his bottom lip, but he seems to come to terms with it as he meets his brother’s eyes once more. “It’s Soo.” 

Kai’s thoughts freeze at that moment, and he blinks. “What?” 

By the way that his brother’s face changes, in a mirrored way to his, he knows the tone of his voice comes out a little strained. 

“ Kyungsoo ?” 

Jongin nods. “Yeah… Why? What’s wrong with that?” 

Kai pushes himself to sit upright, he certainly didn’t expect his brother’s pretty serious first crush to be the same guy that he was planning to pursue. “Nothing… I....” he emits a short laugh.  Despite his words, he had never been good at being able to hide things from his brother, especially not his feelings. 

“You were asking about Kyungsoo.”  Jongin makes the realization, slumping back against the chair, a knot making itself known. With his brother in the mix, he knew that his chances would dwindle. Kai being the more experienced one when it came to dating, and flirting in general. 

But then the second realization comes, that Kai had come to him about trying to garner a better relationship with Kyungsoo, not the other way around. It boosts his confidence back up and he sits up a bit straighter in his chair as the two begin to stare at each other in the silence, one that is different from the squables they would have over stupid things like borrowing each other’s clothes. 

It was nothing like they had ever experienced. 

“Well, I’m not backing down.” Jongin’s voice is quiet, but it doesn’t lack backbone. 

Kai lets out a little huff, standing up from the bed, shooting him a little smile. He didn’t need to hear words to know that this meant that his brother wasn’t going to sit by idly either. 

The look in his eyes says it all. 

“Goodnight.” His brother pauses at the door before he slips through it and down the hall to his own. 

“Night.” Jongin releases a breath, some of the tension leaving, but a knot of anticipation builds in his stomach.