There's a cute guy in Jonghyun's class. He hurts himself in one way or another every few minutes, but he laughs it off and says he's fine even if blood is running down the side of his face. His smile is brighter than the sun and the stars and the moon, and Jonghyun thinks he's written at least five hundred songs about it. He seems to have an obsession with talking about versatile vegetables, but Jonghyun likes listening to him rambling about the endless scenarios and possibilities of them. Everyone wants to sit next to this guy. It's a struggle to snatch the seat next to him every morning. It's common fact that–this guy, Lee Jinki– is just about everyone's favorite person.

Jonghyun remembers the first time they talked. People were auditioning for a spot in SM Entertainment. They were outside at the waiting room, people filing in one after the other. One glance at Jinki was enough to catch Jonghyun's attention. When Jinki went in for his turn, Jonghyun pressed his ear against the crack of the auditioning room's door, straining to hear the other's voice. It was hard to understand that the angelic, smooth voice came from the polite and shy guy sitting across from him moments earlier.

The door opens a few moments later, and Jonghyun almost falls through it. Jinki blinks in surprise at seeing Jonghyun and quickly bows once he sees the other looking up. He shuffles to the corner of the room like a penguin, stumbling just a little on his way there.

That's when Jonghyun decides that SM would be the blindest company if this guy doesn't make it in.

(Neither of them do.)

So a few weeks after, Lee Taemin hosts a small get-together for those that failed the audition. To this day, Jonghyun still doesn't understand why he, along with other people, agreed to give away their contact information to a hyperactive child. But he's okay with it, the kid is cute as hell.

When Jonghyun steps into the noraebang room, he almost falls to his knees when he sees that singing angel sitting timidly in a corner. A small whimper escapes his lips before he attaches himself to Jinki.

"Oh my god, do you know that I love you, what's your name my name is Kim Jonghyun oh you're Jinki? Nice to meet you Jinki, I love you!" Jonghyun rambles on while the smile on Jinki's face grows wider as each second passes.

"Uh, did someone bribe you to say all this?" Jinki grins. Jonghyun fakes an offended expression.

"How dare you?! Can't I say I love you and actually mean it?!" he screeches.

Jinki laughs (it's beautiful), "It was a joke, you sensitive little waffle."

"Did you just call me a sensitive little waffle?" 

They begin some sort of weird banter where Jinki calls Jonghyun random objects with random adjectives, and they're immersed in their own conversation through the whole party.

I could get used to this, Jonghyun thinks, as he tries to understand Jinki's weird remarks.

And kind of, probably a little bit, maybe just a lot, Jonghyun's crushing on this guy.

He doesn't even realize this himself until he finds Kibum cornering him in the kitchen of the apartment they share.

"You missed four movie nights," Kibum says, his glare not at all faltering, "you missed Taemin's piano recital, and you didn't see Minho off to the army." A spatula is pressed to Jonghyun's throat, and he thinks, this is how he's gonna die, the great and hot Kim Jonghyun that gets the ladies, killed by the hands of the devil fairy Kim Kibum with a spatula in a dirty little kitchen. He expects it to at least be somehow heroic. Maybe he's walking around and he spots his cute guy surrounded by thugs in an alley . He could jump in and get killed while Jinki runs for his life.

But that can't happen, judging by the way he feels Kibum breathing on his face and the spatula being pushed harder against his throat. Jonghyun tilts his head up, wheezing slightly.

"Have you been following Lee Jinki around, you dirty little stalker?" Kibum hisses. Jonghyun tries to shake his head. He glances at the door and plans an escape.

Kibum suddenly lets go of Jonghyun, and drops his spatula. Jonghyun breathes a sigh of relief and rubs his throat before the sudden need to defend himself rises. "I wasn't exactly following him, I just coincidentally passed by and–"

He's shoved against the wall again and his head bangs against the wall rather painfully. Jonghyun decides if he doesn't die now, he'd probably have a concussion.

