REAL QUICK BEFORE THE UPDATE: EXO's MAMA came out and did you guys HEAR the end of each line in the bridge where they're practically "MAMA"!??!?!? brb my pants have exploded....

 

 

 

 

I continued doing my English homework while the rest of the class filed out of the room. When most of the class left, Kai came up to me with his same gentle smile. I guess he got over my little comments from lunch.

 

“Ready?” he asks.

 

“What are you so eager about?” I scoff, still writing out my sentences, “Just wait a couple of minutes. Some people might come to ask the teacher for something.”

 

Kai just sighs and plops down on the seat next to mine, leaning his cheek on his palm with his elbow propped on the table. I think he’s just watching me now. But it’s not too new to me anymore. Kai’s one of those quiet observers, so he might just be daydreaming by now.

 

“Ahem.” I hear the teacher stand up from his chair and shuffle his papers together on his desk, “Alright, Jaerim, Kai, I expect you know what to do?” he asks.

 

“Got it, teach.” I give him the okay sign.

 

“Alright then. Do a good job. I’ll see you two tomorrow.” He bids us goodbye before grabbing his briefcase and leaving the room.

 

I finally finish my last sentence, so I sit back up to twist my spine in my chair, “Ah~” I sigh, “Okay, let’s get to it.” I put my homework, folders, and pencils into my messenger bag before heading over to the supply closet in the back of the room for the cleaning supplies.

 

Kai follows along and grabs the bucket to head to the bathroom for water. I just assemble all the rags and bottles of cleaning solution while he’s gone. When Kai comes back, I start wiping down the desks as he takes care of the chalkboard and windows.

 

Not even five minutes into cleaning, he starts talking to me, “So do you need any help with anything for tonight?” he asks, referring to the math homework.

 

“Nah, I think I got it. This lesson isn’t too difficult.” I shrug.

 

“Yeah?” After a couple of seconds of silence and wiping, he talks again, “So what did you get for the last test?”

 

“I only got an 83.” I admit.

 

“That’s okay.” He shrugs, “It was a tougher chapter.”

 

“Eh.”

 

“So what about the Japanese test? That okay?”

 

“How come you like talking to me so much?” I ask curiously, not looking up from the desk I’m wiping down.

 

“What?” he asks, stopping his job to turn back to face me.

 

“You’re not really that talkative.” I shrug. “Why do you want to talk to me so badly? Do you not like silence?” I chuckle.

 

“What? No. I don’t know.” he shrugs.

 

“Or maybe you like the sound of my voice? Should I sing to you?” I joke, revealing my teeth in my smile for the sincere, humorous effect.

 

“Huh? Oh no,” he laughs as well, going back to wiping the windows, “It’s just, I don’t know. Even if I’m one of the quieter ones, there’s always still conversation going on. Maybe I just like the sound of interaction…” he shrugs.

 

“How cute.” I comment, “I bet you’re the type of person who falls asleep with the TV on.”

 

“It hasn’t happened just once.” He laughs, “But hey, your voice does sound kind of nice. It’s not like you can’t sing. I remember that time during lunch where you and Lynn ran out in a hurry just to sing with Sihyun. You sounded pretty good, in my opinion.” He smiles.

 

“Is that so?” I ask humorously, “Well since you heard me sing that time, you should sing for me this time.” I negotiate, looking up at him to smirk as I continue to the next desk.

 

“Okay.” He laughs, “You got style, you’re a star, and everyone wants you~” he starts singing Taeyang’s first lines of Lollipop 2 out of nowhere.

 

After laughing at his boldness, I decided to join him for the next lines.

 

“We gon’ rock, then we roll the way I want

Till the night ends, we’re gonna boom boom boom

You’re the only one I desire, whoa~”

 

We continue singing with short pauses between each of us singing the next part of the song. It’s pretty amusing.

 

“Oh my god, I should get Sihyun and Lynn to go to karaoke this weekend!” I snap my head up at the idea, “We haven’t gone in forever.”

