Stuck On You
The Only Constant in an Avalanche of ChangeWhen Jongin first introduced Yixing to Kyungsoo, he felt an immediate sense of disdain.
It wasn’t because Yixing’s a . Far from it, really.
He is sweet (almost a little too sweet), he is smart (he’s the first on their university ranking), he’s even extremely polite and kind. He’s most definitely not a like Soohyun, nor is he a leech like Jongin’s other conquests. He’s just… there beside Jongin with a small smile on his face.
The fact that he is so utterly perfect puts an immediate frown on Kyungsoo’s lips.
It’s not that he’s made a habit of looking out for flaws in Jongin’s conquests. He just feels as if it’s his responsibility to look after his best friend. It’s exactly the reason why Jongin’s exes usually steered clear of him. Most of them know that it’s better to stay away from Kim Jongin’s notorious best friend.
But apparently, Zhang Yixing didn’t get the memo.
He’d wave at Kyungsoo every time they’d see each other in the halls, in the bleachers whenever Jongin has a game, even going as far as giving Kyungsoo hugs every time they see each other at the usual diner.
It’s infuriating as much as it’s confusing.
This is the exact reason why Kyungsoo’s brows immediately furrowed when Jongin suddenly announced that he really enjoyed spending time with Yixing during their weekly get-together at the diner.
“What do you mean enjoyed?” Baekhyun murmured in askance as he dips his fries in Chanyeol’s sundae. “Is it gonna stop or something?”
Everyone snorts at his question as if it’s an absurd thing to ask.
“Babe, remember what I told you about Jongin’s rule? He can’t date for more than a week.” Chanyeol answers on behalf of everyone.
Jongdae shakes his head in amusement, “It’s a stupid rule if you ask me.”
“It’s not a stupid rule.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and flicks his straw in Jongdae’s direction. “Leave him be.”
Jongdae sticks his tongue out at him and throws a fry in his direction.
“Stop playing with your food,” Junmyeon reminds them. “Why did you even come up with that rule in the first place?”
“So that I won’t be committed.” Jongin answers easily, stealing a fry from Kyungsoo.
“What’s so bad about being committed?” Baekhyun asks, offended as he grabs Chanyeol’s hand defensively.
“Yeah, what’s so bad about it?” Chanyeol mockingly asks, a grin tugging at his lips.
“There’s nothing wrong with it!” Jongin puts both hands in the air. “I don’t know. I just don’t want to.”
Kyungsoo, quietly listening to the conversation, frowns down at his plate.
“Well,” Jongdae says and pauses dramatically before continuing, “You’re already kind of committed to Kyungsoo anyway.”
Everyone on the table freezes up save from Jongdae who continues to munch on his fries nonchalantly. Chanyeol loudly clears his throat and smacks Jongdae on the back of his head. Jongdae only laughs in response as the tension in the air evaporates. Everyone goes back to their food.
“You’re so annoying.” Jongin grumbles at the same time that Kyungsoo mutters a small “Annoying.”
Jongdae points his hands at them and cheers. “See! You even think the same way!”
Baekhyun looks at Kyungsoo and Jongin and narrows his eyes. “They’re both weirdly in love with each other.”
“We’re not in love with each other!” they both defensively state at the same time, earning even more weird looks from their friends.
Kyungsoo huffs at his plate and rolls his eyes, forcing his heartbeat to calm down. Even though his close friendship with Jongin has been a running joke since forever within their friend group, that doesn’t change the fact that he always feels his chest constrict every time that it’s mentioned.
“Are we in love with each other?” Jongin suddenly says, a small smirk pulling at his lips, eyes immediately latching on to Kyungsoo’s.
“Are we?” Kyungsoo keeps his voice a little flirtatious as he stares back at Jongin.
Chanyeol fake gags and the moment is broken. They look at each other for a second more before Kyungsoo turns back on his food, willing the redness on his face to go away.
“They’re flirting! Ew,” Jongdae dramatically says while pointing to his ice cream. “Right in front of my ice cream.”
Everyone throws him varying emotions of disapproval.
“Anyway,” Junmyeon sighs as he turns back to Jongin. “You like spending time with him right?”
Jongin raises a brow. “Kyungsoo’s my best friend, of course I love spending time with him.
Kyungsoo forced a smile on his face and softly bumped his shoulders with Jongin.
“I meant Yixing.” Junmyeon exasperatedly clarifies.
“Yeah, he’s really nice.”
“He really is,” Chanyeol suddenly pipes up. “He helped me with the case study that Mr. Chong assigned.”
“He even bought me the sweater that I told him was cute when we went shopping!” Baekhyun agrees, nodding his head as if suddenly recalling the incident.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at Baekhyun. “You went shopping with him?” He tries his hardest to not sound so betrayed.
“You wouldn’t answer your phone!” Baekhyun justifies, arms gesticulating wildly. “You were too busy playing with Jongin’s or something.”
Kyungsoo, red in the face and trying very hard to not think about Jongin’s , huffs loudly. “I gave him a massage because he was sore from practice!”
There were no involved. Should it concern him that he feels a tad bit disappointed with that?
