like never before | beomkai

05 | sharing clothes

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It turns out, making coffee with Soobin wasn't so hard, but Kai aspires to be as patient as Soobin is with him.

Kai was extra careful not to waste anything, and ended up with drinks enough for his entire family at the end of the day. Successfully preparing the frappe once and the others being either too bland or he added too much whipped cream—he volunteered to drink the latter.

"I'm glad you're having fun with your friend," His father accompanied him in the living room, lips blue and purple from the unicorn drink earlier. Kai remembers how enthusiastic he was when he first heard about the cafe job he took temporarily. ("Finally, something else to do other than staying home." "You're talking like you don't want me home, dad.")

Kai chortled. "It was fun, but it's a one time thing. Soobin hyung is too kind to say, but I know it was tiring to teach and work overtime."

"Have fun more often."

"I have fun all the time."

His father decided not to drag the subject further, and resorted to switching the channel on the television.

"I was watching that," Kai pouts.

"I pay the bills," His father retorted with a laugh.

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Later that evening, Kai found himself lurking in the internet once again.

He scrolled through multiple posts from the previous days; a few even from the party Soobin mentioned and Kai almost released a sigh of relief for not joining them at all. Only a couple of friends? This looks like a whole club.

At least the picture looks good. It's a group photo taken by Soobin, a bit blurry; but they all managed to look the part of 'cool rich friends that look absolutely amazing!'—Kai can't think of anything else to describe it.

Taehyun made a post, too: a picture of the food, a picture of the drinks, and a blurry picture of a wasted looking Beomgyu with his body slouching on the couch. The caption caught Kai's attention: happy birthday, choi.beomgyu!

Kai's brows furrowed as more posts came up, hitting him like a truck.

happy birthday, choi.beomgyu. ily.

It's a caption by Yeonjun posted with a candid picture of Beomgyu drinking coffee. Beomgyu replied with: thanks, hyung. i love myself, too—and all was too much for Kai to just let it pass.

How did Kai not know that it was Beomgyu's birthday? He saw Yeonjun, Taehyun, and Soobin that day; but it was never made aware to him that it was Beomgyu's birthday party they were inviting him to and not just any of their out of the blue parties.

A quick memory of what Beomgyu said the day after flashed in Kai's mind.

"You weren't at my party last night. Why?"

Great. It was Beomgyu's birthday party and Kai said he's too busy to attend.

"No, Kai. Think about it. Your presence doesn't matter! The place is packed and Beomgyu looks like he's having the time of his life! Yeah. There's no reason to feel bad, you know? It's going to be fine-"

"You're talking to yourself now?"

"It's- Tyun? Why are you here?"

Kai's mind was so occupied that the sound of his door slamming against his wall didn't faze him one bit. There, by his desk, stood Taehyun with an unimpressed face. He's wearing denim pants topped with a shirt and a knitted vest, not his usual fashion when crashing in Kai's house to cure boredom.