The Monday after they got back from Seoul was a sad day indeed. Getting ready for classes was quite depressing when he thought about how much fun he was having just a day or two earlier. Johnny had a class at the same time as him, so they were getting ready together. Things were very much normal between them but as much as he tried, he couldn't get that kiss out of his head. 

"Hey Taeil," Johnny said shyly, turning towards him. Taeil gave him a brief glance back before turning his head to the desk, hiding any expressions he made. 

"Yeah?" Taeil answered, doing everything in his power to control his voice.

"I never told you," he spoke with a sly smile. "During seven minutes in heaven...you were pretty good." 

Taeil immediately dropped the hairbrush in his hand, his eyes widening as he scrambled to pick it up. That was one thing Taeil did not expect to hear at 8:15 in the morning. 

"U-um...really?" was the only response Taeil could manage to speak. 

"Yeah," Johnny answered with a grin. 

"But that was my first kiss."

"Seriously?" Johnny asked, and Taeil nodded. "I couldn't tell. You were good." Johnny looked Taeil over like he knew exactly what he was doing. 

"Thanks," Taeil finally answered. "Y-you too." He was finally ready for class, and he left as soon as possible, just to escape all of the feelings in his head. But he definitely left in a daze. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

As Taeil was leaving class for his long mid-morning break, he was met with a sight he did not want to see: his brother Hyungil. If this was high school his brother would've just ignored him, but for some reason, Hyungil ran over to him.  

"Hey Taeil," Hyungil spoke, slapping him on the back a little too hard. 

Taeil winced. "Hey." He did not want to be doing this right now. 

"You liking uni so far?"

"Yeah, it's actually going well," Taeil answered, and it was the truth. 

Hyungil released an exaggerated sigh. "I think uni is stupid." Taeil barely held back an eye roll. He knew that his brother was about to launch into a full monologue, and Taeil was not in the mood. "All the kids here are so ing dumb, they only care about stupid things. And the teachers here are so strict and hard! They always play favorites. And honestly, our suitemates are so ing annoying."

That was where Taeil had to stop him. "I don't think our suitemates are annoying. They've been nothing but nice to us." 

"Well, of course you would think so," Hyungil commented, and Taeil didn't know what to make of that. "They're just...ugh. Probably all ing gay. All the kids here, our suitemates too, I tell them some cool story, and they don't even care." 

Taeil sighed; he knew exactly what his brother was trying to say. In high school, boys and girls were almost obsessed with him: following him around, listening to anything he said, doing anything he asked. Here, people didn't care so much, they treated him with kindness, yes, but not the godlike reverance from before, and he viewed that as an attack. Probably his stories consisted of offensive he did in high school, and combined with his rude personality, people's kindess was probably fading away too. His extra hatred for his suitemates was just jealousy. They had the handsomeness, popularity, and girls Hyungil had in high school, with a kind personality too. Hyungil most likely didn't even pick up on their strange interactions, he was too oblivious for that, gay was just the only insult his small mind could come up with. As for their teachers, Taeil found them all to be fair and good. They just weren't buying any of Hyungil's charm and bull, and held him to the same standard of the rest of the students. Now that Hyungil actually had to put in the work, which he'd never done before, his true scholastic abilities were showing. 

The angel on Taeil's shoulder felt bad for Hyungil, while the devil on the other side was satisfied that Hyungil was finally getting his comeuppance. But mostly, Taeil just pitied him: if people hadn't babied Hyungil, he wouldn't have peaked in high school. But Taeil was also just ready for this conversation to be over. Luckily when he pulled out his phone, he got the reprieve he wanted, a message from Johnny to meet them for lunch. 

"Alright, Hyungil, I gotta go," Taeil said. "Nice talking to you." 

"See you around," Hyungil answered, his voice still a bit upset, but Taeil walked away without another thought.

~~~~~~~~~~

"How's your day so far?" Johnny asked when Taeil sat down with his friends, Johnny's muscular arm again hooking around his slim shoulder. Even though he was annoyed by his conversation with Hyungil he still smiled; being with his friends made him so much more relaxed. 

"It was alright," Taeil responded, taking a bite of his food. 

Johnny looked immediately concerned. "What happened?"

"I had a weird conversation with my brother." The others, all listening before, leaned in closer now. "He was just whining and saying how he thought everyone was stupid because they aren't obsessed with him."

Yuta groaned, and the others sighed. "What a ing ," Ten commented. 

"Right?!" Taeil responded. 

"It was really rude how he teased you after seven minutes in heaven," Sicheng spoke quietly. 

"And the girl he went into the closet with...she seemed so freaked out afterward," Jaehyun spoke. 

"I wonder what happened in there," Kun added with concern. 

Taeil sighed deeply. "Really, he's always like that." 

"Seriously?" Doyoung cried, and Taeil nodded. 

"He doesn't treat anyone well, but he's extra cruel to women." 

"How horrible..." Jungwoo mumbled. 

"He just doesn't respect them. I know, it's terrible." 

"It doesn't seem like he's very nice to you either," Johnny spoke. 

"Yeah. He's...like how he spoke to me on the Seoul trip? That's how he always treats me." 

"Taeil!" Taeyong cried. "You've had to put up with that your whole life too?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "It's ." 

"I'm really, really sorry," Johnny said, pulling Taeil into a side hug, and the others vocalized their concern too. For the first time, Taeil felt validated. Nobody had ever understood what he'd gone through, and nobody had ever cared enough to try to understand. He was heard, they listened. 

"I would love to punch him," Yukhei said. Some of the others laughed, but some nodded in agreement.

Taeil checked his phone and sighed. "Time for class," he spoke dejectedly. Everyone said goodbye and headed off to class, while Taeil felt a weight lifted off of his chest. It was such a relief to vent about his brother, and he was lucky to be able to do it. 

