Step Four: Make him feel special, let him know that you enjoy being around him.

Jongin’s eyes twitched a bit in frustration as he stomped through the sand over to his best friend (could he even call him that right now?).

“That’s funny, you know when I heard someone laugh it sounded a lot like yours. And what do you know, it is you. I didn’t know the beach classifies as Dongbong-gu.” He said, hurt laced in his voice, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jonghyun, sensing that the situation was not going to get any better with them there, ushered the rest of the guys to move. He gave Taemin a supportive squeeze on the shoulder and continued to push his friends in the direction of Jinki’s beach house. Kibum scoffed loudly as he passed Jongin and didn’t bother to look back.

Jongin ignored Kibum and kept his attention solely on Taemin, “Well?”

“Look,” Taemin heaved a heavy sigh, “I just wanted to have one day without having to see or hear about you and Kyungsoo, okay? Ever since you took on this dumb bet, all you talk about now is Kyungsoo this, Kyungsoo that, and I can only take so much of it, Jongin.”

“Then why have you never said anything to me? I would’ve stopped!”

Taemin chuckled bitterly, “No, you wouldn’t have, you like him too much to do that, even for me.” He met Jongin’s gaze, “I really needed some space; did you want to the know the reason why I was happy that one day? It was because I was beginning to get use to have time on my own away from you.”

Jongin came closer to him, reaching out to try and touch his arm but Taemin moved away. “Where is all of this coming from? How long have you felt like this?”

“This whole time, you idiot! For someone who’s so smart, you don’t pick up on emotions well.” Taemin’s eyes started to glaze over, “I’m only going to tell you this once because I’m just so tired of pushing my feelings aside; I fell in love with you nearly two years ago, Kim Jongin.” Jongin’s body went stiff, “Maybe, I’ve been in love with you for our whole friendship, who knows? But this entire time, with every date or boyfriend you’ve had, you know how supportive I was, and even though it was hard for me, you were happy. And what kind of friend would I be if I told you I loved you for my own selfish reasons?”

“Lee Taemin-”

“No, you don’t get to pity me or say anything at all. You needed to know so I told you, but don’t worry about me, our friendship, or what’s going to happen after this. I’m still your best friend, I always will be, I’m just sick of holding back how I feel when you come to me with things about your love life.” Taemin wiped at his eyes with the back of his hands, “I’m sure you came here with Kyungsoo because it’s probably step four or whatever of this stupid bet, so just forget this happened here. Tell him you had to get new drinks and ask him to be your boyfriend when the sun sets, he’ll love it.”

Jongin was at a loss for words and all he could do was stare at him, “See you later, Jongin.”

Taemin walked off before Jongin could pull him back.

-

“Wow,” Jinki said with a shake of the head after listening to Taemin, “I didn’t know college kids still dealt with problems like this.”

Kibum hit the side of his head, “Don’t be so dense, drama never ends no matter how old you get.” He rested his hand on Taemin’s knee, “I’m proud of you, Taeminnie, not exactly how I thought you would confess to him though.”

Jonghyun shot him a look and pinched Kibum’s elbow, “That’s not the point, the important thing is Jongin knows how Taemin’s been feeling this whole time and he got rid of that big weight on his shoulders.”

“Exactly,” Minho nodded in agreement as he put his marshmallow over the fire pit. “You took a huge step forward today, now you can relax the rest of the summer.”

Taemin half-smiled while he swallowed the b