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“Yang Jeongin, why do you never hold my hand?”
Jeongin didn’t grace Hyunjin’s whining with much of his attention. He was busy deciding whether or not he wanted to spend the money on a box of candy to enjoy with his popcorn. He and Changbin planned to share popcorn, given the free refills and all, but they both ate a lot of popcorn. Maybe he could curb their abuse of the refill system by filling his belly with some sweets, too.
“Because you’re not my boyfriend.” Jeongin tried to brush Hyunjin off, but the ever-persistent and ever-clingy man unashamedly nudged himself between Changbin and Jeongin, stealing Jeongin’s hand away. Jeongin groaned so loud he provoked a few strangers to stare at them for a moment. “Go away.”
Hyunjin was trying to kiss Jeongin’s cheek, as he often did. It was equally as endearing as it was annoying. Hyunjin had always wanted a little brother, and he found that relationship in Jeongin. But with that came a whole lot of extremely embarrassing moments as Hyunjin tried to show all of his affection in public or, otherwise, in front of all of their friends. And to think Hyunjin didn’t even like physical touch most of the time.
“Your favoritism wounds me,” Hyunjin said, but he finally let Jeongin free. Naturally, Jeongin gravitated back to Changbin, whose attention had been stolen by Seungmin in the meantime. He easily gave his hand back to Jeongin. The remainder of Hyunjin’s complaints fell on three sets of deaf ears.
It went like this:
In grade school, Yang Jeongin met four people who would change his life forever. They were all boys born between March and September in 2000: Kim Seungmin, Lee Felix, Han Jisung, and Hwang Hyunjin. The four of them had been friends since kindergarten, but they took Jeongin under their wing as if he had always been part of their group, too. He spent his formative years being inspired, motivated, and annoyed by all four of them. He had two brothers at home, but that number tripled as quickly as he’d introduced himself to the pretty boy in class. (That was Hyunjin. Jeongin would admire his beauty for years, and he would eventually admit that Hyunjin was the reason he considered he might be, and eventually came out as, bisexual.)
Years and years later, two different colleges would accept the five best friends. Seungmin and Jeongin would attend Seoul National University. Hyunjin, Jisung, and Felix would attend Korea University. The campuses were about 15 miles away from each other, but that would never stop the 5 from seeing each other—partially because Hyunjin insisted the five of them live in an apartment an equal distance between the two colleges, or else he would blow up. He even bargained that he would drive Felix and Jisung to school every day (because the two of them didn’t own a car, nor could they drive in the first place), which left Seungmin and Jeongin to fend for themselves, but at least they could drive and work the bus system.
Over in SNU, Seungmin and Jeongin remained clean-cut prodigies who never missed a day of school and who spent hours studying together with neither of them had work. Hyunjin, Jisung, and Felix continued to get good grades, too, but they partied a lot. Slowly but surely, they met tons of people, three of whom would become integral parts of the friend group they’d built: Bang Chan, Lee Minho, and Seo Changbin.
Minho and Jisung started dating within a week of their first meeting. It took Chan and Felix a little longer because they were both, frankly, very stupid about their feelings for one another, but they finally got together when Seungmin broke through Felix’s thick head and made him see that Chan was desperately and pathetically in love with him.
Then, the jokes started.
“I think Seungmin and Jeongin are going to date next,” Hyunjin said. The roommates were hosting the three “older guys,” as they called them, for a few days before most of them went home for the holidays. Only Jeongin and Changbin would stay in Seoul. In Jeongin’s case, he couldn’t take time off because his car had recently broken down, and he needed the extra money to get it fixed. In Changbin’s case, his parents were going on a well-deserved vacation, and his sister had just left for Japan for her honeymoon. There would be no one for him to visit.
“Ha. Ha.” Seungmin squeezed his water bottle to wet Hyunjin’s chest. Hyunjin sat boltright up like Seungmin had dumped hot wax on him. “Would’ve happened already.”
“Brat,” Hyunjin muttered, attempting to wipe the water off his shirt—quite a sight, as it was white and now clinging to his body. He’d been working out a lot recently, adding weights to his typical cardio routine, and it showed.
