A/N: Hello, Hello, its your two favorite resident authors? How have you all been? I hope doing well, especially with everything thats going on right now. Our only hope is that everyone is safe and healthy, remember to take care of yourselves and wash your hands. It seems kinda scary right now but it shall pass! Just keep your head up and remember to look out for yourselves and each other. But anyways, we hope you enjoy this chapter, even though we know it's been literally over a month. We hope to see you again in the next one! 

Also we hope you enjoy a little bit of a change this chapter. 

Until the next time! 

-Arya and Hannah.

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“Where are you going again?” Sehun asks, watching Kai give his hair the final touches, from over his bed. It’s ridiculous how he spends more time on his hair than on the actual outfit.

And Kai spent a lot of time on the outfit.

“Same place as always,” Kai smiles at his reflection. “I think Kyungsoo will like it.”

Sehun shakes his head, he still can’t believe Kai got Kyungsoo to agree to go out with him. He doesn’t say a word as he takes a sip of his water. Chanyeol then walks into the room, sitting on Kai’s bed as well.

“Looking good,” Chanyeol compliments, he’s carrying a bag of chips.

“Thanks,” Kai replies. “And don’t eat that on my bed.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes, but he stands up, sitting by Kai’s desk anyways. “And who’s the lucky guy?”

“You met Kyungsoo-hyung yesterday,” Sehun says.

“Who?”

“Kyungsoo, one of our friends, one of the two that didn’t reject you.” Sehun laughs, more to himself than anything else, gaining a glare from his friend.

“That was just a minor setback.” Chanyeol throws a handful of chips into his mouth. “I’ll get him to go out with me soon.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. Baekhyun-hyung is not the type you usually date.” Sehun sits up on the bed.

“They all fall eventually Sehunnie.” Chanyeol chuckles.

“I warned you,” Sehun shrugs, now watching Kai finally nod, satisfied with his work. He grabbed his keys and his cellphone.

“Chill kids,” He smiles at them. “Be good while I’m gone.”

“I should be saying that, not that Soo hyung can’t handle you,” Sehun chuckles. “And have fun.”

“Will do.”

Chanyeol stands, putting his chips to the side. He helps Kai fix his clothes and cleaning the imaginary dust off his shoulders, smiling. “Remember to text me the details later.”

“Sure,” Kai rolls his eyes, patting his friend’s arm. “You guys are going to make me be late, see you guys later.”

They both nod, watching him leave the room. Kai can’t help the smile when he sits inside his car and the garage door starts to open. He feels relaxed, especially because he has a plan. He usually takes his dates to one of three places he carefully picked out because of their quality. He analyzes the person he’s going out with and depending on their personality he decides on a place.

And this time would not be any different, he had been thinking about it for some time, thinking which place would suit Kyungsoo the most. Thinking about which plan would work on him too, until he came up with the perfect date that would set the bar really high for other people. Just as he was used to do.

Sorry bro.

The last time they went out together, Kyungsoo thought he was Jongin and Kai was determined to change this impression and create a better one. Not that he needed a lot to do so, but just in case, he made a quick stop by his usual flower shop. He looked around for a while, before deciding on the type of arrangement he wanted. Once he was satisfied, he paid, and he went back to his car.

Kai was in front of Kyungsoo’s dorm parking lot in no time. Locking the car, he entered the building, making his way to the room, flowers in hand and knocked on the door. He is greeted by Baekhyun who smiles at him before looking over his shoulder.

“Soo, your date is here,” He turns back to Kai, still smiling. “Come on in. Are those for Soo?”

“They are,” Kai returns the smile as he steps inside the known room. He doesn’t see Jongdae around for now. Sitting on the couch, he sees Baekhyun do the same, his eyes on Kai all the time, like he’s analyzing him. Or maybe just curious.

“I’m going to take full credit for his clothes.” Baekhyun says after a moment of silence.

 Kai chuckles. “Okay then, although I don’t think he needs much help with that.”

Kyungsoo then walks out of the bathroom, with Jongdae following right behind. Kai stands up, his smile turning into a smirk when he sees him. Black hair slightly pushed to the side, a nice pair of dark washed jeans, and a nice black turtleneck to match. He took the ‘dressing cute’ to a new level. Kyungsoo finally stops arguing with Jongdae and glances at him.

“You look really good,” Kai says giving Kyungsoo the flowers.

“Thanks, you didn’t have to,” Kyungsoo smiles a little at the flowers, giving them to Jongdae to put in water.

“I wanted to,” Kai replies. “Shall we?” Kyungsoo nods, looking at his two friends one last time.

“Sure.”

