Chapter Text
“Hey!” a voice echoed down the hall “Kriesha! Wait up!”
The girl turned around to face the tall, skinny boy who had just spent an hour making fun of everyone in the studio.
“Oh, hi, Jaehyung sunbaenim!” She smiled.
“So... you’re leaving already?”
“Well...” she looked confused “the show is over, right?”
“No, I mean, yeah, but do you wanna grab something to eat? Later? A few of us are getting together tonight and-“
“A get together? Why wasn’t I invited?” Jimin suddenly approached and barged in the conversation “Yo, Kevin, why didn’t you invite me to go out with you guys?” the girl shouted so her friend could hear her from a certain distance.
“Out where?” the boy shouted back, as he walked towards the group.
“Jae said you were going out to grab some food but apparently forgot
to leave an invitation at my desk.”
“What? Jae didn’t-“
“Kevin, my man, you really are not getting any younger. Maybe you should get your brain checked. Remember I talked to you about it right before we went live?”
“No? You–" Kevin looked at Jae’s expression, who was standing next to Kriesha. Well, he had noticed the way the boy had looked at her during the show. All of a sudden, this whole misunderstanding was completely understood. “Oh! Yes! Of course I remember, I’m sorry.” Jae let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Jimin, it was really just a spur of the moment thing, but we were obviously going to invite you.”
“Well, of course you say that now.” Jimin rolled her eyes, but giggled right after.
“So, what time and where?” Kriesha asked with an awkward smile.
As they decided on the details, Jae’s mind started to wander around his wardrobe, trying to figure out something to wear. He shook his head involuntarily. “What’s wrong with me,” he thought to himself. “Keep it together, dude.” Well, the truth is Jae hasn’t felt this way about someone in a really long time. For so many years now he has been focusing on his work and hasn’t given dating much thought, though sometimes he admits he misses it. Needless to say, all these feelings surely caught him off guard. He wasn’t expecting any of this. He had literally just met the girl a couple of hours ago. But there was something about her... he couldn’t quite point his finger on what it was, but it kept him wondering... what if?
“Hey, are you alright there?” Kevin asked as he noticed his friend had spaced out for a moment.
“Yeah, I’m fine, man. Thanks.”
“They look like they really bonded!” He pointed his chin at Jimin and Kriesha, who were walking side by side, talking and laughing.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So... you and Kriesha, huh?”
“What? No, she just seems like a nice girl.” He tried to act chill. “Besides, it’s not like she’d ever be interested in someone like me anyway, so I’m cool.”
“Jae, come on. You can try to fool me, but you can’t fool yourself.” Kevin patted his friend on the back. “And for the record, she’d be lucky to have you.” Jae felt his face blushing and opened his mouth to try and say something, but Kevin went on, “8pm tonight. Don’t worry, I’ll have an excuse to get myself and Jimin out of there before the clock strikes 9.” The black-haired guy smiled as he walked away from Jae and towards the girls.
***
“Siri, do I look okay?” Jae asks his phone app after trying his fourth — and supposedly final — outfit option.
“Judging from your voice, I say you must seem fairly attractive.” Siri answered the boy, who dropped his phone on his bed.
“Yeah, you said that the other three times, too.”
“What, so you take fashion advice from phone apps now?” Wonpil said as he bluntly entered the room. “You could just ask for my help.”
Jae couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m sorry, when my sense of fashion includes hot pink sweaters, I’ll make sure to come to you.” Wonpil pretended to be hurt by his friend’s remark, but he’s used to it by now.
“Thanks for knocking, by the way.”
“Sorry. Younghyun hyung is naked in the bathroom waiting for me.” Jae widened his eyes, looking at Wonpil.
“Wait...” Jae shook his head, “what?!”
“He went in to shower, but forgot to take his towel with him, so he asked me to grab it.” The boy explained, as he motioned to get said piece of cloth.
“Oh, wow, the places my mind just went to.”
“What?”
“Never mind, Wonpilie.”
“WONPIL-SSI, MY TOWEL!” A naked, wet Kang Younghyun exclaimed from the bathroom.
“Sorry, gotta go.”
Jae closed the door after his friend left and looked in the mirror one more time. He considered cancelling. It’s never gonna happen, he thought, so he might as well just end it before it even begins. What’s the point anyway, right? He would just end up hurting for sure, and he had been able to run from that for so long that he doesn’t really feel up for it now. But, well, like I said: there was something about her that kept him tip-toeing on what ifs. So yeah, he was going. Half hoping things work out well and half hoping he’d be disgusted by the way she eats, he was going.
