The next few days passed with minimal interaction with Kai.  They weren’t given any more time in class to work on their project, and Kai had dance on Thursday, so was unable to meet up to work.

That didn’t mean that Kai had gone back to his old ways.  He still was not seeking Kyungsoo out, but if they were to pass each other in the hallways, they would exchange shy ‘hellos’ and timid smiles.

Baekhyun was excited to see the two of them finally beginning to get along and thought it was well worth the beating he received from Kyungsoo for setting him up.  Jongdae on the other hand was a little more suspicious.  He trusted Kyungsoo to be able to make his own decisions, but he made sure to warn his friend to be careful.

Before he knew, it was Kyungsoo’s favorite day of the week once again; Friday.

Kyungsoo was excited for his time after school as it meant no homework, pizza, and movies.  He was planning to watch that ‘Beautiful Creatures’ movie that had come out last year, as he had never gotten around to actually watching it.

The school day ended sooner than he knew it, and Kyungsoo said goodbye to Jongdae and Baekhyun to go to his locker, promising to see them the next day at Baekhyun’s for video games and junk food.

“Yes, I promise I’ll bring Kimchi Bokumbap, calm yourself!” He assured Jongdae, ever concerned about his food source.

When Kyungsoo made it to his locker, he was taken aback slightly to see Kai awkwardly standing near, looking expectant.

As Kyungsoo drew nearer, a puzzled expression on his face, Kai apparently saw him.

“Hey, Kyungsoo.”

“Hey?” Kyungsoo opened his locker and sorted through what he needed for the weekend and what he didn’t.  “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to see if you wanted to come over tonight to work on our project.”  Kai brushed his fringe out of his face.

“I would have thought the oh-so-popular Kim Kai would have plans on a Friday night.”

“Not this week.  Baekhyun is being drug into dinner with his extended family for his grandmother’s birthday, so he can’t hang out with me.”

“Oh yeah, he was ing about that earlier.”

“So?”

“Huh?”

“Are you free to work on the project tonight?”

“I don’t know, Kai.  I usually like to have Fridays as homework-free, me time.  And I didn’t exactly get to have it last week as Jongdae insisted on spending the night to make sure I wasn’t concussed.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Kai looked at him sheepishly.  “I just thought we should work on it since we didn’t yesterday because of my dance, and we haven’t gotten in class time since Wednesday either.

“Plus, my mom says that if she doesn’t get to feed Baekhyun tonight, she’s going to make me fend for myself for dinner.”

“Ah, I see,” Kyungsoo said, fighting back the smile that was trying to spread itself across his face.  “You just want me there so your mommy will cook for you.”

“Hey, what other reason do I need?  Last time I tried cooking for myself, I managed to light my ramen on fire in the microwave.”

“Did you forget to put the water in?”

“No…”

Kyungsoo stopped fighting his smile and allowed it to dance across his face.

“Okay, I’ll come over. What time?”

“Great! And, uh, now.  My mom is waiting in front with the car to pick us up.”

“You’re a little , you know that?” Kyungsoo asked teasingly.  “Just give me a sec to call my mom and let her know where I’m going.”

Kyungsoo shut his locker and dialed his mom.

“Hey honey, what’s up?”

“Hey, I’m going over to Kai’s for an impromptu work session.”

“Are you staying the night?”

“What!? No!” Kyungsoo spluttered, face turning tomato red.  He was just sure that Kai could feel the heat radiating off of his cheeks.

“Okay, well if anything changes, be sure to let me know.  If I don’t hear from you by midnight and you’re not yet home, I’m calling the police.”

“Mom, seriously?”

“You know I’m just teasing, Soo. But seriously, text me if you’re going to stay over, I don’t want to worry about you all night.”

“Okay, mom, I’ll make sure to do so.”

“That’s all I ask.  Goodbye my little Soo angel, I’ll see you later.”

“See ya mom.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Kyungsoo replied, rolling his eyes and hanging up the phone.  “Okay, I’m ready to go now.”

“What did your mom say?” Kai inquired as the two of them began walking towards the front of the school.

“Just to have fun and let her know when I think I’ll be home.”

“Really?” Kai was disbelieving.  “Then why did you get all red?”

“That is for me to know and for you to never find out.”

“Maybe I should call her and ask, I’m pretty sure she’d tell me.  She seemed to take quite a shining to me when you attacked me with a Frisbee last week.”

“You’re such a head.”

“ you Kyungsoo,” but there was no vehemence behind his words, and Kyungsoo, forgetting that this was the boy that had bullied him up until a week ago, responded as he would to Jongdae or Baekhyun.

