~

“Heechul! Can you come here,” Jongwoon called out.

“What? You know I’m mostly still a disaster in the kitchen, so I hope you’re not asking for cooking help.”

“No. I don’t need help cooking, that’s fine. I need help with this,” Jongwoon said once Heechul was in the kitchen and close enough he could hold his phone out to him. “What the hell does he mean by that?”

Heechul grabbed the phone from Jongwoon and quickly glanced at the last couple of messages sent and couldn’t help but laugh at them.

“What did you do to annoy Kyu,” he asked not bothering to look further up the conversation to check himself. Jongwoon sighed, crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter.

“He was asking if I was coming to his Halloween party tomorrow, which we all know that I can’t make it. I have to work late that night and early the next day and there is no way I can switch around my schedule. So eventually after a little more back and forth and whining on his part, he ends up sending me that.”

“Well if that ‘ugh I hate you’ wasn’t being overdramatic enough, the multiple knife emojis definitely crosses into overdramatic territory.”

“You know, if it was just that, I wouldn’t be bugging you about it. I’m used to him being like that.”

“Oh, so you mean the random heart in the middle of the knives and his follow up texts saying that ‘the heart wasn’t meant to be there’ and ‘or was it’?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean,” Jongwoon grumbled, snatching his phone back as Heechul continued to just laugh at his problems.

“Well I think it’s obvious. There are two options. One. He likes you. Or two, he is being very specific about where he wants to stab.”

“That’s it? Those are my options?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“How do either of those make sense? Since when would Kyuhyun like me? I mean, we’re close friends of course, so I know he likes me, but,” Jongwoon groaned, words obviously not working well for him at the moment, “you know what I mean. And if he’s suggesting it as a more specific threat, why would he bother with should be there or not thing?”

“You’d have to ask him that. And I would do it quick. Don’t want to leave him on read for too long. Oh and be careful of how you respond to him. Say the wrong thing and you risk him actually deciding to go through with that threat,” Heechul warned on his way out of the kitchen. “Don’t burn dinner while you contemplate that.”

“I’m not burning dinner,” Jongwoon shouted back, almost regretting his decision to ask Heechul opinion. He went back to focusing on his cooking, leaving his phone open on the counter next to him as he decided how he wanted to respond.

‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to disappear like that. I’m in the middle of cooking and couldn’t respond right away.’ It wasn’t entirely a lie, so he hoped Kyuhyun wouldn’t think too much on his delay. ‘Is that supposed to mean you are attacking me with your heart as well? Because I must say, that is a much more appealing threat than the knives.’ Jongwoon isn’t entirely sure why he chose to say that, but since he already sent it, there’s no turning back now. While he personally doesn’t believe Heechul when he says Kyuhyun likes him, there’s a part of him that hopes he does.

They’ve been friends for a long time and Jongwoon couldn’t help but find himself in love with his friend. But Kyuhyun never showed any signs of potentially being interested and had been in a number of relationships over the years, most of which were with girls, that Jongwoon originally wasn’t aware he was biual. Jongwoon was fine with them being just friends and nothing else, but now Heechul has him questioning that.

‘You just had to say something weird like that didn’t you’ Kyuhyun had texted back.

Jongwoon waited a moment to see if Kyuhyun would say anything else before answering as he could see the dots pop up signaling Kyuhyun was typing.

‘How do you even attack someone with your heart anyways?’

‘I think that probably depends on the person. But don’t ask me. You’re the one who through the heart in there. How did you plan on using it?’

‘I didn’t’

‘I mean I had plans for tomorrow if you came to my party’

‘But that’s something completely different’

‘Don’t get any weird ideas’

Jongwoon laughed a little watching the series of texts pop up on his screen. Obviously Kyuhyun was feeling a little flustered. He always started texting in a lot of short texts whenever he got nervous or worked up a little.

‘You know if I wasn’t working a turn and burn, I would totally be at your party. Unfortunately, our schedules were already posted when you decided you were having it.’

‘But you have me curious. What were you planning?’ Jongwoon sent back and quickly pocketed his phone before calling Heechul back out to eat. Heechul was immediately giving him looks, hoping that Jongwoon would spill the details of his conversation, but Jongwoon was not saying anything. After they ate and convincing Heechul that it was his job to clean up, Jongwoon headed back to his room to continue his conversation with Kyuhyun.

