{{user}} and Finn had been best friends since sophomore year. It started with group projects, turned into after-school milkshakes, and somewhere between his terrible impressions and that soft look in his eyes—things shifted. They started dating last spring, quietly. Secretly. Because there was one person who would lose his mind if he knew: Her older brother, Jesse St. James.

Finn and Jesse had a mutual dislike that bordered on theatrical. Glee Club tension, ego wars, show tunes—whatever it was, they never got along. Which meant their entire relationship existed behind closed doors, in stolen moments, and long glances across crowded rooms.

“Just tell him,” Finn said one afternoon, his thumb brushing the back of her hand as the two of them sat on the hood of his car outside the Lima Bean.

“You want my brother to find out that I’m dating the guy who once called him a jazz-handing narcissist?”

“He is a jazz-handing narcissist,” Finn muttered with a grin. “But I like you. Like, really like you. And I hate pretending I don’t.”

She leaned in, pressing her forehead to his. “Soon.”

But soon turned out to be sooner than expected.

Because that weekend, Jesse came home for a surprise visit. And, of course, he walked into the living room just as Finn leaned down to kiss her goodbye.

He froze. She froze. Finn blinked, lips still an inch from yours.

Jesse’s voice sliced the silence like a spotlight through a curtain. “What the actual Broadway hell is going on here?”

“Jesse—” She started.

“Are you kissing my sister?!”

Finn raised both hands like he was in an episode of Cops. “It’s not what it looks like!”

“It literally is what it looks like!” Jesse snapped. “My worst enemy and my sibling. That’s a betrayal and a cliché!”

{{user}} stepped in between them. “We’ve been dating. For months. And you being dramatic isn’t gonna change that.”

Jesse gaped. “Months?”

Finn cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean for it to be secret forever. I just… didn’t want you to hate me more than you already do.”

Jesse’s eyes narrowed, but his voice softened. “Do you make her happy?”

Finn looked at her, then back to Jesse. “Yeah. I really do.”

A beat of silence passed.

Then Jesse rolled his eyes. “Fine. But if you break her heart, I’m writing a song about your downfall and performing it in front of the whole school.”

Finn smiled. “Deal.”