Part XVIII (314 words)
The Kiss (?!) 2/2: Kibum

When Kibum decides to let himself into Taemin’s apartment later that day, he is only half-surprised to find his best friend sitting next to the door and leaning against the wall, fingers pressing against his lips softly as he stares off into blank space.

“So he finally kissed you,” Kibum says as a matter-of-factly, bemused as watches Taemin’s face color. “It’s about time, I suppose.” Taemin is about to protest but Kibum is already in the kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards. “You haven’t eaten a thing yet, have you?” Kibum asks from the kitchen, and he takes Taemin’s silence as a confirmation. “You idiot, you need to eat.”

“I’m not hungry,” comes the younger man’s reply, and Kibum just laughs.

“Well that’s too ing bad. You’re going to eat anyway,” Kibum retorts, but after a few minutes pass and there is no response, he is taken aback by Taemin’s lack of protest. When he peeks from over the kitchen counter he can see Taemin squirming where he sat, face red with a stupid grin on his lips as he stares at his phone.

Probably a text from Jinki, Kibum thinks knowingly, rolling his eyes and recalling the time when he first got together with his boyfriend―he had been like that too. Things with Jonghyun always moved a little too fast and he loved it that, so it was times like these, when his boyfriend was traveling Asia for his concert tour and couldn't be with him every second of the day, that Kibum missed him most.

He pulls out his phone and decides to do Taemin a favor by inviting Jinki over later tonight without warning the younger man. What kind of best friend would he be if he did not? (And, yeah, maybe he was still a little bit bitter about discovering that Taemin had listed him as ‘Satan’ in his contact list, but those were just details.)