‘Nothing’

‘Wait. I already said I had plans so that doesn’t make sense’

‘I just had some plans for the party in general and was taking you into consideration too’

‘That’s it I swear’

‘Well actually I was hoping to talk to you too’

‘I know we’re talking now. But I was hoping for an in person conversation’

‘It’s nothing bad. I just don’t want to do it over text’

‘Jongwoon?’

‘Right you were cooking’ Was the last text Kyuhyun had sent, which was still a few minutes old at this point.

‘Yeah, we were eating. Should have told you. Sorry about that.’

‘You have special considerations you make for me when planning? Do I need special considerations?’

‘I’m sorry we can’t talk at the party. But I am free in a couple days. I could make it up to you and we can go out for dinner. My treat.’ Jongwoon had to wait a few more minutes before Kyuhyun responded.

‘Not special considerations. Just the usual like which foods you would like and video games to play’

‘You know things we all consider when having a party’

‘I should be free for dinner so I’ll hold you to that’

‘Ah, I see. But don’t worry, I won’t forget my offer to pay so you decide where we are going.’

Jongwoon and Kyuhyun text for a while longer into the night to finish working out the details for their dinner plan, before both decided it was time to call it a night.

~

A couple days later, Jongwoon was waiting at the restaurant for Kyuhyun to arrive. He had come a little early just in case is was busy so he could get a table for them and their drinks since he knew what Kyuhyun would like. And to be sure there was no confusion, he had sent Kyuhyun a text letting him know.

“It’s a good thing you got us a table already, a bunch of people are just coming in and it seems like there is about to be a wait,” Kyuhyun said once he joined Jongwoon.

“I was worried there was already going to be a wait when I showed up. We got lucky, I guess. But anyways, how was the party I missed?”

“It was good. I think you and Hangeng were the only one who missed it. We even got Kibum to show up for a while. Lots of drinking by the end of the night. A few of them ended up staying the night because we didn’t have enough designated drivers. Siwon ended up taking Heechul and a few others home.”

“I will say, if there was a good point to missing the party, getting to ignore Heechul’s hangover was it. Though I was nice enough to leave him some medicine before I left for work. Still would have rather been there though,” Jongwoon admitted.

“I would have preferred that too. Wookie was threatening that we should have visited you at work instead.”

“It’s a good thing you guys didn’t. My boss would have been pissed if all of you suddenly showed up.”

“Yeah, it took a few of us plus a couple drinks to get him of that idea. Which honestly, that may have been one of the reasons we were short drivers,” Kyuhyun realized. “I think he was planning on driving that night. He slept on my couch instead.”

“Ryeowook was planning on being a designated driver? Really?”

“I think he said something about it being his turn and losing to rock-paper-scissors and then we got him drunk anyways.”

“Hey, at least you didn’t let anyone drive who should have,” Jongwoon said.

“Well considering half the time you are one of the drivers, you know we are good about that.”

“I know. I get to take you home most of the time or let you crash at mine with Heechul.”

“Speaking of which, half the group there last night didn’t even realize that you and Heechul don’t actually live together anymore.”

“Not officially at least,” Jongwoon laughed as he spoke knowing Kyuhyun knew the answer but explained again anyways. “But he and Hangeng are only a couple blocks away and any time Hangeng goes to China, he moves back in basically. I feel like I end up babysitting him half the time.”

“I can only imagine.”

The two continued catching up until their food arrived and Jongwoon remembered half of the reason they were out to dinner together in the first place.

“So,” Jongwoon began. “You had something you wanted to talk about? At least that’s what you said in your text.”

“Ah, yeah, I did.” Jongwoon could see Kyuhyun getting a little fidgety.

“You know you don’t have to be worried about telling me anything, right? You said it wasn’t anything bad, but that doesn’t mean it’s something good either.” Jongwoon tried to sound as reassuring as possible but he’s not sure it actually did anything to ease Kyuhyun’s nerves.

“To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but I want it to be a good thing.”

“Well that’s a little confusing. But either way, I can take it.”

