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Jay thinks Jungwon should really learn to mind his own business.
Don’t get him wrong, Jay loves Jungwon. Jungwon is well-mannered and smart, and being with his wide-eyed, innocent kitten face has gotten Jay more free samples than he ever knows what to do with. However, Jungwon also has an uncanny ability to get under his skin, like a 174 cm angel-demon constantly hovering around him and making him question every decision he’s ever made.
It starts on a regular Saturday. He and Jake are lounging in Sunoo and Jungwon’s apartment, yelling at the younger two over a particularly intense game of Smash. Jay thinks he isn’t too bad, but Sunoo and Jungwon somehow manage to beat the shit out of him, then also beat the piss out of him while he’s down. The only consolation Jay gets is that Jake is also getting brutally destroyed at the not-so-innocent hands of their younger friends.
At the end of the match, Jake throws the controller down on the couch, groaning into his hands. Sunoo laughs, bright and happy at being the cause of his hyungs’ demise. Next to him, Jungwon sports a similar shit-eating grin.
Their game ends when Sunoo gets a text from Riki asking to get dinner, and Sunoo excuses himself to his room to get ready. Jake stands up as well, stretching his arms over his head.
“I should probably get going too. I told Sunghoonie I’d be back for dinner.” He looks at Jay, “You coming back too?”
“In a bit,” Jay replies. “I promised Jungwon I’d help him with his project.”
“Okay,” Jake says, and reaches over him to pull Jungwon into a hug. “Text me and Hoonie when you’re leaving. We’ll heat up some dinner for you.”
Jay nods, following Jake over to the front door, and sends him on his way after Jake leaves with a small kiss to his lips. He shuts the door behind him, and looks back over at Jungwon to see him already staring back with an unreadable expression on his face.
“What?” Jay asks.
“How long has that been going on?”
“What are you talking about?” Jay makes his way back to the couch, genuinely confused.
“Jake-hyung just kissed you, did he not?”
“Yeah,” Jay says, “but he does that all the time. He’s just friendly like that.”
“‘Just friendly like that’ my ass,” Sunoo’s voice pierces through the walls. His bedroom door opens shortly afterward and the man himself reappears not long after. “I’ve been friends with Jake-hyung for even longer than you have, and not once has he given me a parting kiss.”
“Maybe you’re just not as kissable,” Jay teases, and dodges the pillow thrown in his direction.
“Does Sunghoon-hyung know?” Jungwon butts in.
“Of course Sunghoon knows,” Jay says, bewildered. “He does it too.”
Jungwon lets out a long, suffering sigh, then stares at the ceiling like all the answers are painted there. Sunoo looks like he’s about to burst a vein.
“Dude,” Jungwon says, eventually bringing his attention back to Jay. “I’m not going to lie, that’s a little strange.”
“Is it?” Jay frowns, thinking. “He started after he saw Jake do it. I think it’s, like, an Australian thing.”
At this, both Sunoo and Jungwon look like they’re one more sentence away from throwing Jay into a pool full of lava. For his well-being, Jay decides to steer Jungwon’s attention away from the topic at hand and onto his project.
After that, Jay himself forgets about the conversation altogether. He helps Jungwon with his project, and the topic isn’t brought up again. He leaves about an hour later, making sure to text Sunghoon and Jake on the way. When he arrives, he’s met with the sight of Sunghoon heating up some food, likely the remains of whatever he and Jake had attempted to cook earlier. He greets Jay with a little peck, like Jake had done when he left Jungwon’s, like he usually does when Jay gets home.
After dinner, Jay sits with Sunghoon at their kitchen table to finish up some homework before he decides to call it a night. Bidding Sunghoon a good night, Jay goes to their bathroom to wash up before heading back to his room. He crawls into his bed to find Jake already there, snoring on Jay’s duvet. He nudges Jake, who turns over to allow a Jay-sized space next to him. Sunghoon comes in a few minutes later, crawling over Jay to slot himself in between him and Jake, and the three of them fall asleep like that, just like they would any other Saturday.
