Chapter Text
“I don’t drink. This is Coke.”
Jackson puts down the jug containing a concoction and made a face and laughed. “What do you mean, bro? Last party you were chugging beers till you were—“
Hueningkai pushes his pointer finger at Jackson’s lips, “Hyung,” the latter raises an eyebrow, “You know literally everybody, right?”
“Pretty much. Why?”
He uncrumpled a page of a sketchpad from his sweatpants.
“Have you seen this girl?”
It was a very awfully doodled-up attempt of a sharp face, plump lips and long-ish pink hair. The girl of his dreams — like, literally this girl has been skating around his dreamland for weeks.
The older took his sweet time diminishing the atrocious caricature. “I think that’s the new Choi in town.” Even raising his finger to trace the details of the drawing.
“Yeah?”
Kai's drawing skills is literally shit from ass but drunk Wang, and mostly likely high as well, sees right through his visions.
“Yeah… I heard New Choi’s here tonight.” Jackson looked back behind him where the not-so-small crowd was at. "Not so hard to look for Yeonjun cuz you won't see any other person in this place with pink hair except for him."
“Why ask, bro? You got the hots for—“ he looks back at Kai but the younger is nowhere to be seen even in his peripheral vision and looks back around, “—him?”
-
“Uh-uhm,” Kai clears his throat, suddenly nervous as fuck. He looks down and his heart starts beating like crazy. He closes his eyes while his nerves deafens the surroundings.
“Hi?”
Kai looks up again.
Pink Choi is waiting for him to talk.
Shit.
“Hi,” Pink Choi giggles and raises an eyebrow, “Have we met?”
“Oh… Uh…. no.”
“Well… do you need anything?”
She is so beautiful, oh my god, I’m gonna die!!!!
“What’s your name?”
“Kai,” gulps, “Huening Kai…”
Pinkie Pie offers their hand, “I’m Yeonjun. Choi Yeonjun.”
If smiles could heal, may Kai’s anxiety disappear right here right now.
“You’re so pretty.”
“Thank you.”
Okay, Kai. Just breathe.
“Can we talk in a quieter area?”
“Sure,” Yeonjun looks around. And points with the hand with a cup, “Let’s stand by that wall.”
-
“Well you know Pac-Man was originally Puckman but not because Pac-Man looks like a hockey puck and paku-paku-paku means flapping your mouth and they changed it because if you scratch out the "P" and turn it into an "Fuck? You know? Like…”
Yeonjun hums, “That’s amazing.”
Kai doesn't know if it's the alcohol kicking in or if it was Yeonjun’s beautiful smile that’s making his head spin, literally.
He likes me hehehe.
He adjusts his eyes by blinking hard and squints, “Am I… dreaming?”
The latter was so confused and scoffs awkwardly, “I’m gonna… leave you alone for a bit, Hueningie. See ‘ya!”, leaving the boy dumb.
When he noticed that Yeonjun left him there for real, he rushed to Jay, who was flirting with a really cute guy.
Kai grabs his shoulder and yanks Jay to face him.
“DUDE SHE’S REAL!”
“WHO?”
“YEONJUN!”
Beomgyu suddenly pops in, “Choi?”
“What do you know about Choi Yeonjun?” Hueningkai breathlessly asks.
“All I know is that… They’re from the Bay Area, in the States.”
“Oh. Maybe that’s why we couldn’t talk properly.”
“No, dude. You’re just an awkward guy,” Jay pats his back.
Beomgyu hollers when he sees Kai pouts. He passes through the two boys and approaches Momo and Kazuha sitting by the living room.
“Hey ladiessssss!”
“Oh, hey!”
“What’s up, Gyu?” Kazuha pulls out her phone to take a selfie with him.
He calls Jay and Kai to join them while throwing out a peace sign. After the photos, Beomgyu sprints away.
“Hi. What do you guys know about Choi Yeonjun?”
The girls look at Kai.
“Not much…” Momo contemplates.
Kazuha speaks after a beat. “We haven’t met her, but all I heard was that she's from America and has a boyfriend!”
“Boyfriend?”
“I think,” Kazuha nodded. “Some guy back in America.”
“Yeah? What else!” Kai pushes.
“I said all I heard.”
No time to argue back, Kai ignores the girls’ annoyed eye rolls at him and he decides to ask around again.