 

“What? Them and not me?” he jokes.

 

“Sorry, no idols allowed.” I joke back.

 

“Uh!” he pretends to be offended, “First you claim to like 2PM more, and now you refuse to take me to karaoke after I just sang for you? I guess I should rethink this gift thing…”

 

“Gift thing?” I snort, looking up. But when I see he’s not in front of the windows anymore, I turn my head to see him by his backpack, holding up an EXO album package.

 

My mouth drops a little at the sight of it because it’s one of those expensive deluxe packages, with the CDs, the posters, a folding booklet of the members, individual cards, and other stuff I can’t imagine buying. “…You… were going to give me that?” I ask slowly.

 

He walks up to me with the album still in his hands, “I was. But after your hurtful words, I’m not so sure anymore.” He frowns sarcastically.

 

I take the album from his hands and open it, pulling out the long folding booklet that has all the members’ autographs on their individual photos. But in addition to the signatures, there are some personalized notes written to me.

 

Like Suho’s says, ‘How do you look at us without blinking twice when we see you? You’re either unimpressed or you have a talent. –the extra charismatic, cute, awesome EXO-K leader Suho’

 

Sehun wrote, ‘Thanks for befriending Kai and letting us have an opportunity to have some real friends again. I can feel like a regular student again and it’s comforting. It means a lot. –Sehun’

 

I skip across to Kai’s picture to read his note that says, ‘You’re so unfazed, even when you saw me in the massage room that time I actually got to meet you. How can you act so cool when I know you’re not? :P –Kai’

 

That one makes me scoff, “Tch. You silly, silly boy.” I sigh, putting a hand on his shoulder.

 

“What?” he laughs, his gentle smile still on his face.

 

“How can you possibly act like you don’t know how someone switches from a cool persona to a dork all of a sudden? You should know this like an academic major since you’re so cool when you’re off dancing onstage and all. And look at the noob you become when you’re in front of me.” I laugh.

 

“Psh. That’s different. I’m an idol. Of course I know those kinds of things. But you say you’re a fan when you act like we’re the most annoying things in the world! There… aren’t many like you.” He chuckles.

 

“No duh. Because you are annoying.” I roll my eyes as I fold the booklet to put it back into the album package, “That’s how friends are. You can be annoying as hell, but as a friend, you have the right to do that. It’s just not guaranteed that you won’t be hit afterwards.” I joke.

 

“Oh really?” he laughs, “Well, this is just a thank you for calling me and the rest of us friends. We’re lucky. It’s not easy to make friends like you after becoming an idol.” He smiles.

 

“Well, you’re welcome.” I say, closing up the package again, “And thanks for this. You’ve saved me the trouble of getting it myself. I’ll buy you guys a meal or something next time. Or karaoke. Whatever you like.” I smile, heading over to put the album in my bag.

 

“Food? That sounds good.” He sighs, “Do you have work today?”

 

“No. That’s why I’m not rushing to finish cleaning today.”

 

“Really?! Well, I have no practice today. Let’s eat tonight!” he suggests, his smile looking wider than it was earlier.

 

“Whoa, slow down.” I laugh, “Why are you always so eager for everything? Clean first.” I point to his rag, “I’ll buy food after we’re done.”

 

Kai just throws me his signature gentle smile before turning back to the windows.

 

*

 

“I was going to buy fried chicken but then I remembered that having an idol friend means that I have to watch out for his diet too.” I groan as I come back into the classroom with my bag of Chinese food. “But this is the next best thing. Chinese is really oily but I got a lot of broccoli.” I say, setting the bag in the middle of the two desks Kai has pushed together to face each other.

 

“I’m so hungry.” He smiles as I close the door and sit in the seat across from him.

 

“Where did you get this? You were gone for like ten minutes. I got bored.” He smiles gently at me as he takes one off the boxes and opens it up to find orange chicken, broccoli beef, and chow mein.

