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Vanta isn’t one to pry into people’s love lives.
However, he is, admittedly, a little confused when Kaelix’s car pulls up in front of his house and Freodore is asleep in the shotgun seat.
Kaelix is something of a son to him, like the cute and exuberant younger family he never knew he wanted. In the little time that they’ve known each other, they’ve become very close friends—whether playing games together, eating dinner and talking about life at half past midnight, or just enjoying each other’s company in various places, their bond has grown into something strong and unbreakable throughout these past months.
But Vanta isn’t blind.
He doesn’t pry, doesn’t push outright—but he picks up on the subtler signs nonetheless. He notices how Kaelix perks up when Freodore’s name is mentioned in passing. He notices how Kaelix will never put aside a chance to flaunt his clothes, more particularly emphasizing the talented designer that made them ‘just for him’. He notices how Kaelix’s already bright and exuberant aura seems to double in size when Freodore’s around, clinging to his side like they’re a two-in-one package to make conversation with.
So, when he’s forced into the back seat to accommodate a fully passed out Freodore, he takes it as a very, very large sign.
The hangout plan was to go to a new ramen bar in town that opened last week, because Shu has yet to stop gushing about how it’s the only shop in the area that comes close to traditional Japanese ramen, and how it reminds him of home in a specific way that few other ramen bars have been able to do so for him. Vanta and Kaelix have never had authentic Japanese ramen before, so now that their schedules have aligned just right, they are finally available to try it for the first time. Shu’s likely sitting on the other end of the Discord chat for updates on how they like it.
Vanta, while he’s never actually gone to this shop, has at least looked up the way on Google Maps—it’s not that he doesn’t trust Kaelix’s driving (well, he doesn’t really, but that’s a different story), but rather because he likes knowing where he’s going. It comes in handy when he notices that Kaelix missed a turn.
“Hey, Kaelix?” Vanta says, leaning close to one of the car windows and watching a very wrong set of trees pass them by. “I think we were meant to take that left.”
“Oh, sorry, Vanta-senpai,” Kaelix says, not sounding fazed in the slightest. He giggles, and Vanta sees him turn to glance at Freodore before looking back at the road. “I gotta take a little detour. It won’t be long, I promise!”
“A detour?” Vanta echoes. He knows he’s been down this road before, but he can’t quite remember where he was headed to at that time. “To where?”
“It’s two more turns away,” Kaelix replies cheerfully. “It’ll only take a minute.”
Reluctantly accepting the lack of explanation, Vanta slumps back against the car seat, carefully watching his surroundings for any sense of familiarity. The first turn happens and nothing seems to click, each shop giving him that same sense of unplaced déjà vu, but the second turn is all he needs to realize that the BY THE BEAT live house is just down the street. He’s been there twice before, once to watch Kaelix perform shortly after they met (and holy shit was the drive worth it), the other time to celebrate its opening monthiversary with the rest of his friends.
Kaelix pulls over in front of the building and leans over to unbuckle the passenger seat. Freodore, who’s been half-asleep and entirely unreadable the whole ride, stretches lazily, then leans in and presses a kiss to Kaelix’s cheek.
An alarm goes off in Vanta’s head.
Freodore slides out with a murmured “See you at home,” and the door shuts. Kaelix hums, casual as anything, and merges back into traffic like he didn’t just casually detonate a bomb in Vanta’s brain.
There's a long bout of silence. Kaelix taps the wheel, head bobbing to the beat of the music, but his shoulders are just a little too tight. He’s waiting for the question.
Vanta, unfortunately, does not have the self control to not ask this time. He clears his throat. “Sooo. How long?”
Kaelix glances over. “Huh?”
“The kiss,” Vanta says, trying for breezy. It comes out a little more solidly than he’d like it to. Shit. “Freo. Cheek. You two a thing?”
Kaelix flushes, full crimson in an instant; even if Vanta can’t see his cheeks from the back, he can see the tips of his ears clear as day, which are no redder than a tomato. “Well, it’s—he just—hm. How do I… uhh…”
Vanta raises a brow, expression softening a little. “Take your time. You don’t need to answer if you’re, like, uncomfortable or anything. I just, y’know. If anything, I just want you to know that I support you with him, Freorin is very sweet and I think he’s trustworthy so I don’t have any complaints or something if you’re scared of that, I accept you and won’t think any less of you if there is anything happening, so…”
“Okay. Yeah,” Kaelix blurts after taking a deep breath, slouching in his seat like he wants to disappear. “We’re dating. I’m not ashamed of it or anything, it’s just... I haven’t told anyone. Not because I don’t want to! It’s just. Complicated. And new. And kind of not new. And if people start talking it might get weird.”