"Coincidentally?!" Kibum yells.

Why am I so weak against a monkey, Jonghyun thinks bitterly. He opens his mouth to explain that no, that's not what he means either, but Kibum drags him outside and slams the door in his face.

Jonghyun half-heartedly bangs on the door before checking the time on his phone.

5:37 PM.

Jinki's new shift at the coffee shop ends in twenty-three minutes. A smile finds its way onto Jonghyun's face and he sprints out of the building.

It's exactly 5:52 pm when Jonghyun walks into the coffee shop, pretending to be busy using his phone as he walks up to the counter. "Mocha latte please."

"... Jonghyun?" The said person tries to hide his smile and clears his throat.

"What- Jinki hyung? Wow, I didn't know you worked here!" Jonghyun says, feigning surprise. He believes he should get a prize as an honorary actor.

"Haha, wow. Do you come here often? Since it's pretty late and all," Jinki says and punches in Jonghyun's order, "Three dollars and forty cents."

Jonghyun nods, getting his wallet and handing Jinki the money. "Yeah, Kibum's usually a pain in the at this time of the day." It wasn't completely lie. Kibum is a pain in the , but this was the first time Jonghyun ever stepped into this place.

"I guess we'll be seeing each other a lot then," the other smiles his bright smile and takes the money, giving Jonghyun back the change. Jonghyun smiles back. His eyes never left Jinki as he watches him fixing up the coffee.

Well, there goes a few good dollars every week from now on.

---

Today, Jonghyun couldn't get the seat next to Jinki. Luna stole the seat approximately three minutes before Jonghyun. 

He settles for the seat that's two rows behind Jinki, where he can hear the tiny bits of their conversation. But it's not enough, and he ends up ignoring the whole lesson straining to hear what Luna's talking about with Jinki.

"Oppa! Why didn't you reply my text?" Luna frowns, tapping her pencil on Jinki's notebook.

"I'm sorry, I was busy." Jinki smiles apologetically. Jonghyun crinkles the side of his paper. Since when did Luna and Jinki talk? What was so important to talk about anyways?

"You have to reply to me, okay? You'll be dead meat if you don't," she frowns and leans towards Jinki. It took all the willpower Jonghyun had to keep from standing up and dragging Jinki out of the room.

But it's not like he has the right to do it, anyways. It's not like Jinki belongs to him, it's not like Jinki even considers him a good friend. For all he knows, Jinki's probably just too nice to tell Jonghyun that he's an annoying brat. Which he is, and everyone knows that.

The conversation between Jinki and Luna carries on. It's obvious that Luna is trying to get Jinki's attention, but he's too blind and innocent to think anything of the girl's flirting. Jonghyun's pretty sure that Jinki has tons of admirers, but he turns a blind eye and sees it as an act of kindness.

Jonghyun desperately hopes that he might have a small idea of Jonghyun's interest in him. It's why he makes it a point to yell his name and run to his side like a puppy to their master each time he sees Jinki. All the other would do is smile and greet him back, but it could easily be a façade of how annoyed he really is.

His train of thoughts ends up getting him a bit depressed, so he watches his pen make random doodles on the crinkled paper.

Jonghyun wakes up when his head makes contact with the floor. He yelps and looks around, his thoughts immediately jumping back to Luna and Jinki. Where were they? Where's Jinki?

"Sorry," Jinki squeaks, picking up the paper and pen that fell off with Jonghyun.

He probably tried to murder me while I was asleep because he hates me this much, Jonghyun laments. "What happened?"

"Oh, um. I tried to wake you up but I wasn't sure how and you... fell."

When Jonghyun gets up and packs his things, he sees Jinki's embarrassing smile and slightly red face. Seeing Jinki like this was definitely worth that forming bruise on his head.

By the time he finishes organizing his things, Taemin shows up at the doorway. He runs to Jinki's side and links their arms. Taemin does this on purpose- he loves seeing the way Jonghyun's eyes narrow and his expression turns sour. At least, that's what it seems like, based on the fact that Taemin is the spawn of satan.

