“He’s not interested.” Baekhyun piped over the blaring music of the club and slurred conversations. “He never will be!”

“Baekhyun, I can handle these things on my own without you butting in.” Kyungsoo elbowed the blabber mouth in his side before looking to the stranger who’d attempted making conversation.  “I’m really sorry, he’s drunk. Don’t think it’s you or anything, I’m just not really interested in anyone. He never knows what he’s talking about after 3 shots anyways, and he’s way past 6 of them.” 

The unknown man smiled with a nod of understanding, and Kyungsoo would have stayed to chat if it weren’t for Baekhyun’s face, which read ‘I’m about to puke’.

Spending an hour in the local bar’s grimy restroom cleaning his best friend’s face after every time he purged, was not exactly how Kyungsoo expected to spend his Friday night. ‘You owe me’ he kept repeating. However, Baekhyun could never hold his liquor, and it was Kyungsoo’s fault for going despite knowing the fact.

Baekhyun leaned against the mucky wall of the stall that he’d been emptying his stomach into, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Were you mad at me for saying that to that guy? He was pretty cute.”

Kyungsoo grimaced and grabbed toilet paper to wipe down the arm that Baekhyun had dirtied with saliva and chunks of puke. It took a minute to process what Baekhyun had said through his stuttered and slurred words, though it was becoming more funny than annoying. “Uhh, well, no. I wasn’t mad, but you’ve got to stop saying things like that when you’re drunk. It’s like you completely misunderstand what auality is when you’re faced.”

Baekhyun wined, eyebrows furrowed and eyes squeezed shut. Whether it was because of the truth, or what was left of the ten shots in his stomach, Kyungsoo wasn’t sure. “I just get tired of—of guy’s trying to touch you and seeing that un-in-un…unmistakably uncomfortable face you make. I have to protect you and I have to I just—“ And Baekhyun was hurling himself at the toilet before he vomited on Kyungsoo instead.

Once they’d arrived back to their college dorm, Baekhyun all puked out and ready to crash, Kyungsoo was stuck thinking about other things. Like the boy he was going to have to meet the next day to begin tutoring. Kyungsoo didn’t really have a problem with tutoring, because if he did he wouldn’t be volunteering for it. To be quite frank, the teachers at his college seemed to hardly have the slightest clue as to how to teach a math class anyways. Still, no matter the situation, he always found himself getting nervous when meeting new people.
 

-
 

The library smelled like dust and coffee per usual. Probably caused by the abundance of abandoned books and sleepless students trying to keep their eyes peeled for study.

Kyungsoo fiddled with his phone, checking apps and reading through his blog as he waited for the student who was already fifteen minutes late.

A noise of bustle gusted into the library, and he looked up from the screen of his phone to a boy with disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes that looked like they’d been worn a few days too long. He watched as the male hurried to the counter and spoke with the librarian until she was pointing right at Kyungsoo and mouthing words that the latter couldn’t quite make out.

The boy rushed toward Kyungsoo, backpack nearly falling off of one shoulder—and god this boy seemed a mess.

“Hi,” the tanned boy said as he breathlessly approached the table. “I’m so sorry I’m late,” he started as he plopped into a chair and inhaled a nice long breath “I almost forgot about meeting with you. I’m Kim Jongin, I guess you know.” He was calmly trying to catch his breath as he introduced himself to the not-so-amused tutor.

“It’s fine. Just let me know if being late is going to be a thing for you. I drop tutees who keep me waiting multiple times.” Kyungsoo began to pull out the text and notebooks he’d brought in his shoulder bag. It may have sounded a bit harsh, but he hardly wanted to be up at 9 am to be tutoring anyone, despite it being a dumb choice he’d made for himself. So, someone being late only added to the sleepy and slightly hung over agitation.

“No, I’m really sorry. I stayed out a little too late last night, had a few too many drinks. I woke up 30 minutes late too and had to run here. It was a mess, I’m sorry. Plus i- wait a minute..” Jongin squinted his eyes at Kyungsoo for a moment, head tilting as if to analyze something he’d never seen before. “You were at the bar down town last night too, weren’t you?”

