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Brett isn't short. He's 170cm tall—around 5ft 7 in—and that's a fair enough height for an Asian man.
Eddy just needs two more inches to reach the six feet gang at 178cm. He's considerably tall and he's been in the basketball team once in his life, so that's something.
However, this meager 8cm difference is making their fans crazy. He has caught Brett asking him whether he's that short in his point of view so many times and he understands why it's been a prickly subject for his shorter friend because Brett isn't really short. He just happened to be at a slight disadvantage when compared to Eddy.
So, Eddy has never minded the 8cm height difference because it was pretty useless to him anyway...until the incident happened.
Brett and he were running late to their appointment with one of the managers they would be working with for the 4M Mendelssohn concert when they got a bit too close while trying to put their shoes on before leaving their flat.
Brett, as the shorter one, seemed to have not noticed what happened. Eddy, however, did and it did things to his brain that altered everything he thought about Brett's height.
Brett's forehead was exactly aligned to Eddy's lips.
Brett's forehead was perfect for forehead kisses.
Perfectly aligned forehead kisses for his perfectly short friend.
It was just a simple graze, and it landed on Brett's fringe.
It wasn't anything meaningful.
It was just an accident. A happy one, Eddy might add.
But it spread out so much happy hormones across Eddy's brain as if he just saw the cutest puppy in the world. In fact, the graze had been the only thing playing non-stop in his brain during the whole meeting. It was a good thing that he had Brett to go over the details with the manager, otherwise, it would have been a disaster.
The graze had been the only thing in his mind even after they left the meeting.
Eddy did try his best to remove his thoughts about his newfound realisation that his friend was indeed short. He never thought he would meet the day he finally understood why fans go crazy about it. It was also making him crazy.
His mind could not fathom the thoughts that started getting in his mind.
Brett was still his best friend. Brett was still a man. Brett did not shrink an inch. Brett was pretty much the same guy he roomed with before the incident. However, Eddy could not stop thinking about how he would love to give his best friend a perfectly aligned forehead kiss.
Eddy was trying to get himself out of the impulsive thoughts since he does not want to make his best friend feel weird just because he has the compulsion to do the perfectly aligned forehead kiss. Besides, even if he meant it to be completely platonic, other people might not see it the way he sees it and he would much rather avoid complications and misunderstandings. So, he really should throw all thoughts related to the perfectly aligned forehead kiss out of the window and move on.
Perhaps, Eddy has thought about erasing it from his mind so much that it burned in his memory instead since two days after the incident, his body made an unconscious conscious decision of giving a forehead kiss to his friend right before he left their flat to go somewhere he doesn't even remember.
It was only when he got to his Uber ride that he distinctly remembers the feeling of Brett's rough fringe brushing against his lips before he left the flat.
Did I just do that now?
Suffice to say, the Uber driver considered driving Eddy to the nearest hospital with the way Eddy had been knocking the window with his head throughout the whole ride. Eddy couldn't even recall why he had booked a ride to a shopping centre and spent the rest of his time there just walking around for two hours and not practising. It was only when he returned home to a violin with a missing E string that he remembered that he was supposed to buy strings.
"Oh, dude, I didn't hear you come in. I was about to text you if you could buy some milk when you returned," Brett nonchalantly commented when he saw Eddy's bedroom door slightly ajar.
That took Eddy by surprise and caused him to jump and land ungracefully next to the bed.
Brett curled his eyebrows in confusion.
"...the fuck, bro? You okay?"
Eddy shook his head like a dog before reassuring his friend that he was fine.
"What happened, dude? You look like you saw a ghost," Brett inquired, face teetering between concern and repressed laughter. Eddy tried to look at his friend, but all he could think was the feeling of hair against his lips. It plagued his mind so much that fear crept in his body.
"Dude?"
"It's nothing. I..." Eddy looked around and avoided his best friend's gaze. "...I just saw someone...someone that I thought was my ex."
Brett released a loud snort before laughing at Eddy. Eddy was miffed at the reaction but was also relieved that Brett didn't seem to remember anything about a forehead kiss he may or may not given earlier that day.
"Dude, did you run away like you ran to the bathroom when we saw Toni in the airport? You looked like that back then."
Eddy let Brett mock him for the next few minutes. Hopefully, that would remove his mind off the thought of giving his perfectly sized friend for perfectly aligned forehead kisses.
