You know, it's always a fun experience recieving an interesting but strange text partway through a gaming livestream voice chat in a discord server. At least, that's what Kurin would sarcastically tell you, given what'd just happened.

What the fuck. He thought, staring down at his phone. New messages were popping up in the chat on his laptop screen and the icons of his online friends in the voice chat were lighting up but he was ignoring all of them to stare shocked at this one message on his phone screen.

Sometimes Kurin wonders how Julia is one of his close friends. Her and her friend group (The Glanz Four) are always doing something crazy and now it seems their antics might be affecting him for the first time since..- Nevermind. That incident is a lot easier not to think about. Seriously what was Noah thinking? A water balloon fight in the computer rooms is more than just stupid.

But at least then it was obvious what was going on when they'd all burst in the room with those cursed balloons. Kurin has no idea what is going on right now and since it seems like he's going to have to deal with this whole situation extremely soon, he really wishes he did.

Hearing footsteps in the hall outside the room he quickly signed off the voice chat and saved and exited the game. Then waited for what or who he knew was coming any second now.

The door handle turned.

"You never told me you were dating Dan Kouzo?" Everett burst in the room, practically demanding information, standing on his tiptoes in anticipation of the answer making him seem even taller than his already unnatural height.

Kurin internally sighed, at least those theatre classes Magnus forced him to go to will be useful right now. "Uh. Yeah, I didn't think you wanted or needed to know that." He replied, choosing his words carefully. "It's not like we talk all that much."

"So it's true?"

There were multiple reasons Kurin was trying so hard to switch roommates and this was one of them. Everett is a journalist in the making and so of course never minds his own business, instead always poking his nose into others', even if this time it was a fake business.

"Yes Everett. It is true." He sighed out, lying. Wishing Everett would just go back to wherever he came from. Whether that meant he wished he'd go back to where he was ten minutes ago or back to being unalive in his mother's womb, Kurin couldn't tell you.

A gasp. "No freaking way man. Cool! Also what's all this about wanting to switch roommates? I know we don't talk all that much but I'm not that bad surely!"

That. Everything in that last sentence was incorrect. They do talk, they talk a lot more than Kurin would like because Everett never shuts the fuck up, always asking about this or that and talking about his latest crush on whoever while Kurin just sat there hoping he'd get bored and go away so he could continue playing some game or practicing one of the many instruments he plays or even doing his homework would be more fun than talking with Everett!

And yes. He really is that bad. Anyone, even Noah, who can't keep his room tidy for shit and who's entire living space looks like a void that'd been emptied into a pig sty or Paul who apparently snores so loudly you can hear it from the surrounding rooms. Even Crystal Blue who according to both her roommate and cousins often wakes up in the ungodly hours of the morning/night for some random prophecy ranging from anything from Tuesday's canteen menu or some event that'll be on the news give a few days and creepily enough always comes true. Any of them or anyone else would be better than Everett and his constant talk.

"Mm nothing personal." Everything personal. "I just figured it'd be easier if I was roommates with someone who's... Got more similar interests to me y'know?" He half lied. Only a half lie because even though it wasn't the real reason he was switching rooms, he had gotten the ok from both the dorm advisor's, siblings Benton and Philomena Dusk to join Magnus and Noah as their third roommate after sympathising with his annoying roommate situation. He'd be switching rooms any day now although he hadn't told his current roommate that...

Luckily his annoying roommate simply nodded "Riiight." He drew out the 'i' sound, "Your weird music shit, almost forgot about that."

Kurin had to grit his teath and resist the urge to slap that motherfucker around the face. Nothing about music should ever be deemed as weird in his opinion and anyone who calls it so is an ass.

"Mm well I can't really stay and talk. I was just about to go out." Kurin began to excuse himself. It was an excuse he used a lot and usually he just went down to the music rooms or walked down to the local park, sometimes running into a classmate who he actually gets along with and talking with them. This time though, he'd be going to find Julia and ask what the hell was she was doing this time. He may not know what is happening right now but he sure does know he wants to know what the fuck is going on and why?

"'Kay. See you I guess." Everett nodded, heading over to his side of the room and sitting down while Kurin grabbed his phone, threw on a hoodie then left out the door to go find out what in the actual hell is happening.

***

"Oh, hi Kurin."

Kurin had just knocked on the door to the redhead's dorm room and it'd been answered by her much quieter roommate. Monica doesn't talk much to many people due to her extreme shyness but when she does speak she's one of the politest people in the whole school. She always seems so sweet no one would ever guess her love for pranks. Her and Julia are almost opposites but they get along really well together and so work great as roommates.

Kurin smiles in return, "Hey Monica." Funnily enough the two were originally sat next to eachother in English class and had made friends with eachother in between reading about Shakespeare's charcters and the book about the Salem witch trials, the crucible. It was due to those classes that Kurin learnt of the shy girl's interest in the supernatural and ended up getting ever so slightly interested in the supernatural himself. He totally didn't read a ton of articles and books about supernatural occourances. Totally not.

"I'm guessing you came to talk to Julia about what she was just talking about?" She asked, nodding inside the room. "She got back about five minutes ago and has been lying on the floor talking about it ever since, I'm not sure if she was talking to me or herself about it but I listened anyway.." Monica admitted, opening the door wider so Kurin could enter.

"Yeah, that'd be why. I have no idea what's going on here and I think she needs to give an explaination." Kurin clarified, "Also are you sure you meant the floor? Last time I was here you couldn't even see it on her side of your room, it was so covered in random stuff." he joked, Monica laughed.

Sure enough Julia was actually half in a cardboard box, half in a pile of things she'd printed out from the internet. She sat up when she saw Kurin enter the room though. "Oh my god. What happened? What did he say? Please tell me you got my message in time..."

Of course she's asking me questions when it really should be the other way around Kurin internally sighed, clearing a spot on the floor for him to sit and noticing a printout of some article about a serial killer. Not even going to ask.

"I'll tell you the answers to all those when you've explained what happened. Why did you text me a heads up saying that if Everett asks I'm apparently dating Dan. What did you do, Julia?"

Julia blinked, "Well if I didn't give you a heads up then you wouldn't have known to say that right?"

And now she's being difficult, although whether or not it's purposeful Kurin can't tell. "I meant why did I have to say that I'm dating him, I mean, I'm not. What did you do that means I had to say that?"

A sigh from Julia, "Ugh, you meant that." Kurin resisted the urge to scream 'no shit Sherlock' at her, "Well I got into an argument with the annoying blonde-" He let out a laugh at the nickname. "-Then I accidentally said that it's no wonder you're trying to swap roommates because how could anyone ever deal with someone like him. Then he was like "what? I've never done anything that's annoyed him!" and I replied with "so your constant talk about your weekly crushes, girlfriends and boyfriends isn't supposed to be annoying" and he said "if he finds it annoying he's probably just jealous that he doesn't have a love life or barely even a life, he only ever plays music" or some shit like that so I accidentally yelled "actually he is dating someone" and he asked who so I was just panicking like oh shit what do I say and then Dan and Ajit appeared out of fucking nowhere and Dan was just like "actually I'm dating Kurin" and then Everett said he didn't believe it and ran off to ask you so then when he was gone Dan was like oh shit I hope Kurin isn't mad about that I told him you wouldn't be but then realised you'd be seriously confused if no one told you what was happening so I sent you that text and- holy shit I think I have a sore throat from talking so much." She coughed, reaching onto her desk for her mug of water.

After taking a moment to process what had just been said, he asked "Wait so Dan said that?"

