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“Khun!” Bam darted down the hall when he spotted a familiar blue head of hair lurking about, a wide smile on his face. Khun turned around immediately and grinned, raising a hand in greeting.
“Bam! What is it?” He laughed as Bam caught up to him, and they shared a look of mutual excitement. “You seem happy about something. What’s going on?”
Though they had been reunited for quite a while by this point, the large scale, do-or-die events they had been subjected to over the past couple of months had absorbed most of their attention. Bam had his training with Evankhell, while Khun schemed in the shadows with Hwa Ryun, making sure everything was set in its proper place… downtime was minimal, and what little they had was spent sleeping or on personal care.
It was a given that whenever they shared an unexpected moment between themselves, they were both elated, even if it was the most ordinary thing like passing by in a corridor.
Bam had come with a different agenda, however.
“I was told to take a day off!” He exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. “Apparently I’m overworking myself… I’m not allowed to train at all tomorrow.”
Khun crossed his arms over his chest, raising his brows knowingly. “I’m not surprised by that at all. So, what are you going to do on your big day off, Bam?”
“I was hoping to spend it with you. Will you be busy?”
“Not at all.” Khun had several meetings scheduled with various, high-level connections, but it was nothing he couldn’t postpone. “What did you have in mind? Should I tell Rak?”
“Actually…” Bam appeared slightly sheepish, scratching at his cheek. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell anyone. It’s been a while since we hung out, so I thought it would be good to catch up with you alone. What do you think?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” In the past, Khun may have felt surprised by Bam’s choice to privatize their time together—after all, he cared for every one of his friends a tremendous amount and didn’t often have the leisure to relax with them—however, he’d noticed something shifted in Bam’s priorities.
Where before, Khun had felt almost like an equal to the rest—when Bam mostly had eyes for Rachel, and everything else came secondary—recently, it seemed like Bam was watching him now. Khun already made his decision a long time ago to care for Bam unconditionally, but the amount Bam was reciprocating warmed his heart.
“Anything in particular you want to do, Bam?”
Bam tilted his head, brows furrowing. “… I didn’t think that far.”
“Geez…” Khun shook his head as if he was exasperated—secretly, he found it endearing. Already knowing the answer, he asked anyway. “What were you thinking then? Coming to me without a plan.”
“Sorry, Khun. As soon as I found out I had the free time, I came to find you right away without considering it…”
“You wanted to spend time with me that badly?” Khun teased.
“I guess so.” Bam acknowledged unabashedly, meeting his smirk with a grin.
“Why don’t we start with lunch?” Khun offered, waving a hand in the air nonchalantly. “Take the morning for yourself and sleep in, then we can decide from there? How does that sound, Bam?”
“I like that a lot.”
“It’s a date, then. For now, though—it’s late. Get some rest, Bam.”
“You too, Khun. Sleep well.”
They hadn’t set a specific time to meet, but they both knew it wasn’t necessary. In many ways, they naturally gravitated towards each other, seeking each other out when the time was right.
Khun took his time getting ready, twisting locks of his hair into a small braid in front of the mirror and tucking it neatly into place behind his ear. Satisfied with his appearance, he gazed at his reflection absentmindedly, his thoughts trailing off to his planned lunch with Bam.
He’d used the term ‘date’ casually, but it didn’t feel too far off the mark.
How did Bam see it, he wondered? Khun automatically knew Bam viewed his and Endorsi’s date (and geez, he’d forgotten that had even happened, it was so long ago) as a platonic outing.
The thing was—while neither he nor Bam were highly experienced with romance, Khun Aguero Agnes wasn’t blind.
He had always prioritized his real relationship over his desired relationship with Bam. He knew fully well that anything beyond friends was off limits as Bam struggled over Rachel, over greater moral questions no one had the answers to (could he save everyone, could he become a god?), over the loss he experienced climbing the tower. As soon as they tackled one problem, another 10 arose to take its place, and Khun wasn’t willing to put extra strain on their friendship just for the sake of his own selfishness.
(And in truth, the way he handled everything up until now probably made him more selfish than if he had been clear with his feelings in the beginning. Khun had essentially done everything he could to strengthen Bam’s trust in him, not wanting to ever lose him again, while simultaneously keeping anyone with shady intentions at arm’s reach.)
But… this was different. Bam was approaching him.
Maybe he could let himself indulge a little and test the waters.
Just as he was about to send Bam a message to ask if he was ready, a knock on the door startled him.
“Khun! I’m here!”
The corners of Khun’s lips curled upwards as he made his way to the door, Bam opening it before he could get there.
“I thought I told you to sleep in, Bam.” Khun joked, glancing briefly at his watch. “It’s not quite lunch time, is it?”
Bam simply smiled, unbothered by Khun’s teasing. “I figured we could think about where to go together. Plus, it looks like you were already ready, too. It wasn’t just me.”
“Well, you got me there.”
“Your braid looks good, Khun.” Mimicking the way Khun had brushed his hair when they had reunited, commenting on its length; Bam took a step in and carefully traced the visible part of the neatly plaited strands, his gaze affectionate.
