nao

Jungwon brought his finger to trace down Y/N’s cheek which had been painted with blush. His touch was almost gentle, his fingertip smudging the makeup on her skin. 

She slapped his hand away and glared daggers at him. There wasn’t a day where Jungwon didn’t find a way to irritate her. For the past three years, he has gotten under her skin, sabotaged her in ways that made her homicidal, and had said things to her that deeply hurt her. 

She wasn’t going to play victim, though. She had made sure to make his life a living hell in return. She insulted him, picked at his achievements and personality, and guaranteed to never give him what he wanted. 

What Jungwon wanted most was to please his parents. He craved their praise and affection. Jungwon was convinced that the only way to get his parents’ approval was to be top of his class. It didn’t matter how many medals and certificates he had received, his parents were never satisfied. The only thing blocking him from winning his parents’ love was Y/N. No matter how hard he tried, she always beat him. 

“You know Sunghoon will never like you, right?” Jungwon whispered against her ear, making a shiver run down her spine. 

She clenched her fists around the fabric of her skirt. Her knuckles turned white and her hands were beginning to tremble with rage. 

What she hated most about Jungwon was how perceptive he was. Long ago, he was able to pinpoint the root of her insecurities even when her stoicism left her unreadable to most. 

Ever since she was young, her parents planted in her head that she was an embarrassment. She was too quiet, too much trouble, too hard to love. Instead of trying to change like her parents wished, she doubled down and made herself even worse in their eyes. She lashed out, dyed her hair, and dressed in a way that would be seen as ‘rebellious.’ She was perfectly content with being the outcast just to spite her parents. 

It wasn’t until she garnered a crush on the quiet, yet popular boy, Sunghoon, that she started to wonder if her parents were right. She tried to fit in, buying some makeup and more feminine outfits, but it only made her feel more out of place. He would probably never look her way. No one would. Was she really unlovable? 

Her eyes flickered up to meet Jungwon’s, which held a sparkle of smug mischief. His menacing smile revealed a dimple on his left cheek. If it wasn’t for his rotten personality, Y/N would’ve actually thought him beautiful. 

“When was the last time you’ve talked to your dad?” Y/N smiled with faux sweetness. “Or has he still not picked up your calls since you dropped two rankings?” 

Jungwon’s smile flattened into a harsh line, his jaw clenching ever so slightly. She knew their quarterly rankings were still a sore subject even when it’s already been a week since they’ve been updated. 

Jungwon’s gaze remained on her face. She could see the mix of emotions swirling in his brown eyes. 

“Just wipe that shit off your face. It looks ugly,” he muttered harshly before stomping off. 

There’s a thin line between love and hate. You have to know your enemy like a lover in order to know what hurts them most. It’s intimate, almost romantic. The lines blur until you can’t decipher whether the racing beat of your heart is out of fear or desire. 

-

Y/N practiced her makeup skills and continued to show up to school in obnoxiously feminine clothing. It was such a contrast to her regular tomboy-ish style that it made Jungwon snicker as they crossed paths. He could read it all over her face that she was uncomfortable. No matter how hard she tried to smooth her expression into one of impassivity, Jungwon noted the slight tension between her eyebrows and the stiffness in her shoulders. 

Jungwon’s amused smile dropped from his lips when he caught Sunghoon glancing at Y/N as she made her way down the hallway. He did a double take, his eyes raking down her body as she walked stiffly as if there was a board strapped to her back. 

The look was fleeting, too quick for anyone to really notice, but Jungwon noticed. Just like he noticed everything. His tongue poked at the inside of his cheek as he let out a scoff. His eyes lingered on Sunghoon a little too long to be normal before following Y/N into the library. 

“You could’ve sat anywhere in the fucking room,” Y/N snarled.

She glared at Jungwon as he pulled out the chair next to hers. The tables around them were empty while the rest of the students ate lunch in the cafeteria. He gave her a lopsided grin, only irritating her even more. 

“Such a princess,” he replied sarcastically, “this is why no one likes you.” 

He unzipped his backpack and started taking out notebooks and a textbook. He laid out his pens and highlighters out on the table. 

“Yet you decide to associate with me. What does that say about you?” She retorted. 

“That I’m willing to help the less fortunate,” he smiled.

She glanced at how he straightened his supplies neatly. The highlighters had to be in rainbow order and not a single sheet of paper was out of place. 

“You spend more time playing around with your pens than you do opening the textbook. No wonder you can’t even break the top 5 rank.” 

Jungwon’s fingers twitched on the pen he was straightening. He glanced over at her, his eyes flickering down to her smug lips. 

“Maybe I’m not here to study. Have you thought about that?” He hummed. 

He placed his chin on the palm of his hand and fluttered his eyes at her. He watched as her face contorted with disgust at his attempt to be cute. 

She mimicked his stance, placing her chin on her hand. Their faces were only a few inches apart. She stared deeply into his eyes, and Jungwon felt his breath hitch ever so slightly. He could see every little detail of her face. Her eyelashes curled up prettily, revealing a tiny mole at the corner of her eyelid, and her lips were slightly pouted from her hand on her chin. 

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” She asked, “do you want to keep disappointing your parents?” 

Jungwon’s wandering eyes narrowed at her before he turned back to face his textbook. He slammed it open, making her snicker. They both remained silent as they studied. The only sound heard was the turning of pages and the scribbling of pen on paper. 

Eventually, Jungwon got bored. His eyes became droopy, and it was becoming a challenge not to fall asleep. He rested his head in his folded arms on the table. He turned slightly to peek at Y/N. She was immensely focused, not even glancing his way. 

Jungwon hated how easily studying came to her, and how she never had problems with focusing and staying on task. His brain always felt scattered, one idea bouncing off another until he was completely off topic. 

He straightened up slightly, placing his chin on his hand once more. He leaned towards her, bringing his other hand up to gently poke her temple. She gave him a glare. He noticed how her nostrils flared, and he grinned. He brought his finger to poke her cheek, and her jaw clenched. He was about to poke her again when she caught his finger with her hand. 

“If you don’t stop…”

“You’ll what?” He smirked. 

She threw his hand back at him, making him laugh. Instead of stopping, he reached over and closed her textbook, making her lose her place. He grabbed her highlighters and started switching the caps on them so the color of the marker didn’t match the color of the cap. 

“Are you serious right now?” She fumed. 

She shoved his shoulder, almost pushing him off his chair. He continued laughing menacingly as he started unzipping her backpack. He pulled out a small pouch.

“What do we have here?” He mused, opening it to reveal makeup and sanitary pads. 

She grabbed at his forearm, but he turned to face away from her, bringing the pouch out of her reach. He riffled through the contents, spilling them out onto the table. 

“Lipstick…mascara…whatever this is…” he started tallying off the products, flicking them aside. 

Once he finished going through all of her things, he straightened them out on the table. He glanced over at her, noting her irritated expression. He grinned and leaned forward slightly. 

“Aww, don’t make that face, pretty” he purred.

Y/N’s face screwed up in disgust.

“Don’t call me that,” she spat. 

Jungwon raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

“Isn’t that what you’re going for?” He gestured to her rosy cheeks and short skirt. 

“Yes, but I don’t want to hear it from you,” she sneered. 

Jungwon rolled his eyes and threw the pouch back at her. 

“Can’t be pretty with an ugly personality,” he mumbled under his breath. 

“Care to say that a little louder?” She threatened. 

He turned to fully look at her. Jungwon’s eyes traced her features once more before landing on her eyes. He could see the anger swirling in her intense gaze, and there was something about it that he liked. A grin formed on his lips, and it only deepened the frown lines on Y/N’s forehead. 

“I think you heard me,” he said. 

He got up and grabbed his things, leaving all of her things scattered on the table for her to pick up herself just to irritate her even more.

“Bye, pretty,” he called out sweetly.

“Fuck you.”

Jungwon smiled. 

Y/N couldn’t get the word “pretty” out of her head. The way Jungwon said it sounded mocking yet genuine somehow, and it conflicted her. She couldn’t lie and say she didn’t like being called pretty, but the fact it was Jungwon calling her that made her skin crawl. 

-

Jungwon bombed the physics exam so badly, that he mustered up the courage to ask Y/N if she could go over the exam with him. To no one’s surprise, she got almost a perfect score. 

Jungwon knew that by asking Y/N to tutor him, she would never let him live it down. However, he was so stressed about his grades. Since he missed so many questions, he knew that the problem was that he didn’t understand the fundamentals, and if he didn’t strengthen those, he would never understand anything in that class. 

Y/N smugly agreed to tutor him. 

“Where do we need to start? Do you know the structure of an atom?” she asked mockingly.  

Jungwon’s eyes twitched with annoyance.  

“Just go over radioactivity and radioactive decay,” Jungwon growled.

Y/N tried her best to explain things to him, but he was having trouble wrapping his head around it. He kept asking her to repeat things. She would find different ways to try and relay the information to him until he finally said he understood. However, five minutes later when he would need that information to build on another concept, he'd forgotten everything she'd told him. 

Y/N was beginning to lose patience. She never realized how hard it was to be a teacher. Some things just seemed like common sense to her, and she didn’t understand how other people struggled so much.  

“Are you genuinely stupid? How many times do I have to explain this to you for it to stick? Are you even paying attention?” She lashed out.

Jungwon was so stressed, and he felt so insecure that he couldn't pick things up as quickly as she could. Resentment began to fester in his chest at the way she was speaking to him. 

“Well, maybe if you weren’t so shit at explaining things, I would actually learn something,” he snapped. 

Her nostrils flared with annoyance.

“Well, maybe if you didn’t have shit for brains, you’d actually understand what I’m saying,” she fired back.

Jungwon glared at her, his gaze filled with hatred. 

“You’re so self-absorbed.” 

“Would someone self-absorbed be wasting their time trying to teach you?”

“See? You’re acting like I’m an inconvenience!” He exclaimed.

“Aren’t you?” She retorted. 

Jungwon’s lips pressed into a tight line. This was the first time in his life that he’d been provoked to hit a woman. 

Y/N sighed and ran her hand over her face. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn’t help feeling irritated. They remained in silence for a moment, before she took a deep breath and looked back at him. His expression had changed from one of anger to one of despair, and it made her feel guilty.

“Okay, how about this?” she started.

