Jongin doesn’t remember the last time he’s ever spent so long getting ready for the day, if ever. He’s washed his head three times already in order to try and get his hair to fall just right across his forehead, contemplated between eight different t-shirt and sweatshirt combinations and had stood for the longest time in the shower trying to decide whether he wanted to smell like the mint or the cinnamon-flavoured body soap.

He also kind of felt like an idiot the entire time he was preparing.

By the time he finally leaves the house and makes it to the Eaton Centre mall downtown his palms are sweating like crazy and he really needs to take a piss.

He finds Kyungsoo already waiting for him outside of the H&M inside, scrolling through his phone, and when Jongin draws close enough to breach his peripheral vision he looks up and meets his gaze with a wide smile.

“Hey, you,” Kyungsoo says, pocketing his phone, and Jongin feels his heart leap a little bit when he hears the warm familiarity in Kyungsoo’s voice.

“Hey. You weren’t waiting long, were you?”

“Nah, I got here about five minutes before you did. So, have you eaten anything yet?”

“Not really,” Jongin admits. Like he’d be calm enough to eat anything before going on a date with Kyungsoo.

“Alright, then let’s get something to eat first, I’m kind of starving right now.”

“Sounds good,” Jongin grins, and he falls into Kyungsoo’s step easily as the two of them start moving towards the food court.

—∞—

 “So this is it. This is what you dragged me out here for.”

“Yeah.”

“This isn’t what I signed up for. This isn’t what you said we were doing.”

“Yixing—”

“You said there would be breakfast.”

“Dude—”

“You promised me bacon.”

“Dude, chill, you can still get your ing bacon if you go to Subway’s or whatever. Although I think they charge extra for it.”

“No, you know what, that’s beside the point right now. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all that this is not a Disney channel TV special, this is not a heart-warming G-rated chick flick, and it sure as hell ain’t some ing shoujo manga. This is real life, on a Friday morning, and we are grown ing men, for ’s sake. With pride, and dignity, and lives. Why. The . Are we here.”

“Because it’s cheaper than a movie and more fun than exercise.”

“...Why do I even associate with any of you.”

“Because it makes you feel more intelligent by comparison.”

“Oh yeah.”

“If both of you trucks are done now then get your asses up. They’re moving.”

—∞—

Kyungsoo looks over at Jongin as the latter glances behind him for the fifth time. “Are you okay? Did you forget something?” Kyungsoo asks.

“What? Oh, no, I didn’t,” Jongin responds, quickly bringing his attention back to the wall of shoes before him.

“Are you sure? You look a little on edge, to be honest.”

Jongin takes a breath. “To be honest, I can’t shake off this weird feeling that people are...looking at us.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says, and the way he does it, his voice falling flat a little, has Jongin looking over at the boy beside him, and when he catches the way Kyungsoo was biting on his lower lip with his gaze firmly placed on one of the basketball shoes he realizes his mistake.

“Oh, god, no, not like that,” Jongin says hastily, stomach dropping. “I don’t mean it like that. I’m not ashamed to be seen with you, Kyungsoo, and even if people were looking at us that way then I really couldn’t give a damn.” He bites down on his own lip before he could add, You have no idea how ecstatic I am to be here with you right now.

Kyungsoo’s lips twitch into a small smile, before his eyebrows dip back down again. “So you’re saying that you think there’s people that are just watching us?”

“Kind of. I can’t really explain it. You know what, never mind, it was stupid of me to bring it up,” Jongin blabbers, blushing and rubbing at his nose.

Kyungsoo just grins at him, which makes Jongin heat up even more. “What?”

“Nothing.” Kyungsoo shakes his head before grabbing Jongin by the crook of the elbow. “C’mon, let’s go take selfies at the Apple store so I can upload them onto my blog.”

—∞—

“Ugh, thank god, I really needed to take a piss. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

“But you just—”

“Five minutes!”

“Hey, you think it’d be crowded enough in there for us to sneak inside and hide behind some people?”

“No way, man, I am not risking getting caught by Kim Jongin in the middle of a ing Apple store.”

“Did you know that they don’t actually have a checkout counter in there anymore? You just talk to one of the employees and they ring you up with a little machine right in the middle of the store.”

“Wait, really? But what if someone pays in cash?”

“They’re loaded with a ton of change, dude, I’ve seen it. I paid in cash when I bought a pair of headphones last week.”

“So they just have nickels and quarters and all that crap inside of their pockets? Do they, like, have to wear industrial belts so that their pants don’t—”

“, they left the store.”

“Wait, what do we do about duizhang, though? He’s still taking his piss.”

“Leave him. He was weak anyway.”