The redhead put down her mug of water and nodded then swallowed before replying "Yep, lucky he did too. I was running a list of names through my head of people who were already dating someone so I could think of who I couldn't say to lead me to who I could say but I was in such a rush I think if I was made to answer I would've probably blurted out Pepe's name which would either make Everett think it's a lie since he's dating Zhao or he would believe it and create some massive rumor and cause a ton of trouble for everyone sooo--.."

"You're joking."

"Nope! So honestly Dan saved your butt. You should go thank him after you tell me about what happened!"

After a short explanation of the conversation with Everett, Julia practically shoved Kurin out the door, while Monica waved goodbye apologetically from inside the room.

Once out in the hall, he made his way to Dan and Ajit's shared dorm and knocked a slight rhythm on it. Being a drummer and a lover of all kinds of music will always guarantee an interesting knocking pattern on doors.

It took a minute for the door to open but there was a lot of noise from inside it before it did, at first it sounded like a crash then yelling then loud music, a scream, the music stopped, talking, then finally Ajit pulled the door open. He took one look at Kurin then turned back into the room and called "Hey Dan, it's your partner!" With a friendly joking tone and a laugh. Seconds later Dan showed up at the door with a- What the hell even is that-? Something that looked like a fidget cube and fidget spinners of every colour dangling from strings attached to a weird hat, which upon closer inspection was a beanie taped to the top of a baseball cap with fake Halloween spider legs sticking out from the sides which were where the fidget toys were hanging from. For a moment Kurin had to wonder what the hell Julia meant when she said it was lucky Dan had stepped in when he did but then he remembered what Julia said she nearly did and decided this was definitely a lot better.

"Okay Dan, what in the actual hell is that thing on your head?"

***

The trio were all sitting on the floor in the middle of Dan and Ajit's room. Unlike most other's dorms where they each had a side to themselves, Dan and Ajit who are roommates back at their home too ever since Dan's parents adopted Ajit, didn't have a clear divide as to who's side of the room was who's and honestly it was a pretty nice atmosphere and room to be in.

The three had been friends for a while now, as similar to the way Monica and Kurin had become friends the trio had been grouped together in a music class. Kurin and Ajit had instantly bonded over their shared music taste and Dan although he wasn't as much of a fan of the bands the other two liked, he did listen too and enjoyed more than just a few songs they both liked. They ended up working together in other classes too, Kurin would never forget that one food tech lesson during the time that him, Dan, Ajit and Noah were all on the same table for food tech. In that lesson more cookie mix ended up on the ceiling and walls than what got baked in the ovens. Although it wasn't just their fault, Pepe, Zhao, Julia, Paul, Felix, Lia, Wynton, Jenny, Riot and Magnus were all to blame too!

Either way the trio all got along well so it wasn't too awkward when they finally stopped talking about whatever monstrosity had been created that Dan was wearing on his head and got onto the topic of why Dan had said that.

"Y'know we just overheard the conversation while coming back up here from outside 'nd we'll we heard all the crap he was talking about you and I knew Julia was lying about you dating someone and just got this feeling she had no idea who to say so I kinda just butted in?" Dan explained. Although Kurin found it extremely difficult to listen to anything the other was saying while he was wearing that dumb hat. Ajit clearly caught onto this and took the hat off Dan's head. "HEY!" He yelled.

"Now explain again, I think the hat was too distracting."

"It was?"

"Mhm" Kurin confirmed.

"Oh, whoops- Ok."

Once Dan had repeated everything, the non-binary nodded. "Oh, well thanks. You have no idea how bad things would've been if you'd have let Julia answer..."

Ajit tilted his head to the side, "Lemme guess, she would've said the name of someone who's already dating someone which would have either meant he knew she was lying or he believed it, told everyone and caused absolute chaos?"

"I guess you do have an idea then."

Dan let out a laugh, "Well this is definitely a lot better then! We just gotta trick Everett right?"

Kurin was about to agree before he paused remembering something important that had thusfar slipped his mind. Everett, journalist in the making, is the biggest fucking source of gossip in the school. Anytime he finds something out he'll tell everyone and their mom's about it. He can't be trusted to keep anything to himself which means...

"It may be a little more complicated than that. You know what he's like. By now half the school probably know that we're 'dating'" He realised using his fingers to make quotation marks around the word dating.

"Oh, yeah.. Oh well, we just have to trick everyone then! Shouldn't be too difficult right?" Dan grinned, lightly punching his supposed partner in the arm.

The supposed partner in question rolled his eyes, "If you say so. I am going to tell Magnus and Noah the truth though, assuming Julia hasn't already told them. I'm supposed to be moving into their dorm with them soon and I don't want to have to be lying to them, you know what they're like."

Ajit let out a snort of laughter, "Seriously, no one can lie to Magnus and not have the truth figured out right away. If he wasn't so trustworthy and as much of a private person as he is, then he could be a bigger source of secrets and gossip than Everett is." Kurin nodded, during one of his first conversations wih Magnus, the other had accidentally found out about his blood related family which was a long story. Magnus found out everything though, partly from the things Kurin told him and partly from his weirdly high intelligence helping him to figure it out. That was almost three years ago now and still no one except Magnus and the people who had been directly involved in the situation knew about it.

"Yeah that's true!" The red streaked boy agreed, "And Noah's probably already heard it all from Julia by now, same goes for Paul and Felix." He thought aloud.

"Monica knows too, when Julia got back to her room apparently she immediately laid down in a cardboard box and a pile of things she printed from the internet and told her."

"Okay, so trick everyone except us, Julia, Magnus, Noah, Paul, Felix and Monica?"

"Y'know," Ajit mused, "It probably will be easier done than said. I mean Everett will have basically done all the work for you both by telling everyone, they'll believe it and all you guys gotta do is act like it's true. You won't even have to act any different because if people already think it's true from just the rumor and the way you both currently act then there's no need to act at all, right?"

The other two in the room looked at eachother and then back to Ajit "Yeah!" They replied.

Sometimes Kurin forgot that Ajit is every bit as smart as Magnus whether the subject is classwork, figuring things out, or realising/noticing things that others wouldn't. Yeah, now Ajit's said that, this really does seem like it'll be easy..

***

Nothing more happened the rest of the day until about seven pm when Kurin recieved a call from Magnus. He wondered if it could be related to the rumor as he had forgotten to tell Magnus what was really going on yet. He pressed accept.

"Hey Kurin-"

"HEY KURIN WE GET THE DAY OFF SCHOOL TOMORROW! THANK YOU!"

"Noah shut up."

"Uh what's happening?"

Noah interrupting Magnus wasn't unusual on calls or in real life, often with some random thing but now it made no sense. Day off school? Why is he thanking- Wait. Before Kurin could finish his thought Magnus confirmed it.

"Well, you know how you're moving into our room with us? Well according to Philomena it's happening tomorrow and the three of us get the day off school to help you move your stuff." He explained.

"I think we all have to assemble your bed too." Noah butted in again. "Though we're getting help from Benton and Philomena for that."

A grin spread across Kurin's face, "No way." he breathed.

"Yeah way!" Noah cheered.

"Hey Noah!"

Kurin could practically see Magnus getting slapped in the face by Noah attempting to punch the air and accidentally punching his roommate instead.

***

"Okay so remind me just how many instruments you own again?" Magnus's sarcastic tone said as he looked at Kurin's side of the room that's soon not going to be his.