Jungwon glanced over at her wearily.

“What about it is difficult to understand? We can focus on that,” she said. 

They slowly navigated their way through the tutoring session. Jungwon kept asking clarifying questions, and Y/N tried her best to repress her impatience. Y/N gradually was able to understand Jungwon’s learning style, and accommodated her way of teaching to better suit it. Eventually, he could explain why he got the answers wrong on his test, picking out the correct ones. It was satisfying to both Jungwon and Y/N. Jungwon finally felt like he was advancing, and Y/N felt gratified by her teaching skills.

Every time Jungwon got a practice problem correct, his eyes lit up and he glanced over at her for approval. She would nod, and a triumphant smile would form on his lips. Y/N found it weirdly endearing.

“You did really well,” she said after they went over the whole exam. 

“A compliment? From Y/N?” Jungwon grinned at her, “I must be dead.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You’ll be dead if your parents find out about the score,” she said.

His smile faded from his lips. 

“They won’t find out.”

-

Y/N always knew when Jungwon was having trouble with his parents at home because he would cling to her and annoy her more than usual. For the past week, he had been kicking the back of her seat in class, tugging at her hair from behind, and dropping small crumbled pieces of paper into the back of her shirt. It took everything in her to not to turn around mid-lecture and hit him in the head with a textbook. She didn’t want to give him what he wanted, which was attention.

“Y/NNNN,” Jungwon whined and pulled at her backpack handle as she tried to walk away after class. 

“Y/NNNN,” he continued when she didn’t turn to look at him. “Do you hate me?” 

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

A grin formed on his lips, and he let go of her backpack to walk beside her. 

“How much do you hate me?” he asked.

“A lot,” she grumbled.

“On a scale from one to I’d-rather-sit-naked-on-a-hot-grill, how would you like to go with me to the raccoon cafe that just opened up a few blocks away from school?” 

Y/N stared at him with a blank expression, and his smile only grew wider. 

“C’mon…” he pleaded, poking her face repeatedly.

She slapped his hand away, irritated. 

“Why would I want to go with you?” she scoffed.

“Because I’m paying and I know you like raccoons,” he grinned.

Y/N’s eye twitched slightly. 

“C’mon, pretty…” he tried again, stepping closer to her.

Y/N immediately took a step back, a shiver running up her spine. Her hands got clammy, and she could hear her heart beating in her ears. She didn’t like this feeling. Whatever it was. 

Without another word, Jungwon grabbed her backpack handle again, dragging her down the hallway and out the building. 

He dragged her to a variety of places. They went to the raccoon cafe where he indeed paid their entry fee and paid for their drinks. Afterwards, he took her to an arcade where, again, he paid for the tokens. They went window shopping, and when he bought her an ugly keychain and told her “it looks like you,” Y/N hit him across the head, making him laugh. 

By that time, it was time for dinner, so Jungwon took her to eat as well. It was already 8pm, and he was still suggesting other places to go to, and Y/N was getting tired and aggravated. 

“I want to go home,” she grumbled.

“I don’t. Let’s go to the playground. I’ll push you on the swing,” he said.

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her along. Her feet felt heavy with exhaustion from the long afternoon. She was beginning to put the pieces together. Jungwon was purposefully dragging this out. He wanted to delay going home. Whatever fight he had with his parents must’ve been bad for him to willingly spend the whole day with her. 

Y/N planted her feet firmly onto the ground, making Jungwon stop in his tracks. He looked back at her with a frown on his lips. 

“I want to go home,” she repeated.

Jungwon bit his bottom lip worriedly. His grip on her wrist tightened slightly.

“Okay. We can study at your place,” he said.

“No. I want to go home alone.”

“It’s dark out. Let me walk you.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. He really wasn’t backing down. 

“What happened with your parents?” She asked bluntly. 

“Nothing. What do you mean?” He deflected.

“So you’re just going to spend the night at my house?” She raised an eyebrow.

His face lit up for a second. 

“If you’re offering-”

She pressed her lips into a thin line, and Jungwon sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair anxiously. Something had in fact happened with his parents. He didn’t know how it happened. Maybe it built up gradually, but when he had come home last week after his parents found out about the physics exam he failed, he found his room trashed. His laptop was gone, his gaming console was gone, his favorite DVDs and books were gone. Anything that was deemed a “distraction” was ripped out of his room. The worst of it all was that his parents didn’t mention a thing. They acted as if nothing had happened and everything was normal. 

Y/N could tell how stressed he was just from his silence. Deep down, she felt bad for him. Her parents were no walk in the park either, but Jungwon was different. He wanted his parents’ approval. She didn’t. 

“One night,” she said. 

“Huh?” 

“You can stay over one night, but that’s it,” she warned.

“Wait, really?” He asked. 

Their eyes met, and she could see the glimmer of hope in them. She groaned but nodded.  

“My mom can’t know you’re here,” she warned him as she snuck him into her room, “she’ll freak out.”

“What if I have to pee in the middle of the night?” 

“Hold it,” Y/N said between gritted teeth. 

“Does she not let you have friends over?” He asked. 

She glared at him before going back to setting up a mat and blanket on the floor of her bedroom. 

“We aren’t friends,” she muttered. 

Jungwon grinned and leaned forward so his chin was almost resting on her shoulder. 

“More than friends then?” He whispered, his breath tickling her ear.  

Y/N whirled around, almost knocking herself over in the process. He grabbed her by the arms to steady her and chuckled. 

“Relax. I’m joking. I won’t do anything,” he laughed. 

“You better not or else I’ll skin you alive,” she threatened. 

“Like I’d want to do anything with you,” he rolled his eyes.

She narrowed her eyes at him. Jungwon raised his hands in a defensive position, but his lips curled into a teasing smirk. She threw a pillow at his head. He caught it with ease and hugged it to his chest. 

When she was done setting up his sleeping arrangements on the floor, she left him in her room while she tried digging for some of her dad’s old pajamas. She changed into her own pajamas in the bathroom. When she returned, Jungwon was already nuzzled into her bed.

“Get off my bed,” Y/N snarled.

“It’s comfy, though,” Jungwon mumbled from under the blanket. 

She ripped the sheets off him and threw the pajamas at his chest without warning, catching him off guard. 

“Where do I change if I can’t use the bathroom?” Jungwon raised an eyebrow. 

“Here. I’ll just close my eyes,” Y/N said.

The smirk returned to his face as he got up from her bed. 

“How do I know you won’t peek?” he asked.

He laughed when she scrunched up her face in disgust. 

“Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t want to peek,” she said. 

She crawled into her bed and pulled the blanket over her head to give him some privacy. She could hear the rustling of clothes as he changed. When everything got quiet again, she peeked from under the blanket. 

“Don’t look! I’m naked,” Jungwon said.

Y/N practically shrieked and hid under the blanket again. 

Jungwon burst out laughing, and walked over to her bed. All he could see was the lump of her body underneath the blanket. He tugged it down slightly to reveal her face. Her eyes were screwed shut. 

“I’m not naked. Idiot,” he chuckled.

“I don’t trust you,” she said.

Her eyes remained closed as she blindly tried to find the edge of her blanket to pull it over herself again. He flicked her forehead, causing her to wince and bring her hand up to cover it. 

“So you did want to peek,” Jungwon grinned. 

“You’re delusional,” she snapped.

“It’s okay. I understand I can be irresistible sometimes-”

“You’re going to make me throw up,” she gagged. 

“Oh, c’mon. You’re just exaggerating at this point,” Jungwon laughed. 

“I’m going to sleep. Stay away from me or else,” she threatened, pulling the blanket up to her chin and turning away so her back was facing him. 

Jungwon smiled and crawled into his makeshift bed on the floor next to her. He curled up under his own blanket. The room was engulfed in darkness when she turned off her bedside table lamp.

“Goodnight, pretty,” he whispered.

“Shut up,” she whispered back. 

-

Y/N and Jungwon were caught the next morning trying to sneak out of the house. Y/N swore her mom had left for work already, but as she twisted the front door knob with Jungwon in tow, she heard a loud gasp that made her stomach sink. 

Her mother cursed at her, assuming the worst. She berated Y/N for bringing a boy over, calling her every name under the sun while Jungwon stood there with wide eyes. 

“How could you be such a slut! We didn’t raise you like this!” Her mother screamed. 

Y/N’s jaw clenched in anger.

“After all we sacrificed for you,” her mother continued, “why do you keep disappointing us?”

“I didn’t ask you to sacrifice anything!” Y/N blew up. 

“Um,” Jungwon cleared his throat to try to get her mother’s attention, “Y/N is a friend. I’m having family issues, and I needed a place to stay. Nothing…of that sort happened between us-“

It was no use. Y/N’s mother only heard what she wanted to hear. She heard nothing of what he was trying to say, and he was starting to feel helpless and guilty for having put Y/N through this. 

“What are we gonna do with you?” Her mother sighed in desperation, “give me your phone.” 

“I’m not giving you anything,” Y/N snapped. 

“Hand it over. Now,” her mother hissed, “is this why you’ve been dressing differently lately? You want boys’ attention? What other boys are you fooling around with?” 

“Do you really want to know? Let me see…” Y/N tapped her chin in thought before making a show of counting on her fingers. 

Her mother looked at her with horror. 

“There’s around 6. I don’t know them very well, though. You don’t really need a name to do that kind of stuff, right?” She gave her an evil grin. 

Her mother burst out into tears and stormed to Y/N, grabbing fistfuls of her clothing, yanking at her and continuing to call her names. Jungwon was frozen in shock at the scene before him. He wanted to step in and break it up, but he didn’t know if it was his place.

Y/N shoved her off the best she could, putting on her shoes and making her way to the front door. Jungwon followed like a scared duckling. They were almost out the door when Y/N’s mother yanked her by her backpack. 

“You filthy little-“

Y/N let her backpack slip through her arms, making her mother stumble before slamming the door closed. 

She growled with annoyance as she led Jungwon back to the street. Jungwon remained silent, his mind not being able to comprehend what just happened. 

“I’m sorry you had to see that. My mom is crazy,” she finally broke the silence. 

“I’m sorry. If I hadn’t slept over-“

Y/N cut him off with the shake of her head. 

“She would’ve found something else to yell about. It’s not your fault.”

