Chapter Text
Kun was having a bad day, and Ten wasn’t making it any better.
“Could you just put down your crayon for one second -”
“It’s called a pastel ,” Ten clarified haughtily, rolling his eyes as he continued coloring in a drawing he had been working on since this morning. “Not that you would know.”
His tone, the way he made Kun feel inferior with his words like he was too stupid to know what a ‘pastel’ was (he didn’t know the Korean term for it at the time but still), made his skin itch with irritation. He hated feeling like this, and he especially despised Ten for being the reason behind this burning sensation. His mouth opened to say something in return, but his eye immediately caught the camera standing next to them and he quickly wired his mouth shut. Although he often never cared about onlookers when instigating fights with Ten, he was in a bad mood today and nothing good came out of him when he was in a bad mood. He didn’t want this side of himself to be broadcasted for everyone to see.
Based on the way Ten stole an expectant glance at his direction, it was clear that he was waiting for another side remark and was taken aback by the lack of it. It had become their thing lately, bouncing off each other’s insults to the point that they didn’t hurt as much as before. They had developed an immunity of sorts to keep them shielded from meaningless jibes. They didn’t know how to communicate properly without wanting to rip each other’s throats out, so they spoke to each other in the only way that was comfortable for them: arguing.
Kun wasn’t in the mood to argue right now, however.
He bit his lip before glancing down at the papers on his desk as their teacher continued to go on and on about electrons and atoms and whatnot. He slightly slid one sideways to reveal something that was hidden by his notes. It was a mock test review that the academy gave him to answer and it was due later after class, the main source of his bad mood for the day.
The more he answered the test, the more he felt the motivation to finish it leave his body. Kun never liked going to the academy since it had taken up so much of the time he could have spent doing normal teenage things like hanging out with friends or going on dates, but he had a duty to keep as the only child of his struggling family. Especially since his parents scraped the little money they had just so he could get into a good college.
Not like they stuck around long enough to witness it.
The words on the paper glared back at him, causing goosebumps to trail across his skin. He couldn’t believe that his entire future was meant to be decided by his answers on a piece of paper, and the itch to grab the nearest pencil and erase everything until it tore through was unbearable.
Before he could give in to the urge, he raised his hand abruptly and asked for permission to use the toilet. Breathing out a huge sigh of relief once his request was granted, he rushed out of the classroom while leaving the mock test stranded atop his side of the desk.
As much as Kun enjoyed being known for his grades and rank, he sometimes wished he could take a break from being so perfect all the time. He knew he should be grateful since most kids in his situation couldn’t be given the opportunities and talents he had, but the voice at the back of his head was constantly screaming at him to take it down a notch. Kun couldn’t physically afford to do that, so his downfall came in the form and entity of another person entirely.
Ever since Ten had barged his way into Kun’s life, the constant weight on his shoulders had both been lifted and added at the same time. He felt pressured to do better now that someone else was catching up, but he also felt relieved at the attention being split up between the two of them. The opposing emotions confused him greatly, and Kun had never been the type to be confused about anything in his life before now. The path laid out before him was always so certain and assured that he never bothered to stray from it, never tried to take his eyes off from it for one second.
Until Ten started walking along that path next to him.
And it wasn’t just his mere presence that changed things, it was almost everything about him that drove Kun crazy. The way Ten didn’t seem like he cared or tried, yet he always found himself closer to the top each time they received their grades. The way Ten knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life while Kun had no detailed plan in place despite all the notes and all-nighters Kun pulled just to achieve something . The way Ten somehow did everything and nothing all at once, leaving Kun dumbfounded by his unpredictable brilliance the more they spent time together.
As the running water from the tap drenched his palms, his stream of consciousness flowed along with it, and all his thoughts returned to the same person again and again.
As much as Kun hated to admit it, Ten was smart. Possibly even smarter than he himself could ever be, and that irked him so much to the point that he answered every test with the vigor and thought that he had to get a higher score than Ten , rather than get a higher score than everyone else. He always had to beat Ten, had to do better than Ten, because if Kun wasn’t the brightest person in the room, then what was he?