Vanta blinks, lips easing into a fond smile. “You don’t need to explain yourself. I get the feeling.”
“I know,” Kaelix groans, pouting. “It’s just—if people find out too much, y’know, then it’s gonna get complicated. I can’t explain why, but things can go awry quickly with this sort of thing.”
At that, Vanta tilts his head curiously. Kaelix and Freodore being in a relationship isn’t that surprising—Vanta’s had his bets on them since the first time he saw them together, after all—and he can’t imagine how it could possibly get too ‘complicated’ for them to handle. He nods anyway, accepting the surface level information Kaelix has given him with open arms. “Fair enough. Thanks for sharing that with me… Sorry I put you on the spot.”
“It’s okay, I trust you. Don’t tell anyone?” Kaelix pleads, the car slowing as they near their destination. “Please?”
“Of course not,” Vanta assures him. “I’m gonna forget by the time we start eating. My stomach is going fucking ham right now.”
Kaelix laughs loudly, pulling the handbrake, before turning back to smile. “Thanks, Vanta-senpai.”
Reimu isn’t nosy. She's just... attentive.
Some people might call that being ‘nosy’, but it comes out of the goodness of her heart, truly!
With one of her closest friends being Freodore—reserved, elusive, straight-faced Freodore—she’s learned to pick up on the smallest things. Since they haven’t known each other for that long, she’s still learning about him in all the ways that he’s also learning about her, but they’ve bonded over shared childhood experiences and passions for music in many ways.
So, yeah, she notices when he starts showing up to the live house on off-days. She notices when his chapstick is a different brand and flavour than usual, when he’s in more of a hurry to respond to the notifications on his phone than normal, when his eyes start getting all darty and unsettled like he’s waiting for something to appear in the corner of his eye.
She also happens to notice when Seible starts hovering nearby more than usual.
Out of BY THE BEAT, the upcoming band of talented singers and performers that have joined their ever-growing friend group, Seible is the only one that Reimu hasn’t had the chance to speak to properly. When she hangs out at the live house, she gets to talk to all the others: Freodore is a given, Kaelix likes to take ‘breaks’ off of bouncer duty to have a ‘short chat’, and Zeal is always behind the bar that Reimu, for no particular reason, stays at most often.
Seible is an extremely hard worker, and is one of the sociable kind. He’s always bumbling around, talking to patrons and making good relations, which is tiring for Reimu to even just look at. They’ve exchanged a few polite words at the peak of the live house’s rush hours, but Seible was almost immediately whisked away to attend to some urgent thing going on with the stage, so their conversation was short-lived.
These days, though, Seible seems almost glued to Freodore’s side when he’s not doing business. Or Reimu’s going insane.
It’s a slow evening at the venue. Freodore has just finished a jaw dropping performance, his insane rap still reverberating in Reimu’s brain, and has managed to slip away into the back. Reimu has been sitting with Kaelix and Zeal for the past hour, mostly just sipping and listening as they yap endlessly, but her eyes are tracking the promoter all the while. Her eyes narrow when she watches Seible wave a patron off and gesture to the back, his feet shifting as though he’s impatient.
See, Reimu has a bit of a hunch.
She excuses herself from the conversation and heads to the back under the guise of “checking in on Freo,” which is totally true, but she also wants to see if her gut instinct is on to something.
And it is. Oh, it is.
She’s sipping something fizzy and pink—Zeal’s recommendation that involves a strawberry flavour, and god, does it taste glorious— when Seible walks past her without noticing, headed straight for the green room. His steps are hurried, grumbling something under his breath when he’s out of sight from the main venue, and his jacket is already halfway down his torso and hanging from his forearms. With a quiet bang, the door to the green room flies open, bouncing back against the door stopper; Reimu tiptoes forward and catches it before it can shut completely.
And then she angles her head to see just through the small crack.
Not because she’s nosy. It’s because she’s checking on Freodore! Seible just happened to be there, too. That’s all.