“What are you so dressed up for?” Brian asked as he walked into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, immediately searching for pieces of clothing in his closet.
“First, I’m not dressed up. Is this how you think I look when I’m dressed up?” He looked down to stare at his pair of jeans and a plaid shirt. “Second, it’s impossible to get any privacy in this apartment, isn’t it?”
“Dude, you do know we share the same room, right?” a now semi-dressed Kang Younghyun rhetorically asked. “And about the outfit, your jeans don’t have holes on them, so I’m assuming you’re not going somewhere that casual.”
“Yeah, actually... Man, this is weird.”
“Spill it, Jae.”
“Nah, it’s nothing. Really. I’ll just... I’m meeting Kevin and Jimin tonight.”
“How many years have we known each other and for how many more do you think you can actually fool me?”
“I’m serious, dude. Just ask them.”
“Fine. Then I can come, right? We can all just go together.”
“No! I mean, sure... hm...”
“You don’t wanna tell me, it’s fine. Just don’t get yourself into too much trouble, okay?” Brian said as he laid back on his bed.
“What are you talking about? I won’t—“
“I’ll tell the guys you had an off-schedule ASC meeting to attend, if they ask anything. You know they will.”
“Thanks.” Jae grabbed his phone, wallet and keys. “Why the hell didn’t I just think of that before?”
“I’m the brains of this group, don’t forget that.”
“Yeah, you wish.” The oldest said, while closing the bedroom door behind him. He left the apartment quietly after grabbing his coat, hoping no one would notice his absence. Aside from Brian, the other three were playing video games, as they had the day off. Lucky for Jae, the chances of them noticing anything outside the tv screen was remarkably small.
As the restaurant was somewhat nearby his place, Jae decided to walk. He was an hour early and fairly anxious, so he figured walking would do some good. However, it was awfully cold in Seoul this time of the year, not taking him too long to admit to himself that this was a terrible idea. Nevertheless, now that he was already on his way, he just kept on walking. “What was I thinking?”, he’d been asking himself that, unrelated to the freezing weather. “Do I even know how to do this anymore?”
The truth is Jae has never really been great with these things. He was always too awkward or too shy or too extra to flirt, so he was getting used to the idea that maybe it just wasn’t his time for romance yet. Sure, he has dated a couple of people along the way, but that was different. Or rather he wanted it to be different this time. He wanted to experience something new, now that he feels more mature. He just didn’t realize how badly he actually wanted it until he saw her.
Half an hour later and barely feeling the tip of his fingers, Jae arrived at the restaurant. Still early, but he figured he should go in to get a table for the four of them. What he didn’t expect, though, was that Kriesha would already be there.
“Table for one?”
“Uh... what?” Jae shook his head and blinked his eyes fast as if he was coming out of a transe.
“Are you here alone, sir?” The small, chubby receptionist asked.
“No. I’m with—“ as he was about to point at the four-seat round table taken by one, he froze. “I’m waiting for my friends, I’ll just... I’ll just go outside.”
“It’s so cold why don’t you just wait he—”
Before the woman was able to finish her sentence, Jae left the restaurant and sat on a bench outside. While nervously shaking his right leg, the boy grabbed his phone and kept staring at the black screen — he needed to text someone. Who could he text, though? No one knew about anything. No one knew anything because Jae was not one to talk about his feelings. No one knew because Jae felt too scared to open up sometimes.
Before the boy could even unlock his phone, he got a text from Kevin saying he was going to stop by to pick up Jimin and then they’d be on their way. Jae looked at the time. 7:40PM. He figured his friends would be there soon, so he could handle a few minutes alone with her. Yeah, it was no big deal.
“Let’s get it,” the boy said to himself.
Pretending to be oh-so-chill, Jae went back in the restaurant and informed the woman that his friend was already inside waiting for him, he had gotten it wrong earlier. As he was walking towards her, his only hope was that he wouldn’t bump into a waiter and accidentally light the place on fire or something.
"Hey.” Jae approached her, gently resting his hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, hey!” Kriesha got up to greet him. They both went for a handshake so the greeting wasn’t as awkward as it could’ve been.
“You’re a bit early, huh?” The boy asks as he sits down next to her.
“Yeah... Gosh, this is kind of embarrassing, I guess.” The girl said with an awkward grin.
“What?” Jae blinked his eyes rapidly, interested in what she was about to say.