"Hoya hyung and Zelo are gonna have coffee at the place Daehyun hyung works. And I need my favorite hyungs to come with me," Taemin says cheekily, already tugging at Jinki to leave.

"The café that's at the indoor playground?" For the first time, Jinki doesn't look very happy. Jonghyun slings his bag across his shoulder.

Taemin looks at Jinki, his voice unsure. "That's the one."

"Ooh, I heard they have really good cake there–" Jonghyun's cut off when Jinki suddenly throws an arm around Jonghyun's shoulder and pulls him out the door.

"Sorry Taemin, but me and Jjong have to work on a project." Jinki calls over his shoulder, and the last thing Jonghyun sees is Taemin's lost expression as they leave.

By the time they got to the mall near their campus, Jinki was more or less clinging to Jonghyun's arm. Jonghyun isn't sure if he should be feeling happy, embarrassed, scared, or nervous, so he settles for a mix of all four. It wasn't really a good idea. He feels all the butterflies (King Kongs, actually) going crazy in his stomach.

"Uh, hyung? Do you not like that café?" he asks, and Jinki wrinkles his nose.

"No, it's just... little kids. They scare me a lot." The elder mutters, and Jonghyun laughs. Jinki's like a little kid himself, of couse he'd be scared. They walk into the food court and naturally falls in line at the ice cream shop.

"Why? Are they too loud?" Jonghyun looks (up) at Jinki, still grinning.

Jinki shakes his head, "No, they're just little demons."

"You know, that means we were also little demons once."

"Except for you, you're still a demon."

Jinki's grin widens as he orders his ice cream, Jonghyun gaping at him at his side.

---

Jonghyun feels rather pathetic being the only person in the audience, and also the only one screaming and clapping and jumping when Jinki finishes his rehearsal.

It's worth it though, when Jinki looks down and smiles shyly, awkwardly waving back. He drops one of his crutches (Jinki broke his leg last week) and jumps off the stage in all his glory. He doesn't land on his feet due to his injury and falls on his right arm. After the initial shock passes, Jonghyun immediately runs to Jinki's side, blinking away the small tears of fear that gathers at the corners of his eyes.

"Are you okay? Oh god, your arm is red and it doesn't really look normal hyung, do you need to go–"

"I'm fine, Jonghyun. I was expecting it anyways, better early than never?" Jinki laughs, wincing just a bit when Jonghyun tries to move his arm. He can't see how Jinki can be so happy in this situation when all he wants to do is hug Jinki and bawl his eyes out because technically, it's his fault Jinki is hurt.

A few hours later, they're sitting together on the couch. Jonghyun changes the channel every two minutes on the television. Jinki doesn't mind, he's mostly focused on adjusting the sling on his arm. Half an hour later, Jonghyun finally lets the remote go on a rerun of High Kick 2. He thinks Shin Sekyung is cute and hot, and that's really the only reason why he bothers to watch the sitcom.

It's silent, but it's a comfortable silence. Jonghyun almost wanted to keep it that way, if he didn't see Jinki's head nodding off in his peripheral vision.

"So!" Jonghyun feels Jinki jump back awake beside him, "Guess what, I'm a fermata."

Jinki raises his eyebrows and deadpans, "You're a symbol of musical notation."

"Yes, so hold me." Jonghyun breaks out into a grin just as Jinki starts cracking up. It was probably lame, but Jonghyun wants Jinki awake. And it's just great that pickup lines were the first thing on his mind.

Nevertheless, Jinki puts his uninjured arm around Jonghyun. "What else do you have?"

There's a five second panic attack- because holy crap, does he have anymore pickup lines that aren't so lame?

"Yeah, um, can I take a picture of you?" he says as he takes out his phone, opening the camera option. He holds his phone up to Jinki and snaps a quick picture just as Jinki asks "why."

