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All of them were tired. The train ride felt like an eternity.
No one was in the mood for Uno. Yama and Urek were knocked out, Woon and Blueberry were in their own worlds. And Yuri… she was overthinking.
On the other hand, the blond next to her was casually reading some news articles.
Red eyes looked at the blond. She couldn't look away. That blond was now her boyfriend. Something she had never expected to happen.
Karaka was known for being stoïc, emotionless, disliking physical touch and hard to read. It was never an issue for her, until now.
Never had she felt like this in past relationships. She knew how to act, how to treat the other, what the other was comfortable with. But with Karaka, she was clueless.
How is Karaka in a relationship?; What is his love language?; In what way can I act now?; I want to hug him and cuddle with him. Would he be okay with that?
During their vacation, everything stayed the same as before. They didn't even push their beds together to sleep next to each other.
They have told the four friends that were with them. That was because they were done with the teasing. They got congratulations from all four, each beginning with: “Finally!”
Her mind kept asking all those questions while none were asked to the person they were for. Her phone vibrated.
With a sigh, she had to get out of the comfortable position and grabbed her phone.
“Evan!!” She yelled while picking up the call. Some passengers gave her dirty looks. With some apologetic bows and whispers, she walked to one of the train halls.
“Evan, what’s up?” The seat got put down and she sat.
“Trying to play down how much you miss me?”
“No.” She crossed her arms. “I do not.” She heard chuckles. “Anyway, how’s the army?” Yuri crossed her legs and leaned on her knee. “Already done with it?” She joked.
A sigh was given through the phone. “Yuri, I know you don’t like me choosing a career path that makes it difficult to meet up and that you will miss me a lot, but this isn’t funny. I really am enjoying the training. My colleagues are fun. I already got comments about possibilities to grow in ranks.”
Yuri sighed. “I’m happy to hear that. Seriously. It’s just weird to not have you around.”
“I know. It’s weird to not have you around as well.” This made her smile. “I miss your loudness. It’s too quiet here.”
“Shut up.”
“You know it’s true.”
“Now you aren’t my best friend anymore.”
“Oh. Well, I have always known Karaka was your bestie.”
“No, no. Karaka is… a… friends to lovers… kinda… thing.”
“Lovers… You?” Yuri nodded as silence fell. “Is it official?”
“It is.”
“How? When? Where?” The positive reaction really helped with Yuri’s mood. She explained what had happened on the first day of their vacation and how it went during. “I’m happy for you, Yuri. And for Karaka of course.”
“Thank you…” She fell silent.
“What’s wrong?” Even through a phone call, Evan could read her like a book.
She sighs. “I… I just don’t know how to act. It feels weird and new.”
“You have been in relationships before. Is it that different this time?”
“It feels different.” Yuri looked around the train hall. “It feels… mature ish.”
“Yuri, I think that this is you growing up and taking things seriously. This is a serious relationship compared to your others. And you find that scary.”
Yuri pouted. “I guess so.”
“I know you want to ask for advice. I think you should call either Garam or Maschenny. They have more experiences than I have.”
She scrunched her face. “I’m not calling Chenny. She is gonna laugh at me.”
“Then ask Garam. Because I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Call me again soon.”
“Of course, talk to you later.”
“Bye bye.”
The call ended and her hand fell with her phone on her lap. She stared at the screen. She groaned as she dialled the next person.
“Hey! Why are you calling?”
“Can’t I just call you?” Red eyes rolled.
“Maybe there is something about what we’re talking about in the group chat?”
"Group chat?"
“Yeah.” She could imagine the annoyance on Garam’s face right now. “Okay, so what's up? Since it has nothing to do with the group chat conversation.”
“Is it important?”
“I think whatever you’re calling me for is more important than whatever the guys are planning.”
“Oh, there are plans. What did I miss? I was on the phone with Evan so I didn’t have time to check.”
“Yuri.” A sigh was given. “Why did you call me?” Yuri sighed.
“Okay, I called you because I need relationship advice.” Garam cracked on the other side of the phone.
“You and a relationship?” The laughter was loud. “Girl, you’re the most single one out of all of us because you keep crushing on a stoïc one like Kara….” The laughter abruptly stopped. “What happened?” The tone turned serious. And again Yuri explained the entire story.
“Finally.” Garam laughed. Yuri rolled her eyes at the comment.
“Yeah, now I am dealing with some things.”
“Yuri, listen. You have a type. And no, I am not talking about their appearances, cough blonds.”
“Garam, for crying out…” Yuri shut her mouth, as she realised she was yelling and Yama had just walked into the hall.
“Sorry.” The man just looked at her with a weird look and went to the other train car.