“Tao, not that your personal vendetta against Kris isn’t hilarious as but the last thing we want to do is risk—”

“Guys, we’re losing them!”

“Alright, you know what, Kris has his phone, he can catch up with us later.”

—∞—

“I don’t know how people can deal with this stuff,” Jongin says as he eyes a meticulously-built Lego version of the Death Star.

“Are you saying you never played with Legos as a kid?” Kyungsoo says incredulously, as he picks up one of the boxes and starts inspecting it.

“I did once, cause I got it for birthdays in stuff, but I always ended up stepping on random pieces when I was walking around the house, which actually really, really hurts, by the way.”

“Let me guess, because you didn’t put them away after you were done playing with them like your mother probably told you to, right?”

“...Maybe.”

“I thought so.”

“Honestly, though, part of it had to do with frustration too. I mean you see all these awesome figurines and stuff on the boxes but it actually takes a hell of a long time to do them and—OH MY GOD, look!” Jongin suddenly says excitedly, picking up a box and ing it towards Kyungsoo. “It comes with a miniature Gandalf and Legolas!”

Kyungsoo snorts. “Never liked playing with Legos, huh?”

“I never actually said that—”

Just then the sound of a pile of little plastic bricks crashing to the ground simultaneously cuts Jongin off, and they both turn to see Sehun standing dumbfounded to the other side of the store, holding the plastic container in his hands that had once contained all of the dark blue Legos in their respective spot on the wall of coloured Lego pieces, and staring down at it like he had no idea how it had ended up in his grasp. At his feet, three other suspiciously familiar-looking bodies were already stooping down to pick the pieces up, their backs to Jongin and Kyungsoo.

“Just pick them up, just start picking them up, don’t turn around, pretend you don’t know them—”

“Oh my god oh my ing god I knew this was gonna happen I told you I ing told you we shouldn’t have gone inside—”

“Jongdae, shut the up, they’re gonna hear you—”

“Sehun for ’s sake wake up and help us pick these up, they’re gonna see—”

“What,” Jongin says, looming over Yixing, Jongdae and Tao and causing them all to flinch in shock. “The .”

Jongdae stops all movement and looks up towards the ceiling. “I believe in God, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth—”

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Sehun cuts in then, finally snapping out of it and shoving the evidence into Yixing’s hands. “We were just—just—”

“Just what.”

Over Jongin’s shoulder Sehun catches Kris pausing at the entrance of the store, obviously having started walking inside but stopping upon seeing Jongin hovering over Jongdae praying on his knees, and Kris slowly begins stepping backwards in an attempt to try and beat a hasty escape without getting caught.

“We were just setting up Tao and Kris on a date and pretended we were having a group outing!” Sehun shouts, pointing towards Kris.

“WHAT!” Kris and Tao holler simultaneously.

“Yeah, uh, cause, we thought they’d make a good match, you know, cause Kris is really fashionable and looks like a runaway model all the time—”

“I think you mean runway...” Yixing starts, who by this point had collected most of the pieces back up into its container.

“And you know, Tao’s like really into Gucci and for whatever unknown reason—”

“Is everything okay here?” one of the store employees begin approaching, and Kyungsoo quickly steps in to try and explain the situation to him while holding off the poor guy from getting swept up into the storm that was bound to come.

“And the plan was we were gonna go to the theatres and tell them to get seats for us while we got snacks and then we were gonna ditch them there—”

“Wait, really?” Kris narrows his eyes. “Would you have actually done that?”

“Yes,” Sehun says, staring really, really hard at Kris. “That, is exactly what we would’ve done.”

“Do you honestly believe I’m gonna fall for that load of bull?! If you were going to dump Tao and Kris at a theatre you wouldn’t have come all the way downtown to do it, there’s a theatre at the Scarborough Town Centre! And you,” Jongin whirls on Yixing, “I trusted you!”

“Yeah, I trusted me too once,” Yixing says, wincing as he hands the Legos to the employees apologetically. “But they lured me out here with promises of bacon, so technically I’m kind of the victim here too—”

“KRIS! WHAT THE !” Tao yells, when Kris suddenly turns on the spot and bolts out of the store.

“OH NO YOU DON’T ER,” Jongin screams, making a break after him.

“Wow, guys,” Sehun stares after them, despite the fact that neither of them were anywhere near hearing range anymore, “There are children in this store.”

“That there is,” one of the employees suddenly cuts in, looking none too pleased. “Now if the rest of you would be so kind as to follow me. Our manager would like to have a word with you.”

“God da—I mean gosh darn it.”

—∞—

“Sorry for making a scene in the Lego store,” Jongin says in a low voice, as Kyungsoo opens the door to his apartment. “And for getting you banned from going in there again.”

