“Yeah I guess I did.I acknowledge that I went into philosophy over some cards and I will reflect on it.” Dongmin chuckled with amusement. There was no need to pull any cards with him, he will reflect on it and try not to do that again.
Dongmin continued to watch as Kyouhei was trying to balance the cards to make his card castle. He managed to get two two triangles set up and he’d put a card on top. That was good enough for participation for now, he thought. He’d much rather watch to see Kyouhei struggling working with the cards.
“So how long are you going to keep this up, the card castle?” Dongmin asked, in a very roundabout way trying to figure out if he was going to complete the castle and then get back to his studies or not. “I feel like you need a lot of focus to make card castles though. I think a lack of focus would be counterproductive.”
“Self-reflection is also very philosophical. You’re trapped now. Not philosophizing is an impossibility!” The brunet let out a laugh, knocking over his pitiful card castle while trying to balance two more on top of the platform created by his two triangles.
“Oh, boo.” Kyouhei pressed his lips together, resisting the urge to stick them out dramatically. “I don’t think I’m gonna keep this up. It was fun while it lasted, question mark?”
He started organizing the cards by the highlighter color of the title, doinig his best to ignore the fact that he hadn’t done much memorizing or review. It had been worth it.
“Thanks for helping me distract myself, Dongmin! You’re an angel in disguise!” Kyouhei grinned as widely as he could, trying to visualized and channel the brightest thing in the universe to try to project how grateful he was to his friend.
Well they were talking about how it was that the castle didn’t fall when you watched movies and such, right? The only viable reason he could think of to prevent the cards from falling even with all the movement on set was tape.
“I don’t think you’ll need glue or tape right now? You could be able to make the card castle without that. It’s just, I can’t imagine they’d want to risk wasting time on a movie set or anything.” He was sure it just took a lot of patience, a steady hand, and patience.
He personally didn’t really understand how such a thing could be used as a de-stressing activity considering it stressed him out to think about the castle falling with just one simple moment, such as accidentally bumping into the table with your foot.
“Hm? What do you mean? I sleep just fine, actually. Did I say something wrong?” The principle was similar to the meaning behind ‘
人
‘. Similar idioms and phrases were often shared between Asian countries, and sometimes in school, you were taught various languages if you saw fit to learn it. Perhaps he got the idiom wrong? He was sure the kanji for ‘person’ was supposed to look like two people who were supporting each other?
“I feel like you nosedived into philosophy over notecards, which is concerning… do I need to pull an ‘it’s not that deep, brother’ over you? ‘Cuz I will, don’t test me.”
While running with this little tangent, Kyouhei managed to balance two sets of two cards next to each other and was reaching for a third set. Turns out, tape and glue were cheaters tools.
“Hm. Maybe I just needed a little less focus? Is this a lesson about my study methods, set up by the universe? I don’t appreciate it.”
Kyouhei was right to think that Dongmin meant his words in a general term considering that’s what Dongmin thought Kyouhei meant his words. He soon learned that he was wrong when the other male clarified that he was talking about a stronger like that was closer to lover. By love, he meant in the way you love another person who is a boyrfriend of yours. “Ah… love, huh? Well, I guess it all boils down to me not caring how people see me. It’s on them if they want to assume things.”
Hm, what can they do as a casual hang out? “Well there is a lot to do, like watch a movie, play at an arcade, or maybe visiting a beach. The parks are nice to walk through, or to play in if you like to play sports.” He started trying to recall the different activities one could have fun with if they were to walk around through the two sister-capitals. “Like, what kinds of things do you like doing? We can work around that.” Dongmin was pretty easy going so he didn’t really have much of a preference himself.
Unless fighting was involved. Only if there was a strong fighter in the vicinity, his blood was not going to boil with excitement.
“Hoh, I see what you mean. I’m okay with both myself, but it is important to consider how the person you are confessing to would feel.” Mentally noting that for future reference, he was going to take that into consideration if things ever came down to it. He never really thought much on relationships, so he didn’t have an idea of what he would prefer personally. He didn’t think much of any preference really. Dongmin mainly followed the flow of things after all.
