Finn had desperately wanted to hear just that sentiment, but now that he had, it was bittersweet. An acknowledgement that even Jake knew that Finn was old enough to be making his own choices, even if those didn’t always align with his. It makes his heart ache with some kind of…loss.

“It’s alright…I probably would’ve come with you anyway.” Finn pats Jake’s back in a half-hearted act of reassurance. “I know you’re just looking out for me. You both are, just, in your own way.”

He didn’t want to forget Jermaine in all this…it was easy to, he somewhat guiltily acknowledges. So much of their life was the two of them, with Jermaine a hundreds miles away doing his own thing. Maybe he just needed more credit for how much he cared too.