Back Then and Now.
Back Then and Now. | theblobmaster | PG | Past!Onesided! Kai/D.O, Kai/ChanYeol | 984 w.
Written for the prompt Awkward at exoplosion
It’s been awhile since KyungSoo last saw the couple, but they’re coming over for dinner and he knows it’s going to be alright. It might be a bit stiff, even though he knows ChanYeol will talk enough for them all without noticing how awkward he and JongIn might be. It’s almost been five years since the two got together. Five years since KyungSoo last had been in love, but it's alright because he thinks they’re perfect together, ChanYeol makes JongIn want to try out new things, go on adventures and he knows he hadn’t been ready for what, he back then, asked of JongIn. It’s been buried in the past. All he knows is from what ChanYeol said. ChanYeol told him that JongIn feels bad about how he tackled it, how he let the confession slide out into the nothingness and kept going with their friendship as if KyungSoo hadn’t told him about his feelings. Yet for some reason he and JongIn never talked it out themselves. They just let it rest in the back of their heads.
The doorbell rang startling KyungSoo out of his thoughts. With a small smile he walked through the narrow hallway to answer it. He opened the door so he could hear their footsteps on the stairs. He liked that he could hear them come closer, so he was able to prepare himself for the evening approaching.
The first one he sees is ChanYeol. His tall friend was fighting for his breath when he looked up and saw KyungSoo in the doorway. A bright smile came onto his face and he all but jumped up the last flight of stairs engulfing KyungSoo in a bear hug, lifting him in the air. ChanYeol feels safe, someone constant no matter how long there’s between them meeting up. He makes KyungSoo’s body sag in relief, because no matter what ChanYeol will be there with his bright smiles and kind eyes.
JongIn comes into sight behind ChanYeol when KyungSoo's feet touches ground again. He has a small smile on his face when he opens his arms to take KyungSoo into a tight embrace. KyungSoo always liked JongIn’s hugs, because he made it seem so genuine. When he hugged someone it was because he cared for them and he wanted them to know that. KyungSoo pulled away from the hug first, like always. Sometimes he thought that maybe the reason why JongIn held on for so long was because he thought it made up for choosing ChanYeol, instead it just pulled on strings it really shouldn’t be able to pull on any more. KyungSoo was over him, had been for a long time. Had realized long ago that even if he back then thought he was in love, it was more an instinct to protect the younger that made him infatuated. He had been so young, barely fifteen, his father had been right he didn’t know what love was back then. Maybe he still doesn’t.
He lets them do the routine, take out the beers from JongIn’s bag put them in the fridge, except this time there’s not any space so they put it out on the balcony. The winter weather will keep them cold. He starts on the food, mixing the meat, heating the bread as he listens with a smile to ChanYeol’s chatter, coming with small comments when the time is right. It’s nice and light, nothing too serious, because there’s no reason for it to be. They’re not that close anymore.
They help set up the table as KyungSoo fishes the silver packages out from the oven onto a plate. He lets them praise his cooking, tell him how it’s always wonderful to come over for dinner and he answers with a gentle tone that they’re always welcome. That he likes to cook for others. He doesn’t say that sometimes he feels like they only come for his cooking, because he knows it’s not right. Not when JongIn specifically had asked to come along with ChanYeol because he missed KyungSoo. Not when it’s ChanYeol that’s always initiating the contact and telling him how much he misses him. They talk some more, mostly ChanYeol filling up the silence along with KyungSoo as JongIn sits between them at the end of the small table, listening. It’s not until the topic on how KyungSoo likes to take care of people it goes wrong.
“You should’ve chosen KyungSoo, JongIn.” KyungSoo freezes, an uncomfortable smile on his lips as he tries to calm down his heart. He can see JongIn do the same, except it’s as if he tries to crawl into himself. They’ve never talked about, never mentioned it.
“He’s the perfect boyfriend, he can cook, enjoys giving massage. Not like me, I hate cooking and only want to receive the massage.” The smile on KyungSoo’s face is starting to hurt. It’s not comfortable, it’s awkward, it’s choking. Stop talking ChanYeol for once just stop talking. He repeats in his head. He doesn't dare to look at JongIn, doesn’t want to see the miserable expression that for sure is showing on his face, because his boyfriend is basically giving him away even if he means nothing with it.
“I know a lot of guys that would love to date you.” KyungSoo swallows around the lump in his throat and tries to smile.
“Yeah.” He whispers and looks down on his plate, focusing on eating. Hopes the awkward tension between him and JongIn that came along with that topic will vanish soon. It never disappeared, never will.
The rest of the evening he keeps the topic platonic never going into personal details. He can’t cope with it, not with those two. He’s just looking forward to JoonMyun coming back home so they can talk and laugh and he won’t be feeling the need to be the one he once were, just how he is now.
Hope you guys liked it.
This here is actually something I experienced a week ago or something.
Thought it matched the prompt quite well.
Comment?