Chapter Text
Sometimes Soobin himself wonders how he got here.
What steps exactly has he taken in his life that have brought him here? What choice did he make that has made it inevitable for him to end up here?
Here being the largest bed he had ever seen in his life, under a huge, fluffy black-and-white tiger stripe comforter with four other men. Maybe this would have made sense in his early twenties, but at this point, sometimes it gives him pause, even though the situation isn’t exactly new to him.
He supposes the issue is, he knows exactly the series of decisions that has led him here, but he still can’t quite believe them sometimes. They feel like something straight out of a movie, out of a romance novel. Real people don’t lead lives like this. People like Soobin don’t lead lives like this.
All his life, he’s been a sensible guy. He had okay grades in school, he had some friends and reasonable goals. Even his coming out near the end of high school was more his parents approaching him calmly to explain that they know, and intend to support him. He decided to go through accounting school, because he wanted a stable job over anything else, even though he thought math was pretty stupid. At least accountants get to use calculators. He graduated fine, got a respectable job at an okay company, wore a tie to the office every day and was well-liked among his colleagues for his polite demeanor.
Then the printer near his desk decided to print every invoice he put through it in bright, threatening red that makes them look even more intimidating than they already do, and when he panics to his supervisor, because he’s still new and he needs to submit those invoices by lunch, the older woman looks at him with an expression both compassionate and condescending, picks up the phone and calls their tech support. Because of course they have in-house tech support. They’re a modern company who ships internationally. Soobin is not there to fix his own printer on company time.
To save time, his supervisor lets him print the invoices at her work station, which means that Soobin is not at his own desk when the tech guy arrives, and is stuck watching his supervisor greet him at the door from across the accounting pen.
Which would be cool, he’s glad he doesn’t have to hover by the guy and keep freaking out about meeting his deadline while he works, if their tech support guy wasn’t one of the most handsome men he has ever seen in his life.
Perhaps just to adhere to the tech guy stereotype, the young man who follows his supervisor over to Soobin’s station looks nothing like the office worker type. His hair is too long, curling cutely around his face and neck, it’s dyed a pretty, reddish brown color, and when he folds the sleeves of his shirt up, colored ink peeks out from under it. His tie is undone as well, but nobody in the room seems to mind it – if anything, as he made his way across the room, he was met with smiles, waves and friendly greetings, like everyone was excited to see him, even though his presence obviously meant that something had gone wrong in the office.
Soobin doesn’t need to be told that everyone loves Beomgyu, later over lunch with his coworkers. He simply gathered that from the way everyone reacted to seeing him around, the way he himself reacted to Beomgyu just walking into the room. He’s the office sweetheart, because he’s incredibly handsome, smiles all the time, jokes around while getting his work done so people don’t stress out too much about getting delayed by a technical issue, and he always figures out how to fix whatever is wrong with their equipment.
Then there’s the fact that he’s the perfect target for salacious gossip – the young woman whose desk is right next to Soobin’s leans over and informs him that Beomgyu is bisexual, and is in a non-monogamous relationship.
Briefly, Soobin wonders if this would be a good time to break to his coworkers that he himself happens to be gay, but it doesn’t feel appropriate. Beomgyu gets to be unapologetically bi – he’s attractive, he’s fun, and being bi makes him exciting and available to the whole office. He wears his tie perpetually loosened; he can be bi. Soobin is buttoned up all the way, and being gay makes him nothing but a little weird and ill-fitting in this gathering of perfectly regular office workers. He lets this opportunity go.
“He brings a different boyfriend to every company event,” another one of his female coworkers adds, sounding a little excited. “They’re all so handsome. You need to meet them, Soobin. You’ll know what I mean.”
And Soobin did know what they meant, when Beomgyu showed up to the company Christmas party with a wall of a man with the prettiest, softest smile, the two of them wearing matching gaudy Christmas sweaters and constantly swapping wearing a headband with plush reindeer antlers. Soobin was wearing the exact same clothes he wore to work every day, he just matched a green sweater with a red tie to make his clothes look more festive. It still got him compliments from his female coworkers, but nobody cooed over him the way they cooed about Beomgyu and his boyfriend.
Today, Soobin knows better, but back when it happened, he thought that it was a coincidence that the two of them found their way over to the drinks table at the same time Soobin was getting himself a refill of the tea he had been sipping all day – it was this intoxicating mix of orange and cinnamon that tasted like Christmas, and he couldn’t get enough of it. Beomgyu’s gorgeous tall boyfriend leaned over the table next to him to fill their plastic cups with office-appropriately alcoholic punch, and Beomgyu stared at Soobin while he clung to his partner’s elbow in a way that just looked mildly impractical.
Soobin was honestly relieved by the time Beomgyu brightly said, “Hey!” because he wasn’t quite sure why he was being gawked at so obviously, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t because Beomgyu found his wannabe Christmas get-up particularly impressive. He was wearing reindeer antlers, for God’s sake. He’s won the Best Dressed award of this party, and he knows it.
“Hi?” Which leaves the issue of why the fuck he’s talking to Soobin right now particularly pressing.
Beomgyu keeps watching him like he’s the most fascinating thing in the world while he sticks out his hand for Soobin to shake. “I’m Beomgyu. I work in tech support? We didn’t get to meet, but I’m the guy who fixed your printer a couple weeks ago.”
And Soobin knew that, but how in the world does Beomgyu know or remember whose printer he was fixing? “Right. The ransom note printer.”
He’s not sure why he said that, but it makes Beomgyu laugh, and his boyfriend chuckle. “Do you guys print anything else in accounting?”
Only then does Soobin realize he never actually shook Beomgyu’s hand, and he quickly switches his tea to his off-hand to do it. “Obituaries,” he quips back without thinking about whether that joke makes any sense, and buries the lame punchline under a, “I’m Choi Soobin.”
“I know,” Beomgyu replies without hesitation, squeezing his hand before letting it go. “I’ve been looking for you – everyone says you’re too tall to miss, but that doesn’t really work if you’ve been sitting down.”
He laughs, like that was a perfectly normal thing to say to a coworker of yours you’ve never spoken to before. Soobin would think himself down a spiral about this, if he was even creative enough to think about what Beomgyu could possibly want from a random guy from accounting.
“Well, you’ve found me,” he responds, lamely, and just waits for this little mystery to unravel itself for him.
And it does, when Beomgyu shakes his boyfriend’s arm he’s still holding onto, almost splashing punch all over the guy’s fingers, since he’s still holding two cups of drinks for them, and says. “I want to introduce you to someone. Kai here hates coming to these parties with me, he says there’s never anyone fun to talk to here, but I told him I happen to know about a fellow anime fan who works in accounting, and I promised to introduce you two?”
