PAIRING: sim jaeyun x reader
GENRE: study partners, fluff, teasing, friends to lovers dynamic?!
SYNOPSIS: Jake shouldâve started studying a week ago. Now, itâs past midnight, the coffeeâs gone cold and his brainâs officially on strike.
Without thinking, he scribbles on a pale yellow sticky note, âHereâs a study hack: Teach the content to an imaginary friend. Bonus points if they have a funny voiceâ
Youâre smiling â and now heâs starting to think studying with you might be the best distraction finals week has to offer. Sour candy and coffee, sticky notes and bad jokes. Who knew surviving finals week would be this sweet?
Jake Sim is a lot of things.
Decently athletic, reasonably intelligent, extremely dramatic. But prepared for finals week? Absolutely not.
He stares at his physics textbook like it personally wronged him. Wavefunctions? Quantum tunneling? Angular momentum? At this point, Jakeâs convinced the uncertainty principle doesnât just apply to subatomic particles, itâs personally targeting his future.
A pale sticky note is stuck to his forehead, labelled in red bold letters âFUTURE VALEDICTORIANâ is written with an impressive amount of optimism. Itâs well past midnight, and any remaining hope in the room is being slowly drained by the inverse square law of finals week stress.
Across from him, youâre still scribbling in that calm competent way you always do, like you understand this madness. Your hoodie sleeves are pushed to your elbows, eyes scanning thoughtfully. Meanwhile, Jake looks like heâs about to commit a crime against his physics textbook.Â
âWhy does this look like hieroglyphics?â he mutters, flipping the page back and forth like the answers will suddenly reveal themselves if he squints hard enough.
You donât even look up.âMaybe because you havenât opened that book since the first week of class?â
âI skimmed chapter one,â he defends weakly. âIt had diagrams.â
You hum, unimpressed while continuing to flip through your color-coded notes for the past hour with terrifying focus, while Jake has consumed three sour candy packets and half his dignity.
He slumps forward dramatically, cheek pressed to the textbook. âI think my brain hit terminal velocity.â
You snort. âThatâs not how terminal velocity works.â
âAnd yet you knew what I meant. Which is exactly why you should take the final for me.â
You finally glance over, eyes narrowing suspiciously. âSo your point is?â
âThat Iâm hopeless. Just accept it now. Time of death: Chapter eight. Projectile motion.â
You toss a gummy worm at his head âStudy, Jake.â
With a groan, he sits up, eyes lazily glazing over the same sentence, again and again: âTerminal velocity is reached when the sum of the drag force and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of gravity acting on the object.â The letters soon begin to twist, swirl, and dissolve into a meaningless haze. He blinks, tries again, but itâs like the sentence is fighting himâtaunting him with its clarity just out of reach.
Jakeâs hand twitches, fingers grazing the page like heâs searching for a secret message hidden in the words. âMaybe the bookâs cursed,â he mutters, voice barely audible over the pounding in his temples.Â
His focus drifts from the dense textbook, drawn to the âsticky note mountainâ youâve built. Layers of pale yellow post-itâs arranged like a carefully charted map of your thoughts. On a whim or maybe a plea for sanity he grabs one carefully and scribbles:
Hereâs a study hack: Teach the content to an imaginary friend. Bonus points if they have a funny voice.
He sticks it to your notebook with a grin then leans back in his seat, waiting.
You read it aloud, the smallest twitch of a smile tugging at your lips âWhat kind of funny voice?â you ask, curiosity sparking
Jake's grin widens. âCartoon squirrel. High-pitched. Maybe a lisp.â
You raise an eyebrow. âWhat do I get if I do it?â
He leans in, eyes gleaming. âMy eternal respect.â
âSo absolutely nothing.â
âEXCUSE me, eternal respect is very prestigious!â He says while waving his hands dramatically.
But youâre already scribbling on your own sticky note, slapping it down in front of him.
Only if you explain Newtonâs third law in an Australian accent first.
Jake immediately straightens up, clearing his throat, before effortlessly sliding into a thick Aussie drawl (thatâs he practiced way too many times)Â
âOi, listen up. Newtonâs third law, yeah? He points at you with a highlighter like itâs a microphone.
âEvery actionâs got an equal and opposite reaction.âSo, like, if I throw my hopes at this examââ
âThey bounce back and crush you?â you interrupt.
âOiâunprovoked attack. Iâm wounded.â He immediately drops the act while clutching his heart.
You grin, rolling up the sleeves of your three-sizes-too-big sweatshirt before adopting a high-pitched, cartoonish tone, holding your notes dramatically like ancient scrolls.
âIn = centripetal, pulling in! Out = centrifugal, feels like pushing outâbut itâs fake, tehee!
Jake actually chokes on his laugh. âYou sound like if a chipmunk took AP Physics.â he says in between giggles.Â
Recovering from your chipmunk impression, he's reaching for another gummy worm. When you hit him with another sticky note:
If centripetal force keeps objects in circular motion, whatâs keeping you from spinning out every time I mention your sister and Sunghoon?