~~~~~~~~~~

When Taeil got back from class, the dorm was virtually empty. The only sounds were those that came simply from moving around in your room, all the way on the other side of the dorm. Even Johnny wasn't there, and even though Taeil missed him, he was grateful for the quiet to do his homework in peace. 

But, he hit a snag. He was terribly confused by his English homework, and Johnny wasn't there to help him. Taeil ran over all of his suitemates, trying to remember who spoke English well. Yukhei, Jaehyun, and Ten all spoke it, but he remembered Johnny saying Ten was the best, so Taeil grabbed his homework to go ask him for help. 

The suite was still very quiet so Taeil worried that Ten wasn't there. Taeil didn't want to bother anyone in the first place, but he desperately needed the help. As Taeil approached Ten's room, he heard soft, indiscernable sounds coming from the inside, and the door was wide open. Taeil was relieved, and he approached the entrance. But as soon as he peeked his head inside, he was not prepared for the sight he saw: Taeyong balls deep in Ten.

Taeil was the first to scream, and Ten and Taeyong looked up. They yelled as well, eyes bulging wide with panic, quickly getting out of position and throwing a blanket over their bodies. Taeil was frozen in place for a few moments but as soon as he was out of it, he ran as fast as he could into the living room. He threw himself on the couch, panting a little, just needing a second to think. 

Taeil was an observant person, so he couldn't deny that he'd seen the signs before: their clinginess to each other even immediately upon moving in, their secretive whispered conversations, Taeyong's anger when Ten went into the closet with someone else during seven minutes in heaven. It had all been there for Taeil to discover yet somehow he hadn't realized; he was still in shock. Were they actually together? Or were they just friends with benefits? Either way, the signs had all been there. Maybe Taeil just hadn't wanted to adknowledge that there was something between them. Despite his harsh words Hyungil had been right about Ten's uality, and after all the rhetoric Hyungil had drilled into his head over the years, it was hard not to view being gay as a bad thing. He didn't want to think of his new friends as something that had been villanized his entire life. 

But how did he actually feel about it? After all, his brother's opinions weren't his own. He definitely did not want to see Taeyong or Ten having . But the principle of it...no, he didn't mind. Who they dated was their buniess; it didn't affect him in the slightest. He couldn't imagine either of them dating a woman anyways. Hyungil would say that no matter what, it's scary to live with gay men, because they might be into him. Perhaps Taeil did care about Ten and Taeyong's relationship, and he didn't mind living with them because he liked the idea of men being interested in him. After all, since that kiss with Johnny, he's beginning to understand how Ten and Taeyong feel. All the feelings he should have towards girls are directed at Johnny. If that's how Ten and Taeyong feel about each other, then Taeil can't blame them; it's not their fault. Taeil knew that if he could control his feelings, he would put a stop to them right away.

Didn't Ten say he and Johnny had been friends since they were very little? If so, wouldn't Johnny know about Ten's uality, and probably accept it? Didn't the others know Ten from before too; wouldn't they know and accept his uality? What if they were gay? What if Taeil himself was gay, and that's why he got along so well with them?

Taeil was beginning to panic, so he forced himself to take a deep breath. Hyungil and his parents don't accept him anyways; if he was gay things would get even worse. He didn't want to think about it, he couldn't, so he just shut his brain off and tried to breath. Anyways, this whole situation was about Ten and Taeyong, not himself. Maybe it was bad to keep bottling up these thoughts, but if he had an excuse, he would. 

Just then, Ten and Taeyong walked into the living room, wearing embarrassed expressions and luckily, clothing. 

"Can we talk?" Ten asked. 

"O-of course," Taeil answered, and Ten and Taeyong sat down on the floor across from him. Watching them, it was strange: they seemed so incredibly nervous, humiliated, and guilty. Neither of them could look Taeil in the eye. 

"We just wanna say we're really, really sorry you had to see us like...that. It couldn't have been good," Ten started. 

"Well, it happens," Taeil answered. It did to see them like that, but they looked so embarrassed that Taeil want to make them feel any worse. 

"N-no, we're really sorry...l-like, we just met, a-and...we're just sorry," Taeyong stuttered, and he somehow looked even worse off than Ten. 

"We probably would've walked in on that at some point this semester. I just got it over with." 

"Still....we wouldn't have done it if we thought anyone was home...we didn't hear you come in," Ten explained. 

"We're so sorry," Taeyong interjected. 

