Kris and I began dating shortly after, going out to dinner or movies or just hanging out at home together, but it never really occurred to us to tell the others. Of course I wanted to tell Baekhyunnie, but I didn’t bring it up to Kris in the fear that he would get upset, wanting our relationship to be private. My fears were probably very silly, Kris had never mentioned anything like that, but I worried nonetheless. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to be scared for long, as Kris brought up the subject one day when we were cuddling on his couch, watching a movie.

“Yeollie, can I ask you something?” He said quietly in my ear, one of his hands playing with my hair absentmindedly.

I hummed in response, never one to deny Kris anything.

“Do you want to tell him?” He asked, turning to look into my eyes.

I wondered if Kris was a mind reader, or maybe I was talking out loud to myself again where Kris could hear, but when he saw my worried face, he gave me a reassuring smile.

“I just know that you two are really close and you probably hate keeping it from him,” He continued.

Why would anyone ever think that Kris was an ? “I guess I was just worried that you wanted to keep it a secret…” I pouted, hoping that he wouldn’t be mad with me for saying it.

Kris chuckled instead and kissed my lips, leaving me smiling. “I just don’t really share my personal life with those people,” He said with a shrug, “I just never thought of bringing it up, I guess.”

I nodded slowly; Kris and I were two different people after all. Telling everyone wasn’t really important to him, but as for me, I wanted to scream it from the rooftops.

“We can though,” He broke in to my thoughts. “Tell them, I mean; if you want of course.”

I laughed taking his hand and turning my entire body towards him. “I’d like that,” I whispered before leaning in to kiss him. It was probably one of my favorite things to do, and as I pulled him against me, the movie long forgotten, I felt his chest on mine and my heart soared with the knowledge that Kris was indeed, mine. And I intended to keep things that way for a long time.

When he pulled back to chuckle lowly before smoothing my bangs back and staring into my eyes, my heartbeat increased to the point where I thought I might just have a heart attack.

“You’re beautiful, Chanyeol,” He said, and boyfriend Kris was so different than ‘face Wu Fan’ from one month ago.

He smiled again, the smile that made me fall for him in the first place, and I decided then and there that I was in love with him.

He was laughing before I realized that the words had left my mouth, darned lips for acting faster than my brain, and all of a sudden he was pulling me up onto him, hugging me close and whispering a million things in my ear. And it was all a blur of excitement and happiness but I’m pretty sure that one of those things was ‘I love you too’.

***

“You what?!”

I flinched at Baekhyun’s loud voice. I knew that this would come as a surprise but I’d hoped that he would be taking it a bit better. “I love Kris and we’re dating,” I repeated, hoping that my best friend wouldn’t choose this moment to bludgeon me to death with the TV remote he was clenching in his fist.

In hindsight, maybe I should have been more tactful. Randomly announcing that you’re dating one of your friends and you just so happen to be in love to your best friend while you guys are sitting on his couch channel surfing probably wasn’t the ideal thing to do, but I don’t think I’ve ever known the concept of ‘right place and time’.

Judging by the look on Baekhyun’s face, he was somewhere in between having an aneurism and peeing himself and me being the loyal best friend wanted neither of those things to happen, so I didn’t hesitate to try and calm him down.

“Breathe, buddy, breathe,” I said, grabbing him by his shoulders.

“Breathe?!” He squeaked and I flinched, feeling guiltier by the second. “You’ve been dating this guy for how long and now you say you’re in love with him and-“ He looked like he was going to hyperventilate so I shook him gently and it seemed to snap him out of his panic. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He whispered and I felt extremely guilty.

“I thought he wouldn’t want me to but it turns out that it was okay with him so I was just freaking out for no reason so I wanted to tell you as soon as possible but I got nervous so here I am telling you now and please don’t freak out Baekhyunnie, I’m sorry I never told you-“ I didn’t realize that I was talking as fast as he was until he copied my earlier movements and shook me too.

“Are you happy?” He asked quietly, biting his lip.

“Yeah,” I whispered, smiling at him. “He loves me too.”

Baekhyun smiled back but it never reached his eyes. At the time I thought that it was just because he was still annoyed with me for not telling him. That thought soon changed.

***

“So, let me get this straight, you guys are dating?” Lay clarified, being the first among the shocked group to speak.

I glanced nervously around the table; it had been Kris’ idea to gather them all to dinner and tell them together, he said it would be easiest to just get it over with, but looking at their wide eyes and gaping mouths, I wanted to crawl under said table and hide.

Baekhyun smiled at me supportively and I felt slightly more reassured. They wouldn’t be mad, I told myself; maybe a little shocked and irritated that we never told them, but they would support us like Baekhyunnie did.

“Yes,” Kris replied.

“And you guys are in love?” Suho, repeated.

“Yes.”

As it turns out, they weren’t mad at all. I was pleased with their reaction actually, they took it much better than Baekhyunnie had, but I think Kris would have preferred a less favourable response as everyone immediately stood to tackle the two of us in a congratulatory group hug.

***

The next few months went well, everyone teased Kris and me constantly, but they were all happy for us and we couldn’t be more in love, and for the longest time, I felt like I was in heaven. It never occurred to me that to go to heaven, you had to die first.