Short Stories-Kai Ships Only! Volume 3

TXT- Growing Up- Part Two

Middle School.

"Beomgyu come on!"

"Wait! Kai! Slow down! This is ridiculous! We're not going to be late!"

Kai biked like his life depended on it. "We ARE going to because you HAD to stop and get candies at the gas station!"

It was Valentine's day. The candies were secretly for them to share but Beomgyu hadn't officially asked him out yet. He kept them as safe as he could in his jacket for their (hopefully) first unofficial date. 8th grade Beomgyu absolutely adored Kai despite the fact that the younger was now the same height as him. That minor detail actually kind of annoyed him. As he biked, he rehearsed what he wanted to say.

The two were close before. They became even closer after Kai broke up with his first girlfriend. Seeing them together made Beomgyu realize his jealousy wasn't because she was taking up most of his time. It was because that should've been him holding his hand in the hallway.

Without hesitation, Kai told Beomgyu of the breakup first. They were best friends afterall. When asked why he did it, he said "I caught her holding hands with another guy. She told me she liked both of us. I told her she was an idiot so I left her."

"Oh yeah! That's why she was so sad in art class! Dude, she made a bunch of clay hearts and then smashed them with her fists."

"Girls are psycho man." Kai looked at his phone. "Ugh. She just told me she doesn't like him anymore. She wants to get back together."

Beomgyu's throat tightened. "Do-do you want to?"

"No! Didn't you hear me?! She's psycho! She'll probably leave me for someone else next week!"

"She's pretty... I assumed you'd want her back."

Completely oblivious to Beomgyu's feelings, Kai asked "you wanna go out with her instead?"

"What? No!"

"If you wanted to, you can. I don't care. Good luck though."

"No! I don't like her! I like guys!"

"Oh..." Kai didn't really know how to respond to that. He always assumed Beomgyu was straight because of how easily he gets along with women. There were signs. He started having flashbacks of subtle touches to other guys he didn't think was serious. When he thought harder about it, his best friend and the new guy had been spending a lot of time together in school lately. He had to ask "are you and Heesung dating then?"

"NO! WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?!"

"I-I- I don't know!"

Heesung and Beomgyu were friends. That's it. Everyone knew about Beomgyu's massive crush on Kai except for Kai. Flirting never worked. The younger either wasn't paying attention or genuinely didn't catch on.

That was 2 months ago. Instead of hints, Beomgyu was going to metaphorically wave a giant love confession in front of Kai's face. His gesture was going to be so obvious that even Kai wouldn't be able to spin it into something else.

Several chimes emitted from Beomgyu's jacket. Even more so than usual. Kai turned around to see the older biking and texting at the same time. "WATCH OUT!"

"Huh?" Beomgyu looked up to see his front tire collide with a large red fire hydrant. Something you couldn't normally miss unless you were glued to your phone. His friends were telling him "good luck". Some were betting on whether Kai would say yes or not. He grumbled to himself for scraping his forehead and knee. He became even more upset when the bags of candies burst open. It was like he was sitting under a busted pinata. "God damn it! I fucked it up!"