A/N: Sorry for the delay, once again. Summer has been just SO busy. X_X

Thank you so much for giving love to this story even while it wasn't updated!

I'll make the next update is real quick, I promise. Also, Suho is coming up soon ;) .

To Kyungsoo’s defense, he held back from calling him for a very long time. He didn’t call in the morning when he saw that a pimple had popped up under his chin. And he didn’t call later, when he thought one of the ridiculously expensive cufflinks had fallen in the bathroom sink and down the drain (though, thankfully he had just dropped it on the floor). Kyungsoo didn’t call Kai to ask how to put on the insoles, or to argue that he didn’t need them in the first place. He didn’t even call to whine about the fact that he was totally not prepared for a fancy, upper class party, let alone one with Kim Junmyun in it.

He only called when things got completely out of hand. It was a real emergency this time, he assured himself, as something clicked in his phone and Kai’s voice came from the other end of the line. “And here I was thinking you’re still mad at me.”

As a matter of fact, Kyungsoo was still mad at him, but that was a different story entirely.

“I don’t own black socks!” The singer blurted out, completely ignoring Kai’s comment.

“What now?”

“I just noticed. I only have a pair of socks with Pororo on them. I mean I know they’re ugly, but I found them at the convenience store and they were only 2,000 won, and… well it’s not really important actually. What’s important is that when I sit down, my pants go up and you can see the socks. So tonight everyone, including Kim Junmyun, will be seeing my 2,000 won Pororo socks. And that will be totally embarrassing. And you need to help me.” Kyungsoo took a deep breath. Yes, that felt good.

The younger guy’s laugh rang through the earpiece. “I knew you’d be freaking out.” He seemed so proud with himself for having seen that coming.

 Kyungsoo’s immediate reaction was to scoff. “I’m not freaking out. I am simply reporting a problem.” He stressed that out, with as much dignity as he could muster. “This Pororo-fiasco is happening because of your negligence and therefore I expect you to make up for it.” 

Apparently, Kai found the expression Pororo-fiasco hilarious, because he burst out laughing again and the older man had to wait for ages, until he was done. “O-Okay, I’m admitting my… negligence. However, the party is stand-up. So you won’t need to worry about flashing anyone with your socks.”

Kyungsoo was pretty sure the swindler was making fun of him. “What’s ‘stand up’?” He settled with asking indignantly.

“It’s a buffet party, Clueless Kyungsoo. That means everyone will be standing up. There will be no place for you to sit.” The way Kai huffed a laugh and said ‘clueless’ was almost affectionate, but the singer didn’t allow himself to delve into it.

“Nowhere to sit, huh? That doesn’t sound very comfortable. Do I really have to go?” It was just a childish attempt to argue with Kai some more, Kyungsoo admitted it and wasn’t proud.

But, the guy hadn’t even called him for a week, since he yelled at Kyungsoo and said that he didn’t want to go to the ‘freaking party’ to babysit Kyungsoo because he was useless. And, yes, Kyungsoo had actually memorized all that.

It was only the part afterwards- the part when he sang to Kai while he was sleeping and left with his heart beating out of his chest- that he was struggling to forget.

“You have to go.” The swindler deadpanned. “Put on your Pororo socks and meet me in the address Zitao messaged you. And before you ask, no, I’m still not coming with you. I’ll just introduce you to my friend who’s hosting the party, so that he can keep an eye on you.”

Kyungsoo rearranged his bowtie in front of the mirror and grumbled tauntingly that, “Despite popular belief I don’t need a babysitter.”

What he needed was someone that knew how to put on hair gel and make it look effortless and casual.

“How can something I spent two hours on, ever look effortless?” He whined ten minutes later flapping his sticky hands in the air distressed.

Kai, who, for some reason, had agreed to continue the call and even be put to speaker, so that he could have the pleasure of listening through the entirety of Kyungsoo’s breakdown, barked a laugh. “As long as you don’t look like a hedgehog in an hour –by the way, hurry up- no one will complain.”

