That was not the reaction Vernon had been anticipating.

He'd just told Seungkwan that Chan had asked him to go out on date-like activities with him and Seungkwan had told him to give the other boy a chance. Vernon had thought his best friend disliked the younger boy. He needed a minute to process everything.

So, following his best friend's advice, Vernon decided to accept Chan's offer. He'd wait until tomorrow after Seungkwan left to text Chan and arrange everything, though.

Vernon searched for something to talk about. Usually, conversation was easy with Seungkwan, but he'd been expecting a big freakout so he hadn't prepared other topics.

"What do you want to do now?" He asked, leaning towards the laptop he and Seungkwan had been watching videos on before he'd brought up Chan.

Seungkwan shrugged, "Everything seems boring after that announcement. Look at you, about to get your first boyfriend before the openly gay kid." Seungkwan sounded slightly bitter.

Vernon shifted. "What about Jihoon? He's nice to you despite being sour to everyone else." Vernon didn't like the idea of Seungkwan getting with anyone who wasn't good enough for him, but if it cheered him up and Vernon could keep an eye on the two it'd do for now.

Seungkwan shook his head, face screwed up in a grimace. "Ew, Vernon. Jihoon's basically a black hole when it comes to romance - and he's straight. Besides, I kind of want to save myself for someone who /means/ something to me."

Vernon nodded. Of course, Seungkwan was the type to want to experience all his firsts with his soulmate.

Just then, before either boy had a chance to say something more, Vernon's door opened. Joshua poked his head in. "Your mum said you and Seungkwan could eat in your room tonight. Something about it being too long since you two had 'quality time alone'? I'll bring in dinner for you two when it's done."

"Yeah, sure, thanks. Any idea what she's cooking?"

Joshua shrugged. "Can't tell yet, but it smells good." Then he left, closing the door behind him.

Vernon turned back to Seungkwan, who had a look of confusion on his face. It was only then that he realised his conversation with Joshua had been in English.

"Mum said we can eat in my room tonight since it's been ages since you were last over. Joshua came in to tell us he'd bring it in when it's ready," Vernon explained.

Seungkwan sighed dreamily. "He's so gorgeous, Vernon!"

"He has a soulmate," Vernon pointed out sourly.

"It's not wrong if I'm /just looking/, is it? I don't want to date him or anything. He's like a painting." Seungkwan waved off Vernon's concern.

"Our /friend/ Junghan is his soulmate."

"And he's so lucky to have a soulmate like Joshua! And he's got another one he hasn't met yet. Why do all the good looking people have all the luck?"

Vernon had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. "Seungkwan, it just seems that way. Remember that really ugly dude that won a competition for a house or something a couple years back?"

"That sort of luck doesn't count. I meant lucky in /love/, Vernon!" Seungkwan slammed his hands down on the bed in mock rage.

Vernon shook his head, chuckling. "You get so worked up about love and soulmates, Seungkwan. Let's talk about something else, though. The last few times we've talked about soulmates you and I've fought."

Seungkwan nodded, and Vernon saw his adam's apple bob. "Of course, no problem." The other boy looked around, as if searching for something else to talk about. "You know," he began, only to stop short.

"You wanna watch more internet videos?" Vernon suggested. Seungkwan nodded.

Sometime after, while they were watching their nth Vine compilation, there was a knock at the door.

"I have food," Joshua declared through the unopened door. Vernon paused the video and got up to open the door. He took the tray of food out of Joshua's and turned straight back around. He called a thanks over his shoulder as he kicked the door shut, then headed over to the laptop.

"Spaghetti and meatballs!" Vernon announced as he put the tray down. There was two empty plates, a large bowl full of the spaghetti and meatballs, as well as a container of parmesan cheese and a note telling them dessert would be up later.

"Your mum goes so overboard when I stay over," Seungkwan commented as he reached to grab a plate and fill it with food. "Or is she normally like this?"

Vernon shrugged as started filling his own plate. "I don't really pay attention to what she cooks unless it tastes gross, I just eat it." Vernon eyed his friend's plate, it was heaped higher than he thought Seungkwan's diet and exercise plan allowed. "That's getting super full, isn't it?"

Seungkwan shook his head. "Mingyu's mum thinks I've been too harsh on myself with my diet, so she introduced Saturday as cheat day! I still eat fairly healthily, but I can have a bit more than my normal servings."

Vernon hadn't ever really payed attention to Seungkwan's diet before, but hearing Seungkwan actually talk about it and not skim over it had made Vernon curious.

"How much is your normal serving?"