“Maybe it’ll be me and Jeongin.” Hyunjin wiggled his eyebrows. Jeongin braced for it; he knew Hyunjin was going to lean all of his body weight against Jeongin. He also anticipated and dodged the kiss Hyunjin tried to plant against his jaw.
“You call me your little brother, that is so gross.” Jeongin pushed Hyunjin off of him. Hyunjin snorted, “True. Guess you’ll just have to date someone else, make the group even bigger.”
Jeongin wanted to ask, What about Changbin?, who was sitting there watching the whole scene unfold, slowly sipping on his soda. But, he didn’t even want to open that can of worms—not when he had a crush he was still processing, trying to decide if it was a just-met-you-and-you’re-handsome crush, like the one he had on Hyunjin years ago, or if it was something he might consider pursuing one day.
Jeongin would find out exactly what type of crush it was over the next two weeks. Changbin volunteered to take everyone to the airport or train station. Jeongin threw himself into the mix, as long as he could use Hyunjin’s car, to take some of the pressure off of Changbin. Jeongin drove Seungmin to the train station at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning and Hyunjin to the airport at 1:00 p.m. the same day. Changbin drove Felix and Chan to the airport at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, then Minho to the train station at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. Jisung was the last to go; his flight was at the most inconvenient time—3:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Changbin drove, and Jeongin rode shotgun just so he wasn’t all alone, and so he didn’t fall asleep behind the wheel. To Jisung’s credit, he did offer to take a bus or train to the airport, and he said sorry a million times, but he also had the privilege of falling asleep in the backseat.
Back at the roommates’ place, Changbin and Jeongin fell asleep together on the couch, exhausted from the three, maybe four hours of sleep the two of them had gotten the night before. After that, Changbin didn’t leave—he didn’t want to, and Jeongin didn’t want him to. They didn’t even talk about it; they just built routines around each other and grew closer than ever over the two weeks they spent hanging out one-on-one.
As day 13 of Changbin-and-Jeongin time rolled around, Jeongin had come to accept that he not only had a massive crush on Changbin, he seriously liked Changbin. He had every attractive quality: hot body, pretty face, good communication, sweet personality, natural and incredible sense of humor. He’d also, somehow, managed to figure Jeongin out—knew how to make him laugh, knew how to tease him without pushing the boundary of annoying or straight-up pissing him off, even figured out Jeongin’s natural routine and inserted himself into it, from the free time Jeongin had to grab dessert to when Changbin could surprise him with a meal. All these intentional gestures made Jeongin’s heart flutter; he didn’t think he’d ever enjoyed a borderline-stranger’s company more.
Unlike Felix (he was much more like Minho in this way), Jeongin didn’t let his feelings fester once he acknowledged they were there. He didn’t care about moving too fast, and he was confident in his ability to recover if his confession wasn’t well-received. He was also confident in Changbin’s ability to turn him down gently and let Jeongin’s feelings roll off his back if he didn’t reciprocate them.
“Oh, Jeongin.” Changbin’s fond voice touched Jeongin at the same time his fingers did. He had the same affinity for moving quickly as Jeongin did; their lips touched before Jeongin even realized Changbin was leaning in. Jeongin eagerly took what he was given, tugging Changbin so close they could feel each other’s heartbeats.
“You are the first person I’ve kissed before the first date,” Jeongin muttered against Changbin’s lips. His words came one at a time, quick quips of sound between the dance that his and Changbin’s lips were locked in.
“I feel special.” Changbin broke their kiss to say it. He had a big, sappy grin on his face. “Have you kissed many people before?”
“Just three. Two partners and Jisung.”
“Jisung?”
“Long story.” Technically, he had time for it right now, but he’d also been syncopating the pace of his life with Changbin for two weeks, and their close proximity wasn’t doing his hormones any favors. He glued himself to Changbin again; the two fumbled around and landed on the couch—Changbin sitting up, Jeongin in his lap.
“Sex before the first date too, huh?” Changbin asked. He didn’t sound bothered by it, though he did stop Jeongin from kissing him for a moment. “Or is that presumptive? Are we just making out?”
“Not much I’ll say no to right now.” Jeongin spilled the words into Changbin’s mouth, his tongue following. It was a hot and heavy kiss—a far cry from his sweet and gentle confession less than 10 minutes ago. As was the case with most things, especially when it came to Jeongin, Changbin didn’t mind. He let Jeongin control the fast, wet pace of their kiss, let Jeongin roll his hips against Changbin’s stomach. He didn’t complain when Jeongin pushed his jacket and his shirt off, started to moan when they were both topless, heated skin pressed together.
