“This is officially the most unfair thing ever.” Donghyuk flopped back on his bed, arms crossed over his chest.

“Yeah, well, we’re sorry, couldn’t really put it off though.” Hanbin patted his leg.

Junhoe shook his head. “Speak for yourself, I’m not sorry at all. See Dong, this just means that you need to stop waiting around for signs. Just go up to Yunhyeong hyung and ask him straight out.”

“Gay out, you mean.”

Junhoe glared at Hanbin. “That has to be the worst joke you’ve ever told.”

Hanbin grinned back at him. “I know, normally you’d be the one making it, so I decided to sacrifice my integrity so it wouldn’t go wasted.”

“Can both of you shut up?” Donghyuk whined. “I can’t believe I went from being the most experienced to the least experienced in one weekend.”

“Like I said, Yunhyeong hyung—”

“Oh I know, okay? I can’t just go up and ask him, though. Not with his group of friends.”

“Of course you can. You don’t have to be explicit or anything, just tell him that you like him, and ask him if he likes you too.”

“Because it’s a guarantee that he likes you.”

“It’s not that easy,” Donghyuk replied, turning on to his side, “besides, what if he does like me, but he’s not willing to come out with his friends? I don’t want to be someone’s secret.”

Junhoe kind of understood that sentiment, but he thought it was better to be a secret than nothing at all. “Well, you won’t know unless you ask, right? What do you have to lose? He’s not the type of person that’ll spread rumours about you if you ask him, you don’t have to worry about that.”

“I know,” Donghyuk shoved his face into his blanket.

“Do you want me to ask him for you?” Junhoe offered.

“No!” Donghyuk looked up at Junhoe, shaking his head. “Don’t you dare ask him.”

Junhoe frowned at Donghyuk’s immediate refusal. “I’m trying to help you, why do you sound so afraid of accepting it?”

Hanbin laughed at the question. “Can you blame him? You aren’t exactly the best at talking.”

“Shut up, Hanbin.” Junhoe glared at his best friend, feeling doubly offended.

“It’s true. At most maybe you could set something up for them. Are you seeing him again for another session before we get out for the holiday?”

“Yeah. Want me to set up a date for you?” Junhoe still offered even though they both apparently didn’t trust him with the task.

“No! Maybe, like, give him my number? Oh but how could you do that without it seeming weird. Maybe ask him if we can do a group thing, or something? I don’t know.” Donghyuk frowned. He’d never had such a hard time with something before. He told himself it was just because he was wary of Korea’s different social structure. He wouldn’t offend Yunhyeong, would he?

“Pathetic,” Hanbin teased, “I thought you were good at talking to people, and you can’t even come up with a good way to get the guy your phone number.”

“I know, you don’t have to rub it in.” Donghyuk whined.

“When is your tutoring session? Maybe Dong and I will just show up when it’s nearly over.”

Junhoe nodded. That could work. “You know what, the last one is on Friday, and we’re finishing earlier than usual, so I could totally have you guys over at the end.”

Donghyuk looked between the both of them and frowned. “Ah, seriously? I feel kinda stupid about this. What if he has plans and has to leave right away? What do I do, just throw my number at him?”

“I’ll ask him if he does, and if the answer is yes I’ll text Hanbin and you guys come over a little early. If he doesn’t, then show up with food and he’ll stay.” Yunhyeong wasn’t the sort of guy to turn down free food.

Donghyuk wondered if it could really be so simple. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”

“Awesome! It’ll be good, don’t worry. Just wear something extra cute and it’ll be a success.” Hanbin was glad they’d come up with a plan to try and help him out.

Donghyuk sighed and flopped back against his pillow. “Okay, okay. Let’s not talk about this for a bit cause I’ll just worry myself sick. Instead you guys need to give me details! Hanbin, was that book I lent you useful?”

“What book? Why didn’t I get a book?” Junhoe grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You don’t even read instructions for video games, you won’t read instructions for .” Hanbin replied, winking at him.

“Oh that’s what kind of book it was?” Junhoe replied, still looking put out.

“It’s in English, though,” Donghyuk quickly explained, “you wouldn’t have understood it.”