“Sounds good, that’s how it should be.” Dongmin nodded his head with contentment. Saying things like giving your life to someone wasn’t something one should take lightly, so as long as Kyouhei understood that point, he was happy. He reached out to pat on Kyouhei’s shoulder with a playful smile. “Hope you can find someone that you’d be willing to give your life to one day.”
What kind of things did Kyouhei do during his downtime? He struggled to organize his thoughts on the topic and paused an appropriate amount of time to consider it.
“Most of my free time is spent outside… I like visiting gardens and whole-food stores, I guess? That’s kinda weird, now that I think about it.” He shrugged, helplessly. “I like to be where plants and stuff are. What about you?”
He could do this. It was just casual conversation about scenarios that have and will happend. Not a big deal. The whiplash wouldn’t kill him today. After a few soulful breaths, he was ready.
“You also have to consider the worst case scenario. If you do a public confession and they reject you, not only are you embarrassed and heartbroken but they’ll probably be embarrassed and teased about it.” Not that he knew about this firsthand, but he’d witnessed a few confessions and it made him think.
“Not that public confessions are bad, but wouldn’t it be better to have a private confession of attraction and then a public confession of love when the relationship progresses?”
Dongmin
was a pretty nonchalant guy on top of being pretty dense. He was just being
honest, and wasn’t thinking too much about his words. He didn’t realize how
embarrassing he was making things for his friend. He wouldn’t get it unless
Kyouhei explicitly said so most likely.
“Hm? Is
it wrong for people to think that I like you when I do?” What, did it have to be a secret that they were friends?
Some guys could be pretty sensitive when it comes to things like that, huh? He
didn’t see Kyouhei to be that type though, the ones who worry too much about
having a manly appearance to the public eye. There was nothing wrong with
admitting you were really good friends with someone right?
Alas, he digresses. He simply shrugged his
shoulders, totally letting the warning fly overhead. “Sounds good, hanging out that is. Wonder what we should do?” He
was thinking about it but nothing really was coming to mind at the very moment.
He was still thinking when Kyouhei spoke up
again, though it was more like he was shouting something. Perhaps he was trying
to defend himself somehow? Did he feel like he had to? There was nothing that
Dongmin felt that needed any explanation. “I
guess so? Though some people like to be extravagant with it and show it off. I’m
okay with either, really.” He was pretty easy going about a lot of things
and he wouldn’t feel too put off if someone were to confess to him publicly or
something like that. It may be just a bit embarrassing, but it wasn’t something
he couldn’t handle. Either way he stowed the information away into his mind for
future reference.
“Yeah,
that would be the most ideal way to go about it, but isn’t the point of
marriage to be like giving yourself to someone for the rest of their life?
People say things like that, don’t they? That they want to have you for the rest
of their life or something?” He just
shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t personally have too big of an opinion on it.
If that’s how Kyouhei felt, that’s how it was. “Either way I wouldn’t go telling people that your life belongs to
them. What if they took you seriously? How will you explain that to your future
lover?”
He for one would be very upset to find out that someone
he was in love with had promised their life to another. What was left for him
then in that case, right?
“Ah-ah-” Dongmin probably meant ‘like’ as a general term, nothing to get so flustered about, calm down, calmdown- “I’m - ergh - I don’t think you’re getting it… maybe instead of ‘like’ I should say ‘love’?”
Wait, wait, that could be mistaken for platonic or friendly love, he’d better be clear he meant romantic interest - “Love as in dating, like boyfriends, you know?” God could he be any more awkward.
“Um, you probably have more experience in casual hangouts than I do, so what would you suggest? Ouvara and Danon are big cities, there’s probably plenty to do.” As in the sister-capitals were a land of adventure.
God, Dongmin was going to give Kyouhei a heart attack with little to no effort which would be pretty embarrassing, to just keel over on the sidewalk on the cusp of his new life.