Khun’s heart skipped a beat, but his expression didn’t show it. Rather, he embraced his forwardness, matching it as he lifted a hand to gently hold the back of Bam’s.
“You always look good, Bam,” he murmured.
Their hands lingered, communicating unspoken words through the way they watched each other—and it was Khun that broke their position, lowering Bam’s hand from his face with a squeeze.
“Where do you want to go for lunch?” He asked casually, acutely aware of the way Bam laced their fingers together.
“You should choose, Khun. I’m buying.”
Khun raised a brow—no, he wasn’t. “You don’t have to treat me—I’ll cover it. Take it as a reward for all of your hard training.”
“But I want to. I invited you, after all.” Bam insisted, his smile never leaving his face.
Inwardly, Khun’s mind was reeling. This was definitely not how Bam’s ‘date’ with Endorsi went. First off, Bam had showed up late, and second, he had taken an incredibly passive role, practically letting Endorsi decide everything and lead him wherever she wanted…
If anything, it was almost like…
Khun was being courted.
“I’ll pick the place. But we’re splitting. Deal, Bam?” He wasn’t about to back down so easily, but at the very least, to make Bam happy, he could compromise. Seeming content with the outcome, Bam nodded in agreement.
“That’s fine with me—if it makes you happy.”
If Bam was always going to pamper him like this from now on, Khun would need some time to get used to it.
Their lunch went reasonably well, with Khun choosing a cozy, upper-class café meant for high ranking members of the ten families passing through the inner tower. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary. They had conversed as normal, talking about how their preparations were going, what their next steps were, things of that caliber—the only real difference was their setting.
Spending time alone with Bam was always a treat.
When it was the two of them and no one else, nothing ever felt forced or unnatural—their dialogue flowed organically, and always seemed to come secondary to their body language. It only took one look at Bam for Khun to understand how he was feeling, to guess what might be on his mind; and Khun knew it was the same for Bam.
This was how, with the way their morning had developed, Khun had confirmed the shift in their dynamic.
He had felt it build up naturally, but to see it come to a head was still exhilarating. Something fundamental between them had changed.
At first glance, it seemed so subtle—they treated each other with the same softness, their conversations remained nearly identical—but he knew they could both feel it, like the turning of a new leaf.
The tension between them as they returned to Khun’s room was tangible.
“That was a nice break from reality,” Khun remarked mirthfully, turning to face Bam as they paused outside his door. Bam grinned.
“Was it really a break?”
“Hmm…” Khun feigned a thoughtful hum, understanding the hidden meaning in Bam’s words. He felt nearly all day like they were tiptoeing on the boundary of ‘friends’ and ‘lovers’—all this subtext was going to drive him mad. He briefly wondered who would be the first to bite the bullet.
This was kind of a fun game to play. “Maybe not. It depends on what you mean by that, Bam.”
Bam took a step towards Khun, reaching out for his hand. It was Khun who threaded their fingers together this time, not missing a beat in his movements as he gave Bam’s hand a squeeze.
“I feel like… nothing’s really changed. We’ve always been like this—this is our reality.” Bam started, eyeing the way their hands were linked. Khun watched his expression intently, letting him speak.
“Maybe it’s me that’s different. I realized I was chasing after the wrong things. That everything I could ever want was already right beside me.”
“Bam…” With his free hand, Khun gently lifted Bam’s chin up until their eyes locked. “It’s been well over a decade since we met. You’re right, nothing’s changed—I’m not going anywhere.”
“I almost lost you.”
“But you didn’t.” Khun’s hand transitioned to Bam’s cheek, his thumb smoothing over soft skin. “I’m right here.”
Bam let out a soft breath, his brows furrowing. “… I don’t understand… what I’m feeling right now. But you know—don’t you, Khun? I can tell.”
Khun’s eyes twinkled playfully, and he leaned forward, his thumb running along Bam’s lower lip. “I could take a guess.”
Bam’s eyes lidded with what he could only read as desire. Just as Khun was about to close the distance between them, Bam untwined their hands, grabbing Khun’s other hand and lowering it from his face just as he reached out and pulled him in by the nape of his neck.
Fuck. Khun didn’t expect that.
The feeling of Bam’s lips crashing onto his own had Khun melting, his eyes slipping closed. Their heads were tilted just enough so that their noses barely brushed. Though the kiss was chaste, it hinted at more to come, while representing the culmination of all their unspoken feelings—the pining Khun had to endure—and the epiphany that had finally struck Bam.
It would have lasted longer, had Khun not realized mid-kiss that they were standing in the hallway where anyone walking about could see them.
“Bam—” Khun broke the kiss, his breath uneven. “Let’s go… in my room? We have a lot to talk about—but not out here.”
A playful smirk drew on Bam’s lips—one of the first Khun had seen (and, he felt, not the last). It led Khun to believe the calculated control he had over the situation was slipping; evening out—and he licked his lips at the thought.
“Sure. I have all day.”