Nevertheless, she catches it in perfect clarity: Seible stepping into Freodore’s space, grinning with teeth as Freodore knowingly looks up from his phone with sharp eyes, then pulling him into a kiss that is not just the quick peck Reimu was wanting to see as a mild confirmation. No, it's intense. Seible’s hand maneuvers to Freodore’s nape and the other to his waist, and the designer’s eyes flutter shut as he leans back against the wall, one of Seible’s fingers hooked through a belt loop.
When an oddly breathy, desperate sound comes from her friend, Reimu gasps.
The door creaks.
Freodore’s eyes snap open. Seible breaks the kiss, glancing lazily toward the door.
Reimu ducks back and practically sprints to the bar.
Her mind is running amok—partially with excitement, because fuck yes she was right like she expected, but also with guilt, because she hadn’t meant to intrude on such a private moment; that was not the extent she was trying to see! She takes her seat back with Zeal and Kaelix, eyes wide as she tries to erase it from memory, and they both shoot her an ‘Are you good?’ kind of look. She waves it off, gesturing for them to continue with what they were talking about, and she sits with her thoughts for a long moment.
Okay, so sure. Seible and Freodore are definitely very comfortable with each other. That kind of kiss isn’t something Reimu expects from two people who, well, aren’t dating—and Freodore had seemed familiar with it, not even flinching as Seible approached him. Reimu can’t say she’s surprised, but she does feel like she just won a huge gamble; honestly, she expected Freodore to be with any one person out of the three who run the live house, and Seible was just her biggest hunch. When she gets to talk to her friends in private, she wonders how they’ll react—if she remembers correctly, Vanta and Claude both put hefty bets on Freodore’s partner being Kaelix, so she’s definitely making bank on this one.
Ten minutes later, when Kaelix has already gone back to his rightful bouncer position and Zeal has started tending to the drinks of other patrons, Freodore emerges from the back, expression nonchalant. Reimu whistles and stares at the ceiling. He still spots her immediately.
“You were spying,” he says flatly, settling onto the stool beside her. He gives her a signature Freodore side eye and she shrugs.
“Me? Spying? Please,” she scoffs. Freodore rolls his eyes, an amused smile tugging at his lips, and relief floods through Reimu as she recognizes that Freodore isn’t too angry at her. “But also, what the hell, Freo. You and Seible?”
He sighs, eyes squeezing shut in a bashful way that she rarely sees from him. “Please don’t make it a big thing.”
“I’m not judging,” she says, grinning. “I’m just surprised! I didn’t think Seible was that… risky to keep the door unlocked and freaking ajar. Or you, for that matter.”
“He doesn’t, usually,” Freodore mutters. “But today’s been a long day. So he just wanted to help me out quickly.”
That sends a little flutter through her chest. She nudges him with her elbow. “Aw. That’s kind of disgustingly sweet.”
It’s his turn to scoff, and he leans back slightly as he holds eye contact with her. “But, Reimu-senpai, I need you to keep this to yourself.”
She nods. “I was already planning to, since I’m not so mean to out you guys, but is there a specific reason?”
“It’s just easier that way.” Freodore’s shoulder lifts and falls in a lazy motion of indifference. “If anyone found out about us and had the wrong information, it could potentially make things very complicated. We’d rather keep it private.”
Reimu considers, then nods again. “Alright. Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Footsteps left,” Claude says, tilting his head as his eyes dart to the map. “Close.”
“Got it,” Seible murmurs, fingers already moving fast over his controller.
But then Seible’s phone starts buzzing.
He doesn’t check it immediately—not when there’s a Revenant ulting into their building with wisps of darkness encroaching on their position. They’re yelling out comms as a heated fight ensues, and Claude just narrowly misses a shot and gets downed, throwing down his controller with a pissed groan. Seible manages to down Catalyst and escape with a sliver of health left, ratting under a nearby bridge as he recovers, and he keeps his eyes fixed on the screen and map as he tries to stay alive.
The buzzing doesn’t stop.
Claude is only slightly irritated by the incessant vibrations, but he does see that Seible keeps glancing over to it panickedly—caught between trying to win this game for them and answering the call. He leans back, watching Seible play and keeping him aware of his surroundings, until Seible is stormed again by a whole other team. This time, he isn’t so lucky, and their game is over in the blink of an eye.
