“He’s a man ruled by things,” Jongin whispered in Yixing’s ear so their unwelcome guest couldn’t eavesdrop, which seemed to be exactly what Junmyeon was trying to do. “Far from being a ‘phrenologist by means of physiognomy.’”

“I know, but-” Yixing gestured at the riverside seafood restaurant menu that he had been glaring at for the past five minutes.

“Do you know what ‘the first great rule of life’, ‘the moiety of wisdom’ is?”

“What?”

“‘To put up with things, and Gracián said that we should ‘put up with fools.’”

“I bet he never had to deal with this kind of fool,” Yixing grumbled. “Being patient is really not my thing.”

“‘The wise are always impatient,’” Jongin said and leaned closer to kiss Yixing’s pursed lips into a smile before continuing, “But ‘out of patience comes forth peace, the priceless boon which is the happiness of the world.’”

“Stuff the happiness of the world when I’m starving.”

“What can I get you guys today?” a waitress asked, a small notepad in hand.

“I’ll have the garden salad,” Yixing said. Junmyeon raised his head from the menu he was reading to give him a questioning look, which he ignored. “Don’t try to be nice and throw in tuna chunks or something.”

“Garden salad,” the waitress mumbled listlessly, writing it down.

“I’ll get the-” Jongin trailed off, looking at the menu. How could he ‘persuade without words and obtain without earning’? “I’ll get the herb bread and chips.”

“Herb bread and chips,” the waitress repeated as she scribbled on her notepad. She turned to Junmyeon. “I assume you’re ordering a main course?”

“Yeah,” Junmyeon said, tearing his gaze away from the two people sitting across from him to look at the waitress. “What do you recommend?”

“The seafood platter.”

“Okay, I’ll have that,” Junmyeon said and handed the menu to the waitress.

“Any drinks?” she asked, taking the menu.

“No, thank you,” Yixing said, lifting the complimentary glass of water on the table. Jongin nodded in agreement.

“Nothing for me either,” Junmyeon told the waitress.

The waitress nodded and left after collecting the rest of the menus.

“Herb bread?” Yixing asked Jongin, an amused smile on his face.

“We have ‘a natural kinship of hearts and minds.’ I think the vulgar ignorance is starting to scent witchcraft,” Jongin said, giving Yixing a wink, making him chuckle.

“Are you on a diet of some sort?” Junmyeon asked.

Yixing’s smile dropped in an instant. “I’ve been on the same diet the whole time you’ve known me.”

Junmyeon paused, seemingly to search his mind for what he could have missed.

“It took you two days to notice, right?” Yixing said to Jongin, a smile creeping back on his face. “You’re a board-certified – what was it? – ‘phrenologist by means of physiognomy.’”

“It was just a ‘judicious inference’ based on a ‘keen observation,’” Jongin said.

Yixing gave him a playful smack on the arm, laughing. “You and your bragging.”

“But you told me to display myself.”

“I like it. I like what’s on display,” Yixing said, running a finger lightly along Jongin’s arm. “‘Dashing men who make much show with a little’ and ‘a whole exhibition with much’ are very attractive indeed.”

“But this dashing man has only grant you stolen glances at his excellence.”

“Is that so?” Yixing asked, shifting closer to Jongin. “My curiosity is piqued to the highest.”

“You’ll have to wait. I’m still waiting for your applause to die away.”

“I’m applauding, am I?”

“Of course you are. Rest assured that each glimpse is a ‘pledge of a greater.’”

“You’re ridiculous,” Yixing said, laughing as he pulled Jongin closer for a kiss.

“Are you vegetarian?” Junmyeon interrupted.

Yixing sighed and pressed his forehead on Jongin’s shoulder. “Took him long enough.”

“Oh,” Junmyeon said, finally realizing his bad choice of restaurant. He stood up and reached for the wallet in his back pocket. “I’m sorry. I’ll pay and we’ll go somewhere else.”

“No,” Yixing said and gestured for Junmyeon to return to his seat, shifting to rest his cheek on Jongin’s shoulder. “I might as well have the salad since we’re here.”

“Why didn’t you order the main salad?”

“The king crab salad?”