Kyungsoo froze mid-flail and glared at the cellphone and then at his figure on the mirror. “Shut up.” He snapped, flattening the top of his head worriedly.

“I thought talking to someone, even if that someone is me, helped you relax. I thought it… took the edge off.” The younger guy quoted Kyungsoo in a mocking tone. “And stop telling me to shut up, Rude Kyungsoo.”

“I’m a hyung. I can do whatever I want.” Kyungsoo sing-songed. “How much perfume is acceptable in buffet parties?”  He asked distracting himself again with his suited reflection on the mirror.

“I’m not sure. A little? Not too much… Don’t bathe in it!” Kai’s voice was uncertain and the singer could almost imagine him scratching his head.

In the end he settled with asking for help from the self-professed expert.“Tao-yah! Nervous Kyungsoo is asking how much perfume is good enough?”

There was a pause and then Kyungsoo heard Kai pick up the phone again. “Tao says to spray twice at the back of your neck and once per wrist. Then use your fingers to massage the cologne on the skin. That way the scent won’t disappear so fast.”

Kyungsoo grimaced at the detailed directions. It was perfume, for god’s sake! “That was… very specific.” He commented dumbly, feeling illiterate for only using aftershave all these years.

Kai laughed again, sensing the older guy’s distress and said, “Well, you can’t expect to win Kim Junmyun’s heart with a polyester jacket from some hand-me-down shop and cheap aftershave.”  

“Or torn jeans and stained T-shirts.” Tao shouted from somewhere in the distance. “Or Converse shoes and-”

“Yeah, I think he got it, Tao.” Kyungsoo heard Kai hiss somewhat affronted by the secretary’s insults, as if it hadn’t been him who was making fun of Kyungsoo’s clothes a moment ago.

And that made the singer realize, belatedly, “Wait, how do you know where I buy my clothes?”

“Well, your jacket has no brand label and it looks older than you. And it smells a bit like dead fish even after the dry-cleaning, so…” Kyungsoo out for a second, before putting two and two together and feeling absolutely mortified with himself.

Oh. Oh that. Blood was surging to his face and he had to bite the insides of his mouth to keep from cringing in embarrassment. The jacket. The jacket he had left at the Hongdae office before sneaking out like a thief. The one Kyungsoo had covered a sleeping Kai with. And consequently, the jacket Kai had  found wrapped around him upon waking up. The jacket that, as far as Kyungsoo recalled, did smell like dead fish permanently. Kyungsoo’s jacket. The jacket of shame. 

Kai’s thoughts must have led him to the same place, because the younger guy cleared his throat awkwardly and tried to change the subject. “Aaanyway,” Kai intoned offhandedly and Kyungsoo felt the sudden need to be an ostrich and bury his head in the sand.

Instead, he settled with shutting the phone in the guy’s face and obsessing even more with his hair that refused to be tamed- just like Kai’s big mouth.

About an hour later, Kyungsoo was paying a taxi driver 15,000 won that he could have saved up, had Tao not insisted that Armani is not something that should come in contact with bus seats and sweaty passengers.  The taxi driver looked at the insanely glamorous hotel in front of them, then back at Kyungsoo and then back at the building. He muttered something like ‘rich brat’ and ‘could have left a tip’, but Kyungsoo pretended to hear nothing and laughed heartily at the irony of that comment, when the taxi door shut behind him.

The sight was ridiculous, he decided after five minutes of intent staring. Near the street, there was a very impressive building of normal size and attached to it, a skyscraper, ten times as big and as glamorous. At first, Kyungsoo simply assumed that the party was at the smaller building and the skyscraper was a different establishment altogether. Of course, he reasoned, there was no way the two huge building counted for just one hotel. Kyungsoo expected there should be some law in South Korea declaring that areas which are big enough to accommodate a small village of people cannot be used to build only one hotel.  

As it turned out, if there was such a law, it was clearly not enforced because, according to the map at the entrance (yes, there was in fact a map) the normal-sized building was merely the reception and the sparkling, polished monster behind it was the actual hotel, where the Event Area was located.

