“So… BaekHyun-sshi is a hamster?”

“You don’t think so?”

“Nah, I think that’s about true. I dunno about ChanYeol-sshi, though.”

“They’d probably scowl at your for calling them –sshi. And what’s wrong with a giraffe?”

“I mean, I get that he’s tall and stuff… But with all those teeth… He seems more like a velociraptor.”

Water threatened to go in reverse and fly out of YiXing’s nose. He coughed and sputtered and laughed all at once while JongIn sat back and smirked at the show.

“Yah…” YiXing wiped his nose. “At least tell me you’re going to make my drink explode out of my nose before I start drinking.”

“I bet it would’ve hurt more if you were drinking coffee.”

“No, I think my nasal cavities have grown immune to that.”

“…weird.”

Another lazy afternoon found YiXing and JongIn parked at another café, sipping at water instead of coffee because of JongIn’s insistence. YiXing had frowned at the metallic taste, but JongIn was adamant about breaking the mentor’s unhealthy addiction to coffee. YiXing’s cries that he would never be able to write without caffeine pumping through his system were rewarded with a callous glare, so YiXing grudgingly accepted his fate.

JongIn cleared his throat as he spun the ice cubes in his cup. “So then… What would I be?”

The two had somehow stumbled on the topic of YiXing’s bizarre views of his friends and colleagues’ animalistic ancestry. YiXing stared at the kid sitting across from him to consider. Contrary to his old reaction of intensely staring right back, JongIn instead blinked a few times before nervously hooking his gaze on something else. As for when the change happened, YiXing hadn’t paid enough attention to be sure.

“A dog,” YiXing finally decided, earning JongIn’s attention again.

JongIn pursed his lips. “It took you that long to come up with a dog? That’s boring.”

“Still a puppy,” YiXing added, a grin falling on his face. “Stumbling around on too-big feet.”

“I don’t have big feet…” He glanced down at his feet to reassure himself. “What type of dog?”

“A pug, I think.”

At that, JongIn’s face completely scrunched up. “Aw, what? Why would you compare me to a pug?”

“Why not? Pugs are cute.”

The cup slipped out of JongIn’s fingers and toppled over on the table. Thankfully, the cup was empty save for a few deteriorating ice cubes. JongIn quickly stood it back upright. “Pugs are short and fat, and their faces are weird. I reject.”

“Fine, then. You’re a…” YiXing looked upward to find another canine. “…a corgi.”

“What the hell! Those are short and fat, too!”

“But corgis are cute, too.”

“Yah…” JongIn shifted in his chair, melting into his typical slouch. “Quit that…”

“What? You don’t think you’re attractive?” YiXing paused. “Or is it that you think I’m hitting on you or something similar? I’m sorry.”

“No… It’s whatever… I mean, that’s not it.” He shifted again, moving to sit up straight. “So what are you?”

YiXing hummed as he sipped at his metallic water. “I never thought of it, really. What do you think?”

JongIn in his bottom lip as he brainstormed, twirling his empty cup on the tabletop. “You must be a cat.”

“What kind of cat?”

“A Persian.”

YiXing let out a hoot. “A Persian? Is this payback for me calling you a pug?”

One side of JongIn’s lips lifted into his teenage smirk. “Possibly.”

“Hah. If I’m a Persian, then you’re a pug. Both of us can have mashed-up faces.”

The two shared a light laugh, letting it fade into the murmur of the café. A fair silence sat between them before JongIn spoke again.

As usual, he spoke haltingly, choosing his words with caution. “When you…” JongIn stopped to glance warily at YiXing. “Was it hard for you… when you came out?”

“Hmmm…” YiXing gazed into space again, and JongIn knew better than to try and follow the direction he stared off to. “I wouldn’t say it was difficult when I came out. Rather, the days, weeks, months, and year or so before I came to terms with my uality was the most difficult.”

“It was?”

The foreigner settled back in his chair, crossing his legs as he absentmindedly brought his cup to his lips. “If you think about it, it really isn’t that surprising. As you’re growing up, you realize you’re thinking differently than everyone else around you. Then you realize your thoughts are something people find weird and disgusting, so you’re afraid of your own mind. You want to like what you like, but you’re afraid of confiding in anyone else because you don’t want to be shunned or made fun of. That was the scariest thing for me.”

JongIn frowned. “It isn’t really that bad, is it?”

“These days, no, especially not in Europe or America. But if you live in conservative, old-fashioned places like I did almost ten years ago, then it’s a nightmare.”

“But you made it out alive.”

YiXing looked down at his cup. Somehow he’d managed to finish off the water. “I had… some help. A friend, at the time. And then, when I was in college, a roommate from Canada.”

“What about your family, though?”

It was a good thing they had settled for drinking water; the vague, rolling feeling deep in YiXing’s gut churned. YiXing looked back up at JongIn, vacant smile ever present. “I haven’t really heard from them ever since I came out.”