Jungwon still couldn’t push the feeling of guilt away. They remained silent for a while as they walked to school. Jungwon knew it was probably best to change the topic, but there was something that was bothering him a little bit. 

“Are you actually seeing 6 guys?” He asked softly, almost embarrassed to be asking. 

She burst out laughing, making him jump back in surprise. 

“I can’t even talk to Sunghoon, and you believe I can pull 6 guys at once?” She laughed.

Jungwon’s cheeks turned pink, and he looked away with a huff. 

“No. I just said that to make her pop a vein. I want to see just how much she will believe,” she said. 

“Doesn’t that just make things worse?” 

She shrugged. 

“Once I graduate, I’m moving away, and I'll never see her again. Why bother trying to make things better? There’s nothing to salvage.”

Jungwon grew quiet for a moment again. 

“You can sleep over at my house tonight if you want,” he said quietly. 

“And make my mom think I’m out with a boy all night? That’s a good idea,” she grinned wickedly. 

“I mean technically you will be…”

Y/N raised an eyebrow at him. 

“I’m a boy, aren’t I?” Jungwon huffed. 

Y/N rolled her eyes. 

“I guess.”

“You guess?!”

“I’m gonna have to come back to get a change of clothes,” she said. 

“You can sleep in mine,” Jungwon said, his cheeks flushing at the thought of Y/N in his sweatpants and tshirt. 

Y/N narrowed her eyes at him, noticing the faint blush on his face. 

“I sense an ulterior motive,” she said. 

Jungwon blinked rapidly, “what ulterior motive?”

“I don’t know. Something perverted,” she shrugged. 

Jungwon’s mouth hung open in shock. 

“I don’t want to hear that coming from someone who was trying to peek at me while I was changing. If there’s a pervert, it’s you,” he snapped. 

“I was not peeking, and you know it!” She exclaimed. 

They continued bickering on their way to school. Jungwon was just happy to distract her from what had happened at home. 

-

Jungwon tugged at a strand of Y/N’s hair to get her attention. They had independent study time in class to go over their recent assignment. 

“Hey, what did you get for number 6?” He asked her. 

When she ignored him and didn’t bother to turn around, he frowned. He pinched the fabric on the back of her shirt and pulled at it. He let go abruptly, making it snap back against her skin. She still ignored him. He took his cold hand and grabbed the back of her neck, making her jump in her seat. He gave her a dazzling smile when she turned to glare at him. His eyes flickered down to her lips briefly. 

“Hey, pretty. Is that a new lipstick color?” 

He watched as her lips pulled up into a slight snarl. 

“It’s a nice color and all, but I think a more burgundy color would be better. That one’s too bright and it doesn’t look good on you,” he said. 

Y/N’s face scrunched up in distaste. 

“Don’t act like you know anything about makeup,” she scoffed. 

“Yes, I don’t know anything about makeup, but I know when something looks off,” Jungwon grinned and tilted his head playfully, “and right now, your face looks off.” 

She was about to raise her hand to hit him when a quiet voice made her freeze in her tracks. 

“Hey, Y/N?”

She glanced up to lock eyes with the most gorgeous person she’d ever laid her eyes on. Sunghoon gave her a shy smile as she stared at him in shock. Her heart was racing so fast. She felt she was going to go into cardiac arrest. Jungwon glanced at Sunghoon too, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. 

“I, um, noticed you’ve been experimenting with your style,” Sunghoon said. 

He waited quietly, his eyes raking across her face for any response. When she continued to stare at him intently, he shrunk back timidly. 

“You look pretty,” he said quickly. He gave her a soft smile before walking away, leaving her dumbfounded at her desk. 

Jungwon’s eyes trailed behind Sunghoon as he left the classroom. He clenched his fists in his lap, and his nostrils flared with annoyance. Now he thinks she’s pretty? He grabbed his pen and clicked it aggressively. He was imagining stabbing it into Sunghoon’s milky white hand. 

His gaze flickered back to Y/N. She was wearing a dress with layered ruffles and lace trimmings. It was bright pink like her lips. Jungwon couldn’t help but think about how she looked nothing like herself. She always looked uncomfortable too. He wanted her to go back to her gloomy wardrobe of blacks and dark colors. He wanted to see her freckles again that she’d been covering up with makeup for the past few months.

The look on her face made his eyebrows furrow. He thought the compliment would have made her happy or at least bring a smile to her lips. All he saw was a frown. 

Y/N’s mind was reeling. When Sunghoon approached her without warning, she felt her heart skip a beat, but when he complimented her appearance, she felt her heart sink. He only started noticing her once she changed into something she was not. She didn’t understand why she was feeling so heartbroken. This is what she wanted to happen. She wanted him to notice her, but now that he has, there was no satisfaction. 

“So, pretty,” Jungwon flicked at the delicate curls of her styled hair, “How did that feel? Do you think your hard work paid off?” 

Y/N’s cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. What made her feel even worse was that Jungwon calling her pretty in that playful tone did more to her heart than when Sunghoon did it.

“Are you going to confess to him?” he asked, his voice carrying a hint of nervousness. 

“That’s none of your business,” she snapped at him.

Jungwon bit his lower lip anxiously. He didn’t know why his stomach was churning uncomfortably at the thought. Now that Sunghoon seemed to take an interest in Y/N, the idea of them dating was not much of a joke anymore. In a desperate attempt to change her mind, he leaned closer to her. 

“He doesn’t like you,” Jungwon said softly, “he only likes this doll character you’re masquerading as.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Instead of a snarky remark, Jungwon watched as her expression shifted. She remained silent, and it made him feel sick. Something was off. She gathered her things and stood up. He knew he fucked up when she didn’t even look back. 

-

Jungwon uncontrollably tapped his foot as his eyes stayed glued to the classroom door. It had been three days since Y/N came to school. She missed the exam she was studying so diligently for. Jungwon tried to feel some type of joy knowing he definitely scored higher than her for once, but he couldn’t get rid of the pit in his stomach and the feeling of guilt. He couldn’t focus in class. His gaze was always drifting to the empty seat Y/N should have been sitting in. 

When she finally did show up to class, she ditched her girly charade and dressed in her normal clothing. Jungwon’s eyes lit up for a split second until he saw the dark circles under her eyes. He chewed at his bottom lip, contemplating whether or not to go up to her. They’ve never apologized to each other for the things they’ve said before. They would just ignore each other for a while until they started bickering again, but this time it felt different. 

Jungwon observed her throughout their classes, trying to gauge what she was feeling. He noticed how her gaze would often flicker over to Sunghoon, and anger stirred in Jungwon’s chest. If it weren’t for Sunghoon, Y/N wouldn’t have tried to transform herself into someone she was not. Jungwon furiously ripped at the corners of his notebook. He kept trying to tell Y/N to not change. He hated how she was trying to fit Sunghoon’s preferences. This was all his fault. 

He watched as Sunghoon didn’t even bat an eye at Y/N the whole day which only made his blood boil. Once class ended, he marched over to him and grabbed the strap of his backpack, hauling him out of the room. Sunghoon stumbled beside him with a puzzled expression on his face. 

“Um, what are you doing?” he asked.

“Just shut up,” Jungwon snapped.

He dragged Sunghoon, who instantly became quiet, to a deserted corner of the hallway. He practically threw the taller boy to the wall. 

“What games are you playing?” Jungwon snarled.

“I…don’t understand,” Sunghoon said quietly. 

“Do you like Y/N or not?” Jungwon fired.

“What?” Sunghoon hesitated.

“Answer the question.”

“I mean I don’t know much about her…I tried complimenting her the other day and she gave me this weird look. I don’t think she likes me,” Sunghoon stammered.

“That doesn’t answer the question.” 

“No, I don’t like her like that,” he said, “I just thought she looked pretty that day.”

Jungwon grabbed a fistful of Sunghoon’s shirt, but quickly let go and shoved him again. It was guys like this that pissed Jungwon off the most. They think they’re hot shit, and say something sweet to get a girl hooked then throw her to the curb when the fun is over. His anger was boiling over as he stormed off, leaving Sunghoon frozen and wide eyed in the hallway. 

“She’s always been pretty,” Jungwon mumbled to himself. 

-

“Hey…” Jungwon called out hesitantly to Y/N who was slumped over her textbook in the empty library. 

She didn’t bother to look up, but by the way her grip on her pencil tightened, Jungwon knew she acknowledged he was there. 

He silently sat in the chair next to hers, bringing out his supplies. They studied without saying a word. Jungwon flipped through his textbook half heartedly. He wasn’t even reading it. He was too focused on Y/N’s presence next to him. 

Jungwon scooted his foot closer to hers under the table, tapping it slightly. He felt her move her leg away, and he frowned. She usually would shove his foot away with greater force than he tapped her. He scooted his chair closer to hers to a point where he was almost pressed up against her side. His gaze flickered to her hands that had frozen on her notebook. His finger came up to poke her side gently. She let him do it a couple more times before she abruptly stood up and started shoving her things into her bag. 

“Wait, pretty. Don’t go-“

She froze in her tracks, her grip on her backpack strap tightening. 

“Don’t call me that…” she whispered, “I’m dressed normally again.” 

“So?” 

She whirled her head to look at him, her face fuming with anger and hurt. 

“So I’m not pretty anymore.”

Jungwon blinked at her, his eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. 

“You’re the same person regardless of the way you dress, no?” 

Y/N stared at him with a blank expression, but he could see the gears turning in her head. Her face fell slightly at his statement. She never truly could change who she was. Jungwon was right. Her pretty clothes and painted face were a facade. It might’ve caught Sunghoon’s attention, but once he got to know her, his interest would have dissipated. 

“Yeah, I am,” she said.

Jungwon could see the despair in her face as she turned to walk away again. His heart raced in a panic, and he ran to catch up to her. He stopped her in her tracks, holding her in place with his hands on her arms. 

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out.

Y/N stared at him with round eyes. Her lips parted to say something, but she remained quiet in shock. 

“I’m sorry for what I said about Sunghoon not liking you,” he continued, “I was mad…”

Jungwon’s face scrunched up slightly as he thought through what he wanted to say next. He swallowed nervously. 

“I was mad at you for trying to change for Sunghoon, and I was mad at Sunghoon for only noticing you after you tried to change,” he said. 

