Jinyoung heard the doorbell ringing from his room and hurried downstairs to beat his parents to answering it. Eileen Montblanc and Micah Crawley were waiting for him on his front porch, each holding a long garment bag in their hands. Eileen also had a pair of silver heels hooked by the backstraps to her wrists.

“Jinyoung!” she squealed, throwing her arms around him and just barely missing nailing him in the face with one of her shoes. “Can you believe it? It’s finally here!”

“Yeah, I can believe it, you’ve only been counting down to this since, what, Freshman year?” Jinyoung teased.

“Still, I thought it would never come! The ultimate rite of passage!”

“Speak for yourself,” Micah said. “Getting laid for the first time was a bigger rite of passage than prom.”

“Oh, you.” Eileen swatted him with her hand. “Come on, let’s go in and get changed. Is Breann here yet?”

“Right behind you,” Breann said. She’d just arrived with her own garment bag slung over her shoulder. “But I swear to god, if you try to give me a makeover, Eileen…”

“I won’t, volleyball captain’s honor!” Eileen gave Breann a quick hug. Breann gave her a wobbly smile in return, tucking a stray strand from her dark bob behind her ear. Jinyoung could tell she was nervous—for her, not only was this the all-important prom rite of passage, but also her first date with her new girlfriend, the volleyball team’s co-captain and Eileen’s best friend Ashley Ariza.

The four of them trooped up the stairs. Jinyoung wondered for a moment how he was supposed to divide them up—he and Micah were both men, but also both gay, and Jinyoung wasn’t quite sure how Mark or Micah’s boyfriend Anthony Vericchio would feel about them undressing in front of each other, and even though Breann was a lesbian, they couldn’t just undress in front of the girls either. Luckily, the other three solved the issue by filing into different rooms—Eileen to the bathroom, Micah to Jinyoung’s parents’ room, and Breann to the guest room. Jinyoung went into his own room where his tux rental was still hanging from the closet.

Before putting it on, he ran his fingers gently down the sleeve. The thought of going to prom may have felt only natural to Eileen, but Jinyoung had never really considered it for himself before. He’d never thought of dances being for people like them—dances were decidedly for the people who matched the expectations of what an ideal high school couple should be, Barbies in pink dresses and Kens with painted on smiles trying to look natural in tuxes. There were chaperones and rules and standards to uphold. Jinyoung had even heard several cases of gays and lesbians in their state filing complaints against their schools for discrimination after not being allowed to take their boyfriends and girlfriends with them to prom.

For Jinyoung, it had never really mattered. The only dance he’d had experience with was the Winter Formal he hadn’t gone to, and all the joy in that hadn’t happened at the dance, but at the park after Mark had come back. Jinyoung looked down at his palm, folding his fingers over it. He still felt the stars he’d gathered in that moment in his hands, still felt his heart flying at that highest point where everything not only was possible, but had been. He truly felt like he didn’t need anything more than that. He had Mark, and with him all the wonders of the most beautiful height spread out before him.

But Micah had approached him, asking Jinyoung if he’d been planning on going to prom with Mark. Micah wanted to go with his own boyfriend Anthony, but they didn’t want to be the only gay couple in attendance, and Jinyoung and Mark were the only other that was openly out in their high school. On top of that, Breann’s longtime crush Ashley had asked her out to the prom, and though Breann was thrilled, she was also nervous about going without a group and the much needed backup friends could provide. So she’d begged Jinyoung, not only as a close friend but as the first person at school she’d come out to, to be a part of that group. Jinyoung hadn't realized at the start of high school the effect being in a relationship with Mark would have on the other gay kids in his class—he'd only thought of how the straight kids would view it, and the bullies they'd might have to deal with—but it turned out that it had meant a lot to people like Micah, Anthony, and Breann. Right at the onset, they'd known they'd had people they could talk to who were like them and going through the same challenges they were.

Jinyoung had thought about prom a lot after that and finally decided to ask Mark if he wanted to go. But before he could, Mark had asked him to go to the neighborhood park, the one where they’d first confessed to each other, and while he’d been pushing Jinyoung as he always did, Jinyoung looked down and saw PROM? spelled out in stones on the ground in front of him.

