And yeah, words fail him a lot and his mind runs away and his tongue slips and slides and he’s a big big klutz in general, but he knows one thing: it feels like listening to the instrumental version of your favorite song for the first time and waiting for the lyrics to start, only they never do- that’s what it feels like.

Falling in love, that is.

And it’s a little uncomfortable and confusing and new, mostly, but it’s also surprisingly pleasant and amazing; you discover new layers in the harmony that you’ve never really payed attention to before, because the lyrics stole all your attention. It’s not fair, he knows it isn’t, because the lyrics are nice and singing is a very important ingredient in songs, but music is surprisingly powerful when you let it run wild.

Youngjae laughs when he tells him about this new observation; Youngjae always laughs. That’s one of the things Daehyun likes the most about him.

But Youngjae also nods and squeezes his hand and sends him a look he can’t quite understand, but that’s only because no one can fully understand the mystery that is Yoo Youngjae; many have tried, but Daehyun takes pride in being the first person that has ever come this far in search of the answer.

"Yoo Youngjae, the great riddle," he says one day, when they’re both too lazy to drag their asses out of bed after what felt like two minutes’ worth of sleep. The air glistens and pigeons spit out absolute nonsense outside the window and Youngjae shakes his head and sighs.

He doesn’t answer for a long time afterwards; his eyes stare at the ceiling and Daehyun starts to think that maybe he shouldn’t have said that, because Youngjae is surprisingly fragile and tends to criticize himself a lot, but after what feels like half an hour the younger shakes his head again, a whisper of a smile on his lips.

"The great riddle," he repeats slowly, quietly, more to himself than anything, and Daehyun cups his cheek and gently tilts his head so their gazes meet. "I’ll spend the rest of my life answering it, I suppose," he says, and it hurts. Not a lot, but it does.

Because Youngjae doesn’t want to be a riddle, he wants to be coherent and loud and clear and absolutely fathomable; he wants to be an exclamation point, not a question mark. Yoo Youngjae wants to be together. Yoo Youngjae wants to be a book.

And Daehyun’s in way too deep to stop now, honestly- always was, always will be. Jung Daehyun will follow Yoo Youngjae to the other side of the world and he’ll try and struggle and hurt but he will get there; he’ll figure out Yoo Youngjae, even if it’ll cost him his life.

And he says that out loud, all of that, and Youngjae cries and nods and drags him in for a kiss that pretty much seals the deal; Yoo Youngjae, page one.