“Well, you could have translated it.” Hanbin and Donghyuk both shook their heads silently, which annoyed Junhoe. They weren’t supposed to be ganging up on him. “Either of you could have translated it if you cared about me.”

“Do you honestly think you’d be able to sit through something like that? Because I’ve known you long enough to know that the answer is a resounding no.” Hanbin replied.

Junhoe was unwilling to admit defeat. “You don’t know that for sure,” Junhoe retorted, “this was an important next step, I could have benefitted from some insider information.”

“You didn’t even tell me you were spending the night with him! How was I supposed to know?”

“You didn’t tell me you were doing it with Bobby either!”

Donghyuk sat up and laid a hand on both of their knees. “Okay, let’s talk about something else.”

“No way,” Junhoe replied, “maybe Hanbin knew I would have had a problem with reading that book together, but you didn’t—”

“HA! See, you just admitted it yourself. If I had asked you, you would have said no.” Hanbin fixed him with a smug expression, always happy to get the upper hand.

“I didn’t say that!” Junhoe replied. “I just said I’d have a problem with it. Not that I wouldn’t do it at all.”

“Was it good, though? If it was good, then it doesn’t even matter that you didn’t see it.” Donghyuk jumped in, amused by the argument.

“Of course it was good,” Junhoe replied, “it was amazing, actually.”

“He even got to Jinhwan hyung,” Hanbin whispered, to which Donghyuk nearly shrieked in response.

“Wait, hold on. You got to him?”

Junhoe nodded, and the shock and surprise on Donghyuk’s face was already mollifying. “Yeah, I did. Twice, actually.”

“Oh my god,” Donghyuk whispered, laying back down on his bed and stuffing his face into his pillow. He said something, but neither of them could make it out around the mouthful of fabric.

Hanbin grabbed his shoulder and pulled him over. “Are you okay?”

Donghyuk’s expression was all shock. “Tell me you ed Bobby too?” Hanbin shook his head, and Donghyuk wailed into the pillow.

Junhoe couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t often that he had truly impressive news like this, and he intended to fully savour it.

“I can’t believe that Junhoe is now the most experienced of us all,” Donghyuk said, his tone whiny. “This is total bull. I almost feel insulted.” Donghyuk looked at Hanbin and laughed, and Hanbin joined in. Junhoe’s expression quickly turned into a glare.

“Why is this insulting?” He asked, annoyed with the pair of them.

“Because,” Donghyuk faltered, “it just is, okay?”

“Yeah, it’s like, your personality. I mean, you like to act like you’re a take charge kind of guy, but in reality, you like following people.” Hanbin waited for a reaction, ready to bolt from the bed if Junhoe took offense.

Junhoe’s face dropped, but he didn’t move. “Are you insinuating that you think that I’m, a, you know, a—”

“A bottom?” Donghyuk supplied helpfully, giggling when Junhoe turned to him.

“I was getting there!” Junhoe replied, his face beet red already.

“See! You can’t even talk about it without getting embarrassed!” Hanbin replied, dodging out of the way of Junhoe’s kick. “You don’t like trying new things, especially if you don’t know if you’re any good at them.”

“Well you’re the same way!” Junhoe retorted defensively.

“I never said I wasn’t,” Hanbin replied with a grin, “I have no interest in ing Bobby any time soon, I’ll be garbage. I bet you were probably garbage the first time, that’s why Jinhwan let you do it again, isn’t it?”

“Hanbin, shut your mouth.” Junhoe wanted to throttle him.

“So, I’m gonna guess that Jinhwan let you him first, before he ed you, right?” Donghyuk asked, grinning when Junhoe sent him a narrow-eyed glare.

“He did, I don’t see why you should care, though.”

“Even hyung expected you to be garbage your first time,” Hanbin replied, shuffling behind Donghyuk to hide from Junhoe.

“Well I couldn’t have been that bad, since he let me him again the morning after! And he had his entrance exam for SNU later that day!” Junhoe shot back, feeling defensive even though he knew he didn’t have to be. They were just teasing him, probably because they knew he’d flip out.

“Oh wow, before his exam? Okay that’s pretty impressive.” Donghyuk replied.