“I want him back by at least eleven thirty, have fun but don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Baekhyun instructs as they walk them to the door.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Jongdae asks, laughing as he wraps an arm around his friend. 

Baekhyun glares a little bit at Jongdae staying under his arm none the less, he just huffs a little in response, not being able to fully deny the words, or wanting to confirm them either as Jongdae sits there with a smile on his face. 

Kai smiles briefly at the interaction. “I’ll have him back before he’s missed.” He assures. 

Kyungsoo just smiles at his two friends, before they finally decide to leave the apartment, deja vu settling in as he climbs into Kai’s car. “Round two…” He laughs a little. 

Kai looks at him from the driver's seat, a touch of his smile. “Well then maybe the second time's the charm.”

“Maybe.” Kyungsoo agrees. “Although they usually say, that’s only the third time.” 

“Already expecting a third time?” Kai’s eyes flicker up to his through the rearview mirror. 

Kyungsoo snorts a little. “In your dreams.” He smiles a bit. 

The rest of the ride to the restaurant is in relative silence, Kyungsoo can’t help to look around a little. Just like last time the inside of Kai’s car is impeccable, he could tell Kai was proud of it too. He looks out the window, not really seeing anything as they made their way smoothly. Kyungsoo didn’t know what to expect or how the rest of the night would go, but at least this time he knew for sure the name of the twin he was going out with.

Kai soon pulls up to the restaurant’s parking lot, killing the engine and turning to look at him. “We’re here.”

“I can see that.” Kyungsoo chuckles at this, attempting then to open the door and get out when he feels Kai’s hand on his arm. He turns back just in time to see him get out and walk around the car to open his door. Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. “I forgot you did that.”

“Good thing I’m here to remind you.” Kai smiles, holding the door open for him and offering a hand. 

Kyungsoo takes the hand offered exiting the car, the pair immediately being seated, Kyungsoo taking in the rest of the restaurant. For somewhere casual it was honestly really nice, almost to something he would see more at a fine dining restaurant. 

“For this being a place to hangout… it almost reminds me of an actual restaurant.” Kyungsoo remarks, hanging his jacket against the back of the chair. 

“It's a pretty exclusive place.” Kai explains, sitting back in his chair a little more comfortably. “Not many people can come here.” 

“I see…” Kyungsoo nods, looking down at the small menu, skimming through it before the waiter came to the table taking their initial drink orders. 

“See anything on the menu you like? I recommend their garden burger here.” Kai leans slightly forward. 

“I’m sure everything here is of quality, if our last outing was any indication…” Kyungsoo looks up from the menu. 

“So you were paying attention.” Kai smirks. 

“You made sure I did.” 

The next few minutes of conversation go like that, as a normal date would, however, this time Kyungsoo wasn’t focusing as much on the fact that Kai might be someone else this time. However, he was finding it difficult to find anything remotely meaningful about the man across from him. 

It's like he dodged every question like it was going to hurt him in some way. 

Kyungsoo wouldn’t say that it didn’t annoy him a little bit, when he was willingly giving the answers to Kai, about things that he asked. There’s a moment, when he has to just lean back in his chair with a little sigh. This causes Kai to pause in his talk about a trip they took this past summer, to some island in a far away place that Kyungsoo had never heard of, how much it was and the things that they did. 

Apparently the Kims owned the small island. 

“Is there something wrong with your food? I can have it fixed.” Kai places down his own utensils, getting ready to signal for a waiter to come over. 

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “No, my food is fine… It's just--” He looks Kai in the eyes. “Am I still being vetted? Or something like that? I know that's mostly the reason why you came to hangout with us that first time.” 

Kai raises an eyebrow a slight look of confusion crossing his face. “No… You’re not…” He can’t help but wonder what led his date to that conclusion. 

“Okay, then. Well, I’ve been trying to get to know you. But you haven’t been responsive to my questions.” Kyungsoo says. “Where as I have been answering you. I can’t even tell you what type of movies you like, whereas I’m convinced you can tell me mine.” 

“Horror movies.” Kai instantly answers. “I’ve been paying attention.” There’s a little smug smile on his face. 

Kyungsoo is speechless for a moment, and then he makes the decision to call the waiter and ask for the check for his food. “How many other people have you brought here I wonder, I’m going to guess you’ve been on some pretty bad dates if they never asked about you.” He reaches behind him for his jacket. 

“What are you doing?” Kai asks, brow furrowing in confusion. 

“I’m going home. I think we should end it here, it would be wrong of me to continue this since there’s no interest in getting to know each other any further.” Kyungsoo replies easily, smiling at the waiter as he gives him his card to pay with. “This was lovely don’t get me wrong, you seem like you could be genuinely fun to be around…” 

Kai’s brain is still trying to process the information, never since he had started dating had anything like this had ever happened. So he didn’t know what to do, or to say in this moment. He could only watch as the waiter came back, and Kyungsoo collected the rest of his things. Registering that, the other man said he would see him around. 