He let go of her arms, his own hands falling back down to his sides. He looked away timidly. 

“You’re the same to me no matter what you wear,” he said, “and I’m going to keep calling you pretty… so…deal with it.” 

It was Jungwon’s turn to scramble to get his things and walk away. He was embarrassed, but most of all, he didn’t want to see her reaction to what he said. 

Y/N stood dumbfounded in the middle of the library as she watched Jungwon’s figure retreat, scurrying away like a little ant. 

-

Something shifted in Jungwon and Y/N’s relationship after Jungwon’s apology. They weren’t exactly the best of friends, but they certainly weren’t enemies anymore. They still bickered and annoyed each other, but there were certain topics they stayed away from when it came to picking at each other. 

Jungwon admired the ‘I-don’t-care-what-you-think’ attitude Y/N had when it came to her parents. He started implementing it slowly into his own relationship with his parents. He started voicing his opinions to them about how they treated him. Most of the time it only ended in fights and guilt trips, but he was starting to realize how flawed his parents were. There was no point in trying to live up to their standards when they themselves couldn’t live up to his. 

He stopped trying to compete with Y/N. He’d much rather sit with her and feign his interest in studying so he could mess with her. She would sometimes comment on how his lack of studying would drop his grades, but the remarks didn’t bother him anymore. He felt like she set him free. 

Although Y/N had ditched her girly era, there were some things she didn’t part with. She liked the art of getting ready and she implemented it to her normal style. She started getting into fashion and customizing her own pieces. She was still horrendous at doing her makeup, but she did love wearing lipstick. She often wore dark lip colors that would make Jungwon call her scary. 

“It’s the vibe I’m going for,” she said, “I’m getting my eyebrow pierced this weekend.”  

“Don’t you need parental permission for that?” Jungwon asked.

Y/N shrugged.

“Not where I’m going.”

Jungwon gave her a weary look.

“Be careful,” he said. 

“It’s not like I’m going to get trafficked,” she laughed.

“You never know…” Jungwon muttered.

“Just say you want to come with me,” she gave him a teasing smirk. 

“Why would I want to go with you? Go by yourself. I hope the piercing rejects,” Jungwon scoffed.

Y/N grinned and poked his side.

“Come with me. Let’s get your ears pierced,” she said. 

Jungwon’s hands immediately jerked up to cover his earlobes with his fingers. His parents would kill him. He glanced over at Y/N, whose smile never left her lips. 

“C’mon…” she pouted, “I think you’d look good with your ears pierced.” 

His heart fluttered in his chest, and he felt his cheeks burn with blush. Actually…maybe stressing out his parents would be a good thing. 

-

It had become a routine to ask each other if they needed a distraction after school. They never asked directly because that would mean they care for each other, and god forbid that be the case. 

If one of them needed to delay going home, they would wait at a specific tree on the way out of campus. This time it was Y/N that was waiting under the shade when Jungwon walked by. 

“I’m not in the mood for pizza. We’ve had pizza like four times this week because of you,” Jungwon said without even stopping. 

Y/N jogged over to him to match his step. 

“I didn’t even say anything!” She huffed. 

“You have that look on your face. Your eyes say you want pizza,” Jungwon twirled his pointer finger over her face. 

She scrunched her face up and scoffed. She did in fact want pizza, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of being right. 

“Where do you suggest we go then?” 

Jungwon smiled.

“I’ll show you.”

They stopped by a convenience store to get some snacks before Jungwon took her to a park. At first, Y/N thought they were going to find an empty picnic table and eat their food there, but he led her off trail through some vegetation. 

“This is suspicious,” she said, breaking the silence.

“Relax, we’re almost there,” he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her through the last of the brush.

They stopped in a clearing where the ground turned rocky and dipped into a shallow creek. A few meters down the creek there was a small railroad bridge. It looked abandoned, and it was painted with graffiti.

“Let’s go eat on the bridge,” he said, pulling her along. 

He climbed up with ease, setting their stuff down on the tracks before turning to hold out his hand for her to take. He hauled her up and placed his jacket down on the ground for her to sit on. He unpacked their snacks and placed them between their bodies. 

“How do you know about this place?” she asked as they ate.

Their legs dangled over the edge of the bridge, swinging them mindlessly. There was a slight breeze, and it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The scene was picturesque and serene. The only thing they could hear was the gurgling of the creek and the rustling of leaves in the wind. 

“I found it randomly a few months ago. I come here when I need a breather,” he said.

In other words, he came here when he was going through it. 

Y/N glanced over at him, and she watched as the wind rustled through his hair. He looked peaceful, completely different from his usual antics. A blush crept up her cheeks. The moment seemed intimate. He was showing her his safe space, and she felt somewhat touched.  

After they finished their food, Jungwon showed her around the area a little bit more. They took their shoes off and walked down the water. It wasn’t too deep, only reaching past their ankles. Jungwon kicked water at her, making her shriek. 

“You-”

“Me,” he smiled, bending over to cup water into his hands and throwing it at her. 

She bent over and started splashing water at him, making him laugh gleefully. He ran down the creek, Y/N hot on his tail. He purposefully ran a little slower, allowing her to catch up to him. She grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt, pulling him to a stop. She scooped up a handful of the water and splashed it onto his back. His back arched slightly at how cold the water was.

“I’m going to die of hypothermia,” he yelled, wiggling out of her grasp. 

She rolled her eyes. 

“Cry baby,” she muttered. 

“How would you like cold water down your back, hm?” Jungwon bent over to scoop water, and Y/N bolted. 

They were both dripping wet by the time the sun set. They were back on the bridge, laying on their backs and looking up at the darkening sky. The moon was out, but the stars were difficult to see. 

“We should probably go back. You’ll get cold,” he said.

Y/N grunted in protest. 

Jungwon turned to the side to look at her. She continued to stare at the sky with a stubborn expression on her face. He smiled and sat up, placing his jacket over her body. 

They remained silent, trying to find the stars. Y/N found herself not wanting to go back. Not because she didn’t want to confront her parents, but because she didn’t want the night to end. She realized she wanted to stay with Jungwon a little longer. 

That feeling puzzled her. Somewhere along the way, she realized she stopped hating him. He liked to spend time with her, he sometimes bought her food, and even though he had seen her at her worst, he continued to stay. 

She glanced over at her backpack, the ugly keychain he got her clipped to the zipper. She didn’t have to keep it, yet she did. She didn’t have to keep engaging with him after all the fights they had, yet she did. 

Her heart dropped to her stomach. 

Oh…I like him… She thought. 

“What if we just never went back home,” he whispered. 

“Okay, serial killer vibes,” she muttered.

Jungwon turned his head to look at her and smiled. There was something about it that made Y/N’s breath hitch at the back of her throat. The light of the moon casted a glow across his face, softening his features. He looked…

“Pretty,” she said softly. 

“Hm?” he raised his eyebrow at her.

She blinked and looked away, the trance she was in immediately breaking. 

“You should find a different nickname for me. That one is already taken by someone,” Jungwon said.

Y/N’s head snapped over to look at him, her mouth hanging wide open. The corner of Jungwon’s lips curled into a smirk. 

“Let’s go home,” he said. 

-

When they graduate, Y/N is at the top of her class as always. Jungwon had gotten her a bouquet of flowers to congratulate her. A smug expression appeared on her face as she took the flowers from him.

“No matter how hard you tried, you still couldn’t beat me,” she chuckled light-heartedly. 

Jungwon smiled, not taking any offense to her remark. 

“I’m okay with being second,” he said.

“You’re just saying that because you lost,” she grinned.

He grinned back at her. 

“You only care about winning. Do you even care about me at all?” he feigned hurt. 

“Why would I care about you?” she replied playfully. 

They stare at each other in silence for a moment. Jungwon takes in her bare face, her freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose. The only makeup on her face was a dark purple lipstick on her curved lips. 

“If being second keeps me next to you, I’m okay with it,” he said softly.  

Y/N’s cheeks flushed a deep red. She could feel her heart flutter slightly in her chest. Jungwon realized what he said, and quickly straightened his posture, coughing nervously. 

“You worked really hard too,” she whispered, “I’m proud of you.” 

It was Jungwon’s turn to blush. He felt a warmth course through his body. His parents might not have ever said those words to him, but he realized they felt more special coming from Y/N. They’ve both been through so much together. It felt like they were connected somehow. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t get you flowers,” she said. 

Jungwon shook his head.

“It’s okay. You can buy me my first drink instead,” he grinned. 

“I’d rather not have to carry you home when you get drunk,” she said. 

“You think I’m a lightweight?” Jungwon scoffed. 

“Are you?” 

He smiled mischievously. 

“I don’t know. Let’s go find out.” 

-

“You’re a man, right?” Y/N asked Jungwon as they walked through their new university campus. Their first semester hadn’t started yet, but they wanted to get familiar with the layout and find hidden places they could use to study. 

“Last time I checked, yes,” Jungwon rolled his eyes.

“Can you help me move into my apartment tomorrow? I just need someone to help me haul my couch up a flight of stairs.”

Jungwon groaned, and Y/N tried her best to look at him with pleading eyes. His eyes narrowed at her expression.

“And what do I get out of this?” 

“You get to spend the day with me,” she smiled innocently. 

Jungwon stared at her for a moment. It gave her hope that he would say yes. 

“I think I’ll pass,” he said.

“What’s wrong with spending the day with me? You’re doing it right now!” she huffed.

“Spending two days in a row with you is like being waterboarded-”

“I’ll pay for your meals for the whole day,” she cut him off.

“What time do you need me?” Jungwon smiled. 

Jungwon was going to help her regardless, but the meals were an added bonus. A lot of the smaller boxes were already inside of her apartment. The only thing he really needed to do was carry one side of the couch as they slowly made their way up the stairs. He helped her unpack things, but there wasn’t much to unpack to begin with.

“Don’t open that!” Y/N almost tackled him as he ripped open the tape off a box. 

“What? Is it your underwear?” he laughed. 

“Yes,” she deadpanned. 

Jungwon coughed and immediately took his hands off the box. 

After unpacking everything, Y/N brought some bottles of soju to the coffee table. She set them down before collapsing onto the couch next to Jungwon. 