“What the heck?!” Seible pulls his headphones down to his neck.
“Ggs,” Claude says with a stretch. “That was a good round ‘til we got unlucky at the end there.”
“We totally had that, if it wasn’t for that random ass team…! Ugh, whatever.”
With a sigh, Seible finally pays attention to the source of noise that’s been going off for the last minute or so. The phone lights up in Seible’s hand—the name on the notification is surrounded with green hearts. Something saccharine. Something stupid. Claude doesn’t catch all of it, but he catches the letters “Gi” and that already sends his mind whirring.
Seible swipes the notification up with the elegance of a criminal hiding evidence.
“Someone’s blowing up your phone,” Claude mentions, trying not to be too obvious about his inquisitiveness. “That was buzzing for a while.”
Seible shrugs. “Yeah. Can you give me a sec before we queue our next game? Gotta answer this.”
“No problem.” Claude takes his headphones off completely and he pops a chip into his mouth. Before Seible exits the room, Claude manages to ask at the last moment, “Boyfriend?”
Seible stops.
It’s brief. Barely a flicker in his expression, but Claude’s known him long enough to see it.
“Yeah,” Seible says as his shoulders relax, and then he dips into the living room.
Claude blinks once, twice. He really hadn’t expected an answer, especially not from Seible— Seible, as in the ‘if it’s a secret, it’ll stay a secret’ Seible, as in the question-dodging master Seible, as in the workaholic Seible who’s always occupied with some sort of business endeavour to the point where it had taken Claude a decent amount of convincing to get him to even come over and chill today.
And even if he did expect an answer, that answer would not have been ‘yeah’, the most casual fucking ‘yeah’ to such a bombshell of a question. Claude very awkwardly turns away from the door and goes back to staring at the idle Apex screen, browsing through his mental log of people that he and Seible both know— who the hell has the letters ‘Gi’ in their name?
By the time Seible returns, Claude’s finally figured it out. It’s the one time when Seible’s weird nicknaming habit has helped him even remotely so.
“...Was that for real?” He shifts his head back, glancing at his friend.
Seible approaches with an indecipherable expression, indifferently taking a seat again. He places his phone screen down on the armrest, hooking the headphones back around his neck, and gets the controller comfortable in his hands again. “Yeah,” the promoter replies coolly. “Why, is it hard to believe that I’ve got a boyfriend or something…? That’s wild. I’m lowkey offended.”
“You know I don’t mean it like that, c’mon. Don’t twist my words!” Sighing, Claude queues them up for the next game, which locks them in nearly immediately. “I’m just a little surprised. You can’t blame a guy.”
“Mhm.” Seible doesn’t meet his eyes, still fixed on the Character Select screen, but his fingers are restless on the controller and Claude can tell there’s something he’s not letting on.
After a moment of internal debate, Claude pushes his luck. “So. Who?” he asks casually.
“No one,” Seible retorts, sing-song and carefree. As expected.
Claude rolls his eyes. “I saw the name. I dunno, is there anyone whose name starts with a ‘G’ that I know? Who would also be exploding your phone like that?”
A beat passes.
“Mm, I dunno. The letter G… uh, Petra Gurin-senpai?” Seible whispers with faux innocence, voice trembling with held-back laughter.
Claude snorts, lightly hitting Seible’s arm. “As if Petra would be spamming you like that! She’d block your number before you even finished the setup of a pickup line.”
Seible yelps and snickers, and when Claude tries to smack him again, he ducks, laughing louder. “Hey, you asked!”
“And you gave me the worst answer!”
The match loads in, laughter dying down as they start thinking about strategy. They fall into their usual rhythm of the beginning of an Apex game, which is mainly just them arguing over Jumpmaster until Claude gives in with a dramatic sigh and launches them toward Fragment East.
They scatter, looting quickly. Claude finds a Peacekeeper. Seible finds two syringes, a P2020, and mild regret.
“So,” Claude starts again, trying not to make it too obvious that he’s about to pry again. It definitely doesn’t work, because he hears Seible inhale loudly like he’s bracing for a nuke. “Uh, ignore me if I’m wrong. But… Zeal, right?”
The silence is so sharp it slices clean through the gunfire in the background.