Nothing.
Kun immediately turned off the water, trying to do the same with his thoughts before they could pull him under until he drowned. He hummed a song to keep himself distracted as he wiped his hands and walked back to the classroom. If there was any place to an insecure mess, it would be anywhere than in the middle of their chemistry lesson. He’d rather be dead than get caught crying in school of all places.
With his head raised high in an attempt to shake off any more unwanted distractions, he surged into the room through the back door to see that class was almost over. He politely nodded to those heads that turned his way before settling back down in his seat. He could see Ten scribbling again from the corner of his eye, but he shifted his attention to the discussion at hand instead.
Kun’s head bobbed along to the words of his teacher, writing down whatever he managed to catch as Ten continued to draw beside him. Everything was finally back to normal, the world moving at a pace that he could match. It was only when the bell rang, dismissing them for the day, that Kun realized something was off. Something was missing.
The mock test.
He scrambled through his side of the desk, papers flying and pencils rolling, but he couldn’t find it. Ignoring the murmurs of his peers, he crouched down to see if it had fallen, but nothing. He checked his bag, his locker at the back of the classroom, his desk again, but nothing.
“Have you seen it?” he asked the producers that had been monitoring his place since the last time he had seen the test. When they gave no response other than subtle head shakes, he lowered his head to hide the panic threatening to break through every inch of his body, only for his eyes to land on Ten.
Or what Ten was scribbling on.
“You -“
Words failed to form on his tongue as he could only blink in surprise. Each flutter of his eyelashes triggered the surfacing of a different and new emotion. Shock, relief, then anger . Just pure and seething anger for the person doodling away on his entire future like it didn’t matter. It burned through him like a volcano waiting to erupt, magma hot and ready to explode.
Fists shaking, he snatched the test out of Ten’s hands, causing the latter to pull out his hidden earphones in irritation.
“Hey!” Ten screeched, whipping his head around and staring daggers into Kun’s livid eyes. “What was that for?!”
“You -“ Kun repeated, aware that he sounded like a broken record. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from blowing up. He cleared his throat, suppressing the sobs that were so close to spilling from his mouth, and carried on with a rigid voice made of steel.
“You are so selfish.”
The remaining students left in the room immediately stopped what they were doing, silenced by the harshness in their normally kind and calm classmate’s voice. Ten gaped at him, shocked by the sudden accusation, before his face hardened and his voice raised to a pitch Kun never thought he was capable of reaching. He almost flinched.
“Excuse me?”
“Did you even bother to check the name written on this -” Kun shot back spitefully, turning the paper over to show his name clearly sitting at the front, written in ink and in his own handwriting. The coldness on Ten’s features slightly melted away at the sight until Kun spoke up again. “Or do you really believe everything around you is just yours to take?”
“It’s just a piece of paper , Qian,” Ten spat, riled up from the unnecessary and untrue comment on his personality. He shot up from his seat to look him dead in the eye, their faces now merely inches apart. Kun gulped once he noticed their close proximity and took a shaky step back to add a slight distance in between them. Ten surged forward instead of backing down, Kun’s bottled anger spilling all over him.
“What is your problem? Are you seriously going to get mad at me over a dead tree?”
“You wouldn’t be here breathing right now if it weren’t for trees!”
“And when did you become such a huge advocate for the trees? Who do you think you are? The Lorax?”
“That’s not the point!” Kun yelled, surprising everyone around him including himself. He exhaled in order to calm himself down, noticing how he was becoming more unhinged by the second. He did his best to relay his next words in a calm and levelled manner while trying to compose himself along the way. “The point is that you touched something that wasn’t yours. The least you can do is say ‘sorry’.”
“Fine, I’m sorry, but I don’t see why you have to yell and make assumptions about me over a test .” Ten crossed his arms over his chest, pursing his lips to indicate towards the ruined mess in Kun’s hands. “It’s just paper for God’s sake.”