“Personally… personally I would like a private confession… that and if I was confessing I wouldn’t want to pressure my partner into accepting, so a private setting would be… would be better, yeah?”
That was even more embarrassing. Scratch Dongmin killing him, Kyouhei was going to do it himself. “Duly… duly noted…. I won’t say that again until I’m at the altar. If that ever happens.”
Dongmin thought about it and he wondered if there was some kind of a trick to this, or they just weren’t very good at this. “I feel as though the trick here is that they must be using glue or tape.” It was the only explanation that he could think of. If simply exhaling was enough to knock down the small triangle he made, how was it that card castles could stand to the test on a movie set or for a homemade video?
Moving closer on his end as well, he carefully held the cards in question and waited for him to put on the roof to give them the stability they so desired.
“Good luck to you. Give them the support they need so they can stand tall.”
He chuckled to himself.
“I guess it’s just like people, you can stand by yourself and try to appear strong, but ultimately you need others to keep you standing.”
Was that too deep? He was thinking of Ingong as he stared at the cards, so maybe that’s why.
If it was really something like glue or tape wouldn’t there be a lot of problems in using this as a de-stressing solution? Wait, wait, Kyouhei was at least a little sure he’d seen a video on how to do it, somewhere…. Argh.
“That’d suck for us, then. I don’t think I have glue or tape on me and I don’t see the point of going to get some if I’m just going to have to use these cards later.” He pulled a random index card up and read the formula written there with a blank face.
“That is… hm… Dongmin, do you normally say things like that or have you just not slept in a while?” Kyouhei was in college for physical science, not philosophy or psychology.
Dongmin raised
a hand with an apologetic expression on his face. He was indeed teasing the
shorter male, but it wasn’t as though he was doing it maliciously. He was just
being playful with the other. Honestly, Dongmin was also a bit amused by the
sounds that Kyouhei was making. Those high-pitched whining sounds made him
think of a puppy crying because it was being left alone and it felt lonely.
Perhaps Kyouhei was feeling lonely, or maybe Dongmin was horrendously
misunderstanding the situation here?
“Hm? Well maybe? I
always considered things like playdates and the like, you know? I mean, did you
want it to be a date that’s exclusive to romantic partners?” Dongmin questioned
him, wondering if he was asking this because he wanted to better understand
their situation, or maybe he was just asking for some other reason. Was he not
happy with the idea that they could go on the date?
Maybe he just didn’t swing that way. Dongmin simply shrugged
to himself when the thought crossed his mind. He didn’t particularly think too
much of it himself. He was fine going out and hanging out with friends.
“Well, regardless we
can go and hang out as friends then, right?” He slung an arm around Kyouhei’s
shoulders, smiling brightly. Kyouhei was an interesting guy and it wasn’t too
often when Dongmin would laugh so carefree like this, so he was quite fond of
the other male to be truthful. Hanging out with him for the day sounded pretty
fun! Maybe if they just had fun with it, he will forget about the whole ‘my
life belongs to you’ kind of thing.
Ah. Though… if you think about it in a different context—it almost
sounds like a proposal, doesn’t it? Could be why he mentioned something about
romantic partners afterwards. Oh. Maybe he was completely missing the mark just
then and Kyouhei was getting upset? Releasing the hold he had on Kyouhei, “Hey, what you said earlier isn’t some
complicated confession to me, is it?” Excuse Dongmin as he can have his
slow moments.
Before Kyouhei had the chance to reveal the fact that he’d never heard of the term “playdate” in his life, Dongmin added the last bit and his phrase, which was going to start with a matter-of-fact “actually”, evolved into, well.
“A-aaaaaahhh?!” He, realizing that he was still holding his phone, took the opportunity to turn around and shove it into his coat pocket while letting his surprised shout fade into the background, his face practically glowing red now.