Soobin blinks. Is that it? Has tech support’s sunshine alt boy Beomgyu been hunting Soobin all over this Christmas party because he watches anime? “How do… how do you know I watch anime?”
Beomgyu bites his lip. “I, uh. You left your stuff at your desk when I came over, so I saw your keychain, and the stickers on your phone. I’m sorry for looking at your things, but you had the same exact sticker Kai has on his phone, so it caught my eye.” He laughs nervously, and Soobin realizes it’s the first time he’s ever seen Beomgyu look even slightly out of his element. “I thought for a second I accidentally brought his phone with me to work.”
At that, Soobin finally looks over at Beomgyu’s boyfriend, whose impressive stature is hunched over, the guy obviously trying to shrink in on himself in embarrassment, his face pink where he didn’t manage to hide it behind his bangs. He’s still cute and handsome like this, and Soobin gets it, oh does he get why his coworkers said he had to see the guys Beomgyu dates. Beomgyu could probably pull a Greek goddess, if he put a little effort in.
Pretty privilege, really. Crazy stuff.
“Well. Good taste,” he says lamely, meeting the guy’s reluctant eye contact with an awkward expression on his own face. Beomgyu made a critical mistake, introducing two painfully shy and awkward people to each other like this. “…Kai?”
But Kai nods, and smiles a pretty, stiff smile, and says, “It’s made by my favorite fan artist, have you seen his other designs?”
And Soobin realizes that he has about 50 different things to respond to that, half of which he needs to pull his phone out for, and it becomes obvious that Beomgyu’s weird plan to find Kai a party buddy at his company might actually work out.
They spend the whole evening together in the end, sitting down in the corner and chatting about their favorite characters, showing each other fan art and merchandise they’d like to buy, Kai shows him a photo of a shelving unit overflowing with figurines and plushies he keeps in his apartment, and walks him through his Pokémon plush collection one by one. Soobin introduces Kai to the wonders of orange and cinnamon tea, shows him the fancy gaming laptop he plans to buy with his Christmas bonus, and his current, modest gaming station which more than intense anime fan screams I just moved out of my parent’s house and I make a very reasonable wage.
Kai doesn’t seem bothered by it, though, just compliments his Futaba figurine, recommends him a new show to watch, and types his number into Soobin’s phone without hesitation when Beomgyu comes to collect him later in the night. He keeps apologizing to them both while he waits for them to exchange contact information, babbling something about their ride being there, Kai hating Beomgyu’s company parties, and cinnamon rolls.
In hindsight, Soobin can piece together the exact scenario, even though at the time it made zero sense to him as the couple packed up and left the party in a flurry, leaving him decidedly bored where before he felt just kind of awkward and uncomfortable.
More likely than not, just as Beomgyu walked up to their table, there was a car pulling up outside of the building, waiting to pick him and Kai up to give Kai the excuse to dip where he otherwise wouldn’t have wanted to bother Beomgyu to leave the party early just out of politeness, and whoever was driving picked up some treats to smooth the way, should either of them try to make fuss about being basically bullied into leaving whether they wanted to or not. It was a good plan, it was just a shame that it meant that Soobin spent the rest of the party in the same seat the two of them left him in, googling details about the show Kai recommended, wishing he wasn’t expected to stick around until the end as a newbie so he could go home, watch a couple episodes, and then text Kai about it.
Later, it turns out that Kai doesn’t have the easiest time making friends, and Beomgyu shoving him at the first coworker of his with similar interests was kind of a hail Mary play, but Soobin doesn’t have the easiest time making friends either, and he’s been feeling lonely ever since he moved out to live on his own, and Kai is funny, interesting, and they have a lot in common. They hit it off, faster than he’d ever expect them to, and it’s pretty great.
Kai teaches at a performing arts school, is a talented musician, and loves kids. He met Beomgyu a couple years ago, when Beomgyu was working his techie magic as a gun-for-hire and a school Kai interned at hired him to help set up the stage for a big public event. Beomgyu saw him among the staff, thought he was cute, and took him out for lunch. And the rest was history, or whatever, or maybe something Kai wasn’t quite willing to share with him yet. Soobin wasn’t particularly bothered, though; he didn’t really feel the need to intrude on his and Beomgyu’s relationship, when he was having such a good time just chatting with Kai throughout the day via texts. They had enough stuff to talk about without bringing their love lives into it.
But eventually, Kai’s love life did find its way to Soobin, in this charming, subtle way, where one day he’s tidying up his work station as he’s heading off to lunch, and a certain tech support guy whose tie is barely hanging on for dear life again materializes by his work station, holding up two pretty pastel lunch boxes and announcing that he comes bearing gifts. At first, Soobin is confused, because every single encounter he’s had with Beomgyu has been mildly confusing, because Beomgyu always has an agenda, but never the time to let Soobin know what that agenda is until there’s nothing for him to do but to confess to it.
This time, he insists Soobin eats lunch with him, away from his usual spot with the other accountants, the two of them squeezed into a corner together, while Beomgyu opens both of his lunch boxes and lets them rest between them.
It’s altogether a feast for the eyes, if nothing else, it’s the kind of Instagram-worthy, colorful, meticulously packed Japanese-style bento box lunch Soobin would never even dream of making for himself. He usually brings some fruit and maybe a sandwich. Beomgyu has rice, tofu, some kind of cucumber-based salad, blueberries and a couple giant squares of chocolate.
He blinks up from the feast at Soobin, and smiles a bit awkwardly. “We weren’t sure if you’re on some kind of diet or something, and Kai just would not ask you, so we made everything vegan just in case? Even the chocolate - well, we didn’t make the chocolate, but we bought a vegan kind! Yeonjun’s vegan friends say that this is the tastiest kind. And there’s no nuts! Honestly, if something in this is bad for you, you should blame Kai - he can talk to you about Persona all the time, but he can’t ask you what you eat? He was being ridiculous.”
At the end of his little rant, Beomgyu just throws Soobin this men, am I right? look and then sits back in his chair.
Soobin is a little at a loss for words, honestly. “Uh… and you brought me lunch, why…?”
Beomgyu purses his lips, then shrugs. “We wanted to thank you. For giving Kai a chance. I know that I kind of… shoved you two at each other, but I’m seriously glad you guys get along. We were a bit worried about him, at the end of last year.” He bites into his bottom lip, then pushes one of the lunch boxes in Soobin’s direction. “He seems much happier now; and we think we have you to thank for that so. Thank you.”
