Epilogue

Mouse turns on his heel,the first to leave. Charis spares a look at his other members, who look at him with raised eyebrows.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go," Kiki tells him, and Charis takes off without needing to be told twice.

"What kind of yojeong nonsense—" Kiki mutters, folding his arms and looking around between the various faces of his members.

Soohyun just shakes his head.

Charis runs out of the common room, the doors banging shut behind him while his long blond hair streams behind. He follows Mouse's trail and catches up with him just outside.

Mouse looks up from where he's leaning against the railing, smoking one of the cigarettes he'd pinched from Seojun. "You didn't have to run. I wasn't trying to run away from you."

"Hey," Charis says. "Are you doing okay?"

He looks askance at the cigarette pinched between Mouse's fingers but doesn't say anything about it.

Mouse flicks it away all the same. "I can feel you judging me, you know."

"Good," Charis says lightly. "It's a dirty habit and bad for your voice." He kisses Mouse on one soft, smooth cheek and whispers in his ear, "Besides, I like the way you taste better without it."

Mouse's slim, black eyebrows go up, impressed by the blatant flirting. He almost wishes he still had the cigarette in his hand just so he could fling it away a second time.

"Who taught you how to flirt?" Mouse asks. "You're going to devastate the earth with a weapon like that. Put it away, put it away."

"I wonder who," Charis teases back.

"Yeah," Mouse says, staring into the distance, across the broad, flat field. The joking smile falls off his lips, and he lapses into a serious expression again, standing beside Pocky. "I guess I'm okay."

He puts his hands in his pockets and glances at Charis again after a little while.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Mouse doesn't have to say what he's talking about in order for Charis to already know.

Charis sounds helpless when he speaks. He knows he doesn't have a good excuse, and he doesn't try to make any. It hurts him, the way Mouse sounds subtly hurt, even if he's only speaking casually.

"It wasn't my secret to tell, and then…" Charis shrugs, looking out at the field with his own hands in his pockets. "I guess I was selfish. You were driving me crazy, you know. I had my head so wrapped up in you, I just didn't want it to end. I didn't want to tell you something that might take your eyes off of me. Horrible, right?"

"Silly," Mouse says. "You're so silly. Nothing could ever make me take my eyes off of you. Not fairies or devils. Not ghosts or spirits. It's only you, Pocky. It's always gonna be."

It feels like unearned grace, the way that Mouse loves him. Charis could never deserve it. But he's starting to think that he can accept it. Maybe it doesn't matter why—why Mouse loves him, or what Charis can give. Maybe it's enough to know that he does.

Maybe that's why it makes him feel so warm and safe.

"Do you think we can win against 4QY?"

"I don't know," Mouse says. "I think we're gonna fight and try our hardest. Isn't that enough?"

"Yeah. I guess it is."

A light, gentle snow starts falling after a little while. When Charis looks down, he sees Mouse with his hand down at his side, held out toward Charis. Charis puts his gloved hand in Mouse's and feels Mouse's fingers close around his.

It feels warm like this, holding hands and watching the snow.

Whatever form the future takes, Charis finally feels like it's going to be okay.