“I got the time wrong. I thought we were supposed to meet at 7PM.” She said. “So I got here around 7:15 PM thinking I was already late, only to find a text from Jimin unnie confirming our dinner... at 8PM.”
“Ah man! That’s too bad! You’ve been sitting here alone this whole time?”
“Yeah... but it’s alright, aside from the fact that the waiter passed by me and asked ‘are you sure you don’t need a table for one?’ about three times.” Kriesha said and they both let out a shy laughter.
After that, the two of them sat in awkward silence. Kriesha turned her head and caught Jae looking at her, but he acted nonchalantly, as if his eyes were just wandering around.
She smiled and opened her mouth suggesting she might say something, but no sound came out. The boy relaxed his posture a bit on the chair and found a napkin to play with, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
“So...” Kriesha started “when do you think they’re gonna be here?”
This question caught Jae a bit off-guard, making him feel slightly more insecure than he already was. She was clearly not enjoying his company.
“Kevin said they were on their way,” Jae shrugged, “but I don’t really know.”
“Oh,” she sighed “okay.” The girl grabbed the menu from the table to look at the same dishes she had been staring at for the past forty minutes in order to seem like she was doing something so she could avoid an even more awkward conversation.
“Do you know what you’re gonna order?” Jae suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
“Not yet.” She answered automatically, accidentally establishing the such feared eye-contact.
They stared at each other for about five seconds. More awkwardness, great.
“Yeah... me neither.” The boy finally responded.
“This is actually my first time here.” Kriesha said shyly, putting her hair behind her ear.
“Seriously? Man, this place is dope!” Jae involuntarily gets up and sits next to her to look at the menu together. “Uh... can I sit here? Is that okay?”
“Yeah, totally!” The girl tried to hide the fact that she was actually a bit nervous with the situation.
“Okay, so...” Jae points at the menu. “I don’t even like fried rice that much, but you have got to try their kimchi fried rice.”
“Ah! I was considering that, actually. How do you not like fried rice? It’s so gooood!!”
“Well, I like this one.” He smiled at her, which made her smile back.
“Touché.”
There it was, that silence again. Except it wasn’t as awkward now.
“Hey, guys!!” Kevin said “I’m sorry we’re late!”
“Dude, we’re like three minutes late, chill.” Jimin added. “Hi, peasant. And Kriesha.”
“Hey” Jae and Kriesha said in unison as Kevin and Jimin sat down at the table.
“Oh! Jinx!” the girl said quickly.
“Oh my God, that’s genius! Now Jae can’t say a word for the rest of the evening.” Jimin teased, making them all chuckle.
“She really got you there!” Kevin pointed out as Jae rolled his eyes.
“I’m sorry?” Kriesha said with a strained smile. “I’ll unjinx you! Unjinx!”
“You can’t do that—“ Jimin argued.
“Too late, it’s already done!” Jae stated, mimicking a grand gesture with his arms. “I am back,” he looked at Jimin, “peasant.”
“Kriesha, please excuse my friends, they’re both twelve and sometimes it’s too much for them to sit at the adults' table.” Kevin tried to say it with a straight face, but ended up smiling at the end.
“It’s all good.” Kriesha said “They’re actually kinda nice.” the girl smiled.
“I am, he’s not. I’ll be a good unnie to you.”
Jae tried to defend himself from his friend’s mean remark but it just led to more teasing. From then on, they all laughed and had fun effortlessly as they dined — it was almost as if they had all been friends for a long time already. The new girl didn’t feel that new at all. However, Jae couldn’t help looking at her every chance he got. She was pretty, yeah, but it wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about how she looked or acted or dressed. It’s almost like he was trying to find something in her that could explain why he cared so much. He kept searching within her eyes, lips, cheeks, trying to find the reason why she made him feel all those things. But perhaps that “something” lies deeper than what his eyes could grasp.
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to learn that.” The girl noted.
“Maybe Jae could help you! Right, Jae?” Kevin asked.
“Um, what exactly did you say? I’m sorry, I spaced out for a second.”
“Oh.” Kriesha looked at him. “I was just saying that I want to learn how to play guitar.”
“Ah! For real? I can help you, yeah, I can definitely help you.”
“Really? Oh gosh, thank you so much!” The girl exclaimed and clapped her hands. “This is exciting!”
“Yeah, it’s no big deal! We can just schedule a date... on the calendar, I mean.”
“Yeah...” She put her hair behind her ear again, “I guess.”
“Hey, Jimin, we gotta get going. The studio is booked for 10pm.”