Soobin looks down at the food again – he can’t help but imagine it now, Beomgyu and Kai fussing in a grocery store aisle together, texting around to find the best vegan chocolate brand just to add a couple squares of it to a lunch box. It’s quite… touching, if Soobin is honest. It’s sweet.
“You don’t really have to thank me for thinking that your boyfriend is fun to talk to.”
Beomgyu huffs, and picks up his utensils to start eating. “That’s not what I’m thanking you for, Soobin, and you know that.”
He does, but at the end of the day, he thinks it’s as simple as that. Kai is easy to talk to, easy to be fond of. Soobin instinctively checks his phone to see if he has any new messages from him, but there are no notifications. He must know that Beomgyu is handing their gift over, just about now. He’s probably anxious about it. That’s adorable.
There’s nothing he feels like he needs to add, so he decides to just take what he’s given. Beomgyu pauses after taking a single tiny bite of rice, and rolls both of his sleeves up, like they’re bothering him. It shows off his tattoos again, and Soobin can’t help but ogle them a little, although he tries to keep it polite and only glance at them between bites. They’re drawings of plants, on both of his forearms. A fern going up the inside of his left arm, a pretty purplish one that Soobin doesn’t recognize growing over the top of the other arm, and a weeping willow branch hidden on the inside. They’re beautiful, but Soobin doesn’t feel comfortable commenting on them, so he hums instead when he takes the next bite of his tofu scramble and says, “This is delicious - did you and Kai make this together?”
“No! Uh…” Beomgyu laughs, obviously nervous. “Kai is not really… he prefers to stay out of the kitchen unless someone’s heating up a pop tart.”
It makes Soobin smile, and he picks up a bite of the salad. It smells spicy, but pleasantly so. “So you made it yourself?”
Beomgyu hesitates again, and Soobin isn’t sure what to make of that. “Not exactly.”
He looks Beomgyu in the eyes, and is met with this searching look that slowly makes the words he’s in a non-monogamous relationship float to the top of Soobin’s mind. Right; he forgot. Is that why Beomgyu is so hesitant? Is he trying to gauge how much Soobin knows, because the answer to his question is something that sounds a bit too non-monogamous?
Soobin doesn’t know how to tell Beomgyu that the rumor mill at the company couldn’t wait to tell him all the juicy details that they knew about Beomgyu’s lifestyle. Dating multiple men. Swinging both ways. Driving an electric car. Did you know that he played soccer in high school? They say he was his school’s star player.
Whatever Beomgyu finds in Soobin’s expression, it makes him clear his throat and say. “It was, uh. Taehyun and I. We’re… he lives with us, and he and Kai are really close. He was really happy to see Kai improving, and he kept trying to figure out a way we could say thank you that wouldn’t be too weird. So we settled on. Getting you lunch.” Beomgyu smiles awkwardly.
“Oh.” This Taehyun is definitely a part of whatever non-monogamous thing Beomgyu has going on. Soobin has no idea where he fits into it, but there’s no doubt in his mind that he’s part of it. And honestly, he can’t bring himself to mind. “Cool. Thank you, you really didn’t have to.”
“I know,” this time, Beomgyu’s smile comes more naturally. It’s pretty this way; no wonder the whole office has a crush on him. “We wanted to.”
They go back to eating, and by the time Soobin digs into his blueberries, Beomgyu clears his throat again.
“Also - we’ve been trying to nag Kai into inviting you over to our place for dinner sometime, if you wouldn’t mind? Everyone’s…” If Soobin didn’t know any better, he’d think that Beomgyu is blushing a little. “Everyone’s a bit curious about Kai’s new friend. Plus, you two could hang out in person for once – we only ever see him texting you.”
“Yeah, we haven’t figured out a good time to meet yet.” Or an excuse. They don’t need to meet to talk about the newest episodes of shows, or for Kai to give him updates about how his first ever run through a Persona game is going. But they could. They could talk about all of that over dinner. Along with… whoever else will be present. Whoever else is in Kai’s life that he doesn’t really bring up.
“Well. Do you want to come over? I can take you to our place after work? It won’t be a big deal – we don’t even have to keep you too long. I promise the food will be just as good as this.”
Soobin finds himself smiling again, this time he’s not even sure why. “Okay. Sure. Do I get to meet the family?”
Beomgyu breathes out a bit too heavily. “Yeah. There. Well. You’ll see. But they’re a fun bunch, I promise.”
“So you don’t just live with Taehyun.” Soobin might be oblivious in many ways, but he’s not stupid.
“Nope,” Beomgyu admits easily, taking a hilariously minuscule bite of the chocolate. “It’s me, Kai, Taehyun and Yeonjun.”
And Soobin takes a breath to ask, and who dates who, exactly? but Beomgyu is faster to the punch, and takes his phone out of his pocket to slide it over towards Soobin. “Would you mind giving me your number? So we can figure out the details.”
They could do it through Kai, is what Soobin doesn’t point out while adding himself to Beomgyu’s contact list.
What he also doesn’t point out is that there are four frequently dialed numbers in Beomgyu’s phone, and only one of them says Mom – the other three all have familiar names attached to them.
Kai <3, Kang Taehyun, Yeonjun 🔥
Soobin puts himself in as Choi Soobin (from work), and tries to not feel strange about it.
To his credit, Beomgyu seems to pick up on Soobin’s discomfort with his dual roles of coworker/his new friend’s boyfriend, and keeps all his messages curt and professional.
Taehyun says he’s glad you enjoyed his cooking! Enjoy your evening!
Then, the next day, while they’re at work, would next Wednesday work for you?
And when he confirms that he has nowhere to be Wednesday after work, awesome! I’ll let the boys know.
After that, nothing. Not a peep. Not even a glimpse of a shaggy head of hair at work. Kai keeps texting him like nothing is happening, about Persona and ordering more plushies to feed his addiction/collection, but Soobin doesn’t feel like pushing the issue, either, so he just lets it happen, lets the time until his dinner at Kai and Beomgyu’s pass in silence.
Until Kai texts him on Wednesday, while he’s in the middle of his commute to work, looking forward to tonight. See you later! >3< have a good day at work!
