[Jongin’s POV]

I felt rather weird and felt the need to escape when I woke up. Not because I wasn’t comfortable; Kyungsoo’s grip on me was way more than that, but because I didn’t know what to think of it. Trying to move as subtly as I could, I took the first aid kit and wrapped up my hand with the bandage he had wanted to put on me. Gladly, he didn’t wake up from my movements, but I wanted… I wanted to let him know that I cared about what he had done for me, that he had wanted to help me. So I tried to wriggle out of his grasp to write him a small note or something, but I noticed he was waking up, so maybe it wasn’t worth bothering to find a piece of paper. I leaned closer to his face, but I hesitated; what if all of this would make him uncomfortable… I bit my lip briefly, it was too late for that already.

“Thank you so much.” I whispered, knowing he had heard me, because his cheeks were flushing red and I smiled at that, it made him look cute… But I didn’t want to be reminded of anything cute and seeing a blushing Kyungsoo in front of me, made me think back to exactly the person I wanted to block from my mind forever, so I got out of his apartment as fast, though as silent, as I could.

I rushed home to clear my head of the images of Sehun that flooded my mind, but they wouldn’t leave. He kept haunting me even when I showered, put on clean clothes, got ready for work… Maybe I wasn’t over him, like I had thought all that time. Maybe I still felt betrayed and hurt that he left me for that… that Chinese guy. Sure Luhan was cuter than me but… but I thought what we had, was something special and meaningful. It was only when my text-tone beeped, that I was pulled out of my Sehun-based thought-world.

 

Jongin, I’m so sorry, I forgot to inform you! You will be having a meeting with a broadcasting station today, together with Kyungsoo, so please make sure to be on time, which is in about half an hour after I sent this text… I’m sorry again. –Baekhyun

 

I felt my heartbeat speed up and my face drop. It wasn’t a good thing that we already had a publicity meeting, since I still didn’t know what to think about Kyungsoo. It wasn’t as though I loathed him – what I thought before – but I wasn’t sure whether I could trust him or not. What if he helped me through this with different reasons? What if – when the time came that I trusted him – he’d push me aside as if I wasn’t even there to begin with? No. Stop this. Not everybody is like him, not everybody will do that to you and besides, this is work. No time for this kind of .

 

[Baekhyun’s POV]

I should have texted – or rather called – Jongin yesterday, but I had been so… occupied by cuddling with Chanyeol that I completely forgot about my job. It was only this morning, when I had already overslept, that I remembered I still had to inform him about that stupid meeting that had to be done. I didn’t like it yet, I didn’t know whether those two would be able to get along yet or not… But I couldn’t deny it was best to start as soon as possible with the introductions to the public, it would raise anticipation and all that and that was what we needed for our idols. That was why I didn’t disagree with Joonmyun in the first place, even though it wasn’t ideal in my eyes.

I had to rush to the company myself to be on time, so I couldn’t really blame Jongin if he was going to be late, though I really, really hoped he wouldn’t be, because that would be too inconvenient. Then, another uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach; had Joonmyun informed Kyungsoo in time and was he going to be there? I shook my head, sometimes I could be so irresponsible and all of that was because I was with Chanyeol. Not that I would ever trade anything in the world for him; I’d rather get fired than give up my relationship with him – both the friendly one and the one that had only just now started.

Holding my right arm out, I pushed the door open to the meeting room and was met with a very pleasant sight; Kyungsoo, Jongin and Joonmyun were seated there alongside Kris and Yixing – those two being awkward with each other and that was yet another thing to add to the weird feeling in my stomach.

 

[Jongin’s POV]

When Baekhyun rushed in, the tense atmosphere didn’t change. I wasn’t angry with him because he hadn’t let me know and I didn’t even feel in the mood to harass him later on and just waited for someone to say something, but it didn’t seem to happen as Baekhyun just sat down quietly.