“Oh,” Junmyeon said again, looking apologetic. “I’ll buy you something on the way back. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I didn’t realize it was a seafood restaurant until we sat down. I think my brain’s all foggy,” Yixing said, more to Jongin than to Junmyeon. “I barely got any sleep last night.”

“‘The pillow is a silent sibyl,’” Jongin said, turning his head slightly to place a light kiss on Yixing’s hair. “‘It is better to sleep on things beforehand than to lie awake about them afterwards.’”

“But I wasn’t thinking about anything. I couldn’t sleep because somebody kept barging in,” Yixing said, raising his head to shoot Junmyeon a dirty look.

“I just wanted to check on you,” Junmyeon protested.

“I don’t need to be checked on.”

“‘Never come unasked and only go when sent for,’” Jongin said. Noticing the sharp look Junmyeon gave him, he added, “If you’re sparing with your presence, you might have a chance of becoming ‘desired and so well received.’”

“I didn’t ask for your advice,” Junmyeon said brusquely.

“Some ‘prefer to be constant fools.’ ‘Within they regret their error, while outwardly they excuse it.’ Isn’t that right?”

“What regret?” Yixing scoffed. “I think you’re giving him too much credit.”

“Well, ‘folly is always bold.’ ‘The same simplicity which robs them of all attention to precautions deprives them of all sense of shame at failure.’”

“What’s your problem?” Junmyeon said to Jongin, frowning. “If you have a bone to pick with me then man up and tell it to me straight instead of hiding behind your hogwash.”

“I don’t have a bone to pick with you,” Jongin said, unruffled. “Gracián told me to ‘never contend with a man who has nothing to lose’ anyway.”

Junmyeon’s frown deepened, but there was a glint of confusion in his eyes.

“You’ve ‘lost everything, including shame,’” Jongin continued “You have ‘no further loss to fear’ and that’s why you’re resorting to ‘all kinds of insolence.’”

“Don’t act like you know me.”

“Okay.”

“But, you know, it would be nice if you don’t barge in when I’m trying to sleep anymore,” Yixing said to Junmyeon.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Junmyeon said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Maybe we should go see a real estate agent later,” Yixing said to Jongin. “Help me look for a house.”

“Which real estate agent?” Junmyeon asked. “The one that you went to last time?”

Yixing gave him an odd look. “It’d be nice if you stop tagging along everywhere too.”

“I know a lot about buying houses. I’ll help you find the right one.”

“I think I can manage.”

“You can look it up online,” Jongin suggested. “The university has an online accommodation rental listings for students.”

“We can look it up at home,” Junmyeon said to Yixing, making him frown.

“Let’s go to the library later so you can show me that website,” Yixing said to Jongin.

“Or we can go back to my flat,” Jongin said.

Yixing nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Excuse me,” the waitress mumbled, placing plates on the table. “A seafood platter, garden salad, herb bread, and chips. Do you need anything else?”

“No, that’s all. Thank you,” Junmyeon said, flashing her a smile.

“Enjoy,” she said and left.

“So anyway,” Yixing said, prodding at his small bowl of salad with a fork. “I think I should look for a place to the south.”

“Why?” Junmyeon asked.

“So I can be close to Jongin,” Yixing said, spearing a cherry tomato with his fork and offering it to Jongin. “What do you think?”

“It’s good, because ‘wise men frequent the houses of great noblemen,’ right?” Jongin said, before eating the offered tomato.

“Which one am I and which one are you?”

Jongin chewed slowly, thinking that over. “Take your pick.”

“Does that mean we’re interchangeable?” Yixing asked, unimpressed. “I thought ‘nothing depreciates a man more than to show that he is a man like other men.’”

“We’re not like other men. We’re both divine.”

Yixing chuckled. “You can be the wise man.”

“Okay, great nobleman,” Jongin said, picking up a chip from his plate and holding it to Yixing’s lips.

Yixing took the chip between his teeth and turned to Jongin with a grin. Knowing exactly what he wanted, Jongin bit off the other half of the chip and smoothly kissed him without bothering to swallow, paying no heed to the audible weary sigh the person across the table heaved when Yixing hooked an arm around his neck. He lightly off the salt stuck on Yixing’s lips before breaking off the kiss.

“We should do it with the bread,” Yixing purred.