They were still new to drinking, and they were figuring out what they liked and didn’t like. They would sometimes get new flavors to try out and just stay indoors, playing games or watching movies. 

They watched dramas on her laptop since she didn’t have a television yet. Jungwon loved watching dramas with her. They would often have to pause the show when they got into arguments over who they thought was going to end up with who or what they thought a character should have done in a certain scenario. 

Y/N usually fell for the main lead while Jungwon would almost always prefer the second lead. 

“He has no personality! Since he’s going to end up with her no matter what, they make him as interesting as a sponge. The second lead is always a better option,” Jungwon said. 

“Well, maybe a sponge is my type,” Y/N huffed. 

For some reason, that rubbed Jungwon the wrong way. He was nothing like a sponge. He had too many issues to be boring, but knowing Y/N’s background, he understood why she would want someone who wasn’t so problematic. He began to mope, taking another shot. 

“I got a new dress the other day. Do you wanna see?” She slurred slightly after they finished the last of the bottles. 

“Mhm,” he hummed, leaning back on the couch to stop the room from spinning. 

She disappeared into her room for a long time. Jungwon was beginning to think she passed out and fell asleep until she stumbled out the door and into the living room where he was. 

Jungwon almost choked on his own saliva at the sight of her. She was wearing a long velvety dress. It was a deep red, almost purple color, and it hugged her figure before loosening and flowing down her hips. It was nothing like the dresses she wore to try and impress Sunghoon. She looked confident in this one.

“What do you think?” She asked, twirling clumsily for him. 

Jungwon swallowed nervously. 

“You look like a vampire witch,” he said. 

“I do? Thanks,” she smiled, “actually, I have the perfect lipstick for this.”

Jungwon’s eyes trailed behind her as she dug around her purse and pulled out a tube of lipstick. She walked over to a mirror that he had hung on the wall earlier, stumbling slightly on the hem of her dress. 

He rose to his feet, slowly walking up behind her. He watched her in the mirror as she coated her lips in a shade of burgundy lipstick so dark, it resembled dried blood. 

She caught him staring at her in the mirror and she bared her teeth at him playfully. 

He was losing his mind. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and his brain was struggling to come up with a compliment. He tugged at the strap of her dress, making it slap against her skin. 

“You need a necklace,” he slurred. 

Y/N turned to look at him directly, scrunching her nose in annoyance. 

“I didn’t ask,” she snapped playfully. 

Her cheeks were flushed from the alcohol, and she was swaying slightly. 

“Your cheeks are all red,” Jungwon hiccups, poking her warm cheeks with his finger, “it looks like a rash on your face.”

“How about you go fuck yourself?” She gave him a lopsided grin. 

Jungwon’s gaze remained on her face. Her eyes were half-lidded as she looked at him, and her hair framed her face in a way that made Jungwon’s breath get stuck in his throat. Her vulgar words weren’t helping either. For some reason, he felt heat rise to his cheeks. 

Y/N noticed the way his face flushed. At first, she thought it was because of the alcohol. 

“You should be nice to the person who helped you move in,” Jungwon snapped back. 

“What are you going to do? Take all my stuff if I’m not?” She challenged. 

“Yeah,” he huffed, “when you go to sleep, I’m going to leave with your couch and all of your toilet paper.” 

Y/N’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she kept catching his eyes drifting down to her lips and dress. She knew why he was acting like this. 

“Why can’t you just compliment me like a normal person?” She shook her head. 

“What?” He blinked at her. 

“You like being yelled at, is that it?” Y/N laughed, drawing closer to him as he slowly backed up. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he mumbled. 

Jungwon could feel a rush of excitement flow through his body, and he cursed himself for feeling it at all. She stepped closer to him. His heart was racing in his chest, and his wide eyes were fixed to her face. 

Y/N’s lips curled into a smirk, and she didn’t miss the way Jungwon’s eyes flickered down to her mouth again. He was attracted to her, she thought. Her heart fluttered slightly in her chest as she pressed herself flush against him. 

Jungwon immediately stiffened as he was pressed against the wall. He could feel every curve of her body against his, and his breathing quickened. She was enjoying watching the way he squirmed under her gaze. He wouldn’t even look her in the eyes. 

She gently placed her hands at his waist, slowly tracing his sides. She watched him closely, seeing the way his Adam’s Apple bobbed as he swallowed. He screwed his eyes shut, as if it would make him feel her touch any less. 

She hooked her thumbs under his shirt, rubbing small circles on his bare skin as she gently squeezed his waist. A soft whimper escaped his lips, and he immediately flushed at the sound. He didn’t even dare to look at her expression which was twisted into a wicked grin. 

She slipped her full hands under his shirt, feeling the muscles on his stomach tighten as his breath hitched. 

“You’re such a perv,” she whispered, “have you been making me angry this whole time just to get yourself off?” 

Jungwon’s eyes widened and he shook his head. He was shaking like a leaf, scared of how she perceived him but also enjoying her touch a little too much. It wasn’t so much that he liked getting yelled at. He just liked having her attention on him. 

“No…I promise…” he stammered, “I’m not like that…”

Y/N raised an eyebrow, a soft chuckle leaving the back of her throat. 

“But you do like it?” She probed. 

Jungwon opened his mouth to say something, but he quickly shut it once he realized the predicament he got himself into. 

She leaned forward, their faces millimeters apart. She could feel his soft and quick breaths against her lips. She glanced up at his eyes which were looking at her with a mix of fear and desire. She smirked and placed a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth. She felt him stiffen underneath her lips, only making her want to do more. She was enjoying the control she had over him a little too much. 

“You like it,” she stated in a murmur. 

Her lips trailed down his jaw, pressing firmly against his skin. She could feel him shaking under her touch at his waist. She nuzzled her nose against his earlobe, feeling the cool metal of his earring. She kissed down his neck. A soft groan left his lips, and he moved his head to the side every so slightly. 

She sucked gently at his skin, bringing her hands to trail down his arms. Her lips were coaxing soft moans and whimpers from his throat. She could feel his hands grip at her waist. 

“Y/N…” his voice was soft and raspy. 

She let her lips linger on his pulse point before pulling back to look at him. His breathing was ragged, his chest rising and falling rapidly. 

“Hm?” She hummed. 

“I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret…” he whispered, his cheeks flushed. 

“What makes you think I’ll regret it?” She murmured.

She leaned forward again, her lips brushing against his in a feathery kiss. Jungwon’s eyes fluttered shut, entranced by her for a moment, but he quickly pulled away. She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. 

“We’re drunk,” he was breathless, “if you still want to continue when we’re sober…I’d like that better…”

She tilted her head and gave him an amused smile. His face was completely flushed, and Y/N found it endearing.

“Alright,” she said, stepping away from him.

Jungwon’s racing heart slowly went back to normal as she pulled away. It took so much will power not to let her keep going, but Jungwon wanted to know if she really wanted it. He wanted her sober so there would be no doubt that she wanted him too. 

The tension between them remained as they stumbled around her room, getting ready for bed. She had changed out of her dress, and she rolled out a mat next to her bed and handed him a pillow and a blanket. Jungwon’s vision seemed to be spinning. He didn’t know if it was the rush of the alcohol or Y/N’s phantom lips he could still feel burning his neck. He scratched himself nervously. 

He watched as Y/N crawled into her bed. Once she got settled in, she looked up at him and smiled. It was a different type of smile. It didn’t carry the same smugness as her smirks while kissing him. It was warmer, almost affectionate. His heart couldn’t help but flutter. 

“Go to bed, Jungwon,” she said softly. 

He hesitantly lowered himself onto the floor, laying down on the mat. He suddenly didn’t want to go to sleep. What if it was all a dream? 

Y/N peeked her head over the edge of her bed to look at him. She could see his eyebrows furrowed with worry even in the darkness of the room. 

“Goodnight, Jungwon,” she whispered. 

“Goodnight,” he whispered back. 

“No ‘goodnight, pretty’ this time?” She teased. 

He pulled the blanket over his head to hide his flushed cheeks. 

“Goodnight, pretty,” he mumbled, the blanket muffling his words. 

She smiled. 

“Goodnight, handsome. Kiss you in the morning.” 

-

Y/N woke up with a raging headache. Her eyes hurt when she opened them, the sun casting light straight into them from the window. She groaned and sat up slowly. 

She swung her feet over the side of her bed and onto the floor. Her hands immediately went to massage the pounding in her temples. 

Jungwon was curled up underneath the blanket on the floor. His hair was messy, and his lips were in a slight pout as he slept. Y/N blushed as the memory of the previous night returned to her mind. She couldn’t believe she had done all of that. She couldn’t believe Jungwon let her. 

As if he knew she was thinking about him, Jungwon stirred, his eyelids squeezing and his face slightly scrunching up as he woke up. Y/N watched as he slowly blinked and opened his eyes, staring out at the wall facing away from her. She could tell he was thinking about something. He remained frozen in place for several minutes, completely unaware that Y/N was focused on him. 

Jungwon didn’t want to turn to look at Y/N’s bed. He didn’t want to confront what happened. What if it never happened in the first place? Should he even bring it up? Eventually, he mustered the courage to turn his body around. As soon as his eyes locked with Y/N’s, he gasped in shock and abruptly sat up. 

The blanket that was pulled up to his chin fell to his waist, revealing dark burgundy lip imprints across his jaw and neck. Y/N’s eyes widened at the sight. Her hand unconsciously touched her lips. Was she really that all over him last night? 

Jungwon’s eyes flickered down to the movement of her fingers tracing her lips, and his face flushed with heat. It was true. It did happen. 

They remained in silence for what seemed like forever. They were both too scared to speak. What was the other thinking? Did they think it was a mistake? 

One thing Y/N knew for sure was that she liked it. She liked the way his skin felt under her lips and the way he had sounded when she touched him. He was warm when they were pressed together, and she wanted him to wrap his arms around her. She wanted to kiss him again. 

“Jungwon…” she whispered. 

His heart sank. He was preparing himself for a rejection. It was a mistake. He bit his lip in an attempt to keep his lips from trembling. 

“I made you a promise,” she continued. 

He glanced up at her, his eyebrows slightly furrowing together in confusion. She held out her hand for him, and he hesitantly took it. She pulled him towards her, making him sit beside her on her bed. 

“What promise?” His voice came out shaky. 