Perhaps Sunoo and Jungwon’s behavior can be explained with a little more context: A little over two years ago, Jay and Sunghoon used to date. Around seven months ago, Jake and Sunghoon started dating. Currently, Jay lives with both Jake and Sunghoon in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment just off-campus. It’s not weird.
Really, it’s not. Jay and Sunghoon dated during their second semester of freshman year, and it lasted a little under three months before both Jay and Sunghoon realized there was something lacking between them. Thus, they mutually broke things off but decided to stay friends and in each other’s lives. Did Jay still mope about the break up? Sure, but he and Sunghoon ended on good terms, and were still as close as ever, just with slightly less physical affection than when they were dating, and slightly more than before they started dating.
Enter Jake Sim.
Jay meets Jake during their first semester of sophomore year, in their physics class they suffered through together. They get placed in the same lab group, and to say they click immediately is an understatement. Jake is Jay’s louder, more physics-savvy half and saves Jay’s GPA from taking a nosedive. Jay is Jake’s slightly less loud, slightly more unhinged half and saves Jake from losing his mind from only speaking Korean. Together, they send their TA closer to a head full of gray hairs.
Jay introduces Jake to Sunghoon a few weeks later, and is slightly taken aback by how quickly they get along as well. Sunghoon is naturally a more quiet person, and it usually takes him a while to get to know people. Hell, when Jay met the guy, it took him nearly a week to even get Sunghoon to reply to him in more than one word responses. However, Jake has the energy of about five golden retrievers, and it only takes a few minutes to get Sunghoon to warm up to him.
When Jake leaves, Jay jokingly points out how quickly “Ice Prince” Sunghoon had thawed to Jake, to which Sunghoon only shrugs.
“He’s cute,” he says, fighting a small smile.
Back then, Jay remembers the smallest churning feeling in his stomach before he squashed it quickly because, yeah, Jake is pretty cute.
Jake gets to meet the rest of Jay and Sunghoon’s friends, which goes well aside from the return of the churning feeling when Jay introduces Jake to Heeseung. Once again, he pushes the weird feeling away and joins Heeseung and Jake’s conversation, throwing his arm around Jake with more force than necessary.
Anyway, the point is, the three of them have been inseparable since the beginning. They’re like the Three Musketeers, or the Jonas Brothers, or whatever is the coolest trio out there.
(Obviously Jay is Joe. Jake fights him and claims he’s Joe but does Jake put on his big boy pants and ask for no pickles like a fearless boy band leader should? No, he pushes Jay forward while he hides behind Sunghoon like a coward.)
(Unanimously, they agree Sunghoon is Nick.)
Jay and Jake are balanced out by Sunghoon’s quieter energy, yet the youngest of the three doesn’t hold back when instigating chaos. When the time comes, Jay and Sunghoon resign their lease, with the addition of Jake to the lease. All of this is to say: Jay, Sunghoon, and Jake really do everything together.
So when Jake and Sunghoon start dating, it comes as a little bit of a shock to Jay.
Some time in the first month of fall semester of their junior year, Jay is up early as usual, making breakfast for the three of them. Another point as to why Jay should be the leader: he’s always cooking for them. Jake can only make packets of instant ramen and, at best, Sunghoon is a mess in the kitchen. Seriously, what would they do without him?
Jay shakes his head fondly. They might be a mess, but they’re his mess, which is why he doesn’t complain (much) and is cooking scrambled eggs way too early in the morning. He’s just poured the eggs into the skillet when he hears some faint rustling and pitter-patter of feet behind him.
“Jay,” Jake calls out, a little hesitantly. “Sunghoon and I have something to tell you.”
“What’s up?” Jay replies, more focused on trying to keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.
Sunghoon looks at Jake who nods, holding his hand for support. Sunghoon clears his throat. “We’re dating now.”
Jay freezes minutely in place before going back to scraping the bottom of the pan.
“Oh,” He croaks. “That’s great.”
