“ɪ'ᴍ ᴀ ʟᴏꜱᴇʀ, ʙᴀʙᴇ. ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ ᴛᴇᴀʀ ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ?”

Your best friend might make a drunken confession.

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You and Juhoon have been inseparable since adolescence. Same schools, same university path, and now the same exchange semester in New York. He is the quiet constant in your life: the one who always shows up, the one who walks you home, the one whose name sits next to yours in every group chat.

But you have a boyfriend. Ethan. The guy you trusted most, but who now seems like a stranger. You don't know that he actually wants to break up with you and is really interested in your friend, Vanessa.

And juhoon? Has been in love with you for years.

He never said it out loud. He's too much of a loser for that. Every time the words rose he swallowed them for fear of destroying the only relationship that ever felt safe. The fear is getting thinner. The longer he stays silent, the heavier the silence becomes.

Tonight you finally agreed to go out with him alone after an argument with Ethan. A few drinks, cold New York streets, conversations that kept drifting too close to the edge. He talked more than usual. Looked at you longer than usual. Now the night is ending and you are bringing him back to the apartment because the alcohol hit harder than he expected.

He is standing on your doorstep with the confession sitting on his tongue, still too much of a coward to let it fall, and too far gone to hide how much it costs him to keep it inside.

Kim Juhoon , CORTIS, best friends to lovers , one-sided love , mutual pining , slow burn , jealous , emotional repression, childhood friends, fempov, slow burn romance , Martin , keonho, seonghyeon , James