Her eyes raked across his face, seeing the nerves and look of confliction in his eyes. He shrunk away from her gaze. She breathed in a breath of courage before leaning in towards him. 

“To kiss you,” she whispered. 

His eyes widened, and he could hear his heart racing in his ears. Before he could say anything in response, her lips pressed against his in a gentle kiss. It was a different kiss than the ones she had given him last night. This one was more hesitant and shy as if she was worried about how he’d react. 

Jungwon’s heart swelled in his chest. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. He felt her gasp against his lips at the contact, and it only made him smile into the kiss. He felt over the moon.

He pressed his lips firmer against hers, showing her that he wanted this and she had no reason to hesitate anymore. He could feel her hands slowly grab his waist, and suddenly the memory of her lips on his neck flooded his mind. He was trying so desperately not to make any embarrassing sounds. He pulled away slightly, their labored breaths mingling together. 

“Tell me you want me to keep going…” he panted against her lips. 

He was still scared she didn’t truly want this. He didn’t want to seem overbearing and pushy. He needed to know…

Her lips captured his’ once more, silencing his worries immediately. His hand cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss. He felt her hands run down his chest, making him shudder. He gently sucked on her bottom lip as his fingers ran through her hair. Her body relaxed fully against his, her weight leaning forward slightly, making him slowly sink onto his back. 

His hands splayed against her back as she pressed herself on top of him. Her lips began to trail down his jaw and neck again, making him groan. It still didn’t feel real. Her touches were making his body heat up in the most embarrassing way. When he felt her straddle his hips, he squirmed. 

“Wait,” he croaked out softly. 

Her lips froze on his neck, and she pulled back to look at him. 

“As much as I want to keep going,” Jungwon’s voice shook slightly, “I want to be on the same page on some things.”

“What things?” She tilted her head. 

He gently sat back up, guiding her off of him and onto the bed by her waist. His hands remained on her waist, his thumbs tracing nervous circles over her shirt. 

“I want to be clear about my…feelings,” he said. 

Their eyes met, and when he knew he had her undivided attention, he swallowed nervously. He never planned how he was going to confess to her. It seemed like everything had proceeded out of order. 

“I like you, Y/N. A lot,” he started, “and I think I’ve liked you since the very beginning. You annoyed me, yes, but I liked your attention. You’re funny, smart…pretty…” 

He blushed as he tried to continue. 

“You’ve helped me through a lot of stuff unintentionally. You’ve been there for me when no one else was, and I hope I have been there for you too…You made me realize my flaws, and you make me want to be better. I’m still working on a lot of things, and I don’t know how you’d feel about this, but…” 

He glanced up to meet her eyes timidly. 

“Can I be your boyfriend?” 

A smile cracked onto Y/N’s lips. When Jungwon saw her smile, his lips mirrored hers. Somehow, her smile always seemed to erase any worry that may have crossed his mind. 

“This is an interesting development,” she laughed.

“Is it, though?” Jungwon gave her a lopsided grin, “I think I was being very obvious about my feelings. You were just too blinded by hatred to notice.” 

“No, no. Don’t be putting this on me now,” she shook her head and pointed her finger at him, “how was I supposed to know you liked me when all you would do was insult me. Weird way of flirting if you ask me…”

Jungwon smiled so big, she could see his dimples. 

“As if calling you pretty all the time was an insult,” he rolled his eyes.

“To be fair, you did call me ugly sometimes.”

“I never told such lies,” Jungwon shook his head. 

“You would nitpick at my makeup!” 

“Your makeup and you are two very different things,” he pointed out.

He reached up to gently trace his thumb across her cheek. 

“I think you’re the prettiest without makeup,” he said, “but I do really like that burgundy lipstick…”

Y/N burst out laughing.

“Oh, you’ll love looking at yourself in the mirror right now,” she said. 

He smiled warmly at her, and he gently tugged her face towards his own. He leaned forward, his lips almost brushing hers. 

“What do you say, pretty girl?” he whispered, “can I be yours?” 

Y/N’s heart fluttered in her chest. She never wanted someone as much as she wanted Jungwon. He may not be perfect, but no one was. He was perfect for her. Despite seeing each other at their worst, they remained by each other’s sides. They understood each other in a complex way others didn’t and couldn’t. She would be a fool to say no. 

“Mhm,” she hummed, “please be mine.” 

Jungwon grinned and pressed his lips to hers in a sweet, chaste kiss. Once he pulled away, he laughed giddily. 

“Now where is your mirror…”

“You better clean that,” she told him.

“Mhm, yeah,” Riki grunted, not even putting in the effort to turn his head to look at her. 

Riki’s friend, who was sitting next to him on the couch, did glance over. The moment their eyes met, Y/N was able to see him short circuit, and his pupils dilated. She had never seen this friend of Riki’s before. She smiled politely at him before turning to head into the kitchen.

“Heeseung, you dumb bitch, you’re making us lose,” Riki yelled.

Heeseung’s neck was still craned towards the kitchen, watching her figure retreat past the doorframe. The last thing he saw was her braided ponytail whip out of view. He remained frozen, his mouth slightly agape in pure astonishment. His mind was reeling. 

Who was that goddess that just blessed my eyeballs?! Have I died and gone to heaven? He thought. 

Riki groaned and threw the controller on the table in frustration after the game was abruptly cut short due to Heeseung’s lack of involvement. 

“Dude, what the hell,” he glared at Heeseung, but his gaze was still fixed towards the kitchen.

“Can we take a break? I’m hungry,” Heeseung mumbled. 

Riki noted the dazed expression on Heeseung’s face and rolled his eyes. It wasn’t the first time one of his friends thought his older sister was attractive. 

“I’ll save you the trouble,” Riki leaned over to whisper, “Y/N doesn’t like losers like you.”

This snapped Heeseung out of whatever trance Y/N put on him, and he glared at his friend. 

“I’m not a loser,” he said defensively. 

“Yes you are,” Riki said, bringing his hand up to count on his fingers, “You still wear Spider man underwear, and you have to sleep with a nightlight. Oh my god. Remember when you farted on those plastic chairs and it vibrated so loud-” 

A soft snort interrupted him. Both Riki and Heeseung’s heads turned to find Y/N standing in the kitchen doorframe again. She had a plate full of food in her hands. Heeseung’s cheeks blushed a deep red, and he groaned. He grabbed a couch pillow and shoved it over his face, hiding it from Y/N’s view. 

“What’s wrong with Spider man?” she teased. 

“He also has a keyboard collection,” Riki continued, “His bedroom is practically empty otherwise. You can tell he’s never felt the touch of a woman-”

Heeseung groaned again and swung his foot out to kick Riki in an attempt to silence him.

“Dude,” he hissed.

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Heeseung,” she laughed.

She gave Heeseung an amused smile as she walked past them once more. Heeseung’s wide eyes followed her as she retreated to her bedroom. His neck snapped forward as Riki slapped him upside the head. 

“She will never like you,” Riki stated. 

“Who said anything about liking her?” he huffed.

“It’s written all over your face. You’re not the first, though,” Riki clicked his tongue, “If Sunghoon couldn’t bag her, you’re cooked, bro.”

Heeseung choked on his spit. Sunghoon was their friend and another dancer at their academy. He was quite possibly the most attractive guy in a hundred kilometer radius, and he was also interested in Y/N…

“Wait, she said no to him?” Heeseung gawked. 

“Yes, it was so embarrassing for him. Sunghoon is only a little weird, but at least he makes up for it in his looks. You, on the other hand, are cooked,” Riki shook his head. 

“I’m not ugly,” Heeseung grumbled. 

“No, but you’re too weird.” 

-

Every time Heeseung came over to play video games with Riki, he waved and softly said hi to Y/N if she was in the room. She always smiled and waved back, and it made his heart leap out of his chest. He had never seen someone so pretty…

However, that was as far as interactions went with her. He was never alone with her, and he was not going to risk talking to her in front of Riki. He was already praying for his downfall. Every possible second, Riki roasted him alive about how he wasn’t good enough for Y/N. It made him want to choke him. 

Little do both of them know, Y/N actually found Heeseung’s nerdy and soft-spoken nature quite charming. She loved how he couldn’t look her in the eyes for more than two seconds before looking away and blushing. It was attractive in a way. 

One day when Heeseung was over, he bumped into her in the kitchen when Riki made him go get some snacks. Heeseung practically skidded to a stop when he walked through the doorway. 

She glanced up at him and smiled, “Oh, hi, Heeseung.” 

“Hi,” he said softly before walking in and opening the pantry to look for some snacks. 

The snacks were at the front and at eye-level, but he was lingering a little too long as if he couldn't find the snacks. She stifled back a laugh. 

“You have a game tomorrow, right?” Heeseung finally built up the courage to speak. 

“I do,” she said. 

He slowly grabbed all the snacks he thought Riki would want before closing the pantry door. He remained silent for a moment before turning to look at her. 

“Good luck,” he said. “I hope you win.”

She smiled. She caught the way his eyes flickered down to her mouth briefly before his face turned red. 

“Do you want to come watch?” She asked. 

His eyes widened and his heart raced in his chest. 

“Oh…sure,” he said, breathlessly. 

“I’ll get you a ticket tomorrow,” she said.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. He was practically frozen into place. She wanted him to see her play? Was this a joke? Was she also making fun of him like her little brother does? 

One look at her sincere and beautiful face made his doubts disappear. She wouldn’t do that to him. The next day when he came over, she came up to him and handed him a ticket only to confirm it. She wanted him there. 

His mind was spiraling. He was going to see her play, and she was going to be wearing her uniform…he shook his head. He couldn't be thinking of things like that or else he would be in big trouble. 

The day of the game, he had to lie to Riki about his plans and why he couldn’t hang out and play video games. He told him he had an exam to study for. If he found out he was at his sister’s volleyball game, he wouldn’t hear the end of it. 

When the teams came out to warm up, Heeseung knew this was a mistake. He immediately spotted her in her braided ponytail, and he couldn’t help the way his eyes traced down her body. She was toned and the way the spandex shorts hugged her bottom and legs…he closed his eyes for the remainder of the warm up. He only opened them back up when he heard the whistle signaling the game was about to start. 

