A/n: Short interlude, a small thank you to all the wonderful readers, subs, upvotes, comments, and 11000 views! (11 is my lucky number.) I was going to start writing the next chapter but this scene popped into my head so I wrote it instead. If I'd added it to the next chapter (which I already plan on having be a reasonably lengthy one) it would be longer than I'd like. So - interlude! Hope you enjoy it anyway. :) 

Steam was creeping through the cracks of the closed bathroom door. Jongin, having woken up alone in Kyungsoo’s bed, was watching the evaporated water as it ghosted through the air, and he heaved a sigh. Even now, Kyungsoo’s showers were scalding hot, as though he were trying to burn his skin off. Jongin understood – Kyungsoo had explained the memory touches that still whispered through his nerves, a feeling he could never quite shake off. Jongin also knew that Kyungsoo tried to get them off, rubbing his skin raw with bath sponges and body scrub. In moments, he would come out of the washroom red and raw, in just his boxers. Although Jongin couldn’t see it, he knew Kyungsoo’s crotch was the worst. He could tell by the skin on his thighs, when Kyungsoo would sit to pull on his jeans and his boxers would ride up and reveal the sometimes-bleeding skin, and how Kyungsoo would wince as the jean fabric rubbed up on it.

Today, since it was surprisingly early, Jongin got up, searching around Kyungsoo’s room for moisturizer. The closest he found was sunscreen that was also hydrating, which he figured was good enough. However, upon looking for the lotion, Jongin stumbled upon the little box of letters in which all of “Kai’s” notes were, making him smile. He hadn’t written Kyungsoo notes under the alias lately, because he hadn’t felt the need to – whatever he wanted to say, he could just tell Kyungsoo. He wondered, though, if Kyungsoo noticed, or cared for their absence.

When Kyungsoo finally returned to the bedroom he was, as expected, wearing only his boxers. He was too sleepy when he would first get up to grab clothes, just scrambling for boxers and clambering into the shower. He always regretted it when he got out of the shower, he’d said to Jongin, but he never changed his routine. Jongin saw this sight and smiled, because he loved that about Kyungsoo, and because the boy was so beautiful, even with his pink-rubbed skin. Then he gently ordered Kyungsoo to sit on the bed, and took a place beside him, blobbing a bit of the lotion into his hand and then rubbing it on Kyungsoo’s back.

“What are you doing?” Kyungsoo said weakly, voice filled with pleasure. It was not so much an objection – though Jongin was sure he had wanted it to be – as a curiosity.

“You always are so rough on your skin,” Jongin told him lightly. “I’m just trying to make it a little better.” He massaged the lotion into Kyungsoo’s tense shoulders, and then followed down his spine. Reaching his boxer line, Jongin moved on to Kyungsoo’s arms, which the boy held out willingly, and then Kyungsoo was turning to face him. However, he didn’t let Jongin carry on to his chest; instead, he pecked him on the lips and whispered a “Thank you” before lying down and letting Jongin continue. Jongin crawled over beside him, sensitively aware of Kyungsoo’s soft body beneath his hands. Then it was down to Kyungsoo’s legs, and he started with the feet first. Kyungsoo squirmed and bit back a smile as Jongin touched the ticklish underside of his foot, but Jongin didn’t stop.

Moving up to Kyungsoo’s thighs, both of them seemed to become nervous. Jongin hesitated, and Kyungsoo squeezed his eyelids shut, face pinched in anxiety.

“Jongin?” he said inaudibly.

“I’ll stop,” Jongin offered. “It’s okay, hyung-”

“No, no,” Kyungsoo shook his head, forcing his eyes open. “It – it’s fine, go ahead. I trust you.” Carefully, Jongin lifted Kyungsoo’s legs and threw his own over the side of the bed, allowing the other’s thighs to come down on his. Kyungsoo lifted his knees so Jongin could cover the back of his thighs, and as he did so his boxers sidled up to reveal bloody, scabbing marks along the inner area of skin. Jongin let out a gasp, thoughtlessly tracing a finger over the sore-looking spot. In an instant, Kyungsoo’s fingers were wrapped tightly around his wrist, nails digging in sharply.

“I’m sorry, hyung! I wasn’t – I just – you’re bleeding-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kyungsoo said. “Leave it.”