Soobin feels all the anxiety he didn’t let himself feel flood him at once while he reads and rereads the message he never ends up replying to, because he feels like he breaks out in hives every time he tries to. Beomgyu seemed insistent on not making the dinner a ‘big deal’, so Soobin intentionally didn’t dress up too much. He wore a tie he liked, but not one of his Important Meeting ties. He wore one of his nicer sweaters, and a respectable gray slacks and jacket combo. He parted his hair. Soobin has never been in a relationship serious enough to have met any of his partners’ parents, but he feels like it might feel just like this. Uncomfortable, anxiety-inducing, and just a little exciting.
That day, Beomgyu gets called up to the accounting pen to fix an electric pencil sharpener that just needs a change of batteries, and he teases the clerk who put in the call about just wanting to see him today, which she doesn’t disprove by offering him the brownies she brought from home to share with the others. Beomgyu just seems endeared, though. And excited about the brownie. In his defense, it’s a good brownie. Soobin got to have a slice, too.
There’s really no reason for Beomgyu to drop by his station on his way out, if anything, it’s out of his way, but he does it anyway, leaning on the divider between his desk and the next with a smile.
“Hey. We still on for tonight?”
And Soobin’s honestly too private to talk about this too much within earshot of half of the office, he can already see the female coworker on his other side trying to inconspicuously roll her chair closer to them to listen in, so he just smiles tightly and nods with a quick, “Yeah.”
“Should I come here to pick you up? Or I can meet you in the garage.”
“Garage sounds good.” He wants this conversation over as soon as possible. The rumor mill is going to crush him at lunch today, just from this much. “I might be a little late. I take a while to pack up.”
Beomgyu smiles all pretty and shakes his head. “No worries; we’re not in a rush. I’ll wait by the elevator then.”
“Great.” Soobin tries to telepathically convey the words please fuck off now without seeming impolite – thankfully, Beomgyu seems to finally get the hint, because he starts moving away, but not before adding,
“Later, then. Nice tie, by the way.”
And of course the others try to get more information out of him at lunch, because the rumor mill is relentless, and everyone knows Beomgyu is bisexual and non-monogamous, and nobody knows that Soobin is gay, but now they seem to wonder. Once again, he would have loved to have taken this opportunity to tell them that yes, he does like men and yes in that way, but he would have to follow that up with no, he is not interested in Beomgyu and they are not going on a date, so the only thing he does end up telling them is, I’m friends with his boyfriend Kai, we’re meeting up to have dinner today.
There’s some skepticism around the table that Soobin tries not to take personally, because he’s more than aware that he didn’t really have to come out for everyone to know that he was gay, and he’s older now, and professional at work, but he wouldn’t blame his coworkers for getting a vibe, anyway. And who would not have a crush on Beomgyu, if they were at least slightly interested in men?
The thing about Beomgyu is, he’s hard to look away from, and Soobin feels it throughout the whole drive over to where Beomgyu lives with the others. He’s a decent driver and a nervous talker. Soobin keeps looking at his side profile, at the same focused expression he’s seen him aim at computers and printers at work, and Beomgyu keeps finding small bits of small talk to make, even though the car is hardly quiet with Beomgyu’s music on.
At least his music taste is good, in Soobin’s eyes, anyway. Most of the songs he either knew and liked already, or he takes over the small talk duty to ask about the name or artist so he can make a note of them on his phone, even though he could have easily read both off of the console. Beomgyu seems to appreciate it - silence does not seem like his forte.
“So, will everyone be there?”
“Hm?” Beomgyu blinks at him while they stand at a red light. He looks cute like this, slightly confused, with his pretty brown eyes. It’s crazy to Soobin, sometimes, even having seen how incredibly handsome Kai is himself, that someone like him fell for a shy, nerdy music teacher like Kai. Soobin would never have even dared to think a guy like Beomgyu could possibly be into him, even while they were actively on a date. Even if Beomgyu tried to kiss him, he thinks that he’d rather assume it’s a case of mistaken identity than an expression of genuine interest. How is he in anyone’s league? Much less multiple men?
Who the hell must the other men be, to have ended up in a relationship with Beomgyu?
“Will your other roommates be there?”
Beomgyu’s mouth falls open a little, and for a second Soobin thinks that Beomgyu is about to tell him that they’re dating, but then the light turns yellow, and Beomgyu has other things to worry about, and when they’re driving through the intersection, he just says, “Yeah; everyone’s home tonight. They can’t wait to meet you.”
Soobin, in the privacy of his own mind, finds this whole charade a little stupid. Beomgyu has to know that everyone knows. Everyone says they’ve met multiple boyfriends of his at various work events. Soobin might be the only one to have only met one, because Kai showed up again for the New Year’s celebration, to get to hang out with Soobin again, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have eyes, ears and gossipy types in his pen.
For a while, he wonders if Beomgyu just won’t bring it up because Soobin has never brought it up himself.
It can’t be because they think he’s close-minded; wouldn’t he just not want anything to do with them if he did? They’re already openly a same-sex couple, and he didn’t bat an eye at that - do they think that not being monogamous is one step too far out of Soobin’s perfectly buttoned-up comfort zone?
He’s never even considered if he should be uncomfortable, honestly, too worried about meeting strangers, too excited to see Kai in person again, too taken aback by sharing the front of Beomgyu’s car with him to even think that maybe one of his coworkers and his new friend living in a polycule could be a little weird.
It’s not like they shove it directly into Soobin’s face as soon as he steps in, either. When Beomgyu unlocks the door and steps in, calling out into the apartment that they’re home while he holds the door open for Soobin, only Kai appears to greet them, with a wide smile on his face. He doesn’t rush to give Beomgyu a kiss or hug him, if anything, he seems more excited to see Soobin than he is to see Beomgyu.
Thankfully, Beomgyu does not seem bothered by that in the slightest, just closes the door behind Soobin and starts to take his jacket and shoes off while Soobin and Kai try to figure out how to greet each other in a way that is both polite and appropriately warm. They settle for a strange handshake and shoulder pat combination that seems like a nice halfway point between a handshake and a hug, and then they leave Soobin to take his coat off while Beomgyu asks how dinner is coming along.
“Taehyun says ten more minutes? He got held up on campus today so he’s behind schedule,” Kai says awkwardly, his face clearly communicating some underlying meaning to his words to Beomgyu, who pulls a face.
“Is he still seething? Should I go calm him down?”
Kai shrugs. “I don’t know – I think he took it out on the onions earlier.”
Beomgyu glances over at Soobin, whose face must be doing something spectacular, because he rushes to explain, “Taehyun gets dramatic when he’s late to things and it’s not his fault. It’s not a big deal.”
Is anything a big deal with Beomgyu? Kai seconds it, though, with a, “He just gets intense about his time management. He’s pretty laid-back otherwise, I swear.”