Something inside of Kun snapped. That was it, that was what made him despise Ten so much in the first place. Everything Kun worked for, everything that felt like either life or death to him was reduced to nothing in Ten’s eyes. All the blood and tears shed by his parents’ hard work to provide him with a quality education which would eventually amount to a good life was just a goddamn piece of paper to Ten. Basic, worldly needs were something so easily attained for him that they’d pass by his eyes without sparing them a glance, while Kun trained himself to latch on to those things and never let them out of his sight. The fact that Ten had the luxury to do that only made Kun feel even worse, reminded of how different they both were. Reminded of how - despite them being forced together in one classroom and sitting in one camera frame - they lived in two separate realities. Kun would never catch up to Ten no matter how hard he tried, and the realization of it clogged something in his throat.
“My parents paid a lot for this piece of paper.”
“Then just pay for another one!”
“I -“ Kun clamped his lips together to stop the cries he had been desperately trying to hold from escaping. He was right about Ten, about how the guy couldn’t seem to put himself in other people’s shoes and never took anything seriously. He always took the simpler route, and paying for a mock test replacement was the simplest solution to Ten. To Ten, the concept of using money to fix his problems was so simple but to Kun, it was something he didn’t have the option to consider.
“I can’t,” Kun whispered in a decibel that no one else could hear but him, unaware of how Ten was close enough to catch the defeat threaded into his words.
The rage he had inside of him dissipated at this point. All he could feel now was complete and utter shame, shame for the way he had just acted and the way he continued to live without enough money to purchase a simple mock test replacement. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at Ten’s face to gauge his reaction, terrified of what he might see. Not that he cared about what Ten thought, but because he cared about what everyone thought.
“I have to go,” were the last words to leave his lips before he grabbed his backpack with the intention to leave and never look back. He did spare a glance at the cameras behind Ten’s head once he remembered the producers, detecting a subtle change in the scene before him.
The blinking red light on the camera wasn’t there.
The device had been turned off.
-
Ten paused as he walked down the steps of his home, hearing a scarily familiar pair of voices coming from someone’s gadget. He dashed over to the living room to spot Mark lying on the couch, chuckling over the video he was currently watching on his phone. Unable to contain his irritation, Ten abruptly yanked the device out of the boy’s hands to see what he was looking at, only to have his suspicions confirmed.
“Not you too,” Ten groaned before attempting to erase that damned documentary out of his life by swiping it away. He threw the gadget back to its owner, who was whining about having his phone taken away before he caught it with his two hands. “Why is everyone watching that stupid thing again?”
“Here, look at the date,” Mark answered, locating the video again and pointing to the date attached below. “It’s nearing its 10th anniversary! Of course people would miss seeing you two on-screen.”
“What’s there to miss?” Ten grumbled. His high school life wasn’t exactly the greatest. Having strangers coo and gush over it made him scoff.
“I think it’s cute.” Mark chuckled as he returned to his previous position. “You were such an adorable little asshole back in high school. Glad to see nothing’s changed.”
Ten gasped. “You take that back!”
“Nah,” Mark replied, chuckling as Ten whined in protest. “I can’t really be opposed to the extra exposure my artist is gaining, even if people don’t know that Ten Lee and Yeol are the same person.”
“And it’s going to stay that way,” Ten said with a final blow, plopping himself down on the couch on top of Mark’s legs. Mark let out a yelp in surprise before folding his legs so Ten had space to sit. There was nothing planned for them to do today, so they kept their eyes glued to the television screen broadcasting some weekend drama with nothing but a comfortable silence sitting between them.
Despite having a formal manager-artist relationship, the two of them often treated each other so casually that one would think they were brothers. Ten usually had a hard time making friends, but it was so easy to befriend Mark. It had something to do with the weird yet alluring quality the boy had. He could vividly recall the first time they met, drawing up the event from memory down to the very last sketch. It was at his parents’ restaurant where Mark had requested they play a song for his boyfriend’s birthday. Ten, who was helping out there at the time, complied to his request, and watched with a stupid grin on his face as Mark’s eyes lit up while seeing the pure joy in his partner’s eyes as they sang and smashed cake into each other’s faces. Ten couldn’t remember the last time he had seen someone so happy solely because someone else was happy, receiving absolutely nothing directly except for the sight of the upward curve of another’s lips, and it reached out for something so deep within his heart that it nearly burst at the touch.