That discovery alone was enough to make Kyungsoo’s feet take root in the pavement and refuse to move until back-up, in the face of a rude swindler, arrived. Somehow, Kyungsoo felt that if he took another step towards the flashy hotel with the marble walls and the illuminated balconies, it would mean crossing over a boundary that existed only for people like him to retain their sanity.

“Booo!” Someone bellowed right behind the singer’s head, snapping him out of his terror induced reverie.

Spinning on the spot, Kyungsoo frowned meekly at Kai, but didn’t really mean it. Truth be told, he was happy to have company at last.

“Did I scare you this time?” The tanned boy asked expectantly, drawing ever closer to Kyungsoo’s face to check his reaction.

“Compared to this building, you’re nothing.” The shorter guy motioned at the hotel behind them.

“It’s not going to eat you, you know.” Kai prodded in a teasing voice. He seemed a little too comfortable in this scenery and it did nothing to ease Kyungsoo’s nerves.

“The people in it might.” It was something that had been bothering Kyungsoo since the beginning. No matter how well Kai trained him at holding forks and drinking champagne, he would never actually look comfortable in there, like did. And for that alone, he expected the people who had grown up going to these parties to be far from pleased with him.

“You don’t need to worry about that. No one is going to bully you.” Kai was doing something in his phone and didn’t even bother to look at Kyungsoo. “I got you a bodyguard.” He added a moment later.

The singer hadn’t even managed to stop gaping long enough to ask more about it, when the doors of the hotel reception opened to let out a well-dressed figure.

The figure, Kyungsoo noticed upon closer inspection, was that of a young man, probably his age, with soft-brown hair, clean-cut features and a suit even more extravagant (and possibly even more expensive) than Kyungsoo’s ridiculously extravagant and expensive suit. Also he seemed to have a thing for makeup.

“He wears a brave amount of eyeliner, for a guy.” Kyungsoo noted and he believed that, with every inch of his metroual and open-minded being.

Kai chuckled under his breath and then pretended he hadn’t. “Baekhyun-hyung!” He called out to the guy.

“Oh, it’s… Kai. Kai, right? What is your Highness doing in my lowly parties that you swore never to attend ever again?” The Baekhyun guy spoke fast and with ease, the words tumbling out of his mouth and jumping around the place playfully.

Kyungsoo decided he rather liked that carefree blabber of Baekhyun’s.  It was almost entertaining to watch him talk, with his animated hand gestures and his spectacular social skills. So Kyungsoo relaxed a tiny bit and let the two of them catch up. Catching up, of course, consisted almost entirely of Baekhyun rambling gleefully about what a horrible friend Kai was and how hard it was to host stand-up parties, while patting Kai’s back energetically. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo was sure he had barely heard Kai’s voice until the swindler pointed at him and called him ‘the thing he was telling Baekhyun about’.

“Is this the guy?!” Baekhyun turned his attention to the singer.

“Yes, that’s the guy.” Kai nodded with a small smirk on his face.

“Oh my god, where did you even pick him up? He looks incredible. At first I thought he was pretty adorable, but now I see he’s got sharp eyes and with his hair thrown back like he’s starring in a film noir and those full lips…” Baekhyun was talking again on autopilot and Kyungsoo was ready to turn to Kai and give him a pointed glance which would hopefully convey that sure his ‘bodyguard’ was funny, but he was also kind of nuts.

However he was caught off guard, by Kai’s searching eyes going up and down his body. The swindler was sizing him up well, his eyes moving from the cut of his suit to the slightly crooked, electric blue bowtie and then down to the black shoes and back at Kyungsoo’s shiny hair. It felt like going through airport security, only the way Kai was staring at him was more severe, more attentive and even more piercing than x-ray machines and troops of security guards.

“… And he keeps giving those angry sideways glances with his hands pinned in his pockets and his chin raised, as if he’s bossing you around…” Baekhyun’s voice interrupted Kai’s security check, making the dark-skinned guy roll his eyes.