Soobin doesn’t know what to say, so he just smiles, and Beomgyu claps his hands together. “Anyways. We’ll let him work. Do you want to come meet Yeonjun? He should be at home already.”
Yeonjun is at home, in fact he’s right there in the apartment’s spacious living area when they make their way out of the hallway. He’s wearing a very loose, black sweater that’s somehow falling off both his shoulders at the same time without slipping right off of him, and its sleeve rolls up his arm when he lifts it to shake Soobin’s hand politely, and Soobin’s strongest impression of him, with all due respect to Kai, is, this is what I’d expect Beomgyu’s boyfriend to look like.
His hair is dyed, his left eyebrow is pierced, and most of the skin that he’s showing is covered in tattoos. On his hands, up his arms, on his collarbones and the back of his neck. Despite all the ink, however, he’s soft-spoken and smiley and politely thanks Soobin for paying them a visit.
“Kai’s ignoring us for his phone now even more than usual,” he quips with a grin, and Kai groans. “But I think it’s probably a good thing this time.”
“Sorry for taking up so much of his time,” Soobin says even though he’s aware that he doesn’t really mean it.
Yeonjun waves his hand. Soobin thinks he spies Beomgyu’s name, in cursive, tattooed on the inside of his elbow. Subtle; but Soobin is almost glad he’s right. “Don’t be.”
Kai and Yeonjun keep him engaged in some small talk about his job, asking if he likes the company (he does) and if he and Beomgyu run into each other often (they don’t), while Beomgyu disappears down a hallway, announcing that he’s going to go change. Soobin only awkwardly sheds his suit jacket when he realizes that the apartment is much too hot to have four layers of clothes on, but he’s not brave enough to strip his sweater off, too. He must have sweat through his dress shirt; it would be embarrassing.
“Does it bother you?” Yeonjun asks curiously while Soobin hangs the jacket on the back of one of their dining chairs - they have a sizable dining table, clearly meant to accommodate more than four people. Maybe they have guests over often. “Having to wear a suit to work every day? Beomgyu hates it. He still complains about it almost every week.”
“I’ve noticed,” Soobin replies, amused. “I’ve never seen him with his tie done up properly.”
Yeonjun rolls his eyes. “Trust me, I’ve tried. I used to tie it for him every morning so he wouldn’t lose his job for dressing like a slob. I guess they just let it slide these days.”
“People in the office love him - I don’t think anyone’s rushing to get rid of him anytime soon.”
The remark makes Kai smile. “It’s good to know that he’s the same at work as he is at home.”
Yeonjun looks a little skeptical. “He’s a menace at home, actually. I’d fire him on the spot.” He gives Soobin a slow once-over, then. “You never answered me, though - do you mind the dress code?”
And Soobin’s never really thought about it that hard, so he’s forced to admit, “I guess I don’t mind? It makes dressing up for work pretty simple. And I think it looks okay on me? I think… I could see people like you or Beomgyu having a hard time with it - doesn’t really fit your vibe, right?”
Yeonjun glances down at himself, at his tattoos and rings and loose clothing. “Yeah, probably.”
“What do you do for work, anyways?”
“Tattoos,” he lifts his hand to wiggle his ink-covered fingers in the air. “No big surprise here, I guess. No three guesses as to how I met Beomgyu, either.”
Soobin smiles. “You’re the one who did the ones on his arms? They’re beautiful.”
It looks a little like Yeonjun literally puffs up his chest in pride, lifting his chin, too. “Yeah, I did all the work on them myself - even the designs. It was a…” he pauses, and deflates a little. “A gift, from me.”
What did Yeonjun not want to say? Anniversary? Not engagement or anything like that, right? Maybe Soobin would struggle to wrap his mind around that, a little bit. “They look amazing - they fit him, too.”
He’s not sure what he’s saying there - maybe that Beomgyu feels like someone who should be covered in flowers and branches, as opposed to something else. Yeonjun’s tattoos seem to be a mix of shapes, bits of text and animals. He doesn’t notice another name on him, aside from Beomgyu’s, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
“I’d hope so,” Yeonjun says, and his voice is a little bit too soft, and Kai is smiling, and Soobin just knows he’s missing something.
Then a fourth person materializes out of the kitchen door, and whatever Soobin thought “Taehyun” would look like from what he’s heard about him, about a short temper, cooking prowess and tendency to nag, vanishes in front of the reality of who “Taehyun” ends up being. A little shorter than the others, in a short-sleeved flannel and plain black apron, bleached blonde hair and a pair of glasses perched on top of his nose. Soobin’s beauty radar, which was so thrown off by how well he thought Yeonjun and Beomgyu fit together, pings to let him know that yeah, if there was a guy out there who might be in Beomgyu’s sky-high league, this guy just might make the cut. Even though he’s pulling a face as he leaves the kitchen, but he quickly pulls it together as soon as he notices Soobin is standing right there.
“Oh. You’re here. Did I leave you waiting?”
“He’s only been here for like two minutes,” Yeonjun replies before Soobin can. “Relax.”
Taehyun - because it can’t be anyone but Taehyun, gives Yeonjun an unimpressed glance, before wiping his hands on the apron and offering Soobin a cold but firm hand to shake. “Nice to meet you, Soobin. I’m Taehyun, but I think that they’ve mentioned that.”
Soobin gives him his most awkward yet polite smile. “Yep.”
Taehyun pulls his hand back again and props both of his hands on his hips. “Anyways, dinner’s ready - do you drink? Beomgyu drove you here, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll catch the subway back. I won’t say no to a beer?”
The answer seems to satisfy Taehyun, who nods and turns to Kai. “I’ll bring out the food then - come help?”
Kai follows him without question, and it leaves Soobin alone by the dining table with Yeonjun - the one he knows the least about. Great.
“Kai can take you home later,” Yeonjun offers with an easy smile. Apparently he has no issues with strangers, unlike him. “He doesn’t really drink unless it’s an occasion.”
He shakes his head. “It’s okay. It’s no problem - I’ve got a commuter pass, anyway. Ticket’s dirt cheap.”
Yeonjun snorts, but relents.
The dinner is a weirdly pleasant affair - Beomgyu only appears once the table is set, in the end with everyone’s help, because all the drinks and plates and dishes end up being too much for just two people to move comfortably, and Soobin insists on helping. Taehyun and Yeonjun prod Beomgyu about whether he made sure to only show up once there was no work to be done, to which Beomgyu just sticks his tongue out at them. He changed into what are obviously his at-home clothes earlier, just T-shirt and sweatpants and a headband that keeps his long hair out of his face, and Soobin suddenly feels painfully overdressed. The only other person who seems at least a little dressed to impress is Yeonjun, but he gives Soobin the feeling that he’s the type to always look like he’s dressed up, no matter how much actual effort he’s put into looking good.
