Chapter Text
Taehyun hates what he’s wearing - he was in Yeonun’s clothes, because Yeonjun insisted Taehyun had to dress right to go out dancing. His shirt was wide collared and backless, paired with tight leather pants. Yeonjun did Taehyun’s makeup, too, sparkling highlighter on his collarbones and cheekbones. Dark lipstick, subtle eyeshadow. He looked like a whore, but he looked good .
He looks good, but he’s not used to looking good.
A couple people have even flirted with him. Being stopped by a handful of guys and girls, telling Taehyun that he’s good looking and trying to get his number. Taehyun ignored them, though, and passively explained he was looking for his friend.
Yeonjun and Taehyun were separated sometime after they arrived and did a few shots. Yeonjun wasn’t answering his phone calls. The only logical thing to do was for Tyun to aimlessly wander the club and hope he will find his friend.
To say Taehyun was disappointed wasn’t a total lie. He wanted to dance and drink and be happy, spend an evening out with his Hyung. But now he’s playing babysitter.
Babysitter who lost the baby. God.
Even still, Taehyun hadn’t looked particularly long before catching a glimpse of a shock of pink hair. Upon further investigation, Taehyun recognized it’s Yeonjun - who currently had a cute brunette shoving his tongue into his mouth, the two grinding against each other, completely oblivious to the world around them.
Taehyun nearly considers leaving them alone and just stay close enough to keep an eye on where Yeonjun is.
Until, another person hurries over and pulls the boy Yeonjun was kissing off him. “Hyung,” he says. “Dude, we’ve been looking for you forever!”
Taehyun’s heart stops - Wow.
It’s Kai.
That’s Kai. That’s fucking Kai.
Kai, worriedly reprimanding his friend and giving Yeonjun looks every so often.
Taehyun feels something pull inside of himself to run away. Instead, he just slowly trails over to Yeonjun’s side.
“Ah, Hyung,” he whispers. “We should be going.”
Yeonjun, surprised when he sees his dongsaeng appear beside him, deflates and whines. “ No… . Beomie!” He whines.
The cute brunette perks up and looks to Yeonjun like a little puppy dog. “Yeah?”
“Can I have your number? You’re so cute,” he says. Yeonjun floats on back over to ‘Beomie’ and wraps his arms around him, pulling him right against Yeonjun. “You’re just so cute.”
“God,” Kai says, taking a few steps over towards Yeonjun and his friend. “Beomgyu Hyung, are you alright?”
When Beomgyu doesn’t answer Kai, Kai glances up to Taehyun. “Sorry about this,” he says, offering a pleasant smile. “My Hyung rarely goes out drinking. So he’s bad at gauging these things.”
Christ - Kai doesn’t seem to even recognize Taehyun.
The new threads Yeonjun forced him to wear, the makeup, blond hair, and the missing forty pounds made Taehyun into a different person entirely. He wanted to cry. Was he really so repulsive before?
All Taehyun can do is nod slowly. “Yeah…”
He was fine with leaving Kai in the dark. He doesn’t need to know he’s just ran into his ex at a club. It’s so embarrassing that Kai doesn’t even recognize him.
Taehyun was way too ugly before, wasn’t he - wasn’t he?
Yeonjun is distracted, peppering light kisses all over Beomgyu’s face before suddenly tilting his head in Taehyun’s direction. “Hey… Where’s my phone? I want Beomie’s number.”
“Huh?” Taehyun asks, lingering back and crossing his arms. He can feel Kai suddenly give him a quick once over and it sends an unfortunate shiver down his spine. “Hyung, I don’t know! Is it not with you!?” Taehyun asks in reply, anxiously.
Yeonjun pats down his skin tight pants and shrugs. “I don’t know… Taehyun-ah, are you positive I didn’t give it to you?”
“No, Hyung, I swear…” Taehyun says softly. His heart catches in his throat and his eyes flicker to Kai again for a moment.
The look on Kai’s face spells it out for Taehyun immediately: He’s finally pieced it together. Maybe he’s too shocked to say anything or does not want to make a big deal out of it.
Either way, Kai doesn’t say anything, but he does watch Taehyun with eyes as big as saucers.
Beomgyu then, interrupting his cute whispers with Yeonjun, claps his hands and reaches into his back pocket. “Jjunnie, you put your phone in my pocket, remember?”
“Oh my God, you found it!” Yeonjun answers gleefully. He kisses Beomgyu all over his face again.
Kai places a hand on Beomgyu’s shoulder. “Hyung, we should go home now, yeah? You can give him your number and we can get you into bed.”
“ No ! No, I wanna stay here with him.”
Taehyun tries his best to carefully help. He places a hand on Yeonjun’s shoulder, hinting at him to step away.
“Beomie, here, gimme your number - I’ll send you kiss-y face emojis all night, okay? And pretty selfies. And stupid memes.”
Pouting, Beomgyu nods. “Okay…”
While the two figure out Yeonjun’s contact info for Beomgyu, Kai glances at Taehyun and finally speaks to him again. “Erm-Taehyun,” he begins, unable to continue.
“Hey.”
“Like- Like, Kang Taehyun, right?” Kai asks in elaboration. When Taehyun nods, Kai almost looks mortified. The sharp inhale and the way his eyes double in size. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“You- I- I’m sorry… For not…” Kai chooses his words carefully. “...Recognizing you right away. It took me a minute. Uh-You know.”
Taehyun looks down at his feet and nods - and feels so stupid and so fat and so ugly - he takes a shallow breath. “It’s been awhile.”
“Yeah.”
Beomgyu and Yeonjun have sorted things out with the phone. Yeonjun snaps a picture of himself kissing Beomgyu on the cheek for his contact photo and finally Beomgyu allows Kai to tug him away.
“Bye Yeonjunnie Hyung!”
“Bye Beomie!” Replies Yeonjun sadly. He immediately looks back to Taehyun and puts his head on Taehyun’s shoulder. “I want to see him again. He’s so cute,” Yeonjun says.
Taehyun begins to steer Yeonjun towards the exit and fiddles with his phone. He orders them a Lyft.
“He seems really sweet, Hyung,” Taehyun answers. “And… His friend was nice, too…”
Taehyun wishes he knew why he wanted to talk about Kai. His name caught in his throat like that.
Yeonjun nods. Their ride comes and Taehyun leads Yeonjun to the car. “He’s cute.”
“Beomgyu?”
In the car, Yeonjun hums. “And his friend.”
Yeonjun, either too drunk or too uncomfortable to comment on it, says nothing when Taehyun silently wipes away tears.