“I am struggling with not knowing how to act. Evan said stuff about it being my first serious relationship and that is why I'm scared. But that’s not true because I know nothing has changed. Like I told you, we are still acting the same but I want more romance but I don’t know what he wants now that we are together and..”
“I’m going to stop you right here. You’re over thinking… That you can even do that, I’m amazed and surprised.” Yuri wanted to comment but didn’t get the chance. “Anyway. Don’t overthink and if it keeps bothering you, talk about it with Karaka. You understand each other and you can communicate about it. Now, I would go check the group chat because plans are happening. So, see you tonight.”
The call was ended by Garam. Yuri was confused and immediately checked the group chat. “300 messages! What the..” Again, as she yelled, Yama walked into the hall. And she shut it immediately.
His eyes rolled. “What is it with you and yelling?” He opened the door to the seats. He held it open for her so quickly, she followed.
“Sorry for being away for so long.” Yuri said as she passed Karaka to sit back in her seat.
“You were calling with Evan, I expected it to take way longer. Did it go well with him?”
“Yeah, he is enjoying himself there.” They smiled at one another. “Also, what did I miss from the group chat?”
“Oh, party tonight. Everyone is available, apparently. So Maschenny comes to pick us up from the station and then it’s food and drinks.”
“So what this vacation was supposed to be… with everyone.”
Karaka nodded. “But if you’re too tired, I can just drop you off at home.”
“I’m not tired.” She said as she crawled back in the comfortable position she got out. Feet on the seat, legs pulled up and she sat sideways, using the window as a backrest and the real backrest to lean against.
“Sure, you aren’t.” Yellow eyes went back to the phone screen. Yuri leaned with her head on her hand, elbow leaning on her knee. Yet still leaning against the backrest. Suddenly her brain came up with another worry.
“I have to tell my ex.” As she freaked out, she didn’t realise she did it out loud.
Luckily not as loud for it to be a disturbance.
“You’re acting weird. What’s up?”
“Like I said. I… no we have to tell Ro about us.”
“So?” Eyes were still on the phone screen.
“So? He is my ex. Isn’t it weird that we are friends with my ex?”
“You dated for a year, when you were 14.”
“Ugh, you don’t understand.” The phone was put down.
“Yuri, you’re tired and that makes you use your brain too much. Get some rest. We still have 50 minutes until we arrive.”
Yuri sat up right as she sighed. “You don’t understand.”
Casually she leaned onto Karaka, using his shoulder as a pillow. Eyes watching along with the either extremely boring or extremely weird news articles, until they fell shut.
As Yuri opened her eyes again, she was confused. She was lying on Karaka’s shoulder, comfortably. His right hand was holding her left hand, as they lay on her lap. She felt lips pressing against her head.
Unconsciously she smiled and closed her eyes again to get some more rest. She felt safe.
Some light shaking woke her up again. “Yuri.”
“Mhm, yeah.” Yuri sat up and stretched.
“We will arrive in 5 minutes.” Karaka said before getting up to wake up the others, who were all asleep, except Blueberry.
The bluenette pushed his face through the seats. “Are you scared for tonight?” It startled her.
“No, why would I?” She raised her brow.
“You have to tell your exes that you have finally gotten together with your soulmate.”
“Exes? Only Ro and he will be fine.”
“Not only him.” The bluenette gave a smirk.
“Blueberry, what are you saying?” Karaka said as he sat down in his seat, after having woken up the others. “Don’t make her worry about nothing.”
“I’m saying that both Yuri’s exes will be at the party tonight.”
“Both? You only have one ex?” Karaka turned to her, wanting an explanation.
“He is talking about Tiara. That girl I had some weird on and off thing with last year. Remember?”
“Oh, yeah. That thing. That you consider her an ex.” Karaka started to pack his bag and seemed unfaced.
"On the other hand, why is she coming? Is she even part of the group?”
“Maschenny invited her. And she is still part of the group chat. She’s the one with the great stickers.”
The train was slowing down. “Let’s get our stuff so we can get out of this train as soon as possible.” And they did.
“Ugh, finally I can stretch my legs again.” Urek said while he stretched.
“Yeah, and some fresh air.” Woon agreed.
Slowly they made their way to the kiss & ride spot where they would be picked up.
Yuri felt like she could lay on the ground and fall asleep. The handle of her bag kept slipping out of her hand. When it slipped again, another hand got a hold on it and kept that hold. “There she is.” Karaka says as he spotted Maschenny, not mentioning taking over her bag. They threw their bags in the trunk and got into the van. All were tired and quiet. Some stomachs rumbled from hunger. Luckily they would have food at the party.
“At whose place is it?” Yuri asked.