He is wearing a bit of eye shadow, though. Soobin didn’t mean to notice, but Yeonjun sits across from him at dinner, and has a bad habit of looking up at people through his lashes. It’s just obvious. Maybe he tried a little.
The others, though… if Soobin felt this morning like he was going to meet Kai’s parents, the rest of them seem to have not gotten the memo, and see this as just… a friendly dinner. Which it was supposed to be. No big deal.
Soobin tells them about himself, about where he lives and where he went to college and why he applied at the same company as Beomgyu. He gets to know Taehyun and Kai’s backstory in return, hear the cute story about how Kai dreaded having to live with a roommate at college after having had a room to himself all his life, just to meet Taehyun, and realize that they get along like a house on fire, despite all their differences.
Taehyun tells him he’s a grad student, but he has a teaching position at the university while he works on his dissertation, which is why he got home late today, one of his student consultations running much longer than he expected it to. He doesn’t seem very fond of freshmen, but the others seem fond of his annoyance with them. It balances out.
The food is delicious and ambitiously plentiful, and once everyone is too full to continue, Taehyun kicks the rest of his beer back and offers to pack the rest up so Soobin can take it home. He tries to refuse, but it becomes quickly apparent that Taehyun wasn’t asking, pushing away from the table to go get a food container with a dismissive, “Just drop the boxes off with Beomgyu later.”
When they’re done eating, they actually don’t keep Soobin for long, just like Beomgyu promised, maybe wary of his ambiguous amount of social battery, maybe hyper-aware of the possibility of depleting it because they live with Kai. As soon as Kai’s enthusiasm seems to flag, Taehyun drops a polite question about the timing of the trains, and Soobin picks a politely early but not I’m desperate to get away early time to say he needs to leave to get home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. They have a few more beers, and Beomgyu clarifies his backstory with Yeonjun - the tattoos on his arms are more recent, but he has another one of his back that he made an appointment for at the shop where Yeonjun works. He doesn’t volunteer what the tattoo is of, and Soobin feels awkward prying so he just nods along with a smile.
Yeonjun offers him a discount if he ever wanted a tattoo himself, and he can’t tell if it’s a joke, so he laughs just in case. Beomgyu squints at him and jokes about how he should get a tramp stamp of their company logo. When Soobin reacts with more confusion than offense, he tells him that he’s the most straight-laced person in the whole office, and Soobin is so taken aback by that that it has to be Taehyun who points out that he should be going if he wants to catch his train.
Since he’s in a rush, the goodbyes are quick and painless, and Kai walks with him to the nearest subway station, since he knows his way around. Soobin squeezes his arm in thanks while they’re parting, and thanks him for the invitation. It’s him who says they should do it again sometime, but Kai seems excited when he does.
He does end up eating the dinner leftovers over the next couple days, and then at work does the unthinkable and leaves his comfortable spot with the accountants to go return the containers to Beomgyu, who smiles at him happily and offers him a seat next to him with a, “Taehyun packed me an extra dessert today, want to share?”
His dessert ends up being a chocolate chip cookie which looks questionable, a little too thin and a little too big like the dough wasn’t cold enough when it was put in the oven, but it tastes delicious, and while he’s enjoying it, he comes to find out that the lunchboxes aren’t just a gift for Soobin thing. It’s just a thing Taehyun does, meal prep in the mornings to take lunch with him to work, and make enough for the four of them while he’s at it. They’re not always as elaborate, or as impressive-looking as the one Soobin got (today it’s just folded kimbap, some grapes and two chocolate chip cookies), but he makes them every day, and if Beomgyu is to be believed, Taehyun wakes up an ungodly hours of the day to be able to cook after his morning run, and to Soobin’s satisfaction, it seems like nobody in the household understands why he’s willing to do that, even though they do appreciate his generosity.
After that day, it becomes a thing, in a way that Soobin finds difficult not to recognize as deliberate. Beomgyu just start showing up at lunch all of a sudden, and he always has something to give him, be it leftover casserole they had last night that Beomgyu says Taehyun insisted he needs Soobin’s opinion on, or he accidentally grabbed Yeonjun’s lunch box and needs someone to eat his portion of tomato salad, or Taehyun’s tempura just tastes too good for Beomgyu not to share it. Sometimes he just drops by the accountant’s table to make the hand-off and then flits away, or he targets Soobin as soon as he walks into the room, or he drags him off into the corner again, so they can have lunch together. The accounting pen’s rumor mill loves it, and Soobin finds that he has nothing to say to them that would make it look less weird. Sure, they’re sharing the cooking of someone Soobin is pretty sure Beomgyu is dating, but that doesn’t mean that Beomgyu isn’t mysteriously hyper-interested in spending time with the new guy from accounting.
Then one day, while Soobin is packing up for the day and double and triple checking that he’s saved all his files while his coworkers file away slowly, Beomgyu just waltzes into the accounting pen, beelines straight for Soobin’s station and tries to hang casually off of the divider between him and the empty desk next to him, failing just a little bit, because there’s a bit too much perk in his step.
“Hey there.”
Soobin picks up his phone and checks it, but there are no notifications. “Did I miss a text? What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Beomgyu insists, then immediately follows it up with, “Do you want a ride home?”
“All of a sudden?”
Beomgyu rests his chin on his hand, but it just seems uncomfortable. “I’m picking Kai up from a work event that’s right by your neighborhood, if you come pick him up with me, we could drop you off?”
For some reason, Soobin feels the need to look around, like he’s searching for a hidden camera, but there are just a few people left in the office, and they’re either very good at pretending to not care about Beomgyu hovering by his desk, or they genuinely don’t give a fuck about what they’ve got going on.
And he hasn’t seen Kai in person in ages.
“Okay.”
It’s an easy drive, and Beomgyu seems much more willing to let a silence sit this time, although his music remains firmly on while he’s driving – it’s still good music, though, so Soobin can’t find a reason to complain.
Kai’s work event was some big concert of the kids who go to his school, and when they park in front of the venue, the lot is full of kids and families milling about. Beomgyu briefly considers calling Kai to let him know they’ve arrived, then shrugs and gets out of the car instead, leaving Soobin no choice but to follow or sit in his coworker's car on his own. They make their way through the parking lot and to the front of the venue, where Kai is standing, chatting with a middle aged woman who has a young boy with a padded jacket thrown over an adorable kid-sized tux at her side.