The game itself was intense. It helped distract him. His eyes followed the ball as it was served, passed and spiked over the net. He would occasionally just watch Y/N and the focused expression on her face. He found himself really getting lost in the rhythm of the game. He almost forgot who he was here to see. Almost. 

After the game ended, the teams went back to the locker rooms. People were ushered out of the gymnasium, and Heeseung wondered if she even noticed he had come. 

He waited for a while outside, watching as some of the other volleyball players came out to greet their friends or family. He awkwardly stood there, looking around to see if he could spot her. 

“How’d you like the game?” He heard a voice from behind him, making him jump and turn around. 

There she stood, still in her uniform and a smile on her face. Heeseung swallowed nervously. 

“It was good. You did good. Congratulations on winning,” he said quickly. 

“Thank you,” she laughed and slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. 

“I can carry that for you,” he said softly, taking the bag from her and slinging it onto his shoulder. 

“Thank you.”

“Is someone coming to pick you up?” He asked. He was worried Riki would somehow pull up and see him. 

“No. I was planning on walking home.” 

“Walking?” He looked around, the streetlights were already on and the sun was long gone. 

“Can you walk home with me?” She asked.

“Yes,” he said rather quickly, making her laugh. 

The night was cool with a slight breeze. They walked side by side at an excruciatingly slow pace. Neither minded.

“Was this your first volleyball game?” She asked.

“Yes. It was fun,” he replied, “I’d go again.”

“Will you now?” She smirked slightly, making him immediately blush. 

He glanced down at what she was wearing again. He stopped in his tracks and set her duffle bag down in order to take off his own backpack. She watched him curiously as he dug through his bag before pulling out a hoodie and handing it to her. 

“It’s cold out. I wish I had a pair of sweats to lend you,” he said.

A smile twitched onto her lips as she took the hoodie from his hands. 

“My house isn’t far. I’ll live,” she laughed, but she slipped the hoodie on anyway. 

They continued to talk. It was the first time they’ve ever had a full conversation. His heart was pounding the whole time. She couldn’t help herself either. He was so easy to fluster, and it only made her tease him even more. She loved the way his cheeks would turn red and how he would begin to stutter. 

“Do you want to come in?” She asked once they made it to her front door. 

She was halfway through the doorway, when Riki walked by and caught a glimpse of him. He glanced between Heeseung and his sister. He noted the hoodie she was wearing. His eyes narrowed at Heeseung, the gears turning in his head. He was cooked. 

“What’s he doing here?” Riki asked. 

“I invited him to my game,” Y/N responded, taking her shoes off by the door. 

Heeseung finally built up the courage to step inside and take his shoes off. 

“This is the exam you needed to study for?” Riki asked, a wicked grin on his face. 

She gave Riki a puzzled expression before turning to Heeseung. His face was as pale as a ghost’s. 

“What class is the exam for?” Riki pressed further, “Anatomy?”

“Riki, shut up. Let’s go play FIFA,” Heeseung said urgently. He pressed his hand over Riki’s mouth. Riki’s muffled screaming could be heard as Heeseung dragged him away, leaving Y/N confused at the doorway. 

-

Riki started to make Y/N’s life a living hell after the volleyball game. 

“Why’d you invite him to your volleyball game? Did you show off? Are you trying to impress him? Do you like him?” He rapidly fired while shoveling his breakfast into his mouth before school one day. 

“He seemed interested, so I invited him. I’m not trying to impress him, and that’s none of your business,” she huffed. 

An evil smirk formed on Riki’s lips at her response. 

“None of my business? If you’re thinking about dating my friend-“

“Riki-“

“Don’t have him over when I’m home because I don’t want to hear you guys having se-“ 

“RIKI!” She screamed. “You better shut up before I shove that pancake down your throat.” 

“Oh, I bet you’d love to have Heeseung shove something down your throat-“

Y/N stood up so fast, the chair she was sitting on scraped against the floor. She lunged toward Riki, but he anticipated that reaction. He was already out of his seat, half a pancake dangling from his mouth. They circled the dining table slowly as if they were in a standoff. A mischievous grin was on Riki’s lips while a scowl was on Y/N’s. 

“I’m telling Heeseung,” he said before grabbing his backpack and flying out the door. 

Y/N groaned and sank back into her chair. The food on her plate no longer looked enticing. 

Y/N began to avoid Heeseung like the plague after that interaction with Riki. She knew what Riki said wasn’t Heeseung’s fault, but she couldn't look him in the face after Riki put that image in her head. She was terrified of what Heeseung thought about her if Riki did end up telling him about the conversation they had. 

Heeseung instantly noticed something was off with how Y/N was acting around him. When he would come over to hang out with Riki, she would immediately lock herself in her room without even waving or greeting him. He never saw her out in public, and if they somehow crossed paths, she would act like she didn’t see him. 

It really hurt him. He thought they had been making progress. He started overanalyzing everything he had said to her, trying to find something that could have made her upset. 

After the fourth time of him coming over and her locking herself in her room, Heeseung felt like giving up. He sighed and laid down on Riki’s bed as Riki began setting up the console. 

“What’s wrong with you today?” Riki asked.

“Does Y/N hate me?” Heeseung asked, his voice dejected. 

“Yes,” Riki said with no hesitation. 

Heeseung immediately sat up and looked at Riki. 

“Really? Do you know why? Was it something I did?” he asked desperately. 

Riki glanced over at him, shaking his head and clicking his tongue in disappointment. He sat next to him on the bed, placing his hand on Heeseung’s knee as if he was about to drop the wisest advice on the planet.

“This is not about something you did, but about something you haven’t done,” Riki whispered.

Heeseung gave him a puzzled expression. 

“What?” 

“Listen,” Riki placed his hand on his shoulder. 

Heeseung leaned forward anxiously. 

“I planted the seed in her mind,” Riki tapped his own temple, “Now you just have to water it and watch it blossom.”

Heeseung stared at him with a blank expression. He had completely lost him. 

“You’re making no sense,” he told him. 

“I’m making perfect sense,” Riki said, extending his arms out with a shrug, “You’ll thank me later.”

-

Riki invited Y/N to one of his dancing competitions. He didn’t mention any details other than he was competing and he needed a ride back home, so she should at least watch him perform before chauffeuring him. Y/N thought about stranding him for being so annoying, but decided against it.

The place where the competition was taking place was a small venue. There was a small stage set up in front of a panel of judges and the rest of the audience. The first few performances were interesting, but after the fifteenth, Y/N was about to fall asleep. The only thing keeping her awake were the sounds of applause after every choreography. 

She would have slept right through Riki’s performance if she hadn’t spotted a familiar figure in the group. She sat up straighter and squinted her eyes. It was Heeseung. She didn’t know they were performing as a group. She thought Riki was doing a solo performance. 

She covered the bottom half of her face with her jacket. She was far enough away from the stage that the dancers wouldn’t be able to see her clearly, but she wanted to be safe. She watched as the group got into their starting formations. Her eyes stayed glued to Heeseung. 

The music started, and she was immediately captivated by his movements. They were fluid and elegant, yet harsh and strong. He had amazing control of his body, and his expressions…Y/N was beginning to sweat in her seat. The song and choreography were quite suggestive, and his expressions matched perfectly. His eyes were sultry, and his lips were curled into a smirk, and his tongue. God, his tongue. He didn’t know how to put it away! 

By the end of the performance, Y/N was fanning herself with her hand and glancing around her to see if anyone was noticing her embarrassing behavior. She was utterly shocked. How was that the same Heeseung that would always get flustered at her teasing? Where was he hiding that stage demon? 

After all the performances finished, Y/N texted Riki where she would be waiting for him. She didn’t want to risk running into Heeseung and have him see her in the absolute mess-of-a-state she was in. 

“Y/N!” she heard Riki call from behind her. 

When she turned around, her heart dropped to her ass. Heeseung was walking with him, and she saw the evil grin on Riki’s face. 

That little twerp. She thought. 

“Did you like our performance?” Riki asked innocently.

Heeseung’s eyes widened. He had been under the impression that Y/N was only there to pick Riki up. He never told him she was going to watch them dance. His face instantly turned red with embarrassment. 

“Your performance was amazing,” she said, her voice a little airy, “It was rigged. Your team should’ve won.” 

“We may have lost, but there’s clearly a winner here,” Riki said. 

Y/N raised an eyebrow at him. Riki stared at her straight in the eyes in complete silence for a moment longer than normal. 

“Jake is giving me a ride home. Have fun,” he said with a smirk before sauntering off. 

Y/N and Heeseung stared at him in disbelief. As soon as he was out of sight, they slowly turned to look back at each other. Heeseung’s cheeks darkened, and for once, Y/N’s did as well. 

“Was that your first dance competition?” he asked softly.

“Yes. It was fun,” she replied, “I’d go again.”

Heeseung huffed out a small laugh. He covered his face with his hand to hide how flustered he was becoming. 

“You’re, like, very different on stage,” she laughed anxiously. 

“I am?” 

“Yeah. I was surprised,” she said.

“Bad surprised? Or good?” he asked nervously.

“Good,” she said, finally gaining the courage to look him in the eyes, “It makes me want to see what other sides of you exist.”

“Oh,” he murmured, “I don’t have many…”

“That’s for me to find out,” she smiled at him. 

He blinked at her. Her smile and proximity were making him go crazy. He was just so relieved she was talking to him again and not avoiding him.

“Do you need a ride?” she offered, pointing to the car, “My original client cancelled.”

Heeseung chuckled and nodded. 

“Are you hungry? We can go grab something to eat,” she said. 

“Sure,” he said softly. 

“Sure? I don’t want to force you,” she gave him a lopsided grin. 

“You’re not. I want to go,” he smiled sheepishly. 

They decided on a sit-down pizza place that was near the venue. They were sitting at a booth tucked into the corner of the room. Heeseung was so nervous, he just chose the first thing he saw on the menu to order. 

“How long have you been dancing?” she asked after they both placed their orders. 

“Since I was little,” he said, taking a nervous sip from his water.

“I can tell. You’re extremely good,” she smiled.

“How long have you been playing volleyball?” he asked in return.

“Since high school. I’m not that great,” she laughed.

“How can you say that? You looked so cool when I went last time,” Heeseung professed. 

“Just because I looked cool doesn't mean I’m good.”

“Well, I think you’re good,” he murmured.

