For the first time in weeks, Yunho feels completely settled.

The extent to which he was missing Jaejoong, the anxiety he felt when he could sense their relationship shifting without his permission, the confusion when he tried to confront the issue and left each conversation with less clarity than he had before, the persistent feeling of incorrectness that shrouded his every interaction with Boa, missing Jaejoong so damn much—he understands it all now (at least, he understands why), and he understands what it takes to fix it.

"Whatever we had together was a lie, and we're both stupid for believing in it."

The only thing in between him and the new comforting routine he found for himself was Jaejoong, and it only took one word to urge him into action, propriety be damned.

Kissing Jaejoong feels like taking home the first place trophy, like passing the test he should have studied for, like nothing that the other kisses have felt like before. There's a live wire between his lips and the bottom of his stomach, taking detours down his arms and around his lungs, burning him from the inside out. Every time he remembers to breathe, his chest brushes against the other's; and whatever passion cooled down in that second of distraction returns with smug self-conviction, like it was kicked out of a place where it rightfully belonged. This is what was missing when he kisses Boa.

Wait a second.

He is still dating Boa.

Jaejoong shoves him away. ". You are still dating Boa."

Yunho grabs at his hair in self-recrimination. "I did this backwards," he mutters to himself. "I should have broken up with her before I asked to see you."

"Wait a second. You planned this?" Jaejoong screeches. "We don't speak for a few weeks and all of a sudden you grow a backbone and start thinking it's okay to cheat on your girlfriend?!"

"I didn't plan anything! I just knew I needed to see you." Which is mostly true. He didn't leave his house today with any intentions other than finally getting to talk, really talk, to Jaejoong… but he did know something big was going to happen. At least, he wasn't going to leave without something happening.

At Jaejoong's continued what-the- stare, Yunho elaborates, "There's been this… pressure? Tension, maybe. I don't know what to call it. All I know is that somewhere between dinner with your parents and your stint for my first date with Boa, something changed between us. Everytime I tried to talk to you about it, something happened, and I never got a straight answer, and it's been bothering me so much that I haven't been able to concentrate on anything for weeks. Nothing was making sense, but I knew that if I could just talk to you—face to face, no distractions—that I'd finally be able to get it out of my system."

His fingertips tingle with the phantom memory of Jaejoong's skin during their kiss. "And it was pretty great, not gonna lie," he adds with a distracted, goofy smile.

He only stops fantasizing about an alternate universe where they never stopped making out against the tree because of the single, empty laugh that Jaejoong barks out. "Right. Well. Glad I could help with that."

"Huh?"

"I think if you're just honest with Boa, you could still salvage your relationship. Just tell her you kissed someone else, but you were confused and it meant nothing. If you're brave enough, throw in the fact it was a guy, too. Give her time and do that cooking class with her; I bet she'll forgive you."

"Jaejoong, what are you talking about?" Was Yunho the only one who participated in that kiss? Why is Jaejoong talking like continuing to date Boa is even remotely still an option?

The other boy turns and walks away, directing his speech behind him without speaking over his shoulder. "You had your youthful flirtation with the gay agenda and satisfied your curiosity. You can confidently move ahead with your life knowing you sampled the other menu, and there's nothing you're missing. If that's all that was keeping you from dating Boa, it isn't worth it to break up over this. You can still make things right."

Yunho hears him, but he isn't here right now. In his mind, he's in the Backstreet with Jaejoong, that second time.

Jaejoong pushed himself off the wall. "You know what? You're right. Your girlfriend should ask you out."

Yunho perks up, giddy to be on the receiving end of a courtship that actually interests him for once, even if it's pretend. "Really?" he asked as he followed Jaejoong out of the Backstreet.

Jaejoong continued walking away, directing his speech behind him without speaking over his shoulder. "Really. Wait to hear from her."

Yunho let Jaejoong outpace him so that he could hide his amusement. He didn't know whether Jaejoong did it on purpose, but sometimes he carried himself like the main character of a K-drama. It was one of the many quirks that made Jaejoong such a fun person to be around. Charming, even.