That morning when Everett had found out Kurin, Magnus and Noah got the day off he'd immediately complained to Benton asking why he didn't get the day off too. Kurin's not sure what Benton told him but Everett went to classes like everyone else did. Well there was one other exception to that everyone, Shun had woken up feeling ill so he was allowed to stay off for the day too and in case he had a headache or was trying to get some rest everyone was quiet when they went passed his room.

"About five-hundred-thousand!" Noah commented, picking up a pile of books. "Ooh, I've read this one!" He exclaimed, catching sight of the book on the top of the pile.

"Mm it's a really good one. Also about seven instruments."

"And you can play all of them?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, nice."

As soon as everyone else had left for school, Noah had immediately asked if Kurin was going to tell them about the events of yesterday or will they just have to go off what Julia told them. Kurin had given them a quick explanation causing Noah to burst out laughing and even Magnus let out a small chuckle.

After that the conversation had turned to random things and Magnus and Noah making comments about Kurin's things. Some of the comments were jokes while others were asking about a drawing or a notebook full of notes and lyrics that Kurin had immediately snatched off Noah yelling at him that "That notebook is nothing! Forget about it!" While holding the notebook close to his chest protectively. Kurin's fairly sure that scene just made Noah determined to take a look some other time although he's not too worried about that as Noah's usually careful to keep quiet about things he's looked at in secret and even if he doesn't, a notebook full of songs and melodies he's written himself isn't a big deal, he's just slightly embarrassed about it for whatever reason...

The rest of the morning moving process went without any problems, at one Kurin did re-enter his old room to grab some more of his books when he'd seen Noah hiding a piece of bad smelling mouldy cheese inside Everett's pillow case. When he'd heard Kurin enter the room he'd turned around looking somewhat guilty but once Kurin laughed Noah had grinned back and continued placing the cheese around. The non-binary assumed that Noah had been nervous that Magnus was gonna stop his prank as he'd rushed to act like he hadn't just been putting mouldy cheese inside the room owner's pillow as he heard Magnus's footsteps before he entered the room.

At lunchtime Shun appeared out of his room to eat with the others. The four were also joined by Benton and Philomena who were taking a break from putting together furniture and Benton's dog Lightning who ran around under the table, occasionally jumping on someone's foot or getting given food. Also keeping far away from Magnus as just last week the dark haired boy had stepped on it's tail by accident and after the dog had bared it's teeth at him the two had what could've been called an argument if Lightning wasn't a dog. Well Noah still did call it an argument, trying to make a joke out of Magnus arguing with a dog.

He brought this up again now, "Ooh Magnus, are you and Lightning still giving eachother the silent treatment after your argument last week?" He asked. His face the picture of innocence.

Kurin watched as Magnus kicked Noah under the table. "OW!"

Shun let out a small laugh, "So how's the moving going Kurin?" He asked kindly as Magnus and Noah started quietly bickering over their sandwiches.

"Oh, it's going fine so far. How about you, are you feeling any better?"

"Mhm. Yes I am."

They continued to make casual talk for the rest of lunch, then they all went back to work with the moving, Shun offered to help but everyone including Benton and Philomena told him to go back to his room and get some rest as helping out would just make him feel worse again. Shun agreed, although on their way back to collect some more of Kurin's things, Noah whispered "I bet he's gonna catch up with his homework instead of resting." The other two both shook their heads at him although they did both privately agree that he was right.

Once they'd finally finished moving everything Magnus and Kurin headed to their room while Noah dissappeared off somewhere saying something about needing the toilet. Once they entered, Kurin looked around, Philomena and Benton were just about finished putting the bed together, the wardrobe, chest of drawers and desk that'd been brought in were also set up and positioned against the wall.

Magnus seemingly absentmindedly wandered over to Noah's side of the room and began picking things up from the floor. Kurin followed him over, not really knowing what else to do. When they brought the first lot of Kurin's things into the room, Magnus had let out a loud sigh upon seeing Noah's side of the room and told them to put Kurin's stuff on his side until he can move it to Kurin's own part of the room. While at first Kurin had guessed that Magnus had sighed like that because he didn't want to have their stuff on his side of the room but now he realised that Magnus was just irritated about Noah's mess. This explanation made a lot more sense as Magnus isn't really the type to mind people leaving their stuff with him or in his space and also he's sorting out Noah's mess right as Kurin is thinking all this and muttering angrily, "I knew this was going to happen, the second he yelled 'I'll be there in a minute, I just gotta find something don't worry!' that he'd make a fucking mess..."

He wasn't too quiet with his muttering however as Philomena caught on, "Ah, yes. Does he always do this?"

Magnus looked up, "Yeah. Almost everyday."

Philomena shook her head. There's no actual rule about how tidy you have to keep your dorm, in fact you can make it as messy as you want and not get in trouble for it. This lack of a rule was something Kurin liked as even though he was generally tidy-ish, sometimes when working on a project things would just get out of hand, especially if that project is music related... Although judging from the look of distain on Philomena's face it wouldn't suprise Kurin that if she saw Julia's side of her room and Paul and Felix's shared dorm that she'd probably invent a rule about tidiness.

Honestly it was funny how Dan's room isn't actually a mess, then again, him and Ajit share the whole space and Ajit generally makes sure things are where they should be just because it makes things easier. Honestly if it weren't for Ajit, Dan's dorm would look like a void emptied all its contents into a pig sty, like all four members of the Glanz four's dorms did.

"Are you sure this is the dorm you wanted to move into Kurin? You could've chosen a room with a less... Messy roommate." Philomena tried to joke. Although everyone could tell she was seriously questioning how Noah lived like that. It was no secret she liked being neat.

"They better be sure because we didn't just move all this furniture in here and set it up for nothing!" Benton joked back.

Before Kurin could continue the joke with something along the lines of 'Oh actually now I think of it, could I move in with Aay and his roommate instead?' Noah burst in the room.

"I was right." He told Magnus and Kurin excitedly. "He was doing homework." He whispered, "Oh! Oops, I'll help tidy!"

Magnus slapped him around his head.

***

It wasn't until that evening when Kurin remembered about the mouldy cheese. He probably would've forgotten for longer but after leaving Shun and Wynton's room (he wanted to check Shun was doing okay, and ask Wynton some question about the science homework) and heading down to the common room in hopes of finding Dan and Ajit he overheard a conversation between Everett and Jenny that most people in the room seemed to be listening to and that Zhao was recording.

"So," Jenny asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Why wouldn't I tell you this?"

"Because you have other friends you could be telling and also because I don't care that your room smells like dogshit or farts or whatever else you said it smelt like."

Everett seemed to miss the point of Jenny's words and continued talking, "Seriously! It smells just like that! Dogshit! Oh my god they probably let the dog in my room that'd explain it!"

Jenny sighed, "Okay, good for you. I honestly couldn't care less."

Kurin smiled slightly at that, while a lot of people found Everett annoying Jenny was the main person to call him put on his bullshit and he appreciated that. Jenny spotted him and nodded towards Everett then rolled her eyes and made a 'please kill me' gesture, Kurin laughed then looked away as Jenny started up a conversation with Riot. His eyes flicked around the room just in time to see Monica go over and whisper something to Noah, Noah nodded and whispered something back excitedly.

For a moment he couldn't imagine what they could be talking about but then it came to him. The whole cheese stunt was Monica's idea, not Noah's. Which... Kurin realised as an afterthought, Is probably why it worked.

He was thinking of finding someone to talk to when a hand slapped him on his back. "Hey Kurin!" A warm greeting that clearly came from..-

"Hi Dan," He turned around, "I was just looking for you and Ajit."

