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"Soobin-ah, your mail is here," Beomgyu calls and steps into Soobin's living room, thumbing through the letters and envelopes. Yeonjun lets go of the pillow he's holding against Soobin's face and races to grab them, holding the mail up to the light as Soobin struggles to catch his breath.
"Choi Soobin!" Yeonjun screeches, and the flutter of paper hitting the ground is softer than the fwubwubwub as he waves the red and black invitation in his hand, "You promised you didn't know what I was talking about!"
Soobin sprints away. Taehyun resists the temptation to stick out his foot, because there's a lot of tables here, and he doesn't want to be the reason that Kai learns how to hide a body. Yeonjun has no such qualms, tackling Soobin down the hall and narrowly missing a marble end table with Soobin's head.
"H-Hyung," Soobin coughs, "Hyung! I can explain! My aunt-"
Yeonjun doesn't want to hear it, "I can't believe you let me be so sad and depressed I didn't get an invite for us when you were getting one! That's what made your phone buzz then, didn't it? You little-"
Taehyun covers Kai's ears as Kai reaches across the couch to do the same to him, hiding the expletives popping across the air. Beomgyu cowers in an armchair, eyes wide as he rubs his fingers where Yeonjun's hard grip marked red welts across them. He's not worried about that much, at least; once Yeonjun calms down, Beomgyu will have him as his personal slave for at least a month thanks to those welts.
Instead he turns to look at Kai, who's looking at Yeonjun and Soobin with a sort of morbid fascination, granting Taehyun access to viewing his side profile. Taehyun won't complain, the opposite even: he drinks in the view gratefully, eyes scanning greedily and guiltily over his sharp jawline and straight nose, over his long lashes and the cute little moles that send a nervous twist running down his gut.
Part of him murmurs if he could eat them off Kai's face like chocolate chips, nonsensically. He shoves that thought aside.
Kai's hands slowly come down from his ears, prompting him to do the same as he notices Yeonjun's voice has gone quiet. Taehyun doesn't bother looking at them, not when the mild green tinge in Beomgyu's and Kai's faces is testament enough as to what they're doing. He lays down and buries his face into the armrest, waiting. He feels Kai shift on the couch, his hand coming out to rub at Taehyun's stomach.
Sometimes he can trick himself into thinking Kai does it as something more than just a friendly gesture, but he's not even the favourite for it, either.
"Uhm," Kai speaks, and Taehyun has to force himself to not look up. It's not to him Kai's talking to, but his body wants to respond anyway, "So...why?"
There's a squishy sound that definitely tells Taehyun too much, gross, before Yeonjun's voice pipes up, "Soobinie here was hiding the invites to that haunted house I was bummed about next week."
"My aunt-" Soobin pauses, and Tehyun has to look up now because the oddness is not something he can still get over, leaning and putting his chin on the armrest so he can look at them. "She told me to keep it a secret, so I wouldn't get accused of favouritism for knowing beforehand."
"Is it really that selective?" Taehyun asks, ignoring the fact that if Soobin used an in with his aunt, it definitely was favouritism. Yeonjun's sitting over Soobin's thighs like a delinquent sitting reversed on a chair, hands on his shoulders. Taehyun is grateful he didn't look until now.
"Yep," Yeonjun crows, getting to his feet and hoisting Soobin up almost delicately, "One invite gets you at max six people in. And since they only send out like fifteen, and most people don't take more than one person because they want to take a date..."
Taehyun hums, "Ah, so that's how it is. Are you sure you want us to come with, then?"
"Of course I am," Yeonjun smiles dangerously, "It'll be fun."
Taehyun is inclined to agree, but he feels Kai's hand tense over his stomach. He peeks over at him, concerned, but Kai already has a smile plastered onto his face.
"It'll be fun," Taehyun echoes, running his tongue over his teeth and wondering if they're all thinking that.
"It'll be fun, they said," Kai mutters under his breath, rubbing at his fake nails and synthetic wolf fur. Taehyun doesn't think he's supposed to hear that, but he can't turn off his ears.