Jongin took the hand digging into his arm and brought it to his lips, kissing it. Kyungsoo released him and slipped his fingers into Jongin’s. “Sorry,” Jongin murmured. “But don’t do that anymore, okay? If – just talk to me, or take it out on me, don’t hurt yourself anymore.”

“You already look like crap,” Kyungsoo told him, reaching up to touch the bruise that had formed on Jongin’s face from his brawl the previous day.

“Gee, thanks,” Jongin scoffed. Kyungsoo chuckled.

“Hurry up and finish me so I can get dressed,” Kyungsoo said. When Jongin smirked, he smacked the younger’s cheek. “Don’t make that ual. What are you, twelve?”

“A twelve-year-old wouldn’t understand that,” Jongin uttered as he renewed his attention to Kyungsoo’s legs. When he was done, he remembered something. “Oh hey, you know that guy, Kai or whatever? Does he still write you letters?”

“Were you going through my stuff?” Kyungsoo sat up, face becoming sour.

“No. I noticed them when I was looking for this.” He held up the sunscreen lotion. “I’d forgotten about them. I was just curious if he was still writing to you.”

“He’s not,” Kyungsoo said firmly. “At least, he hasn’t in – a while, I can’t even remember how long. I’m guessing he realized I’m an idiot and a waste of time, and moved on.”

“You sound sort of happy about that,” Jongin said. “Do you think I’m gonna – move on from you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I am an idiot and a waste of time. You’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Is that how it works?” Jongin asked, failing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “People figure that out and then leave?” Kyungsoo shrugged. “Well, what about me? Haven’t you figured that out about me yet?”

“Oh, trust me,” Kyungsoo laughed. “I know you’re an idiot.”

“But…? I know there’s a ‘but’ coming here.”

Then Kyungsoo’s small, hot hands were on Jongin’s neck, his lips pressing against Jongin’s mouth. A moment later, he pulled away with a grin. “But, if I left you then I would have to be stuck with Sehun. And really – who would you choose?”

Jongin broke into laughter. “I thought he was your best friend.”

“He is!” Kyungsoo defended, grin wide on his face. He faced Jongin, straddled on his hips, arms rested on his shoulders. “And that makes him even more of an idiot. But I love him anyways, for all his stupidity and lisping and whining and all the he makes me put up with. It’s hard to resist such a cute kid.”

“Sort of sounds like Yixing.”

“No. Yixing is nice. And quiet. And… not Sehun. They are very much opposites.”

“But they’re both cute,” Jongin noted, and Kyungsoo couldn’t argue that. “I think they’d be cute together.”

“Sehun wouldn’t date him,” Kyungsoo said, and he disentangled his arms from Jongin’s neck. “At least, not right now.” He sighed, standing and crossing to his dresser to pick out an outfit.

“Do you think he might, though? When he’s, you know, ready. I know he’ll take a long time to heal, and maybe he never really will entirely, but… Do you think there will be a time when – maybe – he can… try to be with someone again?”

Kyungsoo was slipping his arms into the sleeves of a button-up shirt, and he moved back to sit facing Jongin in the younger’s lap, knees on either side of Jongin’s hips. “Do me up,” he ordered quietly. Jongin began to fasten the buttons, and Kyungsoo watched his face as he did. Kyungsoo slipped his hand up to Jongin’s face, thumb drawing along Jongin’s jaw line, and then he allowed his hand to rest over the spot on Jongin’s neck where he could feel his pulse beating softly. He waited for Jongin’s eyes to look up and meet his, the other’s fingers pausing on one of the shirt buttons, and then Kyungsoo pulled Jongin in to kiss him very tenderly. His eyes closed and he dug into the sensation of Jongin’s lips – and it was Jongin’s lips, not just anyone’s, that felt this way; that made Kyungsoo’s chest tighten and his stomach do back flips, his toes crinkle and his skin to ripple with goosebumps. He had been denying this for too long, but it was too difficult now. He knew Jongin cared about him, and now he knew that he returned this feeling. Maybe he wasn’t in love with Jongin – he hadn’t entirely figured out his feelings still – but there was no point in rejecting that he at least liked Jongin.

And so, to answer Jongin’s question about whether he could ever be with him – because, though they had been talking about Sehun, it had really been about Kyungsoo, and he knew it – Kyungsoo said honestly under his breath, “Yes, I think so.” And then he chased those words down with another, long-lasting kiss, until he stopped them and reminded Jongin that they had school and therefore, no more time to be messing around.

But he wouldn’t have minded messing around a little bit longer.