Chapter Text
“I can’t believe they left us here,” Sunoo grumbled, kicking a stray piece of rock on the ground.
Jake let out a strangled laugh.
“Yeah, I can’t believe it too.”
Sunghoon’s voice echoed in Jake’s head, the harmless threat seeming a lot more real now that Jake found himself in this situation.
“For the sake of my sanity Jake, talk to him. Or else I’ll make you do it.”
Jake knew his best friend was usually full of shit - Park Sunghoon had a lot more bark than bite to him. But as Jake watched helplessly from the gas station window, he realized that Sunghoon might actually pack a stronger punch than he thought.
Sunoo spotted the minivan leaving the station a little later than Jake, but it didn’t stop the younger boy from dropping all of his things on the floor and screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.
“Park Sunghoon, you son of a bitch!”
It all started with an invitation from an overly excited Jungwon. He had bounded over towards their usual lunch table, the huge grin on his face taking up most of his small face. As Jungwon slid into the bench, Sunoo eyed him suspiciously.
“You’re in a good mood,” Sunoo observed.
“What? Is it weird that I’m in a good mood?” Jungwon questioned, poking the straw through his juice box a little too enthusiastically.
“No,” Sunoo chuckled, “but I know you just had an hour and a half straight of Physics. So unless those formulas are more entertaining than I thought, I would assume that something amazing just happened to you.”
The twinkle in Jungwon’s eyes proved his point. The younger boy sighed happily, his smile somehow brightening.
“Okay, okay, you got me.”
“I know you,” Sunoo wiggled his eyebrows playfully, pointing his chopsticks at Jungwon, “so what is it? What happened?”
Jungwon straightened up in his seat, the glimmer not leaving his cat-like eyes.
“What do you think about going to Indonesia for a holiday?”
Sunoo raised an eyebrow, “Indonesia? Are you going for vacation there this summer?”
“We are going to Indonesia,” Jungwon announced, “Jay hyung invited me for his grad trip and I said I would go if I could bring you along.”
“Wait, what? Jungwon, I don’t have the money to go to fucking Indonesia! I barely have money to buy Sunmi’s new album!” Sunoo whisper-shouted, shooting his best friend a confused frown.
Jungwon crossed his arms smugly, “Who said you’d have to pay for anything?”
“Huh?”
“Jay hyung’s grandma owns a resort in Indonesia. He already got permission to bring us all on the trip and Jay hyung said he would pay for our flights if we can’t afford it.”
Sunoo’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. He barely spoke to Jay as it is, aside from some casual small-talk Sunoo tried to engage in whenever the two were together with Jungwon. In short, they weren’t close in the way Jungwon and Jay were.
It almost made no sense to hear that Jay was willing to pay for Sunoo’s flight… until he stared back at his best friend and it hit him.
Ah. Jungwon has Jay wrapped around his finger.
Sunoo leaned back, a knowing smirk playing at his lips.
“Jay-ssi is willing to pay for my flight huh?” Sunoo humoured, “are you sure he’s just being nice to me because he wants me on this trip?”
Jungwon’s cheeks flushed pink as he rolled his eyes. “Of course he wants you there. Sunghoon hyung said it would be fun if you came along too.”
“Oh good,” Sunoo nodded, “if Sunghoon hyung is coming too then I won’t be the third wheel.”
“Stop it,” Jungwon threw a stray napkin at Sunoo, the older one dodging it with a giggle, “you wouldn’t be a third wheel anyways.”
“Are you being serious right now? Are we forgetting the festival last month? Someone abandoned me to go and eat cheese tteok with his Jay hyungie. I had to walk around with Sunghoon hyung and his friend and I still ended up as the third wheel!”
Jungwon tilted his head. “You mean Jake hyung?”
“Was that his name?” Sunoo pursed his lips, “I honestly don’t remember. He was kind of quiet whenever I was around. Thank God I found Dongpyo and Yuna because I was not going to stand around and listen to two men chat about soccer.”
Jungwon chuckled, shaking his head lightly. “So what do you say? Want to come on the trip with us?”
“You’re not going to go if I don’t go?” Sunoo asked.
“Well, yeah. My parents trust you and that’s probably the only way I can get them to say yes.”
Sunoo nodded, “If my parents let me go then yeah, I’m up for it. My mum loves Sunghoon hyung so she’ll definitely let me if he’s coming along too.”