The similarities are too uncanny to ignore, right down to the carefully neutral intonation. Before, Yunho thought it was just part of the character Jaejoong was playing; but with the glasses of time and distance, he can see now: Jaejoong is hurting. He was hurting back then, too. He's possibly been hurting this entire time, possibly for even longer than Yunho has been.

He thought Jaejoong's distance was just him denying his own feelings, but the situation is clearly more pernicious than that. At some point, Jaejoong had opened himself up to the idea of their romance and Yunho did something to make him regret it.

He must have done something now, too. He may not know what exactly; but if it's his fault, at least he knows he can do something about it.

"I am trying to make things right!" he cries out, chasing after Jaejoong again. That's all he seems to be doing lately, catching up to Jaejoong, but it could be worth it. It's almost worth it. Just a little more.

Yunho rounds on Jaejoong and makes him face him. He can't meet the other's eyes, but at least Jaejoong doesn't try to outmanoeuvre him. "Jaejoong," he pleads, "I don't know what I did, so I can't say sorry. I don't know what you're telling yourself in that busy brain of yours either, but don't listen to it right now. Listen to me. I am literally standing in front of you, confessing to you, and telling you I want to give us a chance. A real chance. No practising this time."

It takes countable seconds before Jaejoong raises his head, looking not quite accepting yet not quite defensive. "Where is this coming from? You didn't even like guys before you met me."

Yunho shrugs. "I didn't particularly like girls either, in case you forgot." He eyes Jaejoong's thoughtful face and dares to hope. "Besides, who cares about my history of liking guys as long as I like you?"

Jaejoong's head tips like he realises something, and the change is instantaneous. The harsh lines he used to draw himself soften to easy curves; the hues of his colours brighten to something vivid. His energy is still uncharacteristically subdued, but it's undeniable: the Jaejoong he's been missing, his Jaejoong, is back.

"Okay."

"'Okay'?" That's not a clear answer, but it's not a negative one either, and Yunho's heart rate speeds up.

Jaejoong smiles, sheepish and soft. "You'll have to give me some time, though. I spent a lot of weeks convincing myself to let you go, and it'll take me a bit to stop defaulting to some of the coping mechanisms I've picked up."

When Yunho reaches for Jaejoong's hand this time, the other doesn't shake him off. His skin relishes in the touch. "I can definitely give you time, but are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Jaejoong is staring down at their held hands, and Yunho is staring at Jaejoong. "I'm saying you need to stop thinking, and I have been for a while now," Jaejoong teases.

Is it possible to miss a voice? Yunho misses the tone of mockery that colours his every other line. He wants to make Jaejoong for as long as possible. "Well, I've always been more of a man of action." He tugs on their joined hands to bring Jaejoong flush against him, societal disapproval of public displays of affection be damned, and leans in.

Jaejoong leans back and out of his space, but at least he doesn't let go of Yunho's hand. "Not so fast there. We're not doing anything until you talk to Boa."

"Talk to Boa about what?"

No freaking way.

Yunho whirls around and finds Kwon Boa standing there in all her 5'3" so-unattainable-that-he-feels-guilty-for-attaining-her glory.

Jaejoong is desperately trying to pull his hand out of Yunho's, which is what snaps him back into the present moment. He tightens his grip despite the other boy's whispered but insistent protests.

Imminently faced with a confrontation weeks in the making, Yunho sees no better way out than through.

"Everything."

Boa takes it at face value when Yunho tells her he cannot hang out this weekend, so she accepts plans from some of her friends to have a picnic out at the park by Lotteria. Imagine her surprise when she sees Yunho and Jaejoong taking a walk together not long after their picnic commences.

She's a little hurt, but she lets it go. Just because Yunho confided in her about his friendship struggles with Jaejoong doesn't mean he has to accept her advice on how to fix it. She tells herself it matters more that they're making up at all, and she resolves herself to be patient. If Yunho doesn't say something by tomorrow about how this conversation goes, she'll just ask him directly.

She turns her focus back to her friends and their picnic—she had brought kimbap; the hapkido team has really increased her confidence in her kimbap-making skills—and it's a nice time… until she hears a shout in what is unmistakably Yunho's voice.