“Well,” Seible finally says, drawing the word out into three separate syllables. Claude can’t even replicate it if he tries. Then Seible starts doing that thing again, leaning far left and then far right all while humming an imperceptible and annoying tuneless note, some kind of vocal personification of ‘I dunno’. It feels like an insane version of tinnitus.
“Well?” Claude parrots, cutting it off.
After a short breath, the promoter sighs. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“Mm.” Claude leaves it at that for now, despite the million thoughts that appear in his brain. “Real.”
They get unlucky again—he tries his best not to tilt, but he can no longer count the amount of gamer sighs he’s sighed and tongue clicks he’s clicked in the last fifteen minutes. Frustrated when they get wiped again, he puts down the controller, focusing his attention back on Seible—who, thankfully, is not as far gone as Claude is from the annoyance.
“Are you surprised about me and Zeal?” Seible prods, testing the waters.
Surprised that he wasn’t the one that brought it up, Claude takes the chance. “Ehh, not really. I’m just surprised it took so long for me to find out, like, officially.”
Comically, there’s another buzz and more hearts on the lock-screen. When Seible notices, his grin softens—fleeting, almost shy—before he tucks the phone away and tries to pay attention to the conversation again.
“Didn’t take you for the type.” Claude grins, finding the adoration on Seible’s face amusing. “You sappy little gremlin. Are you the candle-lit-dinner type of guy? Is Zeal?”
“Eh. We like different kinds of dinners,” Seible answers vaguely.
He’s about to respond, but he holds his tongue. Claude has played these games before. When it comes to Seible’s weird remarks, It’s probably better not to ask.
“Anyway, you can’t tell anyone, Claude-senpai.” Seible straightens, a little more serious now. “There’s a lot of factors here that make it… complicated, if that makes sense, and if a lot of people found out, everything would go to shit. For real.”
“I don’t think you and Zeal’s relationship is a world-stopping piece of information, but sure, I won’t tell anyone.” Claude stretches and puts another chip in his mouth. “Wasn’t planning to anyway. Not my business.”
“You’re so dependable, Claude-senpai,” Seible says with a wide smile. “Anyway, Zeal said he needs me to pick something up, so I gotta go now. Thanks for hanging out with me! Let’s play again soon, okay?”
“Yeah, of course. Hit me up any time.” Claude nods as Seible makes his way out.
Yeah. He can keep this secret. For now.
It’s late—past midnight, like how it usually is when Uki decides to log off Minecraft after a long day of building. They’ve gotten a lot done today, bless Zeal and his eagerness to help out, and they’re now accompanied only by the rustle of key switches and the soft pings of a Discord call that hasn’t ended yet.
Uki leans back in their chair, legs pulled up under a lavender blanket, watching Zeal’s camera flicker dimly in the corner of his screen. The boy’s hair is slightly mussed, in the way it always gets when he’s stayed up too long, but he doesn’t look too visually exhausted yet, eyes still bright and talking about something Uki is too spent to tune into.
In moments like these, Uki can’t help but appreciate the comfortable silence. After all, they have always been good at understanding people without needing to spell things out, and Zeal is one of the few who seems to speak the same language.
Now, Uki doesn’t interrogate their friends, and they certainly don’t dig unless invited. Part of it is respect, obviously, but part of it is that they know better; they’re more than capable of figuring out things on their own. Sinking into the background and enjoying their own time during big events gives them front row seats to all the dumbassery their friends get up to—and Uki gets to watch and see things that others don’t often catch.
Truthfully, they haven’t known the BY THE BEAT group long enough to draw any thorough conclusions, but their instincts are nearly never wrong when it comes to detecting this sort of thing: like how Zeal’s voice shifts when Kaelix joins a VC, just a little softer, just a little warmer. How Zeal is a little more outspoken when Kaelix is around, like he’s found footing in a conversation to speak freely, like Kaelix amplifies his voice in a way he can’t do on his own. How Zeal’s eyes never leave the stage when they’re hanging out in the livehouse and it’s Kaelix’s turn to sing, completely mesmerized despite his own job as bartender that he’s meant to be attentive to.
And, most of all, they notice the look in Zeal’s eyes when he talks about Kaelix. Uki knows this look all too well—they’ve had VIP tickets to all kinds of blossoming relationships, and it’s the kind of look that isn’t meant to be seen; a secret, shared glimmer of adoration and affection.
