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“You wish that was you huh.” Tayane remarked before bursting out into laughter with Efia. You were in the common room, limbs completely entangled with Eden (Fade) on the sofa. To any passerby, including Jamie, one would assume that this intimacy is far from platonic. However, sitting right across from you two was Sunwoo partially keeping her eye on a timer, ensuring that you two stay in physical contact for another 6 minutes and 54 seconds. “Oh, fuck off.” He sneered, elbowing Tayane before looking back at the two of you. “This is serious. This is the 7th time this month, and Eden is exactly their type. They’ve gotta be dating each other.”
“Ehhhh not exactly Y/N's type, but close enough.” Efia corrected.
“Honestly I'm more shocked by the fact that Y/N can even cuddle. They’re not that touchy with me, come to think of it.” Tayane said.
“No for real, somethings not adding up because Eden has literally said before that she's not one for PDA.” Efia recalled, she glanced at Jamie, who still had a hard gaze on the two- three of you, in the common room.
“I can hear your gears turning dude, why not just ask her?” Tayane joked.
“Why didn't Sunwoo say anything? We’re too close for her to keep this from me.” Lost in thought Jamie completely disregarded Tayane’s suggestion. Being a typically confident person, Jamie doesn't really take himself for the jealous type, but he thought he had a good thing, whatever it was, going with you until Eden came swinging in out of nowhere, literally, all over you.
Jamie walked into the dorm hall and was kicking the snow off his boots at the main door. It had a view of the common room into which he glanced for a second, but was listening to music way too loud for him to see straight. He did find himself making a double and triple take at the two of you curled up on the sofa. Your face was out of view as you were not facing him but Eden was, and all she did was a slight nod in his direction, acknowledging his return to the dorm hall. He slowly nodded back, still ridden with shock, but Eden was just satisfied that she was able to look someone in the eye while displaying affection. As he walked past, he took note of Sunwoo’s presence as well. She was busy doing whatever on her computer but she definitely had to have been aware of you two’s…locked-limbed-ness in front of her. He continued up to his dorm in disbelief.
“And Sunwoo is there every time. Nah, I gotta get to the bottom of this. She would tell me wouldn’t she? I mean like-” His ramble was interrupted by Zyanya’s slap on his back.
“You're not gonna get anything out of Sunwoo. Trust me.” She said.
“Do you know what's going on?” He shoots back accusatory.
“No, but you have made it very obvious that you want Y/N all to yourself. There’s no way she doesn’t know, and she doesn’t seem like the type to move on to a new partner without telling somebody.” Zyanya pointed out.
“Well that somebody could be Sunwoo.” Jamie protested.
“It could, but why do we only see them cuddling when Sunwoo is there. They're almost never unsupervised in that state. Looks like a fake dating situation to me if anything.” Zyanya responded.
“So maybe there's nothing to tell…? ” Tayane concluded, realizing that they’re definitely not dating.
“Yea, there's no way they're dating. It looks like Sunwoo is fuckin monitoring them or something.” Efia said, eyes still on you and Eden on the couch.
“This is so weird.” Jamie says exasperatedly. He wipes his face in exhaustion, “I'll just– figure it out later.”
They all tracked his movements, partially with concern, as he headed back up to his room. He hasn't really been himself the past few weeks, with this whole ordeal absolutely wracking his mind. However, Zyanya seemed to have already figured it out. She too, still wanted to hear from you as confirmation of her theory, but she’s already set on her idea that you and Eden were using each other under Sunwoos supervision to practice getting comfortable with typical couple shit that you haven't really gotten used to doing. With Eden’s weakness being PDA and yours being physical touch, Sunwoo took the opportunity to help the two of you at the same time, partnering you guys up in twice-weekly sessions where you cuddled publicly. Your last session would be coming up later this week, and you both had gotten surprisingly better within a month. Ying was also in on this. She at first advised that you shouldn’t change yourself to become the ‘ideal partner’, and especially not when it comes to things you're comfortable with, but set that aside when she heard that it's something you both always wanted to overcome and properly experience.
“I want to be held. Trust me, dude I am literally so touch starved, and my heart fucking swells at the thought of being touched by the right person, but my body just rejects it. Like I'm burning or itching or something I don't know. But I do know that my person is touchy feely, and call it cheesy and mushy but, I would love to be held by them. I just need my body to get its shit together, and I need help.” You rambled feverishly. Fade had an almost identical situation, but more specifically with this one girl from her organic chemistry class. There were times where said girl would tuck a strand behind Eden’s ear, or offer to tie her hair up, or even give her an excited hug after successfully completing an experiment, and Eden just didn't know how to properly react or reciprocate because she wasn't used to showing affection publicly. She definitely wanted to though. Being slightly possessive as she is, Eden would love to make it known who her partner is, and that she's taken– she just had to make sure she can actually do so first. They weren’t yet dating, but she wanted everything with this girl to be absolutely perfect, and so did you with your particular interest...
