"you're over at my house so often I might as well just give you a key to the place." joshua spoke without glancing upwards from the textbooks sprawled out on his bed. he didn't need to look up to know that jun had just walked into his room and laid himself right next to joshua on his bed. he had heard his mother letting the purple haired teenager in on her way out of the house and he was one of the select few who would jump into bed with him, the other being seokmin who got really cuddly with joshua whenever he had something on his mind that was troubling him.

"hello to you too." jun hummed in response to joshua. he squirmed in the bed before he settled on laying on his stomach like joshua had been as he read the textbooks in front of him. there was more than one textbook, meaning that the brunette really was determined to cram as much information as he could into his head that afternoon. "are you working on something right now?"

"yeah, just studying." joshua answered bluntly and then continued on with his reading. jun sat beside him, not wanting to disrupt the brunette who looked to be in his element. joshua had gotten really good at studying to drown out all the issues in his life; sometimes he was too good at it hence why jun had taken him out to relieve some stress in the snow with their friends. he had never seen joshua look that happy before, which confirmed his theory about the brunette. from the day he met joshua he knew that the stubborn and rude senior had more to his personality than just the academic side he flaunted. it turned out joshua only needed a bit of coaxing to loosen up and really enjoy himself.

maybe joshua needed coaxing with other things too, like their relationship. jun still had no idea what was going on between them and it had been a few days since their kissing session. their groupchat had been blowing up since that friday night where they basically went public with their feelings for each other; somehow seokmin caught pictures of them canoodling in the snow and it had been really embarrassing to scroll through. jun wasn't sure what joshua thought about it though since the brunette wasn't too big on texting to begin with. maybe he was embarrassed about kissing jun, but then again that wouldn't explain at all why joshua had kissed him back

all jun could think about were the brunette's lips and how they fit perfectly against his own. he stared at the brunette as he read, capturing every single part of his face as if he were scared to forget what joshua looked like. the brunette's dark brown bangs had grown so long they were now completely covering joshua's eyes which explained why he had to push them behind his ears everytime they obstructed his view of his open textbooks. joshua liked to hum softly to himself while he read; it took jun a while to notice but it was something that the brunette frequently did without even thinking. and how could jun not look at joshua's pink lips? it was like they were beckoning him, completely mocking jun just by existing.

"you're staring at me." jun hadn't even realized it, but the brunette had turned and started staring right back at him in the midst of all his thinking. jun blushed, lightly flustered by how he had been caught staring by joshua. it was embarrassing but it definitely didn't matter much now considering the two had done more than just stare at each other. they've kissed before and yet jun was still flustered over this small thing. joshua didn't even look upset about him staring, if anything the brunette looked pleased to have jun admiring him like that; it made joshua just want to roll over and kiss jun all over again.

"well it's not my fault! nobody asked you to be this good looking, I can't get the idea of kissing you again out of my head!" jun exclaimed, hitting the brunette on the shoulder to emphasize how annoying joshua was being by being so attractive (if that even was a valid reason?). when he had realized what he had done he sheepishly smiled, shifting backwards to create more space in between them because they had unconsciously gotten so close to one another that their foreheads were nearly touching. "sorry I'm just doing this thing my therapist recommended. you know, getting my feelings out in the open instead of hiding and lying about them like I usually do."

"if you wanted to kiss me you could have just asked." joshua laughed at jun. honestly he was glad that the purple haired male was talking about what he was thinking and feeling, even if all of jun's hyper speaking was getting in the way of his studies. it was better to have jun talk way too much than to have the chinese male feel tormented by keeping all of his thoughts inside. therapy really was helping jun with finding more ways to express himself. however, jun would argue that it was joshua, their friends, and his family that helped him with feeling more in place with his life.

"it's just I didn't know if you wanted to again? this is all really confusing especially since we haven't talked about what happened." jun looked aside to joshua and raised an eyebrow when he saw the brunette stand up off of his bed. joshua closed his textbooks and carried them off to his desk so that they both had space to sit on his bed. when he returned to his bed, joshua leaned his back against his headboard and looked to jun, prompting the purple haired male to do the very same so that they were both sitting next to each other. that was when the brunette nodded at jun, as if to say that he would listen to whatever he had to say. of course jun needed to hear joshua actually say it was okay though before he continued on.

"so let's talk about it."

"clearly there's something between us I mean we both kissed, more than once and obviously it's going to happen again because-" as soon as jun was given the okay he went off, talking as if his life depended on it. all joshua could do was smile, amused by the purple haired male and his rambling. jun just looked so cute when he went on and on about whatever they had going on between them. he was so sure that if what jun was speaking about wasn't so important he would just feel so lost in admiring the way jun went on and on. "well you know I like you and I really want us to be a thing."

