Listen To Your Heart (A KaiSoo Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-Three | Waiting

It was the first time Kyungsoo had left his room in months. He was getting better at dealing with his situation by the day ever since Ryeowook offered to help him. At night when he was laying in bed, his mind would still wander to Jongin and wished that he could once again be falling asleep in his arms. But only he and Ryeowook knew that soon enough he would be...hopefully. As far as his mother knew, Kyungsoo was finally beginning to come out of his desolate funk and starting to warm up to the idea of going on with life without Jongin. To her, it seemed that her plan to keep the two males apart was working quite well, but while she was busy rolling out the red carpet for herself, there were works going on behind the scenes that she was too proud to see.

"Are you sure you don't want to come along?" Ryeowook asked Kyungsoo as he opened the door to the driver's side of his car. "I'm sure he would love to see you."

No, I can't see him yet, Kyungsoo signed back, his body quivering in hopes that his mother didn't come out into the cold night. I have to know that she isn't a problem before I see him. I don't know what she'd do if she ever found out about this and I don't think I want to know either.

"That's probably true," Ryeowook said with a small chuckle. "Alright, well I better get going." Kyungsoo nodded and then they hugged briefly, Kyungsoo shutting his eyes and hoping everything would go well.

Thank you again for doing this for me, hyung, Kyungsoo said after the hug ended. 

"Hey, don't thank me," said Ryeowook as he took hold of Kyungsoo's hand for a moment, smiling softly. "You know I'd do anything for you." Kyungsoo could only smile and then the interpreter got in his car and closed the door as soon as he was seated, clicking on his safety belt prior to starting up the car. 

Through the closed window, he waved at Kyungsoo, who waved back and watched with hopeful eyes as he pulled out of the Do's long driveway. Sighing, Kyungsoo crossed his arms over his chest and let his eyelids fall for a moment, taking in a whiff of the musky scent that the chilled night breeze carried as he inhaled again. He then walked back inside, hoping that the next time he'd have to watch a car leave, it would be from the inside.

*************

Crazy was what Jongin was going. Even after the conversation he had with Chanyeol, Baekhyun still wouldn't back off of Jongin's relationship problems. Countless times he had told him that he was fine without a partner because his heart had convinced him to wait for Kyungsoo to come back. However, week after week and day after day, the brown-haired male would introduce him to some new person or try to pass along a stranger's phone number. 

But Kyungsoo wasn't the only reason that Jongin declined each one of these offers. He was also doing it because he could almost guarantee that it would end with him waking up in bed to a person whose name he could barely remember. And one night stands, Jongin decided, were something that he didn't need regardless of how lonesome he was.

Steam poured from the shower as Jongin pushed open the doors, grabbing his towel off of the silver, metal rack and pressing its fabric to his face as he stepped out of the shower. He dried himself off a bit and just barely soaked up all the water out of his hair before he wrapped the large, white cloth around his waist and opened the bathroom door. It was only 7:30, he noticed, but he thought it would be a good day to come home early and relax on the couch with his children while watching a movie. And after all, it was the first day in months that he had an almost empty schedule, so he decided being lazy was the best way to use that time up.

As he was preparing the popcorn that he would most likely be sharing with his dogs, a knock came to the door and Jongin walked over to it as the popcorn kernels popped from inside the microwave, hoping that it was a friend or someone who was used to seeing him walk around with no shirt on. Luckily, it was, but it wasn't exactly the pair of people he wanted to see at that moment.

"What do you two want?" Jongin asked in a groaning, whiny voice. "Are you here to drag me along for another one of your matchmaking trips?"

"Hey, don't insult us for trying to help you," Baekhyun said, holding up his hand in a diva-like manner. "Maybe if you weren't so damn stubborn we could be done with this by now."

"Or we could be done with this by you guys realizing that I don't need your help," the young male explained, shutting the door after Chanyeol and Baekhyun walked in. "When will you guys just get it through your thick skulls that I'm okay?"

"Never unless you let us help you," Baekhyun said, causing Jongin to groan and roll his eyes as he started for the kitchen. "But I think you'll really like this one," Baekhyun added, following after his dongsaeng. "He's a dancer like you and is super duper adorable, but he is a year older than you, but so was Kyungsoo so that shouldn't be a problem. I've known him for a long time and I think you two will get along great. Plus, he is totally into the whole blind date thing."

"Well, you can tell him that I'm sorry, but I can't go on any date with him," Jongin said as he took the hot bag of popcorn out of the microwave. "I know you guys don't think so, but technically, I am still taken."

Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol and gave him one of those astonished looks. "Seriously, Jongin, why are you still hung up on Kyungsoo?" he asked. "Need I remind you that he left you?"

"No, I am very aware that he left me," said Jongin as he focused on carefully opening the hot bag.

"Then why can't you let him go and just move on?"

"Because that's not what you do to people you love," Jongin said, placing his hands on the counter and looking Baekhyun right in the eyes. "Yeah, he left me in one of the worst ways possible, but I've been hurt in much harsher ways before. And you two should know better than anyone how it feels to think that the person you love has given up on you." Both Baekhyun and Chanyeol lowered their eyes guiltily at that. "I don't want Kyungsoo to think that just because he broke my heart that I won't give him a chance to fix it. Okay, I love him too damn much to just let him slip away like that. Besides, if I wanted to move on I would. But I physically can't, so that has to mean something."

"We get that, but Jongin-" Chanyeol started but was soon cut off by Jongin.

"Just go, okay?" he said. "Just leave. I don't want to talk about it anymore. It's bad enough that I have to live with this empty feeling every day of my life and you guys trying to fix me up with people I've never even met isn't making it or anything better. So, if you really want to help me, then leave me alone." Baekhyun and Chanyeol looked at each other, feeling bad for pushing Jongin over the edge at a time like this when he was still feeling fragile and raw. And so, with that, they quietly turned around and left the apartment and Jongin sighed heavily after he heard the door shut with a soft click. He didn't mean to come off as harsh or annoyed, but he couldn't help it. A man can only hold onto his emotions and feelings for so long before he bursts and right now, Jongin felt like he was about to do just that.

He finally started to make his way over to the couch, the dogs following closely behind him as they sniffed the aroma the popcorn left floating in the air. But just as he was about to sit down, another knock shook his door and this time he groaned loudly before dragging his feet over there--again.

"Guys, I already told you-" Jongin started to speak, but his mouth fell agape when he saw who was standing on his front doorstep. "Ryeowook?"

A/N

Sorry for a boring update. I just need to get all of the fillers out of the way before we can get to the good part, which will be in exactly three chapters, so stay tuned!!

Likes and comments are always loved, so please don't be afraid to leave some. That includes all of you silent readers, too! Thanks for reading and I'll be back tomorrow! <3