“..Yeah, how’d you kn-“

“You were with that guy who told me you’d never be interested, right?” Jongin looked inquisitively at Kyungsoo, a gleam of amusement in his eyes.

“T-that was you? Oh my god, I can’t believe he said that to you, I’m so sorry.” Kyungsoo put his hand to his forehead, embarrassment flooding his cheeks.

Jongin snorted out an interesting kind of laugh; one that had the librarian ‘shhh’ing him. “It’s okay. I guess it’s better he said that, since I was going to ask you to dance.”

Kyungsoo prayed to whatever god was above, if any, that his face didn’t look as red as it felt. What a horrible meeting for a tutor.

“So, what were you doing at a gay bar if you aren’t interested in anyone, hmm? Tagging along with the friend?” Jongin snickered as he thought back to the face of the friend who was clearly about to vomit all over whatever vicinity he was in.  

Clearing his throat, Kyungsoo straightened his posture as he readied the books he’d brought. “This isn’t exactly appropriate conversation for the occasion. It’s already 9:30, we should get along with the tutoring.” A small smile displayed on his face, despite his acute discomfort for the situation.


Jongin was a talkative one, Kyungsoo came to find out. So much so that he found it incredibly hard to keep the boy’s attention on the work that Kyungsoo was desperately trying to teach him. In that case, it became very apparent as to why the other was having trouble in his classes.

“Do you happen to have ADHD, Jongin?” Kyungsoo didn’t really know why the question seemed to blurt from his mouth in the middle of Jongin’s intensive explanation of a dance he’d been learning, when he ‘really should be working on his paintings’.

Jongin blinked out of slight surprise. “No. I just hate math. I don’t get it no matter how hard I try. I can hardly stay concentrated on it. You want to know something else? I was diagnosed with a specific math learning disorder. What does that even mean? How can you have a learning disorder in only one thing?” Jongin rolled his eyes as he dejectedly leaned back into his chair.

Kyungsoo exhaled a breath of air. They’d been at the library for a good hour and a half, yet only managed to get less than half of the lesson out of the way. “It’s ok, Jongin. I think you did well. It’s probably best you take a break anyways. Too much isn’t a good thing, you’ll just get frustrated and won’t learn anything.” He said as he began putting his books away.

They left the library with a handshake and went separate ways; Jongin to the left, and Kyungsoo to the right toward his dorm.

-


“Baekhyun!” Kyungsoo called as he stormed into the dorm, throwing his shoulder bag onto the couch and hasting toward the older’s room. “Baekhyun, open up!” He shouted through the other’s bedroom door as his knuckles banged against its wood.

“What?” Baekhyun answered as he opened the door.

Kyungsoo walked into the older’s room and plummeted onto his twin sized bed—which was incredibly uncomfortable. “You want to know who my god damn tutee is?”

“Oh, an attitude, huh? This sounds juicy.” Baekhyun stated. He plopped next to the younger on the bed and tucked his hands between his legs like a gossiping child. “Who is it?”

Kyungsoo sent a glare toward Baekhyun, taking the latter aback. “It’s that guy from the bar last night who you told I’d never be interested in, right before you emptied your guts into the bathroom for the next hundred years.” Kyungsoo groaned. “He noticed me. I was so embarrassed.” He threw his arm over his face as he felt blood rise to it.

“Are you serious? That’s hilarious!” Baekhyun broke out into his obnoxious laugh, and Kyungsoo would have liked to hit him if he weren’t already wallowing in self-pity.

“No it’s not!”

“Why does it even matter? It’s not like anything bad happened. I just told him you weren’t interested.”

The reason behind Kyungsoo’s embarrassment was more due to the fact that Baekhyun’s drunk statements always somehow seemed to make him feel insecure about his uality. Like it was inferior and that he was incapable of liking or loving someone in a romantic way.  But that wasn’t the way Kyungsoo was. Kyungsoo wasn’t an aromantic aual. He definitely classified himself as romantic, but without any ual attraction.

