The next day the two of them woke up around noon and it appeared as if Kyungsoo had managed to avoid a concussion.

“Bloody hell, Jongdae! Didn’t I tell you to leave by ten so I could get some work done?”

“Relax hyung, it’s not like you have that much to do anyway.  Besides, you overslept too, you can’t go pinning this on me.”

Kyungsoo threw a pillow at his face as hard as he could, which as we saw the previous day in gym class, was not very hard.

“Jong. Dae. I was recovering from a possible concussion.  It is your job as the healthy friend to be responsible and set an alarm.”

“Yeah, you’re right, your mental health is a little lacking.”

Jongdae sprang out of the bed and bolted down the stairs before Kyungsoo had a chance to hit him again, calling out “Is there any left-over pizza?” as he stormed down the stairs.

“You ate it all last night you dip!”

“KYUNGSOO!  Watch your language young man!”

“Yes mom!”

Kyungsoo untangled himself from the sheets and proceeded to follow Jongdae down the stairs at a much more leisurely pace.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw Jongdae standing in front of the fridge with the door wide open looking for something to eat, all the while drinking orange juice straight from the carton.

“Jongdae, remind me never to live with you, that’s disgusting.”

“Too bad, so sad, you’ll be stuck with me as your roommate when we go to college and forever after.  There’s no getting rid of me.”

“At least use a glass, my mom will murder you if she sees you doing that.”

“I’ll murder him if I see him doing what?” his mom asks curiously as she follows them into the kitchen.

Jongdae quickly swiped the back of his hand across his mouth to rid himself of the evidence and quickly put the juice back into the fridge.  “Nothing Mrs. Do, Kyungsoo is just trying to get me into trouble.

“Mmhhmm,” was all that she said as she eyed Jongdae up and down suspiciously.  “That better be all it is.  I’ve known you since you were a little boy, Jongdae, don’t think you can pull the wool over my eyes.”  She arched an eyebrow sardonically at him.

“If you two are hungry, there’s some left-over kimchi jjigae in the fridge from the other night.  You’ll have to heat it up, but it should still be good.”

After she pulled the jjigae out of the fridge and set it out on the counter, Mrs. Do slung her purse over her shoulder and grabbed her keys from the wall by the front door.

“Where are you going mom?”  Kyungsoo inquired, already putting the jjigae onto the stove to heat it up for his ravenous friend.

“I’m going out to do groceries, and then your father and I are meeting up for dinner once he gets off work.  You’re going to Jongdae’s with Baekhyunnie later tonight, right honey?”

“Yeah, the three of us are having weekly video game night there this week.  I wanted to give you a break from these miscreants.”

“Hey! I resemble that remark!”

Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes at his friend.

“Alright you two, you have a good time then.  Kyungsoo, make sure you get some homework done first.  And you be careful, I’m still not convinced you’re entirely okay after yesterday.

“And you two had better stay out of trouble, I mean it!  If I get one more phone call from the police station because Jongdae decided it was a good idea to ride his bike down the street, I’m putting you both under house arrest, and I don’t care that I don’t actually have the authority to do it to you Jongdae, that’s not going to stop me!”

“Bye mom, we’ll stay out of trouble, don’t worry.”

“Bye Mrs. Do, have a good date with Mr. Do.”

After his mom left, Kyungsoo made Jongdae eat his kimchi jjigae at the speed of light and then forced him out the door so he could work on his homework.  When it was all said and done, by the time Kyungsoo was settled at his desk with his various assignments scattered around him, it was already 1:30, and he was supposed to be at Jongdae’s house by 4:30; that gave him a grand total of three hours to do homework and make kimchi spaghetti for their dinner.

Kyungsoo gave yet another exasperated sigh and wondered if it was possible to run out.  If it was, he figured he would soon with the rate he’s been going through them.

Kyungsoo managed to finish his biology homework and his history paper due Monday before he decided to call it quits around 3:30.

Standing up from his desk, he stretches his poor, stiff muscles and twists his back around, eliciting a loud popping from his abused spine.

Wandering out into the hall, Kyungsoo finds himself momentarily distracted by his dog SoFo.  SoFo is a cute little Corgi puppy, named for his adorable appearance.  The name SoFo is short for ‘Sausage Fox’ because the rotund dog has the face of a fox, and the body of a particularly plump sausage.

“SoFo! SoFo!”  The contentedly slumbering dog jumps up at the sound of his name and begins racing around the apartment.  After jumping up at Kyungsoo’s legs a couple of times, he runs to the front door and begins scrambling at his leash hanging from a hook.

“Do you want to go for Walkies? Huh? Is that what you want? Yeah? Walkies?”

SoFo’s response to his baby talk is to yip loudly and scrabble even more frantically at his leash.

“Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? You are! Yes you are! My precious little Sausage Fox! Who do I love? It’s you! Yes! Yes, it’s you!”  Kyungsoo croons at the puppy as he fastens the leash around his collar.