"You can still back out," Taehyun says, even if they both know that's not true anymore, "I'd go with you."
Kai smiles weakly, reaching out to hold Taehyun's hand and unintentionally sending sparks trailing down his arm, "Yeah? You'd break out of here with me?"
Before Taehyun can answer the guide calls for their group to assemble in front of the house, causing Kai to turn around and let go of his hand. Taehyun is tempted to curse the guide out, but the shadow of the house is large behind him, and Taehyun isn't quite that rude.
The house is somewhat tall for one level, but it sprawls rather than feel charged with height. The crevices and nooks and crannies are deepened with paint, and all the crew members outside have similarly dark attire including painted masks and in some cases suits. Taehyun feels somewhat underdressed, which is a rather confusing feeling considering he intentionally didn't wear anything embarrassing, much to Beomgyu's disappointment given the way he thumbs the button of his camera.
"Okay," the guide says cooly, straightening his maimed tweed coat over a bloodstained button-down, "You all signed the waiver, correct?"
A swell of murmurs and nods. He continues, "Now, instead of having you all be in large groups, to enhance the experience we must ask you to find a partner. If you are unable to..."
Taehyuun tunes him out, ears rushing as he turns to look at Kai at the same time the other looks at him as well. They both nod, and Taehyun has to hold back a beaming smile in favour of a more placid one. Kai just grins a little at him, waving the tips of his fingers.
"Line up in your pairs," the guide drolls. Over Kai's shoulder, Taehyun can see the tip of Beomgyu's head going in circles, while Soobin and Yeonjun hold hands and go to stand in line. Before he can feel too bad about leaving Beomgyu alone, a boy around the same height as him wearing a mummy costume walks up to him, and Taehyun can just barely see the hint of pink over Beomgyu's cardigan.
He looks away feeling strangely satisfied, yet with a bitter undertone as Kai puts an arm behind Taehyun's back and leads him towards the line.
They move forward slowly, pair by pair until they're in front of the doors and the guide is explaining to them the rules of the house.
"Try not to punch," he says, eyes sliding to a pair of kids who've already finished and are sitting in the grass looking sheepish, "There's no time limit, so if you can't deal with something just talk to an actor or take a break."
Taehyun raises an eyebrow. It's milder than he'd thought, it seems, and Kai seems to think so as well. Taehyun can feel him relax, plain as day considering he'd been tense and taut a moment ago.
"Oh," the guide adds as an afterthought, "Did you want to take this or the easy route?"
Taehyun opens his mouth, but Kai beats him to the punch, shoulders back and confident now, "This is fine. We'll be fine."
"If you say so," the guide says, and steps to the side. The blackout curtain swings innocently in front of them.
Taehyun walks through, moving it to the side so Kai can go as well.
As soon as the curtain swishes back into place, they're plunged into darkness.
"Well," Taehyun chuckles, reaching out so his hand is on Kai's shoulder, "This won't be very entertaining if we can't see, will it?"
Kai laughs, and they step forward again. Taehyun feels something give under his foot, and then there's a flash of light as something shoves them forward and through some sort of doorway. Taehyun whirls around as there's a loud clanging sound, and if he'd thought it was dark before then it's nothing compared to this. He can't even see his own nose, and everywhere he turns there's just the same inky darkness. He swears his hearing is muffled, too; He can only just hear Kai's heavy, panicked breathing next to him.
"Taehyun-ah?" Kai squeaks, "Hyun-ah? Are you still there?"
Taehyun lets go of the breath he was holding in, "I'm here! Don't worry, I'm still here."
Taehyun feels a tiny surge of pride at how Kai's breathing evens out a little, "Oh thank God."
"That was..." Taehyun starts saying, looking around as tiny pinpricks of red light start up and form a path to his left. He'd turned around to face Kai unconsciously, it seems. Kai, for his part, takes in a deep breath and blinks rapidly. Taehyun feels a twinge in his heart when he notices his eyes are a little shiny.
Taehyun leans forward, linking their arms together, "There. That way we won't get lost, right?"
Kai bobs his head, nodding. Taehyun smiles a little wider than he usually lets himself, "This'll be fun. You'll do great."