Kyungsoo knew what it was like when someone made his stomach feel fluttery and his pulse quick and uneven. He’d known how it felt to not be able to control his smiles when being around someone who made his insides feel those funny things. He just never felt those ways because of attraction, but instead it was because of the people themselves. But people were condescending, always telling him things like ‘oh don’t worry, sweetie. One day you’ll find that one person and when you look at them, you’ll want to jump on them like a fish on land wants to jump in water’, or ‘You’re just picky’, and so on and so forth.

Yet, Kyungsoo knew it wasn’t as simple as that.


-


Monday evening, Jongin met with Kyungsoo again for tutoring at the same library. This time Jongin was there before Kyungsoo had even arrived, and the latter greatly appreciated the other’s wordless apology for being late to their prior meeting.

Jongin wasn’t as off topic as he’d been their first tutoring session, probably because he wasn’t hung over. Though, they’d take breaks between the larger set of equations and lessons; snacking on chips and talking about random little things.

Kyungsoo found that he got along with Jongin quite a lot. He seemed to be a pretty easy going person, and definitely liked to laugh a lot counting by the number of times the old librarian lady ‘sh’ed him. But, it didn’t stop his eyes from crinkling with a smile.

“I love to paint.” Jongin said as they moved on to the subject of hobbies. “But I find it really hard to find inspiration sometimes and I’ll go months without touching a brush or canvas. I mean, I’ll be thinking about painting the entire time, searching and hoping to find that special fuel that will really spark my fire. But sometimes it just takes a while, so I dance instead.” He tossed his last chip into his mouth before shoving the empty bag into his backpack and pulling out a bottle of water. “I love dancing too, though, so it’s not the worst exchange.” And he began to sip from his drink.

“Hmm, have you been into the arts your whole life?” Kyungsoo tried to speak through his mouth full of cookie.

“I drew a lot as a child, so I guess so. I didn’t really become serious with painting or dancing until I was about 13, though.”

Kyungsoo hummed in acknowledgement before swallowing his food. “My mom tried to get me into artsy things as a child, but the only thing I ever really picked up was writing. I don’t even know if that’s considered art though.” He laughed and then chugged his bottle of Dr. Pepper, washing away the dryness in his mouth.

Jongin unsteadied the chair from its hind legs so that it was on all fours as he leaned his elbows onto the table. “Of course it’s art. You’re exorcising your mind to create something. It takes great patience and imagination to have the will to articulate thousands of words to form a scene or thesis.”

Kyungsoo smiled in return to Jongin’s words. “That’s true.”

-

Tutoring sessions became a twice a week thing, and it took until the eighth meet up before Baekhyun stopped asking if it was still awkward. When, honestly, it had stopped being awkward after the first session.

They didn’t have a set schedule for tutoring sessions, but instead planned it for days they were both free. It was the third time they’d be meeting up on a Saturday, again at the library like all the times before.

Jongin arrived late for the first time since they’d had their first session. But Kyungsoo finally heard him plop into the chair across the table.

“Finally,” Kyungsoo mumbled as he looked up from his back pack where he grabbed his books. “W-what the hell? What happened to your face?” Kyungsoo’s voice was a high whisper.

“Cool, huh?” Jongin smirked, letting his bag fall to the ground.

“No, not cool! The hell happened?”

Jongin laughed, removing his books from his bag. “I was trying to help another dancer learn a move, so I held his hips, and he elbowed me in the face.” Jongin shrugged, dropping the books onto the table. “At least I can say it’s the first time I’ve ever been hit for being gay.”

Kyungsoo continued to eye the large purple and blue bruise that stained Jongin’s cheekbone. “It’s not funny.”

