JR felt like he had lost Jason there and then. Leo loved Jason. And Jason also loved Leo. JR was basically out of the picture now.  He grieved internally as he recalled the past few days, days filled with bliss he had never felt his entire life, the days of being with the person he loved. He felt like those days were over now.

JR tried to hide his pain from in front of Leo. He tried to keep up a straight face and not look affected by Jason's words.

“Do you want me leave when you tell him?” JR asked, gulping in all the sadness before Leo could see it.

“No, of course not. You’re freezing cold anyways. You’re definitely not going outside.”

“I’ll go to the bathroom…”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m not embarrassed doing it in front of you or anything. It’s okay!”

But I don’t want to be there, JR wanted to say to Leo. He wanted to find an excuse to leave so that he didn’t have to watch, but Jason had come out of the bathroom by then.

“Why did you guys pause the game?” Jason asked.

“Jason, do you still love me?” Leo asked immediately.

Jason looked taken aback by the question. JR avoided eye contact with Jason and just wrapped his blanket around him tighter and looked at the floor.

“Why do you ask?” Jason responded, sounding a little uneasy.

“I realized something after seeing you again like this. It’s that I always want to be with you. I realized that I probably always felt the same way, I just never realized it…”

“Wait,” Jason said, “so you’re saying that you love me?”

“Yeah.”

“In what sense?”

“Love is love. What does it matter was sense it’s in?” Leo laughed.

“I don’t understand,” Jason said, “you spurned me because you found out I had feelings for you, and now you’re saying you return those feelings?”

“Yes,” Leo nodded, “I did a lot of thinking while I was away from you, Jason, and I realized that the person you love is someone you want to spend the majority of your time with. There is no girl like that for me. It’s only you…”

There was a silence, and it was then that JR looked up to see Jason’s expression. He realized that Jason was staring right at him.

JR nodded in Jason’s direction and forced himself to smile, as if to give Jason the permission to do what JR knew Jason wanted to do. Jason reacted by breaking the eye contact, looing back at Leo to see him waiting for a reply.

“I…” Jason began, and then shook his head and looked back in JR’s direction.

“I’ll be okay,” JR mouthed so that Leo wouldn’t hear. He again forced himself to smile, just to show Jason that he really would be okay, even though he knew he wouldn’t be.

Jason  sighed and sat down beside JR. He took JR’s hand and intertwined their fingers lifting up their hands to show Leo.

“You’re a little too late, Leo,” Jason told his friend. He then turned his head and made eye contact with JR, “because I already have a wonderful boyfriend,” Jason said affectionately, seemingly directing those words at JR.