Jake looks at him worriedly, and Sunghoon grips his hand a little tighter, smoothing a thumb over the back of Jake’s hand in comfort.
“Is…is that okay?" Jake asks, nervously chewing on his bottom lip. "I know there’s some history between you two, and I don’t want to make it weird among the three of us.”
Jay doesn’t make it weird. He’s cool and collected about the situation. Whatever he and Sunghoon ended months ago, and whatever he and Jake had (have?) is solely platonic and isn’t even worth bringing up. So, he ignores the pang in his chest and shakes his head.
“No, no. It’s not weird. You don’t need to worry about me and Sunghoon. I was just thinking about how you and Sunghoon should probably share a room now.” Jay says, forcing out a bark of laughter. “Congratulations guys, and thanks for finally giving me my own room.”
Jake sags with relief and playfully punches Jay in the shoulder. “Come on, you don’t want to join the fun?” He grins and sleazily wiggles his eyebrows.
Jay laughs and shoves Jake out of the way, simultaneously shoving down whatever is threatening to rise out of his chest. As he finally manages to chase Jake out of the kitchen, just narrowly preventing their breakfast from becoming charcoal, he catches Sunghoon staring at him with a concerned expression on his face. Since they’ve known each other longer, he fears Sunghoon will be able to see right through him. But, as he’s established, there is nothing to worry about, so Sunghoon doesn’t have anything to worry about because Jay is fine.
And for the most part, he is fine. He really was just shocked at their sudden confession. Like, they’re his best friends, how did he not know there was something going on between them?
Anyway, despite the new relationship among them, their dynamic remains more or less the same. At the end of the day, they’re still Jay, Jake, and Sunghoon—nothing will change that, new relationship statuses be damned.
Then Jake kisses Jay, and the height of Jay’s suffering begins.
They’re deep into their fall semester, marked by the fact that midterm season seems to be every other week. Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, they manage to find a small pocket of time that allows them to unwind and just be themselves. The three of them are lounging on the couch, some movie playing in the background as white noise while they chat about everything and nothing. Jay and Sunghoon bicker about the semantics of a hotdog vs a sandwich (Jay strictly believes that they’re different, while Sunghoon is a heathen who says they can all be considered under the same umbrella with—get this—a taco) while Jake chimes in with his thoughts ever so often.
Jay takes a peek at his roommates, his best friends, and feels a warmth blooming in his chest. Despite seeing each other every day, they’re still able to talk through the night without feeling drained from each other. It leaves Jay feeling full of love and affection. He’s not sure where he’d be without these two.
Sometime around two in the morning, the conversation starts dwindling to silence when Jake starts yawning, long and loud. Jay himself had been starting to doze off an hour ago, so he’s surprised that Jake managed to stay awake for this long.
“I’m going to bed,” Jake announces and stifles another big yawn. “I’m so happy we had this talk today.”
Then he leans over Jay to kiss Sunghoon, and moves back a little to land another peck on Jay. Jay’s eyes fly open in surprise, but he doesn’t have time to comment on it before Jake moves away.
Jay sneaks a glance over at Sunghoon, but Sunghoon doesn’t seem bothered at all so Jay assumes it must be a fluke. Perhaps Jake was just too tired to realize what he was doing, or maybe it didn’t even happen and it was just something Jay’s sad, delirious, single brain conjured up. Or maybe, Jay thinks, a light bulb going off in his head, it’s just something done in Australia. Jake has always been more touchy than anyone Jay knows, perhaps the kisses were reserved for when they get closer.
Then the next morning, Sunghoon wakes him up with a cup of coffee and a kiss to his lips, and Jay thinks, huh.
After that, it keeps happening—they kiss him before bed, when he wakes up, after he’s cooked something, and when he leaves or comes back to the apartment.
They’ve never talked about it. There hasn’t been a need to, since Jay doesn’t feel uncomfortable, and neither Jake nor Sunghoon seem to have any qualms about it. Sure he was slightly confused at first, but over time it’s become something he looks forward to. It grounds him, and fills him with their comforting presence.