The next time it happened wasn't even a whole twenty-four hours after the latest forehead kiss.
This time, it was Brett who was leaving the flat to meet with the orchestra's coordinator for the 4M livestream.
It had been an early morning meeting and Brett and Eddy had initially decided to meet with the coordinator together. However, at 7AM, Eddy's brain was still in a Do Not Disturb mode, so Brett made a last-minute decision to meet the coordinator himself as his business partner was still bleary-eyed and still in T-shirt and boxers at 7:30. (And the meeting was at 8.)
So, to make up for his unpreparedness, Eddy sleepily walked Brett to the lift.
And somehow due to lack of proper cognitive function due to his limited wakefulness, Eddy had given another one of his perfectly aligned forehead kisses to Brett.
Then, promptly left the lifts to head back to bed.
(Brett made no mentions of this when he returned home to a perfectly awake and cognitively primed Eddy.)
Eddy supposes that if he leaves the thought out of his mind, he would no longer notice the height difference, the perfect alignments, and whatnot.
And so, he did. He went on with his usual daily life. He tried to ignore the fact that he's looking down on Brett whenever they're close to each other and that Brett's crown is perfect next to his lips whenever they do. He even started to face the walls in the lift just so he wouldn't get reminded by the thought.
And it worked...
...and not quite so at the same time.
Because all it did was remove the present compulsive thought into his subconscious and so he did gave all those perfectly aligned forehead kisses to Brett without giving it much thought. So, Eddy barely remembers him doing it, he does not give too much of a damn about it anymore, and he has unconsciously made it into a habit.
From a simple lip graze to the fringe to a downright sickeningly sweet habit of tapping his lips on Brett's crown at any given moment the universe has presented to him.
And the worst part is: Eddy doesn't even realise he was doing it. He doesn't even remember doing it.
Brett made absolutely no mentions of it either.
And to Eddy's luck, he wasn't caught on camera doing it either.
So, Eddy had zero (0) means of knowing that he was giving all these perfectly aligned forehead kisses subconsciously to his unsuspecting friend.
Everything should be fine until fast forward to a year later, they began touring the world.
...and touring meant dealing with staff and other people.
...which meant other people get to see the perfectly aligned forehead kisses.
And yet, as hired professionals in the field, they learned not to question the relationships involved between and among the people they work with, which was why none of the staff questioned the perfectly aligned forehead kisses Eddy had been giving Brett. They simply thought they were together. In fact most of them believed they were a couple and simply behaved in a very professional way with them. After all, Brett and Eddy never behaved in a malicious way in public, so their publicist and the rest of the staff did not think it was necessary to tell Eddy about his penchant of giving Brett his perfectly aligned forehead kisses.
However, this did not mean that people did not notice.
Tired of the thirdwheeling she had to endure for whole four legs of their tour was Sophie. She had a plan.
She had been holding it off until the last concert of the last leg so far. When the team had gathered for a celebration, they had a couple of drinks. When the lightweight Brett had suggested they play Ollie's "drinking card game", it was like a Pandora's box waiting to be opened.
The game was completely against Brett's favour.
If you're wearing glasses for more than ten years, drink.
If you are shorter than 175cm, drink.
If you have bangs or a fringe, drink.
If you only have five letters in your first name, drink.
If you wore a hoodie, drink.
If you can't speak more than one language fluently, drink.
If you play a musical instrument, drink.
If you wore a watch, drink.
If you do not wear any jewellery, drink.
If you have short hair, drink.
...and after all those shots, Brett was already slumped against Eddy's shoulder.
And just like a Pavlovian response, Eddy's lips gave a peck on Brett's crown—which gathered everyone's attention. The crowd suddenly turned silent.
"What...? Who's next?" Eddy slurred, getting somewhat tipsy after all the shots he had to drink. The person next to Eddy, who had recently picked a card from the deck turned to look at him expectantly.
"It's you, Eddy," Sophie broke the silence, holding a smirk. The deck was getting thinner and the prompts were getting more predictable with the growing number of cards already being picked.
There's one card Sophie's been waiting for.
Eddy tried to reach the deck but with his shoulder being pinned by Brett's head, he could only do grabby hands toward the deck.
When a staff member pushed the deck closer to Eddy's hand, the topmost card slid away from Eddy's reach.
"Wait, the card fell out! Give it to Eddy," Sophie declared, hoping it was the card she was waiting for. Eddy, who had already managed to snag a card from the deck, insisted that he would do what was in his hand instead. However, when he read the card and did not take a shot, chaos ensued.