 

“This one has curry over rice,” I say, opening the second box with said meal, grilled chicken, and broccoli beef as well, “Do you want this one instead?”

 

“We can share it.” he suggests, grabbing a pair of chopsticks and digging in.

 

“Here, I got drinks too.” I pull two sealed cups of bubble tea and place it on the table with straws.

 

“Oh my god!” he says, picking up a cup, “I’m indulging way too much today. What are you doing to me?” he laughs.

 

“You’re the one who wanted to eat with me.” I clarify, taking the blue straw and sticking it through the plastic seal on the top of the cup before taking a sip.

 

“That’s true,” he agrees, poking the purple straw through his own cup, “So I guess I won’t regret it later.” He smiles.

 

“If you say so.” I shrug, starting in on the curry. I’m pretty hungry too. And I got this at my favorite Chinese takeout restaurant too. I was salivating the minute I saw the steam from the fried rice.

 

After eating half the curry and entrees from my tray, I reach over to Kai’s tray to grab a piece of orange chicken. He did suggest sharing, didn’t he?

 

“Oh! Here” He picks up his tray, pulling mine over to his desk and placing the chow mein tray in front of me. He’s eaten half of his meal too.

 

By the time we finish eating, I’m really full, especially since I finished half of my bubble tea already. “Oh my god,” I sigh loudly, pulling the tie out of my hair and letting my head fall back as I lean against the chair. I use my hands to shake out my hair to loosen it up a bit before sitting back up and stretching my neck to the side.

 

“Hey…” Kai looks at me, “Your hair is pretty on you like that.”

 

“Thanks. Your hair is pretty too.” I chuckle.

 

“I kind of like it like this.” he reaches over to hold up a lock of my brownish-black hair.

 

“Yeah, well I think it’s prettier like this too.” I say, pulling my hair back to prepare to retie my ponytail, “But it’s also more annoying.”

 

“Hmm…” he nods thoughtfully, picking up his bubble tea.

 

“So, when do you have to go home?” I ask.

 

“Curfew is at ten.” He replies.

 

“Hm.” I nod, “Are you going to stay here?” I ask, pulling my math folder and textbook out of my bag.

 

“Are you going to do homework?” he asks.

 

“Yeah,” I shrug, “We’re allowed to stay here until after dark. And my mom’s not going to be home early or anything so I might as well do it here. So I won’t have to take all my books home.”

 

“I’ll do it too! We can help each other.” He suggests, pulling out his books as well.

 

“Really?” I ask incredulously, “Okay, I guess that’d make it easier.” I agree.

 

An hour and a half into the homework between the two of us, we’ve completed math, science, Japanese, and we’re almost done with history. After I finish taking notes on the last section of the chapter, I stand up to stretch, my stiff bone joints making satisfying cracking noises.

 

“Ah~” Kai sighs, dropping his pencil and stretching as well. He grips the back of his chair to twist his spine to crack it. “Done!” he shouts happily, holding both hands up to me for a double high five. I slap my palms against his and smile at his smile. He’s actually pretty cute when he wants to be.

 

He starts clutching his right shoulder as he rotates it in its socket. He seems kind of stiff after holding down a pencil for over an hour. I guess a dancer wouldn’t really be into that, so I take pity on him and decide to be nice.

 

“Here…” I say, walking over behind his desk chair to start squeezing his shoulders, kneading and pressing into the tighter spots around his neck and shoulders to relieve the tension that’s built up in his muscles.

 

“Oh… Wow…” he sighs, “Thank you. You really know what you’re doing.”

 

“Did you think I didn’t the first time this happened?” I chuckle.

 

“It’s just that you’re pretty skilled for someone so young.” I can almost hear the smile on his face.

 

“I am pretty good, no?” I laugh, continuing to press my fingers along his back shoulder blades. After about 5 more minutes of massaging wherever I can reach in his seated position, I finish up with him, figuring that I found and worked out all the kinks at that point. He should be feeling pretty good right now.

