As much as both Jinki and Taemin wanted their vacation to last forever they eventually had to go back. It had been a gift to spend a few days devoid of responsibility and stress, and they'd gotten used to it too quickly.

Jinki feared his next papers, projects, and exams, and Taemin feared body exhaustion, hour long practices with no improvement, and others' judging glances. They made a vow to each other that the moment they felt overwhelmed they would talk about it instead of suffering silently.

Both transitioned back into the daily routine easily, and before they knew it a month had gone by.

There had been a few nights when one of them had been feeling down and had gone to visit the other's dorm room. Knowing that they could call the other up and soon be wrapped in their arms with comforting words being whispered in their ear until they fell asleep together was a talisman they held close to their hearts. No one knew, so no one could take it away from them. It was easier to fight off their inner demons with someone by their side on the battlefield.

It was a similar night when Jinki called Taemin close to midnight.

"Do you mind if I come over tonight? Today was awful, and I don't know if I'll be able to fall asleep."

Minutes later Taemin was opening the door to Jinki who instead of wearing a glum expression was carrying a cake.

"Happy Birthday to you..." he started to sing loudly.

"Shhh, you sneaky jerk, you'll wake people up." Taemin half insisted half laughed as he ushered Jinki into the room. "And it's not my birthday for at least fifteen minutes"

"First of all this is college, no one's asleep before midnight," Jinki joked as he gave Taemin a one armed hug, "And second of all it's always a good time to eat cake so no excuses."

Taemin couldn't argue with cake, so they sat down together on the floor and he let Jinki light the candles with matches he may or may not have been allowed to have in the dorm.

"Make a wish!"

Taemin quickly closed his eyes and opened them again to blow out the candles, beaming at Jinki over the small cake.

“You know I just brushed my teeth,” he teased.

Jinki faked concern as he pulled the cake away from Taemin. “It looks like I’ll have to make a sacrifice and eat it all myself…” He cackled evilly.

“In that case I’ll just have to eat these all by myself.” Taemin responded, pulling a bag of Jinki’s favorite chips out from under his bed.

“Well, I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.” Jinki reasoned, smiling widely.

He felt so elated. He loved these sorts of conversations with Taemin. They were now attuned to each other’s sense of humour. He felt this need to constantly say the right things and make Taemin smile, but at the same time they were comfortable enough he knew he could spew whatever was on his mind and that would be enough.

Being close with Taemin and spending a lot of time together meant learning new things about him as well. He loved to just watch Taemin speak, to learn his mannerisms which were now as normal to Jinki as his own family members’. Every now and then Taemin would bring up a story from his past Jinki hadn’t heard before or he’d casually mention new things about himself that Jinki would cherish. He didn’t think he’d ever liked another human being as much as he liked Taemin. He was so wonderfully complex in Jinki’s eyes, and there was still so much he didn’t know about him.

As Jinki cut the cake clean in half and put one of the halves on a plate to pass over with a fork Taemin opened the chips and brought out some paper towels. They alternated between bites of cake, chips, and cake smushed together with chips. This went on for a while until Jinki made a run to the water fountain to fill up some cups for them. He returned to find Taemin on the floor, clutching his stomach.

“I think I ate too much.” he whined as he sat up to accept the water from Jinki.

“What did I tell you,” Jinki chuckled, “You should have just let me eat it all.”

They both decided it was best to at least take a break from eating and layed down on Taemin’s bed after finishing the water. The two of them lay side by side listening to each other breathe until Taemin sat up suddenly.

"I almost forgot, when do you pick housing for next year?" he asked.

Jinki strained his mind to remember.

"Umm, I know I got the email but I don't remember."

Taemin lay back down.

"I know we never talked about it, but did you want to room together? That way we won't have to call each other at odd hours of the night, and it could be fun." He paused, waiting for Jinki's answer.

"Yea, of course. I was just assuming we were going to.” Jinki turned to look at him, “Sorry, I should have brought it up before."

Taemin turned to also face Jinki. “It’s ok, I completely forgot until we got the email.”

Taemin was slowly but surely learning to trust Jinki’s existence in his life. When they had first started spending time together it had seemed too good to be true. He kept expecting Jinki to get bored of him or find someone better, but Jinki hadn’t given up on him and had stayed by his side through everything.

