Hours later, Jooheon woke to a warm body in his arms. He noted the time, 11:37pm.

When did I fall asleep? he questioned without paying mind to how the other had crept in sometime that evening.

He rubbed off the sleep from his eyes as he focused on the peaceful form before him who was staring deep. “So I’m guessing it went well?”

The other stirred before slowly, gaze heavy on the elder. A smile spread across Changkyun’s face as he pressed himself closer and nuzzled into the elder’s neck. “Very. We talked. A lot.”

“And?”

“And we’ll be friends one day. It’d be cool to be friends with a celebrity.” He chuckled softly, but Jooheon noticed a masked sadness.

“Was he upset?”

“Of course. But more so at himself,” the boy grimaced. “He kept insisting it was his fault. That he was the reason it all went wrong.”

“But it’s not,” Jooheon finished.

“Yeah. It’s my fault. Everything is,” he choked, wall finally breaking down. The elder thought he heard a sniffle but instead of questioning it, he held the other tighter. “I couldn’t understand things on my own, so I had to bring him down with me in my own realization. I was friends with him before. I guess that’s all we really can be.”

The elder felt proud. Not because he could finally claim Changkyun as his own, but because the younger was stronger. In some way or another.

He sighed in content as he felt the younger in his embrace.

Changkyun breathed out a laugh as he looked up at his friend. “So what now?”

“We sleep,” the elder replied simply as if there was no other answer, which earned him an eye roll from the younger, who slipped out from his grip. “Wait, where are you going?”

With an overdramatic groan in frustration, Changkyun crossed his arms and pouted, hovering over his friend. “You expect me to sleep?” he asked in feigned disbelief.

Jooheon gawked at the show the other was putting on.

“Fine. Then I’m leaving,” the younger huffed, strutting out of the room and turning off the lights, leaving Jooheon alone in the dark.

“What a little diva, he is,” Jooheon laughed, throwing his arms above his head on the pillows. Oh, Kyunggie left his pillow here.

With a sigh, he got up and walked into the main part of his house. The scent of cinnamon and sugar filled his senses. “Changkyun?” he asked into the darkness.

On the counter before him, a birthday candle fire illuminated a small, freshly baked cake.

“What’s this?” Jooheon let out a light laugh.

Changkyun wrapped his arms around the elder from behind. “A cake,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Well, of course, dummy. What’s it for?”

The younger mumbled something under his breath before leaning in to brush his lips against the crook of the elder’s neck. He uttered some sort of inaudible answer.

“What did you say?” Jooheon asked as he craned his neck to eye the boy behi