Kai himself is dressed the most formal Soobin has ever seen him be, in a serious-looking turtleneck, a black suit jacket and slacks, with a neat, thick coat over it. He looks adult, put together, and—
“He looks sexy in that, doesn’t he?” That, too. Beomgyu sounds excited about it.
“It looks good,” Soobin allows. Beomgyu sends him a look he can’t read, then Kai visibly notices them and his face breaks out in a brilliant smile. Beomgyu waves at him enthusiastically, and he gives a small wave back.
He obviously tries to get out of his conversation as quickly as possible, and it seems like the woman has no intention of keeping him, shaking his hand and then taking her son’s to start leading him away. As soon as the coast is clear, Beomgyu rushes to him and jumps into his arms, enveloping him in a hug. He kisses Kai’s cheek, and Kai kisses his forehead after they pull away from the hug, Beomgyu still sticking close to him once they let go. It’s the most couply Soobin has seen them act since the Christmas party, and the sudden emergence of it makes him feel a little strange.
Soobin himself makes his way over to them slower, and he only manages to catch Beomgyu’s, “How did it go?” and Kai’s sigh and a weary, “Good. Nobody threw up this time. Or at least nobody told me about it. Smoothest one we’ve had in years.”
Beomgyu giggles, and looks over his shoulder at Soobin. “Brought you a friend.”
“I noticed,” Kai says, a bit carefully, giving Soobin a wave he returns with a smile. “What’s the occasion? Is it my birthday already?”
Soobin rubs at the back of his head. “I live like ten minutes from here, so Beomgyu offered to drop me off on your way home.”
“Oh.” Kai’s face brightens again. “Awesome! Actually… are you in a rush home? The concert hall has a café attached, and they make delicious scones. We could drop by for some tea?”
He looks hopeful, and Beomgyu just smiles at Soobin like he has nothing to add, and he hasn’t seen Kai in person in ages, so he just goes with it.
Kai brought his Switch to work today, which Beomgyu teases him for, but Kai says something about comforting the kids with it that neither of them can disprove, so he just watches from the other side of the table as Kai scoots over closer to Soobin to show him his P5 progress and they chat about their favorite characters. Soobin asks if Beomgyu plays games, and to his surprise, the answer isn’t no, even though their favorites don’t have much of an overlap. They make vague plans to play League together, and Soobin says that he’ll show him FFXIV one day, although it seems like everyone is a bit too aware that it’s probably never going to actually happen. It’s still fun to chat about, and it takes that afternoon over coffee for Soobin to realize he’s gotten pretty comfortable with Beomgyu, too. He wouldn’t feel too out of place calling both of them his friends now.
When they’re dropping him off in front of his apartment building, Beomgyu suggests he should come over for dinner again. Soobin vaguely agrees, but while he’s taking the elevator to his floor, he takes his phone out of his pocket and texts Kai, are you busy on Saturday?
Kai replies, no?
So he responds with, you are now.
They go bowling, and Soobin would have embarrassed himself if Kai didn’t do even worse than he did. They eat fries and drink soda, and Kai at one point buries his face in Soobin’s shoulder, because one of his students walks into the bowling alley and he decides that he just cannot be caught dead sitting under his pitiful score, so they make a run for it, and have ice cream despite how cold it is. When they sit down at a park with the rest of their cones, Kai suddenly starts checking his phone a lot, even though he never unlocks it.
The tenth time he lights it up just to put it back in his pocket, Soobin sighs.
“Are they blowing up your phone?”
Kai purses his lips and doesn’t respond.
“Is it past your bedtime?”
That makes him roll his eyes, and he relaxes a bit, sitting back. “I’m not out too often, it’s probably weird for them to not have me in the house on the weekend.”
Soobin smiles a little. “Do you think they’re lonely without you?”
Kai laughs. “Beomgyu, maybe. You called dibs on his favorite body pillow today; he has no one to cling to while he’s at home watching Netflix.”
“What about Yeonjun and Taehyun?”
There’s a pause, and it hits Soobin again that they’ve never told him anything about their relationship.
“Yeonjun goes out a lot, especially on Saturdays; and Taehyun’s either out or working.”
Soobin tilts his head to the side. It’s just ambiguous enough. “Taehyun could still work while cuddling Beomgyu.”
It makes Kai laugh again, and he looks over at Soobin with a grin. “Oh, Beomgyu would love you.”
“And Taehyun would hate me.”
Kai shrugs. “He likes cuddling, when he’s not busy.”
There’s an odd tone to his voice, so Soobin lowers his own a little, and asks, “Is he busy often, these days?”
It makes Kai look away from his face, but he replies quickly enough for Soobin to not have time to worry about whether he overstepped a boundary. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
“I know that Beomgyu told you about why they wanted me to make friends so bad,” is how Kai chooses to start, nibbling at the waffle cone of his ice cream. “That they thought I was lonely?”
“I think they said you seemed down.”
Kai nods. “Taehyun’s been doing his best, to split his time between us and his work, but…” he huffs. “It’s seriously not his fault. But he’s busier than he’s ever been, and I’m used to having him around more. More present, I guess, sometimes he’s at home but he’s writing or researching, and he hates when we interrupt him when he’s scheduled himself to work. I keep thinking that I hardly see him anymore unless we’re going to sleep, even though it’s not really true. It’s been bothering me, and I’ve tried not to make it the other guys’ problem, but I guess I’ve done a terrible job of hiding it.”
“I don’t think that’s something you should be hiding,” Soobin offers, slowly, carefully. This might be the first deep conversation they’ve ever had, and Soobin can’t even let on all that he is so sure he knows. “From Taehyun, or the other guys. I know you probably don’t want him to feel guilty about it, but… they should know what’s making you sad; so they can help.”
Kai huffs again and takes a big bite out of his ice cream, just to talk with his mouth full. “You say the same stuff Beomgyu does – how close are you now, exactly?”
Hell if Soobin knows, honestly. “Not ice cream and bowling close yet, apparently.”
At that Kai looks at him curiously, and he swallows his mouthful before continuing this time. “People talk at Beomgyu’s job, don’t they? Since he brings us to office parties.”
Soobin shrugs. “Yeah.”
For some reason, it makes Kai laugh. “What do they say?”
“That he used to play soccer. That he’s bi. That he’s non-monogamous, whatever that means.”
Kai chews on his lip, paying too much attention to his own knee instead of Soobin’s face. “When did you find out?”