“It’ll make more sense if I can just get myself to say it.” Kyuhyun aggressively wiped his hands on his pants a few times and got himself to take a couple deep breaths. Jongwoon just sat back and watched him, figuring it best to let Kyuhyun have the chance to compose himself and say what he needed to. “You know in my text the other day I sent the heart by accident?” Jongwoon nodded. “Well it really was an accident and I tried to play it cool and a little dorky, but then you responded how you did. I honestly expected you to assume I was threatening to stab you in the heart or something. But you didn’t. I was already planning on trying to get the courage to talk to you at the party, but you weren’t going, so I tried to use my accidently typing as a bit of a hint expecting you to just blindly turn me down.”

“Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon started, not sure if the conversation was going the way thought but hoping it was. Instead Kyuhyun put a hand up and stopped him from saying anything else.

“I don’t know if you were just being your usual weird self with your reply or if you were trying to imply something yourself. But what I wanted to say was, I like you. A lot. And I have for quite a long time. You never seemed to date anyone or show interest in anyone, so I figured it was the say for me, so I didn’t say anything. I let myself date other people, hoping I would get over my crush on you. It sounds mean to the people I dated and maybe it was, but I honestly did like them. It just wasn’t the same though. The last couple of relationships I had both broke up with me because they realized I had bigger feelings for you than I did for them and that’s when I realized myself that I had to say something. Even if you reject me, at least I can maybe suffer through the heartbreak and finally move on. And I hope we’re still friends after this too. So, I’m sorry for springing this on you, you don’t have to accept my feelings, but I had to say them.” Kyuhyun finally stopped and took a breath, not realizing that he stopped breathing towards the end of his speech. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Jongwoon to see his reaction and the longer he stayed quiet, the more Kyuhyun felt that it was as he feared and Jongwoon held no feelings for him. So, it came as a surprise when he suddenly felt arms pull him up into a hug.

“Kyuhyunie,” Jongwoon said softly, leaning back out of the hug to look Kyuhyun in the face and wipe away the tears Kyuhyun didn’t even realize were there. “I’ll never reject you or your feelings. I honestly had to ask Heechul what you meant by that heart and his first option was that you liked you. I didn’t want to believe him, but I guess he was right,” Jongwoon laughed a little to himself at the irony and Kyuhyun’s shocked face. “You’re not the only one who quietly held onto feelings because you thought the other wasn’t interested. It was the same for me. Especially since you were often in other relationships, I didn’t think you liked me, so after Heechul put the idea in my head, I was trying to find some way to let you know I would be interested without also putting you on the spot over text.”

“I guess we’re both terrible at showing our feelings. Cause it sounds like we could have been dating years ago if either of us bothered to make a move or at least drop better hints.”

“Seems that way. But who knows, maybe this was how it was supposed to happen. We were younger back then, at least now we had the time to really know how we feel and know it wasn’t just a simple crush,” Jongwoon offered, slowly getting Kyuhyun to sit back down and moving back to his own seat.

“I’m not so sure I would put a fate spin on it, but I will agree, I do know exactly how deep my feelings for you are.”

“I don’t know. The heart and knife emojis aren’t that close to each other on the phone.”

“They are if they are both in your recently used. They were right on top of each other. So my thumb slipped down a row when I was spamming you with knives,” Kyuhyun admitted while laughing and showing the two emojis now side by side on his phone.

“Should I be worried about just how often you use the knife that it was more recent than the heart?”

“Probably not. But hey, does this make this our first date?”

“Only if you want it to be. Or I can ask you out again later when we both are aware ahead of time that it’s to be a date.”

“No. I think this should be the first. You can ask me again for a second later though,” Kyuhyun teased.

“Don’t worry. I plan on it.”

It was a few months later, when the two were texting again before they fell asleep that the knife emoji made a reappearance. Kyuhyun had texted Jongwoon good night with a bunch of hearts at the end, but a knife was mixed this time.

‘The knife isn’t meant to be there’

‘Or is it’

A/N: So a little random one shot that came out of a short conversation the other night that was actually originally seventeen related but I liked the idea that I came up with based from a picture of a text conversation (that is mostly quoted at the end, I changed it very slightly) that I wanted to write it and since I only write SJ, it became a Kyusung fic.
Don't worry, I'm still working on Magical Mayhem for those reading it. I've just needed to take a mental break and wanted to write a short one shot. (was working on a different one but that one probably isn't happening right now since I can't write it where I'm happy with it completely.) So, hopefully I'll be back on MM soon.
Anyways, hope you liked this random quick one I wrote in just a couple nights.