“Sorry, I’m not a first date kind of guy.”

That worked to make Kai shut up abruptly.  He turned bright red and began spluttering incoherently, whether from anger or embarrassment, Kyungsoo couldn’t tell.  He was mortified at what he had said, afraid that he had just single-handedly destroyed all the progress the two of them had made.

“I’m so sorry! That was over the line and I shouldn’t have said it! Oh my God, Kai, I swear I didn’t mean anything by that, please don’t take it the wrong way!”

After a few more moments of spluttering, Kai finally managed to get out what he wanted to say.  “No, don’t apologize,” he was still cherry-colored.  “I just – it just took me off guard is all.  I’m happy that you feel comfortable enough around me to joke, I just wasn’t prepared for something like that.”

“Sorry –“

“Don’t be, it’s okay,” and at this point they reached Mrs. Kim’s car, where Kyungsoo could see she was waving happily towards the two of them.

“Soo! I’m so glad you could make it!  I don’t think I’m going to cook tonight though, I’m just too tired.  How does pizza sound to you?”

“Pizza sounds great Mrs. Kim,” Kyungsoo responded as he slid into the backseat of the car.

“Pizza it is then!” She exclaimed as they pulled out of the parking lot and began driving to the Kim household.

The drive took place in silence, and Kyungsoo busied himself with staring out the window, watching all the people they zipped past, wondering what they were doing, what they were thinking, what kind of emotions they were experiencing.  He couldn’t help but wonder how many of them found themselves suddenly in a quasi-friendship with their arch nemesis.

When they got up to the Kim’s apartment, Kai and Kyungsoo removed their shoes and headed to Kai’s room as Mrs. Kim called after them, “I’ll go ahead and order the pizza in about an hour and a half, do you think you’ll be hungry by then?”

“Mom, we’re teenage boys, we’re always hungry.”  Mrs. Kim merely chuckled in response.

When they got into Kai’s room, Kyungsoo began unpacking his stuff.

“Hey, we’re going to have to make do without my laptop today, I didn’t bring it with me to school.”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t even think about that.  It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll be fine without it.”

“If you say so.”

The two of them sat down at their usual spots at Kai’s desk and began to work.  They lost all track of time, totally engrossed in their project, and ended up jumping in fright when Kai’s mom peeked her head in through the door and said, “Pizzas here!”

“Oh thank goodness, I’m starving,” Kai responded as he stood up and stretched.  Kyungsoo, no longer completely absorbed in work, realized that he too was really hungry.

As the two boys were putting pizza onto their plates, Mrs. Kim’s phone rang.  She answered it out in the living room, and shortly thereafter returned to the kitchen, purse slung over her shoulder.

“Kai, your father locked his key in his car, I’m going to go meet him with the spare.  You two go ahead and eat without me, just make sure to save a couple of slices for your father and me.”

“Okay mom, we’ll set some aside.  I’ll see you when you get back.”

As she left, Kyungsoo and Kai realized that they were expected to eat together, alone, just the two of them, no one else.  As this realization hit, they both became suddenly uncomfortable.

“Uh, maybe we should watch a movie in my room while we eat?”

“That sounds like a really good idea,” Kyungsoo agreed, glad for an excuse to not eat at a table alone with Kai, where conversation would be required.

“Great, what movie do you want to watch? I have a Netflix, so we can just watch something on there.”

“Actually, I had planned to watch a movie tonight anyway, but, uhm…” Kyungsoo tapered off, unwilling to admit to wanting to watch such a Twilight-esque film.

Sensing the reason for Kyungsoo’s hesitance, Kai grinned wickedly.  “What is it? Come on, you can tell me.”

“Beautiful Creatures…” Kyungsoo mumbled under his breath.

“What? I didn’t quite hear you,” Kai said, stepping closer and cocking his head as if that was going to make Kyungsoo’s words more discernable.

“I said I wanted to watch ‘Beautiful Creatures!’” Kyungsoo shouted this time, causing Kai to jump slightly in surprise.

“Jesus, no need to yell!  Alright! ‘Beautiful Creatures’ it is.”

The two of them filed into Kai’s room once again.  Kai took a seat on his bed right away, but Kyungsoo hesitated, unsure of where to sit.  As Kai got the t.v. set up, Kyungsoo decided to take his chances and perch on the edge of the bed.

Kai immediately stiffened, just as he had when Kyungsoo accidently touched him the other day.  Kyungsoo noticed his body language and immediately sprang back up off of the bed.

“Sorry…”

“It’s o-okay.  I just, I don’t like anybody on my bed, it makes me really uncomfortable,” Kai focused his eyes on the screen as hard as he could.