For the second time in his life, Jinyoung had made a heart pounding fall back from the sky and dragged his feet against the ground to steady himself. “You want to go with me?” he asked, surprised.

“Who else would I want to go with?” Mark joked, ruffling his hair. “How long have the two of us been dating now…?”

“I mean, I’m just surprised you want to go at all. You don’t seem like a prom guy.”

“What does a prom guy seem like?”

“A Ken doll.”

Mark burst out laughing. Jinyoung could never fully get over how much he loved that sound. “You’re probably right. The guys I saw from my brief time at the Winter Formal in eighth grade all danced like they were made of plastic.” He took Jinyoung’s hand. “I’m not sure how much it will be my kind of thing, honestly. It probably won’t be as perfect as being here with you.” He nodded to the park. “Quiet and…just our place. I know there’ll be a lot of people and noise, but…”

“But?”

“It’s a part of high school, right? The promposal, the tuxes, the photo shoots, the limos…the memories.” He squeezed Jinyoung’s hand. “It doesn’t have to be an everyone else thing. It can be a me and you thing, too. And I wouldn’t mind having a few pictures of you and me looking hot in tuxes. You know, for fifty years from now when we forget we were ever hot stuff at all.”

And that more than anything had made Jinyoung want to do it. The fact that Mark could speak of fifty years later because right at that moment he loved Jinyoung enough to believe in the possibility of that long and sprawling future together.

Jinyoung slipped into his tux, studying his reflection in the mirror. He wasn’t sure if he was hot stuff, exactly, but all the same he couldn’t hold back his smile, and Mark was everywhere in that smile, so it couldn’t help but look beautiful.

He opened the door to his room, and moments later Micah ambled in. He’d gone for a suspenders and vest look paired with a black bow tie and fashion glasses, and had swept up his dark hair from his forehead. “Yay or nay?” he asked Jinyoung.

“Yay,” Jinyoung said with a nod. He actually kind of envied Micah for his good sense of fashion—he’d never figured out the whole style thing, though Mark joked that it was OK because it kept him from being too stereotypical. “Is my tie on straight?”

“No, but straight's overrated anyways.” Still, Micah undid the knot for him and started from the beginning. “So how do you think it’s going over at your boyfriend’s place?”

Jinyoung wrinkled his nose. Mark, Jackson, Anthony, Ashley, and BamBam (who wasn’t attending prom since he was only a Sophomore, but would be around for prep and ‘moral support’) would all be over there right about now, but rather than getting dressed, Jinyoung could only imagine them playing video games and snacking. All their dates got a long fantastically, but tended to bring out the slackers in each other.

“I know, right?” Micah said, noticing Jinyoung’s expression. “I’ve been texting Anthony asking for updates just to make sure he’s putting some kind of clothing on, but he’s ignoring me, that .”

Eileen flounced in a moment later followed by Breann. Eileen was wearing a wine-red mermaid style dress that showed off her figure, and Breann was wearing simple black lace which reached her knees. Breann had already done her makeup—a red lip with slight cats-eye liner—but Eileen was lugging around a giant case of cosmetics for her own look, which she apparently hadn’t started yet.

“You both look great,” Jinyoung said. “Gorgeous.” He was somewhat glad Eileen hadn’t worn that kind of dress on her one date with Mark or else Jinyoung probably would have jumped out of his bedroom window with hopelessness before ever finding out Mark hadn’t been interested in her romantically. As it was, Eileen was now one of their closest friends and biggest supporters and had been happily dating Jackson for the past two years. If you mentioned her old crush on Mark to her now, she’d get confused before remembering vaguely “Oh yeah, I did like him that one time, I guess” and then shrugging and forgetting about it all over again.

“It’s not too simple, is it?” Breann asked, studying her reflection in Jinyoung’s mirror.

“It’s perfect,” Eileen said. “I told you, Ashley thinks you look fabulous in black. She thinks it makes you look like Chicago era Catherine Zeta Jones, and what woman didn’t get all secretly hot and bothered by her take on Velma Kelly? But if you need a little bit more confidence, I could always…” She gestured tantalizingly at her makeup kit.

“Nope,” Breann said, quickly throwing her hands up to protect her face. “This is the extent of my makeup, thank you very much.”

“What about you, Jinyoung?” Eileen asked, whipping out her bronze and highlighter. “Or you, Micah? Guys can wear makeup, too, you know.”