“Impressive? More like pretty stupid.” Hanbin teased.

“Hanbin, why can’t you just be happy for me?” Junhoe complained.

“It’s not in my nature,” Hanbin replied, and he knew that Junhoe wasn’t really bothered. Secretly he liked the attention.

“What position did you do it in?” Donghyuk asked, because he was honestly curious.

“Um, the usual one,” Junhoe replied, blushing at the question. God, why couldn’t he talk about this and not get all bent out of shape over it? He thought he’d been getting over his embarrassment.

“From behind?” Donghyuk asked, grinning when Junhoe just nodded.

“Boring,” Hanbin teased, “that was probably the first time, how did you do it the second?”

“Why does it matter?” Junhoe asked.

“I bet he rode you, didn’t he?”

“Hanbin!” Donghyuk hissed, smacking him in the arm.

“I’m just saying, you have more control over what’s going on when you do it that way.”

“You do it one time, Hanbin, and suddenly you’re an expert.” Donghyuk laughed, smacking him again.

“What does it matter? My was in his , that’s the important thing.” Junhoe glared at Hanbin.

“That’s right, it was. I’m very proud of you.” Hanbin couldn’t help but , and even though Junhoe had done nothing but glare at him so far, when their eyes met a second later, Junhoe burst into laughter and all the grumpiness he’d been carrying disappeared.
 

The first thing Jinhwan did when he woke up on Sunday morning was call Junhoe. The first call went to voicemail, so Jinhwan dialled the number again. It took three rings until it was answered.

“Hyung?” Junhoe’s voice was heavy with sleep, groggy and grumpy.

Jinhwan flipped over on his bed, lying sideways across his mattress. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” He grinned as he asked. He’d obviously woken Junhoe up.

There was a moment of silence before he got his answer. “What do you want? What time is it?”

“Eight thirty,” Jinhwan answered, before flipping over onto his back, “I didn’t want to get out of bed so I called you.”

There was a moment of silence again. “I don’t understand what that has to do with anything, hyung.”

“I’m going to church with Bobby and his parents and his mom’s making breakfast, but I don’t wanna get out of bed.”

“Why did you have to call me, though?” It wasn’t that Junhoe minded, really. But he didn’t have to be up this early, and he wasn’t impressed with the wake up call.

“Because I don’t wanna get up.” Jinhwan had mainly just called to annoy Junhoe, to see if he actually would answer the call. “I wish I could wake up the way I woke up last Sunday.” Last Sunday he’d woken up next to Junhoe. He wished they were on video chat because Junhoe was probably blushing.

Junhoe was blushing. “Um, yeah, me too.” God, why was Jinhwan being so annoying?! Waking him up at this ridiculous early hour just to talk about their last weekend? Not that Junhoe minded rehashing it. Just not so early.

“What are you doing today?” Jinhwan asked, just to keep the conversation going. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that he wished he could wake up next to Junhoe. That had probably been a bad idea. Maybe Junhoe was so tired he’d forget he’d heard it.

Junhoe groaned. Had Jinhwan really called him just to have a conversation?! “I don’t know,” he grumbled, “going to church in a few hours, then going shopping with Hanbin. He has to get something for Bobby’s birthday.”

“He doesn’t need to buy anything except a ,” Jinhwan joked, grinning when he heard Junhoe grumble, “seriously, Bobby’s a simple guy.”

“Really not interested in hearing those details, hyung.” Junhoe replied.

“Hey speaking of Bobby, are you free on the 21st? I don’t know if Hanbin mentioned it, but since I’m flying to Jeju on the 22nd Bobby’s parents decided to do his birthday dinner on the 21st. Can you come? You don’t have to get him anything, don’t worry, it’s really more for me.” Jinhwan offered the invitation on the spur of the moment. Bobby’s parents wouldn’t mind at all, they loved packing as many people into their celebrations as was physically possible.

“Are you sure? Did you ask Bobby?” Junhoe felt a little weird about being invited to a birthday party without the guest of honour knowing about it.

“Not yet, but I’ll tell him you’re coming today. Honestly, he won’t mind, he likes you.” Jinhwan really just wanted Junhoe to come so he could have an easy excuse to see him again before he left for a week.

