Do Kyungsoo sits crosslegged on the fire escape.  

 

He could feel himself unraveling in the mid afternoon breeze. These past few days… Jongin was bringing him back. If he stuck by his side--

 

“Boo.”

 

He jumps a bit.

 

Jongin’s soft laughter is gentle to his ears.

 

“Gotcha.”

 

Kyungsoo decides to ignore it, and he looks up at Jongin, half-squinting in the sunlight.

 

“You’re back.”

 

Not like I was waiting this whole time for you to come back from work.  

 

“You know where I want to go?”

 

“Where?”

 

“I want to show you this place.”

 

“What place?”

 

“You’ll see.”

 

They’re seated in a small booth in a cafe. The leather on the seats are a faded red, like the sky when the sun is setting, and the table is a delicious wooden brown, worn-down from years of plates and hands.

 

Jongin’s fingers tap meaningless rhythms on the surface.

 

“Hey, Kyungsoo!” Jongin’s grin is breathtaking to Kyungsoo, who stares a little longer than he should.

 

“...Hm?” He exhales.

 

“Have you ever tried an Iced Americano with extra shots of expresso?”

 

Jongin’s eyes are as wicked as they could get. Kyungsoo almost fears a little of what’s ahead.

 

“Uhh...uhh… Should I be worried about this?”

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

Jongin reaches over suddenly and ruffles the hair above his eyes.

 

“I’m not a dog. Stop it already.”

 

Kyungsoo shoots him a playful glare.

 

“Whoaa, Kyungsoo, you’re acting so mean these days. What happened to my innocent Kyungie??”

 

Kyungsoo nearly chokes on his own spit. My innocent Kyungie??!

 

“Well he died.” ...Or maybe not… Uhh I don’t know?

 

“Don’t say things like that,” Jongin scolds. “I’m proving to be a pretty bad influence.”

 

Kyungsoo chuckles, ducking his head a little.

 

The sunlight casts shadows on Jongin’s eyelashes and cheekbones, and he looks away quickly.

 

The waiter comes with their drinks, and Kyungsoo glances at his drink skeptically.

 

“Does this even taste good?”

 

Jongin nods enthusiastically. “Of course. My taste in coffee is the best!”

 

“...I’ll trust you then.”

 

Kyungsoo takes a hesitant sip, his eyebrows knitting together in concentration.

 

“This is...kind of strong, Jongin.”

 

“Yeah, just like me.” Jongin sends him an exaggerated wink, and Kyungsoo ends up spewing the coffee across the table.

 

“Damn it, Soo. Didn’t know you were so by that.”

 

Kyungsoo blushes a rather deep shade of crimson.

 

“I think you’ve misunderstood,” Kyungsoo laugh is a little too forced. “In fact, what I saw was so repulsive, I couldn’t help but spit out in disgust.”

 

“Uh, sure.” A look of sarcasm.

 

“Jongin!” Kyungsoo yells in desperation.

 

“Alright, alright. Sorry.”

 

Jongin wants to show him the cakes.

 

“You have to try this one, Soo. And also this one,” Jongin points to the raspberry cheesecake and the tiramisu.

 

“What? Didn’t you just order three other cakes already?”

 

“No, you have to eat these too.”

 

“Why?!”

 

Jongin gives him an annoyed expression. “Stop whining and eat.”

 

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me for your own enjoyment.”

 

“But, Kyungsoo, you’ll like it,” he insists.

 

“Can’t we come back and eat a new one every day?”

 

“Yeah, sure. But you have to eat the ones I ordered already.”

 

“Why?!”

 

“Because I ordered them!”

 

“Jongin!”

 

“Fine, geez.”

 

After they stuffed themselves and drank coffee until Kyungsoo said he felt like he could do cartwheels, Jongin decided it was definitely time to go.

 

“Did you like it?”

 

Kyungsoo had to strain to hear the nearly invisible undertone of shyness.

 

“Yeah... Yeah, I did.” Kyungsoo murmurs.

 

“I’m happy that you did.”

 

Just as they stood up to go, Jongin hears the conversation of two women three tables away.

 

“Are you sure?”

“He definitely looks like him!”

“But Kim Jongin wouldn’t be here!”

“Then, do you think my eyes are lying to me?”
“Aiish, I don’t know!”

 

Jongin touches Kyungsoo’s elbow.

 

“Let’s go. Quickly.”

 

Jongin and Kyungsoo end up lying around on the bed.

 

“I’m happy.” Jongin breathes.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because…” Jongin tilts his head and thinks for a moment.

 

“Tell me.”

 

“Because spring is here. That’s why I’m happy.”

 

Pout.

 

“Well I’m happy too.” Kyungsoo smiles faintly.

 

“Why?”

 

“Umm… I like lying on this bed.”

 

“Yeah. With me.”

 

He sputters, “WHAT?”

 

“Hmm? I didn’t say anything.”

 

“...whatever.”

 

Jongin notices the black sketchbook lying on the desk near the bed.

 

He runs his fingers over the cover, his fingertips ghosting the even surface.

 

“Can you...show me this?”

 

Kyungsoo rolls over and takes the book from out of his hands.

 

Here was a chance.

 

“Jongin…”

 

Kyungsoo hopes his voice didn’t betray his inner hurricane of emotions.

 

“Yeah?”

