It was difficult to walk this line between friendship and something more- tip too far to either side and he risked losing Benjamin. So Jaewon was careful (or, as careful as he could let his reckless self be). He playfully flirted for that reason. If he could make it sound both like a joke and not like a joke at the same time, then Benji could take it whatever way he wanted. Seemed like a good idea.
Or maybe he was just confusing him.
Yeah, he was probably just confusing him.
But, in his defense, Jaewon was confused, too! He didn’t know what Benji was thinking. He couldn’t figure it out.
Then again, maybe the signs had been there all along, and Jaewon was so afraid of misreading them and messing things up that he’d simply overlooked them.
It certainly seemed that way now. It should have been so obvious. But the concern of messing up their friendship had misguided Jaewon straight into a misunderstanding. And, certainly, his own recent behavior had left Benjamin feeling lost as well.
Jaewon listened in silence, let Benjamin speak. The other was avoiding eye contact- embarrassed? Worried about what Jaewon would say? Whatever the case, it was cute. Jaewon’s lips quirked into a small smile. Ah… it was just like Benji to get flustered and ramble a bit instead of jumping straight in. Thankfully, Jaewon wasn’t the same. He was listening, sure, but all he could think about was finding the right time to cut the other off and take action. Words didn’t seem necessary to Jaewon now that the worry of messing up their friendship was gone.
He gave Benji only a moment more to talk, let him finish the important things but stopped him when it seemed he might start talking in circles. Jaewon gently cupped Benjamin’s face in his hands, muttered a soft, “You can stop, now.” a hint of laughter touching his words. And then he kissed him. Soft. Delicate. Lingering. Anything more might be too much to start, but too little and Benji would think it was just to placate him. He needed the other to know that this was sincere. There was no room left for mistaking things. No room left for confusion. Just simple honesty.
When Jaewon pulled away, he gave the other a small grin, “Does that tell you whether I’ve been just kidding or not?” He said, voice still a bit quieter than it had been before, “I’ve been meaning to do that for a while.” He just hadn’t had the confidence to do it until he knew Benjamin felt the same.
It was a good thing Jaewon stopped him, or else he would’ve just kept talking and eventually ended up on a different tangent and changing the subject. On accident. Kind of. But what was unexpected was why the other stopped him- not to dismiss the “joke” or say they should talk it out. Nothing like that. But he finally did shut up.
The action was so unexpected that Benjamin actually tensed up and internally freaked out a tad when Jaewon cupped his face and leaned in. However, that didn’t last very long. It was only a moment later when Benjamin was leaning into the kiss and trying not to make it obvious he was holding back a smile- but he was pretty sure the other could tell. And then all too soon the other pulled away. He slowly opened his eyes and let out a shy, breathy chuckle before looking down. Benjamin was hardly impulsive, but it took quite a bit of effort to not immediately lean in and kiss the other man again.
“I... Yeah. Huh. I guess that does say a lot.” Eloquent as always. But he didn’t care about that right now. He was too happy to feel self-conscious about his speech. A few moments of thinking and processing later, he looked back up with a slight grin. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while too, to be honest.” Probably thought about it a little too much lately, to be honest. His face warmed at the thought before he placed his hands over Jaewon’s to move them away so he could hopefully be less obvious and not asked about that.
“So, uh...” He wasn’t too sure what to do now. He’d had a casual girlfriend or two in high school- friends setting them up because everyone was invested in everyone else’s romantic lives- but he hadn’t liked them like he did Jaewon. And speaking of... “This means you like me, right?” Benjamin tried to keep a straight face before a bit of soft laughter escaped him anyway and his grin turned playful. “I just wanna be sure, you know? I still have no idea~”