“Do you have condoms?” Changbin asked, watching Jeongin begin to undo the button and zipper of his jeans. Jeongin thought about his roommates for a moment; he definitely didn’t, and he doubted Seungmin did. Hyunjin might. Jisung and Felix probably did. Was he fond of the idea of raiding their rooms for condoms? Definitely not. In fact, he probably shouldn’t.
“No,” Jeongin decided. He rolled his hips again. “Just don’t use one. I don’t care.”
“Honey, you need to care a lot more about that.” Changbin snorted. He squeezed Jeongin’s ass through his jeans, and Jeongin, embarrassingly, moaned—really loud.
“We also should not do this here,” Changbin said. He kissed Jeongin’s neck, pulling another moan out of him. “Your roommates use this couch. Let’s go to your room.”
Changbin and Jeongin didn’t go all the way, but they had no qualms about touching one another and sucking each other off. For the next 24 hours—the remainder of the time they were able to spend alone before they had to make multiple trips to the airport and train station to bring their friends back home—they were all over each other. It was mostly Jeongin’s fault; he’d never been so attracted to someone in his life, didn’t think it could ever get this intense. Changbin promised he felt exactly the same, he just didn’t have the same instinct to initiate as Jeongin did. He opted for looking more than he did touching, especially as he got used to their newfound mutual attraction to one another and the consent Jeongin gave him to touch.
Because they didn’t have a label (yet), given they hadn’t even gone on a real date (though, all those one-on-one dinners, dessert outings, and such certainly counted for something), Changbin and Jeongin agreed not to tell their friends yet. They would date exclusively and mess around for a while, see what happened after that.
It took a month. After their eighth dinner over those two weekends, on top of the countless, impromptu lunches Changbin had gone out of his way to bring Jeongin, coupled with all the flowers and chocolates he loved to buy, Changbin dropped the question. “Jeongin. Will you be my boyfriend?”
Jeongin said yes so fast, it was like he’d been anticipating the question. Changbin slept over that night, though Jeongin respected his roommates enough to silently jerk Changbin off in the shower rather than put him through his bed like he wanted to.
The next morning, as Jeongin was standing in the kitchen, drinking orange juice with Changbin attached to his back, Jisung confronted them. “What’s going on with you two?”
Hyunjin was in the room, too, half of his body in the refrigerator as he dug out one of the yogurts he bought weeks ago. Jeongin glanced at Changbin, who was already looking at him—letting him take the lead.
“We’re together,” Jeongin said. All was silent for a few moments. Jisung’s expression was blank—not even confused, just empty. Hyunjin was gawking at them, a certainly-expired cup of yogurt hanging dangerously on the edge of his fingers.
Then, Jisung burst out laughing. “Good one.”
Hyunjin had joined Jisung’s laughter. “We leave them alone for a couple weeks and they already have inside jokes.”
And thus began years and years of their friends, for some reason, not picking up on the very obvious signs, and not believing the outright confessions, that Changbin and Jeongin were in a relationship.
* ° : ⋆ ₓ ₒ
“Does it bother you?” Jeongin asked. They were on Jeongin’s bed—Jeongin, flat on his back as he listened to a podcast, and Changbin, on his stomach as he read his textbook. At Jeongin’s words, Changbin dropped his phone in the book and closed it, granting Jeongin all of his attention.
“Does what bother me?” Changbin asked.
“That our friends don’t think we’re together?” They were two hours out from the movie they’d watched with Hyunjin and Seungmin. That movie date had started as an actual date, except Hyunjin overheard them talking about it and butted into their plans, promising to bring Seungmin along, too. The whole situation was just amusing to Jeongin, and he’d let the oblivious pair tag along.
“No. I think it’s hilarious,” Changbin said. He moved closer to Jeongin, draped an arm over his stomach just for some physical contact. “Does it bother you?”