So when tonight’s gaming session winds down into easy silence, both of them half-curled into their setups, Uki makes a choice.
“You know,” they murmur, not looking directly at the screen, “you and Kaelix are really close.”
Zeal’s mouse stops moving for a moment. Uki can see him glance at the camera from their peripheral vision, brows furrowed like he’s calculating, but they don’t meet his gaze when he gives a quiet, “Mm?”
“I’ve heard you call him ‘baby’ before,” Uki says matter-of-factly. They’ve never been the type to draw it out, preferring to skip the sugarcoated formalities and jump into the heart of it. “Is there a particular reason?”
Zeal laughs softly, a tinge of nervousness bleeding into the sound. “Well, it’s just because he gives me a really funny reaction whenever I do it. Kaelix isn’t good with handling that kinda stuff, so I find it fun.”
“Mhm,” Uki acknowledges. “What about the ‘darling bouncer’ stuff that I hear every other time I visit the live house?”
“Well,” Zeal says again, a little bit more of an unsure lilt to the word. “It’s… ya know. Same thing. He’s not good with petnames in general, so I get funny reactions when I do it. That’s all there is.”
“…Right.”
Leaning to take a sip of their drink, Uki glances at Zeal again. The bartender doesn’t seem too fazed, maybe slightly more pink if not simply from the low light of his bedroom, but it’s obvious that he’s bracing and thinking about what the next question might be. Zeal’s mind is always working, always having something going on in the background, and Uki is all too familiar with it. They’re not so different in the end.
Of course, that just means they have to go for the jugular. “Do you think he’s handsome?”
Zeal’s eyebrows fly up. “What?”
“Kaelix,” they repeat straightforwardly. “Do you think so?”
There’s a pause. Uki stares directly at their monitor, at Zeal’s camera where the bartender is just blinking, stunned. Then the silence is filled with sudden coughing. Zeal’s silhouette shifts, like he’s adjusting something off-camera, and when he speaks again, his voice is quieter. “Yeah. Definitely, like, idol material. What are you trying to ask?”
Uki smiles faintly. “Nothing. Just wondering.”
Another beat of silence. Zeal exhales like he’s smiling, but it doesn’t quite reach the mic, before sliding back into camera view with a defeated expression. “You’re not going to drop this, are you?”
“I might,” Uki teases. “If you give me a good enough reason to.”
Grumbling under his breath, the bartender heaves a sigh, now smiling—fond and a little sheepish. “He’s… important to me.”
Uki blinks, momentarily stilled by how genuine that sounded. Uki knows better than most about how reserved Zeal can be, whether about his pre-live-house past or various details of his personal life, considering the amount of times they’ve touched on these topics during the usual drowsy Minecraft deep talks.
“So yeah,” Zeal adds, “it’s not worth arguing when we both know it’s true. You got it right on the mark. But… Uki-senpai, if I can ask a small favour, I’d really prefer if people didn’t know. It’s not a secret, but… it’s not public either. Too many moving parts, it’ll be complicated if it goes around too far.”
Uki nods once, slowly. They get it—even if the ‘complicated’ part doesn’t make sense, Zeal probably has a reason, and Uki understands that much. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.”
A soft click sounds on Zeal’s end—maybe him switching tabs. “Thanks.”
“You’re cute together, by the way,” Uki adds, being honest.
Zeal groans. “Uki-senpai…”
“I’m serious,” Uki repeats, chuckling. “I was wondering when someone was gonna confirm it for me.”
Faux annoyed, Zeal lets out a long sigh that crumbles into laughter. “Well then, thank you. I appreciate that.”
The aftershow haze always feels a little surreal—stage lights still cooling, bass still buzzing under the floorboards, and the faint scent of smoke and citrus still clinging to the air.
Kaelix just tore the house down. There’s meticulously placed glitter in his hair (thanks to Freodore’s careful styling) and a high still on his skin, visible even from across the room. His smile stretches from one ear to the other, literally glowing with excitement after such a wonderful closing performance to the night, and he thanks everyone for coming as he descends the stage stairs and slips to the back to change and cool himself down.
Freodore and Seible are manning crowd control near the VIP exit, ushering lingering fans and distant friends out with casual ease. They can barely hear anything other than footsteps, incessant praise, and songs of gratitude for a great night—Seible soaks it in like a sponge to water, thanking everyone for coming by name like the talented businessman he is, while Freodore is a little bit more lost for responses, face pink as he does his best to express his happiness and appreciation for each compliment.
