Chapter Text
But that’s the thing about liking Huening Kamal Kai. One doesn’t simply give up.
Not when Taehyun can track the movement of his moles as he talks, like tiny shooting stars. Not when Kai wakes him up with a warm, heavy body draped over his own, laughing softly and coaxing Taehyun out of sleep. Not when Kai smells like summer’s come early and sings like his heart has been broken. Not when Huening Kai is Huening Kai.
No, he’s perfectly content to spend the rest of eternity wondering how the inside of Kai’s wrist would feel pressed up against his cheek and yearning for a taste of the pink lemonade right off Kai’s lips.
“Oh! There you are, Taehyunnie!”
Taehyun glances up from his mindless phone scroll, only to get blinded by the sight of Kai’s brilliant smile. He opts to maintain his sanity and damage his tongue by dropping his face back down into his cup.
“Watch it! Are you okay?” Kai asks, brow furrowed, already leaning down to offer some kind of assistance. Taehyun tries his best not to choke on the scalding hot drink. Damn cafe. Stupid lack of iced americanos.
“I’m fine! Just fine,” Taehyun tells him quickly, gesturing at the younger boy to sit. Then he remembers to look behind him for the culprit of this whole meeting. “Where’s Beomgyu?”
“Beomgyu-hyung? He said he was coming over with you,” Kai replies, tilting his head as he slides into the booth across from him.
Of course he was behind this. Taehyun should’ve known that Beomgyu was acting suspicious when he’d begged for a “maknae line hangout”. Since when was Beomgyu part of him and Hyuka’s thing?
But Taehyun was hard-pressed to give any information given to him more than half a thought, especially when Kai was standing across from him with his sweat-soaked shirt stuck to his ever-broadening chest.
Yeah. Taehyun was really normal about him.
“Oh. He told me the same about you,” Taehyun responds after a beat, his mind elsewhere. Probably somewhere around strangling Beomgyu and getting Kai’s gym schedule to align with his own with zero ulterior motives whatsoever.
“That’s fine! We can just wait around for him. I’m always happy for some Taehyun-time,” Kai chirps.
He can’t concoct a normal-sounding response in time, so he opts to blow on his coffee and glance out the window.
Actually, he has no hope of Beomgyu showing up. Taehyun’s a little oblivious at times, but he’s smarter than this! Some kind of weak attempt at matchmaking, he’s certain of it. Involving this pretty, sort of romantic cafe and a minimum of thirty minutes of idle wait time, because that’s as far as their patience stretches.
What a great plan. I’m very reassured.
“Are you okay, Taehyun-ah? You’ve been looking stressed recently,” Kai prompts. His dark eyes glitter with concert. Taehyun thinks it’s not good for his health to make contact with them for too long.
He grabs fumblingly for a stick, giving his drink a brisk stir. “I’m fine. Just a little… stressed. That’s all.”
“About what? The comeback?” Kai presses. Taehyun nods, glad to be given a reason so quickly.
“I mean, it’s a very different concept. Especially with having solos… and we’re expected to go on tour not too long after the comeback. We’ve never performed solo songs like this. Besides Yeonjun, of course.”
“Is that what you’re worried about, Taehyun-ah? But you’re such an amazing performer already! Your stage presence is everything, and your vocals are always so stable. Our fans always talk about it, so you have to know it’s true!”
Kai is so earnest and genuine, his eyes bright with encouragement, that Taehyun actually finds himself falling deeper in.
“It's just that it’s so unfamiliar. And this song is fully vocals based, no performance. What if… what if MOAs don’t like it?” He hadn’t expected to go on about this, but Kai is just so attentive and Taehyun has actually been worried about all of this. He rubs his fingers along the curve of the mug’s handle, gnawing at his lip.
Kai leans forward, his drink abandoned and forgotten, his voice steeped in seriousness. “Taehyun. If there’s someone who actually dislikes it, I would think they’re just not human. I haven’t heard the finished version yet, but I know you, Tyun! You put your whole heart and soul into everything you do. I know it’s going to be perfect, even if you don’t know it yet.”
Taehyun’s gaze is still set on his coffee, embarrassed at having spoken so much, his lower lip still trapped between his sharp teeth. He nods, if only to pass the conversation aside.
“Don’t do that,” Kai is saying, and then there’s a warm pressure on his lips. He looks up, startled, and Kai’s smiling down at him like an angel descended from the heavens to be Taehyun’s eternal guide and voice of reason. “It’s going to hurt. You know your lips always bleed when you bite them.”
He can’t do anything besides maintain eye contact, Kai’s fingers still on his lips. He wants to bite him. He wants to know if Kai tastes as sweet as he looks.
It’s all over when Kai’s gaze flickers down to Taehyun’s lips. His ears flush red and he sits down quickly, taking a long drink of his own cup.
“Sorry. I’m sorry, Taehyun,” he mumbles when he resurfaces, the blush persisting.
“It’s fine,” he replies without really knowing what he’s forgiving Kai for. “Thank you. That was nice to hear, really.”
Kai gives him a crooked grin. “Did it help? Feeling better?”
“I am,” Taehyun answers truthfully. He offers up a smile of his own.
Because that’s the thing about liking Huening Kamal Kai. His attentiveness, his kindness, his genuinity. He simply knows Taehyun too well, attention catching on every little thing bothering the other. He knows just what to say, when to push back and when to let go. He remembers everything, every miniscule detail about Taehyun that he himself had forgotten.
It makes him half-sick, to be loved and not loved enough. It makes his chest ache, to know that everything he wants is just within reach.
He’d rather think about murdering Choi Beomgyu in cold blood, and spending a pleasant day with his best friend. His best friend, his roommate, his bandmate and nothing else. Which is perfectly fine by him.
So he strengthens his smile and takes out his wallet, placing a few bills on the table. “What do you think of giving up on Beomgyu and having a real maknae line day out?”
Kai’s face lights up in a way that makes every decision in Taehyun’s life worth it. “I’d love that.”
And because Taehyun knows how to content himself with less, he takes this lifeline with two hands and lets it swallow him whole.