Jonghyun takes a deep breath, "So I can show people what I want for Christmas."

All of a sudden, Jinki flops onto Jonghyun's lap.

"What." Jonghyun wiggles under Jinki's weight.

"That was a good one," he hears Jinki's slightly muffled voice. Jonghyun feels like he accomplished something useful in life by making Jinki so happy like this.

"Don't lie down like that, I won't be able to hear that voice you kept from when you were an angel."

Jinki makes a noise and sits up.

He thinks he might accidentally kill Jinki, but it's worth it.

"There's something wrong with your hands," he says, taking Jinki's hands into his, "they're not in mine."

Jinki makes another noise, "I knew you were gonna say that!"

Jonghyun tries to hide his smug grin. He's on a roll. "Sorry, I ran out of good pickup lines because just looking at you made me forget them all."

Jinki makes another sound equivalent to a screaming teenage whale, and his tight grip on Jonghyun's hands are starting to hurt a bit.

"Oh yeah, hyung? I have one last pickup line."

"... What is it?"

"I love you."

The next thing he knows, Jinki is lying on the ground and there's a slight sting on his forehead. He believes Jinki might have hit him.

Jonghyun doesn't want to admit it due to his past experience with love, but he thinks he might just be starting to love Jinki.

---

A few days later, they're lying on Jonghyun's bed. Kibum was making dinner for the three of them, and Jinki was busy typing up a short essay on Jonghyun's laptop.

Jinki is so preoccupied with the essay that he gives no reaction when Jonghyun lays his head on his lap and starts to play with his shirt. A few minutes of silence pass, and Jonghyun almost falls asleep when Jinki gently closes the lid of the laptop.

"Jonghyun," Jinki whispers.

Jonghyun flutters his eyes open and hums in reply.

"Dinner's probably ready, so don't sleep yet." he says as he gently moves Jonghyun's head off his lap and onto the mattress.

It takes a minute for Jonghyun to completely process what Jinki had said. When he does and wakes up a bit, Jinki's already waiting for him by the door.

Jonghyun sits up, rubbing his eyes. "Hyung. If I was a girl, would you like me better?"

It was a weird question. If Jonghyun was fully awake, he would have never asked such a thing. Sure, Jinki himself was also weird. But this question itself is a whole different level of weird, it's like–

"As long as it's you." Jinki says so softly it's barely audible, and he walks out the bedroom door.

Jonghyun's not really sure if he imagined the whole thing or not. But he hopes he didn't, because maybe, just maybe, he has a small chance with Jinki after all.

---

Four months later, Jonghyun feels more desparate than ever. It's driving him crazy, really. It's been at least a week since he's seen Jinki. He misses the crazy things Jinki talks about, whether it's about sneezing pregnant greek potatoes or a kitten apocalypse.

It's been getting really bad, too. Even Minho notices, whom Jonghyun visits twice a month.

Jonghyun visits Minho for only a few hours. He brings Minho all the food he misses from the street vendors outside. Usually, Jonghyun would laugh along and eat over half the food. He'd calculate with Minho the exact days left until he gets out of the army, and they'd have a mini celebration for the number decreasing each time. But recently, all Jonghyun did was nod to whatever Minho would say.

"Hyung, I'm getting out in twenty-four days, aren't you glad?" Minho says, his mouth full of kimbap.

Twenty-four days. It's already been two years. That means he's known Jinki for almost three years. And that just means Jinki's gonna graduate soon, he'll do well in the future, seeing as how he's studying so hard even if it's a month before the finals.

"Hyung." Minho waves a fork in front of Jonghyun's eyes. Jonghyun blinks. He almost forgot where he was.

"What- oh, yeah. Of course, we could, uh, go celebrate at that karaoke place we used to go to. Just like old times." Jonghyun says distractedly. "Look, I'm sorry Minho. It's just, things aren't that good for me these days, and-"

"It's about Jinki hyung, isn't it?"