Chanyeol groans and thumps his head on the table. “I didn’t need that mental image.”
“The massage or the ?” Baekhyun asks as everyone else loudly groans.
“Both.”
“You know,” Junmyeon starts, “Minjun said that Jongin’s is massive.”
Jongdae nods enthusiastically. “Jihoon and Aera said he’s really good at using his .”
“Please stop talking about my .” Jongin groans out.
Kyungsoo buries himself further in his seat. “Yes. Please stop.”
By Jongdae’s sudden grin directed at him, Kyungsoo should have known that nothing good would ever come out of his mouth.
“Wanna see his ?”
Kyungsoo lets his head fall on the table, wincing as his head thumps loudly. “You’re gross. I don’t know why I’m friends with you.”
“You love me.” Jongdae answers and Kyungsoo would bet his life that the idiot is probably grinning at him right now.
“Okay, we’re getting out of topic.” Junmyeon loudly declares.
“Agreed.” Chanyeol and Jongin both immediately say.
Kyungsoo lifts his head, ignores his own plate of fries and takes Jongin’s plate of nachos, not even asking for permission before he inhales them. Stress eating, that’s what the others would call it.
“You know, you should try it.” Junmyeon suggests, quirking a brow at Jongin.
“Try what.” Jongin asks distractedly, trying his hardest to take back his plate of nachos from Kyungsoo.
“Date him for more than a week,” Junmyeon explains slowly as if talking to a child. “If you like it, then you keep on dating him.”
Jongin furrows his brows, an amused smile on his lips. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you’ve never dated someone for more than a week and it’s getting sad.” Chanyeol answers in a tone that says he thinks Jongin is stupid for even asking that.
“It’s sadder than Jongdae’s nonexistent love life.” Baekhyun barbs, a smile akin to a cat on his lips. “We know that you can actually attract someone faster than any of us can say quidditch.”
“Hey!” Jongdae hollers, “Are you implying that I can’t find a date?”
“Yes.” Everyone answers with no hesitation. Jongdae bristles and turns his head away from them.
“I’ve never dated before and you guys don’t think it’s sad.” Kyungsoo points out. “Jongdae’s dated before.”
“Exactly!” Jongdae screams in agreement.
“You’ve never dated because you reject all your suitors. If you want to, you can date as easily as Jongin can.” Chanyeol explains to his brother.
Jongin’s head snaps towards Kyungsoo. “You have suitors?”
Junmyeon laughs loudly before sarcastically saying, “You have suitors, he asked.”
“Oh he has suitors, all right.” Jongdae nods smugly, apparently choosing to ignore everyone’s barbs about his lack of dating skills.
“More than you can count.” Chanyeol states solemnly, as if the thought of people dating his brother is annoying to him.
“They’re all smoking hot too.” Baekhyun adds enthusiastically.
“Hey!” Chanyeol calls out.
“You’re hot too babe, don’t worry.” the shorter of the two quickly placates his boyfriend.
Jongin ignores all of them and looks at Kyungsoo incredulously, his mind bombarding him with millions of things that he wants to say and ask.
Kyungsoo ignores Jongin’s pointed looks and says, “Dating is tiring.”
Baekhyun throws a fry at him with which Junmyeon smacks him in the arm. “You’re practically dating Jongin anyway so might as well get a real .”
Chanyeol says “Please stop saying my brother should get a ” at the same time as Jongin says “He’s not getting a .”
Everyone falls silent.
“I’m not getting a .” Kyungsoo protests in embarrassment.
“You’re not,” Chanyeol squeaks out, looking almost green with the mental image of his brother doing anything that Baekhyun and he get up to on a daily basis.
“Ever.” Jongin silently murmurs in agreement.
“Ah yes,” Junmyeon says as he places his chin on his hands. “The brother and the boyfriend.”
“We’re not dating.” Jongin forces out, eyes refusing to lift up and meet anyone else’s stare.
“So stop acting like you’re dating him and go date Yixing properly or something.” Jongdae says seriously.
Baekhyun grabs Jongin’s hand and squeezes it. “Just think about it, okay?”
Jongin shrugs and turns back to his nachos, having been abandoned by Kyungsoo’s prying hands.
Kyungsoo closes his eyes and tunes out Jongdae who’s asking about Chanyeol’s shenanigans and instead tries to calm his churning stomach that feels oddly heavy.
Not for the first time since he’d met Yixing, he wonders if Jongin would really date him for more than his usual week flings.
—
“Maybe I should try to date Yixing for at least another week. Get the feel of it or something.” Jongin suddenly blurts out as he pushes his newly ordered slice of cake towards Kyungsoo. It’s a thing that they do, with Kyungsoo being too shy to order more than one dessert, Jongin orders sweets for him instead. “I really like spending time with him.”
Kyungsoo firmly keeps his eyes on the cake that’s pushed in front of him as he contemplates how he should respond to Jongin’s sudden confession.
On one hand, he feels his stomach plummeting as he thinks of Jongin making an exemption of his dating rule for Yixing. After all, he’s never liked anyone for Jongin, no matter how perfect they might seem to be. On the other hand, he doesn’t own Jongin. He’s also never seen Jongin actually contemplate dating someone seriously before.