Jungwon clapped his hands excitedly, a pleased smile gracing his lips. Sunoo resisted the urge to reach across and pinch Jungwon’s cheeks. Sometimes he forgot how cute the younger boy got when he was excited about something. Jungwon was always pretty level-headed and calm, so seeing him barely contain his joy was a sight Sunoo relished.
Sunoo stuffed another spoonful of rice into his mouth. “Who else is coming on this trip with us?”
“I think it’s just Jay hyung, Sunghoon hyung and Jake hyung for now.”
Sunoo nearly dropped his spoon in horror.
“Wait, so am I fifth-wheeling then?” he squeaked.
Jungwon waved his hand dismissively, “you won’t be. Heeseung hyung might be coming down from college to join us. You remember him, right?”
Sunoo hummed uncommitedly, his eyes scanning the cafeteria around them. He instantly spotted the infamous trio near the food stall, the three of them standing out from the group of students around them. A girl bounded over towards the tallest out of the three, holding a bottle of corn tea in her hands. She shyly tapped Sunghoon on the shoulder and handed him it, her friends cheering for her loudly from the end of the queue.
Sunghoon just flashed a sheepish smile back at her and bowed his head politely in thanks. His smile seemed to ignite something in the girl as she brightened, a blush decorating her cheeks.
Of course. Sunghoon was arguably the most popular out of the trio, his dashing good looks seemed to put anyone within five feet of him in a dazed trance. Sunoo was pretty immune to it now, having known the boy since he was a toddler.
Beside him, Jay was unabashedly laughing at his friend’s embarrassment. Even from their faraway seat at the benches, Sunoo could hear Jay’s boisterous laughter and teasing. Jay was pretty much the unofficial leader of the three as he hosted most of the wild parties the seniors were known for. Whenever Jay walked around in their high school campus, Sunoo swore he could smell the luxury off of him. He always had the latest sneakers on his feet and wore flashy but classy jewelry on his ears and fingers. He looked the most intimidating out of the three with his sharp eyes and stare - so it was still a wonder to Sunoo that he and Jungwon were close.
The two met last year in some Taekwondo class organized by the school and Jay had been inseparable from Jungwon ever since.
Sunoo wasn’t too familiar with the other boy standing with them. They had only met once at the festival and even then, the boy was a lot more reserved and only talked to Sunghoon. He heard from other students that the boy was a transfer student from Australia, hence his foreign name.
The two seniors adopted the boy quickly into their clique despite having only been around for a few months, but he seemed to fit perfectly into their small circle. There were other rumours from the students that the Australian boy was also from a wealthy family. (“I heard his parents own this school,” Dongpyo had pointed out while they walked away from Sunghoon and Jake at the festival. Sunoo felt his nose scrunch up at that revelation.)
“I don’t think that Jake guy likes me,” Sunoo said nonchalantly.
“What makes you say that?” Jungwon questioned, curiosity dancing in his eyes.
A shrug, “I don’t know. He didn’t talk to me at all at the festival. It was painfully awkward, actually.”
“That’s strange,” Jungwon frowned, “I swear I heard him say something nice about you once.”
Sunoo blinked. “Really? What did he say?”
“I think he said something about your selfies.”
Sunoo felt his ears go red. It was no secret that Sunoo was a prolific selfie taker, posting at least one photo of himself everyday. That was exactly how Sunoo got his own small share of admirers, younger freshmen and juniors in their school constantly leaving heart eyes and compliments in his comments.
He took massive pride in his Instagram account, making sure that his feed was pretty and nice to look at. Sunoo was always adamant on having a good social media presence because shit, sue him for wanting people to perceive him well.
“Are you sure he said something nice?” Sunoo mused, hiding the anxiety nipping at his skin. He mindlessly twisted the bean sprouts on his lunch tray with his chopsticks.
“I’m sure he said you were pretty,” Jungwon nonchalantly said.
Pretty.
“Huh,” Sunoo huffed, “that’s something coming from someone like him.”
Jungwon peered questioningly at his best friend. “What, do you not like Jake hyung?”
Sunoo shoved the nagging feeling tugging at his heart into the darkest corner of his mind. Instead, he chose to shrug once again.
“I don’t know him well enough to like or not like him.”