"a thing?"

"you know like you would be the romeo to my juliet? well bad example since that means we would both die soon, and considering I was just in the hospital I guess that's an inappropriate joke, but you get the gist of it." jun kept on talking despite joshua's short responses and occasional hums. to make sure that joshua was actually listening to him, because it sounded a lot like the brunette was just making sounds to suggest he was agreeing without listening, jun eyed joshua from where he sat. that was when he noticed the brunette gazing at him with a weirdly happy grin plastered on his face. "why are you staring at me?"

"it's because I just realized you do this cute thing where you ramble when you're nervous." jun widened his eyes. his chest vibrated as his heart pounded against it. never would jun have expected for the brunette to compliment him like this; it was more than a surprise and after viewing the smirk on joshua's face jun realized that the brunette was happy he reacted in such a way. it felt like joshua was mocking him in a way, but it wasn't at all in a negative manner. he grinned slyly before nudging the chinese male on the shoulder slightly. "it makes liking you not totally a bad idea."

"so you do like me back?"

"was it not obvious when I kissed you back?" jun shook his head shyly, evoking a heavy laugh from joshua. he glanced upwards again to find that jun was totally puzzled, as if the idea that he liked him back had never even occurred to him. when his fit of laughter died down, joshua beamed at jun with bright eyes before taking the chinese male's hand into his own. firmly gripping it in his own, joshua made sure to make complete eye contact with the confused purple haired teenager so that this time his point was made. "I really do have to spell it out for you don't I? junhui, I like you."

"I like you too." a small squeeze confirmed his words as jun laced his fingers so that they were intertwined with joshua's. the two sat in silence for a minute so that they could each process what really happened. the brunette proudly grinned to himself; he had known after their kiss on friday that they had shared mutual feelings so he felt confident. jun wasn't completely sure what the kiss meant because he had been the one to initiate it but hearing verbal confirmation of what he had theorized about for months reassured him greatly. "so what's next for us now?"

"whatever we want to do I guess. we don't have to follow a script or anything, we can take this one step at a time and see where it goes." the purple haired teenager smiled and nodded at his counterpart before laying his head closer to joshua on the headboard. it wasn't long until the brunette shifted so that jun had a place to lay on his shoulder; he wasn't about to give up on his title as jun's pillow, especially now that he knew for sure that the chinese male also had a crush on him. in response to the skinship, jun let out a deep sigh that showed how content he was with being this close to joshua.

"okay, I like that." the brunette hummed softly, running his hand along jun's as he slowly stroked it in his own. joshua observed in jun's face that the purple haired male looked very happy to hear his words, of course he was ecstatic about it as well. there was nothing more joshua wanted than to be dating the purple haired teenager, but at the same time he didn't want to rush into a relationship with jun. rushing into a relationship and submitting themselves to all the expectations of a relationship could potentially harm them in the long run; this was why joshua wanted to go slowly with things, which jun didn't mind at all since he had never dated anyone before. "as long as kissing you is the next step, seriously I can't get you off of my mind."

"and do you really think I can get you off my mind? I haven't been able to do that since I've met you." jun shyly blushed at the compliment as joshua chuckled. it felt like only yesterday he was visiting seokmin's house to complain about how annoying and loud jun was and now here they were, closing in on what he presumed was the start of their relationship. "even when I hated you I wouldn't shut up about it when talking to seokmin and chan."

joshua let out a small groan of pain when jun essentially threw himself into the right side of his body in an attempt to hug the brunette in a quick manner. he gave an apologetic smile to joshua before joshua sighed and unlaced their hands so that he could throw an arm around jun's waist, pulling the purple haired male closer to him (so much for taking it slow huh?). at this point it didn't surprise joshua at all that jun wanted to cling to him yet again. by now having the purple haired teenager attached to his hip was a given anytime jun decided to pay him a visit, or vice versa when joshua showed up to hang out with jun. however, it did surprise joshua when jun decided to sneak in a small kiss on his cheek. the sudden kiss made the brunette's cheek heat up with a heavy red blush, which made jun feel confidently about himself. "what can I say, I do have that effect on people."

"yeah no, never mind I don't like you at all." joshua scoffed as he let go of jun while making sure that the now frowning chinese senior caught him wiping his cheek of any remnants left from the cheek kiss. the brunette stood up off of his bed and gave a sly smile to jun before exiting his bedroom to go into his living room, all while leaving behind a pouty jun. "joshua! I swear, why is he like this?"

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I can't believe we're coming to an end here, I only have like 7 chapters left to write and publish😭