The thought leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. “Do you want to?” he asks instead.
Jongin shrugs a shoulder in response, eyes piercing through Kyungsoo. “Do you like him?”
“It doesn’t matter whether I like him or not.”
“Do you hate him?”
Kyungsoo slowly drags the slice of cake closer to him. “There’s nothing to hate, as far as I can tell.”
Jongin nods his head as a small “okay” leaves his lips. “Do you not want me to?”
Kyungsoo turns his eyes up at him as he brings a bite of cake towards his mouth, “I just think it’s unlike you. It’s unusual how you suddenly want to date seriously.”
“He has everything that a person could ever want.” Jongin resolutely says as he checks his phone. He moves to stand up before he stops and looks at Kyungsoo instead. “I have a date with him today. Are you gonna be okay?”
Kyungsoo softly smiles at him and nods, hands gesticulating as if to shoo him away. Jongin stands up, kisses him on the forehead, and leaves without ever looking back.
Kyungsoo wills him to look back just like he always does, but for some reason, Jongin does not.
He doesn’t know what to do with himself after that so he stays at the coffee shop for an hour and a half more instead, sulkily judging the people passing by, his cake having already been finished thirty minutes ago.
With nothing else to keep him, he chooses to go home instead. He packs his things and walks out of the shop, heart oddly feeling heavy on his chest.
His phone suddenly rings as he’s walking towards the bus stop to wait for Chanyeol to pick him up. He looks at the name of the phone ringing and finds that it’s an unknown number. Frowning down at the device, he answers it with a little “hello”, not bothering to stop walking.
“Kyungsoo?” a hoarse voice suddenly calls out to him on the other side of the call. Kyungsoo stops walking, feet rooted on the spot as something lodges itself deep in his throat.
“Papa?” Kyungsoo answers back quietly, breathing slowly becoming laboured as his eyes start to go fuzzy.
“My son, please come see me.” His papa rasps out, voice weak as he coughs while speaking. “I haven't seen you in so long.”
Kyungsoo’s breathing stops as he shakes his head frantically. “No. I told you I never want to see you again!" His hands tremble as he drops the call, his knees giving way, causing him to crumple down on the ground.
People who pass by him give him odd looks as he continues to sit down on the concrete with his laboured breathing, hands clutching his phone hard.
He never ever wants to see that man again.
With tears streaming down his face, he fumbles with his phone and hits his speed dial.
Jongin answers on the first ring.
—
Jongin manages to find him despite him incomprehensibly answering with sobs, carries him towards his car and takes him home.
As soon as they arrive at Kyungsoo’s, Jongin places him down on his bed and settles in beside him. He cradles Kyungsoo in his arms as the smaller continues to sob uncontrollably. He runs his hands through Kyungsoo’s hair as he soothes him with soft kisses on his forehead.
They spend a few minutes lying in bed like that until Kyungsoo has composed himself enough to talk.
“You were on a date,” Kyungsoo asks softly, voice still scratchy. “What happened to your date?”
“That’s not important right now.” Jongin counters as he places a hand underneath Kyungsoo’s chin to tip his head back. He stares at his best friend with his furrowed brows. “What happened to you?”
“Papa called as I was leaving the coffee shop,” He answers slowly, eyes tracing down Jongin’s concerned face. “Said he wanted to see me.”
“That bastard. I should have never left you alone there.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and burrows his face on the taller’s neck. “You had a date.”
“If I never left you there then you wouldn’t have had to answer his call in the first place. I could’ve taken the call for you.”
Kyungsoo says nothing. He suddenly recalls Chanyeol’s words the other week. It has stuck with him ever since. “Do you think we’re too dependent on each other?”
Jongin stops carding his hand through Kyungsoo’s hair and looks down at him instead. “Do you want that to change?”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and inhales Jongin's scent instead.
“I don’t want anything to change either.” Jongin softly says before slowly disentangling himself from Kyungsoo who whines in response. Jongin laughs as he stands up. “Why don’t we dance so you’d feel a lot better?”
Kyungsoo whines again but reluctantly gets up as Jongin tugs him. He slumps down on himself as Jongin turns to the vinyl collection across Kyungsoo’s bed.
Jongin sorts through the vinyls and dramatically shows Kyungsoo the one that he’s chosen.
“Stuck on You? Really?” Kyungsoo incredulously asks as a woman in a jump rope stares back at him.
“It’s a New Politics kind of night.” Jongin answers as he places the vinyl on the turntable.
As the first note drops, Jongin tugs Kyungsoo towards him by his waist and starts to sway him along to the beat of the song.
You are my lover, are my friend
It don't matter what they say
You are my one and only desire
It's gonna stay like that till the end
Walk away from me it's called irony
Kyungsoo mouths the lyrics as Jongin spins him around. As soon as he rights himself, Jongin pulls him closer by the waist.
What did I do?
What did I do?
To get my mind stuck on you
What did I do?
Jongin softly sings the last few lines on Kyungsoo’s head as Kyungsoo leans his head down on Jongin’s shoulders.
They end up dancing the night away.
Enter my favourite cinnamon roll, Zhang Yixing!
Comments