If you are in a relationship, drink.
"WAIT, THAT'S A LIE THOUGH! RESPECT THE CARD!"
"DRINK UP EDDY, YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY FROM THIS!"
"There's no way you two aren't together!"
"DON'T BOTHER HIDING IT, EDDY!"
"YOU JUST GAVE HIM A KISS, WE JUST SAW YOU JUST NOW!!"
"If you aren't in a relationship, then I am out of here. We endured this honeymooney phase of yours for months only for you to deny it? Bullshit."
"FUCK OFFFFFF, DRINK UP EDDY!"
"WE BEEN KNEWWWW, YOU DON'T NEED TO HIDEEEE!!"
"WE SUPPORT YOU! WE DON'T JUDGE!"
"DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK"
"Don't bother taking a shot, drink the whole bottle, Eddy!"
"IT'S AS CLEAR AS THE SKY ON A SUNNY DAY BRO!"
"Boss, I have guy best friends and we don't do this kissy shit."
Eddy simply scrunched his face at the uproar. He had to put his other hand to cover Brett's exposed ear from the chaos in the table. His head was starting to hurt from the noise in the table with all of his staff and Sophie yelling one thing to another all at the same time, in different pitches, and in varying intensity.
"What do you mean guys? I'm single!" Eddy defended himself.
"Eddy, I've seen Brett lean in when you give your forehead kisses!" A staff member swooned with a slight drinken lilt to her voice. "And I thought, wah, I wish I could have a tall boyfriend who gives me forehead kisses!"
"Yeah, and not to mention, Eddy never forgets to give him forehead kisses when they meet or leave each other. It's so endearing!" another tipsy staff member commented. Sophie laughed out loud.
"You and Brett are the only people in the world that can make forehead kisses feel like it's too much PDA!" Sophie mock retched. "It's so sickeningly sweet, it sometimes distracts me in rehearsals."
"What kiss are you talking about, guys?" Eddy asked, abhorred at the commentary he received. "We don't kiss!"
All the staff fell silent. All eyes fell on Eddy's bewildered expression as though he had just given out a wild statement.
"What do you mean you don't kiss??? You kiss him everytime you see each other, when you're nearby, when you guys leave, and almost any instance you can! 'Don't kiss', hah! Bullshit."
"But we're just friends!" Eddy defended himself, standing abruptly and forgetting that he had Brett on his shoulder.
Brett groaned at the loss of contact and promptly slumped to the place where Eddy once sat.
"Bro, can we go home? Wanna sleep."
Eddy turned to his drunk friend. Then, to the rest of the staff.
"Alright, everyone. Drink time is over guys, I gotta send this sleepy boy back," Eddy declared before pulling his friend's arm over his shoulder.
If Brett's head fit perfectly to Eddy's neck, Eddy had mustered enough of his patience not to think about it.
Bringing a 20-year old drunk Brett home safely back ten-ish years ago had been a daunting chore.
Bringing a 32-year old drunk Brett into their hotel room safely today was a Herculean task.
Not only was Brett heavier, but Brett was also less responsive and more drunk than he would have been ten-ish years ago. So, Eddy had to shift his way of dragging his friend home from slinging him over his shoulders, to carrying him bridal style, to turning his drunk best friend into a backpack.
And so, by the time Eddy reached Brett's bed, he could only slump to the bed sideways and flop both of them onto the bed.
Eddy, tipsy and exhausted, fell asleep shortly after that.
Brett was no stranger to hook-ups.
He knew what it meant to wake up in a warm bed after a night of drinking.
Someone was sleeping next to him.
The smell was familiar and homey. His body felt warm, which meant he had clothes on. So, maybe they just made out or maybe had a blowjob, perhaps...but he knows the feeling of post-nut clarity...and he does not quite have that sense of clarity. He certainly can't remember what occurred the previous night.
So, he breathed in more air.
The air around him only smells like the person beside him and he can't smell any hint of sex.
Ah, he probably did not get laid at all.
It's been a while since he had one too, so that was a bummer.
When he looked around, he noticed that he was sleeping next to someone's neck and that someone's arm also snaked perfectly against his waist. The sight of someone's arm perfectly wrapping his waist shouldn't have made him feel things but it was giving him things.
