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A movie played on the TV, the characters' screams reaching Hong's ears as he glanced at the screen. He didn't have the slightest clue what the movie even was about, but it seemed like the characters had finally figured out the plot twist, which Hong had already guessed during the opening scene.
He figured he hadn't missed anything important.
He looked back at his phone, or more specifically, at the little text bubble appearing and disappearing in annoying little intervals.
It was taking way too long.
Hong went back and reread the message he had sent.
'would be even more fun if you were here'
It hadn't seemed too risky when he'd typed it out, but as he waited for Nut to respond, he suddenly wished he hadn't been quite so direct. Maybe he was making Nut uncomfortable. Or maybe he was taking too…
A message popped up
'let's go to the theaters when we have a day off'
Hong's heart jumped up to his throat, pushing out a disbelieving giggle. He slapped a hand over his mouth, quickly glancing over to Est sitting by his side. But Est only offered him a slightly tired side eye before he returned to watching the film. Hong took in a new lungful of air before finally turning back to his phone, ready to answer Nut's message.
But a second one awaited him.
'anything you wanna watch, it's my treat'
Hong's body twisted, pressing his face into the couch cushions, to stop a scream from escaping his lungs. Taking in a full breath had clearly been a bad choice, because now it only seemed to have one way out.
He wasn't quite sure what he had expected Nut to answer, but it most certainly wasn't that. He might have hoped for it, but… shit. He hadn't remembered to reply!
Quickly, Hong looked back at his phone. He had left Nut on read for 3 minutes. Which wasn't actually that much in the scope of things, but still made Hong's heart drop directly from his throat to the pit of his stomach.
What was he supposed to say?
He typed, 'consider it a date' and then deleted it just as quickly.
He pressed his fingers back on the keys, typing out new sentences.
'I would rather go somewhere private'
'ask me out properly'
'what are we'
And deleting each one before he might go insane enough to accidentally click send.
He typed out a final version and sent it out.
'sounds like fun :)'
Oh, that was so lame. Hong hid his face back into the cushions just so that he didn't have to witness the absolute death of conversation his dry ass text would likely cause. Maybe he should have said something else anyway?
He had a split-second idea to simply delete the message and attempt to come up with something better. But when he saw the little bubble appear again, he decided to just lock his phone instead, before setting it face down on the armrest.
The movie noises stopped abruptly.
"What's up with you today?" Est asked, turning around on the couch so that he could sit facing Hong.
"It's just —" Hong's fingers twitched over his phone, like it could help him escape the need to explain.
"Not again," Est sighed, slumping sideways to lean his temple on the backrest. "What did he do this time?"
Hong's back straightened as he measured Est with an intense gaze. "He didn't do anything! He's perfect."
"So what's the problem?"
"That is the problem." The momentary focus Hong had melted away, and he leaned back onto the armrest, throwing his feet into Est's lap.
"He talks so sweetly, and he's always there taking care of me. But then it's never more than that." Hong spoke to the ceiling. "He'll always come to pick me up so he can drive me home after work, and we'll talk in his car for hours. But then he will just let me leave with nothing more than a wave."
Est cocked his eyebrows a little, but Hong decided to ignore it.
"On stage he'll stand next to me in line to hold my hand, but he'll never do it outside of it. He makes plans for us, but never calls it a date. He tells me he loves me, but how do I know if it's different from how he says it to others?"
The examples rolled off Hong's tongue.
"See the way he texts me!" Hong unlocked his phone without looking to see what Nut had answered and threw it to Est.
Est began scrolling immediately, eyes jumping over the texts. "Oh."
"I don't think I'm supposed to see this," he said after a few minutes, "This seems quite… private."
"Why do you think that?" Hong shot up to a seated position, leaning his head closer to Est to see the text he was currently reading.
But Est saved him the trouble, "You worry for nothing; the pink shirt looked cute on you."
"But that's noth—" Hong began to protest, but Est cut him off to read another message.
"You sounded very beautiful today in the recording. Your singing has improved so much."
And a third one.
"I have complete faith in you. You are amazing, Prin."
Est stopped reading, his eyebrows doing confused little waves.
"Prin?" He repeated, turning to look at Hong like he was waiting for an explanation.
"It's just a nickname." Hong waved his hand like it didn't matter, leaning closer to Est as he expected him to continue scrolling.
Est lowered the phone, eyeing his friend with suspicion.
"Nickname of??" Est asked when it seemed like Hong wasn't going to continue on his own.
"Short for princess or prince because he couldn’t choose," Hong mumbled, the tips of his ears heating a little with how sweet it suddenly sounded.
Est rolled his eyes and moved on.
"Have you eaten? Did you get enough rest? You should take another nap. I'll bring you coffee." The texts fell off Est's tongue in a litany.
Then he mumbled, "He's even more overbearing than William." Before scrolling further up the conversation.
"You two talk a lot."
Hong couldn't deny that. They texted constantly when they weren't together, and sometimes even when they sat next to each other in the practice room simply to have some privacy.
"And you are dry as hell."
Hong decisively ignored the last comment and went back to Est's previous point.