“Hoaquin’s.” Maschenny said.
“Since when can we go there?”
"Since today apparently."
“I’m not complaining. I want food.” Urek whined as the van turned and drove onto the Arie estate.
Luckily the building they had to go to, was easily found with Yuri’s directions. “We’re lucky you know this estate. This feels like a maze.”
“Maze? Your estate is way more confusing than this one.” The two girls were about to start an argument but they got intervened.
“Welcome!! Get your asses inside so we can eat!”
Karaka and Yama made snarky comments at Hoaquin, causing the three to swear at one another. The others just ignored the usual banter between the three as they all entered the place and were welcomed into the big, spacious living room.
Everyone greeted one another. Yuri stayed at Karaka’s side, leaning on him.
“Karaka, it’s been a while.” A blond girl approached and got a hug from Karaka. This made Yuri glare.
“How’s the writing going?”
“Good, good. Almost done so I can make the completion deadline two months earlier. Thanks again for the articles to help me with the crime scenes.”
“It’s nothing.”
“And who do we have here?” The girl turned to Yuri. “Don’t frown. It can cause wrinkles.”
“Also, hello. Tiara.” She gave a crooked, half-assed smile before clicking her tongue and looking away.
“You never change.” Tiara shook her head. “Anyway, I will let you be.” She waved and left.
Karaka gave a look but decided to not ask. Instead, he led her to the food and got her involved in some conversations with everyone and no one. Except with Ro, she avoided him very sneakily. Just like she avoided Tiara, but that was because she was the plague to her. It caused her to end up sitting on the lounge seat in the garden, alone. It didn’t bother her. She could just doze off and have some rest.
At least, she thought. The sliding door was opened. “Yuri, what are you doing here alone?” She looked up and saw the two people she did not want to see.
“You’re acting weird. What’s going on?” Ro asked as the two sat down.
“Nothing… Just get lost.” The last part was mumbled. The two sighed.
“I expected you to be proudly telling us about your relationship.” Ro said, with Tiara nodding next to him. Yuri shot up when she realised what had been said.
“How do you know? I’ve only told the guys that were with us, Garam and Evan.”
“You think such things don’t get leaked into the group chat by someone who is drunk?” Tiara deadpanned. “And we had a bet with the group. Thanks for the money, by the way.”
“You what?" Both looked unbothered at her. "Ugh. I hate you all.” Yuri slumped in her seat.
“But I think it’s weird how you’re acting. We all expected you to be happy and obnoxiously loud about it.”
Yuri sighed. “I expected the same thing, Ro. But it feels weird. I don’t know how to act around him anymore. Nothing much changed during the vacation but I want to be more romantic with him. Have more couples like-, romantic things with him, but I don’t know if he wants the same things.”
“You can ask him.” Ro deadpanned.
“Do you just ask such a thing, Ro? Would you ask that if you have just started dating someone?” The man sighed and rubbed his temple.
“Don’t you have most of that stuff already? Tiara said. “Whenever I see you two, hear from or about the two of you or see a social media post, everyone can see that you two have been doing couples things already. It’s just so natural for the both of you that it’s not weird that nothing changed.”
“We don’t do any couple stuff. I don’t even know Karaka’s love language.” She felt offended.
“You’re oblivious, Yuri.”
“Not.”
“You ARE oblivious. Just think about it for a moment, okay?” Tiara stood up. “Let’s give her some time to think, Ro.” Ro agreed and stood up as well and they walked towards the door.
“Also, we are happy for you.” Tiara said before entering inside. “You got a good one. Keep him.” Yuri stared at her with a side eye as a response.
Her eyes kept following the two, who joined a conversation between a few others, including Karaka. She didn’t think of it much so she made herself comfortable in her seat.
She wanted to doze off. But it was getting chilly and worry started to come up with knowing that Tiara and Ro were chatting with Karaka.
With a groan, she sat up and went inside. The first person she went to was Karaka.
“What’s wrong?” He asked as she leaned against him.
“I’m cold.” Without a word, Karaka took his jacket off and held it open. With shaking the jacket, he gestured that she could put it on and she did. “Thank you.” She stayed next to him. His arm sat around her waist, she had her head leaning on his shoulder as he conversed with her two exes without any awkwardness between the three.
Due to the tiredness, she could barely follow the conversation. All she got out of it was that it was about the book Tiara was writing.
At some point, she was bored so she told Karaka she was going to grab a snack and walked off. There ended up not being any interesting snacks. So she just went and sat down on the sofa. Where she fell asleep the moment she had found a comfortable position.
“Yeah, she’s out. You have to carry her, Tinman.” Red eyes shuttered open and met blue eyes. “Nevermind, she is awake.” It was Blueberry. Who had bent over her to check on her.