“No,” Jeongin said. He liked how easy this was. Changbin was only his third partner, but his last two hadn’t been phenomenal. They weren’t nearly as laid-back, from his overthinker ex-girlfriend to this jealous ex-boyfriend. He always had to prove something to the two of them. No, he wasn’t going to suddenly “turn gay” just because he was bisexual. No, he wasn’t flirting with the guy or chick he’d talked to for three minutes.
Changbin never made him prove anything—not even the simple fact that they were dating. That’s not to say Jeongin didn’t try, though. He couldn’t count the amount of times he’d said the words “Changbin is my boyfriend” or “Changbin and I are going on a date.” To this day, every single one of their friends—even Seungmin, who knew everything about everyone —thought they were just joking. Jeongin blamed Jisung and Felix, who called each other “honey” as a joke, because their friends were putting Changbin and Jeongin’s constant boyfriend talk on the same playing field.
“They’ll figure it out one day.” Changbin said. He kissed Jeongin briefly—so quick, Jeongin couldn’t even react. “They’ll have to know when we invite them to our wedding.”
Jeongin smiled so hard it hurt. “Yeah? You’re gonna marry me?”
“Of course I am.” Changbin kissed Jeongin again. And again. And again—interrupting himself every few words just so their lips could touch. “I’ll save up. It’ll be beautiful. Chan will be my best man. Jisung too. You can have everyone else.”
“Hyunjin will explode if he’s not the only one for me,” Jeongin said. He wrapped his arms around Changbin’s neck. “Seungmin would kill me, though. What if we each have three? Do you want Felix or Minho?”
“Hm, Minho.” Changbin nudged his nose against Jeongin. A silly, cheesy gesture. It made Jeongin’s heart race. “He’ll console Chan when he inevitably starts crying.”
“Oh, Hyunjin is going to be hysterical.” Jeongin couldn’t control the volume of his laughter at the thought of Chan and Hyunjin inadvertently out-crying each other at his and Changbin’s wedding.
“I can’t wait,” Changbin said. “But, for the record, I will, so you can finish school and all.”
Changbin graduated last year. Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, and Seungmin would graduate in two months. Jeongin had another year to go.
“Just one more,” Jeongin said. “Then you can propose.”
“Wasting no time, hm?” Changbin kissed Jeongin a dozen times, from his neck, to his jaw, to his lips. Technically, Changbin and Jeongin were pretty early in their relationship to be thinking about marriage. Three years was a long time in some aspects, but not this one. Still, everyone moved at their own pace. If Changbin dropped to one knee right now and popped the question, Jeongin was certain he’d say yes.
“I’ll propose to you in front of all our friends one day,” Changbin promised. “Then they’ll know for sure.”
* ° : ⋆ ₓ ₒ
Finals season came and went, and graduation season rolled around. With two weeks left until the “2000 line” was officially done with undergrad, the group still hadn’t figured it out.
In all fairness, life was moving fast, and a lot of things were changing. Jisung took his roommates to dinner to announce that he was going to move out once their lease was up in a few months; he wanted to move in with Minho. It was the perfect time for Felix to confess that he and Chan had been talking about moving in together, too.
Jeongin didn’t say anything on the subject to his roommates that night, except for some congratulatory compliments. He waited until he saw Changbin for lunch the next day to bring it up again. “Have you heard Jisung and Minho are going to move in together?”
“Mhm.” Changbin tilted his cup away from his mouth, voice echoing through his cup. “Chan and Felix too, right?”
“Yeah.” Jeongin let the words hang in the air. He wasn’t shy about most things, but this felt big—a comical thought to have, given he’d been talking to Changbin about marriage two months ago.
“Yang Jeongin.” Too quickly for Jeongin to process, Changbin had slid out of his seat. He settled on one knee, and Jeongin’s whole body went cold. No way—he said he was going to do this in front of our friends!
“Will you move in with me?”
It took Jeongin a moment to come down from the shock and fully process what Changbin had just done. When he did, he landed a few slaps against Changbin’s shoulders and chest. “You idiot! Why would you ask me like that? Are you crazy?”
Jeongin couldn’t stop laughing. He was in tears by the time Changbin slid back into the booth, also laughing his ass off. Luckily, they were one of two couples in their corner of the restaurant; the other couple was elderly, too preoccupied with the task of cutting up their meals to notice the incident. Jeongin might have killed Changbin if he convinced some strangers he was about to propose in this very public place.