Jonghyun immediately stops talking, blinking again in surprise. "How-"

A smile find its way onto Minho's face, "You were pretty obvious the last time you came over to visit with him."

Jonghyun scowls, hitting Minho's head and grabbing a kimbap for himself to eat. "Dammit Minho, you can't just say that."

Minho laughs and lets Jonghyun begin to ramble on about Jinki. At least the old happy Jonghyun is back now. For a bit, at least, since Jonghyun starts missing Jinki and Minho has to make Jonghyun go back home to mope around.

---

Jonghyun spends his last week of school with some other Jonghyuns his age, going around the campus introducing themselves as the Jonghyuns. He fills his time with meeting up with friends and partying, something he hasn't done ever since he met Jinki.

The occasional love confessions Jonghyun used to get had stopped coming around last year. It's why he was surprised to open his locker and find a simple white letter wedged between a textbook and Jonghyun's bag of clothes. He opens the letter, curiousity rising.

Definitely not Jessica or Sulli, they like to make their letters reek of perfume. Or maybe it's Nicole? But she's probably crushing on Kibum. He sees a name scribbled at the top. He squints to read it and-

Lee Jinki.

Jonghyun yelps and drops the letter as if it's a bomb. He glances around, embarrassment in his conscience before he picks the letter back up. The handwriting and adorable messy signature was no doubt Jinki's.

hey, jonghyun. uh, i'm sorry that i've been busy this past few months or so. you know how much school means to me, right? yeah, but i'm sure you can understand that. you're the best.

god, this is harder than anything i've ever done. i'm sorry. well. what i'm trying to say is, will you go out with me, kim jonghyun?

signed your dear friend(?),
lee jinki.

Jonghyun's small smile turns into a wide grin and he runs to Jinki's classroom. There were only a few lingering students in the back of the room, and Jinki was one of those slowly packing up his things. Jonghyun knocks on the wall, and almost everyone in the room looks up at him.

Jinki's eyes widen when he spots the white letter in Jonghyun's hand, and he slowly sinks to hide behind his desk. Jonghyun's grin grows wider and he jumps over to tackle Jinki.

---

Truth be told, Jonghyun didn't feel like they were a couple. Sure, Jinki confessed and Jonghyun said yes, and sure they're holding hands and maybe they kissed once, but it didn't really feel different at all. It was just like how it used to be, the weird conversations that never seemed to end. The only difference was that Jinki gave more of his time to Jonghyun rather than studying, since the school year was over.

Jonghyun didn't mind all that much. It was this Jinki that he fell for in the first place anyways. But that doesn't mean he still doesn't want the extra skinship, the serious yet cute couple-ish conversations, and the romantic dates. Hell, those were the things that Jonghyun anticipated the most, but it never happened. He doesn't know why, but he's just a bit too scared to say things like "I love you" and "I miss you" to Jinki even though he could say it so easily before they began dating.

This grew to be a problem, because two months into the happy dating, Jinki's parents decided to keep him home and make him study more. But Jinki lived by himself, he didn't have to listen to that. He could send those cute good morning texts that Jonghyun desperately wanted. He could go and visit Jonghyun whenever he was finished with studying.

But he didn't.

Jonghyun would occasionally visit Jinki, but he ended up leaving earlier than he planned because of how Jinki was so focused on his studies once more. And Jonghyun missed him a lot, so much to the point that he wanted to cry.

It was really scary to do, but a week had passed without any contact with Jinki and Jonghyun needed to at least let Jinki know that he felt lonely.

hyuunngg. i know it's late, but i missss yooouuu. goodnight or morning, whenever you see this. : )

Jonghyun closes his eyes and presses send. He doesn't want to appear clingy, but he didn't know what to do. He sets his phone down, and he knows that Jinki's already asleep anyways. Jinki always sleep at 11pm, never any later.

Jinki would reply the next morning. Maybe he'll have a smile that's bigger than usual tomorrow after seeing Jonghyun's text.