JongIn’s furrowed brows returned, but he didn’t say anything in response.

“Why did you want to know? Did you want to try?” YiXing added teasingly.

“Uh? What?” JongIn seemed to fall back to Earth. “No, no. I was just curious, that’s all.”

“Are you sure? You could try coming over to the rainbow side. We have pastel skinny jeans.”

“No!”

“Eyeliner and lip gloss?”

They had to hit a pothole on the road eventually.

YiXing continued to amble through the bookstore, waiting for something to catch his eye. He was actually waiting for JongIn to reply with a place to meet, but apparently the kid decided to take a nap because he hadn’t responded for a while. The only recent texts he had received were from YiFan.

< I’m off to do Canadian stuff. >

< IDC >

< You’ll care when you find out MinSeok-ge is housesitting. >

< …damn. >

< That’s right. All of your crap that’s been laying around since you left last time will be cleaned up and organized. What a nightmare. >

< Why couldn’t you have asked Zitao? >

< …do you want your stuff organized or smelling like Gucci? >

YiXing couldn’t think of a response, and luckily, he didn’t have to. Just as his thumbs were hovering over the text box, the screen cleared out for an incoming call from an unknown number. YiXing swiped at the screen to answer.

“Hello?”

“Yah, YiXing-hyung!”

YiXing stopped his mindless ambling at the loud greeting. “…JongIn?”

“My aunt is freaking crazy! She stole my phone, and she’s not letting me out of the house, and I swear – ”

“Breathe, JongIn. What happened?”

YiXing could hear as JongIn struggled to catch his breath on the other side of the phone. “My aunt… took my phone when I told her we were meeting up. She thinks I’m doing illegal stuff again, and she won’t give me my phone back. That’s why I haven’t been able to reply.”

“Whose phone are you using now, though?”

“My aunt’s.”

“Well, stealing your aunt’s phone in revenge isn’t much better…”

“She’s standing right in front of me.”

The turmoil in JongIn’s voice was apparent even through the phone. YiXing considered for a moment before he was struck with an idea.

“Where do you live?” he asked.

“…huh?”

“What’s your address?”

“…why?”

The looks on both JongIn and JongIn’s aunt were priceless when they opened the door and found YiXing at their doorstep bearing various drinks.

“What are you doing here?” JongIn couldn’t seem to decide what genre of emotion he wanted to express. Confusion? Relief? Suspicion? It was entertaining to watch.

“What?” YiXing asked innocently. “You said your aunt wouldn’t let you out, so I brought the coffee to you instead. Rather, I brought soda for you since you said you don’t like coffee. Seo NaYeon-sshi, I hope I wasn’t rude in assuming you drink coffee, was I?”

Her expression was muddled as well, morphing from rage to embarrassment to disgust and finally to an acidic, pleasant façade. “Not at all,” she replied, her voice shrill.

“Well, then, we can’t let this go to waste. The ice is melting out here.”

YiXing pushed his way forward past the threshold. JongIn stepped aside easily to let him in, but NaYeon was a bit less welcoming. Regardless, she forced a smile and led the way to the living room. YiXing plopped himself into a chair after setting the drinks on the table. JongIn and NaYeon took their own seats, still bewildered at the sudden event.

“Well, um, YiXing-sshi, what brings you here?” NaYeon asked, her tone pointed and not at all courteous.

YiXing sipped at his iced coffee first, relishing in the chill. It had been a long walk from the café to the house, after all, and it was still summertime. “Like I mentioned before, you weren’t letting JongIn out for our normal meeting, so I brought the coffee here. As you can see, this is how we usually end up spending time.”

She couldn’t help but scoff but quickly righted herself. “No, it’s not… It’s not like that! I mean – ”

“The ice is melting.”

NaYeon stopped talking but made no move for the lonesome cup. JongIn, on the other hand, was discreetly enjoying the abuse as he grabbed the soda from the table. The three sat in silence for a while, the two men drinking peacefully.

“JongIn,” YiXing finally said, “did you learn about archetypes?”

The kid pursed his lips in thought. “Maybe. I remember the word, but I don’t remember anything about it. Why?”

“‘A recurrent image, symbol, character, or even situation which is an instinctual expression of man’s nature and experiences that are universal in nature.’ I learned about it in secondary school, and it just really stuck with me.”

“… oh…?”

“I especially like the idea of the number three. I can’t remember where, exactly, I read about it, but it was something about the number three creates a balance. You know how there are a lot of things in regular life that pop up in threes? ‘Ready, set, go.’ ‘Red light, yellow light, green light.’ ‘First example, second example, third example.’”

At that, one corner of JongIn’s lips twitched to a ghosted smirk. YiXing continued, “There was another segment I read saying how defining moments usually happen with threes. I’ll use my personal life as an example: after three years of a certain life in China, I moved to Seoul to work; after three years of living here, I made the decision to join the mentor program and met you; after three weeks of being in said program, your aunt became suspicious and decided to restrict your freedom.”