Afterwards, Mark had thanked him with so much kindness that he even offered to pay for a coffee, which led to two coffees, which led to even more until something similar to a friendship was born. Mark pulled something out from Ten, a childish side to him that he had missed. They laughed and talked a lot when they were together. Conversations always flowed easily, the words they bounced off one another never running out. Ten felt comforted by the company and time Mark gave to him, thrilled at the idea of making a new friend after so long.
Once when Mark was running late to their frequent coffee dates and Ten used the vacant time to draw something on his iPad out of boredom, apologizing profusely until he reached their table, his mouth hung open once his eyes landed on the piece Ten was working on. What Mark saw then wasn’t just a few lines drenched in a myriad of colors, but the potential and talent that Ten had to encapsulate so many unspoken emotions and stories into a single picture, and then he concluded that the rest of the world deserved to hear these stories as well. He made a few calls, got Ten to sign a few papers, and the rest was history.
Ten signed a contract to have a manager under his belt, and with it, a friend for life.
“Minghao wants to schedule a meeting with you tomorrow,” Mark suddenly piped up, bringing Ten’s attention back to him. “He sent me an email this morning.”
That made Ten wrinkle his nose in confusion. “Why couldn’t he just send me a text?”
“He doesn’t need his best friend for this one,” Mark answered. “He’s reaching out to me as a client.”
“What could he possibly want from me as Yeol?”
“No.”
“Ten, listen -“
“NO!”
Ten was fuming at this point, his eyes staring daggers into Minghao’s slightly apologetic ones. How could his best friend of fifteen years betray him with such an unreasonable offer such as this? Especially after knowing what putting him and Kun together in one room entailed, and especially because Minghao had been there through it all when Kun had broken up with him. How could he even have the guts to suggest reviving the documentary when the documentary itself was the root and cause of all the heartbreak that Ten had experienced in the last decade?
“The network wants to do a special,” Minghao had informed him a few minutes ago as Ten sat across from him in his office at the network company Minghao worked for. It was the same company that produced their documentary exactly ten years ago. “To commemorate the tenth anniversary, see how much has changed in those ten years. And since you’re a public figure in a way, I decided to contact Mark instead of you directly.”
“You’re sick if you think I’ll actually agree to do this again,” Ten growled. “I already hate having my face all over the internet for people to see from the first time, and then you go and tell me that the person I hate the most in the world is going to be right there through it all. Again. For the second time. You think I want to relive that?”
“But aren’t you already working together anyways?” Minghao asked. Ten raised an eyebrow. “Mark told me about the live drawing show.”
Ten shifted his angered gaze over to Mark instead, who was squirming in the seat next to him. “Why don’t you just air out my business to the whole world instead? I hadn’t even agreed to it yet!”
During the awkward lunch that day at Jelly Box, Ten stayed silent throughout the entire affair while Mark tried to fill the silence with his tense laughter. The only time Ten spoke was when Kun brought up the drawing show, and it was to decline the invitation once again just to be a dick. The twitch of a frown on Kun’s lips was incredibly worth it.
“W-well I didn’t think that he would take advantage of our friendship and use it for his own personal gain!” Mark protested, pointing an accusatory finger in Minghao’s face.
Minghao swatted the hand away. “I should use my resources when I can.”
“You traitor —“ Ten started, ready to lean against the table and grab a fistful of his friend’s hair before something Mark said made him rigid.
“And what did Kun say about this?” the youngest in the room asked.