 

“Ah~” he stands up, stretching his arms into the air, “That was fantastic. Thank you.” He smiles gently at me as I sit back down in my seat, “Should I do the same for you?” he offers, starting towards the back of my desk.

 

“Uhm, no.” I hold my hand up to stop him, “That fine. You don’t have to do that. Besides, I doubt you can give me the same results.” I chuckle.

 

He kneels down at the side of my desk and crosses his arms on top of my desk, leaning his cheek on them to look up at me, “Well, what am I supposed to do to pay you back? No one else really gets this kind of special treatment.”

 

“It’s because you’re special.” I offer, starting to put my papers and folders away.

 

“Jae, who’s your favorite EXO member?” Kai asks, suddenly using his relaxed, deep voice that I find really attractive in quiet, serious situations.

 

“You.” I say without hesitating or looking at him as I continue packing up my stuff.

 

“Then how come you like Luhan more?” he pouts.

 

“What makes you think that?” I smile mischievously.

 

“Why don’t you like me?” he whines a little.

 

“I do like you.” I chuckle, “You’re my closest friend out of the others so you’ve become my favorite now, okay?” I put a hand on top of his, “More than Luhan, okay?” I whisper jokingly.

 

Just then, he lifts his head from his arms and places his other hand on top of mine, staring straight at me, no gentle smile on his mouth anymore. It’s actually quite… piercing.

 

“Well, I like you too.” He confesses, not a hint of insincerity in his voice.

 

He keeps piercing his gaze into mine, sending me messages that he’s being completely serious at the moment.

 

…I knew this day would come.

 

I let out a small sigh and place my other hand on top of his, “And why’s that?” I ask in a gentle voice.

 

After looking at me for another few seconds, he answers in his deep voice, “You make me feel… good.”

 

I can’t help but snort a little and turn away to chuckle it out.

 

I mean… As a masseuse, if I didn’t make the person feel good, then I’d be kind of a failure, wouldn’t I?

 

“No, I mean it.” he says, taking his bottom hand out from underneath our pile and placing it on top of mine again, “Like, you make me feel really good. I’ve never felt so comfortable with a friend like you in an environment with so many… fans.” He explains, “And I… really like that feeling you give me.”

 

We just spend another minute looking into each other’s eyes, searching for questions and answers that may come up next.

 

Finally, he asks, “You like me too, don’t you?”

 

I relax and let a slow smile spread across my face, “…Yeah. I do.” I nod.

 

When his eyes glint with hope and happiness, he squeezes my hands tighter with his, smiling, “Really?”

 

“No!” I pull my hands away from his, then I lower my voice an octave to say, “Kai, what do you think you’re doing? What were you going to do if I was serious?” I start interrogating and scolding him, “Were you going to propose that we date? Secretly? Hm? Did you think you could kiss me and then we’d be so happy together afterwards?”

 

There’s a sadness that’s clouded his face now, but I need to snap him out of his crazy ideas. Shouldn’t idols have learned to be more in control of their hormones?

 

“You’re not thinking, Kai-ah. Even if I make you feel like a normal guy and you feel good about it, you still have to remember that at the end of the day, you’re not a normal guy. You’re an idol. You’re famous. You have fans." I count off on my fingers, "Fans that would prefer to see you single.”

 

Then he takes my hand in both of his again, a determined but soft puppy-like expression on his face that’s hard to say no to.

 

“Yes, that’s it. You’re right. I’m an idol. I’m famous. I have fans. But I can’t stay single forever…” My eyes soften a little and I let out a sigh as I let him continue, “And when will I ever be able to date someone as an idol anyway? I know I may look greedy for wanting it all but… It’s just that I like you. A lot. More than I expected to. And I like how you make me feel good, happy, the way you do. Don’t you think that it’s only fair that I get a chance to make you feel good too?” he looks up into my eyes, kneeling lower on the floor next to my desk.

 

“You like me too… Don’t you?” he asks, kneeling upright again, leaning towards me.