Whether it be a pat on the head, elongated hugs for greetings, the habit of making pinky promises, or him just straight up slinging his arm over your shoulder, you knew for sure that physical touch was one of Jamie’s love languages, and as your crush first developed, you were thrilled at the idea of getting to be damn near smothered by him almost all the time you were together.
Your body sure wasn't though.
You recalled one time in highschool where you held one of your friends’ hand for the duration of a walk. It was painful, but you remember trying to get your body to calm down. “It’s just platonic hand holding,” You scolded yourself as your palm and fingers practically itched. You knew that Jamie would definitely see you at least once in these sessions, and honestly, the thought of it freaked you out a little, but it's a risk you and Eden were both willing to take. You’d explain everything to Jamie when the time came, and of course that would include a confession. Are you ready for either? No not really, but you're pretty damn sure the feeling is mutual, otherwise you wouldn't even think of it. Luckily for you, Jamie is terrible at hiding his feelings. Whether it be his unfiltered facial expressions, elongated gazes, always wanting to spend time with you, or hell- always wanting to feel your touch, he made it pretty obvious that he had the hots for you.
It came to your last session, and there you two were, entangled on the sofa yet again. Jamie was for sure going to say something this time. He entered the room with a bowl of chips, asking if he, Efia and Tayane could join you in watching Avengers: Age of Ultron. To which Eden obliged, and you would too after brief hesitation. She got up to go get some snacks for the two of you, leaving you with Jamie, and his questioning stare, leaned back and legs spread, but knee bouncing. “Didn’t know you guys were a thing.” He started. Before he could go in on his observations you responded, “We’re not, I swear” laughing a bit to ease the tension. He returned the energy, smiling a bit as he said “You two do seem really close all of a sudden though, what's goin on?” He threw a chip into his mouth. Eden returned with Tayane and Efia following behind her, and Sunwoo with Ryo and Kirra. “I’ll answer your questions, I swear.” You responded nearly whispering.
- You and eden are legit on the most top tier of couple shit the whole time and Jamie is just passive aggressively munching away
- In the middle of the movie you get a text, but instead of checking your phone you check you Apple Watch for discretion, It’s a text from Jamie
- He wants to meet up in his dorm, a dorm, the bathroom, he doesn't care, he just needs an answer tonight.
When you finally catch up with him, he begins a slightly heated rant as he vents his feelings of jealousy, confusion, and almost defeat over the past month.
“I may just be being drastic but I really thought we had something going. Like of course we’re still friends but I was kinda sure that we both wanted to be more than that? I mean if you have feelings for Eden that's fine I just feel hella out of the loop, and kinda lead on?”
“Ah shit… Jamie…” you say with a frown and sigh.
[ You explain the situation to him ]
“All this, so that I can properly love you… or whatever the fuck…” You mumbled.
“Are you serious?” He chuckled, eyes wide. “That's really cute y'know.”
“Shut up” you borderline yelled, your face burning as you turned away.
“Bring it in?”
You hugged him of course but this was unlike your other hugs. You felt a lot more comfortable in this. Of course your body was still being a little bitch so you had to let go after a bit, but you enjoyed it. “Would you like to continue cuddle practice, but with me?” He asked after pulling away, your hands still wrapped around his shoulders.
“Most definitely. Just… promise not to be offended if my body ever, y’know…”
“No, of course. Don't even worry about it. I’d wait forever for you.”
Staring up at him your face begins to heat up and you turn away once more with haste as you pull him in again..
“Goddamn you, Adeyemi.” You said, to which he laughed. You pulled back again to look at him, “We should get back to the movie, no?”
“Should we thoughhhh?”
“Yes, Jamie cmon.” You giggled.
“Are you gonna go back to cuddling Eden though?”
“Oh. Now that I think about it, technically I don't need ‘cuddle training’ with her anymore.”
“True. But you can go finish your last session, just so things aren't like- abruptly broken off.”
“Yeah.” You both said in unison.
“I'll go back first.” You say, deciding to part ways with a kiss on his cheek. He watched you retreat, smitten and giddy with romance.