Ten slumped against his seat. He hadn’t even considered if Kun would agree to film this together with him because he knew for sure that the guy would decline in a heartbeat. If Ten despised having Kun within his orbit this much, then he was positive that Kun’s dislike towards him was increased tenfold. The reasoning? Kun had always held some weird unexplainable grudge against him since day one, and he finally got to unleash the pent up irritation he had been holding in on the night he broke up with Ten. Kun was the one who hated Ten enough to cut the string that tied them together, so how could he even consider the possibility of intertwining their lives once more on purpose?
Ten repeated this to himself like a mantra while awaiting Minghao’s answer. He didn’t even notice his own tightening grip on his knees. He wasn’t sure which answer he wanted to hear.
“He said yes.”
Ten’s eyes snapped towards him in an instant, his mouth hanging wide open and eyes nearly popping out of his head. He could tell that Mark’s expression mirrored his own without looking at him.
“You’re serious?” Ten heard Mark stutter from his side. “But that’s - why would he -“
“Maybe he wants to end whatever he has with Ten cleanly,” Minghao supplied, shrugging his shoulders. “I met up with him yesterday and explained everything, and he agreed right away.”
“You told him that he had to do it with me and he still said yes?” Ten prodded further.
Minghao casted him a knowing look. “I don’t think he would’ve said yes had it been anyone else.”
A blush spread across his cheeks before Ten could even register it. The second he noticed the rising heat in his face, he did his best to erase the color by shaking his head. There was no way that Kun had agreed solely because of him , there was definitely another reason. He leaned his back against the chair as multiple thoughts ran through his head.
Kun was someone that thought things through and made certain decisions in a way that benefited him. Having cameras and a crew follow you everywhere you went would only hinder his working environment and be a nuisance to his daily routine. Even when they were dating, Kun cared a lot about his work so consenting to these types of distractions only confused Ten even more. On top of that, being forced to spend time with your ex-boyfriend for appearance’s sake wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either. Kun didn’t need Ten anymore, Kun only needed his job, and he definitely didn’t need Ten’s help to keep it.
Except he did.
Ten scoffed once he reached a conclusion, causing Mark and Minghao to look at him curiously.
“By forcing us to be together in one room with a bunch of people watching us—,” Ten started slowly, the gears in his head turning as he spoke, “—I have no other choice but to accept his offer to do the live drawing show.”
The monster , Ten seethed to himself. He grudgingly had to give Kun a few points for coming up with a strategy like that, however, because it was quite a smart move on his part. But it’s not like Ten couldn’t play the game that Kun unintentionally roped him in when he had agreed to make the next month a living hell for them both. To Ten, Kun was now just another player he could easily knock off the board. Because he had always been, and always will be, steps and steps ahead of Kun.
“I’ll do it,” Ten announced. Shock was evident on both of his friends’ faces as he picked up the nearest pen and held his other hand out.
“Now where do I sign?”
-
232 days
The four of them were celebrating Minghao’s birthday when Ten and Kun initiated a drinking competition that left their two friends groaning. It was common knowledge to anyone that pitting the two boyfriends against one another was a bad idea. Kun was too obsessed with being the best in the room, and that obsession seemed to amplify when Ten was within the facility. Ten hated losing, and he was absolutely disgusted by the idea of losing to Kun of all people. Hence, the glasses of beer lined up on the table ready for the couple to chug down.
“Why do you two even like each other,” Minghao asked no one in particular since Ten and Kun had already begun drinking to see who could go the longest without getting drunk. He sighed as Kun slammed down the first emptied glass down on the table. “All you seem to do is just try to outdo one another. Is that even healthy?”
“Shh, they just have a dynamic that mere mortals like us can’t understand,” Sejeong told him. “I’m pretty sure they like each other for…for whatever reasons they have. I mean, they made it this far, right?”
The two started dating at the beginning of the year, and now that year was slowly reaching an end. To be honest, no one - not even the couple themselves - expected them to stay together this long. They (Ten, Kun, and Sejeong) were now college freshmen, and Minghao was now a senior in high school and had just turned into an adult that night. They were meant to celebrate the occasion by sharing the younger’s first drinks together at their favorite restaurant, and it had somehow escalated into a childish competition between the two people who brought the group together in the first place.