“It’s not as if he’s bossing me around. He is actually bossing me around.” Kai said and Kyungsoo could hear the frustration in his voice, which had not yet slumped to real anger but was getting there.

“Either way, he looks stunning doing it. I feel like I’m meeting a star. And I don’t mean one of those clowns who go around cackling loudly and swaying their butts, making a joke of themselves, but, you know, the real deal. The mysterious and refined star that no one can touch.” This made Kyungsoo blush.

He could not really believe someone was saying such a thing about him. If Baekhyun knew what Kyungsoo did for a living, or where he usually bought his clothes from, or how the walls of his apartment were scraping off and falling on his bed sheets as they were speaking, he wouldn’t be so quick to pass his judgment.

“He looks like that.” Baekhyun continued unabashed. “Like he’s ethereal and also dangerous. A mythical creature, you know, a fairy or-”

“A siren.” Kai provided blankly. “He’s like a siren.” And it made Kyungsoo think of what he had told him the first time they met. That only a siren-like person could win Kim Junmyun’s affections. Somebody, Kai had said, who is magnetizing and mysterious, who gives people one glance and makes them madly in love with him.

The singer wasn’t sure why he remembered all that, yet he imagined it had to do a lot with the fact that Baekhyun had just said the same thing about him just moments ago.

In the end Kai had managed to turn him into a siren. Kyungsoo was so shocked at the realization, he could barely listen to Baekhyun anymore. He grabbed Kai’s arm without thinking and dragged him a few meters away, where the lights of the hotel didn’t shine so bright and the sound of cars driving by could muffle his voice.

Kyungsoo let go of his arm and Kai stepped back on instinct. “What is it?” He raised an eyebrow at him, waiting.

“You did it, didn’t you?” The singer breathed out dazed.

“Did what?”

“You turned me into- into a cold and mysterious person. Into a siren. I’m really like that now.” Kyungsoo thought he was feeling sick at his stomach. He had been so pumped up all this time and now that things were starting to go well, he was scared. Scared about making a fool of himself and also, even more scared of actually succeeding. 

Kyungsoo didn’t think Kai was very perceptive when it came to actual human emotions and not cold-blooded deals. Despite that, the tanned boy had the good sense to catch Kyungsoo by the shoulders and hold him still on the spot.

“Get a grip, Do Kyungsoo. You are a siren-” The words made Kyungsoo draw another panicked breath and widen his eyes impossibly, so Kai hurried to explain that “You are a siren, but not just any siren.”

A car wheezed near them and then another one and when Kyungsoo’s body had stopped being so stiff and frozen, Kai continued. “I told you, didn’t I? You’re the Little Mermaid. You’re friends with a crab and you don’t even know how to use a comb and you gave up your voice to be able to meet Kim Junmyun. That’s why you can’t back down now. You- you’re not just any stupid siren, you’re special. You’re the Little Mermaid. You can do it. So hold your breath for tonight and go meet the people of the shiny land, okay?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes fluttered, heart thundering with fear and excitement.

“Okay?” The dark-skinned boy asked again intently, fingers burying into the singer’s suit and clawing around his shoulder blades. Kyungsoo knew he needed to get a hold of himself, stop panicking and answer Kai that, yes, it was okay. Because it really was okay. With the swindler’s help, Kyungsoo could pretend to be a siren without really turning into a cold and heartless person. It would be fine, if Kai watched over him. Kyungsoo wanted to say that.

And so he did.

There was a moment, though, just before he gathered the strength to speak; a moment, during which Kyungsoo’s mind suddenly focused on the hands clasped on his shoulders and the way Kai held him. His warmth was seeping through the expensive fabric and comforting Kyungsoo; half-supporting and half-clinging to him.  No matter how much Kyungsoo tried to forget about that moment, he couldn’t persuade himself it was nothing. Kai had been clinging and it seemed out of place. He was not supposed to be doing that. Kyungsoo was not a thing Kai was expected to cling onto. Not when he was sending Kyungsoo away to seduce Kim Junmyun.

So, in the end, when the singer said, “Yes, everything’s okay now,” he might have been lying just a little bit.