How was he supposed to face Dongmin as a friend when he kept dropping lines like that?!?! It wasn’t fair! It was totally unfair! He can’t even remember what they’d originally gone out together for at this point.
“If! If you keep saying things like that people are gonna think you like me…!” He warned, relaxing into Dongmin’s side. It was fine if the other initiated the contact, right? Yeah. An arm around the shoulder was about as much as he could take at this point, though. “But we can hang, yeah….”
Was it? Oh god, now Kyouhei had to be wary of his subconscious confessing for him, how awful and embarrassing. He reached up and recovered his face with his hands, sure that if it was physically possible for human being to steam he would be doing so right now, he was so flustered.
“Th-that would be a pretty sucky confession on my part!” He avoided answering directly and instead began delving into why that couldn’t have been a confession, allowing Dongmin his space while also avoiding even looking at him. “For one, aren’t confessions only supposed to be for the ears of the person they’re being confessed to? At least, that’s how I’d prefer it.
“And if I was going to confess my, my love or feelings or whatever wouldn’t it be better to just say it? Indirect stuff like commitments of life are easily misunderstood - so it would be best to say something direct like “I love you, would you like to go out with me” right?”
Kyouhei was primarily a Midnight sea zone swimmer. The dark sand, the quiet, a number of creatures willing to let a lonesome Eel be just that - lonesome - was pleasing.
He couldn’t find everything he needed in the darker parts of the ocean blue, however, and it was only a matter of time until he slunk out of his rock formation safe-havens and skulked around the parts of the water the sun touched.
Humming gently, the sound not carrying in the ocean blue, Kyouhei slipped over and under rocks and coral, diving at things that moved under the sand with feline-esque grace, venturing into the sunlight zone at his own chosen pace….
And then he spotted his first danger of the day. Or maybe it (he?) had spotted him? He couldn’t be sure, but one thing was for certain….
They were way too close. Not even a foot away. Had Kyouhei been that caught up in his mini-adventure? All the bouncing around and catching and releasing, as if he himself was a pet… how embarrassing…!
“What do you want.” His ego spoke up before his common sense had a chance to assess the situation, the flaps on his pointed ears bristling up as if daring the unknown person to attack him.
Definitely a bad idea, but nothing much could be done at this point. He pressed his lips into a thin line and crossed his arms over his bare chest, slimy tail folding under him in the sand, waiting for a reply - any reply, or anything to work off of. Waiting for something to set off his fight or flight.
He truly could not understand. Was a phone truly worth so much? Perhaps it was the memories or the connections he had with the phone. Even Dongmin himself used his phone to contact his friends back at home so he could understand feeling troubled if he’d lost his phone, but to equate it to one’s life, he wasn’t so sure. You only had one life after all.
“Die? That’s– that’s a very strong claim. You’ve only one life and you have to treat it as precious, it’s a gift after all, life that is.” With his old… friend with his sickness and him doing rash things, he could not take the subject about death all too lightly. Whether or not Kyouhei was serious or was being dramatic, he didn’t know. It was hard to tell.
A small smile graced his features at Kyouhei’s reaction to his comment about being taken on a date. He figured that would have the other calm down some, but he soon went back into the dramatic semantics. A sworn servant? “How unfortunate, you’ve misunderstood me.” A shake of the head, and a sigh which was followed by the lowering of his shoulders.
With care, he created some distance between the two of them. “You go on errands with servants, but dates with friends or significant others, right? I don’t remember asking to go on an errand run.” In other words, he didn’t need something like a sworn servant. Things like that didn’t suit him. Even when he was in his gangpe(thug) fighting days. He was always a lone fighter who mainly fought to keep others, like his friends safe.
What he could use in this new place was a friend. “So what do you say? Want to go on a ‘date’ with me now?”
Kyouhei made a long, high-pitched exhaling noise, like a sigh made of embarrassed anxiety, and began to twiddle his fingers in front of him, now completely red in the face. His joke… was not ending in a joking way.
Not that he was complaining but? How was he supposed to react to such a carefully constructed sentence….
