"Tsoo! Come play with us!" Sehun yells for the short-legged boy who barely keeps up with them, as he runs back to their group of friends who are already jumping on the benched table in the middle of the park. 

Kyungsoo pushes his glasses up from riding down his nose and runs faster. But his legs only carry him much, and he's already out of breath when he appears next to the big wooden table where his friends are all huddled up.

He hears the plan being explained by their oldest friend Junmyeon, who talks fast and hurriedly, stopping only to huff out his cheeks when he intakes much-needed air. 

But Kyungsoo doesn't hear the rest of the plan since they all break apart, running away on all different sides of the park, after nodding to whatever was being said. Little Kyungsoo reaches the table in front, pulling himself up to see over it, but his hands are too small to carry him long enough. 

He starts to tremble because they're playing without him, and Tao and Luhan are already laughing over catching up with Sehun who has long legs that carry him all the way to the other end of the park in minutes. 

Kyungsoo's bottom lip starts to tremble from exhaustion, and he really wants to play with them, but now he's left alone, without anyone to wait up and tell him what is the game they're playing. 

Before the biggest blob of tear falls from his cheek, he huffs out, sitting down on the bench instead. He has some difficulties hooking a leg up and pulls himself up, and by the time he's sitting properly as his mom has taught him, he's already blushing and huffing. 

But he doesn't cry. He remembers how his friends laughed at Chanyeol last week when Baekhyun stole his favorite toy, and how the tallest boy cried for over an hour before the culprit had to bring the stuffed puppy back. Baekhyun almost cried too, since their teacher scolded him for taking what wasn't his in the first place.  And then he had to apologize to Chanyeol as well, and the taller cried, even more, when Baekhyun called him a cry-baby. 

So Kyungsoo sits there, peering with big, watery eyes over the wooden top of the table, watching as Chanyeol runs after Baekhyun, seemingly forgetting how the boy made him cry just a couple of days ago. 

But when he sees that nobody knows that he's sitting all by himself, Kyungsoo tucks his plump bottom lip between short, baby teeth and hiccups from crying out loud. 

His vision is already blurry with unshed tears, but he only tightens his fists in his favorite Pororo shirt that's covered in dirt and mud from playing before this and holds tighter. 

   "Hyung?" 

Kyungsoo, at first, doesn't hear the soft voice calling somewhere near him, and instead wipes both of his eyes with a folded fist. His glasses slip down again, and when he pushes them up, they stay askew to the side. Kyungsoo feels like crying out loud since his friends are playing without him and he doesn't have the energy anymore to run after them all day long. 

Plus, he's certain they've forgotten about him altogether, and he really doesn't need to remind himself that too.

But then the voice speaks up again, and Kyungsoo turns around quickly when he hears it again. 

   "Hyung? Soo-hyung? Are you okay?"

It's Jongin, a boy younger than him by a year, but already much taller than his stubby self. 

Kyungsoo scowls when Jongin moves closer to peer into his big eyes, and he tries to hide it behind thick glasses, afraid of being teased. 

But Jongin's not like that, and instead of laughing at him for crying, Jongin crosses the path left and sits down next to him. He only needs to jump up and sit down, and not crawl up like Kyungsoo huffed and did a couple of minutes before. 

   "Did they say something?" 

Kyungsoo keeps his head bowed down, kicking the air with his new sneakers in the richest blue color, with a white line going across the sole, and eventually shakes his head. Jongin's not giving up, it seems. 

   "Why are you crying then?"

   "I'm not crying!" Kyungsoo puffs out his chest boldly, keeping a nasty scowl on his plump lips, trying to reassure him. But his lips start trembling again when Jongin tilts his head to the side, watching him closely. Jongin looks like trying to decipher whether he's crying or really crying. It seems the latter, he concludes when Kyungsoo doesn't say anything.

Eventually, he feels like crying again, and that's when Jongin panics. "They don't.. want. to... play with... me!" Kyungsoo explains through snots and tears, hiccupping and whimpering when he releases it all out. He's done pretending. Jongin could laugh all the wants, he's just so sad, feeling quite literally kicked down by his own friends.

   "Hyung!" Jongin jumps down from the bench, and before Kyungsoo could say anything else, the younger boy is already running down the park, leaving him alone once again. 

Kyungsoo stops to stare with wide, unblinking eyes as his only friend leaves him too, and he starts wailing loudly for real this time. Screw his friends, and their long legs, and forgetful minds, he feels sad and lonely, and if he wants to cry, he's gonna cry!