As Kyungsoo opens the door, he, not for the first time, finds himself glad that Corgis are such small animals.  If he were any bigger, SoFo would have succeeded in yanking Kyungsoo straight through the door.

Their walk is short because Kyungsoo still needs to make dinner, but he justifies it by reasoning that he would take the pudgy little monster with him to Jongdae’s, and lord knows that’s long enough of a walk for SoFo’s stumpy little legs (his own too, but he’d never admit that).

Upon returning to the apartment, Kyungsoo began boiling water for the spaghetti, and then going into his room to change out of his sleeping clothes that he just realized he’d been in all day, and into a pair of loose fitting jeans paired with his favorite oversized red hoodie.

After finishing dinner, Kyungsoo puts the Tupperware container into his overnight bag and once again puts the leash onto his precious little SoFo.

“Come on Punkin’ Pie, let’s head on over to Jongdae’s.”

They ended up being late, arriving closer to 5:00 than 4:30, but Kyungsoo blames this on SoFo’s need for frequent pit stops.

When he finally reaches Jongdae’s apartment, he enters the passcode and lets SoFo off the leash to run into the house and attack Jongdae and Baekhyun on the couch.

The two of them had been friends since early Elementary school, and Kyungsoo thought of Jongdae’s family as his own, and vice versa.  Due to this familial feeling, Kyungsoo frequently let himself into Jongdae’s home without even bothering to knock, and Jongdae did the same.

Actually, Jongdae did it much more often than Kyungsoo did.  Jongdae suffered from nightmares, and since childhood, he made it a habit to just walk the few blocks to Kyungsoo’s for comfort.  Kyungsoo would often find himself being awoken at 3:00 a.m. to Jongdae curling into his back.  Whenever this would happen, Kyungsoo would scootch himself closer to his friend and wrap him into an embrace, rubbing his back until he was met with the quiet snores that meant Jongdae was asleep.  Of course, they never woke up in such a sweet position.  No, Kyungsoo frequently woke up in the morning pressed against the wall only to find Jongdae spread out all over the bed, limbs sprawled every which way.  Despite this, Kyungsoo never had the heart to tell Jongdae that he was a terrible bed hog because he actually rather liked cuddling up to him at night.

“Kyunggie, you’re here!  Can you please get your precious little dog off of me!?”

Kyungsoo chuckled as he let himself into the apartment, heading straight for the kitchen to deposit the kimchi spaghetti.

“Baekhyun-ah, if you wanted me to provide you with such a service, you wouldn’t call me ‘Kyunggie.’  How many times have I told you that I hate that nickname?!”

“Awe, but Kyunggie, it’s so cute, just like you and your adorable little cheeks!”

“Sick ‘em, SoFo! Go on! Bite him! Bite Byun Baekhyun!”

Unfortunately, this did not have the desired effect.  Instead, SoFo gave Baekhyun one last before running over to Kyungsoo and circling madly around him.  Kyungsoo, dizzy from watching his baby run blurry circle around his feet, reached down and picked him up.

SoFo wriggled excitedly in his arms and gave his face a very thorough before the two of them settled down onto the couch between Baekhyun and Jongdae.

“It’s Super Smash Bros. tonight, prepare to get your kicked!” Exclaimed Jongdae as he passed around everyone’s respective controllers.

“Oh, it’s on!” Kyungsoo exclaimed excitedly, giving SoFo one last pat on the head.

“Yeah! On like Donky Kong!” Baekhyun felt it was necessary to add.

Weekly game night was their way of spending time together without feeling obligated to constantly be talking.  Yet, despite the fact that conversation was not the point of the night, the three of them would often find themselves immersed into dialogue while ruthlessly kicking each other’s video game asses.

“So, Baekhyun, how’s it going with you and Taeyeon?” Kyungsoo inquired as his avatar picked up Baekhyun’s and threw it over the edge.

“It’s great, but I miss her though.  She had to go back to school at the end of August and I haven’t seen her since.  We Skype every night and I’m supposed to go spend the weekend with her in two weeks, so it’s not as bad as it could be.”

“Man, I can’t believe you managed to score such a hot noona!”  Jongdae exclaimed.  “Hey, does she have any friends she’d hook me up with?  I want a badass like Mikasa!”

“Yeah right, Jongdae, do you really think a girl like that would go for you?”

“Shut it Byun Baek, I said the same thing about you when you were trying to woo Tayeon.”

“Hey, Baekhyun, don’t you ever feel uncomfortable dating someone so much older than you?” Kyungsoo inquired, all the while pummeling Jongdae’s avatar to a pulp and racking up damage like nobody’s business.

“Yeah, sometimes I guess.  Especially when I’m around her friends.  But when it’s just the two of us, we feel like equals and everything is so great.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it’s going well for you.”

“Thanks.”