“So… Where is the meeting held?” I asked, apparently surprising some of the others as I was looked at with wide eyes. It gave me a feeling of inferiority and while I had always been able to cover it up by playing some smooth tricks, nothing willed the feeling away today. I cast my eyes down in defeat, but listened to the answer as Joonmyun stated the address.

 

We arrived just on time and Kyungsoo and myself were getting our make-up and hair done. Even though we sat beside each other, we didn’t say anything and I knew he was tense; after all, I had whispered in his ear while he was awake. It would be weird if he wasn’t tense about it all, but I couldn’t do anything.

“No flirting today, Jongin?” my hairdresser asked and I just rolled my eyes at her in the mirror, not caring about the fact that she was older than me and I had to pay respect for her.

“It’s Kai.” I corrected, slightly looking in Kyungsoo’s direction, hoping he’d pick up on the fact that he was one of the few people I allowed to call me Jongin. I saw him bite back a small, shy smile and it was about then that I realized that I liked small, shy smiles from him. Especially when those smiles had to do with… me. I couldn’t fight back the one that formed on my own lips as I looked away from him again, feeling better than before.

“Tsk. You don’t have to reply that way… anyways, we’re almost finished so… good luck? Or won’t you accept that from me either…” I laughed at that and surprised myself because I hadn’t actually laughed in a while, so before anyone could notice how awkward it made me, I stood up since we were almost done anyway.

“Come on, Kyungsoo-ssi.” I held out my hand for him to take and the eyes he looked at me with, were priceless. He quickly looked away after I smiled at his reaction and then stood up himself to follow me out of the dressing room, leaving the two stylists behind, confused. Though I had been wanting to go out of his house this morning because I felt weird and because he reminded me of Sehun, I actually felt better now that we were working together again because his presence made me smile, he made me forget about Sehun like I had been able to do for a long time. I just… I had to stop seeing everything that was cute as Sehun and like right now, it seemed as though Kyungsoo could help me with that.

 

“So… If you could take place on the couch over there… We should get this done as fast as possible because I have a tight schedule today.” The interview said rather cranky and I frowned at him, it wasn’t as if this would be my favorite part of the day – which right now, it was, even though Kyungsoo hadn’t been talking at all. I felt so much better than I did before and I didn’t really know why, except for that he made me feel as though I could handle things – as though I was appreciated too. Nonetheless, we sat down on that couch together, rather awkwardly because we just weren’t used to it and a camera pointed our way, something I should have been used to by now but with the lack of Kai these days, I wasn’t really. “So… you’ll be working together for a new album?” he asked once everything seemed settled in the right place. It rather surprised me that we hadn’t gotten a script, since that was the usual way around interviews, but given that Baekhyun had even forgotten to inform me, he probably hadn’t even thought about a script for this.

“Yes, this will be our first time working together for something different.” I answered, because I found it hard to be creative at giving answers when they weren’t already typed out for me. After the first questions, introducing us to the audience and things like the date of our album-release and all that, my attention only picked up again once a different sort of question was asked.

“Hm… D.O-ssi, I have a question especially for you… Everyone in the industry knows that Kai-ssi can be quite a handful to work with… Do you have anything to say about that?” Though I managed to send the interviewer a glare, I felt really uncomfortable with that being asked, because I had no idea how Kyungsoo would be answering this. I wasn’t the only one who felt that way because it didn’t take long before the atmosphere was completely tensed up and it took Kyungsoo several seconds to formulate an answer. By the time he was speaking, my heart was already beating in my throat from the anxiety.

“Ah… Kai-ssi is… Well ‘a handful’ would be able to describe him, but if that were true, then I, myself, am one too. A lot of people don’t know that he has a caring side, making it easier to believe that Kai-ssi would be burdensome to work with, which he isn’t.” While he talked, I looked downwards, unable to face humanity with the blush that stained my cheeks, I could only hope the make-up would cover up for that. I cursed myself because why was I blushing? Why was he affecting me so much all of a sudden… No, nothing was all of a sudden, though I kept forgetting that. I kept forgetting that Kyungsoo and D.O were the same person, even though it was rather the latter that I was sitting with right now than the former.