“Well, what? Am I supposed to be upset over it? I could have gotten it worse, and it was more of a reflex thing than anything. He wasn’t really expecting for me to touch him, so I guess it’s my fault.” Jongin blew a bubble with the gum he was chewing before popping it to the sound of his book’s hard back flopping against the table as he opened its pages.

Despite Kyungsoo’s slight disagreement with the situation, he decided not to pester.

The session flew by a lot faster than most, at least it seemed like it did. Maybe because Jongin was having less trouble understanding the equations and was moving along faster than before. Kyungsoo could tell the younger was really trying, and he appreciated that. Some tutees really just didn’t care.

There was a noticeably nice improvement in Jongin’s algebra and math—and Kyungsoo pitied the boy for having to take both classes in one semester.

“Want to go get some coffee and a snack or something?” Kyungsoo asked as they walked out of the library. Maybe he was feeling a little bad for Jongin, seeing him with that sorry bruise on his face. Also, Baekhyun was out with his boyfriend, and Kyungsoo didn’t exactly feel like spending his Saturday alone again.

“Am I really so y with a bruise on my face that you’re asking me on a date?” Jongin attempted a humorous wink, but failed terribly.

“Pft,” Kyungsoo scoffed. “I’m sorry to break it to you, Mr. Kim, but I’m aual. y doesn’t work on me.”

“Wait, really?” Jongin sounded incredibly intrigued as he walked along side Kyungsoo toward the direction of the nearest coffee shop.

“Yup.”

“Ok, so, I’ve heard of auality, but I’m really not sure what it is. If you don’t mind me asking, does it mean you don’t like ?”

Kyungsoo chuckled lightly at the sound of genuine curiosity twinkling through Jongin’s voice. He’d been asked similar questions so many times that he couldn’t help but explicitly explain. “No, that’s not what it means at all. It just means that I don’t have ual attractions. I can’t really be physically attracted to people. But, it doesn’t mean I don’t have a functioning drive. Although, some auals are completely repulsed by , some aren’t.” Kyungsoo paused for a moment to make sure he wasn’t skipping anything before he added one last thing. “But even those of them who are repulsed are still capable of needing to be ually satisfied, such as ion and what not. You see, I’m kind of in the middle. I don’t particularly like , although I most definitely have an active drive. But I’m not repulsed by . It’s just distracting when it comes to getting the job done, and it’s a lot harder for me to, um—finish—when someone else is around.”

Jongin nodded his head in deep thought, and it took him a few seconds before he replied. “So, is that what your friend meant? You can’t like people more than in a friendly way?”

A sigh emitted from Kyungsoo’s throat, blinking away Baekhyun’s annoying words. “No, he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about half of the time. I’m perfectly capable of ‘liking’ people romantically, I just don’t feel a physical attraction to them. Kind of like how you might feel toward your best friend, except add in all the feelings you get from a relationship—minus the ually driven attractions—and you’ve got what you call a romantic aual, unlike an aromantic aual.”

“That’s…confusing.” Jongin traced his thumb and index around his own lower lip before continuing. “I think I kind of get it, though.. But—what does ‘aromantic’ mean?”

“An aromantic is someone who doesn’t quite experience the need or feelings of romanticism. Perfectly capable of loving others and having great friendships, , etc. Just not romantically inclined.”

“Ohhh, ok. So, auality kind of differs from person to person. It’s not like being gay where most people are just.. well, gay?”

“Mmm, if you want to think of it like that,” They were getting closer to the coffee shop, and Kyungsoo was really craving one of their brownies. “But really, being gay can differ too. Some gay men are repulsed, but still have ual attraction. While there are also aromantic gay men. And there are also people who identify as homoaual. Every uality differs from person to person, really.”

“That makes a lot of sense, actually.” Jongin began to fiddle with the draw strings on his hoodie. “Looks like you’ve taught me another lesson today. What a persistent teacher.”

Kyungsoo chuckled, and they were soon entering the café. The door chimed with a gentle tune as they walked through before ordering their latte’s and snacks.