But just as he wipes at his cheeks that throb from crying so much, Jongin runs back to his side, crushing him in a bone-crushing hug that leaves Kyungsoo out of breath. "Umph!"

   "I told them that you're gonna play with me because they're mean!" 

Kyungsoo looks up from being mushed in Jongin's green shirt and blinks slowly. It has Jongin's favorite action figure plastered on the front, Kyungsoo remembers it clearly. "You wanna play with me?" 

And Jongin must've done something very good because his hyung is too cute with blushing cheeks and a wide smile that threatens to split his face in two. 

So he just nods, squeezing Kyungsoo some more, before the boy jumps from his hold, taking one of his hands and pulls him along. 

   "Come on, Nini! We can play castle and princess and—!"

Jongin only nods as the older boy pulls him from the park to the other side where a playground with a massive sandbox is. 

Kyungsoo turns around when they stop at the edge of the sand and stands up on the concrete that separates two sides, seemingly standing taller than Jongin. "Nini, you can be the princess!"

Jongin only blinks, twirling the shirt in his hands. 

   "And you, hyung? What will you be?"

Kyungsoo beams proudly, puffing his chest out at him. 

   "I'll be your brave prince!"

*** 

He is nervous. 

So nervous!

Not because this is his first date, but because this is his first date with his long-time crush—a really long-time crush—and he wants to make it all perfect! 

He's got his hair pulled back, all slicked down and volumized, away from his face, and if he's had his glasses at the moment, maybe he'd see it. 

   "You look fine, Kyung, stop fidgeting," Baekhyun flicks his forehead, and Kyungsoo's hands shot up to soothe the pain, afraid that it could leave a mark. 

   "That hurts, Baek!" 

But his friend only laughs out loud, fixing the smudge of eyeliner under his eye, as he leans away from the mirror when he thinks his reflection looks wonderful. 

   "Am I handsome?" He asks, but his friend ignores it, favoring his own question that's not answered very often. It's not even asked that often, to be honest, but he needs to be sure that he's presentable enough for his date. 

   "Am I?" Kyungsoo searches for his glasses all over the duvet, afraid that Baekhyun sat on them once again, breaking them in half like the last time when he had to return the broken pair and wear those thick ashtray glasses for a week until they got fixed up. 

   "You always are, Kyung." Through the blurriness, Kyungsoo sees Baekhyun handing him something under his nose, pushing the black line for him to reach and hold. 

Once he realizes that he's handing him his glasses, Kyungsoo slips them on over his nose, holding in Baekhyun's face for a moment to see it clearly once again, and then walks to the hanging mirror on the wall, taking in his appearance. 

His hair is all greased up, but he kind of likes it. His long lashes are only enhanced by Baekhyun's curler and a bit of eyeliner that's smeared perfectly on the edges of his eyes. The lip balm is a bit too much, but it gives him a glossed-up coat of sheerness that he's starting to like seeing on his plump lips. 

   "Well? Am I perfect in this, or what?" Baekhyun leans his head on his shoulder from behind, asking him with a proud glint in his eyes. Kyungsoo has to laugh and nod softly. 

   "Yes, I look.. nice."

   "You look damn gorgeous, Kyung!" Baekhyun pecks the side of his face, moving away to step into his sneakers for the night, and calls for Kyungsoo to put on his jacket. "They're picking us in ten minutes, or so."

Kyungsoo feels the jitters almost immediately under his skin, prickling his system to tremble, as he stumbles to put on his jacket. "Y-yeah... Ten minutes, huh."

Baekhyun stands upright, putting his hands on each of his shoulders, squeezing them in a comforting manner. "Kyung! You're ready for this." He says, and when Baekhyun says it like this, he really means it. So Kyungsoo believes him. Almost.

He nods. 

   "You look so handsome, and you deserve to have a good time."

He shuffles a bit on his feet, uncertain of being ready for having his first date. It seems all shuffled and tumbled, and he's afraid of vomiting their late dinner in the middle of the gathering. But Baekhyun squeezes tougher, and he nods on the instant. 

   "Good," His friend pats him on the neck, moving away to fix his collar, pressing down invincible wrinkles on his shirt. "Now, get out and have fun, okay? Don't be nervous. It's gonna be great. You're gonna be great!" 

Kyungsoo tries to mutter a smile, tries to calm down a ragged breath that he exhales, and just at the moment, the bell of Baekhyun's apartment rings loud—louder in Kyungsoo's ears—making him jump away like being scolded. 

   "Mom! We're going!"