At that, NaYeon was visibly scandalized at having been thrown into the conversation in such a way. “Now, hold on, YiXing-sshi! What makes you think – ”

YiXing’s gaze floated off to space, and he took another lethargic sip at his iced coffee. “This is completely unrelated to the topic of threes, but there was another article that stuck out in my mind. It was something about letting kids have their own secrets because it creates a more colorful personality.” YiXing returned to Earth and gave NaYeon a pointed stare. “If you don’t mind my saying – you, too, JongIn – when I first met you two, I thought JongIn was about as interesting as a blank piece of paper. Could it be that his means of communicating to anyone was via cell phone, and you were constantly in possession of it because of your ‘fear’ of his ‘illegal activities’?”

“Zhang YiXing – ”

“Quite honestly, I think JongIn is a more interesting person now that he has human interaction again. He may or may not have mentioned something about never having seen his high-school friends after they graduated and moved on with their lives while he was stuck in the middle of his.”

“You – ”

“This is completely unrelated to the topic of threes but may be related to the topic of freedoms, but I suddenly remembered something in the mentor program’s contract about maintaining contact with the subject and having a required face-to-face meeting at least once a month. Will your possession of his cell phone hinder this clause?”

JongIn was wide-eyed, glancing back and forth between YiXing and his aunt. YiXing was calm as usual, a bit tired from talking so much more than usual. NaYeon was livid, trying to keep her façade up but was shaking with bottled rage. She finally stood up abruptly.

“Do as you please,” she stated, acidic pleasantries floating through her strained voice. “I’ll be out with some friends.”

She didn’t even bother to wait for YiXing to give her a polite bow as she stormed off to grab a clutch purse and shove her feet into some manner of heels. She made it a point to unceremoniously toss JongIn’s cell phone onto a side table on her way out. The door shut as YiXing finished off his coffee, sighing in satisfaction.

“What a waste,” YiXing said, gazing at the other cup of coffee.

JongIn stared incredulously at YiXing. “Yah… Was that alright for you to do that? What if she goes to complain on you?”

“I’m not worried about it. As far as she’s concerned, she doesn’t have to bother looking after you while you have me as a mentor. While it’s entirely possible she could have me replaced, she just doesn’t have time to bother with that.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“My roommate was a psychology major in college. I think his over-analyzing brain rubbed off on me.” YiXing reached for the abandoned cup. “And I didn’t feel like sitting here with her staring us down.”

“Or did you do all that just so you could get that second cup of coffee?”

“Nonsense.” YiXing took a swig. At least it wasn’t watered down too badly.

JongIn paused, considering. “Do you really believe all of that stuff you were talking about?”

“I may or may not. I can’t remember a lot of what I said, actually. What did I say?”

The kid barked out a laugh. “In that case, never mind…”

Habitually swirling the ice in the cup, YiXing looked over at JongIn. “There was one thing, though, that surprised me…” JongIn quirked an eyebrow in his direction. “I feel like this was the first time you called me by my name. You said ‘hyung’, too. I’m touched.”

JongIn blinked at first, but then his eyes grew wide as his face flushed. “That was…! Who cares?! I just happened to say that at the time!”

YiXing grinned. “And here I thought my name had been changed to Yah.”

JongIn slouched in his chair and pouted in a different direction. “Shut up…”

YiXing figured he should let up on his teasing and instead fell back to conversations about insightful thoughts on language and other out-of-body considerations. For the most part, it was just YiXing talking and JongIn nodding and slowly agreeing.

“The deadlines are starting to loom,” YiXing groaned. “I’m dreading work again.”

JongIn just laughed. “After all you talked about today, I don’t think you’ll have an issue with writing anytime soon.”

“Yeah.” YiXing stretched as he stepped out the front door. “I just need coffee at my desk, and I’ll be fine. I’ll see you later, then.”

“Yeah.”

YiXing had taken roughly three steps to the sidewalk.

“Yah! Y-YiXing… hyung…”

He couldn’t stop the smile that grew on his face as he turned back around. JongIn had his hands stubbornly shoved in the pockets of his jeans, his expression a bit awkward and uneasy.

“Uh…” He obviously hadn’t thought through what he was going to say. “… never mind. I was just… never mind.”

YiXing just smiled without vacancy. “I’ll see you later, JongIn.”

JongIn took a bit longer but returned the smile as well. “Yeah…”

A/N: I am gomen for the awkward ending. I had a massive word dump in this entire last section (because I had been waiting all day to write it, but my brother is nosy, and I couldn't write with him OVER MY SHOULDER THE WHOLE TIME AOISDJGASDJ), but then I realized... I had no idea how I was planning on ending this segment OTL Halp. Sorry. Also, if there are mistakes, it's 3 in the morning, so leave me alone. Okay, look forward to the next part~ Kris will re-appear someday~

gif!Credit goes to someone on Tumblr. I don't know how to gif (teach me plz).