Zeal watches from afar, grabbing a wet cloth whilst undoing the strings on the back of his waist apron. He thanks the remaining patrons for ordering and clears up all the glasses to wipe the bar clean, offering assistance to the customers who are a little more out of it from the alcohol. After accompanying a liquor-laced lady to the exit and to her friend, he makes his way back to the bar and wipes all the glasses until they’re sparkling, storing them back on their shelves.
It should be winding down, the band of singers think as they meet up at the hallway leading to the VIP lounge.
Instead?
It’s getting louder.
“You’ve got it wrong, Vanta,” Reimu shouts, pointing at the hero accusingly. “If you’re telling the truth, then why would he be kissing Seible? You’re obviously mistaken!”
Vanta, slightly flushed and mildly tipsy, squints. “I don’t know what you want from me! I saw him drop Freo off here and Freo kissed him goodbye! He said they were dating, and not to mention that Freo literally said ‘see you later’ like they were together. That’s not my fault! I’m literally just relaying what I was told!”
“Well, was this ‘kiss’ mouth-to-mouth? Hands-on-hips?!” Reimu places her cup on the table loudly. “I don’t think so!”
“Wait, wait, what did you say you saw, Reimu?” Claude raises a hand, narrowing his eyes.
“Just last week, I saw Freo and Seible fucking making out!” Reimu repeats, hands moving wildly to illustrate her point. “And then Freo told me they were a thing! What more confirmation do you need?!”
“Nah, nah,” Claude says as he shakes his head. “I get what you’re doing, bro. You’re making a kiss up so that Vanta and I lose the bet, aren’t you? I know damn well that Freo and Seible did not kiss, because—and you didn’t hear it from me—Zeal and Seible have got something goin’ on of their own. There’s no fuckin’ way that you could’ve seen those two doing anything.”
“And what do you have to show for it!?”
“Bro, Seible told me, are you kidding?” Claude huffs, slinging one leg over the other as he leans back in his chair. “Plus, all you need is to look at Seible’s phone. He’s got Zeal saved in his contacts with green hearts everywhere.”
“Okay, but that could be platonic,” Vanta debates. “Like, don’t you save the homies with hearts?”
It takes a second for Claude to process that. “What are you saying,” he deadpans. “Aren’t we arguing for the same team…?!”
“No, Reimu might be right,” Uki interjects, sipping slowly on what’s remaining of their red wine. “Kaelix and Zeal are definitely something. Literally just look at them.”
Claude pushes his chair back with a screech. “You’re kidding me. Look at them? Look at Zeal and Seible!”
“As if Freo and Seible aren’t a hundred times more plausible!” Reimu rebuts.
Vanta shakes his head. “I trust Kaelix with my life, and Kaelix said he and Freo were together. There’s no way he lied to me.”
The four of them stare at each other in mounting bewilderment.
“Then who’s dating who,” Reimu says exasperatedly. “Because not all of us can be telling the truth right now, can we?”
“Unless they’re being messy,” Uki says plainly.
Claude’s jaw drops. “I don’t think my boy Seible would be cheating,” he says firmly, “he’s not that kinda guy.”
“Neither is Kaelix,” Vanta adds loudly.
“Well, I obviously don’t think Freo would do that!” Reimu backs her own friend up too.
“And Zeal wouldn’t, duh,” Uki finishes. “I’m just throwing ideas around.”
Vanta throws his hands in the air. “Then what—”
Whoosh.
The door swings open.
“What’s up?” Kaelix announces as he enters the room, still glowing with post-show bliss. “Enjoying yourselves, everyone?”
Zeal follows, then Seible, then finally Freodore. They naturally stand side by side, stopping in place when they realize that all four heads are staring at them simultaneously and the silence is dense.
“Did we interrupt something?” Freodore asks quietly, tilting his head.
A pause.
“Um, hello—?”
“Who are you dating?!” Reimu says as she stands up, hands slamming onto the table when she rises. “Freo, no me mientas, payasito!”
“Kaelix, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” Vanta slings his arm over the back of his chair, words slightly slurred from his tipsy state.
