Archive of Our Own

Taehyun wakes up to his phone giving the bedside table a vibrating massage.

“Why are we roommates again?” he groans. “If you’re still going to text me good morning from across the room?”

“You know you’d miss my good morning texts, cutie!”

“Sure,” deadpans Taehyun.

He flings the blanket off and touches his feet to the floor. “Cold,” he complains. “We should go shopping for rugs.”

“No time to shop!” Kai says, popping up from the corner, where he’s going through a stack of books. “We have English literature class, and then after lunch you have your voice lesson, and then weightlifting class, and then we’re meeting the guys for dinner.”

“Well, then YOU have time to shop, Kai. Get me whatever looks cheap and warm and I’ll pay you back.”

Kai sighs dramatically. “But we always shop together!” They hadn’t brought much from their hometown to university. The university had provided basic furniture, but they had bought sheets and lamps at Ikea, and decorated their room with a combination of K-pop and Pokémon posters. They had trekked to the campus store to buy matching Yonsei flying eagle hoodies. And they always go shopping for snacks together: Homerun Balls for Taehyun and egg tarts for Kai, plus ramen for late night emergencies. As students from a small town, they don’t have a lot of money, but they work between terms and they have enough.

“It’ll be OK,” Taehyun reassures him. “Kai fighting!” He finally gets up, finds warm clothes and starts changing. Kai finds the book he was looking for and puts it and his laptop into his backpack. Taehyun, now fully dressed, tackles him before he can put the backpack on.

“Hey! Go find your book, loser, we’re gonna be late.”

Taehyun easily complies, his books being perfectly organized. They head off to class, hand in hand.

They’re not a couple, though. Just roommates and best friends.

“Excuse me.” Taehyun looks up to see a tall boy with dark hair falling into his face. “Is that an Umbreon Call of Legends holo card?” His accent is weird, but he clearly knows his Pokemon.

“Yes! Do you collect? Or play?” Taehyun asks.

“Both! But I’m surprised you have that one at school; I’d be worried about someone taking it.” says the boy.

“No one takes stuff from me,” Taehyun replies, flexing an arm. “What’s your name? I’m Kang Taehyun.”

“Huening Kai,” the boy answers. “And yes, that’s a weird name. My dad is American, my mom is Korean, and we used to live in China, so I sound weird, too.”

“You’re not weird,” Taehyun says. He doesn’t let anyone call his friends names, and Kai is going to be his friend.

They meet up with Soobin for lunch in the cafeteria after class. Soobin is a third-year student, while Kai and Taehyun are still first-years, but they know each other from back home. As Kai and Taehyun sit down with identical trays of food, Soobin sighs. “Would you two get married already?”

“Shut up, fool.” Taehyun nearly shoves him off his seat.

“I’m OK with that!” Kai winks at Taehyun.

Soobin rolls his eyes and starts shoving food in his mouth.

“Soobin-hyung,” Kai says, batting his eyelashes, “don’t you want to go rug shopping with me this afternoon? Taehyunie can’t go, and I don’t want to go by myself.”

Soobin usually can’t say no to Kai, but this time he does. “Sorry, Kai-yah. I have to meet with my advisor about changing math classes.”

“Fine,” Kai whines. “I guess I have to go by myself so that Taehyunie won’t have cold feet in the morning.”

“Before your wedding?” Soobin says, ducking away from Taehyun’s fists.

Taehyun spends the next few minutes eating while Soobin and Kai discuss the latest anime they’re watching. He gets up, throws his arms around Kai and kisses him on the cheek. “I gotta go to that voice lesson. Good luck shopping!”

Taehyun arrives back at the dorm before dinner, exhausted and sweaty. Kai is there, lying on his bed and watching his phone, and two fuzzy, bright purple rugs are on the floor next to their beds.

“Taehyunie!” Kai leaps from the bed, kissing his forehead and then picking him up and swinging him around. “What do you think? I hope the purple isn’t too much.” It kind of is, but that’s OK.

“I purple you!” Taehyun simpers, dumping his backpack on the bed and holding up two finger hearts.

“Aw, my Taehyunie is finally embracing his ARMY side,” coos Kai. “I have something else for you, too!” He grabs a box from his desk. “Open it!”

Inside are two silvery rings, each engraved with a Pokéball and the words “I choose you!”

“I couldn’t resist; they were too cute,” Kai says. “Go on, put one on!”

“Let me shower first; I’m all sweaty, and we’re going to dinner soon.”

Taehyun smiles to himself in the shower. Kai is adorable! Of course he couldn’t just stop at matching rugs; he had to get matching rings, too. Well, what are best friends for?