Every new day with Jinki was special to him. He had learned the hard way to appreciate things when he had them, and he had every intention to appreciate the hell out of Jinki while he still had the opportunity to reach out and have him there. In the same way he wanted to make sure he was always there for Jinki when he needed him.

He lifted an arm up to brush the hair out of Jinki’s face. “You need a haircut.”

Jinki wrinkled his nose. “Just because it’s your birthday…”

Taemin made a face back. “It’s ok, I like it.”

He flopped back to face the ceiling and was quiet for a while as he mustered up the courage to begin a different conversation.

“So, uh...I know we never talked about it, but, at the park...what happened...should we just forget it? I can’t decide.”

Jinki thought about the best way to answer, “It depends I guess. Do you want it to mean something or do you not?”

Taemin covered his face with his hands.

“It’s so confusing. It was my first kiss, and everything I’ve been told my whole life says that it should be this big important thing that I remember forever, but now it’s happened I don’t know if I agree. It’s not that it’s unimportant, because you’re important, and thanks for not freaking out, but it’s like...I don’t have a desire to kiss you. It was moreso curiousity and the idea that it might help me make sense of the feelings in my head. But it ended up confusing me more.”

Jinki’s heart melted a bit as he heard Taemin talk about feelings he knew all too well from his own experiences.

“I think I understand. I’ve only ever kissed one other person before and it didn’t make me feel anything. At the time I thought it was cause I didn’t really care about the person, but I know I definitely care more about you than I have anyone else. I just don’t think that kissing is our thing. I’m not opposed to doing it if you would want to, but I also don’t mind if we never do it again. We have other thing that mean much more to me than kissing. Like this…”

Taemin felt Jinki shift next to him on the bed as he propped himself up. Soon his hands were lifted from covering his face. Taemin looked up at his friend confusedly until Jinki reached down and grabbed his nose.

“Got your nose!” He yelled and fell on top of Taemin laughing at his own joke and Taemin’s expression while Taemin punched him in return.

“Yah, is that any way to treat the birthday boy?” he teased.

Jinki stopped at once and jumped off the bed to bow deeply to his friend.

“My apologies, your highness. I got carried away with myself. It won’t happen again.”

Taemin looked at him seriously, “I have a request.”

Jinki waved his hands with a flourish,“Request away, I am powerless to defy you anything on your special day.”

Taemin giggled at his friend’s ridiculousness. “Could you sing me a song? Not ‘happy birthday’ though.”

“Any requests? Would you like a medley of 90’s television themes, or perhaps our school song in an operatic style?”

“Could you sing the song you sang for me when we first met?” Taemin looked at him, his eyes sparkling expectantly. Who could deny this face?

Jinki’s tone turned more serious. “Of course, but it’s a lullabye so you have to get comfy in case you fall asleep. I don’t want you to fall off the bed.”

Taemin listened and busied himself with getting under his covers and lying down while Jinki walked over and turned off the light. Pushed next to the wall, the head of Taemin’s bed was next to the window, and similar to the night they met a sliver of moonlight highlighted his face. However, this time he looked peaceful and comfortable.

Jinki crossed the room and crawled over Taemin to sit next to him and lean back against the headboard. Similar to earlier he brushed Taemin’s hair from his face as he began to sing.

“Just like that, just like that, I will stand behind you, for always

Just like that, just like that, I will always be a step behind you, for always”

As he finished the song he looked down to find Taemin very much asleep. He smiled to himself as he maneuvered himself down next to Taemin and curled up in his friend’s side, careful not to wake him. As he slowly fell asleep next to the most important person in his life Jinki felt perfectly at peace. It didn’t matter what happened to him now, because Taemin would always be by his side. It turned out his life wasn’t that bad after all.

I struggled writing this. I didn’t know where things should go...I hope people are satisfied. <33 Sorry for the awkward dialogue, it’s not my strong point. Thanks so much for all of your comments and for reading. I’m happy they both got a happy ending.^^

Why does everything I write end up with people eating? Don’t ask me...I’m like Onew, living to eat. I guess it comes out unconsciously…also JINKI’S BACKKKK <333 Love you guys. :D