 

I just keep looking at him. His pretty eyes. His deep voice still echoing in my thoughts. I have a feeling I know how this will end up…

 

“… You like me too… don’t you?” is the last thing he asks before meeting his lips with mine. And surprise, surprise, my eyes are closed when he lifts his hand up to lightly touch my face.

 

After he pulls away, his bright gentle smile returns when he sees a reluctant look on my face, knowing that I’ve pretty much decided to give in. His smile is really cute on him…

 

So in turn, I decide to hit him for being so cute. “YAH! I thought you said you liked the feeling of having a friend to treat you normally. Was that not enough for you? Huh?! Why are you so greedy?! Huh?! You don’t see Luhan asking for it all!” I scold, hitting him several times in between.

 

He breaks into a grateful laugh and leans up to hug me, and of course, I let him.

 

I know what his muscley arms feel like and everything underneath my hands, but I’ve never felt them around me. And I have to say… it feels good.

 

 

***

 

 

“Hey.” Kai sits down next to me on the football field with some of the others, “Look, I got it.” he shows me a small silver locket necklace. I click it open and see on one side, it has Jae carved in the circle, while the other side has Rim carved in it.

 

After snapping it shut again, I hand it back to him, “It’s pretty.”

 

“Hey, isn’t that like the same necklace that Rim has?” Sihyun asks, pointing at the identical silver locket around my neck.

 

“Can I see it?” Luhan asks, reaching for Kai’s necklace.

 

“No, it’s mine.” Kai chuckles, dangling it out of his reach.

 

“Matching necklaces? Only letting Jae see it? Secret smiles appearing at my comments about you two? It’s official. They’re together.” Lynn announces.

 

“What?!” Luhan, Sehun, and I say together.

 

“Kai, that’s not true, is it?” Luhan pulls at Kai’s shirt like a cute child.

 

“Kai, that’s not true, is it?” I ask as well, putting on a convincing show.

 

“She wishes.” Kai laughs, attaching the necklace around his neck.

 

“Excuse me?!” I shout, “You were the one stalking me at the store when I bought this one.” I gesture at my necklace, “Get your own style.” I scoff.

 

“Stalking her to make it look like you’re a couple now, Kai?” Sihyun laughs, “Then Rim must have done something bad last week during clean up duty if you want those fan girls hunting after her.”

 

“Tch… That’s not it.” Kai puts on a convincing show as well.

 

“My god, you’re mean, hyung.” Sehun laughs before taking a piece of beef from the lunch box Lynn offers to him.

 

“I think it looks nice.” Kai shrugs.

 

“You know, speaking of dating,” Sihyun turns to me again, “Rim-ah, you still never told me from last time who your ideal type was.”

 

After a couple of seconds and everyone catches me looking at Luhan, I snap my head away to answer, “I’ve always liked G-Dragon.”

 

“LIAR!” Lynn shouts.

 

Everyone freezes at her sudden raise in voice level.

 

“You are such a liar, Rim.” Sihyun agrees, laughing as he shake his head, “We’ve seen the 2PM Nickhun wallpaper you have on your phone.

 

*

 

The second I step out of the bathroom stall, Lynn attacks me, snatching the locket from my neck and clicking it open. And there’s absolutely no hiding the engraving inside that says Kai.

 

A smug smile spreads across her face when she sees it. And when she looks up at me, she’s all excited, “I knew it!” she giggles, handing me back the necklace.

 

I grab her shoulder and hold a finger up to my lips, “Shh.” I warn her.

 

She throws me a wink before leaving the bathroom to let me wash up in peace.

 

~~~*~~~

 

A/N: I had to post this before I started tumblring all those MAMA gifs hahaha xD but anyways, that ends it. I hope that confession/ending wasn't too rushed or anything. That's the best I could do without starting a whole new fic xD Thank you all for subscribing and for your comments! I’m glad to see that there are more eccentric EXO fans aside from me xD If you ever hear Kai say somewhere in a future interview that he’s the type to fall asleep while watching TV or something, then you know who predicted it first ;)