Jongin knew he shouldn't have done it. Baekhyun warned him not to, but then Baekhyun was the one who gave him the link to Kyungsoo's fanfiction profile and what person is ever going to deny temptation like that? Previously Jongin had only listened to his roommate's mindless talk about the stories he wrote and the occasional clipping from draft status that Kyungsoo let him read on his Word browser. Apparently those were the only things that Kyungsoo deemed wise enough to show him. He figured there had to be more out there. Kyungsoo spent too much time on his computer writing not-school-essays for there to only be a few paragraphs worth of material. What he didn't realize until he had a spread-sheet basically of everything SooTheMan wrote was how many stories Kyungsoo had written, and how many different genres he dabbled in. 

There was the Xiuhan soul-mates story Kyungsoo had only shown Jongin a part of; a Layhan ghost story; something about Tao in a piano bar, and a super long kitty!au involving every member of Exo-M, and Jongin didn't even want to read the description of that. Half-human cats or hybrids? Men with tails and fluffy ears? There was no way Jongin was reading any of that crap. Never, nope, nada. Not if you paid him.

He skipped over something with an [M] rating because it looked too frightening and settled in for a story that seemed innocent enough and probably wouldn't ruin his preconception of life: Three Years to Wait, an Taochen oneshot that had been recently updated. 

Perhaps he should have known. Perhaps Baekhyun had done this on purpose, and he was going to murder that little snot - and yet again, maybe this was important. The story was sweet enough, but what traumatized Jongin was that Kyungsoo had written himself into the story as a character - and worse still, he'd written himself an in-story boyfriend and it wasn't Jongin...

Something clattered on the other side of their dorm door and Jongin immediately minimized the browser he'd been reading. To make the matter even cleaner, he shoved off his laptop completely and by the time Kyungsoo entered their room, backpack already half of his shoulder, a pile of books in his arms, folders that kept falling out of his grip and flopping to the floor, Jongin was reclining innocently on his bed with his feet straight out before him and his hands behind his head.

“What are you doing?” Kyungsoo asked suspiciously.

Jongin smiled. Alright so his disguise was too innocent. “Nothing.” He pulled his laptop back onto his lap and pretended to look busy.

Kyungsoo didn't appear to believe him, but to Jongin's great relief he didn't press it. They spent the next few minutes not talking until Kyungsoo had his things unpacked and his computer on.

“Hey, Jongin. Sehun mentioned something about you asking about Exo-M a few days ago. I was curious, since I don't think you have any of their music, would you like me to make you a CD? Or... actually I guess you can just copy some of the music onto your phone?”

Jongin gulped. He heard music, but all he remembered was Sehun... Sehun and Kyungsoo. Why the hell had Kyungsoo written himself and Sehun into that fic... Jongin's blood boiled.

“Jongin? Hey, Jongin are you sure you're alright?”

“What? I'm fine. Totally fine!”

He absolutely had to interrogate his friend the next day. Jongin cornered him outside Sehun's last lecture class of the day, walked him into a wall, and gave him the look. The look that says, My friend, one of us will die tonight and I assure you, it won't be me.

Sehun blinked at him. “Are you constipated?”

“How well do you know Kyungsoo?” Jongin wasn't giving him any time to talk this one down.

“Uhm, not really all that well? He's your roommate. I've sort of known him for years... You like him, and... that's about it?”

“So you acknowledge that I like him.”

“Yes.” 

“And that means you aren't allowed to like him.” Jongin needed to very clear about this.

Sehun smirked. “I abide by the bro code, yes.”

“And therefore Kyungsoo isn't allowed to like you.”

“Y-yes, I mean, what? Why are you asking me that?”

Because this is very important, you idiot, Jongin wanted to say. “Just answer me.”

“Uhhm, I can't answer you, because that's something only Kyungsoo could answer because only Kyungsoo would know? Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?”

“Because I read one of his fics and he wrote himself into the story and he wrote YOU as his boyfriend in the story, and I know we've been best friends for ages, but Sehun, I'm kind of freaking out! Why did he write you in the story when you guys barely even talk? I'm his roommate. I'm the one he's supposed to fall in love with. Why is he writing about youuuu?” Jongin officially lost it. He pouted and whined and stomped and then froze and attempted to look manly and mature.

