"Kris! I haven't seen you around lately!" Chanyeol slapped him at the back before taking a seat in front with his bag dumped on the table. His boyfriend greeted him with a smile. "Where have you been after school?"

"I've been doing my project with Kyungsoo."

"You guys must've looked so cute!" Baekhyun piped in. "Hey, isn't that your partner?" He pointed at the guy dressed in white polo shirt and khaki cargo pants.

"Yep." Kris called out to Kyungsoo, whose head snapped up, eyes opened wide, looking around to the source. When Kyungsoo finally saw him, a blush coloured his cheek.

It took more than a simple persuasion to get Kyungsoo to agree on meeting with Kris' group of friends. The way his eyes were darting everywhere told Kris that he was a nervous wreck. Placing a hand on Kyungsoo's shoulder, the latter quickly tensed at the contact.

Kris gave it a reassuring squeeze before steering him towards the table where his friends were lounging. Kyungsoo seemed reluctant at first but when he looked over his shoulder to see Kris' pleading eyes, he gave in.

"Guys, this is Kyungsoo, my project partner." He squeezed the thin shoulders, feeling it tremble beneath his fingers. "Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Chanyeol, next to him is Baekhyun."

"Hi, Kyungsoo!" Baekhyun offered his hand but seeing that Kyungsoo was eyeing it strangely, Kris took the sanitizer from his bag and squeezed a generous amount onto his hands and passed it to Joonmyun. Shaking Kyungsoo's hand with a sanitised hand, Baekhyun then introduced Chanyeol as his boyfriend.

"Boyfriend?" Kyungsoo gasped. "Y-You're like that?"

"If by that you mean, gay, then yes." Baekhyun replied, a little bristled at the comment. "And if there's a problem with my being gay, then you better leave."

Kris was surprised at the remark. If Kyungsoo had these homophobic views, then he needed to straighten things out since he too, was one of them.

"Oh, I see." Seeing that he might have hurt Baekhyun's  feelings, Kyungsoo stammered. "L-L-Look I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound that way. I'm just new to all this. I've never really have friend, especially as beautiful as you."

The pretty boy Baekhyun blinked back in shock. "Really?"

"Yes. Kris is like my first friend since... I don't know. He's very nice."

Baekhyun chuckled. "Yes, he is. Don't worry, I'm not mad. I just thought you're against us."

"N-N-N-No! I'm fine with gay people. It's just that I haven't meet one in real life. Like in this case, a couple." Kyungsoo blushed harder from embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Gosh, he's such a cute little thing." Joonmyun grinned. "I'm Joonmyun."

"Hi."

Kris cleared his throat when it seemed like Joonmyun was holding onto Kyungsoo's hand a little too long. "You can let go of his hand, Joonmyun. He's not Himchan."

Joonmyun glared at Kris despite his embarrassment evident on both cheeks. "Shut up."

Laughing softly at the sudden outburst from the usually calm guy, Kris began to introduce the rest of his friends. "This is Chanyeol, as you've known before, and these two," he indicated the guy with cap worn backwards, "Jongin and Yixing."

They exchanged handshakes before Kris suggested Kyungsoo to join them. The latter seemed prepared to turn down his offer, so, Kris told him that they would be heading to the library after this with  Joonmyun.

"Ok." Kyungsoo nodded, sitting with his back straight.

An hour later Kris was at one of the desks, with his head bowed over an opened book. He took down a few important notes that was needed to be included in the assignment onto his iPhone. If he had brought along his laptop, it would have been much faster and easier but he left it in his room this morning when he rushed to school. To his left was Kyungsoo, hands bracing each side of the Times magazine, eyes scanning the glossy pages. A second later, Joonmyun dumped a stack of books and a couple of magazines opposite of him.

Seeing that he had four books, Kris took the top most and set it aside. At Joonmyun's bewildered face made him smile. Tilting his head at Kyungsoo's direction, Kris lifted an eyebrow, signalling to his friend about the guy's presence.

At first, Joonmyun didn't get what was trying to convey. But after a minute of staring with slightly parted lips, realisation dawned on the medical student.