“I have a higher alcohol tolerance than you, if you needed any reminder,” Ten sang as Kun stared down at him. He blew him a kiss. “Drink as much as you can, let’s see it!”
Ten brought the glass to his mouth and observed Kun from the corner of his eye as he downed drink after drink. Whenever his gaze rested on him, Ten pretended to drink without allowing a drop of alcohol into his system. Minghao caught on eventually once Kun was bright red in the face with Sejeong thumping his back, and Ten was still as sober as he was before.
“Isn’t that cheat —“ Minghao started before Ten slammed his palm against his friend’s mouth. Kun was currently in the restroom, finally admitting defeat as Sejeong hollered encouraging yet passive aggressive comments from outside.
“A common misconception about the game is that the winner is declared based on who drinks the most,” Ten explained with a swipe across his lips. “When it’s actually about who can go the longest without losing their shit. The number of drinks doesn’t matter, but the duration of the game does.”
He mimicked what he had said to Kun prior to his manically drinking spree before shaking his head madly, overcome by a giggling sensation. “If I trick Kun into thinking otherwise, then that leads him to drink more than necessary, and causes him to pass out first while I stay sober. Therefore I win!”
Minghao mocked a gasp. “You’re evil.”
“An evil genius,” Ten corrected, raising his glass. Minghao rolled his eyes before clinking his glass with Ten’s. The two had no chance to exchange words as Kun stumbled out of the restroom while Sejeong was trying to steady the boy to his feet.
“Now who’s going to bring Kun home?” Minghao sighed. “You were the ones who were supposed to be taking care of me but now I feel like the responsible adult here.”
“It’s fine,” Ten patted his friend’s shoulder. He threw on his jacket and picked up Kun’s, which was draped around his chair. “I can do it.”
“You turn him into this blubbering mess, yet are also willing to carry him on your back this late and cold at night. I will never understand what you two have going on.”
“Sometimes I don’t understand it either.” Ten’s eyes flitted to Kun who was already outside of the restaurant with his arms wrapped tightly around him. “It works, though.”
“Yeah, it does.” The friends made their way outside. Ten heard Minghao sigh contentedly beside him as they exited the restaurant and into the serene atmosphere outside. “To be honest, witnessing you opening your heart to Kun is probably one of the best experiences I had before entering the real world as an adult. That kind of youthful innocence isn’t easy to come by, but you found it. Keep it.”
A blush crept up his neck. Minghao and he normally weren’t this vulnerable with one another, even if they had been friends since their days at their Chinese Language seminars and lessons. Him saying this meant a lot to Ten, and he silently tucked that piece of advice into his heart for safekeeping.
“You haven’t even been an adult for a day, and yet you already sound like you’ve lived 17 lives.”
“That’s one way of saying I’ve matured faster than you.” Ten playfully punched his arm. Minghao groaned for dramatic effect but recomposed himself to give his friend a sincere and genuine grin that felt more comforting than words could describe. “But seriously, Kun’s a keeper. He makes you smile and all that cheesy shit. Keep him.”
“I’ll try,” Ten whispered, his eyes flitting to the man in question who was currently waving to random strangers walking past him on the street as they shot him questioning looks. The sight made him roll his eyes fondly.
“I know you will,” Minghao responded while squeezing his shoulder. Ten turned his body around to pull him into a tight hug.
“I love you, Hao.”
“I love myself too.”
“God, you’re insufferable! The real world needs to get ready for Xu Minghao!”
“It better!”
The two broke apart laughing. Ten cupped his hands together over his mouth as Minghao began walking off in the opposite direction.
“Happy birthday, you idiot!”
His friend responded with a flash of his middle finger before his figure turned smaller until it was out of sight completely. Ten shifted his attention over to his drunk boyfriend who was now attempting some sort of K-pop choreography while humming the tune under his breath. Kun really could not dance for the life of him.
“Kun,” Ten started as he stood beside him, a grip on the guy’s arm to steady him. “You okay?”