“Do you have OCD or something?  You’re a little bit neurotic.”

“That’s not particularly funny,” Kai clenched his jaw.

“I’m sorry… You know, OCD is perfectly okay, you don’t have to be embarrassed by it, plenty of people have it.  And there are plenty of things you can do to manage it.”

“I don’t have OCD,” Kai snapped.

“Oh.”

A few moments later, Kai seemed to feel bad about his behavior.

“I don’t have OCD, but I appreciate how calmly you accepted it.  Can you just drag the desk chair over? We should probably start the movie now, the pizza is getting cold.”

“Okay.”  Kyungsoo did as he was told and they started the movie.

After finishing his pizza, Kyungsoo began to shift kind of uncomfortably in his seat.  This movie was terrible.  The plot was dumb, and everything was just coincidentally working out to the main characters’ advantage.

The characters themselves were horribly unlikeable as well.  The boy wanted to think he was smart, but didn’t have one original thing to say, instead just regurgitating things that he read in books or that were said by other people.  And the girl, oh God, the girl.  She was just a whiny Tumblr that “wasn’t like other girls” and was just rude for the sake of being rude.  Kyungsoo felt like snapping her (pretty) little neck.

The only worthwhile thing about the movie was Emmy Rossum.  Innocent little Christine Daae was not so innocent in this film; she was one bad motherer.  A man eater who was completely self-assured, and all the ier for it.

When the movie finally ended, Kyungsoo said, “Boy, that was a terrible movie!”

When he received no response, Kyungsoo looked over at Kai, only to find that he had fallen fast asleep.

“You must have been bored out of you in’ mind too, huh?” Kyungsoo asked softly.

Realizing they weren’t going to get anymore work done tonight anyway, Kyungsoo took Kai’s plate and cup from where they were on his bed and set them briefly on the desk with his own.  He grabbed ahold of the blanket that had been kicked down to the food of the bed, and pulled it up over Kai’s sleeping form.

Grabbing the dishes, Kyungsoo quietly slipped out of the room and into the kitchen where he began washing the plates.

Summoned by the sound of running water, Kai’s mom walked into the kitchen as well.

“Kyungsoo, honey, what are you doing?”

“Mrs. Kim, I didn’t realize you had come back home!  Kai fell asleep.  I was just doing our dishes and then I was going to head out.”

“Why don’t you just spend the night? You don’t have anywhere you have to be in the morning, right?  It’s already dark out, and I’m sure your mom would prefer if you weren’t walking around alone at night.”

“I’m not sure, Mrs. Kim.  I don’t think Kai would be very comfortable with it.”

“It’s fine, sweety, I’ll make you up a place to sleep on the couch.”

“Okay…”

“It’s settled.  Now why don’t you go find a pair of shorts and a t-shirt of Kai’s to sleep in while I get the couch all situated for you?”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo bowed respectfully, then proceeded to tip-toe back into Kai’s room.  He quietly began opening the drawers of Kai’s dresser, and quickly found a pair of athletic shorts and a printed t-shirt, both too big for him, to sleep in.

As he was changing, Kyungsoo heard whimpering coming from Kai, curled up on the bed in the fetal position.

“No! H-hyu ---   s-stop it, I don’t want t-t-t-to!” Kai’s voice sounded so broken, and Kyungsoo wanted nothing more than to put it back together before his own heart burst.

“Kai. Kai! It’s okay, shh, it’s okay.  Nothing can hurt you now,” Kyungsoo crooned, smoothing back Kai’s hair from his sweaty face.  He knew that Kai hated to be touched, but right now he needed some comfort.

Kyungsoo gently the still whimpering boy’s hair as he began to sing gently.  The song he sang was nothing special, it was just some random ballad that had been popular on the radio recently, but by the time he finished his soothing tones, Kai had stilled and was once again sleeping peacefully.

“See?” Kyungsoo whispered gently, petting Kai’s head one last time, “I told you everything would be fine.”

And with that, Kyungsoo departed from the bedroom once again, curled up on the couch, and despite the time, instantly fell asleep.

He was woken some time later in the night by a sound near his head, but unwilling to open his eyes, Kyungsoo continued to just lie still and listen.

“Hey, Kyungsoo,” at this, Kyungsoo felt a rough and warm hand gently encase his own.

“I know you’re sleeping and can’t hear me, but, I just wanted to say thanks, you know, for earlier.” Kai gently swiped his thumb over the back of Kyungsoo’s hand and then retreated back to his bed.

Kyungsoo awoke the next morning with a small smile on his face.