They did talk a lot, but it was normal between friends. Especially in their circumstances when their lives were tied together so fully, there was no way they wouldn't talk.
"Nothing weird about talking a lot."
If Est side-eyed him any harder, his eyes might have gotten permanently stuck that way.
And as much as that would have entertained Hong, he felt like he needed to put the record straight, "We are close! It's just friendship. You and I talk a lot too."
"First of all, you are my best friend! Of course we talk a lot," Est started, now looking at Hong fully to help get his point across.
Hong raised his hand, ready to cut in, "But Nut is —"
But Est didn't give him the chance.
"Second, Hong, I can assure you that Nut doesn't talk to his other friends this way."
Hong wasn't quite sure what kind of face he made at that, but it made Est huff out an exasperated laugh.
"Hold on." Est dug his own phone from his pocket and began scrolling through with the intense focus of someone who was trying to prove a point. When he handed the phone to Hong, the chat with Nut was open.
Hong wasn't sure he wanted to read it.
He didn't want to witness Nut talk to others in case it was with more care than he used with Hong. He had worked so hard not to be jealous of everyone around them, and he couldn't bear seeing the last thread of his hope dying before his eyes.
"Just look at it. You'll see."
So Hong did, and he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing.
The messages came from the same number, with the same heartmeltigly adorable profile picture, but the texting style was completely unfamiliar to Hong. The messages were short and sarcastic, and conversations never dragged on any longer than was necessary.
It was definitely Nut writing it, but not his Nut.
When Hong looked back from the screen, he found Est grinning, still scrolling through something on Hong's phone.
"Darling," Est sighed over dramatically, pressing the phone against his chest.
Hong's ears burned, and he quickly reached over to snatch the phone back before Est could read anything to humiliate him further. On his own phone screen, Hong could see the message Est had been reading. 'I'm so proud of you, darling'
"If you really want him, you have to do something about it. You can't just sit around being passive." Est stared Hong down with a serious look as he spoke, trying his very hardest to get the words to take root in Hong's confused brain. It seemed to work partly as Hong's attention snapped back into the conversation they were having.
"Do something about it?" Hong repeated. "Like what?"
Est lifted one hand in the air, fingers splayed. He folded his pinky down before he even began speaking. "Put yourself in a position where he can flirt with you."
Est folded another finger, "Make it clear you are enjoying said flirting."
And another, "Let him give you that special treatment. Show you are upset if he doesn't."
It was Hong's turn to tease, "As you do with William?"
But Est didn't take the bait, "It worked, didn't it? Sulk if you have to, to get his attention"
That must have been number four, as now Est only had his pointed finger raised. He directed it at Hong, "And when you talk to him, make it clear you are interested. Tease him, flirt back, or in the very least make yourself seem like a willing participant in the conversation. You keep on with how you are doing now, and he's gonna give up on you sooner or later."
That seemed to have an effect on Hong at last, because he gripped his phone tighter, pressing it against his chest like it could ward off the heartbreaking idea of Nut no longer wanting to talk with him.
"So what do I say?" Hong asked carefully, tilting the phone away from his chest by a fraction. He looked down at the screen like it held all the answers, but it stayed dark, mirroring his own face back to him.
Hong chewed on his lip for a full minute, unable to string together even the most simple sentence. That minute seemed to be all Est's patience could handle before it finally fractured.
"Just give it to me!" Est lurched forward at the same time as Hong leaned back, his arms hanging over the edge of the couch as he attempted to keep his phone away from Est's reach.
"Let me do it myself," Hong screeched, as Est's elbow pressed sharply against his shoulder. He twisted underneath Est, attempting to roll onto the floor and escape from the couch, but Est dropped his whole body weight on him.
"You won't do it on your own," Est argued, still attempting to wrangle the phone from his friend's fingers, not even caring that said friend was getting squished in the process.
The phone slipped from Hong's grip, and Est held it up in the air like a victory flag.
"God, you are so heavy," Hong grumbled, using his now empty hands to shove Est to the other end of the couch.
Est let out a coughing laugh as he slumped to lie on the opposite armrest, taking a moment to try and catch his breath.
"You should actually be thanking me for my help," Est finally said, sounding a little smug as he lifted Hong's phone in the air and finally turned the screen on.
Hong didn't say thank you, but he didn't argue anymore either as he crawled into the narrow space between Est and the backrest. He laid his cheek on Est's shoulder, twisting into a comfortable position to see what Est was doing on the phone.
Est pressed his thumb against the fingerprint reader, and the phone unlocked; Hong didn't bother to ask when Est had decided that he had the right to access Hong's phone.
The conversation with Nut was still open, with a little 'new messages' symbol shining at the bottom right corner of the screen. Hong could only swallow as Est clicked it.
"You left him on read?" Est nearly dropped the phone as he stared at the timestamps.
"FOR THIS ENTIRE TIME?!"
Hong scrambled even closer to Est, nearly pressing their cheeks together in desperation to read what Nut had answered.
There were four messages altogether; the first two had been sent twenty minutes ago, the third one a few minutes after, and the final one only five minutes ago.
Shit.