Claude glares daggers into Seible’s head, so much that the promoter shivers preemptively. “Seible, I need you to clear this up.”
Uki doesn’t bother saying anything. The eye contact they make with Zeal that tells the bartender all he needs to know.
“Can we help you?” Seible says slowly, skeptically, like a child who got randomly called to the principal’s office. “What are you all talking about…?”
“Be honest: who the hell is dating who?”
The four boys blink in unison.
Then, slowly, Kaelix starts to laugh—at first, a small giggle, and then he’s gasping for breath and leaning back to try and stifle it. Freodore turns his head to the side, a dainty hand coming up to cover his mouth as he chuckles. Seible doubles over with laughter, squatting as he tries to compose himself and utterly fails. Zeal doesn’t quite understand what’s going on, still processing the information overload, glancing left and right to check on the other three.
“Wow, Claude-senpai,” Seible says between wheezes, “way to keep a secret. I warned you about things going to shit and everything, didn’t I?! And you said you didn’t believe me!”
Claude freezes at that, like he forgot about that part. “Oh. Um, whoops.”
“Same goes for you, Vanta-senpai! What the heck?!” Kaelix whines, folding his arms in front of him. “I told you it was complicated!”
Stuttering, Vanta’s eyes widen for a moment, and he sheepishly points at the drink. “I blame the alcohol?”
Reimu immediately sits back down when she notices that Freodore is glaring at her again, realizing that she was meant to keep it to herself as well. “I didn’t bring up the topic first, it wasn’t me,” she mumbles guiltily.
Kaelix looks at the others, head tilted slightly like asking an unvoiced question. They all share a knowing glance and, like clockwork, Freodore leans into Zeal’s side whilst Seible slinks behind the bouncer and rests a lazy chin on his shoulder. It’s not even subtle.
“What the fuck,” Vanta coughs after taking another sip. “Freo and Zeal? Wait, no one even said that one!”
“Seible and Kaelix?” Reimu sounds absolutely baffled, her expression dumbfounded. “That…? Wasn’t even an answer option?”
Through giggles, Zeal shrugs. “We’re a... group.”
“Well, we knew that,” Claude says pointedly. “BY THE BEAT. We know. Sick name, by the way.”
“I—thank you—? But, no, romantically,” Zeal emphasizes. When he’s met with another round of astounded expressions, he sighs and gestures vaguely to the others. “All four of us. Together.”
There’s a pause.
“Oh,” Reimu breathes, something clicking in her expression. “Ohhh.”
“So… all of you,” Vanta says slowly, looking between them. “Like—together together?”
Freodore offers a small smile, his hand appearing on the other side of Zeal’s waist. “Yeah. We didn’t really plan to keep it secret forever. Just… didn’t want people asking questions. Which is why,” and he glares at Reimu, “we all advised you to keep things secret.”
“I told you I didn’t start it!” she whines petulantly, immediately looking away when met with Freodore’s piercing gaze.
Seible shifts his chin off Kaelix’s shoulder, falling back onto the soles of his feet. “Yeah, no, it’s just been easier this way. We like our quiet.”
Claude looks around at the way they’re standing—touching easily, breathing in sync—and then back at his drink. “Honestly, that makes more sense than whatever we were on about. No wonder the bets were so divided. What happens with the money then?”
“Money?” Seible questions, eyebrows flying up. “Senpais, did you bet on us?”
“Yeah, but they were all monogamous guesses,” Uki intones. “I think we should all just get our own contributions back. We were all right, in a way.”
“Wait, who did each of you bet on?” Kaelix questions, looking almost afraid. “That’s kind of scary??”
“The past is in the past,” Vanta says with a finger to his lips. “Doesn’t matter who bet on what! Who cares!”
“Ehh…?” Kaelix’s face scrunches with concern. “Vanta-senpai…”
“Y’know, even if I didn’t expect it…” Reimu lets out a long exhale, softening. “You all look happy. That’s all that really matters.”
Zeal's fingers find their way to the grooves between Freodore's as he simultaneously pulls Seible closer, tugging Kaelix along by proxy. His smile is gentle as he chuckles. “We are.”
Kaelix reaches for Zeal’s hand. Freodore catches Seible’s fingers, giving them a small squeeze. They don’t need to say anything—there’s something in the way they glance at each other, warm and assured, that says enough.