"Oh really? Well, him and Magnus went out a while ago I think?" Dan explained. Kurin nodded, when Magnus had left the room earlier without a word he'd originally assumed he was just going to the toilet or something but after half an hour he realised he was probably meeting someone. They really should've guessed it would've been Ajit.

"What like a date?" He asked, already knowing what Dan would say.

"If they weren't both in so much denial!" He laughed, then shook his head, "I hope they finally stop denying it soon."

"Yeah same here."

A moment of silence passed before, "Oh! So what was it you wanted to talk to us about? Is it something for both of us to hear or..?"

"Just an opinion on a song I found, I figured you both would like it. I can show you it now if you want?"

Dan nodded and less than two minutes later they were both sitting next to eachother on one of the couches sharing earphones while listening to the song Kurin had found.

Once it finished, Dan turned to Kurin with a grin, "That song is so good! How do you just find these! Also you gotta tell me the name!"

Kurin was about to reply but then got distracted as someone began waving at them, "Hey Dan! Kurin!" Zhao called, about to start running over to them before Pepe grabbed his arm with a grimace, muttering something that sounded like 'Just leave it will you?' But Kurin couldn't be sure.

"Huh, what do you think that's about..?" Dan mused.

Much to both of their suprise, a voice answered him.

"Seriously? Kinda obvious to me, Zhao was gonna ask about you two dating! It's all over the school."

When he looked for the source of the voice Kurin was almost unsurprised to find it belonged to Lia Venegas. While the girl wasn't exactly a gossip or a rumor spreader she'd often investigate and fact check rumors before classifying them as news and passing them on to people. She's often the first to hear things from Everett as she shares a lot of classes with him. So it makes sense why she's here now fact checking. Although until Lia spoke up, Kurin has to admit that he had almost forgotten about the whole fake dating thing. Apparently Dan had forgotten too as his response to Lia's question was his own question in return.

"We are?"

Luckily Lia took it as a confirmation rather than a question."So it's true!" She yelled excitedly, grabbing her camera from her satchel bag that she keeps on her at all times and flicking the on button and the settings to record. "So is it also true that Kurin moved rooms?"

"Uh.." Kurin backed away, partly shuffling away, partly trying to sink into the couch.

This apparently confused Lia, "Is something the matter?" Kurin stayed quiet, not exactly wanting to admit what the issue was.

"Oh, actually I think it's the camera," Dan realised, "I think he doesn't like being filmed or having photos taken of them y'know?"

Lia nodded, "Oh right.. So he's camera shy, okay!" Lia quickly switched her camera off and put it away, "Sorry, I had no idea. I figured because you have a YouTube channel you wouldn't mind being recorded, guess I was wrong." Kurin nodded, sure he does have a YouTube channel but it's just for posting music that he makes or does covers of. He's never showed his face on it so only a few people who know him in real life know it's him. Lia actually doesn't know what his channel is but she heard him and Dan talking about his YouTube channel one time...

"Anyway!" Lia suddenly declared, "How long have you two been dating for? What made you like eachother in the first place hm?" She began to question the two.

Dan and Kurin awkwardly shared eye contact before Dan turned back to Lia and replied, "Ah about a month or something? I haven't been keeping track.." He lied.

It didn't take any longer than a second for Kurin to realise just how perfect that lie was, Dan never keeps track of anything meaning he could make a suggestion to him in the form of an answer he was unsure of and then... "Yeah, about a month and a half." Kurin could confirm it.

The perfect teamwork to come up with lies that they hadn't thought they'd need to come up with.

"Ooh I see! You kept it quiet for that long?"

Kurin shrugged, "It's not like we were trying to, we just never really spoke about it around people and no one seemed to notice. Besides, we weren't really bothered to tell everyone."

A nod from his supposed boyfriend confirmed that one.

"Oh, I see! So you didn't answer earlier but what made you two like eachother in the first place? If you don't mind me asking." The blue haired girl asked.

"Uhm I'm not sure actually, it was a lot of things I guess?" The red streaked replied wih uncertainty, "Like man, we'd been friends for so long I hardly realised I'd caught feelings until one day it just hit me, haha!"

For some reason, Kurin's eyes widened slightly as he listened to those words. Of course he knew it was just a lie, they're not a couple after all but there seemed to be something about those words...

"And you Kurin? Why'd you start liking Dan?"

Ah. Shit. The enby had been too busy listening to and thinking about Dan's words to come up wih his own reason. Considering his options he just said the first things about Dan that came to his mind. "Well uh, his personality mostly, also the way he's always so confident in himself and others, I always thought that was sweet and uh I guess his smile?"

"Gotcha!"

It was taking a lot of effort not to ask Lia a question of his own right now, 'You do know how much of an awkward question that is right? Especially since it feels like we're being interviewed right now.' But he managed to keep quiet.

Something else other than Lia's relentless questioning was bothering him too, he couldn't quite help but feel like there was some slight truth to what he'd just said but it wasn't entirely registering as to why he felt that.

He was wondering this as Lia began to ask another question. But then thank fuck, a voice yelled out from the hall, "HEY DID JULIA JUST FALL OUT THAT TREE?"

Instantly everyone in the room got up and ran to the hall to see if the redhead was okay. Luckily that included Lia, who in the face of something new had forgotten about her "interview" with the pair.

Apparently, Julia was ok, as the second she ran into the building she started to yell, "Glanz four meeting at Paul and Felix's room! Kurin and Dan can come too, but everyone else can fuck off! I have some huge fucking news."

***

The group of six all sat in a cleared out circle in the centre of the dorm. "So are you gonna tell us or what? I gotta know what this news is." Paul was practically bouncing up and down on his knees while he waited for Julia to tell everyone.

Felix placed a hand on his shoulder to silently say 'calm down Paul, she'll get to it in a moment' and Paul seemed to understand as he stopped bouncing and sat still.

"Alright, well.. I was just minding my own business, climbing a tree, when-"

Noah snorted loudly, "You? Minding your own business? Tell it to someone who'll believe your lies Julia."

Julia shot him a glare, "Okay fine. I wasn't minding my own business but I was climbing a tree and guess who I saw." She paused, likely for dramatic effect but two members of the group took it as a question and the pause as an opportunity to answer.

"Uhh Masato!"

"Riot?"

"Your mom?"

"Princess Celestia!"

"A Karen!"

"Oh! Oh!! Wait! Was it that clown guy, Haavik?"

Julia shot Dan and Paul a death stare. "No it wasn't any of those, you idiots. It was Magnus and Ajit."

Instantly Noah let out a gasp, "No way! Are you implying..?" Kurin caught on to what Noah meant and his eyes widened slightly while anticipating the answer.

"Listen I saw the two of them, they were walking next to eachother and their hands kept brushing against eachother. Then Ajit just grabbed Magnus's hand? And he was so suprised they both stopped walking, or at least I think that's why he stopped? Then they both seemed to talk about something then I'm like nintey nine percent sure I saw Ajit lean up like he was gonna kiss Magnus on the cheek or something, but then a squirrel appeared next to me and I kinda freaked out and fell out the tree so I didn't see the rest."

Silence filled the room after Julia stopped talking but then after a whole ten seconds of everyone registering the information that'd just been loaded onto them had passed...

"NO WAY!"

"About time!"

"Please say you're not joking..!"

"This better be real!"

"Fuck that squirrel man."

"Does this mean I can tease them about this later? I really hope it means that."

"Do you think they're dating now?"

"Probably not dating, maybe they've confessed though?"

"Agreed, fuck squirrels all my homies hate squirrels."