 

The corners of his mouth turn up, and a tranquil smile sits on his lips.

 

“Do you want me to draw you?”

 

Kyungsoo savors the familiar way the pencil feels in his right hand and the heavy book of paper in his left.

 

He glances up at Jongin, who’s looking over at him patiently, still sprawled on the mattress.

 

When Kyungsoo and him meet eyes, he blinks slowly and smiles.

 

“You’re not going to fall asleep there, are you?”

 

“I don’t think so.”

 

“You better not.”

 

So Kyungsoo starts.

 

He begins by lightly tracing the shape of Jongin’s head; around and a curve before the line meets its tail again.

 

“Can I still talk to you?”

 

Kyungsoo barely registers what Jongin is saying, but he gives a small nod.

 

The two eyes and the eyebrows, determined and caring… Kyungsoo sketches a pair of eyes and the eyebrows, trying his best to imitate what he sees in them.

 

“Kyungsoo, tell me about your friends.”

 

Kyungsoo is a little surprised. Usually, he starts such conversations.

 

 

“I had a friend once.”

 

The nose and his thick lips… Kyungsoo finds himself engrossed in capturing the shape and softness he looked at everytime he spoke.

 

“Who? When?” Jongin shifts a little, adjusting to a slightly more comfortable position.

 

“When I was… fourteen?”

 

“What was he like?”

 

“Uhh...she was a really good friend. When I cried, she gave me tissues.”

 

Kyungsoo laughs at the small memory.

 

“It was a girl?!”

 

Jongin sits up in a flash.

 

“Hey! Sit back down, I don’t want to start over and put you in a different position.”

 

Jongin grumbles, but he sits back down.

 

“She reminds me of you actually…” Kyungsoo glances up again.

 

The ears and his hair… Kyungsoo drew two deformed curves and brought his pencil to the top of the face, creating the delicate of hair strands.

He sighs, exasperated, a little upset at how it came out because it doesn’t seem like the fluffy brown hair he always sees Jongin as having.

 

“Where is she now?”

 

“...She had to leave,”

 

“Oh.”

 

A smooth neck and two rounded shoulders.

 

“It was for a better future.”

 

Jongin doesn’t ask anymore after that, and Kyungsoo is curious about him, so he too asks.

 

“What about you?”

 

“To be honest, I don’t really have any friends.”

 

Two arms and a pair of beautiful hands.

 

“Really? But, there must be at least one.” Kyungsoo looks up again. “I mean like, I have one, and… If I have one, then you should have one too.”

 

“Fake friends, yeah.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

A back and two long legs.

 

“We’re not really even friends. They just hang around me because I have stuff that they like.”

 

Jongin almost spits the words out.

 

Feet.

 

“You’re right.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Kyungsoo puts down his pencil and stares at Jongin.

 

“Those are not friends.”

 

Jongin chuckles.

 

“Are you done?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Kyungsoo sits down on the bed and angles the sketchbook so that Jongin can peek over and see his drawing.

 

“Is it...good?”

 

There is a still silence in which all Kyungsoo can hear is Jongin’s steady breathing and the erratic pumping of his own heartbeat.

 

“Wow.”

 

It’s a whisper, but Kyungsoo still hears it.

 

“I didn’t know you were this good.”

 

Jongin’s eyes are wide open.

 

He reaches a hand out.

 

“Can I, erm, keep it?”

 

Kyungsoo hesitates.

 

But if Jongin wants it… I can create more, anyways.

 

“Sure.”

 

The ripping sound of the paper from the book mirrors the small ripping of his heart, but Kyungsoo thinks it’s completely worthwhile when Jongin suddenly leans over and kisses tenderly him on the cheek.

 

Wait.

 

What.

 

Kyungsoo’s head snaps up and he stares at Jongin with huge eyes, the shape of baseballs.

 

He finds that he cannot form words.

 

This is a completely foreign experience, and he doesn’t know how to respond but just stare at Jongin, who’s staring back.

 

“Uhh..uhh,” Jongin blushes. “Oh hey look, it’s getting kind of late. I think I should go now. Yeah, I think I should.”

 

He stumbles out the window and down the fire escape stairs, turning back once to wave quickly.

 

Kyungsoo has never seen Jongin act that way, and he resists the urge to throw himself back on the bed and laugh out loud in all of this ridiculousness.

 

This ridiculous feeling of happiness.

 

Euphoria, he thinks it’s called. Or ecstasy, maybe.

 

So he does laugh, even though it sounds completely out of context and strange alone in the dimly lit apartment.

 

And for the first time in days, Kyungsoo didn’t need to wake up and write a secret post-it at 3am.

 

Jihyun’s mouth drops open.

 

“No way.”

 

She watches from below, mind blown, as Jongin stumbles down the fire escape stairs.

 

Yes.

I’ve found it, she thinks.

 

 

---

ahahaha, look at this chapter. I kind of feel like it’s all over the place .__.

 

but it’s mostly just conversation.

 

I think i’m just going to start using specific lines in the text as the title chapters…

 

Andddd, welllllll, kaisoo is certainly moving forward c:

idk what happened. the kiss just appeared, like out of nowhere.

 

 

Anyways, yessss. I have written the outline for all the chapters now. I think there’s going to be around 15 or 16 chapters.

 

6 to 7 more, lols.

 

 

 

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