“Yes.” Jeongin eventually got the words out through his teary laughter. “Yes, I’d love to move in with you.”
Unlike their friends, who all had to break leases with their roommates, Changbin and Jeongin had the privilege of bypassing the apartment hunt. Since he’d moved out on his own, Changbin had lived by himself, and he had no problem making space for all of Jeongin’s things. He was even willing to be the sole person to help Jeongin move—until Hyunjin got himself involved.
“I can’t believe you’re moving in with Changbin. I didn’t realize you two were so close,” Hyunjin said. He’d learned the harsh truth when he approached Seungmin and Jeongin to ask if they wanted to stay in the apartment, or if the three of them should find another place to stay. Jeongin awkwardly confessed he was moving in with Changbin next week—but he’d pay his part of the rent for the next three months anyway, just like Jisung and Felix had agreed to do.
“We’re literally dating,” Jeongin said. That earned him an eye roll—as doubtful as ever.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just admit it, you like him more than the rest of us,” Hyunjin said.
“I do.” Jeongin deadpanned.
“You wound me.”
“You annoy me.”
Like the flash, Hyunjin pressed a kiss to Jeongin’s cheek—and he booked it as Jeongin raised his fist, ready to punch Hyunjin in the gut. Changbin chose that moment to come outside, saving Hyunjin’s life by wrapping his arms around Jeongin’s torso and pinning his arms to his side.
“Thank God.” Hyunjin said, hand over his heart like he was the victim. “He was trying to kill me.”
“Mhm.” Changbin might show more interest in their little spat if it weren’t closing in on nightfall with one more trip to make back to the (soon-to-be-former) roommates’ apartment to collect the last of Jeongin’s things. For now, he urged the two to empty the cars—no, just put everything in the common area for now, Changbin and Jeongin could sort it out later.
“In my defense,” Jeongin muttered as Hyunjin actually started to follow Changbin’s orders. “He kissed me.”
“He wants you so bad,” Changbin teased. He let Jeongin go with a small kiss pressed to the side of his neck. “Go grab a few things. One more trip, and then we have the whole night to ourselves.”
(They didn’t. Hyunjin asked if he could sleep over because he was going to miss Jeongin. Once again, Jeongin and Changbin had to have their fun silently in the shower—but it was still a special night spent together as a couple that had just taken the next big step.)
* ° : ⋆ ₓ ₒ
When he wanted it to, Changbin’s voice could carry for miles. He was the key to making their group the loudest when it came to cheering for the ‘00 line as each of them stepped up to accept their diplomas. He shouted their names and sweet phrases like “I’m so proud of you,” so, at the very least, he wasn’t yelling just to yell. He was tired by the end, though, and was happy to stand outside with Jeongin, Minho, and Chan as they waited for the graduates to find them between Changbin’s and Jeongin’s cars.
“Just wait until you graduate,” Changbin said. He was leaning against his car, and Jeongin was leaning against Changbin’s chest, lazily and selfishly giving his body weight to Changbin as he grew restless on his feet in the sun. With grace and without complaint, Changbin balanced him. “You’ll have seven people cheering for you.”
Jeongin’s lazy reply came in the form of a hum, half-muffled by Changbin’s jacket. He had no idea how Changbin was wearing it in this heat, but he couldn’t be bothered to ask. If Changbin really wanted it off, he’d shift Jeongin away from him or otherwise jostle him to take it off.
“You okay?” Changbin’s hand was in his hair, petting his head—a little too warm, but Jeongin welcomed the sensation of Changbin’s touch more than he felt annoyed by the extra heat. It wasn’t until Chan and Minho started teasing him with touches, jokingly coddling him the same way they assumed Changbin was, that he pulled away, breaking all contact with everyone.
“You guys lost me my blanket,” Changbin whined. Minho snorted, “Like you need one. Why are you still wearing a jacket? Aren’t you burning up?”
Changbin shrugged, but he finally did take off his jacket. It wasn’t until that moment, as Changbin turned around to toss the jacket into his car, that Jeongin remembered what he’d done to Changbin’s collar bones. They were covered in bruises—because Jeongin was a biter and he liked Changbin’s body, sue him.
“God damn!” Minho stepped into Changbin’s space to observe all of the marks. Chan was gawking, too. “You must have had fun last night.”