So, really, Jay doesn’t understand why Sunoo and Jungwon are both so concerned. Sure, it’s a bit untraditional to kiss your roommates, but it’s what they’ve always done. Besides, like he said, he thinks it's an Australian thing. Who is he to question Australian customs? Jay is American. Sunoo and Jungwon grew up in Korea. They just don’t get it.
Despite telling himself there’s nothing wrong, Jay finds himself going back to the conversation he had with Jungwon and Sunoo. There’s a nagging voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like Jungwon asking him to think about what the two youngest had said. He fights the Jungwon voice and tells it he doesn’t need to think about it. He’s had it under control for the past year, what’s new?
However, Jungwon's voice is insistent, and the more Jay thinks about it, the more he realizes Jungwon and Sunoo may be right—although Jake is friendly with him, he doesn’t give Sunoo a kiss ever, and for some reason, the thought of Jake kissing Sunoo like he does with Jay and Sunghoon makes Jay feel a little queasy.
Usually when Jay runs into a problem, he goes to Jake or Sunghoon first. Because he can’t exactly do that in this situation, he thinks about calling Jungwon next but hesitates since the younger is the reason Jay is in this situation in the first place. So, with his three closest confidants out of commission, Jay finally calls up Heeseung.
Heeseung is, fondly dubbed by all their friends and a little less fondly dubbed by nearly the entire student population, a bit of a manwhore, but the man wears the label with pride. With that being said, Heeseung may not have the most experience with relationship intimacy, but he gives good advice regardless of the situation, and Jay really needs a second opinion. Curse Jungwon and his uncanny ability to stick in Jay’s head.
Jay meets Heeseung at the ramen shop closest to Heeseung’s apartment. Riki tags along because he’d somehow overheard Jay would be paying for Heeseung’s meal, and Riki never passes the opportunity for free food.
He spends the first few minutes catching up with the other. The last time he and Heeseung had time to properly talk was nearly a month and a half ago, after the older man had slept with one of their school’s top football players and his girlfriend. Jay listens to Heeseung as he retales how he found himself in the middle of their love fiasco and how he managed to weasel himself out of that situation. He waits until their bowls of ramen have been delivered before jumping into his burning topic at hand.
“Hyung,” Jay says. Heeseung hums, stealing a spoonful of Riki’s ramen. “Do you think it’s weird that Jake, Sunghoon, and I kiss each other?”
Heeseung chokes on his bite of ramen, broth spewing from his mouth and splattering all over the table in front of him. He accepts the wad of tissues Jay shoves into his hands, and smiles apologetically at the glares sent their way. Riki just raises an eyebrow at the commotion, but goes back to slurping his noodles while looking mildly intrigued at the unfolding topic at hand.
“Sorry,” Heeseung rasps, chugging his glass of water to clear his throat. “Could you repeat that one more time?”
“Do you think it’s weird that Jake, Sunghoon, and I kiss each other?”
“Right, that’s what I thought you said.” Heeseung sighs. He wipes his mouth once more with the napkins, then temporarily shoves his bowl to the side to fully give Jay his attention. “Remind me, how did this start?”
“Well, you know,” Jay says lamely. “Sunghoon and I dated freshman year. We met Jake sophomore year, then Jake and Sunghoon started dating last semester. We’ve always been more affectionate with each other, but it’s not weird, is it?”
Heeseung purses his lips, deep in thought. “Aren’t you dating Jake too?”
“No?” Jay says, the end of the word coming up like a question. “At least, I don’t think so. I would know if I was, right?”
“Right,” Heeseung says slowly, like he’s unsure about Jay’s ability to understand his own personal relations.
Jay deflates. “You think it’s weird too, don’t you?”
“It’s certainly quite untraditional,” Heeseung agrees. “But who am I to talk about traditional relationships?”
From the side, Riki snorts. “Amen.”
Heeseung rolls his eyes and chucks a wadded up napkin in his direction.