Sehun had no answer. But he did reassure his friend a million times that he wasn't into Kyungsoo, and perhaps Baekhyun or Chanyeol had an answer. Way to turn the situation onto someone else's shoulders to deal with.

“Oh, so you read the Taochen!” Baekhyun cried delightedly when the whole story came out over dinner in the cafeteria the next day.

“Yes,” Jongin growled.

“Why the face? It was a cute story - oh. Oh wait, I think I get it now.” Judging by the ice cold reception Jongin was giving his supposed-to-be-best friend Sehun, Baekhyun clearly judged the problem. 

Sehun sighed. “I was hoping you had an explanation, hyung, because I can't persuade Jongin that I don't like Kyungsoo.” 

“Or the reverse,” Jongin added.

“Or the reverse.” Sehun rolled his eyes.

Baekhyun giggled and elbowed Chanyeol in the ribs. The taller one jerked horribly, but between the two of them, it seemed they were pretty amused by the whole thing. More amused than Jongin felt they had any right to be.

“Oh, come on, Jongin. Wipe the scowl and let me explain. You thought it was this Sehun he was talking about, but it's actually not. Sehun is also the name of some guy, a fan actually, who runs a big Tao fansite and he's totally in love with Tao, and takes the best pictures and goes to all their fan meetings and concerts and is practically on first-name basis with the members. Some people even ship them because it's funny, even though Sehun is probably a lot older (Chanyeol has anyone ever figured it out?) and not all that attractive (At least I guess he isn't because he's always wearing these weird ugly disguises), and anyways - my point, Jongin, is that Kyungsoo was probably just referring to that guy. Lots of fans know him, or know of him. Fic writers know it too of course, and in any case, they do this kind of stuff all the time: referencing random ships that don't actually have anything to do with the story, and it's just there to tease their readers.”

“Can be a bit obnoxious, actually,” said Chanyeol. He and Baekhyun exchanged a meaningful glance and held it just long enough that Jongin figured they must be communicating in their heads about something only they understood. 

He breathed a little easier. “So... not this Sehun,” Jongin repeated more to himself than to the table.

“Yeah, not me,” said this Sehun irritably. Jongin had made him so grumpy over the last few hours, when all he wanted to do was go back to his room and get online and edit some pictures. 

While Jongin calmed down, Chanyeol flagged down another guy who was making his way across the room, tray in hand.

“Hey, Joonmyun! Sit with us?”

The senior Jongin had only seen a few times took a seat opposite from him. 

“Do you know Sehun and Jongin?” Baekhyun asked the newcomer.

“Not really? Hi.” Joonmyun was a little skittish, as if being in a room full of people was a daunting business and he'd much rather retreat into a mouse hole. 

“We're just talking about Exo-M,” Chanyeol explained.

Joonmyun frowned. “Oh.”

“Oh. What?” Baekhyun remarked sardonically.

“Well, everyone has to like something.”

Jongin eyed him appreciatively. “You don't like Exo-M?”

“Nope.” Joonmyun snapped his 'p' but Chanyeol stared at him suspiciously.

“You sure about that? I would have figured you for a fanboy?”

“Well, I'm not, okay,” Joonmyun said a little too fast.

“Suit yourself,” said Baekhyun. They continued to eat and chat about Exo-M for the rest of the meal.

Much later that evening while Kyungsoo typed and Jongin lay halfway tucked into his bed while secretly reading another off of SooTheMan’s stories, Kyungsoo paused.

“Hey, Jongin?”

“Hm?” Jongin turned his phone off in a flash and peeked over his blanket to observe his super cute roommate. Kyungsoo had put on pajamas hours ago, and then donned a giant navy blue fluffy robe. He sat with his feet up in the chair. 

“I was wondering… could you do me a favor?”

“Sure.” Jongin sat up and the comforter fell off his bare torso. He shivered when he realized how cool the room had turned. Belatedly he realized Kyungsoo had turned his head away. 