---

"The phone isn't gonna crawl away, Jonghyun. Stop staring at it." Kibum says as he joins Jonghyun on the kitchen counter.

Two days passed, and there wasn't any response from Jinki. Jonghyun sees that he updated his twitter with tweets like "waah, mamamoo's piano man is really good!!". That means Jinki probably saw his text, right?

And Jonghyun, being the emotional and sensitive person he is, worries that maybe Jinki's tired of him. Maybe Jinki just confessed to him in the spur of the moment, or he was tired of Jonghyun now. Maybe Jonghyun was the one that loved more. He always was.

"Jjong, are you listening?"

Jonghyun realizes that he's been zoning off the whole time and that there's other human beings in the world besides him and Jinki.

"No?" he says, picking up his phone and sliding it into his pocket. Kibum sighs exasperatedly.

"I asked if it was Jinki hyung that's bothering you."

Yeah, of course. What else would it be, Jonghyun thinks. "No it's not."

"Then stop being a wuss and visit him. Goddamn, you're really annoying, Kim Jonghyun."

Jonghyun blinks, "He's busy?"

The glare Kibum sends him leaves him feeling uneasy in his seat. "Bull."

Jonghyun is shoved out of the apartment complex.

---

Jonghyun steps into the Starbucks that's across the street from where Jinki lives. He orders a vanilla latte and a mocha latte for Jinki and himself, and while he's waiting for them to finish making the drink he spots Luna sipping her frappuccino near the counter.

He's about to slowly move away to avoid her, but she sees him and it's too late to run.

"Jonghyun oppa! Nice seeing you over the break." she waves with the hand that's holding her phone.

"Hi, same to you." Jonghyun forces a smile, waving back.

It's really annoying how he doesn't have much of a reason to hate her. She's somewhat bratty (like himself), but she also has all the good intentions. The only major reason why Jonghyun doesn't like her is because Jinki seems to have taken a liking towards her.

Luna sips her frappuccino, watching Jonghyun take the two cups of coffee. "Who's the second one for?"

"Jinki hyung." Jonghyun answers as he sprinkles some cinnamon into Jinki's cup, just the way he likes it.

"Oh, of course! You guys are like best friends. I'm heading to his place too right now, actually." she smiles really sweetly, but Jonghyun feels like she's mocking him. Either that, or she genuinely doesn't know they're dating. But Jonghyun settles for the former because he's still looking for reasons to not like her.

"Uh, yeah. Let's go together, then?" Jonghyun puts the lid onto Jinki's cup. It's difficult to keep the annoyed tone out of his voice.

She smiles again, all brightly and angel-like while she gestures to the exit. Jonghyun puts on a half-hearted smile and heads to the door as she follows behind him.

When Jinki opens the door, Jonghyun expects Jinki to smile happily and hug him.

Instead, the first thing Jinki does is gasp in surprise and envelop Luna into a hug. "It's been so long since I've last seen you!"

Jonghyun clears his throat, "It's only been about half a month, probably."

But he's ignored as Jinki invites Luna inside, both smiling brightly and starting a pleasant conversation. He walks inside behind Luna, closing the door behind him. He stands there for a bit, watching the two of them interact happily and do whatever catching up they had to do. Jonghyun seats himself on the couch and sets down Jinki's cup of vanilla latte.

"Oh yeah, Jonghyun brought you coffee," Luna says as she crosses to where Jonghyun is and picks up the coffee, handing it to Jinki.

"Thanks, Jonghyun," Jinki finally turns his attention to Jonghyun. But he turns right back to Luna before Jonghyun could even open his mouth to say "you're welcome."

The pit of Jonghyun's stomach starts boiling in envy as Jinki and Luna's conversation carries on. This isn't how it's supposed to be. He and Jinki are supposed to be the ones talking like crazy together, and Luna is supposed to feel like the third wheel. Luna and Jinki aren't supposed to make him feel like the third wheel. That just isn't right.