“Well, I guess. I mean I don’t have any plans.” He’d ask Hanbin if he should buy Bobby a gift or not.

“Good, bring your appetite too cause Bobby’s mom always makes a huge amount of food. Like I know she’s used to feeding a lot of hungry guys, but she still always makes a ton.” He’d miss Bobby’s mom’s cooking if he left. He wondered if he’d find anyone who could cook like her in LA.

“Alright, cool. How long are you going to Jeju for?” The trip was news to Junhoe, and he wondered how long Jinhwan had known about it.

“Just a week,” Jinhwan replied, “I’m gonna try talking to my mom about jiu jitsu. I think it’ll go well this time.”

“Oh, that’s good. Good luck.” Junhoe was happy to hear that Jinhwan wanted to try sorting it out with his mom. He remembered their talk about Jinhwan’s whole story, and he hoped he could get some happy kind of resolution to it all.

“Thanks,” Jinhwan replied, “plus I really miss island food, so now’s the perfect time to go visit.”

Junhoe was about to reply but he heard yelling in the background of Jinhwan’s line, followed up by Jinhwan’s own muffled reply.

“I gotta go, finally being hauled away for breakfast.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you. I’d kind of like to go back to sleep.”

Jinhwan grinned at the retort. “Oh come on, admit it, you liked being woken up by me.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Fine, go sleep! Thanks for agreeing to come to Bobby’s party, I’ll make sure I tell Hanbin so you can’t back out of it.” Jinhwan laughed when Junhoe let out an annoyed sigh from his end before ending the call. He tossed his phone down onto his bed and finally struggled to get up. He hadn’t been to church in quite some time what with his trumpet practices. He really hoped Father Lee wasn’t going to grill him for it.
 

“Ah, Jinhwan, how nice to see you again. You’ve been missing from church lately, I thought maybe you’d gone back to the island.”

Jinhwan smiled sheepishly at their pastor. Just as expected. “I’m sorry, Father Lee, I’ve been having a lot of extra music lessons lately. I had my entrance exam for SNU last weekend, and my instructor booked me for a bunch of Sunday mornings.”

The priest smiled at his explanation. “I see, and did it go well?”

“Of course it did,” Jinhwan replied, “aced it!”

“I’m proud to hear that, you did well.” The pastor reached out to pat his shoulder. “Jiwon, I was wondering if we could have a word?”

Bobby’s blood ran cold at the request, and his eyes rose to meet his pastor’s. “Of course, Father Lee.” There was only a smile on his face, though, but Bobby knew he was well-practiced with the expression. It was part of the job description, really.

Bobby followed him away from the few remaining people, up to the front of the church where they settled in at the first pew. Bobby couldn’t help but feel anxious. Why did Father Lee want to talk to him? Had he found out about Hanbin? How would he have, though? Someone would have had to have told him. Enough time had passed by now that he’d finally stopped worrying about his pastor finding out. Besides, Bobby was sure the relationship had God’s blessing, there were too many things that lined up. There was no way Father Lee was going to be against it if he knew about it.

“I'm disappointed in you, Jiwon.”

. Bobby panicked, looked around for his parents. Oh God, this was it, wasn't it?

“That boy who came with you a few weeks ago, Hanbin, was that his name?” Bobby nodded, feeling sick to his stomach at what was surely coming. “He’s your boyfriend, is he not?”

What was he supposed to say? He couldn't lie to his pastor. Not in church. He thought again about Jiun's words that day. He hadn't done anything wrong. He wasn't doing anything wrong. “Yes, Father Lee.”

The older man nodded, his expression not giving anything away. “You brought your boyfriend to my sermon, but didn't introduce him to me?”

Bobby wasn't sure what to make of the comment. Was he angry with Bobby for bringing him?

“Ten years now, I've been your pastor. I would have thought that you'd feel comfortable introducing the important people in your life to me.”

Bobby's mouth hung low in shock. This was unexpected. “I’m sorry, I, uh, I didn’t know. That you knew. About me, and him. Mostly about me.”

Father Lee smiled at him. “I didn’t know about him, I had to ask your grandmother.”