Seungkwan started putting the parmesan cheese over his plate of spaghetti. "It depends on what I'm eating and how much exercise I do. Why?" Seungkwan passed the container of parmesan to Vernon and started eating.

"I wanna know you're looking after yourself. What sort of exercise do you do?" Seungkwan couldn't be doing anything too intense, Vernon knew for a fact his best friend was only just scraping a pass in PE. Vernon shook some cheese over his plate while he waited for Seungkwan to finish chewing and swallowing his food.

Seungkwan shrugged. "Just learning girl group dances from the internet, jogging a couple times a week, squats to maintain my booty," he casually answered.

Vernon mouth pulled into a grin so wide his first mouthful of spaghetti almost fell out of it. "Squats? Girl group dances? Really, Kwannie?"

"I was joking about the squats, but I've learned a heap of girl group dances."

Their meal passed by in the same vein; Vernon goading Seungkwan for his choice of exercise, then his choice of dances once he'd we wormed the full list of the ones Seungkwan had learned out of him. He'd been impressed after Seungkwan had performed a couple of the point choreographies, he would admit that.

When the spaghetti and meatballs had been finished and the dirty dishes were piled on the tray, the two boys had no idea what to with themselves. They'd taken three quarters of an hour to eat everything amidst all the teasing and laughter.

"I could teach you Catallena?" Seungkwan suggested.

"Sure," Vernon agreed and started clearing some space.

And that was what Joshua walked in on when he went to deliver dessert. He didn't say anything, didn't even appear to judge the situation. He just put the two small bowls of food down on Vernon's bedside table, collected the tray of dishes, and left.

Seungkwan turned to Vernon to say something and burst out laughing. Vernon knew it was because of how red he was, he could feel the heat in his cheeks.

Vernon could only laugh along, it /was/ a little funny how embarrassed he'd been by someone walking in on him learning a dance.

The two abandoned the dance in favour of dessert, which they ate quietly and eagerly. Then, they continued with the Catallena dance.

After a couple hours, when Seungkwan was happy with how Vernon was progressing, Vernon went to put the bowls and spoons in the kitchen sink.

"Hey, sweetie. Enjoying your night?" His mum was in the kitchen stacking dishes into the dishwasher. Ever since they'd gotten it a couple years back it'd been a rule that only his mum and dad were allowed to even touch the dishwasher in case Vernon or his little sister accidentally broke it.

"Yeah, it's nice. It's been a while since I've spent time alone with just Seungkwan, y'know?"

His mum hummed. "It's Sof's bedtime, so don't be too loud, ok?"

Vernon nodded, "We'll be quiet. Thanks for dinner, by the way. It was delicious."

His mum smiled. "No problem. I'm going to go bed, don't be up too late."

"We won't," Vernon assured his mum as she left the kitchen. He rinsed the bowls and put them in the sink, then headed back to his room.

Vernon told Seungkwan his mum had told him was time to quieten down.

"We can find something quiet to do. But first, I want to get into pyjamas." Seungkwan went over to his bag and dug out a matching shirt and pants. "I'll be back!" he sang as he exitted the room to go get changed in the bathroom.

By the time he came back, Vernon was dressed in his own pyjamas.

"So, how are we arranging sleeping tonight?" Seungkwan asked hesitantly as he shoved his clothes into his bag.

"I assumed we'd just sleep in my bed? Unless you bought blankets or a sleeping bag or something.

Vernon /heard/ Seungkwan gulp. "You- your bed? That's fine. If you're ok with it."

Vernon climbed under the covers of his bed, lifted the blanket up, and patted the spot next to him. "C'mon. I wouldn't have offered if I minded."

Seungkwan climbed into the empty space next to Vernon, who let the blanket fall over them. Vernon grabbed his laptop from lower down on the bed and brought it up to rest on him and Seungkwan.

"Any idea what you wanna watch?"

Seungkwan seemed to deliberate. Vernon thought it best to leave the other boy to his own thoughts, if he wanted to share what was on his mind he would.

"What about morning wood?" Seungkwan blurted.

Vernon chuckled as he typed "dance videos" into the search bar. "We're both guys, it's fine. Just don't cream your pants and I won't either."

Seungkwan nodded. "Sure thing."

Vernon clicked on a video and quickly felt Seungkwan snuggle up to him. He smiled, his best friend was really too cute.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up to Maroon 5 and tangled limbs. Sometime during the night, he and Seungkwan must've shifted around. The blanket was all over the place and Seungkwan's arm was on his face. Vernon remembered he'd been watching YouTube, so he looked on the floor around his bed for his laptop. It wasn't there. He saw it on his desk out of the corner of his eye. He found himself wondering who put it there, then shrugged it away. /Probably mum/, he reasoned.