As soon as Jinki and Luna head to his room to look at some things on his computer, Jonghyun gets up from his seat on the couch and leaves Jinki's flat.

---

When Jonghyun gets home, he wonders if he should...

He doesn't dare to even think about it.

It's something he feared right from the start, and swore to never even think about because his relationship with Jinki just seemed to be so perfect.

It's not like he wants to do this because he doesn't love Jinki anymore. He probably won't ever stop. It's just, Jinki doesn't seem to have time for him. Dating might just burden Jinki, and Jonghyun doesn't want to do that to him. He might be really annoying too, based on how Jinki straight through Jonghyun now.

Yeah. That's a good reason. They could still remain friends. Not best friends, but close enough friends with a level of awkwardness.

Jonghyun decides that the next time he sees Jinki, he'll have to end this thing they have going on.

---

He just didn't really expect that the next time he sees Jinki would be in the middle of the night with a dead weight on him. Rubbing his eyes, Jonghyun squints in the dark and sees a face right in front of his own. He's just about to scream when Jinki covers his mouth and gets off him.

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. We're going out," Jinki says and he pulls Jonghyun out of his bed. Jonghyun's still half asleep and he isn't able to protest when Jinki throws a jacket over Jonghyun and pulls him outside.

He should probably sue Jinki for harassing him when he's in a defenseless and helpless state.

But Jonghyun doesn't complain one bit as Jinki drags him to the nearest convenience door and sets down a bulky plastic bag on the table.

"Why am I out here." Jonghyun says as he opens the bag and takes out a can of coca-cola.

Jinki smiles shyly, and Jonghyun suddenly remembers the reason why he first fell for Jinki. "I... I missed you. I'm sorry for ignoring you, Jonghyun."

Clearing his throat, Jonghyun shrugs and pretends he wasn't bothered one bit.

"I kind of... didn't really notice until you left yesterday. I was gonna wait until Luna left to talk to you, but that probably wasn't the right thing, huh?" Jinki mumbles, playing with the zipper on his jacket.

"And you decided dragging me out in the middle of the night was a good time to talk?" Jonghyun smiles softly and nudges Jinki's arm.

"I guess it wasn't? I still wanted to talk to you before the morning comes. Just in case, you know, the raging kitten apocalypse comes."

Jonghyun bursts out laughing. "Yeah, and the afterlife is a musical."

"Exactly! You can be Gabriella and I'll be Troy. Or I could be Bonnie and you'll be Clyde." Jinki grins, taking a bowl of ramen out of the bag.

The previous thoughts of breaking up with Jinki were immediately wiped away. It's amazing, really, how easily he's affected by Jinki. He's really not much of an expert on love, and he never will be. All he can do is settle with penning down lyrics and poems all about one single person.

At the very least, he has an idea. He might not be right, but he's pretty sure.

In between the sips of Jonghyun drinking coca-cola and Jinki eating ramen, Jonghyun coughs to get Jinki's attention. The convenience store isn't an ideal romantic place, but he'll settle for it. "Hyung?"

Jinki looks up, eyes wide in question and chopsticks dangling between his lips. Jonghyun has half a mind to warn Jinki about how he might choke himself like that.

"I love you." he says instead, his voice almost as soft as the time Jinki said "yes" many many months ago. He looks down at his lap, the small pit of fear growing in his stomach as he anticipates the other's reaction.

It's the first time either of them have ever said this in such a serious way. Jonghyun's a bit worried that Jinki would ignore it like he does to his texts, but it's too late to take it back.

"I love you too."

And there. Right there, that's Jonghyun's answer. It's Jonghyun's answer to not give up on Jinki, because it's worth it at the end.

Jonghyun slowly looks back up to see Jinki scratching the back of his head and grinning bashfully. He notices that Jinki's also in his pajamas, and his hair is all kinds of messy, but his smile is still bright and his voice is still that of an angel's. It makes Jonghyun's heart swell. This is what love is. 

It's worth it.