Baekhyun's mom pushes her head out from the living room, waving cheerily, as her son pushes his dazed friend out of the house. "Have fun, boys! Don't be late!"

   "Thanks, mom! 'Love you— Come on, Kyung!" 

But Kyungsoo shakes his head, scrambling to run away. 

   "Are you okay?" 

They both stop when somebody else speaks just outside the front door, and when they turn around, Baekhyun's face splits in the widest grin. 

"Baby!" He jumps from Kyungsoo's side to run to his boyfriend and jump his bones instead. 

Chanyeol barely keeps up with him, holding everything that he can of his smaller boyfriend, laughing as Baekhyun pecks him all over, before stopping at his lips for a long press of their smiling lips. 

   "I missed you!"

   "I missed you more!" 

Kyungsoo makes a face at their usual corny public display of affection, before somebody else steps from behind Chanyeol, holding a bag of something small and colorful in his hands. 

   "Soo... H-hi!"

And Kyungsoo feels the blush creeping out on his neck, moving to his face as Jongin leaves the couple to be, and moves in front of him, a shy smile dancing across his face. 

   "Jong— Hi!" 

They stand there awkwardly, barely keeping steady eye contact, before Jongin exclaims 'Oh!' loudly, pushing the bag in Kyungsoo's hand. "This is for you!"

   "Thank you, Jongin." Kyungsoo smiles widely, his eyes losing in crescents that make Jongin blush from smiling so much at the sight, as he takes the bag and opens it to find a plastic sealed bag of candies at the bottom. 

   "You once said that you liked these, so I—" Jongin trails off, shuffling awkwardly on his feet. The couple is still kissing in the back, lost to each other to realize the mess of teens before them.

   "Thank you so much, Jongin! Those are my favorite!" Kyungsoo beams up to him, cutting his next words with an adorable sight before him.  

As they stand there, staring at each other, someone clears their throat, and they shuffle back when it's Chanyeol and Baekhyun waiting for them to pay attention, wearing matching teasing smiles. 

   "Shall we?" Chanyeol asks everyone but takes Baekhyun's hand as they walk back to the parking lot in front of the house, everybody moving to their sides of the parked car. 

Kyungsoo moves to sit behind Baekhyun who takes up the passenger seat, and Jongin sits beside him on the backseat, as Chanyeol starts the engine as their driver for the night. 

   "This should be a fun night," Chanyeol takes Baekhyun's hand from his thigh to kiss the back of it, smiling up to his cheery boyfriend. 

Baekhyun giggles at the sweet gesture, tearing his eyes to look in the review mirror at the soon-to-be couple that is quiet, sharing shy smiles and wandering eyes between the two. 

   "It's about damn time!" 

***

When Baekhyun suggested their destination for the night, Kyungsoo pictured a nice movie night with rows and rows of people sitting in the dark, with slim to none chance of talking with his date throughout the night. 

But when Chanyeol's car parks in front of an outdoor cinema, Kyungsoo gulps down. 

   "Soo, are you okay?" 

Jongin notices, obviously, since his eyes were doubled in size. So he has to nod dumbly, scoffing a bit when Jongin smiles comfortingly.  

   "We're here!" Chanyeol, the leader of their group, announces proudly, parking the car behind a little haphazard mass of cars already parked, while they all wait for the movie to start.

It's some new blockbuster that is yet to be in the movies around the country, but they're the lucky ones to see it tonight. Chanyeol bought all four tickets and paid the fare for the parking, so they're good.

When he cuts the engine, Baekhyun moves closer to his boyfriend, smiling up at the man. Chanyeol easily slips his right arm over his shoulders, bringing him closer in for a chaste peck on the lips, glad to have one seat in the front too, so there's no car console stopping them from being closer. 

Meanwhile, Kyungsoo and Jongin shuffle in the back, moving a bit closer to the front seat to take a better look at the massive canvas hanging in front of the parking lot, too big to miss. They have to move to watch on either side of Chanyeol and Baekhyun's head, so that leaves them to break apart furthest they can go.

Kyungsoo blinks. "Huh?" When he turns around to look, the light around the area has been dimmed down, leaving only the light from the movie that is starting ahead with the credits of the sponsors. 

   "They're selling popcorn," His date sheepishly smiles, gesturing to the lady going between rows with a tray filled with popcorn covered with different both sweet and savory seasonings. "If-if you want to.. share maybe?"

Kyungsoo feels like an idiot. 

He smiles back, easing down as the lady comes by them and he offers to pay for the biggest cardboard box of buttered-up snacks, while she gives them a bag through the open