“Yep.” Changbin gave Jeongin a look. This was where Jeongin drew the line—their sex life. He did not want to discuss it with anyone but Changbin, even if it was just little jokes here and there. He’d communicated this to Changbin, and he hadn’t heard a single sexual joke fall out of his boyfriend’s mouth since.
“Who the hell have you been getting active with?” Chan asked.
“My boyfriend,” Changbin answered. Chan and Minho overlapped each other — “Your boyfriend?” “Who?” — and both noticed, one second apart, that Changbin had his eyes on Jeongin.
“Not this again.” Minho pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your commitment to covering for each other is palpable. When I meet your real partners, I will be telling them about you two.”
“Go ahead,” Changbin laughed. He went through the same cycle when the graduates arrived. Jisung was the first to point out the ‘bruise cruise’ that was Changbin’s neck, and Seungmin was the one to grow exasperated at the “persistent joke” that was Changbin’s declaration that he was, in fact, dating Jeongin.
“Just for that, you two are paying for lunch.” Seungmin said.
“We’re already driving you around, but okay,” Jeongin said. He stood by the open, driver side door of his car. “Where are we going?”
“Tony's,” Changbin said. He blew Jeongin a kiss and gave him a wink as he ducked into his car. “See you there, handsome!”
Jeongin shook his head fondly. “Idiot.”
* ° : ⋆ ₓ ₒ
Changbin is sitting on their bed attempting to play guitar. Jeongin is laying with his head on the pillows, admiring him through his eyelashes. He was supposed to be asleep; he wanted to take a nap before going over to Hyunjin and Seungmin’s apartment for a small get-together that Hyunjin was trying to call a party (it was just going to be the eight of them).
It wasn’t the guitar keeping Jeongin awake. In fact, Changbin had the instrument in his lap 20 minutes before Jeongin decided he wanted to sleep, and he refused to let Changbin leave the room because the music, as choppy as it was, was relaxing. It was something else—something a little more personal, a little more love-adjacent. He couldn’t stop looking from Changbin’s concentrated face to the muscles flexing in his bicep. He couldn’t stop feeling like he was so lucky, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how much he loved this man. Then, he was laughing, giving himself up—because he couldn’t believe his friends, somehow, had no idea he was this pathetically in love, and had been for over four years.
“I’m keeping you awake, aren’t I?” Changbin asked. He set the guitar aside, carefully balancing it against the bed. Jeongin sat up, meeting the hands that were reaching for him.
“Yes. But not because of the guitar,” Jeongin said. Changbin tilted his head, inviting Jeongin to answer his curiosity without a verbal question. “I just like you so much. I love you. You look really hot playing guitar.”
“You’re the horniest person I’ve ever met,” Changbin said—but he loved it, and he kissed Jeongin’s mouth three times for it. “And that’s saying something. I know Lee Minho.”
“I’m also sweet. And sappy. And corny and in love.” Jeongin kissed Changbin, and again, and again. “I’ll have you know, I’m never like this with anyone. Like, ever, in my entire life.”
“Well, that’s good.” Changbin grinned. “Means I’m special.”
“You are.” Jeongin wrapped his arms around Changbin’s neck with the intention of pulling him close. He was on his back, Changbin on top of him, just like he wanted in under 30 seconds. “Fuck the nap. Touch me.”
Three rounds later, Changbin and Jeongin ended up at the hosts’ apartment late. Hyunjin smacked them both on the back of the head for showing up 30 minutes after everyone else—and yet, they were still picking the movie when Changbin and Jeongin settled on the couch together, sodas in hand.
“Wait, pause it.” Jisung was clambering off of Minho’s lap. “I have to piss.”
“Jesus Christ, Han Jisung.” Hyunjin paused the movie despite his complaints. It gave him time to make more popcorn, as the group had chewed through most of it while they danced around movie choices and waited for Changbin and Jeongin to show up.
“Why were you two late?” Chan asked, genuinely curious. Jeongin pursed his lips, giving Changbin a quick look. The truth was a little too much to admit, but Jeongin couldn’t think quick enough on his feet to come up with an excuse. Changbin was too busy sipping on his soda to offer any help.
“Oh here they go.” Minho started laughing, though his head was tilted back in annoyance. “They’re coming up with another boyfriend plot.”
