Joshua even had a car. He was beyond perfect. Seokmin felt himself smiling ear to ear as they pulled up at the mall with Seungkwan and Hansol in the back seat. Joshua had handed over his phone so Seokmin could choose from his playlist but he had to hand it back when he saw that it was all in English. “I can’t read this hyung,” he said softly and Seungkwan had burst out laughing from the backseat. “You guys are going out and you’re still calling him hyung?” “It’s cool,” Joshua had said with a semi smirking smile. “I kind of like it.”

“Ooohhhhhh…” the chorus of teasing voices rose from the back and Seokmin blushed. He honestly thought he’d never blushed so much in his life. Was this what it was like to have a boyfriend? To feel giddy all the time? To be constantly blushing and giggly and excited? To always be in anticipation of what the other was going to do next? How they were going to make you feel? He never felt like this around Soonyoung. Probably because the guy never even spoke to him. Seokmin tried to think back to that night at the party when he had been talking to Soonyoung. Did he make his stomach swirly with excitement? Seokmin furrowed his brow deeply as he realised the only thing Soonyoung made him feel was nervous and inadequate.

“Earth to Seokmin,” he heard Joshua speak and realised that, while he’d been daydreaming about Soonyoung, the others had all gotten out of the car. “Come on,” Joshua said as he held his hand out and Seokmin took it. He felt the older squeeze his hand tight as the four walked towards the entrance to the mall and Joshua’s hand was warm and soft and nice. Everything about Joshua was nice.

Joshua decided he was going to treat Seokmin like a prince for the short while he had him. At home in the US everyone knew he had money. The huge house and the expensive private catholic school were a dead giveaway. It was continually a source of discontent for him, always wondering if his friends were just using him for their beach house in Malibu or his basement apartment in his parents’ house filled with everything a teenage boy could want. Or his ex boyfriend who was happy enough to let Joshua buy him games and clothes and albums, but wouldn’t let him gift him any jewellery, because his parents would definitely notice. These guys had no idea Joshua had endless income at his disposal and they wanted to be friends with him anyway. It was a nice feeling.

“You want something to eat?” he asked Seokmin as they headed towards the food court. It wasn’t dinner time yet but way past lunch and Seokmin shook his head. “Let’s get ice-cream instead,” he smiled brightly and dragged Joshua by their tightly gripped fingers towards the nearest Baskin Robbins. “What do you want?” Seokmin asked Joshua who let go of their hands to place them onto the cold plastic window with a million colours and flavours inside. “Um, just a plain strawberry I think,” Joshua said and Seokmin moved to the counter.

“Can I order and pay please?” he looked around to see if the others were listening and they weren’t. “You don’t have to do everything for me. We’re just pretending, remember?” Seokmin waited for Joshua to answer and Joshua star