“What?!” Kriesha protested.
“Ah! Yes! Kevin and I are working on a cover together and apparently the only time he could arrange us the studio was tonight at 10pm.” Jimin made a sad face.
Jae looked at Kevin, who was half-smiling at him. He knew what his friend was doing, he just didn’t know whether to be thankful for it or start panicking again.
“Hey! You guys could totally come! It would be so much fun, right, Kev?” Jimin said, excitingly.
“Yes! I’d love to.” Kriesha exclaimed.
“No!” Kevin overlapped the girl’s sentence. “I mean, wouldn’t it be nice if it was a surprise?”
“Hmmm...” The girl gave it a thought, “I guess...”
“Uh... Actually... I think maybe you guys should stay a little longer." Jae heard the words come out of his mouth before he even realized what he was doing. Panicking it is.
"What?" Kevin said with a confused expression on his face. "But the studio... um, it's really booked for 10PM, you know?"
"Oh, right." Jae felt a little guilty about the trouble his friend went through for him. "Yeah... I mean... Did I tell you McKay owns his own studio now? I'm sure he'd be okay with you guys using it sometime this week..."
"McKay?" Kriesha asked.
"Yes! He's a friend of ours." Jimin explained. "By the way, how is he? I haven't seen him in, like, forever!"
"Are you sure, Jae?" Kevin asked. "Don't you want to be alone wㅡ I mean, didn't you mention you were working on a collab with McKay? Wouldn't you guys want the studio for that?"
Jae gulped at the thought of almost being discovered, but answered his friend calmly, "No, it's okay, we can work something out!"
"Well, I'd love it if you guys stayed, I'm having a lot of fun tonight." Kriesha smiled, which warmed Jae's heart. And Kevin's. And Jimin's. She was just that adorable.
"Well, for me it's settled." Jimin said, reaching for the dessert menu, "I told Kevin it wasn't a good idea to sing after dinner anyway." She took one hand to her stomach, "My diaphragm won't even be able to move after eating so much!"
"Hey, no one forced you to get stuffed like that!" Kevin tried to defend himself.
"Shut up, let's order some dessert." Jimin requested.
"Yay! I'm with Jimin on that one!" Kriesha raised her hand to high-five her new friend, a gesture which was promptly corresponded.
"Nice!" The girl replied, sharing the menu with Kriesha while they decided what to order.
Kevin kept looking at Jae, trying to understand what the hell happened that made the boy change his mind. Truth is not even Jae himself could quite fathom the reasons as to why he started freaking out like that. He wanted to be alone with Kriesha, of course ㅡ the only problem was that he didn't know how. When he saw everything working out so smoothly throughout dinner with the four of them, he sort of felt like suddenly things could go wrong if Jimin and Kevin left. He sort of felt like he wasn't enough... for her.
They finally made an order and Kriesha took Jae's suggestion on what she should try, which made the boy all proud of himself. The conversation, again, went effortlessly, with the sound of their laughter filling up the not-so-crowded restaurant. Comments were made amongst them on whether they were being too loud or not, but since no one seemed to be disturbed by their uncontrollable joy, they just shrugged and kept on sharing their funny stories.
"Jimin, please, if you keep saying things like these, you're gonna scare the poor girl off!" Kevin pointed out, while taking a napkin to the corner of his eyes in order to dry off the happy tears that were pouring out of him.
"No, really, I wanna hear all about unnie's stories!" Kriesha demanded, taking a bite of her caramel mille-feuille (which by the way was delicious – thanks, Jae).
"Okay," Jimin said, still laughing a little. "Remember when Red Velvet came to ASC?" She looked across the table to face the tallest. "Jae had such a crush on Seulgi!"
"What?!" Kriesha gasped, taking her hands to her mouth and trying to hide her laughter.
"What?!" Jae screamed. WHY, JIMIN, WHY???
"Whoa, Jim, are you sure the only thing you had this evening was this coke?" Kevin glanced at her.
"Don't even try to deny it. Kevin told me you confessed everything over drinks that very same week." She said, taking a sip of her coke.
"WHAT?!" Jae gave his friend a look that he thought was saying "I'm going to kill you", but in reality he just looked very desperate with his wide eyes and half open mouth.
Kevin was also taken aback by Jimin's sudden revelation and mouthed "I'm sorry" to his friend. The boy also wondered how Jimin could be so clueless about this situation; she's usually pretty good at picking up hints like these.
