Work Text:
Jaeyoon tapped a stressed rhythm on his thighs as the wind from the opened car windows messed up his neatly styled hair. He knew this was a bad idea from the start. Going to an amusement park wasn't exactly his main priority in life, but it was difficult to deny the request once his group of best friends asked him to join them on this bright summer day.
Somehow he had ended up in the backseat of the tiny car, squished in-between Youngbin and Sanghyuk while Seokwoo chilled in the front seat beside their questionable driver, Juho. Jaeyoon wasn’t exactly sure how he had ended up in the tiniest, most uncomfortable seat when Sanghyuk would clearly be better suited. But after being friends with him for so many years Jaeyoon knew that there was no point in complaining with the loud youth.
If you view this situation from an outsider's perspective it might not seem too bad. He's in a car with his best friends going to a place to have fun on a free summer day ... if it wasn't for one small thing; Jaeyoon is terrified of roller coasters. And when he says terrified, he means terrified. Everything involving heights, spinning or a high speed is something he tries to avoid at all cost. And it's not like he's extremely open about this specific fear to his friends. Deep inside he knows that the best thing to do would be to just tell them, but he also doesn't want to be the joke of the day. It's not like he doesn't trust his friends, it's just that he would prefer to-
Jaeyoon sighed loudly at his own thoughts. Why is it always like this? You know the smartest way to handle a situation, but you still choose to do something completely different? Why? Because we're all pretty stupid sometimes, Jaeyoon concluded.
The amusement park is located about an hour drive from their home town and before Jaeyoon had time to grasp the situation, Juho made a sharp left turn and harshly put his foot on the break. All passengers jerked forward and complained loudly about Juho's parking skills.
"Sometimes I really want have a talk with that maniac who somehow approved of your driving." Sanghyuk muttered as he rubbed his neck with a sour facial expression.
This sudden complaint only made Juho laugh and turn around to look at the other.
"You know … you could always walk. There's always another option."
Without waiting for a reply (which would definitely be coming sooner or later) Juho exited his car followed by a bunch of stiff limbs.
✖✖✖
The first hour of their visit went smoothly with a few small rides until the group headed their way to the arcade. Seokwoo and Sanghyuk teamed up as soon as they entered the arcade as Sanghyuk complained about the others' gaming skills and spirit to win.
"It's clear that the visual team is going to be the clear winner" he said in a strong, confident voice which made Jaeyoon and Youngbin laugh until they almost choked on their own spit.
"Okay, let's make a bet." Youngbin declared. "Losers have to pay for the winners' lunch."
"IT'S ON!" Sanghyuk shouted and raised his fist into the air, startling a group of smaller kids and their parents who had just entered the arcade.
Jaeyoon didn't even want to think about how much money he had spent inside of the arcade. He had already had to cough up a lot of money for the expensive unlimited ride wristband. After about an hour of intense gaming it was clear that the so-called "visual team" would have to spend a little more money on food than expected for today.
They ended up going to a burger place in the middle of the gigantic food court. It was when Jaeyoon was happily munching on a burger that he noticed the roller coaster rails that were peaking in the sky right above the burger place. A loud rumble is what caught his attention as one car whooshed past above them, accompanied by amused and terrified screams. Youngbin quickly turned around to face the others, excitement gleaming in his eyes.
"We have to go onto that ride, we just have to!" He exlaimed.
Seokwoo, Juho and Sanghyuk were quick to accept the request, but Jaeyoon had become frozen to his seat with a half-eaten hamburger in front of his pale face. He really didn't want to go on that scary ride, it was way too big for his heart to handle. Now would be the perfect moment to be like "guys … I might be a tiny itty-bitty lil bit afraid of roller coasters IN A VERY MANLY, NON-WEAK WAY OF COURSE HAHAH".
Jaeyoon could feel his thoughts starting to panic again but before he knew it he was being dragged towards the entrance to the roller coaster. He was not even sure what happened to his precious burger.
✖✖✖
The queue was long and went up two flights of stairs before the actual entrance. It was full of excited people waiting to get a kick of adrenaline. For some reason Seokwoo decided to spend his time in the queue reading facts about the roller coaster loudly to his friends.