Silence enveloped the two of them as Jungwon let himself drift off in his own head, propping his chin up with his palm on the table. Sunoo caught Jungwon trying to sneak a glance at a certain senior across the cafeteria and he snorted, nudging Jungwon on the knee gently.
“I can’t tell if you’re excited about the trip or the fact that Jay-ssi basically asked you out on a date in Indonesia.”
The blush that spread across Jungwon’s cheeks was hard to miss as Sunoo could barely control the giggles coming out of his mouth.
School passed by in the blink of an eye and before Sunoo knew it, he was signing yearbooks and bidding his classmates a good summer. The looming dread of senior year was hovering over his head but Sunoo decided to worry about that when the next semester rolled around.
For now, all Sunoo wanted to do was jump on that plane to Indonesia with his best friend and spend a week relaxing at the luxurious resort secluded from the rest of the world.
The thought of lazing on a chaise with the resort’s pool water cooling around him was enough to have Sunoo packing his bags within a day, filled to the brim with his favourite summer clothes.
He had stared at the computer screen with Jungwon a few days before the trip, gawking over the images of the luxurious and peaceful-looking resort. With the crystal blue pool water overlooking the serene Lombok ocean, it was one of the most beautiful places Sunoo had ever seen in his long eighteen years of living.
Convincing Sunoo’s parents was already a hard feat, but getting Jungwon’s parents to say yes was a whole other thing. Apparently, Sunoo wasn’t enough reassurance for the Yang’s. A few days before the actual flight, Jay and Sunghoon had made it their personal mission to sway Jungwon’s parents.
Jay made everyone wear their nicest clothes and sprayed his expensive cologne on everyone. He even removed the extra piercings on his ears, making sure to style his hair neatly.
“We just have to convince Jungwonie’s parents that we’re good law-abiding Christian kids for like ten minutes,” Jay grumbled.
Sunghoon snorted. “If we were going for that angle, we should’ve brought Jake along. You’re literally the most atheist person I know.”
“Ah,” Jay blinked as he paused in front of the Yang’s apartment, “you’re right.”
“It’s okay, it’ll still work. Sunghoon hyung should be enough,” Sunoo piped up from the front of the group, “he did this to my parents and they said yes straight away.”
“Are you sure?” Jay raised an eyebrow. Sunoo nodded determinedly, not intimidated in the slightest.
Thankfully, Sunghoon’s smile and boyish charm was enough to convince Jungwon’s parents. Sunghoon bustled into the Yang family home with Jay and Sunoo in tow, carrying bags of homemade kimchi and dumplings. The three of them crowded around Jungwon’s parents on the sofa as they reassured Jungwon’s utmost safety and care. Jungwon sat in between his parents, his wide eyes watching his friends in awe as they spoke in the most polite tones and spared hopeful smiles.
“I think it’s the dumplings that did it for my mum,” Jungwon giggled after, leaning on the wall outside his apartment as he waited for the three of them to slip back into their shoes.
Jay smiled at the younger boy, ruffling his hair. “I’m just glad you can come with us now.”
No matter how much he tried, Jungwon couldn’t hide the massive grin on his face.
Sunoo had teased him about it over the phone on the night before their flight, to which Jungwon just clicked his tongue. They pondered over what to bring on their trip and which clothes suited the hot weather in Indonesia best. After the two excitedly shared what they wanted to do once they reached the resort, Sunoo could hear Jungwon yawn sleepily from the other end of the line.
“Go to sleep, Jungwon-ah,” Sunoo mumbled, stretching in his own bed, “we’ll be on our feet for a while tomorrow.”
Jungwon hummed in reply, bidding Sunoo a half-awake goodbye as they hung up on the phone.
On the first day of summer, the Seoul sun was surprisingly pretty tame. Sunoo strolled into the airport, his bright yellow luggage following closely behind. Incheon Airport was expectedly crowded, with hundreds of families rushing off for their own vacations and countless businessmen trying to catch their next flights.
Sunoo was a lot more relaxed than most people, having arrived at the airport half an hour earlier than the agreed timing.
If he was being completely honest, Sunoo was a tad bit nervous.