“Y-you know me… I’m always saying weird things…” He let out an flustered laugh (oh god, that sounded way too much like a giggle for his liking) and tried to redirect the conversation, only for Dongmin to take it out of the park. Out to the park? Either way, he made another high-pitched whining noise.
“Alright, alright, I get it - there’s no need to tease me anymore Dongmin!” He pouted and looked off to the side, hands unfolding so they could come up to brace against his cheeks in an abashed gesture.
Time to change the subject. Redirect his embarrassment. Try not to think of being on a date with his friend.
“Dates are… isn’t date supposed to be exclusively for romantic partners?” Well, just boyfriends for Kyouhei, but he didn’t know which way Dongmin swung so that was an easier term. “I’ve always called going out with friends an ‘outing’, not a date. Is that slang?”
All he’d done was to save the guy’s phone from dropping onto the ground and now he was dealing with someone who was very animatedly saying that he’s saved their life. That was a bit much, wasn’t it? Though he could certainly understand with how people lived for their phones.
Still, this was… a bit more than he was expecting. “Haha– you don’t have to worry about it that much. Your life is a bit much, don’t you think?” He laughed nervously at Kyouhei’s reaction to being handed back his phone before it fell to it’s doom on the hard concrete. Th kiss pressed against his cheek made him freeze up, a shocked expression showing across his features. “You work fast~ Take me out on a date before you kiss me, haha!”
“You do not understand.” Kyouhei fell back into his dramatics, allowing his eyes to glisten with unshed tears (a surprisingly easy feat when you were the local crybaby) and leaned almost entirely on his buddy-friend.
If he wanted to, he could say something extremely self-deprecating about his life not being worth that much, about worry being part of his very being or something equally concerning, but he quickly moved on.
“That is my life, my livelihood you just saved from the unforgiving pavement, Dongmin, and I now must follow you forever,” Kyouhei recalled a dearly loved meme and grinned against the other’s shirt, nefariously, “and if the situation calls for it, I will die for you.”
The quip about dating did make him blush a little and he backed off quickly, realizing how his actions could be mistranslated… or maybe it would be a correct translation but in a joking way? He wasn’t sure.
“I-I!” Apologies were in order… or maybe he should continue the joke…? Kyouhei was a little conflicted. “Uhm, if a date is what you desire, then as you’re newly sworn servant, I, Kyouhei J. Allemand, will provide!”
He finally managed to get a triangle up and he just leaned back into his seat, just basking in his moment of glory. Success has never felt this good before. The thought that he had many more triangles to make was a fact he pushed out into the corner of his mind for now. He just wanted to feel victorious for a short while longer. “Yeah, it is pretty difficult, I just now managed my first one.”
Sitting up straight once more while letting out a sigh, he didn’t realize that his exhale of air was enough to disrupt his triangle and it toppled over. Throwing his head back, he groaned quietly. “Back to zero.” How long was it going to take to finish off the one this time?
With Kyouhei asking for a ‘solid’, Dongmin looked over quizzically, wondering what it was that he wanted help with. “What’s up? What do you need?” He was ready to help out if it meant he could hold off on trying to make a triangle again. He simply wasn’t ready to have to go through the pain of needing to watch him fail repeatedly over these triangles.
“Do you need me to hold onto your triangles or something?” He asked, now noticing that Kyouhei was holding onto the card that was placed on top of the two triangles he’d made.
“When I see pictures or videos it always looks super easy… but I guess that’s just movie magic.” His conclusion was so mismatched (nonsensical words and an almost comedically stern tone of voice) that Kyouhei actually giggled a little.
The brunet nodded for two beats and shuffled over a little so that Dongmin wouldn’t have to contort in order to reach the two triangles he’d somehow kept up this time.
“Please do! I feel like they’ll stay up as soon as I get the… the roof on them, but they need a little support before I leave them on their own.” Yikes, that sounded a bit too deep for something so simple.
“In other words, give them the spine they deserve.”