Jongin decided to pick a window table where he could look out at the autumn weather and enjoy his miniature sugary meal.

“So,” Jongin the ring of coffee from his upper lip before continuing “what do you identify as besides an aromatic aual. Do you consider yourself hetero or homo?”

It’d been so long since Kyungsoo had a conversation about that with someone who had pure curiosity of his uality, rather than commenting with condescending belittlements. Although he’d been questioned about it time and time again, he never minded the people who genuinely wanted to learn. Especially when they were patient and understanding the way Jongin seemed to be.

“I guess I’d be considered panaual. I don’t have a preference, and I’ve experimented—relationship wise—with both es. Gender simply has never been a factor for me.” Kyungsoo did some kind of wave of his hand indicating his lack of interest in gender as he took a sip from his drink.

They spent a good hour at the coffee shop, discussing different things. A lot of it was about how they both learned to accept their socially insupportable ualities, and how they dealt with the back lash of it all. Jongin seemed to have handled his end of the stick much better than Kyungsoo did when he was growing up.

Jongin talked about pretty much always being open about his uality; talking about ‘cute boys’ since he could recognize attraction as anything. Jongin’s mother was accepting, and his father wasn’t around to even care.

Kyungsoo, on the other hand, tried to pretend he liked girls because it was what everyone else liked. It was what he thought was the right thing to do. Of course, he always thought something was wrong with him, because he never found himself liking girls or boys. But as he grew older and became capable of understanding emotions better than just a child, he found the smallest ounce of solace. It didn’t take long into his teenage years for him to learn about auality, either. And to realize he wasn’t the brute of a cosmic joke was incredibly alleviating. To know that there were others like him relieved the alienation of hidden truths and false attractions.


-


“It’s closed.” Kyungsoo scoffed as he humored himself by giving the library doors one last tug. “What the hell?”

It was a cold day, winds blowing harder than usual causing crispy leaves to dance along the sidewalks and empty fields of grass. Of course, the one day it was genuinely cold, Kyungsoo wouldn’t be able to find his jacket, and the beautifully warm library would be closed. ty luck.

“We could study at my place,” Jongin offered. “My roommates off getting dicked down for the day by his boy toy.”

Kyungsoo laughed despite the way he rolled his eyes.

Jongin’s apartment was surprisingly neat and clean; much more than Kyungsoo and Baek’s –Baekhyun was the one to blame—.

“We can study at the coffee table, so just set your stuff anywhere. I’m gonna go make some coffee. Want some?”

Kyungsoo nodded with a polite smile as he sat his things against the couch and let his eyes roam around the living room. There were beautiful paintings hanging up on one wall, and Kyungsoo wasn’t the least surprised when he read the name signed as Kim Jongin. It seemed as though the latter was incredibly talented with his paintings, and he seemed to have a large variety of styles. There were only four, but they all were completely different while still going together without clash. Realistic art, abstract, cartoonish, nature; all paintings including varieties of gorgeously boisterous colors.

“The coffee will be ready in a bit, bu- oh.” Jongin interrupted himself as he walked out from the kitchen and saw Kyungsoo standing near the paintings and taking them in, looking at them with care and caution. As if not to miss a speck of color.

He stood beside the older, looking over the paintings he’d gotten so used to seeing to the point he’d forgotten they were even there.

“They’re beautiful, Jongin.” The pictures danced with their own stories, sunk into his mind and made him feel something particular. There was no doubt many of people had felt the same affect.

“Thank you. They were my mother’s favorites.”

“Were?” He looked over at Jongin with inquisition.

“She passed away a few years ago.”

“Oh—I’m really sorry to hear that, Jongin..” Kyungsoo began to bring his hand up to Jongin’s arm for comfort but thought better of it.

“It’s ok. Actually, I’m happy for her. She was in a lot of pain.” Jongin weakly smiled down at Kyungsoo for just a moment before retrieving his books from his bag and placing them to the coffee table.

Kyungsoo didn’t recall Jongin ever mentioning anything about his mother being gone, but he supposed it was better to remember her in life than in death.


