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“What are you doing?” Jun asked as he approached Ruki from behind.

Ruki pursed his lips into a sheepish grin, nodding towards the taco booth. “Alex is up there in the front.”

Jun rose onto his tiptoes and peered around the line. There was Alex—bandanna and pink hair half-covering his face—concentrating on flipping the tortillas at the front of the booth.

“Yo!” the stocky redhead called back at them. “What are you guys getting? We’ll spot you!”

Ruki shook his head, waving them off. “It’s all good, man. We got it.”

Jun could only awkwardly nod at the civil gesture as he went back to the menu. He read it over and over again. He could have read it a thousand times, but his heart sank. There was nothing without meat. Unless he ordered the taco shell and cheese—

“Do you want to go someplace else?”

Jun jerked back to Ruki, who stared at him, waiting for an answer.

“Um…” Jun’s heart stuttered. It was sometimes unnerving how easily Ruki read his mind. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn’t want to sound like a nuisance in front of his friends.

“Y’all know what you want?” the stocky guy asked again.

Ruki nodded with a sly smile. “I think we are going to go check out over there.” He put his arm over Jun’s shoulder—warm, firm, sure—and Jun felt the air leave his lungs. In front of his friends. Just like that. “We’ll catch you later!”

The soccer group waved them off with a chorus of “later, dude,” as Ruki steered Jun to the opposite side of the food section.

Ruki’s head whipped between the booths, his wavy hair swishing with each turn. His eyes lit up, and he tugged Jun towards a booth a few feet ahead. “This one. They mostly sell corn and cheese.”

“Esquites” was at the top of the tent with large pictures of cheesy corn in different colorful toppings.

He stared at the menu but couldn’t process the words. Not when something heavier sat like a stone in his stomach. He turned to Ruki, mouth quivering. “I’m sorry.”

Ruki furrowed his eyebrows but kept his hand steady on his shoulder. “Why are you apologizing?”

Jun glanced at the taco stand. One of the guys and his girl carried trays of tacos as they walked over to the rest of the group, who were sitting around a small table. He looked back at Ruki, feeling small in his embrace. “I kept you away from your friends.”

Ruki scoffed. “They’re not really my friends.” He made a half-hearted shrug. “They just know me from the soccer team.”

“Yeah, but you’re always with me. You should hang out with them for once.”

Ruki raised his eyebrows, eyes bouncing over Jun’s face. “And why should I?”

Jun opened his mouth but didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t mean to make Ruki feel uncomfortable, but he didn’t understand why someone as amazing as him would rather be with him than those guys. Not when they were young. Not now. “I mean, you don’t see them a lot outside of practice, right?” Jun’s voice cracked. “You should go with them.”

Ruki pivoted and stood squarely in front of Jun, resting both hands on his shoulders. He leaned close and held Jun’s gaze steady, as if the market and the noise and the hundreds of people around them had simply ceased to exist. “Do you know who I want to hang out with?”

Jun dropped his gaze to the ground and shook his head.

Ruki chuckled. “I asked you to come with me,” he said gently.

“But I don’t want to hold you back just to be with me.”

“Jun, you never hold me back on anything,” said Ruki, squeezing his shoulder. “All I care about right now is that we are here together having a good time. Which includes satisfying your preferences and stomach.”

Tears pricked Jun’s eyes, unsure if it was from the cold or his words. No one else had ever made him feel like he was worth the effort of choosing. Ruki did it so naturally, it was almost cruel.

And it made Jun wonder. Does Ruki show this same tenderness to anyone else? Does someone, somewhere, also get to feel this way? He never asked. Too afraid of the answer.

Ruki’s smile turned sheepish. He let go of Jun’s shoulders and slid his hands into his pockets, eyes drifting to the ground. “So do you want to try it? It’s pretty good.”

Jun looked over at the menu. A smile crept onto his lips when he read he could at least eat more than one thing from the menu. “Sure. But I’m not sure if I can handle all the cheese.”