After getting dressed, Taehyun tries the ring on each finger, finally deciding it fits best on the fourth finger. "Perfect!" Kai exclaims. "Let's go!"

Taehyun slips his hand into Kai's arm as they walk off campus. They meet their friends for pizza and video games every Friday. It's nothing fancy, but it's a chance to see each other and get some non-cafeteria food.

At the pizza restaurant, they find Soobin, Beomgyu and Yeonjun already holding down a table and waiting for pizza. "You owe us 6,000 won each, so pay up!" demands Beomgyu.

Taehyun rolls his eyes and pulls the cash out of his pocket, slamming it on the table. "I'll get this, since Hueningie bought us rugs today."

"And rings!" Kai chimes in, laying his hand next to Taehyun's. "Aren't they cute?"

The three older boys stare at their hands. Yeonjun looks up. "Oh my God, are you two finally a couple?"

"Oh my God," Taehyun mimics, "when are you guys going to give up that joke?"

He glances at Kai, but Kai looks…hurt? "I, um, I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be right back," Kai says, getting up and walking away.

Taehyun looks around at the others, puzzled. "Did I do something wrong?"

Yeonjun and Beomgyu look at Soobin, who says, "Taehyunie, you are wearing matching rings. You are both wearing them on the fourth finger of your left hand."

Taehyun stares at him blankly. "We aren't married."

"Kang Taehyun, have you never heard of couple rings?" Yeonjun says. "Because I think Kai has."

"We aren't a couple, either!"

"Well, you might want to talk to Kai about that," says Beomgyu.

Kai returns then, smiling again, but not looking at Taehyun, and their pizza arrives shortly after.

Taehyun is confused. Kai couldn’t have been intending these to be couple rings! He’s never said anything to Taehyun about wanting to be romantically involved. Aside from the usual jokes, of course. Someone asks when they are getting together already, or Kai pretends to flirt, and Taehyun gruffly brushes it off. It was all pretending, right? Kai was just pretending to flirt, and Taehyun was just pretending to be offended.

In any case, there was no more flirting or discussion for the rest of the night. They wolf down their pizzas, play games, and then head home to their separate dorms and apartments, just like normal. Kai doesn’t bring up the ring issue. Taehyun considers it, but he still doesn’t really understand and doesn’t know what to say. Once they’re in bed, he settles for “Are you OK? You’re being really quiet.”

“I’m OK,” Kai replies. “Just tired.”

“OK. I love you, good night,” Taehyun says.

“Love you, too.” Kai’s eyes brighten as he smiles. Everything will be OK.

The next morning, Kai has an early class and Taehyun doesn’t. So he takes advantage of the time to do a little research on couple rings. Apparently couple rings could be worn by people who were just friends (see?), but usually friendship rings are worn on the index finger. A ring on the middle finger refers to success or work ethic. A pinky ring stands for opportunity or change. A thumb ring represents freedom. And rings on the fourth finger, of course, represent love and commitment.

He hadn’t thought about that while putting on the ring. He just put it where it fit best! And he hadn’t noticed where Kai was wearing his.

Next, he messages Beomgyu.

Beomgyu arrives within 10 minutes. “Got anything to drink?”

“I’m assuming you don’t want beer right now? There’s just soda and apple juice in the fridge.”

“Anyway,” Beomgyu says, grabbing a soda and popping it open. “You really don’t know?”

“Know what, exactly?” Taehyun pulls out the desk chair for Beomgyu.

“Oh, comfy,” he says, bouncing off the thin padding. “That you guys act like a couple every damn day?”

“Gyu-hyung,” he says, “We are just friends. Best friends, but we have never even kissed or anything.”

But Beomgyu proceeds to list everything they have done: holding hands, kisses to the forehead or cheek, sitting in each other’s laps, wrestling, hanging all over each other in general, finishing each other’s sentences (or saying the same thing at the same time).

“Okay,” Taehyun says. “Okay. I can see where that might look…yeah. But it’s just normal for us.”

“And that’s great! But it’s also not really how most friends are with each other. So can you see why people might get other ideas? And by people,” Beomgyu nods toward the other bed, “I also mean Kai.”

“But he didn’t say anything,” expostulates Taehyun. “He just came back from shopping with some very cute rings that represent one of our common interests!”

“Well, he might have been worried about how you’d take it if he said something. Or maybe he thought you were both on the same page already?”

“I can’t do this,” Taehyun says helplessly. “I can’t think about this. This is why I don’t date.”

“Is it?” asks Beomgyu. “Or is it because you already have Kai?”