“I heard she knows how to kick ass!”
“Yeonjun’s on another level.”
“He’s got men dying at his feet.”
“She’s got some battle scars, man.”
As he flurries around some more, he approaches Changbin with his boyfriends.
“What about Choi Yeonjun?”
Kai being as hopeful, “You know her? Tell me. Now.”
“Please.”
-
“She just got here. I helped her get a job at a café, doing side hustles, too.” Changbin deadpans.
“Really?” Kai is eagerly listening. This is serious to him. “Is it true that she’s in a relationship?”
A drunk Bang Chan on the other’s embrace cuts them off, “Didn’t you just say she broke up with her boyfriend, Binnie?”
“Really?” Kai interjects. Elongating the y.
“That they had a huge fight or whatever?” Chan continues.
“Did they really?”
Changbin eyes angrily at his lover and sighs.
“…Y-Yes. But I didn’t want Kai to know that, Channie.” He carefully says, gritting his teeth, abashed.
Kai rambles, not sure about Changbin’s sudden change of tone, “Yeah, I don’t know about that guy, she’s just—“
“Kai,” Changbin starts now while looking directly at the other, “I forbid you from hitting on Yeonjun. Even if you haven’t had a real relationship in over a year—“
Hyunjin enters the scene with a red cup, phone on the other hand. “Woah, woah, woah. Kai’s mourning period ended. Aren’t you dating a high schooler?”
Disgust paints the people around their vicinity. Changbin’s about to gag.
“Hiyyih’s classmate perhaps?” He adds.
Flabbergasted as fuck, Kai stutters to say something.
Changbin’s nostrils flare up and yells,
“WHAT THE FUCK, KAI?”
“NO EW WHAT THE FUCK HYUNJIN NO!”
“Where the hell did that come from, Jinnie?” Chan snickers, face palming.
“Hiyyih’s in college, dude!” Kai yells. “…And, there’s no one, since—“
“I just don’t want you scaring off the coolest person at this party, Kai. We all know you’re a total lady killer wannabe nerd loser. And now what? You woke up and chose to be gay, finally? You know Yeonjun is not like your exes, don’t you?” Changbin stares right at his eyes.
“I am not a lady killer!”
“That time with Lia—“
“Misunderstanding.”
“What about her best friend—“
“It was mutual! The breakup! The breakup was mutual!”
“That time you ghosted Beomgyu after—“
“Me and Beomgyu are good now.” Kai’s face sterns as he sees a glimpse of Beomgyu’s long hair in the midst of the ruckus of the games in the crowd.
Changbin scoffs and lifts his cup to his lips, “Yeonjun is out of your league… That’s all you need to know.”
“Changbinnie~~~” Kai sadly pouts and genuinely looks like he’s about to cry. And then he stutters, “I’m bi.”
“Curious still?”
“No… Sexual.”
“You sure?”
“And so yeah, I’m not entirely sure if they truly broke up. I don’t know the guy, man. Forgot the name… Mingi? Minhyuk?”
Kai and Changbin are now seated together at Jackson’s garden.
“Do you think Yeonjun would like a guy like me?”
“I’d say forget it, Kai.” Changbin puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Not a chance.”
Kai gets up, “Screw you, Changbin. You’re wasting my time!” and marches away.
“Well fuck you, nerd!”
-
While taking a shit first, he opens his phone to see one odd notification.
It had warning signs and incomprehensible emoticons dot dot dot.
He clicks on the Mail app and sees the cryptic email.
He rushes to open the door ajar, “TYUNNNN!”
“YEAH?”
“I GOT A WEIRD EMAIL!”
“…WELL, WHAT DOES IT SAY?”
Kai opens it and it says,
“Dear Kai Huening— SHIT TAE THEY KNOW MY NAME— It has come to my attention that we will be fighting soon— Whaaaat— My name is Wooyoung Jung, and I am blah blah blah… Hmm…”
Taehyun walks towards the bathroom door in the midst of his reading.
“What? What does this person want?”
Kai took a deep breath and deleted the email, “Dunno. Probably a scam.” He shrugs.
The other huffs a laugh, “This sender knows your full name, which account was it sent to?”
Kai quickly checks his profile, “My… old side account for gaming?”
Taehyun’s phone pings.
“The food’s on their way.”