"Seriously, we're sorry," Ten added. 

Taeil sighed softly; he couldn't figure out why Ten and Taeyong were being just so apologetic, Taeil thought it would be way more embarrassing for them than for him. Anyways, he said it was alright multiple times already. 

"It's okay!" Taeil said. "It's okay. I promise." 

The pair looked at him in surprise. "Really?" Taeyong asked shyly. 

"Yes. It's alright." Both Ten and Taeyong breathed an obvious sigh of relief, and the living room fell silent. The situation was still awkward, and even though Taeil had a million questions, he didn't want to pry into their private business. 

"You're probably wondering why we were...um..." Ten finally piped up, and Taeil barely held back a sigh of relief. 

"Yeah, I was, actually," Taeil admitted. 

Taeyong and Ten shared a look, words spoken between them without any movement of their lips, something they did quite often. Taeil knew he should have realized there was something going on between them earlier; their connection was so obvious. 

"So...we weren't just h-having to hook up...actually we've been together for a while now," Taeyong explained. 

"Six years, to be exact," Ten interjected with pride. 

Taeil was genuinely surprised. "Six years? How old were you guys when you started dating?"

The couple shared a smile. "We were twelve," Taeyong spoke with a big grin. 

"Holy ," Taeil mumbled. "How did you guys even meet? Since you grew up in two different countries..."

Ten giggled. "So, when I was in, like, seventh grade, I stumbled on Taeyong's facebook page. I thought he was super cute so I sent him a private message. Even though there was a language barrier, we couldn't stop talking, even until like three in the morning. We started going out pretty quickly, and the rest is history."

"So you guys were, like, an internet couple? Long distance?"

They both nodded. "Yeah, it ," Taeyong explained. "But it was so worth it." 

"Did you guys ever see each other face to face before now?"

"Only once, when I was in Korea for a dance competition. But that was like three years ago. This is only the second time we've met in person," Ten responded. 

"Really? That's crazy. You guys seem like you've known each other your entire lives." 

"It feels like we have," Taeyong answered with a soft chuckle. 

"That's why we picked this school," Ten added. "We really, really wanted to be together as much as possible. Here, exchange students like me can live with regular students like Taeyong, plus we could pick our roommates." 

"We just...we just wanted to be close, for once," Taeyong said. 

"I get it. I understand," Taeil answered. It was true; of course he would understand why the couple would want to room together. After being long distance for so long, they deserved it. 

"You know, that's why I know everyone in the dorm. I gathered as many friends as I could to live with us in the suite. I wanted people who I was sure would be okay and accepting of me and Taeyong's relationship. I didn't want to make a bunch of strangers sharing my suite uncomfortable when they inevitably found out about us," Ten spoke. 

"So everyone else knows?" Taeil asked. 

"Other than Hyungil, yeah," Taeyong answered. Noticing Taeil's hurt expression, he continued. "We just weren't sure if you'd be okay with it. We didn't want to make you uncomfortable." 

"I understand," Taeil answered truthfully. "Hyungil is totally homophobic, as I'm sure both of you already know. But I don't care if you two are dating. In fact, I think you two are a really cute couple and I'm glad you get to share a room after so much time apart." 

Ten and Taeyong shared surprised yet touched smiles before turning back to Taeil. 

"Seriously?" Taeyong asked, extremely softly. 

"Of course. You both are really cool, I'm lucky to be in your suite." 

"I...I-I can't believe it..." Taeyong mumbled. 

"It's not that we assumed you'd be homophobic," Ten jumped in. "It's just that, people we don't know as well aren't usually this accepting, especially people from Korea...plus your brother is so..."

"Don't worry about it, I get why you'd be concernced," Taeil interjected. 

"But we're really glad you're not homophobic," Ten spoke up. 

"Yeah, you're so cool, it would've been heartbreaking to find out you don't accept us," Taeyong said. 

Taeil scoffed. "I'm cool?" 

"Of course!" Ten cried. 

"And so are you," Taeil responded. 

"Awe!" Ten said, sitting up and hugging Taeil tightly. Taeyong followed, and Taeil wrapped his arms around their shoulders. 

"I'm really sorry you walked in on us,' Taeyong said softly. 

"Maybe let's stop bringing it up babe?" Ten teased back. Taeil chuckled and smiled, they were so domestic and adorable and Taeil was so glad they could be their true selves around him (as long as he didn't think about his own true self). They hugged silently for a while before Ten perked up. 

"Why did you come to our room in the first place?" he asked. 

"Oh!" Taeil responded, pulling out of the hug and shuffling through the papers he'd abandoned on the living room table. "I was going to ask you for help with my English homework." 

"Show me! I'm happy to help," Ten answered, and Taeyong stood up. 

"I'm going back to the room. When it comes to English, I"m no help anyways," Taeyong said. Taeil and Ten wished him goodbye, and started to look at Taeil's homework. Even though it had been a crazy day for him, Taeil came away feeling happy and uplifted. Maybe by accepting Taeyong and Ten's relationship, he was beginning to accept himself just a little bit more. By no means was this admitting his own uality, but it was an inch closer. And with that, Taeil could be satisfied.