In the late afternoon, as it’s getting dark, Taehyun is lying on his bed doing the English Lit reading when Kai comes in, throws his backpack in a corner, and lies down next to Taehyun. “Taehyunie,” he coos. “What are you reading?”

“You are staring at the cover right now,” he grumbles, throwing an arm and a leg over Kai and then belatedly realizing what he’s done. He won’t take it back, though. No one is going to make him change how he acts with his best friend.

“Kai,” he says, because he has to. “Did you...were you trying to tell me something, with the rings?”

Kai blinks at him. “Did you want them to mean something?”

“Kai.”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to, Hyunie. We’re best friends. I’ll always choose you.”

He doesn’t know what to think, though, or what to say to Kai. They lie there in silence until Kai gets up, saying he’s going to shower.

Taehyun waits until he hears the shower, then gets up and leaves a note that he’s going for a walk. He has to sort this out somehow. He puts on his jacket, slips on his shoes and sets off, shoving his hands in his pockets.

He walks and thinks back over their friendship. They met when they were NINE; they definitely weren’t thinking about dating then. And in middle school they were mostly focused on sports and studies and gaming, although they had definitely been inseparable. They were together every day after school, and usually both stayed over at one of their homes over the weekends. In high school, they didn’t have as much time, but that was when the daily texts started.

That was also when Kai in particular started getting attention for being handsome. Girls were always making excuses to talk to him and looking up at him all wide-eyed.

It had taken Taehyun a little longer. He didn’t have girls following him around and confessing to him. He also realized he didn’t really care that they didn’t pay attention to him, so he thought maybe he wasn’t really interested in anybody, until a tall, handsome senior boy who played soccer started talking to him in math class, and his brain said OH, but this person. Kai had listened to him gushing about his Seungho-hyung for weeks, smiling fondly, until Seungho started going out with a girl, and that was that. He’d never had a crush on Kai, though! He would have noticed that.

He’s been walking for a while now, and it’s nearly dark. He stops to lean on a railing and look at the river. Back home, they didn’t have a river nearby to look at. But sometimes they would go into the backyard, lie on a blanket and look at the stars.

“I want to apply to Yonsei,” Taehyun says. “But I don’t know if I can get in. And I don’t even know what I want to study, really.”

“You’re good at everything,” Kai says. “You can get in. I don’t know about me.”

“Music, though. You could get in for music,” Taehyun insists.

“OK then. Let’s do this. We’re both getting into Yonsei, and we can be roommates.” Kai holds out his pinky, and Taehyun hooks his pinky around it. Kai, who apparently has superhuman fingers from playing piano, uses his pinky to pull Taehyun into his chest. Taehyun wraps himself around Kai, tangling their legs together, and Kai kisses the top of his head, sending warmth all through his body.

Taehyun doesn’t want to be anywhere else in the universe.

Taehyun is still standing by the river. Not with Kai. And now he can’t imagine not being able to be with Kai. What if they’d ended up at different universities? Or in the military? He can’t. He’s covering his face and crying. He knows now, he loves Huening Kai like he loves no one else. So now he’s jogging, then running, back toward their dorm, up the stairs two at a time and into their room.

Kai is sitting on his bed in a t-shirt and sweatpants, still glowing from his shower, damp hair framing his face.

“HUENING KAI,” Taehyun gasps out. “Did you know that I love you?”

“KANG TAEHYUN.” Kai leaps up, his face alight. “Wait,” he says, pulling back warily. “Do you mean…?”

“YES,” Taehyun says. “I’m in love with you, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

Kai smiles in relief. “I’ve loved you for so long. And I thought, once we moved here, that maybe we were finally getting there. You really didn’t know?”

“I thought we were just…us! We’ve been us forever. I didn’t realize things had changed, or could change. But I understand now. And I choose you!”

Kai steps forward, takes Taehyun into his arms. Taehyun buries his head in Kai’s shoulder, shaking. Then he knows what he wants to do.

"HUENING KAI," Taehyun says, pulling his head back to look at him.

"Yes?" Kai says, blushing.

"I'm going to kiss you now."

It's the first real kiss for both of them, so it's tentative at first, but they get the hang of it quickly. They fit together perfectly, arms wound tightly around each other, lips moving gently in tandem and then pressing in harder until they're gasping against each other.

"Wow," Taehyun says, feeling a little wobbly in his knees. "I could get used to this."

"You'd better," Kai replies. "I plan on doing this a lot now."

Taehyun pulls them both back onto his bed. Maybe we don't need to tell the guys just yet, he thinks.