Chapter Text
Bumjae felt… stupid. Yes, that was the word. Not just stupid, though. He would say he was feeling equal parts stupid and excited. Stupid, because the answer to the question he was about to ask should have been obvious, and in hindsight probably would be, but excited because he was also sure the answer would not be the obvious one.
He was going to ask his best friend if they were a couple.
Because, you know, it kind of felt like they were. Bumjae and Euntae had been close since they were kids, but since getting their first tattoos they’d become close in a different way. Like, in a getting-matching-tattoos way. Seemed like a pretty serious commitment, a couple look like that.
Not that Euntae even knew what a couple look was. He was clueless about romance – Bumjae was sure he had heard the word, but had trouble understanding the meaning. Which wasn’t that rare in his case, Euntae lived in his own little world where words were often meaningless and only concepts mattered. Would be interesting to get a glimpse at his brain every now and then – like what the hell he’d been thinking that time he’d tried to melt glass in a pot.
Anyway, it was clear that despite most likely only having a vague grasp on the meaning of romance, Euntae had started looking at girls a while ago but so far hadn’t talked to a single one for longer than a few minutes. They were freaked out by his intense, silent stares, which were actually just him trying to gather the courage to say hi but ended up looking like death threats.
Bumjae leaned his chin on his hand, looking at Euntae across the café table. If those girls could see Euntae now, happy as a clam, slurping a strawberry milkshake through a heart-shaped silly straw, they’d wonder how they could’ve ever thought he was scary. There was something distinctly kitten-ish about his face at times like these, which made the tiger-like faces all the scarier.
“Euntae, are we dating?”
It felt like the question should have come out more unsure, with some stuttering, and a blush. Instead it was simply that – a question, without much of a tone. That must’ve been the biggest reason Euntae took it the wrong way.
“I wouldn’t hide a girlfriend from you, Bumjae. You’d be the third to know, right after me and the girl”, was the answer, spoken with envious tears aimed at the hero of a movie poster on the bus stop outside, surrounded by beauties each more curvy than the last. It was one of those low-quality action flicks with no substance, Bumjae knew because they had seen that movie – in a late-night showing, sharing popcorn and leaning against each other over the arm rest.
“No, no, I meant as in are we dating, are we a couple?” Bumjae specified, still surprisingly flatly, though a waver of embarrassment was finding its way through. He was still pretty sure Euntae and him had something more than friendship going on, but given Euntae’s... let’s call it eccentric personality, probably even he couldn’t tell what was going on in his own damn head half the time, so maybe he didn’t think the same. Not to mention basic human interaction seemed to mostly escape him, as evidenced by them currently sharing a pink milkshake with heart-shaped straws – for him, that might have been a perfectly normal friend thing that all guys did. He’d gotten a lot better about human interaction after starting middle school, but it was years too early to call him normal. It was too much to expect him to know that held gazes are considered romantic, and asking another guy to compare muscles while shirtless in a bedroom is pretty fucking gay even if you are legitimately excited about seeing the results of working out, and of course, getting matching tattoos is not something just-friends do. But Euntae had insisted, even after Bumjae saying he didn’t need to get the exact same tattoo.
Instead of giving an immediate response to the question, Euntae thought long and hard. It was another one of those faces that looked ready to kill, but actually meant that his gears were turning fiercely – it didn’t happen often, Euntae almost always went with his gut but sometimes rarely he considered something carefully. Bumjae hadn’t expected his question to be such a difficult one, but he supposed that meant the answer would be good? Since Euntae wasn’t rejecting the thought, he must’ve felt something more than friendship towards Bumjae as well. So even if they weren’t a couple yet, they might be sometime in the future. Good to know... that brought a small smile and a slight blush to Bumjae’s face.
That seemed to be what Euntae had needed to reach a conclusion. His face lit up like 1000 watt light bulb, and he stared at Bumjae with his eyes full of excitement, clearly expecting something. Having been friends since childhood, Bumjae could hazard a guess at what he was expecting – to be asked out, because certain situations require certain rituals. With a giddy grin Bumjae obliged.
“Will you go out with me?”
“YES!” Euntae answered with glee. Then his face immediately dropped. “Oh. But that means I can’t get a girlfriend.”
Euntae was a fuckin’ weirdo, but a cute one so who even gave a shit.
“You win some, you lose some”, Bumjae shrugged and took another sip of the milkshake.