Okay, to be fair Jae did have a crush on Seulgi (can you really blame him?), but it was completely platonic. He crushes on people, that's not an entirely new thing. The new thing is that this time he actually wants to do something about it.
"C-can we please just… just change the subject?" Jae begged.
"Alright, alright." Jimin replied, taking note of how flustered her friend looked. "I'm sorry, dude. Really, I didn't think it was a big deal."
"No," Jae shook his head. "It's okay."
"But hey, no one answered me!" Jimin protested, "How's McKay doing?"
"I actually ran into him last week, he was with Woosung." Kevin said. "He's been working on a new single, though, so he hasn't been able to do much lately."
"What? I didn't even know that." Jimin complained. "No one tells me anything anymore."
While they argued, Jae and Kriesha quietly finished their desserts. It's not like the mood got heavy or anything, it was just a little awkward for him to make eye contact with… well, anyone at that particular moment. The girl, though, from time to time would look up at her new friends sitting across the table and smile or agree with something they said.
"Kids, now we really should get going, it's getting late." Kevin pointed out.
"Yeah, you're right." Jimin agreed. "I'm riding back with you, Kev."
"You guys should go. This is my treat tonight, don't worry about it." Jae said, while making a gesture for the waiter to bring over the check.
"Are you sure?" The other three asked him.
"Yeah, it's no trouble." The tallest grabbed his wallet and took out his credit card as soon as the waiter came.
As they were gathering their things and saying goodbye to each other, Kriesha thanked them for showing her such a good time. They all looked happy and were already talking about doing this again. Not too long after, Kevin and Jimin left, leaving Jae alone with Kriesha, who were now standing outside the restaurant, feeling cold. Really cold.
"Thank you for dinner, sunbae." Kriesha bowed, grateful. Jae smiled when he heard how she called him.
"It was my pleasure, really." He replied. "How are you getting home? Do you need anything?"
"I think I'll get an uber." The girl was putting her gloves on and Jae was a little jealous because all he had was his coat pockets. "I'm headed that way." She pointed.
"Oh… Actually, me too."
"Oh, good! We can share a car!" There it was again. That damn smile.
They decided to split the ride home, but the uber was still a few minutes away. It was so cold, not even the drivers wanted to work that night.
"Hey," Kriesha started while Jae was looking at his phone screen, drawing his attention to her. "Did she ever find out?" She looked right at him. "Kang Seulgi sunbaenim."
"What? No!" The boy said, his head a little dizzy. "But it's not like I wanted her to find out..." He gulped. "I mean, nothing would ever happen, I wasn't that interested in her and she would never be interested in me."
"Why not?" Kriesha narrowed her eyebrows.
"You know…" He shrugged.
"Not really." She shook her head negatively.
"It's just…” The boy was avoiding eye contact again. “I don't know, it just doesn't make sense in my head, honestly." Despite the chilly weather, Jae could feel his cheeks awfully hot.
“That's silly.” The short girl smiled. “She would be lucky to have a guy like you!”
Jae turned his head to face her. “You think so?”
“Of course,” she giggled. “You just bought me dinner, I think the highest of you.”
“Oh, so that's how it is!” Jae pretended to be hurt. “You think someone likes you for who you are and thㅡ”
“I like you for who you are, Jae.” She said, looking at him. “Sunbae. Jae sunbaenim. I'm sorry.”
“No, it's fine. You can just call me Jae, I don't mind at all.” His phone vibrated in his pocket. “I think our uber is getting here.”
“Oh, good, cause I may look at ease but I'm actually freaking freezing!” She said and they both shared a laughter.
The car finally arrived and they both got in. The ride wasn't that long, less than 10 minutes to Kriesha's place and then a couple more to Jae's. They kept talking the whole way home, though, and it didn't feel awkward at all. Whenever Jae looked at her, he could feel something inside him changing, growing. It was almost physical. The hardest part was that he had absolutely no clue whatsoever about what was going on or why he was feeling like this.
As soon as the car pulled over in front of Kriesha's building, the girl didn't hesitate to say:
“We still need to schedule that date!”
“What?” Jae widened his eyes staring at her.
“For the guitar lessons! You said you could help me now that I'm trying to learn.” She gave him an eye smile.
“Oh!” Jae felt his heart racing, but tried to act cool. “Yeah, yeah, sure. Text me sometime, it's cool.”
“Okay! I gotta go now! Thanks again for dinner, Jae. Good night!”
“Good night!” Jae replied.
She turned to the driver, “Good night, sir!” but didn't get an audible response. “Alrighty, bye!”