“Hm?” the interviewer looked at us confusedly, as if trying to figure something out for himself. “Then what about the flirting we heard so much about? Kai-ssi, could you give us an example? Like… Seduce D.O-ssi or something?” Okay now wait a second. They wanted me to openly flirt with Kyungsoo? As in… … I settled with giving an awkward smile.

“Um. Sure.” I was trying to mentally prepare myself, something I wouldn’t even have considered doing if it was anybody else sitting on that couch next to me. It seemed ages ago that I had done anything like this while it was no more than a few days… but a lot of things had happened in between those days and it was rather hard to jump over the sudden barrier that had set itself up between me and Kai. I bit my lip to focus anyway, because this was asked from me, this would help the company because… it seemed as though people liked it when I did things like this.

I stood up, gave the camera a hesitant smirk – I hadn’t expected it to be so uncomfortable – and made my way towards Kyungsoo who was looking at me with those wide eyes that he had stared at me with when I offered to help him up earlier and honestly, I was starting to enjoy the idea. I knew the cameraman was turning around us to capture the two of us sideways and I was horribly annoyed that my first move on Kyungsoo – wait… first move? Jongin, what are you really thinking here… –had to be captured and showed to whoever would want to watch. You don’t have a choice though… I sat down to straddle his thighs, carefully making sure not to touch any inappropriate places and let my finger trace up his neck towards his chin, to lift up his face because he had defensively been looking down again. I doubted he had any idea of the excitement that was coursing through me, so as I leaned down, I made sure to lower my lips to the side where the camera couldn’t see my lips moving.

“Do Kyungsoo… I quite like you.” I whispered in his ear, wondering at that moment if it was because of the excitement of turning into Kai once more, or if I really liked him, but that apparently hadn’t stopped me from saying it. I quickly stepped away after, noticing how my own cheeks were starting to heat up again but I tried to keep my expression as blank as possible.

The interview continued, but neither him nor me were still really there and our answers were half-assed. I could understand why he was a little out of it because it was the effect Kai seemed to have on everyone, but why was I so weirded out… It was only when I thought of it with my own, right mind, that I realized what I had been saying to him. I told him I liked him.

 

[Baekhyun’s POV]

Following the interview was actually pretty boring, although it got interesting when Kyungsoo gave his opinion about Jongin. It seemed as though they were getting along better now and that surprised me because they had kicked off so badly. Not that it didn’t make me happy, I was, but I was just surprised. But seeing Jongin’s other side suddenly appearing again, it was a little hard for me because it reminded me of the time he had kissed me. Though seeing him now… I didn’t know why it felt different, maybe it was because Jongin’s own expression wasn’t the same, he wasn’t doing this out of hiding and he seemed tense, while it usually went so easily. Not to mention he actually whispered something in Kyungsoo’s ear that left the both of them speechless.

I nearly screamed when two hands were placed on my shoulders and ripped me from my thoughts, but as soon as I felt the light squeezes those hands gave me and a chin was resting on my head, I calmed down.

“What are you doing here, Chanyeol?” I asked, unhappy because this moment would only be short as I had to be going to the company soon again and he probably had to work too.

“I’m here to… surprise you? And myself? They gave me a break… or something… I thought about visiting you because you seemed so nervous about today.” I smiled, quickly scanning the surroundings, finding that nobody was paying attention to us because the rather awkward interview was going on just in front of everybody. I smiled again before turning towards my boyfriend and I held his face in my hands. “Baek… not in public…?” he said hesitantly, with a frown on his face but I didn’t care about that – I was grateful. I tiptoed to reach his lips and kissed him, just as long as he would take to kiss me back and when that happened, the shivers just ran down my spine again. But all too soon he pushed me away, leaving me pouting. “Ah baby… don’t do that… But we can’t just kiss in public, okay?” I huffed in annoyance and took his hand to play with instead.

 

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