He stares at it. Then at you, his jaw dropping slightly.Â
"Low blow," he mutters, eyes narrowing but thereâs no heat in it, just the kind of scandalized betrayal only Jake can deliver at 1:42 AM with sugar in his veins and sleep nowhere in sight.
âIâm just asking a physics question,â you say innocently, already jotting down another post-it.
Newtonâs fourth law: Jake deflects feelings with dumb jokes and gummy worms.
Jake squints before peeling it off dramatically like it personally insulted him. âFake law. Slanted source. Zero peer review.â
Before you can reply, he makes a strangled sound and slaps a sticky note over the last one like heâs trying to erase history.
This study session is now under strict sibling-privacy law. Violators will be pelted with sour candy.
You burst out laughing. âYouâre really gonna throw candy at me?â
Jake grabs another sour gummy from the neon packet and holds it up like a warning. âDonât test me.â
âBut science demands answers,â you tease.Â
Jake looks genuinely torn, half scandalized, half flustered, and one tiny fraction looking like he might burst into flames just at the mention of Sunghoon and his sister in the same sentence.
âSheâs younger than him,â Jake mutters finally. âSheâs smarter than him. SheâsâŚoff-limits. It's cosmic law.â
You smile, tilting your head. âI donât think the universe got the memo.â
âShe wore a hoodie he complimented once,â Jake says, voice rising with pure, uncut sibling panic. âNow sheâs acting like he invented fabric.â
âShe does wear it a lot now,â you point out. âKinda suspicious.â
He lets out a horrified squeak, eyes widening. âTheyâre definitely not just friends. What if theyâre actually dating?â
You peel off one last sticky note and slap it right on his chest, snapping him out of his panic.
Newtonâs Fifth Law: Brothers go feral when best friends flirt with their sisters.
Jake tears the harmless looking note into two and throws it behind him like itâs cursed.
It flutters to the ground, but your laughter doesnât.
You stretch with your arms overhead, a gentle smile tugging at your lips.âWho knew finals week would finally be fun with you?â
âAre you saying I wasnât fun before?â he mock gasps but you just toss another sticky note at him.
Youâre tolerable. Especially when you bring candy.
He grins, sticking the note over his heart. âIâm framing this.â
âYou say that about every sticky note.â
âYeah, but this oneâs got you written all over it.â Your face suddenly goes warm, and Jake definitely sees it because now heâs got that look. The smug, cheeky Jake Sim grin youâve come to know way too well.
But then something in his expression shifts. The grin lingers, but softer now, like itâs only half there. Jake lowers his hand, eyes still on yours. âYou know what scares me?â he says suddenly, voice low.
You blink, completely caught off guard by the change in tone. âWhat?â
He shifts in his seat, hesitating. âThat Iâm gonna bomb this final, and everyone will finally figure out Iâm not as smart as they think I am.â
No sarcasm. No smirk. Just Jake â unguarded in a way you rarely see.
 Your breath hitches, but only for a second. Resting your arms on the table, your voice is gentler now. âYouâre smarter than you know. You just⌠talk loud enough to drown out the part of you that doubts it.â
Jake looks at you, really looks at you, like youâve just said something he didnât realize he needed to hear. The space between you shifts quietly, humming with something unspoken.
âAnd what if the doubts are right?â he asks.
You smile, soft but unwavering. âThen weâll fail gloriously together. But you wonât.â
His eyes flicker to your lips, just for a second. Then back up. âYouâre really bad at letting me spiral.â
You shrug, voice barely above a whisper now. âSomeoneâs gotta keep you grounded.â
Thereâs a pause, it's long enough for the world to shrink to the table between you and the lingering heat of his gaze.
Jake leans forward, elbows on the table, close enough that your knees almost touch.
âYou keep doing that,â he murmurs.
âMaking me feel like Iâm not completely falling apart.â
You tilt your head, heart in your throat. âMaybe youâre not.â
For a second, neither of you speaks. The air between you pulls tight, something warm and steady growing in the silence.
And then because itâs Jake, he whispers, âStill not doing vectors.â
You burst out laughing, shoving his shoulder. âYou're such an idiot.â
But your smile doesnât fade, and neither does the look in his eyes.
Youâre not sure when he stopped being the guy who always claimed the same library table. But lately, a small part of you wonders, if it's centripetal force that keeps things from flying apart...
Then maybe Jake Sim is your favorite kind of gravity.
âš enha4everrâs note âšpresenting my highly requested jake fic. iâm so sorry it took longer than expected (just been in a terrible slump) but the banter between both characters just kept me going, and i couldnât keep you lovelies waiting. let me know what you think!!
just a reminder that this piece of writing is from my imagination and does not represent the names mentioned.
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