“I know, sweetie,” Micah said, plopping down next to her on the bed. “And if it makes you happy, you can give me a little liner. Just don’t go overboard.”

“Yay!” Eileen cheered, immediately digging through her considerable stash of pencils for the right shade.

“Still nervous?” Jinyoung asked Breann as she continued to warily study her reflection.

“Yeah, a little,” she said. “It’s just that I’ve never done this before. Gone out with a girl. I’m just worried I’m going to do something stupid. I like her so much, and…”

“You’ll be fine,” Jinyoung said softly.

“How do you know that?”

“Because when you get over all the questions of ‘how do I do this?’ and ‘will I ever get used to this?’, you open your eyes and realize you’re with the perfect person for you, and everything just kind of falls into place.” Jinyoung smiled to himself. “You stop questioning so much, and you just…I don’t know…explore it. Because you want to know, and you’re not so afraid of knowing anymore. You’re not so afraid of yourself, so you become less afraid of them.”

“Is that how it was with Mark?” Breann asked.

Jinyoung nodded. “I was never more scared in my life,” he said. “And never happier. So don’t be scared of being a little scared. Just be brave enough not to run away from the happiness when it’s ready for you.”

Breann nodded slowly, then a smile slipped onto her red lips. “Never happier, huh. So like how I felt when she asked me. I could go for feeling a lifetime of that.”

“Then let yourself,” Jinyoung said simply. “You deserve it.”

It took some time, but eventually they were all ready. They’d all agreed to meet up in the place between Mark and Jinyoung’s houses for photos at two o'clock, and now the time was finally here. Eileen had arranged it in the kitschiest way, too—they’d be stepping out one by one to receive corsages and enjoy a special moment of their date fussing over them. As the hosts, and the two that had been together the longest, Mark and Jinyoung would go first.

“All right, on the count of three,” Jinyoung’s mother said from the lawn, her camera ready. His father and Mr. and Mrs. Tuan were standing beside her, also armed with their cameras. Jinyoung owed the Tuans a lot for helping him with the process of coming out. Since Mark had done the hard thing and come out to them first, they asked Jinyoung in private if he wanted them to help tell his parents since it might go smoother if the Parks confronted it with support from other parents in the same situation. It had really helped, too—the Tuans had walked the Parks through any concerns they might have or boundaries they might want to make with their sons dating and living next door, and they discussed the whole thing calmly and in a way the Parks could process little  by little. Jinyoung’s mother had stayed up the whole night after, seemingly doing something in the kitchen, and though Jinyoung had worried she’d been crying or questioning everything she had accepted when the Tuans had been around, when Jinyoung had gone downstairs the next morning, there had been a huge Tupperware filled with kimchi waiting on the table, as well as three trays full of kimbap.

“For Mark,” she’d said simply. “Give them to him from us.”

“Is this some kind of dowry?” Jinyoung asked blankly.

“He’s a scrawny boy. He needs more food. Make sure he eats and learns to appreciate good Korean food.”

Jinyoung knew his mother well enough to know what this meant. Her way of showing love was as a mother would, and she meant to include Mark in that kind of motherly love, welcoming him as she would a son.

Now she was hoisting up her camera, a smile on her face. “1…2…3!”

Mark and Jinyoung descended from their separate porches at the same time, at last coming into each other’s view. Jinyoung’s breath caught. Mark was gorgeous. He’d just been a kid when Jinyoung had fallen for him so it had never much factored into it, but he’d grown up handsomer and handsomer every day until it caught Jinyoung off-guard with how he’d managed to end up with someone so beautiful. He always felt a kind of pressing need to touch Mark because of it, fingers confirming the shape of his lips, the strength of his arms, the slenderness of his waist. It amazed him sometimes that he was in a position where he could, that Mark was no longer the distant star he’d been in Jinyoung’s childhood, but one held in the palm of his hand and glittering right in front of his eyes.

Mark’s smile towards him was brilliant. “Handsome Jinyoung,” he said, extending his hand to him. “I knew you’d look flawless in a tux.”

“No more special than anyone else, I bet,” Jinyoung murmured. You’re the one who is flawless to me, don’t you see?