-


They began meeting more often than just for tutor sessions. It all started when Jongin called Kyungsoo to go to a movie with him one night. ‘I really want to see this damn movie, but I don’t want to go alone and Sehun doesn’t know how to go a day without a in his . So will you go with me? Pleeeeaaaseee?’  And of course, Kyungsoo obliged. After that, their friend ship seemed to blossom out of their control.

So, months after meeting one another, they found a best friend in each other.


-


“So, are you guys ing, or what?” Baekhyun spoke through his disgustingly full mouth of food.

Kyungsoo shot the older a death glare, and it only took a matter of seconds before Baekhyun was coughing out an ‘I know, I know! Just a joke.’

The taxi dropped Kyungsoo off at Jongin’s place, and Kyungsoo hoped Jongin wouldn’t say much about Kyungsoo being 20 minutes late. He was doubtful though; Jongin loved to complain.

The door was opening before the pale boy had a chance to knock, and Jongin was already pestering him with a playful ‘took you long enough’.

Not long after Jongin had poured them cups of tea, pizza box splayed open on the coffee table as they watched a really bad B movie, was Jongin blabbering nervously.

“They’re so about having dancers who don’t only dance beautifully, but have looks to par. What if they don’t think I look the part? What if they don’t like the color of my skin, or think my jaw is too square, or—“

“Shutup, Jongin. You’re gorgeous and you know it. They’re going to accept you onto the team without a thought.” Kyungsoo shook his head with an eye roll and took a bite of his pizza.

“How do you know if I’m gorgeous? These old people probably don’t even know what the word aual is, let alone know what it’s like to not judge someone for their every feature.” Jongin began nervously biting his nails, because the competition he was entering was only two days away. He’d be utterly devastated if he didn’t get accepted.

“First of all, there is every chance of them being aual as there is of them being any uality. Second, being aual doesn’t mean I can’t tell when someone or something’s beautiful. I can think a painting is gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean I want to it. Get it?”

Jongin grimaced, because he realized how entirely ignorant his statement was. “I’m sorry, yeah. That was really stupid of me to say.”

“You’re correct, it was downright stupid. But I forgive you.” Kyungsoo smiled at the younger boy who sat next to him, his tanned cheeks reddened by his own ignorance.

They finished the movie, albeit it’s altogether horrible quality of plot and cast. These kinds of movies had seemed to easily become their favorite kind to watch. They didn’t have to pay complete attention, they could talk and bicker and joke throughout the movie without it really mattering if they missed anything good. Not that most B movies really had anything good anyways, besides the outrageously hilarious cheesiness of them all.

They’d both pitched in with picking up the living room and the pizza crumbs left along the floor before they were sitting on the couch and flicking through TV channels.

“So, you think I’m gorgeous, huh?” Jongin quizzed, still looking at the relatively small TV screen.

“Yeah, you’re alright.” Kyungsoo smiled mischievously at Jongin’s ‘insulted’ look.

“I’m hurt!” He placed his hand above his heart for dramatic effect.

A chuckle boasted from Kyungsoo’s throat, and he was beginning to think that maybe they were watching too many B movies with the way Jongin’s acting was turning out. “Yes, you’re very attractive Jongin. I’m sure if I were capable of being affected by it, I probably would be.” Kyungsoo wasn’t completely sure if he would be, because he had no idea what it was like to be ‘ually attracted’ to anyone. But, surely, Jongin had a face to lust for.

“Well,” And Jongin’s voice already seemed to sound a bit more serious than before. “What about my personality? Is— it gorgeous too?”

Kyungsoo began to think that he could see where this was going, but it didn’t stop him from answering truthfully. “I think it is.” His voice was a little hesitant, but he tried to hide the embarrassment that attempted to chime through his vocal chords.