"I can't believe they stopped denying their feelings?!"

"Wait shit do you think they saw you?"

"Probably not, they were quite far away."

"I can't believe this finally happened!"

"That squirrel is the worst."

***

Around ten pm, Zhao knocked on the door to Kurin, Noah and Magnus's room. At first the trio nearly missed it due to Magnus and Noah loudly arguing over at Magnus's side of the room while Kurin sat on his bed playing along to some song on his guitar. Luckily on the third knock they heard him and Kurin answered the door while Noah and Magnus continued yelling. Zhao seemed suprised when Kurin shut the door behind him. "It's a bit.. Chaotic in there." He explained, sighing.

When Noah had asked if what Julia had told them all meant he could tease Magnus he, unfortunately, hadn't been joking. The second Magnus had entered the room he'd started asking about a million questions a minute, Magnus had instantly got mad at him and then their "conversation" had drifted into an argument.

"I see..." Zhao nodded, "Well, I just wanted to ask if you all wanted to come to the common room, a few of us were thinking of having a film night!"

"Hm, depends..." Kurin replied thoughtfully, "What film is it?"

The question seemed to take Zhao off guard. "Oh, well you see, there's still a debate about that going on... Half of us want to watch Pokémon the power of us and the other half want to watch Hunger games." He explained, "Bet you can guess how we've decided to settle it!" He winked.

Kurin nodded, "Majority vote?"

"You got it!" Zhao put up a peace sign, "So are you gonna join us?"

"Yeah sure, and I'll see if I can get Magnus and Noah to stop yelling for long enough to see if they want to come too."

"Sweet!" Zhao cheered, already turning to go run and knock for some others, "See ya then!"

Kurin waved then went back into his dorm where Noah and Magnus were still yelling at eachother, unaware that Kurin had just left the room or re-entered. Now time for the difficult part... Kurin thought, sitting back down on his bed and pulling his laptop towards him. Let's stop this argument.

***

Thanks to Noah's built in meme sensor, Kurin was able to stop his half of the argument by playing a few vines and funny videos. While Magnus came to a stop on his own, knowing there's no point arguing with someone who's not listening.

Once they'd both shut their mouths, Kurin passed on Zhao's question to them. They'd both agreed that they'd go, although on the way they'd started another debate on which of the two films were better.

So now sitting in the common room with everyone else, Kurin watched as Zhao tried to get everyone to vote calmly but almost everyone else was too busy arguing to listen. Eventually they did listen and everyone placed their votes.

Honestly it's a mystery how the winning film wasn't either of the ones that people were debating about... But either way they all ended up watching bridge to terabithia. A compromise everyone was happy with.

***

It was funny really how quickly time passed. It had been a whole two weeks since everyone had heard about Dan and Kurin being a couple. No one who knew it was fake or thought it was real had really said anything after the first two days. The most said since then was a comment from Noah when him and Kurin were alone in the dorm, "Y'know it's kinda ironic, you and Dan aren't a couple but are pretending you are while Magnus and Ajit are clearly a couple by now but are pretending they're not."

Ajit's words had turned out to be true, no one had doubted the rumor and after double checking with the two of them, everyone just believed they were actually a couple without a second thought.

That was something Kurin was wondering about as he sat in one of the school's music practice rooms. He was just going through the drum part of a song he was making a cover of. By this point he barely had to think about the music he was playing since he'd practiced this part so many times before it was memorized, leaving him free to think about other things... So he did.

He was wondering if his classmates who didn't know the truth really just believed whatever they were told even if there was nothing to back it up, or if there was something that made it believable. Personally Kurin didn't understand what there could be, sure him and Dan were close but he was just as close with some of the others, right? Maybe they were just really good actors, although no that couldn't be it since they hadn't even tried to act other than the lies of confirmation when people had asked...

Then on the topic of those lies, when they'd been talking to Lia that day... Kurin still felt like there was some truth behind the words he'd spoken then. He'd realised those were likely some of the things that led him to get along so well with Dan, not even mentioning their shared music taste. He still didn't understand about what felt familiar with Dan's excuse though...

"Uhm I'm not sure actually, it was a lot of things I guess? Like man, we'd been friends for so long I hardly realised I'd caught feelings until one day it just hit me, haha!"

There was just something familiar about it he still couldn't quite place his finger on...

That was when he realised something.

"This isn't the part I was supposed to be playing.. This is from a whole other song!"

***

It wasn't for another three days when Kurin began to realise something related to what Dan had said. He was taking a walk at Pinpoint park after having been to town. Music was playing through his headphones as usual, from a playlist he'd made of music that wasn't exactly the genre he normally would listen to but enjoyed all the same.

A song had just began playing, friends don't kiss friends. Kurin thought back to when he'd discovered this song.

"Hey, what're you listening to..?"

Kurin sat down next to Zhao on the common room couch and asked the question that he'd been wondering the answer to for about half an hour now.

It was a warm spring afternoon so most people were outside, either playing sports, just hanging out, in the case of some they were playing pranks and many were eating ice-cream. Kurin had opted for a quieter option of staying indoors and working on the lyrics for a song he'd been working on. Not too long ago Zhao had entered the room and had sat down nearby with his earphones in, he'd nodded hi at Kurin when he'd entered but since then he'd been sitting in the same position just listening to a song, Kurin could tell it was the same one since Zhao had his music turned up so loud Kurin could hear it even though he had earphones in.

Zhao looked up suprised at the sound of Kurin's voice, "Oh uhm.. It's just some song I found the other day.."

"It can't be 'just some song' if you've been listening to it on loop for half an hour." Kurin replied casually.

That shocked Zhao, "Oh god you could hear it? I'm really sorry."

"No don't worry!" Kurin rushed to correct Zhao's thought, "I don't mind, I was just wondering what it's called?"

The other sighed, "Alright but, promise not to make fun of me..?" After Kurin promised, Zhao continued, "Alright, it's called friends don't kiss friends... I just heard it the other day and ever since I've been thinking..."

Kurin became curious at that, "Thinking about what?"

"Well uh... You see..."

Zhao had then told Kurin about what'd happened during the Christmas holidays, how before he went into his house, while saying goodbye to Pepe he'd randomly kissed him. He hadn't really thought about it much, neither of them had ever brought it up, but since hearing that song Zhao had begun to realise that maybe there was more to his and Pepe's friendship than he'd realised before. However he wasn't sure if Pepe thought the same and he still wasn't entirely sure what it all meant.

Kurin hadn't been able to come up with a response as he'd never had any type of situation like that, he'd just told the other that he's sure it'll turn out fine in the end and that maybe he should try looking into his feelings more?

About a week or two later it seemed like Pepe and Zhao had talked about things, they still weren't sure about what it all meant but about a month later they'd figured it out and became boyfriends.

Zhao had said something else to Kurin then, "I guess I was so used to me and Pepe just being close friends that I didn't realise there was something more there than just friendship!"

Having remembered that, something clicked in Kurin's head.

"Uhm I'm not sure actually, it was a lot of things I guess? Like man, we'd been friends for so long I hardly realised I'd caught feelings until one day it just hit me, haha!"

The reason why Dan's words had sounded so familiar was at least partially because of what Zhao had said about him and Pepe a year and a quarter ago.

Finally realising that was a relief to Kurin.

Although, he could tell that it was only part of the reason the other's words had stuck with him.

***

The last person Kurin wanted to speak to was currently speaking to him. Great. If only switching to Magnus and Noah's room meant no more dealing with Everett, ever. Unfortunately running into him in the corridors in school at lunch was unpreventable.

