The backstage area is deserted since the people who usually occupy it are hanging out by the bar at the moment, which means that Yixing and Joonmyun are alone back here. All alone. Joonmyun thinks he might hyperventilate out of sheer panic. The only thing that makes him more anxious than them being by themselves is his newfound knowledge that he has a crush on Yixing. He really doesn't know how to deal with it.

Yixing leads them into the waiting room and closes the door behind them, and even though there were a total of seven people at one time in this room the last time Joonmyun was here, it feels far more cramped right now with just the two of them there. Yixing has purposely put a few feet of space between them again, and he's watching Joonmyun from that distance. Joonmyun can't quite determine if he looks like he's trying to think of something to say or if he's waiting for Joonmyun to speak first.

The silence that hangs between them is loaded, the pressure seeping into Joonmyun's lungs to slowly smother him, and he can't take it. He lets out an unsteady laugh. “S-so... how about that one time when Sehun suggested that... that you and I have crushes on each other, huh?” He laughs again. It sounds hysteric, even to his own ears. Yixing keeps staring at him, and he doesn't seem amused. Not even a little. “What-what a silly thing to say, huh? Haha. He's so weird.”

“Joonmyun,” Yixing says quietly.

Choosing to drop the act, Joonmyun lets his smile fall as well and he grimaces. “Look, I don't want this to come between us or anything. I know that things have been kind of... awkward lately. It's like...” He takes a deep breath. “Ever since I ran out on you that night, there's been this... this tension. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's felt it.”

“Joonmyun,” Yixing says again, but the floodgates are open now. Joonmyun can't stop himself.

“And, I mean, you act like I'm contagious or something whenever I come near you and... and you seem like you don't even want to look at me.”

Yixing lets out a frustrated noise. “Joonmyun.”

Joonmyun cuts him off by laughing wryly. “You barely even talk to me anymore, either.”

“Maybe that's because I'm scared that if I open my huge gap I'm going to accidentally tell you how ing much I want to kiss you,” Yixing exclaims. As soon as the sentence is out, his eyes widen and he slaps both hands in front of his mouth as if belatedly attempting to stop himself from speaking. But the damage is already done.

It takes a few moments for Joonmyun's mind to absorb and process the words. Once it does hit him, though, it hits like a punch to the face. “What?” he says in disbelief. Yixing, still wide-eyed, shakes his head, refusing to say anything else. Joonmyun swiftly crosses the space between them, grabs Yixing's hands to pull them away from his face and holds them close by Yixing's sides to keep him from covering his mouth again. Like this, he looks him right in the eye. “Please... please repeat that. I'm not sure I heard it right the first time.”

This close, the sound of Yixing gulping is loud enough for Joonmyun to hear. “I've been trying not to touch you because I was afraid of getting carried away,” Yixing admits, enunciating each word clearly so Joonmyun understands. “I didn't want to look at you because all I could think about when I did was how much I wanted you. I've been staying quiet so I wouldn't blurt out how much I wanted to kiss you. And I really want to kiss you. All the time.” Subconsciously, Joonmyun runs his tongue over his lips. Yixing follows the movement with his eyes, his gaze almost greedy, and he lets out a breathy chuckle. “God, I want to kiss you so bad right now, you have no idea.”

Something clicks in Joonmyun's mind. His body acts seemingly of its own accord and he sees no reason to make it stop. Yixing appears to realize what's coming about a heartbeat before it actually happens, most likely piecing it together from the way Joonmyun's eyes do a brief flicker down to his mouth and back up again, and when Joonmyun surges forward to press their lips together, Yixing is clearly prepared. And he kisses back.

All of a sudden there is an entire swarm of butterflies in Joonmyun's stomach, fluttering their wings to make his belly swirl in time with the motions of Yixing's lips against his. The subtle difference in their heights has Joonmyun leaning his head back just the tiniest bit, and he finds that he really likes that. He's used to being the tallest when kissing, but now he's not and he likes it. A lot. He's still holding on to Yixing's hands, he realizes, and he lets go to wrap his arms around Yixing's waist instead and press their bodies closer together, fingers clutching the material of Yixing's tanktop.