“Anyway,” he turns back to Jay. “Who cares if it’s weird? Nothing else should matter as long as you all know what you’re doing. Have you tried talking to either Sunghoon or Jake about it?”
“Well,” Jay purses his lips. “Not really? I thought it was just an Australian custom that I didn’t know about.”
Heeseung squints at Jay. “I can’t tell if you’re purposely being stupid or if you actually are this stupid.”
Jay splutters in offense while Riki cackles at his despair. Jay makes a small note to not pay for his meal, the little brat.
“Hyung,” Jay moans, pitifully, smashing his face into the table. “What do I do?”
Heeseung gives him a sigh, taking pity on his suffering, and pats his head in sympathy. “Just talk to them. It’s Jake and Sunghoon. The two of them have never been anything but understanding with you.”
“Yeah,” Riki pipes up, and Jay braces himself for whatever teasing remark or other bullshit the younger will spout his way. Surprisingly, Riki does none of that. “They care for you a lot. You could probably tell them you murdered someone and all they’d do is ask if you need help hiding the body.”
Jay feels his face warm thinking about his two best friends, even though calling them feels like he’s doing their bond injustice. At the risk of sounding cliche and cheesy, Jake and Sunghoon are his soulmates, if such a thing exists.
“You’re right,” Jay says, picking himself off the table. “I’ll talk to them. Thanks, guys.”
“Great!” Riki chirps, pulling out the menu once again. He points to the dessert section, pushing it across the table to Jay. “I accept payment in desserts.”
Jay sighs, seeing how Heeseung is also sheepishly staring at the dessert menu. Defeated, he calls the waiter over once more and mourns the extra dent in his wallet.
It takes a while before Jay builds up the courage to have the Conversation. He’s not nervous, he’s just—who is he kidding? He’s totally nervous.
Essentially, he’s having the “What are we?” conversation with two people, the two most important people in his life. What if he’s been reading everything wrong and ruins his relationship with Jake and Sunghoon entirely? What if he’s just overthinking this and the two of them don’t even care that much and he looks like a fool?
Heeseung sends him encouraging messages to get him to talk. Riki threatens to empty his wallet every day he doesn’t suck it up and talk to either Jake, Sunghoon, or both. In the end, Riki’s method is more persuasive. Jay can only pay for so many bungeoppang before his bank flags his account for suspicious activity.
Jay decides he’s going to start with Jake first, since Jake has been acting shifty recently. Jay suspects it has something to do with his own behavior. He’s been unconsciously avoiding Sunghoon and Jake in the past few weeks as he figures out his own feelings. He didn’t mean to, but every time he would see either Jake or Sunghoon, he would cut the conversation short and retreat in his room before he could say or do something stupid. He couldn’t even run away to the gym in peace, unless he wanted to risk acting weird in front of Sunghoon.
Anyway, after receiving a very threatening text from Riki that morning, Jay thinks he can’t hide from it any longer. Currently, Jake is in the kitchen making some of his instant ramen, and Jay is in the living room pretending to look over his notes. As he listens to Jake shuffle around, his heart pounds in his chest as he tries to think of a good time to bring up the topic. He knows he’s just stalling, and he should just rip the band aid off now, but he wants to wait for Jake to at least finish his ramen. What if he gets hurt because Jay distracted him? Obviously Jay can’t have that on his conscience.
Then the stove clicks off and silence blankets their apartment. Well, Jay guesses it’s now or never.
“Jake,” Jay calls out.
“Mhm?”
“Why do you kiss me sometimes?”
Jay winces at his blunt words. The band aid wasn’t just ripped off, it was torn to shreds.
“Huh?” Jake’s head pops out from the kitchen. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Jay fumbles with his words a little. For all his bravado earlier, Jay suddenly finds actually being thrown in the conversation a little embarrassing. “You kiss me sometimes. You don’t do that with Sunoo and Jungwon. Or Heeseung and Riki, for that matter.”
“Why wouldn’t I kiss you?” Jake asks, confused. “And why would I kiss Sunoo or Riki?”