Currently the irritating blonde was spreading some rumor he'd heard. Although from the sound of it, Everett had made up the rumor and was spreading it around to cause trouble.

"Look, there is no way that is real. China Riot does not have a criminal record Everett." Kurin deadpanned. While the short girl with pink pigtails does act like she could commit a crime with ease, Kurin struggles to believe that she actually has.

"Well thats what people are saying!"

"Do you just believe anything you're told?"

"No!"

"Judging from evidence, it'd seem like you do." He began to walk away.

"What's that supposed to mean? What evidence?" Everett called, following him.

Ah. That's a problem. The evidence he was thinking of was the lie about him and Dan being a couple... What can he even say.

"Well maybe that you never seem to fact check before spreading rumors everywhere?" Someone interrupted. Kurin turned around to see Wynton standing there. "If you want I have a whole list of rumors spread by you that got proved fake?" He offered.

"No thanks!" Everett quickly yelled, "Your list is probably all wrong anyways!" He called over his shoulder as he dashed off.

The second he was gone Wynton burst out laughing then shook his head, "I knew his rumors were all fake. You okay Kurin?"

Kurin nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks Wynton."

"No prob' dude! Hey you haven't seen Shun anywhere have you? I've been looking all over but no luck."

When the two finally found Shun, he was filming a Glanz four tree climbing competition that Julia was clearly winning. Paul wasn't too far behind though while encouraging Felix who was a few branches down from him, Noah was definitely losing.

While Kurin was watching he noticed something and he figured he should talk to someone about this one...

***

"You're kidding." Julia gave Kurin a look. "You're not serious."

Kurin sighed, "Yeah. I am serious." He was already regretting asking Julia this, he should've asked Noah. He really should've asked Noah.

See, earlier when Kurin had noticed something it had been something about Paul and Felix that'd made him wonder if maybe the two were more than anyone had realised. Although since asking Julia he was beginning to wonder if he was the only one who hadn't noticed...

"Dude, the two of them clearly have more than just a friendship, they have for like, forever!" The redhead exclaimed, then in a mutter added, "Though I'm not surprised you didn't notice."

Kurin blinked, "What?"

"Nothing!"

"No I heard you. But what do you mean by that?"

Julia let out a sigh, "You don't need to know, but it's just like you said. Paul and Felix's situation is like Pepe and Zhao's was before they realised how much more they meant to eachother than just 'best friends'."

"Seriously Julia what aren't you telling me?" The non-binary had begun to get a little frustrated, sure Julia often spoke in riddles to mess with people but he normally understood them, this time though... He had no idea.

"Ugh, you really want me to tell you, huh? Well you better remember this, because I'm not gonna repeat it. I think there's a certain two people who seem to be a couple but aren't, however I think they have feelings for eachother but just haven't realised it yet." Julia pauses then, "Anyway, I've told you my theory. Now, please kindly fuck off so I can get back to trolling people in Roblox."

Although confused, Kurin left, knowing that: One, he would not be getting any more information out of Julia than that. Two, if Julia is that determined to troll random Roblox players then there's no stopping her.

And three, he finally had an idea of what he'd been missing every other time he'd looked to find this out..

***

"What do you want?" Pepe glared at Kurin. The captain of the school football team had never been keen on interacting with any of his classmates, except Zhao and occasionally Crystal, Jenny and Shun, in anyway whatsoever.

So when he'd answered the door instead of Zhao, it was safe to say Kurin wasn't feeling as confident as before. "Oh, uh I was hoping to ask you and Zhao a question."

"Zhao went out about two hours ago. He was meeting up with Wynton and Jenny. What did you want to ask?"

Ah, fuck. This is gonna be awkward...

"Well you know how uh,"

"Just get to the point already. I may have nothing to do, but I'm not wasting all day waiting for you to ask some question."

Ugh, this sucked... "Yeah, sorry. I just don't know how to word it."

"Then come back when you do." Pepe started to close the door.

"Wait! It's just, how did you and Zhao realise there was something more to your friendship back then? I know it's a weird question but I was just talking to someone and they implied that I might be in a situation like that and ugh I just thought asking you or Zhao about this could help, I don't know.." Kurin trailed off.

He didn't notice Pepe's expression change. "Aren't you...? Look, just come in and talk about it inside. I'm not standing at my room door for what I'm assuming will be a long conversation."

***

Once they were both seated, Pepe instantly confirmed what Kurin had tried to say, "Let me get this right, you think you like someone but you're not sure because you're so used to just being close friends with them?"

Kurin nodded.

"But isn't Dan Kouzo your boyfriend?"

The non-binary winced, "Well about that... Not really, see, Julia had this argument with Everett and...-"

After Kurin had explained the whole situation, Pepe looked confused but somewhat understanding. "So to win an argument and to defend you against that blonde bitch they lied and then you all had to lie to keep the story going... So what made you realise that you may actually like him?"

Kurin then told Pepe about everything from the talk with Lia to the song in the playlist, to the Glanz four tree climbing competition, to the conversation with Julia he'd just had the day before.

"Huh." Was Pepe's only response at first after Kurin finished, he seemed to be thinking through all the information he'd just gotten. Kurin waited in silence for him to reply.

Five minutes later he finally got that response. "Since you're asking someone, it's obvious that you think it's true at least partially. So obviously, yeah your friend was right. You should talk to him."

Kurin blinked. Was the answer actually that easy? Was it just as simple as if you think it could be true then yeah it's probably true?

Apparently after blinking he just stayed staring into the air as Pepe snapped, "Hey! What are you looking so gormless for! I gave you your answer didn't I?" He glared, then seemed to soften. "Look, I get your situation, it's difficult and especially so in your case... Just don't think about it too hard and eventually you'll come to a conclusion of what you want to do about your feelings. Things will probably work out. I don't know. Zhao would know, it's best you don't ask him though, he can't keep his mouth shut half the time..."

The non-binary laughed, "I suppose so, thanks Pepe."

"Yeah whatever."

They both stood up and headed to the door as Kurin left. He was halfway down the corridor before he heard Pepe call after him, "When you've got things figured out completely tell me how it went!" Kurin have a thumbs up before continuing back to his dorm.

***

Going back to the dorm was a mistake. The second he entered the dorm he got hit with a flying cushion and barely dodged a shoe. Once again his roommates were at war and not for the first time he asked himself if maybe he should've asked to share a dorm with Aay and his roommate instead of these two.

"Why can't you just keep your damn mouth shut Noah!" Magnus yelled, throwing a hat that Kurin was fairly sure was Julia's across the room at Noah.

"I didn't do anything!" Noah yelled back, dodging the hat and throwing a pair of socks at Magnus.

"Yes you did!"

"I seriously didn't!"

Wanting to get across the room to his things Kurin coughed loudly then asked "Uh what's going on?"

Instantly Noah ran over to him, a stuffed toy that he'd been preparing to throw at the tallest of the three roommates in his hand. "Kurin! You're here! Please tell Magnus he's being unreasonable!"

"You're the one being unreasonable Noah!" Magnus yelled, chucking a pencil case at Noah's head, which luckily was aimed too high and just flew right over its intended target.

"What happened? Seriously."

Noah looked up at Kurin then looked over at Magnus and said loudly, "He's mad because I accidentally told Lia what Julia saw the other day."

"As if I'm actually going to believe it was an accident..!"

Kurin let out a sigh, "Yeah, ok fuck this. I'm leaving." He walked over to his side of the room grabbed his bag and then walked back out the door, hearing Magnus and Noah begin to resume arguing behind him.