It really shouldn't have but it made his lips disobediently curl into a smile. Even worse, he snuggled deeper into the other person's neck.
A groan from the other person quickly erased the smile off his face. It was a familiar groan. The hairs on his back rose.
"Wha...what time?" Brett heard Eddy's husky voice ask through the other man's chest. The other man was Eddy! In a panic, he shut his eyes tighter and pretended to sleep. He felt Eddy shift underneath him.
"Huh? Wha...? Oh shit," Eddy whisper-gasped. Brett started hearing Eddy's heartbeat from where he laid. He started contemplating feigning sleep or pretend to have just woken up until he felt hands stroke his hair gently. A quiet chuckle made Brett's eyes pop open.
"I really don't know why you love parties when you can't even hold your liquor," Eddy whispered with a mocking lilt to his voice. Then, he felt a very soft tap on the crown of his head.
"Wah, I really do that, don't I? I guess this changes things...ah, fuck."
Do what? Brett asked internally. What does Eddy mean by changing things? What is so bad about stroking his hair? Was he even talking about hair stroking? What did he do then? There were so many questions Brett would like to ask and the confusing statements just made his head hurt and somehow alerted his stomach that it was due for a stomach cleanse.
Brett unceremoniously gagged against Eddy's chest, which prompted both of them to flee for the bathroom.
Sophie was a bit stunned with the way their drinking session had ended. She initially corroborated with Ollie to give her two violin friends a chance to make things right by themselves and spare the rest of the team their lovesick lovey-dovey antics by giving Ollie a special version of the drinking card game that included cards that would make people confess. (She had also rigged the game so Brett and Eddy would have higher chances of drinking.) However, when Eddy vehemently denied that they were together, even under the influence of alcohol...that stumped her.
"Eddy seems to be so serious about it," Sophie muttered in her room. She paced around, casually looking at her phone, which held her ace card. "Either, he's that good of a liar or they're actually not together."
She had initially drafted a message addressed to Brett the other day which said:
I know you like Eddy and I know you like his kisses.
And another one addressed to Eddy:
I know you like Brett and I know you like to give Brett forehead kisses.
And all she had to do was press send and make the two of them a couple so they don't have to pine across the hall, the stage, the everywhere-they-go-to and make every living thing within their 500-m radius a third wheel.
But she didn't want to ruin a good partnership with the guys in case her hunch was just influenced by their fans, so she held herself from sending the messages.
But then every time she saw his friends, she just thinks about how they perfectly fit each other that it would be such a waste not to be together.
In the end, she opened her drafts and started paraphrasing her message.
Except, due to her ironic dextrous pianist hands, she made a misclick along the way which sent an unfinished message to Eddy.
I know I'm not the right person to say this, give Brett forehead kisses.
Wherein she had initially wanted to send:
I know I'm not the right person to say this, but I noticed that you like to give Brett forehead kisses.
And for some reason, Eddy miraculously reads it immediately...to Sophie's horror.
Brett was busy puking his guts out (and promising not to drink a lot next time) when Eddy, who was rubbing comforting circles on Brett's back, received a message from Sophie.
I know I'm not the right person to say this, give Brett forehead kisses.
"Huh?"
Eddy turned to his best friend who looked far too ill to be alright and looked at the message from Sophie. What did she even mean by that? Does that help with hangover? How did she even know Brett's hungover? Can she see us now??
Confused, Eddy slowly inched his lips to Brett's temple.
"Bro, what are you doing?" Brett asked hazily. He was shaking from the sheer force of his vomiting.
"I don't know, man. Sophie just told me to give you forehead kisses all of a sudden, so," Eddy reasoned out before quickly pushing Brett's fringe out of the way and putting a firm and loud kiss on his forehead.
This sobered Brett very quickly and he very quickly stood up and stepped away from Eddy.
Disoriented, Brett touched his forehead as if the kiss had burned his skin. He felt his heart do a few backflips and started beating twice as fast.
"Woah, that actually worked?" Eddy gasped in surprise. Brett didn't look like he was one shade away from being paper and the blush on his cheeks looked healthy. "I didn't expect that to work."
Brett, still too stunned to speak, tried to regulate his breathing. It was too much to handle. Eddy still looked at him like he was some kind of magical creature and it was getting overbearing.
"Ah, mm yeah...yeah I...didn't know...I...I'll go check on Sophie," Brett murmured before leaving the hotel room.