“Don’t worry about it too much. Honestly speaking, I was kind of looking forward to watching you throttle them a little,” Kyungsoo admits.

Jongin looks up at Kyungsoo from beneath his bangs; he’d been holding his head down like a chastised puppy for the entire trip to Scarborough. “Really?”

“Yeah. And I’m probably too old for Legos anyway,” Kyungsoo says, patting Jongin’s shoulder reassuringly before making his way further inside. “C’mon, I got all the ingredients last night so we wouldn’t have to lug them all here.”

“Doesn’t it take long for you to get to a grocery store?” Jongin asks, closing the door behind him and kicking his shoes off into one corner.

“Kind of, but I don’t really mind. The travel time gives me a chance to clear my head.”

Jongin wasn’t sure what he expected out of the campus residences, but he finds himself surprised to see the kitchen fully equipped with a decent microwave, fridge, stove-oven and several cupboards. The ingredients Kyungsoo pulls out are surprisingly few and simple, but Jongin quickly catches on that the majority of the credit goes to the actual cooking process. He watches Kyungsoo bustle over the stove, fussing over several pots and pans at once, and Jongin helps where he can but he’s never stepped into a kitchen in his life other than to open the fridge and it doesn’t take long before Kyungsoo confiscates the kitchen knives from him with a twinkle in his eye.

“Was it that bad of a hack job?” Jongin laughs as Kyungsoo begins cutting through the same pile of kimchi that Jongin had just finished slicing up.

“It wasn’t that bad. I’m just a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cooking.”

“So it was pretty bad then.”

Kyungsoo laughs, and it’s music to Jongin’s ears.

It’s not until they’ve dumped the spaghetti into the baking dish and are loading it with cheese that Kyungsoo finally says, out of the blue, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“This isn’t exactly the most glamorous first date.”

Jongin pauses with his cheese-filled hand hovering over the food, heart pounding. “No, it’s fine,” he says, clearing his throat and trying to force the blush back. “I like this. It’s…nice. Simple.”

Kyungsoo lets out a tiny breath and gives a small smile. “I’m glad.”

“Besides, I should be the one apologizing for ruining the first half of it.”

“No, you didn’t ruin it, really. It was...interesting, to say the least. Though we could probably thank Sehun and the others for that.”

“Definitely not thanking them for getting us banned from the Lego store,” Jongin grumbles moodily, although he’s quickly pulled out of his grumpy mood when Kyungsoo playfully elbows him and tells him to get back to helping him with the food.

They eat in front of the TV, with Kyungsoo insisting that they watch Pororo so that Jongin could start embracing his Korean heritage. More than once Jongin catches himself watching Kyungsoo instead of the show, sitting with his legs curled up in front of him and his eyes bright from the light of the television screen. On occasion Kyungsoo would laugh, and Jongin would automatically smile with him, a knee-jerk response that Jongin was certain would not go away for a long time.

He’s surprised when he finally glances at the clock hours later and it already reads ten o’clock. He still has an hour and a half commute to take back home, so he reluctantly gathers his things while Kyungsoo offers to walk him to the bus stop.

“You don’t have a scarf with you?” Kyungsoo says in disbelief as they walk briskly in the cold moonlight, with Jongin shivering every couple of seconds.

“I figured I wouldn’t be outside for very long anyway,” Jongin admits.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and begins unwrapping his scarf, and before Jongin could catch on Kyungsoo stops him long enough to throw it around his neck.

“You’ll catch a cold if you don’t dress properly,” Kyungsoo chides him as he wraps the scarf around Jongin carefully. Jongin takes a deep breath and shivers again, not from the cold but because the scarf smells like Kyungsoo.

They reach the bus stop, completely empty of all people. “You should head back to the apartment,” Jongin says.

“No, I’ll wait with you until the bus gets here.”

“You don’t have a scarf on. You’ll catch a cold if you don’t dress properly,” Jongin teases.

Kyungsoo scoffs. “Very funny.”

“Seriously, though, I’ll be okay from here. You’re shivering.”

“You sure?” Kyungsoo asks, hopping on the spot a bit.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I, um…” Jongin clears his throat. “I had a really good time today.” He pauses for two, three seconds before ultimately coming to a decision and, in the boldest move Jongin feels like he’s ever made in his life, he leans forward and carefully pecks Kyungsoo’s cheek, cold from the chilled air but soft and fragrant beneath his lips.

Kyungsoo blinks up at him in surprise, and Jongin doesn’t know if his face is rosed from the cold anymore. “Thanks,” Kyungsoo replies shyly, looking up at Jongin from beneath his lashes. “I had fun too.”

Jongin smiles. “See you around?”