Some things never change.

Magnus and Noah should be renamed Some and Things, Kurin thinks.

***

Kurin knocked upon the door of Dan and Ajit's room wondering what form of weird headwear Dan would likely have today. Part of him was replaying the conversation with Pepe in his head, they'd already decided to wait until they'd made a decision to say anything to Dan about, well, liking him. But the feelings he may have towards the other was not going to get in the way of their regular hangouts.

These hangouts had become such a regular thing Kurin barely even thought much about it anymore, they weren't even planned or anything, since they rest became friends with the two it was just habit to meet almost every day in Dan and Ajit's room to just hangout, talk, reccomend music, play video games, whatever really!

Although try not to cringe challenges were strictly banned as the one time the three attempted one of those, it did not go so well, they were all screaming about how cringe it was so loudly Benton had to check on them to make sure they weren't being murdered.

Fake dating had done nothing to stop the hangouts or the chaos that came with them.

Dan opened the door, "Hey Kurin! How's it going?" He grinned, "C'mon in! Ajit found this really funny chatfic and we had the idea to do try not to laugh to it!"

Kurin stayed silent, simply staring at Dan...

"Um Kurin? Something wrong?" Dan asked the non-binary.

"No, it's the opposite of wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"You're," He started, blinking as if unable to believe that what he was seeing wasn't some kind of illusion, after all this couldn't be true...

"Not wearing a stupid hat!"

Instantly Dan's eyes widened and his hand reached up to feel the top of his head where usually, a hat would be. "Oh shit! That means...-"

"I win!" Ajit yelled rushing to the door to stand beside and make fun of Dan. "You know what that means..!" He taunted.

The red streaked sighed, "You win.. I gotta get you candy or something..."

"Hell yeah!"

"Wait.. You mean it was a bet? Not just.. Dan being Dan?"

Blue and amber eyes turned to look at Kurin.

"Ah, we never told you?"

***

It'd been twenty minutes since Kurin had arrived and since they'd found out about the bet Dan and Ajit had made. Unsurprisingly smart on Ajit's part. Kept going for suprisingly long on Dan's part. Although pointless and weird, it was kind of extremely funny especially their explanations for it all. Especially hearing about how Dan made all the hats.

Anyway the three were now all lying on the floor in the middle of the room gathered around Ajit's laptop, reading off the screen.

"What's up y'all?"

"Eyes emoji."

"Oh now fun can't wait for this to blow up my phone at three am."

"None of you should be up at three am!"

"UHHHH-"

The three burst into laughter.

***

"You can delete messages?"

"Perhaps.."

"I didn't see it, what did you say?"

"Nothing. Smiley face."

"Hm... Suspicious."

"Smiley face."

"DAN PLEASE STOP SAYING SMILEY FACE!" Kurin yelled, "YOU DONT HAVE TO SAY IT EVERYTIME OH MY GOD!"

"Evil smiley face." Was the red streaked's only response.

"STOP!"

***

It'd been half an hour since they'd finished reading the fanfic and almost two hours since they'd failed the try not to laugh challenge for the first time.

The trio were just talking about random things that'd happened at school lately, Dan occasionally replying to something with a variation of "Smiley face." to annoy the other two.

At some point Kurin decided it was time to leave and go back to his dorm, when he arrived back he saw only Magnus was there.

"Noah went to talk to Paul and Felix about something I think." Magnus answered Kurin's unasked question.

They nodded, "Oh, I see."

Magnus didn't seem like he was going say anything else so Kurin was about to put his earphones in but then out of nowhere, Magnus uncharacteristically spoke again, "Sorry for nearly hitting you with a shoe earlier."

"Ah, uh don't worry about it."

"I'll try not to."

The room fell silent again, then Kurin thought of something.

"Was Julia even telling the truth?"

Magnus flushed red.

"Ok, that's all the confirmation I need."

The silence seemed to begin again and this time stayed uninterrupted until ten minutes later when Noah burst into the room loudly announcing that Felix has a secret pet cat and then all three begun to discuss that.

***

It was a while before Kurin decided say anything about his feelings. Well if you count a whole two months as a while that is. They'd just been taking a long time thinking about it all... And also a long time forgetting to think about it because holy hell a lot happened.

First the new kid in their class Callie, had caused quite a stir as it was the first time their class had gotten a new student since two years ago when Crystal had transferred. Luckily she was less psychic than the last new student had been (no offense to Crystal) although a lot more energetic and she was also a huge fan of art and creating things. She'd been put in Julia and Monica's room with them and was often found lying half on her bed, half on the floor making a bracelet out of wool or ribbons or sewing something that'd turn into another cool creation of hers. She was also pretty funny and easy to get along with. So that was cool.

Next there was the incident with the Glanz four. You know, the incident where they decided to prove everyone wrong that they couldn't do anything dumber than what they do on the daily. The bike incident! Yeah. The one where the four of them decided to ride a toddlers bike down a hill and ended up falling in a lake and having to walk back to the dorms with god knows how many injuries...

Then there was the two am fire alarm that Aay pulled while sleepwalking, the food fight, Benton and Philomena discovering Felix's secret pet cat, the uh curse incident, the seance which Kurin was definitely, absolutely NOT involved in, multiple film nights, more arguments between Magnus and Noah, Zhao's YouTube channel becoming famous after filming a fight, Pepe breaking a window with a football by accident, Wynton and Jenny accidentally breaking another window with a invention gone wrong and Magnus and Ajit actually becoming a couple.

Yeah all that. In just two months. Crazy right? How are any of them still alive? No one knows.

All throughout this time things had stayed the same between Kurin and Dan, but lately the non-binary been thinking, he should actually tell Dan about how he feels?

But first,

Due to reasons that definitely aren't just Kurin being a nervous wreck.

He would talk to Julia before telling Dan anything.

When he arrived and knocked on Julia's dorm Callie was the one to open the door, "Ah hey Callie, is Julia here?" Kurin asked. Callie simply nodded and stepped aside, unable to say anything because she was holding a sewing needle in her mouth and a hoodie in one hand, Kurin guessed the needle was in her mouth so she could open the door with the hand it'd previously been in.

He was quickly proved right as the second the door was shut she took the needle out of her mouth and resumed sewing, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I figured I'd add some patterns and things to this hoodie, it was kinda just plain and boring before and it's not like I have anything else to do really." She shrugged her shoulders and jumped backwards into a sitting position on her bed.

"Nice, bet it'll turn out great!"

Callie nodded, "Hopefully!"

"Hey Kurin." Julia waved him over to where she was sitting on the floor against her bed, eyes scanning the screen of her laptop. Kurin accepted the invite and made his way across the maze of assorted junk on the floor to reach where their friend was sitting and to sit down beside her.

Almost immediately he saw she had been googling.

What the fuck is her obsession with serial killers... I mean they're kind of interesting but this is the sixth time this week and it's only Wednesday! He wondered almost in awe at how his friend has the dedication to research serial killers that much but not even bother to take any notes during class whatsoever.

"So what's up? You wanted to talk to me?" She asked placing the laptop to one side.

Kurin blinked, after seeing Julia's ridiculous amount of Google tabs about serial killers he'd almost forgotten why he'd came here.  "Oh, so you know how months ago you said you think that I like Dan?"

"And that Dan probably likes you back too, yeah. Why? You gonna tell me you're actually dating? 'Bout time!"

"No! Wait- What! You think he likes me! What!?"