She looks over to see Yunho literally running after Jaejoong. The walking path takes them kinda close to where she and her friends are picnicking, and it's not even a conscious decision. She's up and following close with barely a word of explanation to her friends. For some reason, she has the feeling she's about to witness a fist fight; and the closer she is, the faster she can stop it before it gets too out of hand.

She has to stay far enough away to not be noticed, though. They're clearly having a long-overdue conversation, and she doesn't want to disrupt that part. (Boa is not above eavesdropping, but their voices are too low anyway.)

Yunho's back is to her, and he's broad enough that she can barely see Jaejoong behind him. They're close, too close. In her mind, Yunho's fists are wrapped up in Jaejoong's shirt front, and they're seconds away from starting a spectacle in the park.

She makes the decision to make her appearance known not a minute too soon. Yunho leans in, probably setting out to ruin Jaejoong's admittedly pretty face, and Jaejoong manages to lean back in the nick of time.

"Not so fast there. We're not doing anything until you talk to Boa."

She is so shocked to hear her name in the context of this fight that she says her next thought out loud.

.

At the conclusion of the story, told mostly by Yunho with contradictions for accuracy from Jaejoong, no one speaks.

For Boa's part, she can only stare between the two boys in the booth across from her—one visibly uncomfortable, the other uncomfortable but trying not to show it—and want to conjure anger. It would be fully merited, considering the circumstances. However, the tell-tale burn of fury never makes its way under her skin.

There are many other feelings, though, some too ephemeral to identify before they pass.

There's some distaste. What she just heard was so ridiculous, it could have been the plot of a poorly written teen romcom; and those have never been her favourite kind of movies.

She supposes she does feel kind of sad. She does really like Yunho, but this isn't such a strong emotion either.

With a few more moments, she recognises an overwhelming sense of detachment. After all, what else is there for her to do at this point? She's not the kind of person to beg someone to stay with her, and Yunho wouldn't be receptive to it anyway.

After this long, though, it's clear that no one will say anything unless she says something first; and she accepts this responsibility with a sigh through her nose. After another moment of considering the two boys in front of her, she determines that she has nothing to say to Yunho; so she turns to Jaejoong. "So you're the reason Yunho is such a great boyfriend, hm? I would thank you, but you'd understand that I'm not really in a mood for gratitude."

Jaejoong grimaces but nods, and Yunho bows so deep his forehead nearly touches the linoleum Lotteria table. "I'm sorry I couldn't be a better one to you. You deserved a proper breakup and not to be cheated on."

Boa rolls her eyes and flips her hair over her shoulder. "I do. I also deserve a boyfriend who actually likes me and wants to be liked by me." It isn't until she says that out loud that she realises she does deeply want that, but she saves that for later conversations with other single friends over ice cream.

"I'm sorry," Yunho apologises again.

Staring at the crown of her ex-boyfriend's head, she thinks that this may be the most genuine version of himself he's ever given to her. Something in her heart settles at the thought. "Don't be," she says, resigned and perfunctory. "Just let me tell people at school that I'm the one who broke up with you, and we'll be even… Actually, you should also wait a while before you go public at school. I don't want us to have to deal with ridiculous rumours about how I 'turned you gay'."

Yunho agrees readily—"People are overly analytic about my dating history," he laments—but Jaejoong isn't quite convinced. "You're not angry?"

Boa shrugs. "Anger is a strong word. If anything, I'm more embarrassed."

"I'm sorry I put you in this embarrassing situation." Yunho bows a third time. The spreadsheet did say he was polite to a fault.

Boa forces his head up. "Hate to break it to you, Yunho, but not everything is about you."

"I keep trying to tell him!" Jaejoong bursts out reflexively before sheepishly curling in on himself. He's made similarly inappropriate outbursts in drama club rehearsals before, but Boa has never minded.

Now is no different. She makes eye contact with him and sends him a small smile like she always does, and he must recognise the gesture because he uncurls with more confidence.

If Boa has to lose the best boyfriend she ever had, she's grateful that at least it's to someone she feels no need to compare herself to. (Honestly, it also helps that it's a boy.)