His grandmother. She really had been talking to him about he and Hanbin!

“Don’t be upset with your grandmother, Jiwon, you’ll be happy to know that she told me, in no uncertain terms, that Hanbin was special and an absolutely wonderful boy, and that she fully expected me to embrace him as a member of our extended family.”

Bobby just stared at him in shock. His grandmother had said what?

“I’ve been waiting to say something, hoping you might bring him back with you. But it’s been a month now, and no sign. I asked your mother before talking to you, to make sure nothing had happened.”

Bobby still couldn’t speak. His pastor knew. Knew about him being gay. And he wasn’t upset by it.

“Jiwon, it’s okay, I’m sorry for shocking you. You may speak.”

Oh, now Father Lee was teasing him? “I’m sorry, I just, when did you find out? About me? Being, uh, you know.”

“I've known you were gay ever since you came out, Jiwon. Your mother and I spoke at length about it, I helped her find peace over it. She was ready to support you from the start, but this situation is difficult for many people to accept when they've spent a lifetime hearing that it's wrong. Many in our community might disagree with my stance of support, but I will always preach acceptance. Your grandmother and mother both speak very highly of Hanbin. I hope to have a proper introduction to him one day.”

Bobby nodded, still too shocked to speak. All this time he'd been worrying over nothing. Why hadn't anyone told him? “Thank you, Father Lee.”

“Jiwon, if this is the path that has been chosen for you, and it's the same path that was chosen for Hanbin, then I wish you both happiness. As long as you make each other happy, and you learn and grow together, those are the important things in life. Don't concern yourself with anyone else's opinion. Family is the most important thing, family and faith.”

“He’s not Christian.” Bobby wasn’t sure why he’d suddenly felt compelled to tell him. He didn’t want to hide Hanbin’s religious views, not when he was being met with such open acceptance.

“What Hanbin believes in is between himself and God,” Father Lee replied, “it’s not for us to pass judgement on. Does he not live by the same ideals as you and I? He’s a good person who cares about others. Whatever he does or does not believe is not for us to judge. God loves the both of you, Jiwon, and he’s brought you together for his own reasons. His approval is good enough for me.”

Bobby felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Father Lee was essentially giving him permission to truly be himself at church, to be gay, without fear of repercussion. It wasn’t something Bobby had ever expected to receive, and he blinked back stubborn tears.

“Thank you, Father, honestly thank you. This means a lot to me.”

“I can see that, Jiwon. So please bring him back with you soon, so I can meet him properly. And please tell him not to feel pressured while he’s here. It’s not imperative that we all believe in the same things, as long as we respect each other’s beliefs. Everything else we must leave to the Lord himself, isn’t that right?”

Bobby nodded, wiping a tear from his eye. God’s blessing indeed.
 

“Not only are we celebrating our Jiwon-ie’s birthday, but our Jinhwan-ie’s exciting news too!” Bobby’s mom exclaimed, sparkling eyes shooting between the pair. “Brown belt, already! The black is next, isn’t it?”

Jinhwan looked at Bobby, feeling slightly betrayed to see him fighting back a laugh, like he thought it was funny. “Ah, really, this is a birthday dinner, we don’t have to talk about me.”

“Just let her talk, Jinan, she needs to get it out of her system.” Jiun nudged him.

“I’m just proud of him, the same way I was proud of you for making your black belt, Jiun-ah!” She retorted. “He’s going to be gone for a week, I just want him to know that we’re all very proud of him.”

Jinhwan was touched; he was pretty sure she was making a big deal out of it because she was worried that his own mother might not be as impressed, and she wanted to make sure that she did her job in congratulating him. He’d have to hug her extra hard later.

“How was the test, anyway?” Jiun asked.

“Easy, it was more of a demonstration of everything I know. Our tests aren’t really tests, so much as they are showcases, I guess.”

“Did he screw up at all?” Hanbin asked Junhoe, who’d been there to watch.

“No, I kept hoping he would, but he put on an annoyingly perfect performance.” Junhoe replied, teasing Jinhwan.

“Hold on, Junhoe went to your test?” Bobby said, looking at Jinhwan in disbelief. “How come you’ve never invited me to one?”