“Are we going to finish eating today?” Junmyeon asked.

“We have to wait for you to finish that,” Yixing said, nodding at the large seafood platter.

Junmyeon sighed before slurping yet another oyster.

“Now,” Yixing said, turning back to Jongin and sliding his other arm around his neck, lunch completely forgotten. “Do you remember back when we didn’t have a third wheel?”

Jongin nodded, reaching around Yixing for his bowl of salad.

“When we had pizza at my spot and you told me that-” Yixing halted when Jongin pressed an olive to his lips, urging him to eat it, which he reluctantly did. He chewed as Jongin shoved a forkful of lettuce into his own mouth and swallowed before continuing, “You told me that I shouldn’t ‘make mistakes about character’ and that I should study you ‘as deeply as books.’”

“How far have you gotten?” Jongin asked, putting the bowl back on the table.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

“What do you know about me?”

Yixing threw a faraway gaze into the distance, a pensive look on his face. “I know that you don’t ‘explain overmuch’ because Gracián told you not to, so more than half the time I have no idea what you think.”

Jongin picked up the herb bread from his plate and took a bite with a casual “Hmm.”

“And you take ‘more pleasure in doing a favour than in receiving one.’”

“It’s ‘the privilege of my generous nature,’” Jongin said, offering the bread to Yixing.

“And I know that you like to brag even though Gracián told you to ‘show no self-satisfaction,’” Yixing teased before taking a small bite of the bread.

“But bragging makes me a dashing man.”

Yixing chuckled. “That’s not what that quote means and you know it.”

“I don’t do everything that Gracián said I should,” Jongin said, placing the herb bread back on the plate. “If I do, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Because he said that you can ‘lose more on a day of pleasure than has been gained during a whole life of labour,’” Yixing guessed. “And he said that ‘if you enter by the gate of pleasure, you must leave by that of sorrow,’ and he also said that you shouldn’t aim to be ‘much loved.’ Right?”

Jongin nodded. “But he also told me to trust my heart.”

Yixing regarded him contemplatively. “So that’s another thing I know about you. You like me very much.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jongin said, meeting Yixing’s puzzled gaze. “I respect you.”

Yixing blinked, taken aback. “That’s a big word.”

Jongin glanced over at Junmyeon, who seemed to be busy disassembling a lobster. It was about time he voiced what had been on his mind this whole time. “I respect you too much to let you do this to yourself anymore.”

“Do what?”

“You shouldn’t ‘lead a sad life,’ nourishing yourself ‘on bitters and battening on garbage.’”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you staying at his house?” Jongin asked, lowering his voice so only Yixing could hear him. “You should be doing everything it takes to stay away from him.”

“I couldn’t find a house and he offered.”

“Were you actually looking? A whole lot of people are moving out around this time.”

“I haven’t found a house that I like.”

“Have you even visited a single house?”

“Well, I looked at pictures of a lot of houses and I didn’t like any of them.”

“What kind of house are you looking for?”

Yixing hesitated. “I’m not sure yet.”

“I don’t think you want to find your own place. I think you’ve been putting off finding a house for months because you know that he’d make that offer.”

“I asked you to move out with me, remember?”

“You know I’d say no.”

“So what is it? You think I still have feelings for him?”

“I don’t know. I just think that he shouldn’t be here and you shouldn’t be staying with him.”

“I didn’t invite him here.”

“But you never told him to leave.”

“He doesn’t listen to me.”

“I don’t think you’re trying hard enough.”

Yixing sighed. “Didn’t you tell me to ‘leave the door of reconciliation open’?”

“Because you shouldn’t be angry and upset anymore. I wasn’t telling you to be friends with him.”

“I’m not angry and upset. Especially not over him.”

“You get angry and upset every time he’s around,” Jongin pointed out. “You shouldn’t ‘carry fools on your back.’”

Yixing seemed to think that over before sighing again. “When we’re done here let’s go back to your flat and find a place for me today. If you don’t like me staying at his house so much then I’ll sleep at yours tonight. If he insists on attaching himself to me then I’ll throw him off the balcony. How does that sound?”

Jongin nodded. “It’s good, but ‘let your own right feeling be the true standard of your rectitude.’”