“Why do you and Changbin call each other boyfriends anyway?” Felix asked, earnestly looking at Jeongin. “That came out of nowhere.”
“Wasn’t it a couple years ago, when we all went home for the holidays?” Seungmin was pointing at Jeongin, but he was looking at Felix. “These two hung out the whole time.”
Jeongin looked at Changbin. Changbin was already looking at him.
“Must have been a pretty mind-blowing hangout.” Hyunjin walked into the room shoving hot popcorn into his mouth. “Even Jisung and Felix didn’t do that.”
“Maybe because Jisung and Felix didn’t start literally dating,” Jeongin said. For good measure, Changbin slid closer to him and draped his arm over Jeongin’s shoulder. But, like clockwork, that just had Hyunjin whining, “No fair. I’ve been your friend for so long, how come only Changbin can coddle you?”
“Because he is my boyfriend.” Jeongin just barely stopped himself from kicking the table next to his feet. Usually, this didn’t bother him—but when it was drawn out, more than one comment shot in his direction, it just got kind of pathetic, really. He looked at Changbin, exasperated. “What can we even say at this point?”
“You could kiss me,” Changbin suggested. He’d lowered his voice, but it was probably still enough for Seungmin or Hyunjin to hear, given their proximity to the couple. Jeongin considered it for a moment, his eyes flicking down to Changbin’s lips, before he figured, fuck it, this was probably the best chance they’d get at proving it to everyone, all at once.
The silence that cut across the room as Jeongin kissed Changbin was deafening. Jeongin made it last, not wanting to leave any room for doubt. As soon as he pulled away, Changbin started to laugh. Each of their friends was wide-eyed, slack-jawed—even Jisung, who must have walked into the room part of the way through Changbin and Jeongin’s kiss; he was frozen by the entryway. It took a full minute for anyone to say anything.
“Damn.” It was Seungmin. “You weren’t kidding.”
“Wait.” Hyunjin was on his feet, looking wildly around the room. His gaze hit Jeongin and Changbin every other second. “Hold on. No joke, literally, seriously, are you two together? You two are literally boyfriends? This isn’t a bit?”
“It was never a bit.” Jeongin had finally found some amusement in the moment, his tense shoulders falling under Changbin’s steady hand. “We’ve been dating since that whole two-week-hangout.”
“Four years?” It was Felix’s turn to be loud and dramatic about a fact that had been living right under their noses.
“Oh my God.” Hyunjin placed both of his hands on his head like a cartoon character. “I invited myself on so many of your dates. Why did you let me do that?!”
Jeongin just shook his head, balancing the weight of his headache in his hand. Changbin massaged his shoulders, and he answered all the questions flung at them. We let you crash our dates because it was funny, and we saw each other all the time anyway. No, the jokes weren’t annoying. Yes, we’ve been dating for the full four years. Yes, we chose to live together because we were dating—yes, I actually wanted him to move in. No, we never had sex on the old couch, Jesus Christ.
“Good, because we kept that thing.” Hyunjin gestured to the couch he, Seungmin, Jeongin, and Changbin were currently sitting on. As his hand came back around to his body, it slapped over his face, primarily covering his eyes and his forehead. “Oh my God. Oh my God. I can’t believe you’ve been dating all these years. I’ve tried to kiss Jeongin, like, a dozen times.”
“Which is why I always told you to stop.” Jeongin nudged Hyunjin with his foot. He was leaning back against Changbin now, head tilted against his shoulder. Changbin’s massage had moved to his hips and his sides, avoiding the parts of Jeongin’s abdomen that he knew were particularly ticklish. “I can’t believe you all thought it was a joke this whole time. We never tried to hide it. Like, at all.”
“You guys were just, I don’t know. An unconventional pair, I guess.” Felix said. “No offense. You’re a really cute couple, now that I see it. I just never thought about it.”
A chorus of agreements rippled through the room, all mumbled and overlapping.
“Well, now you know.” Jeongin shrugged it off, just like he’d been doing all these years. He laced his fingers through Changbin’s. “We’ll be the first ones married, by the way!”
As it often happened, all their responses overlapped. “If you say so.” “But you weren’t even the first ones dating!” “No chance.” “I’ll propose way before Changbin.” “I better be your best man!”