Eddy looked at the miraculous message he received from Sophie and sent her a message.
Yo, I tried it and it worked! You're a genius!
Sophie spent the rest of her time contemplating on personally telling Eddy that it had been a typo or sending a message to clarify things. The latter option seemed to be a lost cause as time went by.
She had been thinking about so many scenarios in her head that the notification sound she got for receiving a reply had derailed her from her thoughts.
She squealed so loud that the knock that succeeded the reply practically gave her a whiplash.
"Sophie? It's Brett," she heard from the other side. She quickly sprinted to get the door open.
"So, how was it? Kissing with Eddy?" she asked mischievously at the door.
"You...! Why did you tell him that?" Brett confronted her. His ears were still red and his cheeks were tinted.
"Tell him what?" A sly smirk adorned her smug face.
"Did you tell him to kiss me on the forehead because you knew I liked being kissed there?" the violinist admitted. Sophie gasped. That, she definitely did not know.
"Oh, I didn't know that! For real!"
Sophie didn't think Brett could get any redder but was surprised to be proven wrong.
What Brett did not expect was Eddy actually trailing after his departure and hearing their conversation by the hallway.
"You...like forehead kisses?" Eddy commented behind Brett.
"Eddy, wha—?"
"Oh, please! It's very clear that you guys have a thing going on. Just say you're together and stop denying it. Everybody else around you can see it so why don't you guys go back to your room and do everyone a favour by settling this...," Sophie made a flamboyant gesture, "...thing that you guys are having."
"Soph—!"
Then, Sophie pushed Brett off the threshold and into Eddy before dramatically shutting her hotel room door.
Eddy looked flustered.
So was Brett who still had the blush from the forehead kiss.
"Uh, it was...I...uhm," Eddy looked down at the carpet, trying to form a string of sentence. "It was an accident, then I...I never seem to get over it."
Brett stayed quiet in front of him. His heart was still beating very loudly in his ears and he could feel his ears turning redder by the second.
"I...I didn't mean to keep doing it, Brett" Eddy reasoned out. "I didn't really think you were that short but after that incident in our apartment, I just can't stop thinking about how your forehead is exactly where my lips are."
Brett kept his silence, but his chest felt very small for his beating heart. Why do I feel like this?
"I didn't want to ruin our friendship, bro, so I tried not thinking about it but...I guess it imprinted in my brain and kissing your forehead when I can became a habit."
I shouldn't feel like this. But it's making me feel things.
"I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable but...if you liked getting them, would you be okay if I keep giving you forehead kisses?" Eddy asked, voice shaking.
Do I feel uncomfortable? I don't think so. I liked getting them. It felt great. Felt like home. It's making me feel things when I get kisses. But...is it okay to feel like this?
Brett finally found his voice. He cleared his throat and turned to Eddy's expecting eyes.
"I...I don't mind getting kissed...but," Eddy's breath hitched. "I...I don't think we're on the same page."
Brett crossed the distance between them and shakily placed his cold hands on Eddy's face. Eddy's hands rose to meet them. It was warm.
It was definitely doing things to Brett's heart. It was taking his breath away. Why am I suddenly feeling things for Eddy? Why does he make me feel this way?
"I'm so scared now because I feel things I shouldn't feel but...I think I can only do this if I'm with you," the shorter violinist confessed before pulling Eddy down and gracing a kiss on Eddy's forehead.
It was Eddy's turn to short circuit. His eyes remained open and plastered in front of him, unseeing the person in front of him. Brett was being forward and he did not expect his friend to be so vocal about his emotions.
"I think I like you, Eddy."
Just like a switch, everything Eddy felt and realised over the course of sixteen years went through his head. His life and experiences with Brett made him go through a rabbit hole of emotions he had tried to suppress and it was swallowing him whole. The rollercoaster ride that made him thank whatever deity that was looking down on them for giving him the most compatible person to him in all aspects of life.
He could not imagine a life without Brett.
He realised he's been so in love with his best friend that he could do anything as long as his best friend with him.
His eyes refocused on Brett's pleading eyes.
"No, Brett," Eddy murmured, pulling Brett's shaking hands off his face. Brett's eyes teared up at the loss of contact. Eddy brushed a few tears that escaped his face with his thumbs before crouching to say:
"We're on the same page."
Then, like a key finally matching its lock, Eddy's lips matched with Brett.
Just how it should be. Perfectly aligned.