"Yeah, Yeah," Kai keeps nodding. They start following the lights.
Taehyun doesn't know how long it's been, anymore, but what he does know is that Kai is going to tear a hole in his throat if he keeps screaming. The rooms have been entertaining, and even Taehyun has to admit that his pulse racing isn't just because of how close Kai is to him.
They've reached an area decorated like a graveyard, and Taehyun's nursing an aching ear after Kai stepped on something both squelching and crunchy when he catches sight of a door slightly ajar out of the corner of his eye. Out of the other end, he sees a zombie-zombie actor, he corrects himself-wander in without seeing them.
Wordlessly, he grabs Kai's hand and runs to the door. Kai yelps, but his feet drum behind Taehyun's until they both make it into the doorway. Taehyun has the presence of mind to hit a lightswitch before he shuts the door, not locking it because a part of his brain still knows this is all fake.
"I-" Kai breathes, letting his hand fall away from Taehyun's and leaning against the wall, "I want to say that was unnecessary, but my stomach disagrees."
Taehyun hums, "Is that so?"
Kai doesn't answer. It's quiet, for a while. Taehyun takes the chance to sit down, patiently staring at Kai to see when he regains his composure.
Kai looks at him after a few minutes, causing Taehyun to look away nervously. Kai has an inscrutable expression written across his face when he speaks again.
"Taehyun-ah," he almost whispers, "You've been avoiding me a bit, haven't you?"
Whatever Taehyun expected him to say, that was not it. Not even close to the top ten, in fact. He chokes on air, a bout of hysterical laughter bubbling up in his chest, and stands up to attention.
"What-" he clears his throat, "Makes you say that?"
Kai tilts his head, "I've been seeing you less and less, recently. I don't mean to sound creepy, but last Sunday you said you were hanging out with Yeonjun-hyung, and I know for a fact that he was bowling with Soobin-hyung."
"How?" Taehyun asks, curious in the same way a serial killer wonders the method of his capture. Except he's not a serial killer, and the thing he's caught about is not a crime.
He's still scared for the verdict, either way.
"He bragged about his date ideas to me," Kai answers blandly, "But that's not the point. Did I upset you, somehow? You seemed fine today, but..."
Taehyun's eyes flicker around the room, "Is this the best place to talk about anything?"
"It's not like you've given me many options!" Kai whines, crossing his arms. "Just tell me what I did. I can say sorry and we can move on."
Taehyun should make something up now. He should pass it off as exactly what Kai says, give him a story about how he'd annoyed him by stealing something or buying another plushie, then go back to normal as if his not-so-subtle attempts to get over him never happened.
But then Kai's voice is just a little soft, "Is it really bad, Hyun-ah? I don't like it when you're mad at me," and Taehyun is too weak to stop himself from blurting out-
"I'm not mad at you. I could never be mad at you, you didn't do anything."
Taehyun laments the digging of his metaphorical (and literal, if the way this is going is any indication) coffin as Kai scrunches his nose in confusion and if only he could stop being that cute, thank you very much.
"Then what is it?" Kai pouts, eyes round and mushy. Taehyun really doesn't think this is the place for a conversation, much less a confession, and he doesn't know how his plan to rest away from the bloody zombies ended so badly, but he's already put one finger in the pool, so. Tally ho, en garde, or whatever the kids say these days.
"I just-" Taehyun tries to compromise, "I needed some time."
And that was the wrong thing to say, because Kai's eyes are watering much quicker than the fear of the haunted house had caused them to, "Time? Time...away from me? I-I don't-"
"No! I mean, yes, but not in the way you think!" Taehyun is about ready to pull his hair out, "I just needed time to get over something."
"Get over..." there's about a solid seven seconds before the light bulb goes off on top of Kai's head. Because no matter how much they joked that he was still wet behind the ears, Kai's not stupid in any way, and Taehyun's little trainwreck has taken advantage of what denseness he does have for much too long.
"Taehyun-ah," Taehyun really hates it (loves it) when Kai says his name like that, "Do you have...feelings for me?"