Vernon felt nature calling, so he carefully extracted himself from his bed to use the restroom. When he came back, he saw Seungkwan awake and on his phone.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked as he climbed back into his bed. Seungkwan shifted so there was more space between them.

"Pretty well, you?"

Vernon shrugged. "Well enough, I guess. You hungry yet? We can have some jam toast."

"It's only nine thirty, I'm not getting up for another half hour."

"I could bring some in for us?"

Seungkwan agreed, and Vernon got up again to make toast. He could hear Maroon 5 playing in the kitchen, and began singing along absent mindedly as he made breakfast.

"You know this song?" Joshua asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Yeah, who doesn't know Maroon 5?" Vernon answered simply.

There was a few moments of silence while Vernon spooned jam onto his toast and Joshua looked through the pantry for his own breakfast. Vernon was putting everything away when Joshua cleared his throat.

"Vernon? You know your way around the area, right?"

Vernon nodded. "Yeah, I do. Why?"

Joshua buried his head further into the pantry. "Oh, just Junghan asked if I wanted to meet him at the cafe for a bit so he can take a break from homework. I don't know my way there yet."

Vernon snorted. "Just ask him to come pick you up. What time did he want you to meet him?"

"Quater past ten."

"Have fun."

Back in his room, Seungkwan was still laying in his bed. Vernon put the plate of toast on his bed and sat down. The two demolished the food quickly.

"Is it just me or has this song been on repeat all morning?" Seungkwan asked, rubbing his hands over the plate to dust crumbs off.

Vernon paused. He'd been singing along to the song in the kitchen. "It seems so."

The two boys spent their day lazing about, bored out of their minds and too lazy to entertain themselves. They got dressed sometime after midday, and at around two thirty Mingyu's mum came to collect Seungkwan.

That left Vernon even more bored. Joshua was back by then, so Vernon decided he should get to know his fellow American better.

He knocked on Joshua's door and heard a "come in!" from the other side of the door. He opened it and let himself in. Joshua was dressed similarly to how he seemed to dress ordinarily, which was far too stuffy for Vernon, and was sprawled across his bed with open textbooks in front of him. But, instead of reading the textbooks, Joshua was smiling at his phone.

"Junghan?" Vernon guessed.

Joshua nodded. "He sends the best messages. I told him he's distracting me, but he keeps sending them even though he's supposed to be working on an assignment himself."

"Oh. How'd your date go?"

Joshua nodded. "Pretty good, we discovered we'll actually be going to the same uni as of Monday when I start." Joshua rearranged his textbooks. "But uh, what's the deal with Dokyeom? He was there today, at one of the tables, and he insisted he sit near Junghan yesterday at the showcase."

Vernon chuckled. Was Joshua thinking Dokyeom had a crush on Junghan? "Back when Dokyeom, Mingyu, and Seungkwan first started highschool, a couple students used to pick on Dokyeom because he had this thing for horse puns. Junghan found out, and he was apparently known around the school as an angel or something even though he wasn't, but he was super friendly an got the kids to back off on Dokyeom. The school angel took the school fool under his wing, so now Dokyeom thinks he owes Junghan, and tries to pay him back by making sure he doesn't get his heart broken or something."

Joshua hummed, but still didn't look very impressed.

"If not for Dokyeom, I wouldn't know Junghan, so you probably wouldn't have met him so quickly." Joshua seemed to be appeased by that.

"Junghan told me that Chan kid asked you out on a date," Joshua brought up suddenly, sounding confused. Vernon shrugged. "Are you going to accept?" Vernon nodded. "What does Seungkwan think about it?"

Vernom didn't understand why Joshua asked specifically about Seungkwan. "Doesn't matter, does it?"

Joshua sat up. "Of course it does! What are you going to do when he finds out?"

"I already brought it up with him last night. He said I should give Chan a chance and go on a date."

Joshua eyebrows knotted in confusion. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Vernon's mum.

"Vernon, Joshua, could you come to the loungeroom please? I have something to discuss with both of you."

"Coming!" Vernon yelled as he and Joshua left Joshua's room.

On the loungeroom coffee table was a single A4 page. Vernon's mum was sitting on one of the recliners, and motioned for them to sit down on the adjacent couch.

Vernon felt a sense of dread overcome him. Something told him the upcoming conversation would not be an enjoyable one.