"It accelerates up to 150 km/h (93 mph) which places this wild ride in the top 10 fastest steel roller coasters." He read on the big information board and let out a tiny squeal, both scared and excited at the same time.
Jaeyoon pretended like he hadn't heard the younger's words and focused his eyes on the people in front of them in the queue. They seemed to be a group of three guys, one of them which by the looks must've been around his age. The other two, by the quick glance Jaeyoon managed to get of their faces, seemed not so keen on getting onto the ride as their older friend. One of them shook his blonde head slowly and whined, face turned towards the older.
"But Inseong hyung, I've already told you that me and Chanhee prefer the smaller ones, why must you torture us like this? I thought you promised us a fun trip to the amusement park, not a ticket to hell."
The older one, Inseong, laughed and patted the other two fondly on their heads.
"I promise you both that it's not as bad as it looks. Also, my wallet is screaming after buying basically the entire stand of cotton candy because you two. You owe me."
His words might have sounded a bit harsh, but the soothing tone of his voice even made Jaeyoon, the eavesdropper, to calm down. He didn't realise how intensely he had been staring at the back of their heads to catch the conversation until Inseong out of nowhere turned around and looked at him with a beaming smile (and adorable eyes, cute nose etc. etc.). Jaeyoon quickly looked down, suddenly finding his shoes particularly interesting. He couldn't believe he had just been caught staring at this rather handsome stranger like that. This was definitely not calming for his already racing heart.
The queue moved forward as the ride emptied itself to welcome its new riders (or prisoners, as Jaeyoon viewed it). He quickly realised that they would be able to fit onto this train, making his palms sweat. A familiar grey-haired boy stood at the gate with the biggest smile on his face. As they moved even closer, Jaeyoon noticed that it was no other than Taeyang, one of his juniors from back home.
"Hey guys!" Taeyang chanted, waving at them to come closer and show him their wristbands for the ride.
"I didn't know you worked here." Juho exclaimed in a confused voice, eyeing the other boy up and down. "Fancy work attire I must say."
Taeyang jokingly brushed off imaginary dust off his shoulder pads. They made him look like one of those guards Jaeyoon had read about when studying about London and England a few years ago.
"Well, at least it brings in the money, eh?" Taeyang said confidently. "You're the last one coming onto this train so hurry up and find a spot before I throw you all out for disturbing the workers."
Jaeyoon smacked his arm but smiled as he and the others walked onto the platform. Taeyang didn't get the nickname "Sunshine" from nothing.
But Jaeyoon's smile quickly faded as he noticed the current seating situation on the ride. As they had been the last ones to be let in, most seats were already taken. The other four had quickly raced to the front and somehow claimed the four front seats. It hit him that they were an uneven number and therefore someone had to sit by himself. And that someone was him.
He started to panic again. If he had just told them prior about his fear they definitely would have made a plan to secure him a seat beside one of them. Jaeyoon felt the stinging feeling of tears slowly starting to form in his eyes. What the hell, he's a grown adult, he can't stand here and cry like a baby. That's when he felt a hand on his shoulder and quickly turned around, hoping that whoever he was about to face wouldn't catch his panicked state.
He was met by the same adorable eyes that he had been caught staring into just a few minutes ago.
"Sorry if I startled you! I tried to call your name to tell you that there's an empty seat next to me, but then I realised I don't know you're name." Inseong said and pointed at two empty seats in the middle of the train.
Jaeyoon let out a shaky breath he didn't know he had been holding.
"Scared of roller coasters?" Inseong asked abruptly and Jaeyoon widened his eyes.
"No ... no, I'm not, why would I-"
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about" Inseong cut him off before he had time to rationalize his behaviour in some weird way. "I'm Inseong by the way."
"J-Jaeyoon" he managed to stutter.
Inseong smiled even bigger and put his arm around Jaeyoon's shoulder in an oddly comforting way and led them to the seats. Jaeyoon's hands were shaking so much that he had to ask Inseong to help him to pull down his metal harness. Inseong kept on babbling about how the younger members of his dance crew, Youngkyun and Chanhee, had convinced him to drive with them to the amusement park to test out the new rides for this season. He told him about his worry of the two youngsters on this ride as they had just eaten their body weight in sweets and ice cream, but quickly silenced himself as he saw Jaeyoon's face getting paler by his words.