Jinhwan grinned back at him. “You’d be bored, trust me. I saved you over an hour of your life you’d never be able to get back.”

Bobby shook his head, not really upset but playing into it. “Wow. You think you know someone, and they stab you in the back.”

“Honestly, did he miss anything, Junhoe?” Jinhwan turned to his side.

Junhoe shook his head. “You really didn’t, hyung.”

“Then why did you go if it was so boring?” Bobby asked him.

Junhoe shrugged. “An early Christmas present,” he teased, grinning when Jinhwan narrowed his eyes at him.

“Yeah, from me to you,” Jinhwan replied, “giving you another chance to see a true master at work.”

Junhoe rolled his eyes. “Yeah, a master fleeing the purple rank in fear.”

“Excuse me?” Jinhwan asked.

“I just think it’s convenient, that’s all.” Junhoe replied, grinning to himself.

“What’s convenient?” Jinhwan questioned, amused by his attitude.

“It’s convenient that you went and levelled up before we could have a rematch.” Junhoe replied, winking at him.

Jinhwan shook his head. “Oh I’m sorry, you think you could beat me now?”

“Nothing in life is a guarantee, but I think I like my chances.”

“Yeah, actually given how much I’ve taught you recently, you probably could take me if you were lucky.” Jinhwan winked back at him.

Hanbin cleared his throat and kicked Jinhwan under the table. “Excuse me, stop being disgusting, we’re trying to eat.”

Jinhwan was about to fire off a retort about the hypocrisy, but suddenly Bobby’s mother spoke up.

“Oh, is there something going on here we should know about?”

Jinhwan’s expression turned murderous, while Junhoe blushed and looked back at his plate. Hanbin laughed and even Bobby grinned.

“No, Mrs Kim, nothing is going on.” Jinhwan didn’t think she needed to know about he and Junhoe’s arrangement.

She seemed disappointed. “Oh, well that’s too bad.”

“Too bad? Mom!” Bobby groaned.

“What? A mother likes to see her sons happy, that’s all.” Mrs. Kim shot them a beaming smile.

“Mom stop.” Bobby begged, shooting Junhoe a look of apology. Jinhwan was used to it, he was on his own.

“Can you blame me? There are two very good looking young men here, who I know both appreciate good looking young men, I just assumed there was something there.”

“MOM!” Bobby yelled, surprised when Hanbin smacked his arm.

“Don’t yell at your mother, hyung! She just wants them to be happy, is that so bad?” Bobby glared at him, and Hanbin grinned back.

“She’s meddling, don’t encourage her.” Jinhwan cut in, teasing Bobby’s mother.

“That’s what moms do. That’s how you know they love you, right Mrs. Kim?” Hanbin winked at Bobby’s mother, who laughed at him and called him a charmer. Hanbin yelped when he felt a foot connect with his shin under the table.

“Yah, stop flirting with my mother!” Jiun yelled at him, getting in on the teasing.

“Oh hush, Jiun-ah! You know we have a policy of truth at this table, anyone who sits down is allowed to say whatever they like.” Mrs. Kim winked back at Hanbin.

Junhoe just went back to eating. He liked the atmosphere with Bobby’s family, everyone teasing everyone else. It was easy to feel welcome here, and he was grateful they’d invited him. Plus he was just glad that he was getting to spend a final evening with Jinhwan before he left for the week.

And even though his knee jerk reaction had been one of embarrassment, it was actually kind of nice that Bobby’s mom had assumed there was something going on between he and Jinhwan. Maybe she was able to pick up on how well matched they were, maybe she could feel that they just worked together. Weren’t mothers supposed to be good match-makers? Bobby’s mother knew Jinhwan, so Junhoe felt like her support of there being something between them was a sign that there really ought to be something there.

Maybe there would be, when Jinhwan came back from his trip.

Junhoe would think about it over the break, really think about whether or not he wanted to risk what they had now in order to ask for something more. Because as much as he kept trying to fight the feelings down, they kept coming back, and they were even stronger now at this dinner.

He and Jinhwan were the only odd ones out at the table, not an official couple.

How nice would it be if that could change?