'good, that's agreed then'
'anything specific you'd like to see?'
'Hong?'
'did you fall asleep with your phone again?'
Est began typing back before Hong even had the chance to try and stop him.
'Sorry, I was talking with Est'
'I'm fine with any movie, it's only the company that matters 😙'
Hong snatched the phone back, but it was too late. The messages had already been read.
"I don't even type like that! And what's with that emoji?" Hong pressed the edge of the phone against his forehead, eyes closed, like he was praying for the internet gods to get rid of the evidence of his humiliation.
But soon the screen blinked back to life with a new message.
'then I'll pick the longest one 😙'
Hong stared at the message, eyes wide, and mouth hanging open with the curses he no longer needed. His fingers played over the keyboard, but what was he even supposed to say to that? All that was left inside his brain was the echo of his own wildly beating heart.
"Oh for God's sake, answer something!"
"What?" Hong felt hopeless. He didn't know how to flirt back when there were actual feelings on the line. His usual casual romantic comebacks had no place in these conversations and…
"Just… give it to me." Est took the phone back, and this time Hong didn't even attempt to resist. He only leaned on Est's shoulder as he watched him type.
"Use the dot-line emoticons, not the real ones."
Est turned to look at him with a frown, "The what?"
"This." Hong drew the little smiley on Est's knee.
'Est says the premium hall is nice for a long show :) Pick the seats in the back'
"You didn't say that?" Hong frowned. "And why the seats in the back?"
"Love seats," Est said simply, and were it not for being sandwiched between Est and the couch, Hong would have certainly toppled down on the floor in his shock. Now all he managed to do was scramble up in a half-seated position.
"The what?!" He asked in slight panic, with the tingling sensation of blush spreading wildly over his cheeks.
"That's too straightforward," Hong accused, crossing his arms as he slumped back down.
He was quite sure Est rolled his eyes as he said, "No, it isn't. Especially because it seems like my idea, not yours."
Hong was still not quite convinced, but he allowed the moment to pass; his nerves spiked. The little typing bubble had appeared again, teasing Hong with how it blinked into existence before disappearing.
It took Nut notably longer to answer this time, and by the time the answer appeared, Hong had already managed to chew a hole in his bottom lip.
'thank you, Est'
Hong had barely managed to register the sentence before Est tilted the screen so that Hong couldn't see it and typed back.
'You are welcome. Now take the hint and take my best friend out on a date before I find someone else to do it'
"Est what —"
But Est pressed a palm against Hong's mouth, effectively shutting him up as they waited for Nut to finish typing.
'Give the phone back to Hong then'
Est obviously didn't, still not trusting his friend to type for himself.
'Picking you up for our date at 7 pm on Saturday. Can't wait to see you, love'
Est grinned, quickly deleting his last message before finally turning the phone so that Hong could see the texts.
Hong snatched the phone from Est and crawled to his end of the couch, to have the privacy to read the message just a few extra times.
Hong stared at Nut's last message for minutes with eyes that didn't seem to work anymore. There was no way it was real; he must have been dreaming or hallucinating or… He closed his eyes and blinked them back open.
The message was still there.
"Holy shit," Hong let out a disbelieving chuckle, turning his wide-eyed gaze from the phone screen to Est and back.
Est grinned lazily, his position the epitome of cool and relaxed. "You are welcome."
"But how did…?"
"Like it's hard." Est stretched his arms up in the air as he finally sat up. His smile had turned slightly less smug and more sincere in a way that told Hong that Est was genuinely happy he had been able to help.
Not that Est would ever say it out loud.
"Seriously, Hong, that man is so into you that all he needs is a little encouragement from you to take the next step."
The blush spread from Hong's cheeks to his ears, and he lowered his gaze, suddenly unable to meet Est's eyes anymore. His best friend knew too much, and all that knowledge felt like ammunition to make Hong want to melt into a puddle of his embarrassment.
"I'd recommend wearing some lip gloss."
Hong promptly attempted to ignore the images that were put inside his head, but he was unable to run from the idea of Nut staring at his mouth and finally actually kissing him instead of just looking.
The thought made Hong choke a little, coughing to cover for the way his body was betraying him.
Hong was still in the middle of falling into his daydreamland when Est suddenly straightened up and turned on the couch to face Hong.
"One last thing."
Hong sprang back to focus, lowering his phone on his lap so that he could give whatever Est was about to say his full attention.
"This you'll need to remember above all."
Hong leaned forward, looking straight into Est's eyes as he attempted to understand how he could possibly look so serious and so mischievous at the same time.
"Even when you get a boyfriend, I still come first," Est finally said as he reached out to pluck Hong's phone from his hands and burrowed under the decorative pillows.
Est almost seemed to be pouting, and Hong couldn't help but let out a laugh. Instead of attempting to get his phone back, Hong reached for the bowl of popcorn on the table and turned the movie back on.
"Always," he said, grinning at Est as they settled back into more comfortable positions.
The movie continued rolling, and this time Hong kept his eyes on the screen, constantly asking Est questions to fill in the gaps he had missed. Est answered each one.
Hong figured he might just have the world's greatest best friend.