The moment Yixing's hands have been released, they fly up to touch Joonmyun's face, to gently cradle his cheeks as they kiss. One hand slides into Joonmyun's hair, and Joonmyun lets out a pleased sound at the sensation of fingers brushing through soft strands and nails scraping lightly against his scalp.

It's all gentle and soft and sweet. Yixing is so careful with Joonmyun, it's like Joonmyun is the most precious thing he has ever had the privilege of holding between the palms of his hands, and Joonmyun's heart is threatening to burst. He almost can't believe that this is really happening. It seems so unreal that he's here right now, that he's kissing Yixing, but Yixing definitely feels real, his touch and his mouth and his body, which is pressed against Joonmyun's. This is real.

They part to catch their breath, both of them panting heavily. Joonmyun thinks to himself that if his life was really a romantic movie, this would be the moment where one of them would mutter some cheesy line. He makes sure that doesn't happen by kissing Yixing again as soon as they have gotten just enough air back into their lungs to last them a while.

Yixing's body is warm and his lips are soft and the slow, almost tentative sweeps of his tongue along the inside of Joonmyun's mouth makes Joonmyun weak at the knees. He tilts his head a little to the side to make things easier for both of them and is rewarded with a soft moan from Yixing. That small noise is enough to set Joonmyun's body on fire. He wants Yixing to make more of those noises, and he wants to be the cause of them.

Right now, though, all Joonmyun wants to do is stay like this forever, kissing Yixing, holding him in his arms. Thinking back, it all seems so obvious. If Joonmyun had realized it sooner, he would have saved them both a lot of trouble, he knows that now, but he has never felt this way about anyone ever before, which it why it didn't naturally occur to him. It scares him a little, feeling so strongly for someone. He enjoys it too much to care.

Again they are forced to pull away when their bodies start begging for air, and Joonmyun inwardly curses their vital need for oxygen. They stay close, breathing in each other. Yixing's hands are cool against the flush of Joonmyun's neck and jaw, but his skin is burning hot as Joonmyun brushes his palms up his arms. “Wow,” Joonmyun whispers.

Yixing brushes a feather-light kiss over his cheekbone. “I would like to do that again,” he says. “I want to do it a lot. All the time. Please.” His eyes are twinkling and he's smiling like he can't help himself, bright and dimpled and beautiful.

Seeing Yixing smile that way again makes Joonmyun feel all warm inside. He chuckles. “Yeah, me too,” he mutters. On a whim, he decides to press his lips to the indentation in Yixing's cheek, and when Yixing's smile instantly grows wider as a result, he kisses the other dimple as well. Joonmyun continues to sprinkle kisses all over; on Yixing's jaw and his cheeks and his chin and the tip of his nose and he's just about to trail those kisses back to Yixing's mouth again, but he's interrupted by someone banging on the door. Joonmyun freezes.

“Hey!” Even though it's muffled, Joonmyun recognizes Kris' voice. “Please keep in mind that other people have to sit on that couch later, yeah?” He adds something in rapid-fire Mandarin that Joonmyun doesn't understand. Whatever it is, though, makes Yixing's face turn red, and he yells back something that has Kris snorting out a laugh.

“What was that about?” Joonmyun asks when Yixing's attention is on him again.

“Uh, don't worry about it,” Yixing quickly says. He kisses Joonmyun again to prevent any further questions. Joonmyun forgets that he even had any questions in the first place.

This time Yixing on Joonmyun's lip when he pulls away. He leans their foreheads together and for some time they just look at each other until Joonmyun eventually can't take it anymore and lowers his eyes. “I really thought you hated me,” he mutters.

“Why?” Yixing says.

Joonmyun pulls a face. “For going too far, at first, for behaving so childishly afterwards. I was sure that was reason enough for you to hate me and that's why I was scared to talk to you. I couldn't stand the thought of you hating me. Or even the thought of you being angry.” Joonmyun thinks it sounds really corny said out loud like that, but if Yixing shares the same opinion, he doesn't show it. He just kisses Joonmyun softly.