“Yeah, see you.” Kyungsoo gives him one last bashful smile before turning and walking back to his apartment, hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched against the cold, and it takes Jongin several seconds before he remembers to breathe. Then a huge, bright smile of exhilaration spreads across his face and doesn’t go away for hours.

—∞—

By the time Jongin arrives at the clubroom on Monday, he’s fully expecting everyone who had been involved in the incident from Friday to be MIA, but he’s surprised to find that Kris, Sehun and even Jongdae are in attendance today, and that they, along with everyone else who was in the clubroom at the moment, are all wearing matching grins as they fully stare at Luhan in his seat and Sehun leaning against his desk.

“Hey Jongin, did you hear this?” Kris points in their direction. “They’re officially a thing now.”

“You’re lucky you came after the explosion,” Minseok adds, wincing slightly. “I thought I was going to go deaf after Baekhyun’s scream.”

“Holy , you guys told everyone already?” Jongin says in surprise, completely forgetting about starting a long tirade about the ethical rules regarding following people on their dates, choosing instead to look towards a slightly proud-looking Sehun and a more-than-slightly embarrassed Luhan, who was trying to hide his expression behind his coffee mug.

“Yeah, he—wait, what do you mean already?” Luhan asks, blinking.

“Uh, well, not to sound like a creeper but me and Kyungsoo kind of accidentally entered the premises last week while you guys were busy—”

Luhan chokes on his coffee mid-sip and ends up getting it all over his jeans and the floor. “.”

“Aw, gross,” Jongdae makes a face. “Although if that had been me I wouldn’t have waited for Sehun’s confirmation text.”

Sehun laughs, in too good of a mood to even be remotely fazed by this, and reaches for a couple of tissues from the box on Yixing’s desk before tenderly wiping at Luhan’s mouth with it.

Luhan’s ears slowly turn red, and he pushes Sehun’s hand away. “Come on, not in front of them,” he pleads, looking like he was struggling to give Sehun a hard look, but Sehun just grins back dazzlingly at him.

“Sure thing, babe.”

“Thank God, they’re controlled, at least,” Kris sighs. “Unlike some other people I know.” He turns to glare at Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

“Hey, shut up. It’s called being affectionate,” Baekhyun huffs, and as if on cue Chanyeol reaches out and massages the base of Baekhyun’s neck absent-mindedly.

“That’s what bedrooms are for. You should take the hint from those two,” Kris retorts, pointing at Sehun and Luhan.

Luhan groans and buries his face in his hands. “I am never going to hear the end of this.”

“Wait, hold on a second,” Jongdae interrupts, an evil grin directed at Jongin. “You said you and Kyungsoo walked into the apartment together?”

Jongin realized what he was getting at and his eyes go wide, holding his hands up and stammering, “No, no, it’s not what that sounds like—”

“Then why are you so embarrassed, hmmm?” Sehun asks, snickering.

“No, this time I’m not exaggerating or being a prude, we were seriously just—”

The door opens up. “Morning,” Kyungsoo greets the others as he walks into the room. “How’s everyone—”

“Do Kyungsoo, you dog!” Kris hoots, and Jongdae nearly falls out of his chair laughing.

Kyungsoo pauses, looking towards Jongin. “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not, but that won’t stop them,” Jongin winces.

“What the were you doing home last Wednesday?” Luhan yelps, head shooting up from his hands to look at Kyungsoo. “I thought you had class!”

“I did, I was just—wait a second—”

“Awkward,” Baekhyun trills, turning back towards his computer screen.

Kyungsoo blushes as his expression slowly grows mortified. “I am so, so sorry, I had no idea that you were home—”

“Hey Kyungsoo, did they have music playing? Any lit candles? Maybe a trail of rose petals leading from the doorway to the bedroom?” Kris says, with Jongdae reduced to a wheezing, heaping mess sprawled across his office space.

“Why are we still talking about this?” Luhan wails.

“Hahahaha, this is actually kind of fun,” Minseok grins, shifting his chair back and forth with arms crossed on his chest. “Normally I’m on the opposite end of this shpiel. Now I know why Luhan enjoys this so much.”

“Hey Kyungsoo, did you find any condoms? Lube? Or maybe instead of rose petals there was a trail of clothes leading to—”

“CAN WE PLEASE JUST ING DROP THIS ALREADY?!!”

A/N 

WOW I AM SO SORRY THAT I DIDNT UPDATE THIS IN TIME

This chapter was written up pretty quickly and for the time being it's unedited so yeah excuse my laziness

And just like I promised, here is the baekyeol fluff oneshot that is approximately halfway complete and here is the hunhan oneshot that is very nearly complete

And also this is an upcoming fic that is entirely dedicated to this glorious piece of

And uh yeah