Jun was beautiful.
Not just because he was handsome, but because the joy radiating from him was so simple and pure that it seemed to make him glow. One look at Miles was all it took. One look and the melancholy, defeated Jun Miles had watched secretly on stream since they’d parted ways was gone.
Even though Miles had fucked it all up.
Even though Jun had every right to be angry.
He was here, and he was smiling, and the look in his eyes said the impossible—that he had forgiven him.
Had chosen unconditional love when it would have been so much easier to choose hate.
“Oh my god,” Miles uttered under his breath, fat tears streaming down his cheeks. “Oh my god.”
“I’m… obviously in the middle of something I shouldn’t be right now,” Astrid said, looking from Miles to Jun, then back at Miles. She took a large step to the side. “I’m just gonna… head back to the bakery. You guys enjoy those croissants, all right?”
Miles nodded, unable to bring himself to speak, and Astrid promptly disappeared, leaving him alone with the man he wanted more than anything, but whom he thought he’d never see again.
The man who was now walking down the hallway on his way to Miles’s apartment.
No—not the apartment.
On his way to Miles.
“I debated for so long over whether I should come here,” Jun said upon his approach. The light from the cracked window at the end of the hall streamed in and dappled his shoulders, illuminating him from behind. “I didn’t want to be the guy who showed up uninvited, so confident he could do no wrong that he couldn’t take silence for a ‘no.’ But someone on the internet told me I might have misread the signs—that maybe the reason you didn’t text or call wasn’t because you don’t like me, but because you think I deserve better.”
He arrived at the door, standing within arm’s distance.
When Miles didn’t back away or slam the door, he reached out and cupped Miles’s cheek, swiping a thumb tenderly across it to wipe away his tears.
“Let me decide what I deserve, Kilometers,” he whispered, voice strained by the weight of the emotion in his words. “Let me see what we can be when we’re together. Will you let me make things right?”
Miles squeezed his eyes shut, pushing out his unshed tears. His hands shook so badly, the croissants skittered around in their box.
For so long he’d been silent, sure that he was doing Jun a favor by staying out of his life.
But that hadn’t ever been true, had it?
Jun didn’t want anyone else. Might never want anyone else.
And Miles…
Miles couldn’t keep pretending that he didn’t want Jun, either.
That these feelings—this heartache that had plagued him since Jun had left him all alone—weren’t the first stirrings of love.
His throat felt raw and his face numb, but he would be silent no more.
He opened his eyes, looked Jun in the face, and hoarsely replied, “Okay.”
Happiness burst across Jun’s face like the sun coming out from behind a storm cloud. Slowly, giving Miles plenty of time to stop him if he wanted, he lifted Miles’s chin and brought their lips together in a kiss that spoke of everything he was feeling inside.
Excitement.
Elation.
Fear.
Hope.