Aside from Jungwon and Sunghoon, Sunoo wasn’t close to any of the others at all. He had never spoken to Heeseung, who was two years his senior. Even before Heeseung had graduated from their high school, Sunoo didn’t get to meet him properly. Other than a few exchanged likes on their Instagram posts and a casual ‘hello’ from their newly formed Kakao group chat, Sunoo was basically a stranger to Heeseung, Jake and Jay.
So Sunoo did what he knew best. Food was the way to anyone’s heart, right?
Sunoo settled down at a cafe near the check-in counters, cradling the plastic bag full of packaged honey tteok in his arms. His mother was pleasantly surprised when Sunoo suggested the idea as he sleepily rubbed his eyes that morning.
“My son wants to make tteok at 8am in the morning? You do everything you can to avoid helping me out at the store this early but you want to do this now?” she mused from the kitchen counter, her hands already kneading a bowl of tteok.
Sunoo stared down at the small plastic boxes filled with honey tteok. He hoped that the tteok he had slaved away at for an hour was enough to break the ice.
He mindlessly scrolled through his Instagram feed, occasionally checking in with Jungwon through text. As far as he knew, no one would be arriving at the airport any time soon. Sunoo let himself relax, his earbuds shoved in his ears as he hummed to ‘What is Love?’.
Sunoo was halfway through a classmate’s Instagram story when he saw the shadow of someone towering over him. He quickly sat up, removing the earbuds from his ear as a half-awake Jay slid into the seat in front of him.
“Hi,” Sunoo smiled, earning a nod from Jay. The older boy removed his own AirPods from his ears, slipping the pod back into the pocket of his bomber jacket.
Sunoo dug his hands into his plastic bag and handed Jay one of the small boxes. Jay raised his eyebrows quizzically, “what is this?”
“I know this isn’t enough compared to the amount of money you paid for my flight,” Sunoo sheepishly said, “so I hope this is enough as a thank you. It’s honey tteok!”
Jay took the small box in his hands, a surprised look etched on his face. He blinked down at it before cracking a small crooked smile.
“Wow, thanks Sunoo-ssi,” Jay said softly, “this actually looks really good, where did you get this?”
“My mother and I made this together, our family owns a rice cake shop,” Sunoo proudly proclaimed, “it’s the least I could do.”
“Sweet,” Jay hummed, “I’ll eat this on the plane then. Thanks, Sunoo-ssi.”
“It’s nothing, Jay sunbaenim!”
Jay scrunched his nose up at the honorific, “oh God, you can just call me Jay hyung. Please.”
Sunoo brightened up as he grinned, “okay, Jay hyung. Thank you again, I know you wanted Jungwonie to come on this trip and you didn’t really plan for me to come along so thank you again!”
Something murked in Jay’s eyes as he shrugged nonchalantly.
“Actually, it’s a good thing he made you come along,” Jay said, an edge of something unrecognizable in his voice, “I’m sure Jungwonie isn’t the only one happy to have you around on this trip.”
“Ah,” Sunoo said lightly, “do you mean Sunghoon hyung?”
Jay tried his best to swallow the chuckle that was threatening to come out of him as he fumbled around in his pockets for his wallet. He suddenly rose to his feet, squinting through his glasses as he scanned the cafe’s menu board. Moving out of his seat slowly, Jay turned back after a few steps to face Sunoo.
“Do you want anything to drink?” he asked, jabbing his thumb towards the menu board.
“No, I’m good,” Sunoo waved his hands, “cafe drinks at the airport are kind of overpriced.”
“I’ll pay,” Jay insisted, scratching his eyebrow awkwardly, “it’s no big deal, honestly. I’m going to get a drink for Jungwonie too.”
Sunoo felt his heart envelope with warmth, enjoying the way Jay’s ears went red at the mention of his best friend.
“I’ll have an iced tea then,” Sunoo kindly said. Jay just nodded and shifted his eyes back to the menu board, his eyes flickering between the overwhelming selection.
“Uh, Jungwon would want an iced chocolate, right?” Jay questioned sheepishly.
“Right,” Sunoo confirmed cheerfully, his brain already thinking of the teasing texts he’d send to Jungwon.
“I can’t do this.”
“Sim Jaeyun, for God’s sake,” Sunghoon grumbled, turning to glare at his best friend, “if you don’t -”
“Sunghoon-ah, I’m serious. I feel like I’m going to puke.”
“Dude, it’s literally just Kim Sunoo.”