And. Well. Okay, ew because are they in elementary school? But also, Taehyun's heart may have genuinely skipped a beat, and he feels his lips buzz with it as Kai looks at him with the same inscrutable look that had caused this whole mess.
"Maybe," he says, "Possibly. Cannot confirm nor deny, except I can. Confirm, that is. Please don't leave."
"Why would I leave?" Kai blinks, "Wait, Hyun-ah, please tell me this isn't a joke."
"Uhm," Taehyun finds some courage in himself to finally look Kai in the eye, licks his lips and is surprised to find he can see Kai's eyes trace the movement, and okay, what? Maybe he should have paid more attention to where Kai was looking lately because now there's a thrum of hope in his belly.
"Not a joke. From that reaction, I expect to hear something either very good or very bad."
Kai grins sharply, in a smirk that reminds Taehyun entirely too much of Yeonjun, "I mean, I think 'I like you too' qualifies as good?"
"Oh," Taehyun is a breeze, now. He's having an out of body experience. Must be, because Kai's face seems a little bit slash a lot closer than it'd been maybe two seconds ago, "That definitely. Does qualify. What are you doing?"
"I'm getting ready to ask if I can kiss you," Kai informs him.
"Oh."
Kai laughs, "So, can I?"
Taehyun probably said something that meant a good enough yes, because then his back is against the wall and there's a softness that moves from the corner of his lips to press more firmly against his mouth. He opens, closes, opens his eyes and peeks at Kai's face, lips moving on autopilot as he admires him out of habit. Lashes, nose, cheekbones, moles...
Then Kai's finger pokes his thigh, an invitation, and his eyes slide shut as his hands come forward to lean on Kai's shoulder while he hoists Taehyun up and comes closer.
Taehyun takes it back. He'd rather not be having an out of body experience, not when Kai feels so warm, not when he can feel just the barest of nibbles against his bottom lip. Kai is a careful kisser, and Taehyun now knows and suffers for it.
Taehyun tries to reciprocate, he really does, but he's still a little bit in shock because Kai likes him, and then there's the whole other Kai's kissing him part that kind of sends his motor function into cuckooland. He thanks whatever God is out there that he can at least somewhat keep his breathing steady, because it would not be very flattering to his own kissing skills if he were ventilating against Kai's face like a broken air conditioner.
Kai seems to not mind in the least, tilting Taehyun's head while he's soft and pliant and murmuring against his top lip, "Mm. Open?"
Wow. Taehyun doesn't think he's ever met someone that straightforward, at least. Whatever kind of method that is, it works on him, because he finds himself nodding just a little bit urgently and letting his mouth fall open with whatever shyness he had left escaping along with it.
There's barely a swipe of a tongue along his bottom lip before Taehyun blanks out completely, only blinking back into himself when Kai suddenly moves on from his mouth and starts working down his jawline.
"You know," Kai muses, nipping just below where Taehyun's jaw dips into his neck and causing him to whimper, "You're seriously pretty. Did I ever tell you how pretty you are?"
Taehyun, instead of dignifying that with an answer, lifts up a hand towards Kai's hair and pulls. The low sound that comes after is unexpected but not unwelcome, at least not until Kai's teeth do a little more than just nip at his pulse point and he's scrabbling at Kai's back, and-
The door opens. Taehyun himself doesn't react, can't really do so because he's still wrapped in a little hurricane of just Kai, but Kai sets him down with an arm hooked around his waist to steady him and turns around while smiling at the rotten face that pops through the doorway as if he'd been doing nothing except count mushrooms in the corner.
"Can you guys," the zombie gulps, "move on, or something? We've been waiting for you to come out."
Taehyun looks up at Kai's face, slowly coming to realize what just happened, and Kai takes the opportunity before the flush of shame can take over him to squirrel away past the cast member and move on to the next area.
His bravado lasts all but two seconds until a small skeleton hand reaches up out of the ground and grabs his pant leg.
Kai doesn't scream this time, but his arms tighten infinitesimally around Taehyun, so he thinks that's a fair exchange.