Soobin frowns as he genuinely takes a second to remember. “The first day he came to the accounting pen? When he fixed my printer. People would not shut up about him at lunch.”
Kai snickers, and a smile stays lingering behind it. “So, before you met me.”
“Yeah.”
“So you just knew I was not Beomgyu’s only boyfriend? And you didn’t say anything?”
“What was I supposed to say – when’s the rest of the gang coming?”
Finally, Kai looks at him directly again. “You could have. We probably wouldn’t have blamed you. People take a while to wrap their minds around us.”
Soobin thinks he might take a while too, but instead of pointing it out, he just tries to salvage the remains of his melting ice cream before asking, “What’s us, anyway?”
Kai blinks at him. “You and I?”
It’s an itchy question, but there’s a more pressing one in front of them. “You and the guys. I saw… I know that Yeonjun has a tattoo of Beomgyu’s name, so I assume they’re a thing.”
“Well, first off, he has one for each of us, and so does Beomgyu.” When Soobin looks at him in confusion, he just smiles and shrugs. “They’re not all as obvious as getting a name tattooed on his arm, though. He calmed down a bit about the romantic gestures, by the time he got together with us.” He shakes his head to himself, and starts drumming his fingers on his thigh. “Taehyun has this fancy watch that I got him for finishing his masters’, which has all our names on the inside, and I have, um.” He unzips his jacket a bit and reaches under the collar of his sweatshirt, to pull out a golden chain Soobin never quite noticed. It has three charms on it, just small, discreet animal-shaped pendants.
“Seems a bit less dramatic than getting tattoos,” he points out lightly, hoping that Kai takes it for the joke that it is. Thankfully, Kai just chuckles and tucks his necklace back in.
“It is. Taehyun’s not really the type, and I’m… not great with needles. I work with kids, too, and I’m not sure how the director would feel about me walking around all inked up. We’re trying to keep my superiors from finding out too, just in case. It’s just safer this way.”
Oh. Right. Being a school teacher comes with different expectations than being a tech guy, or a tattoo artist. Soobin didn’t even think of that. He couldn’t even imagine having to try and figure out his life with three other people in it, when at every turn he could be hit with disgust and prejudice. It’s bad enough that he’s gay; what if he was gay and polyamorous? What would he say to his lovely, supportive parents? To his siblings? To his boss?
“So… it’s just… all of you?”
Kai nods. “More or less.”
“What does that mean?”
“Basically exactly what I said – more or less. Some of us are a bit closer, some of us a little less. But as far as we’re concerned, we’re all in this together.”
Soobin mulls it over while he finishes his ice cream. “Are… you and Beomgyu close?”
Kai nods. “Yeah, I’d say so. We spend a lot of time with just the two of us. Taehyun, too – I don’t really have a lot of hobbies in common with Yeonjun, so we don’t often hang out as a couple. It’s hard to find things to do together, but we try.”
And that’s… “Cool.”
Kai smiles at him, noticing the awkwardness in Soobin’s tone. “I swear it feels less complicated when you’re living it.”
“Does it?” Soobin can’t hold back on his skepticism. It sounds complicated any way he slices it.
“Yeah,” Kai laughs as he says it, like Soobin is being ridiculous for doubting it. “I’m just living my life, and sharing it with three really cool people who love me, and sometimes want to kiss me. It’s pretty great, actually.”
It does sound nice, when he puts it like that, but instead of admitting that, Soobin finds himself saying. “Four, technically.”
And Kai blinks, but it clicks in his mind pretty quickly, and then he grins instead, nudging Soobin in the arm. “Do you want to kiss me too?”
Soobin thinks about it, genuinely, about Kai’s pretty face, sense of humor, view of life. Is he Soobin’s type? Does that matter? “I wouldn’t rule it out,” he says carefully, yet enough like a joke that Kai laughs a bit again before narrowing his eyes at him.
“Are you…”
“Into men?”
“Hm.”
“Exclusively.”
“Oh.”
“You?”
“I don’t really care.”
Soobin nods, and doesn’t know what to say. He lets his hands hang in his lap. “The other two?”
“Yeonjun’s like you. Taehyun… he says he likes what he likes, he knows when he feels it. Not sure if he knows exactly what that means.”
“Huh.” If he expected anyone to define their sexuality in clear, defined lines, wouldn’t it be Taehyun? He’s the scientist in the household. But then again, Soobin doesn’t know him that well. He’s only met him once; he just hears about him all the time.
Kai looks at his phone again, and says, “Beomgyu was worried you might be straight.”
He blinks at his own shoes. “Worried?”
With a huff, Kai sinks further into the bench they’re sitting on, spreading his legs until their knees knock together. “I don’t know. I guess he was hoping to have an ally at work.”
“Right.”
Kai looks at him with a grin. “He does like you, but I’m not sure if it’s that serious.”
Soobin rolls his eyes. “He’s been clinging to me at lunch, the past couple weeks.”
“I know; Taehyun leaves an extra note on his lunch box every morning.”
He wants to bury his face in his hands at the thought of it, but instead he just asks, “He leaves you notes?”
“Yeah; he’s usually out of the house before any of us, so he just leaves a note, so we know when he’ll be back, what he made for us, stuff like that.”
Soobin feels a bit disappointed; he was hoping for something more fun; romantic.
Kai seems to notice, because he adds, “He tells us to text him at lunch, and to have a good day; to dress warm if it’s cold. That he loves us. But you know - it’s mostly about the food.”
“So he actually just packs him extra food so he can share with me?”
“If you want them to stop, you can always just tell Beomgyu you’ll eat with him regardless.”
“And stop getting Taehyun’s cooking five times a week? No thank you.”
Kai laughs, and Soobin smiles at him. Then Kai’s eyes soften, and he says, “Thanks for taking me out today. I had a lot of fun.”
Soobin nods, and glances at where he knows Kai’s phone is buried with his hand in his jacket pocket. “Are you heading home?”
Kai sits back up with a shrug. “I think Beomgyu might have an aneurysm if I ignore any more of his messages.”
“You can answer them right now, if you want. I’ll walk you to the station.”
Kai does reach for his phone, actually unlocking it this time to take care of whatever has been happening in his notifications, but not before snickering at Soobin again. “You’re going to the station, too.”
True. Soobin’s being ridiculous, but it feels right. I’ll walk you home, after a nice little… outing. “To your train, then. Whatever.”
“Sure.”
It seems he only lets it slide to avoid sending Beomgyu a sea of typos, but Soobin can take some slack when offered.