“That's why you ran?” Yixing asks. He sounds surprised to hear this, and when Joonmyun nods, he lets out a contemplative hum. “Hm. I thought it was... uh... s-something else.” The last two words are added quickly and in an anxious tone, as if it wasn't what Yixing had originally intended to say, but he changed his mind halfway through the sentence. It makes Joonmyun suspicious.

“Like what?” he inquires, frowning.

Yixing shakes his head. “Don't worry about it.” He presses his lips to the slopes of Joonmyun's brows until the creases even out and Joonmyun is smiling again. “We should probably go back to the others. You kind of left your friend to fend for himself amongst a group of vicious predators.”

“I'm not too worried about him,” Joonmyun says with a shrug. He has a feeling Jongdae will do just fine on his own. If anything, Yixing should probably be the one to worry about his friends.

After sharing one more kiss (or maybe a couple of kisses, Joonmyun keeps losing count), they move towards the door to leave the room, but Yixing pauses just as his hand touches the doorknob and turns to look at Joonmyun. His expression is serious. “You know, if you feel like you're not ready, we don't have to tell everyone. About this.” He gestures between the two of them. “We can wait as long as you need us to.”

Joonmyun thinks it over for a moment, thinks about keeping it a secret to their friends. He quickly comes to a conclusion, and he smiles and takes Yixing's free hand in his, giving it a squeeze. “I'm ready when you're ready,” he says and adds with a chuckle: “Besides, I'm pretty sure they already know. It seems they're a lot more perceptive than we are.”

“Oh. Right.” Yixing scratches the back of his head the way Joonmyun has learned he often does when he's embarrassed or bashful. “We've both been kind of stupid, huh?”

“Hopefully that'll change now,” Joonmyun says. Smiling, Yixing leans in to press their lips together one last time, and after taking a deep breath Joonmyun lets go of his hand. Then they leave the room together.

It doesn't come as a surprise that all their friends welcome them with smiles and open arms. “No , Sherlock,” Minseok says with dripping sarcasm when Yixing tells them about the apparently not-so-new news. “I've known this was going to happen since the first night you brought him here.”

This comment launches an argument about which one of them first knew that Joonmyun and Yixing had feelings for each other, an argument which Jongdae eventually closes by stating that he could tell by the way the two of them interacted back before any of the others even knew what Joonmyun's face looked like.

“I'm sorry for bringing you into this,” Yixing says mock-apologetically. “My friends are all idiots.”

“I guess I'll just have to get used to that,” Joonmyun says. His heart skips a beat when Yixing grins and wraps an arm around his waist and muffles a laugh by burrowing his face into Joonmyun's neck. Joonmyun laughs as well. He can't remember the last time he was this happy.

~*~

A/N: there. they kissed. satisfied? now can you please stop telling me that you hate me or that you're 'going to ing kill me'? ;;

so yeeeaaaaahhh. makeouts occurred and the kids found out that their feelings are actually mutual (ing finally) so now they can stop being dumb, pining butts and just make out all the time and be happy and gross. congration you done it. everyone is a winner. \o/ I don't know what else to say since kissing is, well, pretty self-explanatory and this chapter is like 90% kissing so there's that. inb4 flood of comments demanding , hah..........

also, since the last time I was here, this story somehow got featured??? how the hell did that happen????? I'm not worthy, hhhhh. OTL uhm, in any case, I would just like to thank you all for making this happen... and welcome, new readers. :D I hope you'll stick around until the end (but if you don't that's totally okay too, I understand that this story is trash).

this is another early update (is this wednesday schedule ever going to work out, I should just change it to tuesday at this rate orz), but that's because I'm going somewhere tomorrow and I doubt I'll be up for posting an update when I get back. it would be awesome if y'all could leave me a bunch of nice comments for me to read while I recover.

ps. follow me. 8D