“That’s exactly the point!” Jake squeaked, “If it wasn’t him, I wouldn’t be shitting my pants right now!”
Sunghoon stopped in his tracks as Jake suddenly froze, his eyes staring up ahead of them. Frowning, Sunghoon turned his head to look where Jake was gawking at.
Not far from them sat Jay, Jungwon and Sunoo - all of them nursing their own drinks. Jungwon said something from across the table, prompting Sunoo to clap loudly and let out the most melodious laugh Jake has ever heard. Jake watched as Sunoo’s smile grew wider, his plump cheeks and adorable crescent shaped eyes weakening what little strength Jake had.
Jake gulped. “I should just go home while I still can. They haven’t seen us yet.”
“You already paid for the flight,” Sunghoon deadpanned.
“I don’t care, I’ll just get a refund or something.”
“Jake.”
“Sunghoon, I’m being dead serious right now. How on Earth do you expect me to do this?”
“You know,” Sunghoon sighed, running a hand through his hair frustratedly, “most people would jump at the chance to hang out with their crush in a luxury resort for a whole week.”
“Well, I’m not like most people,” Jake mumbled.
Sunghoon snorted. “Yeah, you got that right.”
The two stood in silence as Jake tried to breathe, doing those exercises he’d seen on some random Twitter thread somewhere. He wished he wasn’t this pathetic, but what could Jake do? No one told him that Sunoo was coming on this trip until Sunghoon added him into the Kakao group chat two days before.
“Look, Sunoo is nice. And friendly. He’s not going to bite,” Sunghoon tried to reassure his friend.
Jake shook his head. “But he’s Sunoo.”
“What does that even mean?” Sunghoon groaned.
Jake meant that Sunoo was unlike anyone he’s ever met.
Sunoo smiles like he’s the center of the universe. His eyes shine like he hangs the stars in the skies. He’s smooth and gentle at every curve and stunning and sharp at every edge, as if he was handcrafted by all the best deities above.
Sunoo has always felt like someone Jake couldn’t touch, like a fascinating exhibit at a highly protected museum he paid thousands to enter in the first place.
He’s pretty and charming in every way Jake has been able to see him, from the posts on his Instagram feed to the occasional times Jake passes by Sunoo’s classroom and dance clubroom. He catches sight of Sunoo at his football games and he watches Sunoo dance at his competitions and festivals.
But Jake has never dared to step anywhere close to him. Sunoo was a lot like the sun to Jake - nice to see from afar but dangerously bright for anyone to try and touch up close.
Jake wasn’t able to form any of his thoughts into words, so he just let out the most pathetic string of gibberish his brain scrambled to put together.
“Okay, I can’t tell if you just spoke in Korean or Simlish,” Sunghoon mused. He patted Jake comfortingly on the shoulder, shooting him a sympathetic smile.
“Don’t leave me alone with him,” Jake begged, pulling out his best puppy dog eyes that he could muster, “I don’t want to accidentally say something stupid around him.”
Sunghoon snorted again. “Dude, you’re going to be doing that all on your own.”
“Sunghoon-ah!” Jake exclaimed, gripping his best friend’s arm tightly.
“Just relax and be yourself,” Sunghoon said, “Sunoo finds most of the things I say funny and only rubbish comes out of this mouth so you’ll be fine, Jake-ah. He’ll like you, I’m sure of it.”
“If he doesn’t?”
Sunghoon shrugged. “He won’t. Look at you, you’re like a puppy. It’s kind of hard to hate you.”
Jake frowned, squinting his eyes at Sunghoon, “thanks, that’s extremely reassuring.”
Sunghoon flashed a shit-eating grin, “see? That’s the spirit. Now, take a deep breath.”
Jake tilted his head questioningly, “why?”
“Because Sunoo has noticed us standing here and Jungwonie is waving us over.”
Waving back enthusiastically, Sunghoon grabbed Jake by the arm and forced the two of them to start walking again. Panic began to flood Jake’s body as he kept his eyes locked on his feet. Thank God for his long hair, hiding his now pink ears.
“Smile,” Sunghoon reminded Jake under his breath as they neared the table, “you look like you’re going to pass out.”
Before Jake could reply an equally snarky reply back, he heard Sunoo’s gentle voice pierce through the air.
“Sunghoonie hyung!” the younger boy greeted, “and Jake sunbaenim, right?”