And then he was gone. 

Leaving nothing behind but a bruised ego, and disbelief. 

***

The monday after is a bright day, and the following weekend had been a little bit better, but after all it was still a Monday. And for Jongdae, not even the remedial excitement of their little class trip was enough to perk him up this early. Even at the thought of what was going to be a project that could possibly propel his career after graduation. 

Walking into the law firm building he could see many of the workers and the clients walking in and out of the different offices. He walks alongside with the rest of his class, hearing the excited whispers as they followed their teacher. Jongdae’s brain was screaming for some soda while his brain worked on the design at the same time.

The teacher walked over to the front desk, giving the secretary his name and the reason they were there. The secretary smiled at him and nodded, picking up her phone and dialing somewhere.

“Isn’t it exciting?” One of his classmates says next to him. Jongdae looks at him and smiles, Youngjae is one of the top students as well.

“A little,” Jongdae responds. They watch as a different person approaches their teacher, apparently the one that will guide them around.

“I hear Wooyoung thinks he’s going to get it.” Youngjae shakes his head with a smile and Jongdae can’t help to do the same.

“We’ll see,” Jongdae says, scoffing. 

The teacher then asks the students to get closer, so the tour guide can give them instructions about what they can and cannot do along with basic information about the law firm, the type of cases they handled and the amount of years they’ve been running. They’re listening to him when the door to one of the offices nearby opens, letting out two people into the hall. One of them was older than the other, Jongdae thought they looked like they were related.

“Mr. Kim,” The guide bows politely at them, the older man smiles as he looks at the students. He is introduced as one of the owners and best interns at the firm. Mr. Kim laughs at this, apparently pleased by the word choice.  

“Ah, you’re starting the tour.” He says, looking satisfied. 

The guide nods, explaining how he was still giving them basic information.

Jongdae lets out a sigh, wishing this interaction would be over soon so the tour could start properly. He wanted to go back to the dorms and get started already, his fingers itching with anticipation. His eyes then land on the younger man, he seemed to be maybe about Jongdae’s age. He was wearing a black suit that resembled Mr. Kim’s and his hair was carefully brushed back.

A very good-looking man if you ask Jongdae.

The guy then locks stares with Jongdae, and he felt his heart jump furiously inside his chest. The other didn’t look away as one would expect, which only made it hard for Jongdae to look away too. He gulps, watching how the other guy tilts his head to the side slightly, and his cat like eyes regard him, a slow smile curving his lips up. Jongdae thought it was the kind of playful kind of smile, a playful edge to the curve. 

Jongdae is finally the one to look away, and tries to pretend that he was actually paying attention to a single word that was being said by the tour guide, being acutely aware of the way the other man’s gaze lingered on him before he felt it promptly release. Jongdae could say that he was definitely glad when Mr. Kim, and the man, the intern he had said. Departed from the space and left them to conduct the rest of the tour of the facility in peace. 

Jongdae could feel his thoughts shifting to the mode of instantly beginning to plan for a design, and he didn’t have thoughts about the strange encounter for the rest of the time there. Especially once they got to the space that they would be helping work on if they were to get the position. It was an addition to add on more offices for their employees and associates, however they wanted a design that would flow seamlessly into the rest of the building, the inside of the offices included.

He could feel that familiar spark of excitement bubble up in his veins, better energy than any of the sodas that he drank could ever provide.

Youngjae comes over to him once again. “This is really going to be a lot of fun isn’t it?” 

Jongdae nods his head with a smile, he had a good feeling about this rival or not, and by the time that they’re gathering into the main lobby, he’s definitely more awake than he was when he first arrived. Their professor makes sure that they’re all there, and also alerts them that they will be sent back schematics within the week to help with their own blueprinting for the addition as well as designing the office. 

Mr. Kim returns then, along with the intern, and Jongdae does everything he can not to look in the young man’s direction, listening to the older thanking them for coming and that he was excited to see what they had to bring to them design wise, and for them to have safe travels back. 

It's then and only then do they begin to file out, but there’s something tugging at the back of his brain. Urging him to look back, and so he does, besides it's not like he would ever see the other man again. 

Right? 

The almost immediate heat that comes up to his cheeks, he doesn’t know whether its from being caught looking back or rather the fact that the other young man was already looking when they locked eyes again. A well placed jab and teasing remark from Youngjae is enough to have him break his staring contest and walk the rest of the way quickly back to the bus. 

The lingering feeling of eyes on his back even as he’s out the doors.