Jongin cleared his throat and placed the remote onto the arm of the couch, looking over at Kyungsoo. “And.. What kind of difference would it make if I thought that you were gorgeous… With a personality to match?” The male tried to speak with caution. He didn’t want to push any barriers; didn’t want to scare Kyungsoo away, or scare himself out of admitting how he felt.

The heart in Kyungsoo’s chest seemed to begin to beat faster and faster, and he swore he could feel the blood swimming in his ears. There was no doubt that the older had developed feelings for Jongin. But what was he to do about it? He didn’t want to hear about how Jongin couldn’t be with a guy who didn’t find him attractive, or wouldn’t have with him. But hearing Jongin say the words that he did, made him feel like there was a flurry in his chest. His brain was wracked at the idea that for the first time in years, someone actually liked him for what he was.

“It—could possibly make a huge difference?” Kyungsoo sounded unsure, because he was. He didn’t really know if it was Jongin’s way of initiating something.. But he kind of hoped that it was.

There were a few beats of silence; Jongin looking at Kyungsoo idly despite the way Kyungsoo seemed to look anywhere but at the younger.

“Kyungsoo…”He cleared his throat, “I like you.. A lot.”

Fear began to bubble in Jongin’s gut, because Kyungsoo had no immediate reply. Not to mention, he’d only simply said that it could make a huge difference, but not that the difference would be good, and it was starting to scare the boy. “Kyung..soo?”

“I like you a lot too, Jongin.” And all though there was an apparent weight lifted from the room, Kyungsoo still seemed to find it hard to look at Jongin. Moments like that were scary and flustering to Kyungsoo. There was always those thoughts ‘What if he gets bored. What if he doesn’t end up getting the desires that he craves?’

Jongin crawled toward the other end of the couch where Kyungsoo sat, but the latter slightly leaned away from the younger.

“Don’t worry, Kyungsoo. I’m not going to kiss you or anything. Not unless you ever want me to.” His voice was gentle and understanding. “I just wanted to be closer to you. Want to let you know how happy I was when I realized who you were that day. And happier day by day that you let me become a part of your life.”

The older boy looked over at Jongin who sat comfortably close. It slightly panged Kyungsoo’s heart, the way Jongin seemed so willing to accept Kyungsoo the way that he was. Kyungsoo had always wished he could be more. Be the person who touched someone the right way and kissed them passionately. But that was just never him.

A strange expression faltered Jongin’s face when Kyungsoo made no reply, and so he began to move toward his own side of the couch again. “I’m sorry, that was too much I didn-“

But Kyungsoo reached out to Jongin’s wrist and kept him steady in his place. There was nothing wrong with Jongin being close to him, or anyone he was comfortable with. In fact, there was nothing more comforting than the idea that the younger wanted to be by his side.

“It wasn’t too much. Things like this are just.. a lot for me to process. But, I want you near me.”

Jongin let out a heavy breath, shoulders relaxing as a smile grew on his face.

They spent the day huddled close. Not too much touching, but a lot of expressing, talking, fluttering eyelashes, and pounding hearts. Something genuine beamed from Jongin, something that screamed ‘I know what I’m getting myself in to, but I don‘t care. It’s not a challenge, it’s a privilege.’


-


“I ing knew it!” Baekhyun pointed excitedly toward the two standing in front of him and his own boyfriend, Chanyeol. “I knew you guys were going to end up together!” He quietly squealed at the way they held hands, the pretty contrast of their skin.

“Listen Baekhyun, we’re here to celebrate Jongin’s acceptance to the team, not our newly found relationship.” Kyungsoo tried to bite back the major smile that threatened to stain his face.

“Hey, I don’t see why we can’t celebrate both?” There it was again, Jongin’s cheesy ‘I’m so insulted’ B movie acting.

 

Relationships like theirs would always have things to work on. But really, what relationship doesn’t? What mattered was that they were happy, and they could last. 


 

A/N: Thank you all for reading. <3 I really hope I did well on this, and if you have any opinions on how I portrayed auality then please feel free to tell me! I hope you enjoyed this story and will let me know what you guys think. :')