"Ah!" Joonmyun chuckled softly to  himself.

Thank goodness he understood. If it had been Chanyeol, it would have taken a little longer to get his message across. Nodding, Joonmyun gave a thumbs up before starting his own research.

Kyungsoo didn't even look up once. Kris was glad though. There wasn't any explaining to do.

✎✎✎

It was sunny like any other day of the week. Kyungsoo didn't think today would be any different. He picked a few stray weeds off the ground with his gloved hands, smearing dirt all over his overalls. Waving at the brown bird with splatters of green and yellow that was staring at him, Kyungsoo got up from his crouched position and made his way around the garden and into the house's back door.

"Kyungsoo, could you help me get a mug?" The loud, slightly scratchy voice spoke from the entrance of the kitchen. "Boy, do you want a cup of hot chocolate?"

"Yes, please!" Kyungsoo grinned at the wrinkled man whose sunken eyes curved upwards while a smile graced his thin lips. "I'll just wash my hands first. I've pulled all the weeds. Grandpa, where's mommy and daddy?"

"Mommy and daddy is far away."

"Where?" Kyungsoo asked. He had always wondered why everyone in his class had parents fetching them from kindergarten, when he didn't. "They don't love me?"

Grandpa walked over to his side, crouching down so that they were eye level. "Kyungsoo, listen to me carefully. Your mommy and daddy love you so much but God loves them more."

"Will I get to see them?"

"Yes, when God is ready to take you to them."

"Will they know that I'm their son?"

"Of course, sweetie." Grandpa chuckled though his eyes looked rather glassy. Kyungsoo wondered why.

✎✎✎

"Oh, I've run out of hand wash!" Kyungsoo checked his store room for any spare bottle but came up empty. "How?"

Kris who happened to be at his house again for their project work, walked around the sofa to checked the store room. He too, came up empty. The much shorter guy was gnawing at his lower lip while he looked at Kris expectantly.

"What?"

"Hmm."

"Let me guess, you want me to go out and buy one for you. Correct?"

Kris had been hanging out with Kyungsoo quite a lot recently in the name of project work when all he wanted was to be closer to the other guy. For the past two weeks, it had been one of the best days of his life. Having the introvert opened up bit by bit was an accomplishment. Maybe one of these days, he could invite Kyungsoo over to his house to... just hang out.

"Well, if you're free that is." Kyungsoo pouted slightly in that charmingly adorable way that made Kris want to just lean in to steal a kiss. But, he needed to sanitise his lips first, no?

Leaning down until their faces were only inches apart, Kris grinned. "If I buy one for you, can I get a reward?"

The other guy's eyes widened in seconds. "W-What do you mean? Reward? What reward?"

"How about a kiss?"

Kyungsoo grew silent but the red face was all Kris needed to know.

Half an hour later, Kris came back with his hand wash and handed it over to Kyungsoo. The latter opened up the plastic bag and inspected the hand wash.

"This isn't the brand that I usually buy from. I though you should know by now." Kyungsoo grumbled although his face looked rather like a baby owl with its big eyes.

"They run out of the ones you bought. So," Kris brought up the bottle, "I bought this colour changing hand wash. Isn't it great? It states here once it turned green, which means it's clean."

Being the mysophobic that he was, Kyungsoo looked at him sceptically. "Are you sure?"

"Why don't we give it a try?"

Kyungsoo nodded as he followed Kris to the kitchen sink. They pumped once and began lathering the soap. Indeed, the clear liquid with green dots turned green after a few seconds.

"Wow, it's really green! See!" Kris showed his green palms before washing them off under the running tap water. "Come on."

Reluctantly, Kyungsoo followed suit. Once he was done cleaning, he stared at his palm in wonder. 

"So, Kyungsoo, do I get my kiss?"

"Why?"

"Because I think you look really cute."

"What?"

Kris chuckled before swoping down to kiss him on the lips.

✎✎✎

Thank you for waiting! Please look forward to the next one~! I have one of those colour changing hand wash by Lifebuoy ^^