Jake felt Sunoo’s eyes on him as he looked up from his feet, his eyes peeking out from the hat he was wearing. He managed a weak smile as he nodded, waving his hand a little.
“Sunbaenim?” Sunghoon tutted, “it’s okay, Sunoo-yah. I’m sure Jake doesn’t mind if you call him hyung, right?”
Sunghoon nudged his best friend on the arm as Jake hissed, trying to stop the blush from reaching his cheeks.
“Right?” Sunghoon pressed.
Sunoo smiled softly at him, “is this okay, Jake hyung?”
Jake felt something churn at his stomach upon hearing the honorific. For fuck’s sake, he needed to get it together.
Jake just nodded, shifting his gaze from his arm to Sunoo. He watched as Sunoo blinked at him slowly, his eyelashes fluttering around his light eyes. How is it possible that he has such pretty eyes?
“It’s okay, Sunoo,” Jake managed to say, his voice surprisingly stable for someone having a mild mental breakdown in his own head.
Sunoo grinned again, his eyes twinkling. Jake wondered how the hell he was supposed to survive a full week of this.
I’m royally screwed.
With exactly ten minutes until the gates were supposed to close, Heeseung came running frantically towards the group at the check-in counter. Jay had chewed Heeseung’s ears off about being disgustingly late as everyone ran through the airport, clinging onto their carry-ons for dear life.
Luckily, their gate was still wide open as the last few passengers trailed into the airplane. A simultaneous sigh of relief sounded from the six teens, Sunoo even letting out an exhausted ‘hooray’. They joined the queue of people lining up outside the tunnel connecting the airplane, their tickets and passports in hand.
“I’m sorry,” Heeseung wheezed, trying to catch his breath, “I slept through my alarms.”
“Heeseung hyung,” Jay sighed as he pinched his thumb and index finger together, “we were like this close to leaving you.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Heeseung repeated, patting all of his friends on the shoulder gently.
When his eyes landed on Sunoo, he bowed slightly. They exchanged awkward ‘hello’s as Sunoo handed Heeseung a box of honey tteok. The older boy looked surprised to receive it but quickly melted into a pleased smile before thanking Sunoo softly.
Jake peeked at his own ticket in his hands, trying to find his seat number as the six of them clambered onto the airplane together.
E50
“What seat did you get?” Jake asked Sunghoon, who was busying himself with shoving his carry-on bag into the overhead compartment.
“Jay got me D23,” Sunghoon mumbled, “what did you get?”
Jake just showed Sunghoon his ticket, the younger furrowing his eyebrows as he peered over the seats behind his. His eyes lit up when he saw who was sitting at E49.
“Well, well, isn’t it your lucky day?” Sunghoon mused. Jake tilted his head questioningly, following Sunghoon’s line of sight.
Sat snugly next to the window at seat E49 was Kim Sunoo, already wrapped up in a fluffy yellow cardigan that made his pale skin look milkier than ever.
Jake turned back to Sunghoon, his eyes wide with terror.
“Sunghoon, I can’t.”
“Yes you can,” Sunghoon chuckled, already pushing his best friend towards his row.
“The flight is seven fucking hours long!” Jake hissed as he held onto a random headrest tightly, “switch seats with me, please!”
“For the lack of a better term,” Sunghoon hissed back, “stop being a pussy and go.”
Jake was interrupted by an impatient looking air stewardess, her voice dripping with fake politeness as she prompted Jake to move to his seat quickly. He just nodded meekly, throwing his best friend one last panicked look and trotted over towards the E row.
Sunoo looked up from his phone as Jake stood in front of him awkwardly, shifting on his feet.
“Oh?” Sunoo exclaimed, “Jake hyung? Are you sitting next to me?”
“Yeah,” Jake said steadily, much to his own surprise.
Sunoo smiled that precious grin and Jake was sure his heart would stop beating right there and then.
“Cool, I thought I would have to sit with a stranger today. Jay hyung snatched Jungwonie away from me so,” Sunoo scrunched his nose up playfully.
Jake’s brain short circuited as he just smiled pathetically.
“Cruel,” Jake piped up.
Sunoo giggled and shrugged his shoulders. “I know but I can’t complain, I wasn’t the one who paid for my tickets.”