“Nope. Better than everyone else. In the whole universe, the most beautiful is you.” He took a boutonniere from his pocket, a peach peony with baby’s breath, and pinned it to Jinyoung’s lapel. Jinyoung beamed with joy at the sight of Mark carefully fastening it, so much that he almost lost himself in the moment and forgot about his parents watching the whole thing, taking photos. It was lucky he remembered, since he almost kissed Mark right there in front of them.

“Now, you two,” Mr. Tuan said sternly. “I’m trusting you to behave yourselves. No punching anyone.”

Mark and Jinyoung grinned sheepishly. Mark had confessed to punching Ian to his parents after Mrs. Westcott had called to them to complain, but given what Ian had intended to call Jinyoung, they refused to force Mark to apologize, which Mark didn’t. Then, Jinyoung had done a repeat performance by punching Ty Langford in the men’s restroom on the first day of high school. Ty hadn’t even said anything. Jinyoung just remembered everything he’d ever said or done to Mark before and punched him for all that. Jinyoung had confessed this to his parents in case Ty or the Langfords ever complained, but Ty apparently never told a soul whether at school or at home.

“No punching, we swear,” Jinyoung said.

“And no bad things in the limo!” Jinyoung’s father said with a measured look at Mark.

“Of course,” Mark said in his best boy scout voice as if they hadn’t already done plenty of bad things in the storage shed next to the neighborhood pool which was conveniently empty and unmonitored from fall to early summer. Neither of them felt particularly guilty about it, anyways. Their parents had been young once, too.

After they were finished taking couple photos, next went Jackson and Eileen, two of the most extra people on the planet who, after taking three or four very traditional pictures to fulfill all of Eileen’s girlhood prom dreams, then proceeded to stage several over the top, ridiculous photos recreating famous paintings and album covers. After them went Micah and Anthony, who posed so professionally it looked as if they were men’s catalogue models. Anthony had been one of Mark’s first new friends in high school, which had alarmed Jinyoung at first since Anthony was tall (6’4”—Micah was always bragging about it, because height was a “must” for a man, according to him), Italian, incredibly attractive, and pretty obviously gay. But Mark, not always the sharpest tool around, hadn’t even realized Anthony was gay and had befriended him because they genuinely got along well. So Jinyoung had set his jealousy aside, recognizing how badly Mark needed a decent friend he’d made on his own, and it hadn’t been that long anyways before Anthony started sniffing around Micah, who had come out their Sophomore year after observing the relatively positive/neutral reactions to Mark and Jinyoung from the better half of their class.

Last went Ashley and Breann. Ashley was also on the tall side—at 6’2”, she towered over Mark and Jackson—and had short ash blonde hair, an athletic frame, a blindingly bright smile, and an air of happiness that seemed to bubble off her. She had opted for a suit rather than a dress, and she rocked it more confidently than any of the boys did to boot.

Ashley wolf whistled when she saw Breann. “Awwww, yeah,” she said, placing a hand over her heart. “Velma freaking Kelly!” She sang the showtune jauntily, the same way Velma did: “Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the town?”

“And all that jazz!” Eileen and Micah sang along. Breann looked at Ashley so happily you could almost see the joy translated on every part of her body, but her smile and eyes most of all.

“Mmmm, remember that?” Mark murmured into his ear. “How it feels, right at the beginning?”

“Yeah, and I’m still feeling it,” Jinyoung murmured back. “Still floating on the highest clouds of reality.”

“You’re going to let me keep taking you higher, then?”

“Of course. I want to reach a few billion more stars.”

Mark laughed and kissed his cheek while Breann and Ashley continued to take their pictures. In a moment, they’d all gather together for their group shot, and that was an incredible thing, not only having people there to share life’s precious moments with you, but people who were good and genuine enough to deserve it. But for a few moments longer, Jinyoung enjoyed having just Mark’s eyes on him and not having to wonder anymore what the look in them meant, but knowing what it meant with the simple certainty that came with feeling the exact same thing. 

A/N: Thanks for reading, everyone! I'm so happy this was able to resonate with people, not only on the level of the romance, but on the level of the friendships and how much the good ones count in life ;) Let's always be kind to one another, all right?

This was a short chapter, but to make up for it, a short prologue will be up for a new story tomorrow~ Stay tuned, and always, thank you for your love and support!