"You mean to tell me it wasn't obvious to you? Eh whatever, I knew you weren't smart but I'd never assumed you were that dumb. So when's the confession, you asking for backup? Someone to hide in a tree and watch? Cause a distraction if you chicken out halfway through so you don't humiliate yourself by blurting out the first thing that comes to your mind?" Julia joked, barely stopping to breathe to keep the string of joking suggestions going.

"No, I just wanted to tell you I was actually going to tell him. You were the first person who realised I liked him after all. Hell you knew before I did!"

"Wow I never knew Julia was a love expert!" Callie grinned from across the room.

Julia let out a loud groan, "If you pricked your finger with that needle right now, I would laugh." She shot back.

"Ouch... Okay!" The green haired girl laughed, holding her full hands up in defense before going back to her sewing.

Kurin gave Julia a look and she instantly looked away, he laughed internally, deciding he'd keep quiet about the realisation he'd just came to, especially around Noah, the amount he'd tease her if he knew would be endless.

"Well.. Yeah. Like I said, that's because you're stupid."

On the other hand maybe he should tell Noah, the teasing might be good payback.

"But I'm sure when you actually tell him it'll go well, besides according to the gossipers you've been a couple for about three months already."

Nah, they'd be nice. Getting teased by Noah is more torture than payback for a few small insults. He'd just pull a small prank on her to get her back for that.

"Thanks, Julia."

"No problem, now go and tell Dan already! You've already waited two whole months. Hurry up!" She stood up, grabbed Kurin's wrists and pulled him up too, then pushed him towards the room door.

"Alright, alright!" They laughed.

"Good luck Kurin!" Monica called from where she'd been sitting reading a book through the whole conversation.

"Yeah! Go for it dude! I'm sure it'll go well!"

"Thanks!" He called back, before getting shoved out of the door.

***

Well. This was familiar, wasn't it? Kurin walked from having just talked with Julia to go find Dan and ask him something. Yeah this was really familiar.

He walked the familiar route to Dan and Ajit's room then knocked a rythm onto the wood. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, but he'd also be lying if he said he was really nervous. Part of him was scared but another was telling him that things would be fine, maybe it's because of what Julia said.. But most likely it's because of how familiar everything is to around three months ago when Julia got into that argument with Everett and Dan covered for both  them and Julia by telling the irritating blonde that he was Kurin's boyfriend.

Maybe how simple that situation had been was the reason he wasn't that nervous.

The door opened.

Dan was standing there,

A beanie with monopoly pieces glued all over it on his head.

"Kurin! Hi! Come in! I was just going through all the hats I made when me and Ajit had that bet going on and when I heard you knock I decided to wear it just for the memes you know?"

Kurin burst out laughing, "How did you even get that many monopoly pieces?"

"I bought them online!"

"Why do then even sell that many together!?" Kurin cracked up even harder.

"I dunno! It's pretty cool that they do sell them though!" Dan replied, laughing too, "So are you gonna come in or, you were just coming by to say hi?"

Kurin paused in his laughter, "Sure." He replied setting his mind back to what he was supposed to be doing rather than the monopoly pieces on Dan's hat.

When the two had sat down in the middle of a literal ocean of the weirdest hats you'd ever see in your life, Kurin asked the question...

"Hey where's Ajit?"

"Oh he said he was going somewhere with Magnus, probably Pinpoint Park I think." Dan replied with a shrug.

The enby nodded in response, "Gotcha." Then he went quiet again, trying to figure out a good way to word what he really came here to say. "So, Dan, you remember that time you told Everett we were a couple to stop Julia from saying something stupid that one time?"

The red streaked tilted his head to one side then nodded, "'Course I remember! Why?"

"Well there's something kind of ironic about it I wanted to tell you..." They began.

"Huh? Ironic?"

"Yeah, see uh you know how we told anyone who asked that we were, well together when we weren't?"

Dan nodded again, "Yeah..?"

"Well uh..." Kurin tried, convinced his face looked like a tomato, "Well... Oh god words suck. Just umm..."

Dan burst out laughing, "Oh my god! Yeah! Words can suck!" Kurin began laughing too.

"They really do, oh man.. I guess I'm just gonna try and say it, um Dan? I know we were just lying to everyone about us being together but uh, I actually um like you and uh... I wouldn't mind if those lies became real..!" He ended up blurting out the last words and then took a deep breath before adding, "God, I had no idea it'd be that difficult and that easy to say, how the hell did Magnus and Ajit manage it!"

Dan's blue eyes stayed staring at Kurin but then he blinked and let out a laugh, "I want to agree with what you said about Magnus and Ajit but I don't think either of us would be right to talk about that! Especially because oh man I feel the same actually, it took me so long to realise but when I did, I didn't know what to do! So I just kept quiet.."

"Oh.. Yeah, I realised a few months ago but I think I took someone's advice to not think about it too much and that I'd eventually come to a conclusion... Wait... You feel the same?!"

The two looked at eachother, and started to laugh again. Once they finished laughing Kurin spoke again, "I guess you're right about us not being in any place to talk about how the hell Magnus and Ajit managed to confess... At least they didn't take over two months to realise their feelings and confess and all that... Wait. So what even happens now?"

"Huh?"

"Well we feel the same about eachother.. Uh I'm not actually sure what happens now..."

"Oh, me neither." Dan shrugged, "I mean, does anything have to happen? It doesn't feel like that much has changed since before we finally told eachother about our feelings, we felt the same before we told eachother so just keep doing things the same as always?"

"Yeah, that makes sense.." Kurin nodded. "Yeah!"

Dan grinned back almost shyly, seeming happy that his thought had made sense to the other.

"So, want to hear what I think I figured out about Julia?"

"Sure!"

***

Just like they'd said, things between them still felt pretty much the same, Julia had joked that was because they'd already been dating for three months before the confession. Kurin had joked she should confess to her own crush before talking crap. "I preferred it when you didn't know about that." Julia had grumbled, more embarrassed than annoyed though.

Like he'd agreed to they did tell Pepe about what happened, this time Zhao was there too and although he was suprised to hear that the two hadn't been together the past three months like he'd thought this whole time, however he'd been extremely happy for the two of them, Pepe had also been happy although in a less noticeable way, the more toned down version of happy that only Pepe and Magnus could really seem to manage.

Speaking of Magnus, he'd just shrugged when Kurin told him about him and Dan, saying he figured that would happen at some point, while Dan got the shorter end of the stick with a bucket load of teasing from Ajit.

Suprisingly Noah, Paul and Felix didn't tease any of them, Paul and Felix mostly understanding while Noah was a little too preoccupied to bother teasing anyone, he'd somehow managed to fall out of a tree and had to have a cast put on his arm. He refused to tell anyone why he was up the tree in the first place, but according to Shun who had seen the whole thing happen, it was a lot to do with him seeing a squirrel while tree climbing and getting frightened but not being as lucky as Julia was when she fell from a tree and didn't have anything worse than bruises and scratches.

Monica and Kurin began working as a team to tease Julia about her feelings for her green haired roommate. While said green haired roommate finished her hoodie customisation and was actually being assertive about her own feelings towards Julia.

And finally, Dan and Kurin stayed as both best friends and romantic partners, for real.

Oh? What about Everett you ask? Well you see, Everett tried to spread a rumor about Wynton, but Wynton was ready with his list of fake rumors Everett had spread in the past... And a video was uploaded on Zhao's channel exposing all of them as lies. Everett just stuck to photography after that...

And this would be the end!

12923 words motherfuckers! I've never written anything longer or as long as this in my whole life.....!