She closed the door and Jae couldn't help but follow her with his eyes. After the driver stepped on the accelerator, the boy shook his head and took out his phone, looking for something to distract him. Of course there were 352 messages on the DAY6 chatroom. Oh, look at that, they're all Wonpil and Dowoon discussing on whether or not it's possible that the fossils some scientists found a thousand miles away from where they lived was from an actual ancient dragon that used to walk (or fly?) the Earth. Nothing new here. Why they were texting each other while on the same apartment was beyond Jae's understanding.
“Wait, what was that?!” Jae said, startled by the sudden braking of the car. “Why'd you stop?!”
“Your girlfriend,” the driver said, “she's running after the car.”
“My girlfㅡ” Jae turned around and saw a tiny, skinny girl running as fast as she could and mouthing somethingㅡno, screaming something he couldn't hear. As he rolled down the car window, he could clearly hear his name being called desperately. “Kriesha?” he said out loud, confused.
“Jae!!!” She finally caught up. “You told me to text you.”
“Yes?” He narrowed his eyebrows.
“I… I don't have your number.” She was trying to catch her breath, but quickly handed her phone to the confused boy so that he could dial his number.
“Oh. Right.” They both stared at each other for a few seconds, Jae was already with Kriesha's phone on his hand. Suddenly, the boy broke into laughter. “I can't believe how dumb this is!” He exclaimed. This also made Kriesha laugh, even though her whole body was aching from running. She should really exercise more.
“Here.” Jae handed her phone back. “There you go. Now text me.” He couldn't believe how confident he sounded when he said that.
“If I wasn't going to, do you think I would've ran like that just so that I wouldn't, you know… lose you?” She put her hair behind her ear and smiled shyly.
“I can't believe you did that, to be honest.” Yep. It was official. This girl had cast a spell on him.
“Me neither.”
Silence was established for a few seconds while they looked at each other.
“H-hm,” the driver cleaned his throat. “We gotta go, kids.”
“Oh, God, I'm sorry.” Kriesha took a few steps back. “I'm gonna let you go now.”
“Please don't”, Jae thought. Instead, what came out was “Yeah… I mean, I kinda have to go.”
“Bye… again. And…” She looked at him, regretful. “Sorry.”
Jae heard the car engine starting but he didn't say a word. The driver took off before he could manage to think of a response. He wanted to say “It's fine”. He wanted to say he hoped she'd text. He wanted to say how happy he was about tonight's dinner ㅡ even more about their ride home. He wanted to say something, anything. But he didn't. Not a word. “This is so stupid” he thought to himself.
“What?” He heard the driver ask. Perhaps he wasn't thinking to himself as much as he was thinking out loud.
“Oh. Nothing.” He shook his head.
The drive home went by silently, which Jae was actually thankful for, because his mind was already being so loud that he wouldn't be able to take other noises from outside as well.
When he got home, he saw Sungjin and Wonpil still playing games (he had been out for almost 4 hours!) and Dowoon sleeping on the couch. Brian was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey.” Sungjin said, without taking his eyes off the screen.
“Hey.” Jae replied, making his way to his bedroom.
“You're here?” Wonpil asked rhetorically. “How was the meeting?”
“What meeting?” Jae automatically responded. Damn it.
“The one you just came back from, silly.” Wonpil turned his face in Jae's direction, causing him to die on the game. “Nooooooooo!!!”
“HA! I WIN!” Sungjin celebrated.
“No, but I want a rematch!”
“No way, I won fair and square!”
While they kept discussing, Jae took his queue and went to his bedroom. Brian was there, still up, with his major headphones on and typing something on his phone.
“You're here?” He took off the headphones off to greet his hyung.
“I'm here.” Jae said, throwing himself on the bed as if his body couldn't take another minute standing.
“You okay?” Brian asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Me? Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired.” He said, keeping his eyes closed the whole time. “I think I'm just gonna go to sleep.”
After a few minutes, Brian said:
“You do know it's okay to share things with your friends, right?” This was the boy's last attempt to make Jae talk. Since all that followed was silence, we can safely assume it failed.
Jae just pretended to be asleep. It was silly even, why couldn't he just tell Brian, a close friend he's known for so long (with whom he even shares a room!) about that? “There's this girl I like and I wanna go out with her.” There. Simple. But Jae knew the minute he said those words out loud, there was no coming back from them. It would suddenly become real. More real than he wanted it to be. Or maybe just as real as he wanted it to be.