“You’re really pretty,” Kun replied all of a sudden, his face flushed and eyes bright. He was staring at Ten’s face so intensely that the boy couldn’t stop the rapid beating of his own heart underneath all the layers of clothing draped around him. “And handsome. And beautiful. How do you look like all that with just one face?”
“You’re definitely drunk,” Ten managed to say weakly, covering up his flustered reaction with a surprised laugh.
Kun’s dopey smile only widened at the sound. “I think these things too even when I’m sober.”
Ten’s heart was going to leap out of his chest at this rate. He whacked Kun on the back of his head in retaliation, making him wail. “You can’t just say stuff like that!”
“But they’re true!” Kun whined.
“God, you will really be the death of me one day.”
Kun pouted. “I don’t want you to die, though. The world would be so boring without you in it.”
Ten felt his heart do a flip. He grabbed Kun’s hand that was slung over his shoulder and laced their fingers together. The coldness wrapped around his skin seemed to thaw at the touch.
“My world would be boring if you disappeared from it too.”
“So let’s stay together and keep having fun for a longgg time,” Kun drawled on, his head lolling on Ten’s shoulder. Ten could feel the curve of his smile through the fabric of his jacket. “I want to have you around for longer.”
“And you will,” Ten promised fiercely, almost to himself. “I’m not going anywhere, Qian.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” Ten planted a kiss on Kun’s temple and felt his muscles relax. He removed Kun’s arm from his body and repositioned him in a way that made it easier for him to carry. “Come on, hop on my back. It’ll take us ages to get home like this.”
“I can’t do that!” Kun screeched, sounding horrified at the idea. The dark streets were empty so there was no one else to flinch at the outburst except for Ten himself. “You’re so tiny! What if you break?”
“How do you manage to care about my wellbeing and insult me in the same sentence,” Ten huffed, pulling Kun’s hand that was waving around in protest so the guy could lean against his torso.
It seemed to work since the tiredness must have finally gotten to him, causing his eyes to droop as Ten mustered all the strength he had to carry him on his back. Even if his legs were stronger than most people would think, that didn’t stop his knees from getting weak from time to time as Kun breathed down his neck, nuzzling his face into it as the cold wind bit his cheeks and making Ten feel hot in contrast to the cold weather around them. After all, Ten was just a boy in love. He just hadn’t gotten the chance to say it out loud yet.
“Kun?” Ten suddenly said as they neared Kun’s house. “You still there?”
Kun made a noise in acknowledgment. They managed to reach the front steps of his gate. Ten gently placed him down there so he could sober up a little more before going in as to not disturb his sleeping aunt. He ran to the nearest vending machine down the street to purchase a bottle of water before rushing back to hand it over to Kun. The two were now sitting side by side, eyes glued to the star-less sky above them. It was like the whole world had turned off for the night and they were the only two beings alive. It felt nice, safe. Ten felt a little braver at that moment.
He opened his mouth to speak, his breath materializing into wisps of air due to the upcoming winter season. “Have you ever been in love before?”
“In love?” Kun repeated, his voice less groggy now that he had more liquids in his body. He didn’t seem surprised by the question. “I think…I think I have.”
“Really?” Ten whipped his head around to look at him. Kun was still looking at the sky. There were water droplets clinging to his lips, sparkling under the dim light of the moon. “When?”
Kun’s gaze transferred from the sky to Ten’s face, then his lips, and before he could register what was happening, Ten felt something warm and wet press against him. He smiled into their kiss, giggling as he saw Kun leaned forward to catch his mouth again once he pulled away.
“Just now,” Kun breathed out, beautiful and starstruck. Ten thought he’d like to kiss him again, and maybe for the rest of his life if he could. “What about you?”
“A long time ago,” Ten answered. His mind drifted back to the Choco Pie wrapper safely kept within his drawer, a concrete piece of evidence that symbolized one of the best days of his life, but that’s another story for another time. The only story Ten wanted to focus on was this moment right here, with Kun by his side.
“I fell in love a long time ago.”