“Taeyong hyung, I have to say something.” Jaehyun stopped to take a breath. “I have wanted to tell you this since ages. Since agesss. But you, you ing unicorn, it’s like I look at you and I can’t think of words to say. Do you realize how it must feel? Because you’re adorable and when you smile, I swear it messes up my head. And heart. My poor heart. It’s so scary because you confuse me so much. Like when you hug me is it a i-like-you-dongsaeng kind of hug or i-like-like-you kind of hug? Give me a clue, Taeyong. Give me a clue because if you don’t catch the elephant it will fly away.”

Taeyong and Johnny had been talking about random things—ursa major, butterscotch ice-cream, the number ten, mauve hair, Chicago, rap lines—when Jaehyun had made his grand entry. Tripping over Johnny’s backpack on the floor, Jaehyun had started spouting some of the weirdest things about elephants and unicorns but Taeyong felt his heart go wild when he heard Jaehyun’s confession.

He lay in bed, heart hammering; the room dark. It was Johnny who laughed finding Jaehyun’s words hilariously cute. When he practically ran out of the room, Jaehyun went quiet and Taeyong got up, sitting against the wall.

He was still quiet, unconsciously holding his breath as he tried to calm his hammering heart.

“Taeyong?” Jaehyun asked in the dark, stumbling towards his side of the room. “Why is it so dark here? Usually the room lights up when you walk in. Tee-hee.”

Taeyong let out the breath he was holding. “Jaehyun-ah.” He couldn’t help but laugh. “What is happening to you?”

“You’re awake!?” Jaehyun said, excitedly, walking in the direction of his voice.

Taeyong said, “Yeah, Johnny and I were just talking.”

“Great,” Jaehyun said, climbing into Taeyong’s bed. “Let’s talk.”

“T-talk?”

“Yeah, aren’t you going to say something, you cutie?” Jaehyun asked. His eyes had by now accustomed to the dark and he could see Taeyong’s silhouette. He tapped Taeyong’s knee. “You know, I’ll understand if you don’t feel the same way. All I want is an answer. Haechan said it’s very important to freestyle.”

“No, no.” Taeyong smiled. “It’s not that…umm, you’re really drunk.”

“I am?”

“Yes,” Taeyong said. “Like maybe we should talk about this when you’re sober? What if you wake up tomorrow and realize this was the alcohol talking? It would…break my heart.”

“I am 98.9537% sure I am sober right now. Beside I want to kiss you all the time. I’m pretty sure of that.”

Taeyong spluttered. “Uh, Jae…” He could feel his face heating up and he had no idea what was happening except that this was either the best night of his life or a really wild dream.

“Oh my, I have such a horrible headache. I think I should sleep. Maybe this is a really great dream,” Jaehyun said as he lay down comfortably on the bed.

When Taeyong didn’t say anything, Jaehyun patted the bed. “C’mon, lie down. Let’s talk.”

“How much did you drink? It’s not like you to get drunk.”

“It’s because of you…and Ten. Anyway, the thing is do you like me? Nod for yes and shake head for no.” Jaehyun laughed after a second passed. “Wait, I can’t see you in the dark. You know, it’s really funny but I hated it when we weren’t talking. It was so weird. We were on the same bed and you wouldn’t even look my way. It hurt so much. Is it not obvious how much I like you? I mean, I ing drink grape juice because you get it especially for me. It tastes horrible!”

Taeyong frowned. “What?”

“Oops.” Jaehyun laughed. “You weren’t supposed to know that. Delete that, okay?”

“You don’t like grape juice!?”

“Yeah, it’s just not tasty.” He shuddered.

Taeyong said, “But I only get it because you said it was your favourite.”

“And I only drink it because you get it for me. I mean, it’s the only thing you go out of your way for. After lying about it when we first met, I couldn’t possibly say anything. What could I have said? Hey, Taeyong hyung, I don’t like grape juice. I just said that so you would get to drink your favourite. Oh why? Because I like you. You would have bolted.”

“You could have said something,” Taeyong mumbled.

“You look so happy when you get it for me.” Jaehyun’s voice was low.

Taeyong laughed quietly. “It’s not the juice, you idiot. It’s you. You make me happy. And I do lots of things apart from buying you grape juice, you know. You just don’t notice them.”

Jaehyun propped himself on his elbow. “Does that mean you like me?”

“Yeah, I do,” Taeyong whispered, as if he was afraid the words would break apart if he didn’t take care. “A lot.”

Jaehyun lay back. “Phew, that’s good to know. I have to get an ouija board now.”

Taeyong stared. “That’s a really great reaction, Jae. You know, that took a lot of courage to admit.”

“Yeah…I…umm, it’s cool.” Jaehyun sniffled.

“Oh my god, are—are you crying?”

“No…” sobbed Jaehyun. “It’s just—I didn’t expect this.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Please don’t cry. Come here.” And somehow, Taeyong found himself hugging a half-asleep Jaehyun at four in the morning.

“I can’t believe I cried, ugh.” Jaehyun half-laughed. “Winwin will be so disappointed. He wanted something grand and all I’ve done is ugly-cried on your shoulder.”

Taeyong could see Jaehyun’s hair flashing silver against the dark and Jaehyun was warm in his arms. He closed his eyes and said, “You better feel the same way next morning. Now, go sleep.”

Jaehyun whispered, “Okay, but I am staying here. Your bed is nice. You can go wherever you want.”

“Jaehyun-ah,” Taeyong sighed.

“Or you can just stay here. I promise I won’t do anything funny.” He lay back, pulling down Taeyong next to him. “It’s not like we never slept together.”

“This is kind of cramped,” Taeyong finally managed to say.

Jaehyun shrugged. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“I was so jealous.”

“That’s not what I mea—wait, of whom?”

“Ten, mostly.”

“What? Why?”

“But also, Johnny, maybe Winwin too. It’s so embarrassing,” Taeyong said. “I knew I was being idiotic but you…it felt like you kept drifting away and you were happy with other people but fighting or worse, ignoring me. You even took Ten to our place!”

“Woah, I didn’t know we couldn’t take anyone else there. I only took him there because I wanted to show him where we keep going. He was feeling down and I thought that’s the happiest place I know of.”

“Oh.”

Jaehyun giggled. “And here I felt guilty for being jealous of Seungcheol and your new friends. Don’t