There probably isn't a single girl in school who hadn't wondered if they would be the one to finally end Jung Yunho's serial dating streak. Many others had thought it would be her even before Yunho (well, Jaejoong, apparently) asked her out. It was such a commonly held belief that some girls, who would have tried their luck otherwise, wouldn't until her turn passed.

The embarrassment here is that she herself wound up buying into the superstition.

Beyond liking Yunho for himself, an undeniable part of her liked the idea of what a power couple they could be. She is not ignorant to her social influence in the school on account of her talent and burgeoning fame, and Yunho seemed like a perfect match in terms of physical capability and humility. She isn't entirely sure which one was her main motivation for most of the relationship, but that doesn't matter now.

She stands. There's nothing more she needs to hear, and her friends have been waiting on her for too long anyway. "Like I said, we're even. Take care of Jaejoong, Yunho."

As she leaves, she overhears their immediate bickering—"Why isn't it you taking care of me?" "It's because you're beyond saving, Yunho."—and a wistful smile crosses her face.

It still would have been nice if it were her.

As soon as Boa is behind them, Yunho blurts out, "Why isn't it you taking care of me?"

He immediately recognises how utterly inappropriate that is considering the conversation they just had. He turns to Jaejoong to apologise for his lack of priorities, but the other's wit is stronger than his decorum. "It's because you're beyond saving, Yunho."

He is not surprised Jaejoong has the wherewithal to snark at a time like this, but he is surprised that he wants to lean into it instead of addressing the massive unspoken conversation left between them. The emotional confrontation with Boa was as adrenaline-inducing as a spar against a rival school, and his favourite pastime after withstanding such a face-off has always been joking around with his friends in this very Lotteria. It would be uncouth to say he won; but with the consequences of his misdeeds addressed and behind him, he definitely doesn't feel like he lost.

"You don't really think that." Yunho pouts exaggeratedly.

"No, I do. I think you're hopeless."

He sees his chance, and he takes it. There's no need to hold back now. "Hopelessly in love with you~"

Jaejoong shoves him away with disgust pulling taut across his features. "Ew, ew, EW! You did not just say that to me!"

"You didn't like that?" he asks with an excited grin, ready to get out the next taunt he just thought of. "What about 'hopelessly devoted to you'?"

Jaejoong stills in a way that surprises and delights him. Is he on the verge of uncovering a heretofore unseen side of Jaejoong, one that loves sappy, romantic declarations?

"You get some points for the Grease reference, but I'm still rejecting it."

"What's Grease?"

That is patently the wrong thing to say. "'What's Grease'?!—Okay, okay. Listen. If we're gonna do this, you need a whole new set of lessons. Contrary to your previous beliefs, I wasn't teaching you how to date me in particular. I come with an instruction manual, and I expect you to learn it front and back if this is going to work out."

There is literally nothing he'd love more than to learn exactly how to date Jaejoong, but he's also learned a thing or two since their practise run. "I'm in, but what about you?"

"What about me? Between us, I'm the expert in dating here."

"But are you the expert in me? What's my favourite weapon in hapkido?"

He revels in the way Jaejoong blanches. "That's not fair! I purposefully avoided all of your hapkido stuff because I didn't want to know too much about your favourite pastime!"

Just like that, the jovial air around them settles into something more serious. There are indeed massive unspoken conversations left between them. "You're willing to learn now though, right?"

When Jaejoong smiles, Yunho intimately understands exactly why he is so relieved at the sight. That smile is like the first time, unrestrained and happy.

"Teach me everything you know."

A/N (4.28.2023): Boa is the only character who gets her own POV in the main story because it was important to me that she has agency even as she's finding out that her whole relationship was basically a plot device in someone else's love story. I tried to give all the secondary characters dimensionality (it helps that there are so few lol) mostly because women deserve to be well-written—even in gay romance stories!—but it's especially necessary for Boa due to her function in the narrative. She is not just a stepping stone, a catalyst, or a roadblock! Based on the reviews I've been getting, I know none of you would actually see her like that, but it still needed to be done. :)

With this, the main story is done, and only the epilogue is left! Hopefully you found the experience satisfactory and fulfilling. If you hadn't yet, I'd appreciate an upvote! :)