If going to the café with Edin was incomprehensible behavior, going over to his house was straight-up crazy. Yuel must have completely lost his mind.

“I don’t think anyone else is around, so make yourself at home,” Edin said, heading to the kitchen to get some snacks for the two of them.

Yuel sat on the living room sofa and looked around. There was a family portrait hung on the wall next to the television. Judging by the different school uniform, Edin must have been in middle school when the photo was taken. It was clear he got his tall height and good looks from his father, though there were hints of his mother in his gentle eyes and smile. His older sister, on the other hand, seemed to be an equal blend of both her parents.

It took Yuel a few seconds of observing the portrait before he finally realized it. Edin’s little sister was nowhere to be seen. Plus, Edin sounded so sure that she was home, but there clearly was no other person around besides the two of them.

Just as Yuel was starting to get creeped out, he heard the faintest meow coming from one of the rooms. He turned toward the sound and saw a tiny striped paw poking out of the ajar door. The paw pulled the door open just enough for an orange cat to lazily come walking out. It yawned as if it had just woken up from a nap.

“Hi, Hyunsoo,” Edin said, passing by the cat on his way to the living room with two glasses of soda and a big bag of potato chips.

“Meow,” Hyunsoo greeted back and followed behind him.

Edin placed the drinks and snack on the coffee table in front of the sofa before taking a seat next to Yuel. The cat naturally jumped onto Edin’s lap and found the perfect spot to relax on her human chair.

“That’s Hyunsoo?”

“Yeah. I told you we weren’t related by blood.”

Yuel should have figured as much. “Haha…”

“Isn’t my little sister cute?”

“Yeah, I guess she’s pretty cute. Can I pet her?”

“You can try. I’m not sure if she’ll let you, though.”

Hyunsoo glared at the unfamiliar human. But since her eyes didn’t seem to show any murderous intent, Yuel reached his hand out and gave her a gentle pat on the head. The cat froze for a moment before nuzzling her head into his palm.

“Wow, I’m impressed,” Edin said. “It took me weeks to be able to finally pet her. She wouldn’t come near me at all.”

“Why am I not surprised? Judging by how you were when we first met, you can be a bit… much.”

Edin chuckled. “Funny you say that. I also realized that, which was why I decided to use the same tactic I used with Hyunsoo on you.”

“And what tactic would that be…?”

“To wait patiently.” Edin grinned. “And slowly win you over with food.”

Yuel was baffled. “So that’s why you gave me all that bread?”

“Maybe,” Edin said cheekily. “At least I didn’t take the exact same approach and get you cans of tuna. Or would you have preferred that?”

There he went again with the unpredictable remarks. Yuel just shook his head at the weird boy who had tried to get him to like him in the same way as his cat.

“Well, I guess it worked for Hyunsoo,” Yuel said, seeing how comfortable the cat was on Edin’s lap.

“Yeah, the moment she started opening up to me, I snatched her off the streets and brought her home. Now, she follows me around all the time and even sleeps in my bed.”

Yuel recalled how he had opened up to Edin a little earlier as well. “Is that why you brought me to your house, too? Because I opened up to you about my family?”

“Maybe,” Edin said cheekily once more. “You’re welcome to live here and sleep in my bed, too—”

Yuel took the potato chip he was about to eat and shoved it into Edin’s mouth. “What happened to ‘slowly’ trying to win me over with food?”

Edin happily ate the chip that was fed to him. “Right, I’m going to need a lot more cans of tuna for you.”

“…I hope you don’t mean that literally.” Honestly, Yuel couldn’t tell when it came to this boy.

Edin laughed and said, “Only if that’s what you want. I’ll get all the cans of tuna in the world for you.”

Yuel couldn’t help showing just the tiniest smile. As ridiculous as the things that came out of Edin’s mouth were, Yuel didn’t exactly hate it. Edin’s quirky way of flirting did catch him off guard at first. But now that he had gotten somewhat used to it, he found it a little endearing.

“Why would you go through all that trouble for me?”

“Because I like you.”

Even though Edin had reminded Yuel of his feelings for him time and time again, Yuel just couldn’t believe it. Or perhaps he didn’t want to believe it. Opening up about his family was one thing, but totally opening up his heart to someone was a whole other matter. Whenever he had tried to do so with his first crush, he had only ended up stopping himself last minute. And after years of hesitation, he wasn’t even sure he could open up his heart at all anymore. He was too scared of the consequences.

But Yuel also knew that the circumstances were different this time. Edin was the one who liked him, not the other way around. And unlike Yuel, Edin never hesitated to express that. It made Yuel curious to find out how things could be different if the person with the crush was much more assertive—about how things could have changed for him had he just been more verbal about his feelings toward Kyungwon.

“Prove it,” Yuel said almost like a dare.

For the first time, it was Edin who was taken aback. “What?”

“If you really like me that much, prove it.”

“Uh… Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Like right now?”

Yuel nodded.

“Then…”

Edin picked Hyunsoo up and gently placed her on the floor, to which the cat glared at her human chair before walking back into his bedroom to resume her nap. Edin paused for a second to take a deep breath before scooting ever so closer to Yuel.

Before Yuel could even prepare himself, Edin leaned in to place a soft peck on his cheek.

“Huh…?”

Yuel touched the cheek that had just gotten kissed. He felt the warmth rising on his skin. He was blushing. And so was Edin, who scooted back to his original spot and took a big gulp of his soda to cool himself down.

“S-Sorry. Did that make you uncomfortable? Honestly, I wanted to do more to prove it, but I also didn’t want to scare you away when I haven’t given you enough tuna yet—”

Yuel grabbed the sleeve of Edin’s shirt. By the time he realized it, he was already pulling Edin back in for another kiss.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The apartment door was unlocked and swung open.

Yuel immediately shoved Edin away, perhaps a little too hard because the boy went tumbling off the sofa. Although the fall sounded pretty loud and painful, Yuel didn’t have the mental capacity to worry about Edin. He couldn’t even wrap his head around what he was about to do just now. But at least he was able to stop himself. And it was an even bigger relief upon seeing who had come home.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had a friend over,” Edin’s mom said with two full bags of groceries in her hands. “And who might this be?”

Edin remained in the exact position he had fallen, staring at Yuel in a complete daze. Letting out the dumbest giggle, he said, “Hey, Mom. This is Yuel, my crush—”

“I should get going!” Yuel blurted out, jumping to his feet.

Whether or not the lady heard the last word her son said, she smiled warmly at Yuel and offered, “You should stay for dinner.”

“N-No, thank you. I’ll be going now.”

Yuel rushed out of the apartment before either Edin or his mom could say goodbye. He was so flustered that his feet went straight to the emergency stairway instead of waiting for the elevator. But he couldn’t care less about having to walk down nine floors to get to his house. All he could think about was why he was acting so weird today. Could it be that Edin’s weirdness had actually rubbed off on him?

Yuel liked Kyungwon. He still did. He was sure of it. So why did he want to kiss Edin?