Jaeyoon was too busy focusing on not dying as the other male pressed down the harness in a secure position to be able to engage much into the conversation.
"He must think I'm so freaking weird. He has been talking for a minute and I'm just sitting here like a scared idiot. I have to say something"
Just when Jaeyoon was about to ask Inseong about his dance team he felt a small yank forward and the train started to move. His focus quickly went to the metal harness, his only saviour, as he closed his eyes. But he also felt something covering his left hand which was currently holding on for its dear life until the knuckles turned white. He found enough courage to open his eyes and look down at his hand, only to see it being covered by Inseong's.
"I've grown up around people who are scared of roller coasters, so I think I'm pretty good at calming people down. I know that we've known each other for about a minute, but you can always hold my hand if it makes you feel any less scared." Inseong said as he softly caressed the top of Jaeyoon's hand.
The offer was too good to be true, so Jaeyoon quickly grabbed Inseong's hand. He felt his cheeks heating up as he did so and forced himself to focus on whatever was happening in front of him. They had been going up a steep hill for what felt like ages (maybe it felt like that because of the soft skin he was currently in contact with) but the hill slowly but surely began to flatten out as they reached the peak of the ride.
Jaeyoon looked to the right and yelped as he could see the entire park. The people on the ground looked like ants to him. He quickly shut his eyes and involuntarily clenched his fists. That's when he felt another hand slowly rubbing up his tensed forearm. Once again, he turned towards the other.
"You're going to be ok, it'll be over before you have time to think about it." Inseong said as he continued holding Jaeyoon's hand and patted on his arm until he relaxed.
"If you're scared of heights, just focus on something calming. I bet there's something close by that will give you some peace."
Jaeyoon couldn't believe what he did next, right as the train went off the edge, but he continued to look deeply into Inseong's brown orbs. It was something about this guy that made him forget everything around him. He felt his hair blowing in the wind and faintly heard the screams of the other passengers, but other than that he was 100% focused on the other's eyes. Inseong looked back with a tiny smile on his face. There were a few times when Inseong broke his eye contact to laugh out loud or scream out of what seemed like sheer joy. Apparently he could feel some happiness by going on the ride, but his laughs were contagious to the point where Jaeyoon started to giggle.
Suddenly he felt the train slowing down as the ride slowly reached its end.
He had made it.
He had gone on a scary roller coaster and survived.
The train stopped at the platform and he was finally released out of the seat. He waited for Inseong to get out of his seat as well and they both walked along the platform. Jaeyoon was in heaven. He knew he had to ask for Inseong's number before they went their separate ways. He wasn't one to take the first step like this, but after that insane ride he felt like he could do anything.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of loud laughter. They both turned towards the source, a tiny open booth where most of the passengers were currently standing. Jaeyoon had completely forgotten about the fact that most roller coasters had a picture function which always resulted in horrible close-ups of screaming people. They walked up to the booth and Inseong was immediately surrounded by Youngkyun and Chanhee.
"Hello there you casanova, sure you don't want to continue walking around the park with your new boyfriend?" Chanhee said with a huge smirk as he looked from Inseong to Jaeyoon.
The older boys looked at each other, confusion written across both of their faces. Before Jaeyoon had time to ask he felt the young blonde boy tugging his sleeve towards the front of the desk. He looked up to the screens that showed each seated row. Jaeyoon scanned the screens until he found the one.
The picture clearly showed off his and Inseong's side profiles as they smiled towards each other. Based on his facial expression Inseong seemed to be laughing at that very momemt, their clenched fists also visible in the frame. They did indeed look like a happy couple.
Inseong sneaked an arm around his waist and waved a printed version of the picture in front of his face before putting it into the front pocket of Jaeyoon's hoodie.
"My number. Text me" he said with a wink and walked off, accompanied by a cheering Youngkyun and a whistling Chanhee.
Jaeyoon smiled to himself. Maybe roller coasters weren't too bad after all.