Jay fights the urge to bang his head against the table. Perhaps he’s starting to see why Jungwon was so frustrated.
“That’s what I’m wondering too,” he sighs. “What sets me apart from our other friends?”
Jake frowns, confusion still etched all over his face. “Is this a prank? Because if it is, it’s really not funny. Obviously as my boyfriend, I’d rather kiss you."
Wait. Pause. Jay’s entire world shifts on its axis.
“Boyfriend?” He echoes faintly.
“Yeah,” Jake furrows his eyebrows. “Is something wrong? Did you hit your head or something?”
Jay opens and closes his mouth a few times, but he can’t bring himself to say anything intelligible. He can’t believe that Heeseung was right. All this time, at some point in their relationship unbeknownst to him, Jake assumed they had started dating. But wait, what about Sunghoon? Jay doesn’t know where he fits into this. Did Sunghoon know about this? He must have, considering he also has been leaving kisses for Jay.
Oh God, is Jay the other woman? Have Sunghoon and Jake been fighting and using Jay as collateral damage? He tunes back into the present moment, where Jake is still rambling and pacing about.
“—and I was telling Sunghoon that there was something wrong recently but he told me to leave you alone for now and that you’d come to us when you’re ready but I should’ve just been annoying and tried to get you to talk because now I think you’re trying to break up with us—”
“Wait,” Jay interrupts Jake’s monologue. “Both you and Sunghoon thought the three of us were dating this entire time? And no one thought to confirm any of this with me?”
“Obviously!” Jake throws his hands up in the air. “I thought Sunghoon and I made it very clear that night when we asked you out and you accepted! I kissed you! And Sunghoon said you kissed him back the morning after too!”
Jay thinks back to that night and tries to piece together everything about the scenario that he’s been missing. He remembers Jake had seemed a little nervous during the tail end of their conversation, but Jay had just assumed he was too sleepy and didn’t think too much of it. He did also think it was a little strange that Jake thanked them for the conversation, but Jay remembers just brushing it off and thinking he just happened to be a little more sentimental that night.
From this whole conversation, Jay is starting to realize that he should really just think more.
“Oh my god,” Jay groans. “I’m an idiot.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Jake scoffs. He crosses his arms and scowls, leaving Jay distracted as his pouty full lip comes on display. “What kind of person just doesn’t know that they have a boyfriend? Nevermind two boyfriends?”
“In my defense, it was two in the morning when you asked.” Jay argues back, weakly. “And you know you sound barely intelligible past ten at night. Who the fuck asks someone to be their boyfriend when they’re barely functional?”
Jake squints his eyes, pointing a suspicious finger at Jay. “Is this still you asking to break up with me? I can’t tell.”
“What?” Jay splutters. “How could I break up with you if I didn’t even know we were dating?”
“Besides,” Jay swallows the lump in his throat. “Now that I know that we’re dating, why would I let go of the two best things I’ve ever known?”
Jake opens and closes his mouth like a fish, rendered speechless by Jay’s sudden boldness. It’s not often that Jay finds out his hot best friend is actually one of his boyfriends, and he’s going to make the most of the situation. He laughs when Jake screams into his hands.
“When Sunghoon comes home,” Jake says, after he’s calmed down. “The three of us need to have a longer conversation. We have a lot to catch up on.”
Jay blanches at the thought of having to relive his blunder later with Sunghoon. “Do we have to tell him?” He asks, weakly. “Can’t he just think that I’ve known about this the entire time?”
“Oh no,” Jake grins wickedly, and pulls out his phone to text Sunghoon, who Jay is 90% sure is in a class. “You are never living this down.”
Jay groans into his hands, muttering something about self-respect and decency as Jake cackles at whatever Sunghoon has said over text. He suffers some more later that night when Jake decides to recount the entire conversation to Sunghoon in person, but despite all his complaining, Jay wouldn’t have it any other way.
After all, he supposes there are worse things in life than finding out he has two lovely, caring boyfriends.