“Excuse me, sir,” the same air stewardess from before tapped Jake’s shoulder gently, “please get to your seat quickly. We will be taking off very soon.”
There was an awkward silence as Jake rushed to squeeze his belongings onto the overhead compartment. A million thoughts began to race in Jake’s mind, already thinking of things to say when he had to sit down. The flight was seven hours and twenty minutes to be exact and seeing as it was ten in the morning, Jake didn’t feel sleepy at all.
The thought of sitting next to the crush he had been pining over for a year was enough to make Jake want to fling himself off the plane, but he bit back at the temptation. It was just seven hours - how bad could it be?
Frankly, he’s done scarier things than being trapped in a flying metal cylinder next to Kim Sunoo. (Like sneaking into their high school campus at midnight to pull the Senior’s Prank, thanks Jay.)
From his seat next to Sunoo, Jake could smell the light scent of citrus body spray. Jake blinked quickly at the seat in front of him, moving to rest both his arms on the armrests at his sides. He nearly jumped when he felt Sunoo’s arm under his own right one, the sharp sensation of static jolting him.
“Whoops, sorry,” Sunoo apologized sheepishly, retracting his arm, “I’ll let you have this armrest.”
“No, no!” Jake panicked, “you can have it, it’s all yours.”
Sunoo just smiled bashfully, “I’m good, hyung.”
“You had it first,” the older boy stuttered, “I have another one here.” Jake patted the armrest on his left.
“See? It’s okay, rest your hand here, Sunoo-yah.”
A giggle, “oh my God, why are we arguing about this? It’s literally just an armrest, hyung.”
Jake resigned first as he slouched in his seat, covering his now reddening cheeks. He heard Sunoo giggle again from beside him and his stomach fluttered at the sound.
“Oh!” Sunoo suddenly exclaimed, “I forgot to give you this.”
Lowering his hands from his face, Jake looked at Sunoo from the side of his eyes. The younger boy was now smiling shyly at him, cradling a small plastic box in his hands. He looked back up at Sunoo, “what is this?”
“It’s honey tteok. I made it with my mother this morning so that I could give it to all of you.”
“W-what?”
“Do you want it or not? Because Sunghoon hyung has been bugging me to give him this box even though he’s already had two,” Sunoo said, tilting his head towards Sunghoon’s direction in the row ahead of them.
Why is he so greedy? Jake wondered to himself. He quickly snapped out of his little trance, tearing his eyes away from Sunoo’s tiny smile. Jake nodded his head fervently, gently taking the box from Sunoo.
“Thank you, Sunoo-yah,” Jake softly said, “this looks delicious, tell your mother I said thank you too.”
He cradled the plastic box in his hands, admiring how delicious it actually looked. Tucking it safely in his bag, Jake relished the way Sunoo preened at his compliment.
“I didn’t know you cook.”
The comment slipped out of Jake’s mouth before he could help it. He picked at the loose thread on his jeans, the loud robotic hum of the airplane accompanying their silence.
Don’t find me creepy. Don’t find me creepy.
Sunoo seemed taken aback by Jake’s words, an eyebrow raised slightly as a smug look rested on his face.
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me,” Sunoo said teasingly, “I’m a man of many skills.”
Jake exhaled the breath he was holding in. “You definitely are. You’re an amazing dancer and singer.”
Jake, what the hell? Be more obvious, would you? Why don’t you just write ‘hey, I have a massive crush on Kim Sunoo’ on your forehead?
“You’ve seen me perform before?”
“Uh,” Jake chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head as he thought, eh - what the heck, “yeah, I saw you at the festival last year. You were so good, I thought you were an idol.”
If there’s one thing Jake learned from his short interaction with Sunoo so far was that he loved compliments. And Jake didn’t mind giving them to him - he’d give Sunoo an entire essay about how pretty he was and how his eyes twinkle like fucking stars if he asked.
“Really? You think I could be an idol?” Sunoo giggled, the sound making Jake laugh too.
“Hundred percent,” Jake chuckled, “even though I have zero idea how all that actually works.”
“Hm,” Sunoo hummed, trying to hide the grin that was stretching his cheeks. Jake wanted to reach out and squish his face together. “Imagine me as an idol.”
The smile on Sunoo’s face did quite a bit to calm Jake down. He almost heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe I won’t explode. Seven hours isn’t that long, right?