“I don’t mean right now, but… Baekhyun mentioned this.”

Well that couldn’t be good, Jongin thought.

“Mentioned what?”

Kyungsoo cleared his throat, and Jongin had the distinct idea that he was nervous. “Well, you’re good at writing, yes? And you’ve done some editing and tutoring and stuff…”

“Yes…” 

“I was wondering, since I’m always writing… stuff… if perhaps you could… help me out?”

“Help you out? With writing?”

“No, not with writing! Just, editing. Proofreading. I… a lot of writers have this ‘beta’ who kind of double-checks chapters before posting it on the fic site. I know you don’t know too much about Exo-M…”

Jongin thought guiltily of the browser on his phone featuring SooTheMan’s Exo-M YouTuber!au. He’d chosen it this night because it was written back when Exo-M was 6 members and Chanyeol had recommended it for Jongin so he could learn a little about each of the members, both current and former. He decided not to mention this to Kyungsoo yet. 

“Uhh, that’s alright.” Jongin’s voice came out a little scratchier than he intended.

“What’s alright?” Kyungsoo looked at him wide-eyed. 

“I can do that… be your… beta or whatever.”

“Really?”

Really, Jongin would do anything for that kind of smile.  “Yeah, just tell me when you have something. I’ll proof it for you.”

“Thanks, Jongin. Probably tomorrow, okay?” he said, still smiling cutely. 

“Alright. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Jongin.”

He could so easily fall asleep to the sound of his name rolling off Kyungsoo’s beautiful tongue. He almost considered it, but then he’d just gotten to the part in the story where Luhan, the main vlogger for football commentary SqueezeDemBuns had just goofed and commented on footballer Tao’s shapely rear end, and rival vlogger Minseok for the site CatchtheDeer called him out for it. 

—“I hope you know that has already been claimed by the tallest footballer on that team, and you’d do well not to anger him. He’s got the blood of a dragon. If he catches you…!” Minseok warned in the comments beneath Luhan’s daring video post.

     —“Do you advise that I stick to commenting on buns more the size of yours?” the deer replied.

     —“I don’t know. You’ll have to come over and find out.”

     —“Or you can just get up and show us a nice peek in your next video.”

    —“Better subscribe to find out.”

Jongin giggled to himself under the blankets, all the while praying Kyungsoo never asked him what he was doing. 

He finished the chapter and scrolled through the following comments. The story wasn't finished, like most of Kyungsoo’s longest fics.

Luhanlover298671: Love the update but please write more! I have to know what happens when Kris watches that video!

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Xiuhannielovesyou: Yaaay they’re starting to interact more! P.S. Will there ever be ?

(1) reply to Xiuhannielovesyou by SooTheMan: Haha, wouldn’t you like to find out ;)

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Suho_ridesTheBigUnicorn: Please write more Lay into this fic. It’s been 5 1/2 chapters since you even mentioned him.

(1) reply to Suho_ridesTheBigUnicorn by SooTheMan: Did you change your username? I thought you were Suho_shipsChenChen last month and that’s why I wrote Chen into the 7th chapter…?

(1) reply to SooTheMan’s reply: I like Chen too. Please write more of both. 

2,104 words

I have no excuse for this heap of nonsense and almostcrack. Suffice it to say that after everything that's happened this week, I'm finally in a writing mood and this is healing. Hope you guys find it similarly so! :D

<3 Rosie

Referenced !Au's:

• Three Years to Wait - a "SooTheMan" Taochen oneshot, spin-off based on this fic
• I'm Gonna Change That Tune - the piano bar Tao fic, actually a Taohun (with Taochen sequel in planning)
• Little Cat, Who Made Thee - chaptered kitty!au, actually a Taohun as well (no relation to SooTheMan's kitty!au)
• Exo-M as YouTubers - AU requested by Joudrew, expect to see drabbles of it throughout this series. :)

Yeah, that was a whole lot of #shameless_self_promo. xD

*Every fic mentioned does contain Xiuhan. This ship will never go down. Never! Xiuhan4lyfe!