Not as cute as you, [ he fires back immediately, with a pointed yet soft smile, and god, are they going to be the i love you more kind of couple? entirely possible. gab will get cavities.

and he hadn't meant for there to be turns taken, at all, but he's not about to object, especially not as junpei seems to genuinely give it a moment of thought, even if he's playing it up a bit. and the joke gets him to laugh, even as he shakes his head, remembering the whole moment... and yeah, he can't believe he still needed someone to spell it all out for him even after that. ]

So what I'm getting is I should dress down more often. [ which he's not averse to, really, he hangs out plenty at the office in just his tank top... but right, back to the actual conversation at hand. and what he's really getting is — ]

You mean we could've been doing this all this time? [ he's maybe half serious, his tone just a little too playful for him to actually be upset that they'd danced around each other for so long, especially as... well. he squeezes his arms around junpei, hugging him closer to his chest. ]

Think it took me so long to be willing to see it 'cause I didn't believe you'd ever love me back. [ he doesn't even sound self-deprecating for this; it's just a fact. ] And when I did see it, well, didn't want to say anything, did I? But the longer time went on, it also felt right terrible that you might not know how much I love you... so I sort of figured I'd just keep showing it, and not talk about it.

[ he tips his head and presses a kiss to junpei's forehead. ] Sorry to have left it all up to you.