“What’s going on?” Yuri sat up, still trying to wake up.
“You fell asleep.” Blueberry said confidently.
Karaka walked up to her and held out his hand. “We’re going home.”
“I’m not going home. I’m fine.” She stood up a bit too fast and got dizzy for a second. Karaka casually held her up.
“Still fine enough to have a 15 minute walk, so we are going.” Yuri tried to convince him with a pout but couldn’t win. She knew he was right.
So she accepted his hand and let herself be led to the van to grab their stuff. Everyone waved as they started walking home.
It felt nice to walk. The fresh breeze kept her awake enough to be able to be conscious enough of her surroundings. Karaka still held her hand tightly to make sure she followed. That meant, they were walking hand in hand, he was carrying both their baggage and she wore his jacket.
‘This should be kinda like a couple thing. But I have borrowed his clothes multiple times before… and he has carried my stuff before as well.’
The walk was in silence yet time did go by fast. Before she had noticed, Karaka was already placing their bags inside.
“Welcome home. You’re early.” Jinsung said as he appeared from the living room.
"Yuri can fall asleep at any second."
"Tough week?"
"Not really. We slept plenty but I guess not enough for her." The man nodded.
"You can stay over. I think that's the best option. The boys are asleep and it's too late to wake them up and drop you two off at home. You know where the guest room is."
Yuri heard the conversation as she took off her shoes and closed the front door. "Karaka is staying in my room. It's weird to let my boyfriend stay in the guest room." She started pulling at Karaka's arm to go upstairs.
"Boyfriend?" Jinsung raised a brow while Karaka looked at her with wide eyes.
"Yeah. Now, let us go to bed. I'm tired."
"Finally admitting it." Karaka intertwined his fingers with her. "Let's get you to bed."
"Keep it safe and don't wake up the boys."
"Eeeewwww. Old man." Yuri scrunched her face in disgust as she yanked Karaka up the stairs to get away after the embarrassing comment of her uncle.
Red eyes opened slowly, trying to adjust to the light. "Mhm." Yuri tried to sit up but there was a weight on her. She gave in and stayed in her position. Slowly everything from the day prior came back. Most from the evening. Her good night sleep helped her finally process what happened.
"Ugh, They are right. I'm oblivious." Yuri mumbled as she recalled.
All the moments, Yuri held Karaka's arm; sat closely together, with their legs tangled; them feeding each other and sharing things. The way Karaka and Jinsung converse about her. The little touches Yuri always got that no one else got, especially the hugs. And now he was hugging her. In his sleep. Using her shoulder as a pillow. Which he would never do with anyone else.
Her fingers ran through the blond locks. Not wanting to wake up the latter, but it did.
Yellow eyes looked up at her before closing again. He tightened his grip around her. "Since when are you such a hogger?" Yuri chuckled.
"And a good Morning to you too." The blond rolled off her and stretched.
"I woke up next to you."
"And?"
Yuri sat up and leaned over him. "That makes the morning good."
A hand pushed her face away. "You're being sappy."
Both laughed. "But, like I asked. How are you such a hogger?"
"Dunno. I have always done that in my sleep. That's why I always bring an extra pillow."
"And is that why you didn't push our beds together?"
"I mean, you needed your sleep. And I didn't know if you were okay with the possibility of me hugging you."
"I slept awesome tonight." She gave a cheeky smile. "Definitely worth doing again."
"Come here then." Arms were opened and she accepted. Now she could use him as a pillow.
"Are you still overthinking?" Karaka asked after some time of silence.
"Nah."
"So you figured out what I expect from us." She buried her face into her boyfriend's chest to hide her little blushing.
“They told you, didn’t they?”
“They did. So, you got your answer?”
"No. But Tiara and Evan were right." She held her finger up. "Do NOT dare to tell them I admitted. But they are right."
"They were half right." Karaka grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers. "It's weird because we gave our relationship a label."
"Label?" Yuri pushed herself up and leaned on her elbows.
"Think about it. Have we ever called each other friends, family or anything like that?"
She thought and Karaka laughed at her, pursing her lips while she thought. "No, we actually never. Except for the times when people assumed we were dating… oh, we were so in denial." Yuri planted her face in her hands. "We're oblivious."
"We were." He agreed.
She pulled her hands away. "Don't tell anyone we have admitted that."
"Admitted what?"
First, she raised an eyebrow. But the realisation hit a moment later. It made her smile. "There is one thing I'm not afraid to admit to Tiara that she was right?" Karaka raised a brow as Yuri moved her face closer. She placed a little kiss on his lips. "That I got a good one."