“My number one fan,” she grinned, making him blush.

Their food arrived, and they ate in silence for a while. Heeseung offered her some of his personal pizza, and she offered him some of hers. He kept sneaking glances at her, finding her so cute. 

“If you knew that in one year you would die, would you change anything about the way you are living now?” she asked abruptly. 

Heeseung almost choked on his pizza. The question was sudden and it felt out of place for the context they were in, but he wasn’t closed off to answering it.

“Are you planning on killing me in a year?” he chuckled.

“No,” she smiled, “I’m just curious.”

He pursed his lips in thought.

“I think I’m pretty content with my life at the moment. I would like to do some travelling,” he looked at her.

She raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

“No confessing your undying love to someone?” she grinned playfully.

He blushed and shook his head.

“It would only make me depressed,” he said.

“Why? What if they say yes?” 

Heeseung looked at her for a moment, the infinite possible scenarios of what could happen crossing his mind in an instant. He shook his head again.

“It would only devastate them once I die. It would be selfish. I don’t want to put them through that,” he said. 

Y/N stared at him. She didn’t know what kind of answer she was expecting, but surely, it wasn’t that. She rested her chin in her hand. 

“You’re very thoughtful,” she said.

“Was that not a normal answer?” he asked, making her chuckle. 

“It’s normal. I just find it interesting. Well, more like, I find you interesting,” she smiled.

Heeseung was starting to feel the heat of her intense gaze. He wasn’t used to being the center of a girl’s attention like this. 

“I want to know more about you,” she continued.

“What do you want to know?” he asked softly.

“Everything.”

They spent the next two hours just talking and asking each other questions. Some of the questions were deep and were trying to get a glimpse of the other’s mind while other questions were superficial and light-hearted. Anything that came to mind, they asked and the other answered without any hesitation. 

Heeseung was getting to know her more than he’d ever known someone before. He was opening up about things he wouldn’t even talk to his closest friends about. There was something about Y/N’s energy and her eagerness to uncover his own psyche that made him feel vulnerable yet safe. She never criticised him for his answers. She would merely ask even more questions, digging deeper. 

He loved figuring out what made her tick, and how certain experiences shaped the way she views life. By the time the waitress set the bill down on the table, it felt like they knew each other for years. 

Y/N moved to grab the bill, but Heeseung snatched it before she could. 

“I got it,” he said. 

“But-”

“You drove. It’s the least I can do,” Heeseung smiled.

He pulled out his wallet. As he grabbed his card, something square and metallic fell out onto the table. Heeseung furrowed his eyebrows at it. It looked like a candy wrapper at first but then realization dawned onto him when he saw the circular indent within. His eyes widened, and he slammed his hand over the condom. Y/N’s cheeks were flushed red.

“I-I…that’s not mine,” he stammered, “I don’t know how that got there.”

“It’s normal. Nothing to be ashamed of,” she reassured. 

“No, but it really isn’t mine,” Heeseung was almost pleading. 

He dragged his hand across the table, bringing the condom with it. He picked it up and was about to shove it back into his wallet when he noticed handwriting on the back of it. He flipped it over, and the message was even more embarrassing than the condom itself. 

First round is on me. -Riki

Heeseung closed his eyes and let out the longest sigh. His fingers came up to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. He was going to kill Riki the next time he saw him.

Y/N glanced down at what he had been looking at, and she groaned. 

“Riki put that in there?” she asked.

Heeseung nodded. His face was still flushed with embarrassment. 

“Where the fuck did he even get it in the first place?” she sighed. 

“I don’t know, but I’m sorry. This probably made you so uncomfortable,” Heeseung said softly. 

Y/N remained silent for a moment. After the initial embarrassment passed, the situation was amusing in a way. A low chuckle rumbled in her chest, making Heeseung glance up at her in confusion. 

“It’s kind of funny actually,” she grinned.

Heeseung groaned, still not over the embarrassment. 

“It’s okay,” she reassured, “You don’t seem like the type to carry condoms in your wallet anyway.”

“I don’t know if I should be relieved or offended,” Heeseung said. 

Y/N bursted out laughing. 

“As much as Riki wants to make you believe it, you’re not a loser, Heeseung,” she said, “at least not to me.” 

“Oh,” he whispered, “Thank you.”

“You have a lot of charming qualities,” she continued.

“I do?” he asked in disbelief. 

“Mhm,” she hummed. 

“May I ask what they are?” His cheeks were beginning to blush again.

“Well, you’re very dedicated and driven. Your dancing is phenomenal. You’re multifaceted, and it makes me curious about you. I also like your soft-spokenness. It’s soothing and makes me feel safe,” she said. 

“I make you feel safe?” Heeseung smiled. 

“Yeah. Your voice is like a warm hug,” she smiled back. 

He had to cover his face with his hands to hide how red he was getting. Her words were flattering and nice to hear. He never really had someone compliment him like that before. 

“Thank you,” he said softly.

She smiled again, “Anytime.”

- 

“Can you teach me how to dance?” Y/N asked Heeseung.

He had come to watch another one of her games, and he was walking her home again. This time he had brought her his hoodie and sweatpants for her to wear. 

“What do you want to learn?” he smiled. 

She dragged him along to a nearby park. They stood on a grassy patch that was decently illuminated. She made him drop her duffle bag and his backpack. 

“Teach me the dance you did at the competition,” she said. 

Heeseung looked at her with an amused smile. 

“It’s pretty hard.” 

“Then only teach me your favorite part,” she grinned. 

He tried his best to teach her. He went slow and repeated the movements as many times as she asked, but whenever they tried to put it all together, she would struggle with moving her legs and arms at the same time. Heeseung watched her with a glint in his eyes and a smile on his lips. For an athlete, she had horrible coordination when it came to dancing. He thought it was adorable.  

After she tripped over her own feet for what seemed like the twentieth time, she groaned and gave up. She caught Heeseung’s shoulders shaking from silent laughter, and she pouted.

“Show me something easier,” she huffed, “Can you ballroom dance?”

Heeseung’s smile never left his face as he walked closer. 

“I don’t, but it doesn’t seem too hard,” he said. 

He grabbed her hand, placing it on his shoulder. He placed his hand on her waist and grasped her other hand in his free hand. His heart was racing in his chest at their proximity. Her hand on his shoulder was light, but it felt like it was burning a hole through his shirt. The way she looked up at him with anticipation made him swallow nervously.

“Just follow my lead,” he whispered. 

He stepped backwards carefully, allowing her to step towards him. He stepped to the side. She followed. He turned them around slightly to change the direction of their stepping. He felt her shoe step on his toes. 

“Oh, god. Sorry,” she mumbled. 

“It’s okay,” he smiled.

They continued their slow stepping and turning. Y/N had to apologize multiple times for stepping on him, and he had to keep telling her it was alright. They were getting the hang of it, and Heeseung couldn’t stop thinking about how romantic the scene was. There was no music, but the sounds of their soft giggling carried them along the grass. 

“Do you want to try a twirl?” he asked softly.

She smiled at him and nodded.

He brought their clasped hands above her head, guiding her in a slow circle as she twirled. She was laughing the whole time. Her smile lit up her whole face, and the soft glow of the streetlights only made her look even more ethereal. 

“Let’s go faster,” she laughed. 

Heeseung swept her around the grass a little faster, but she wasn’t following the practiced steps anymore. She was skipping and hopping, a giant smile on her face. Her laughter was infectious. Heeseung’s cheeks were starting to hurt with how much he was smiling.

She asked for another twirl. She was giggling, and her hair spun out as she turned. As he was pulling her back towards him, her momentum caused her to stumble. He wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her, but it was too late. Her foot caught between his, and he lost his balance. He pulled her closer as they tumbled to the ground, cushioning her fall with his body. Y/N was still laughing, finding the whole situation amusing. 

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly. 

“I should be asking you that,” she smiled.

“I’m okay,” he whispered. 

Y/N’s laughter slowly died down, and she was left with the realization of what happened. Her body was on top of his, and their faces were close enough to feel each other’s breaths. She felt his hand at the small of her back for support, and when she looked up at him, his face was red. 

Heeseung wanted to kiss her so badly, but he was a little uncertain. He was too scared he was reading it all wrong. He saw the way her eyes flickered down to his lips, and he froze. Her hair was hanging in loose curtains on the sides of her face, and with his other hand he tucked the strands behind her ear. His eyes also trailed down to her lips. 

She hesitantly leaned towards him, and his heart began to race. He met her halfway, their lips barely touching in a gentle kiss. She pulled back to look at him with a smile. She laughed at his dazed expression before leaning in to kiss him more firmly. His hand pressed firmer on her back. He was in disbelief. Her lips were soft, and they were kissing him. It didn’t feel real. When she pulled back again, he blinked up at her. Surprise was written all over his face.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he blurted out.

Y/N bursted out laughing.

“No, I don’t,” she said. 

“Do you want one?” he asked breathlessly. 

“Mm, it depends,” she hummed.

“Depends on what?” he asked. His eyes flickered up to meet hers. 

“On who’s asking.” 

“Me. I’m asking.” 

She chuckled and leaned back in. His hand came up to cradle the back of her head as they shared another kiss. His heart was beating so fast, he thought she could feel it pressed against her chest. 

“Yes,” she mumbled against his lips. 

- 

Riki was having a field day after he found out Y/N and Heeseung finally started dating. He thought he deserved to get special privileges for bringing them together. According to him, he did all the heavy lifting, and if it wasn’t for him, Y/N would have self-sabotaged and Heeseung would have dug his own grave since he was such a loser. 

What are the special privileges? Ever since Heeseung started dating Y/N, he hardly spends time with Riki, so Riki found it fit to invite himself to any of their dates. He wasn’t a complete thorn in their side. He was generous and only chose dates that were low stakes like eating at Olive Garden. 

“Mama and papa,” Riki joked as he sat in the booth across from them with a mouthful of pasta.

“Riki, shut the fuck up,” She groaned.

“That’s no way to talk to your child, ma’am,” Riki clicked his tongue. 

“You’re my brother. Stop making this weird,” she said. 

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Riki grumbled. 

“Maybe we need to get you a girlfriend, so you can leave us alone,” Heeseung said.

“Good luck with that,” Y/N laughed, “No one would want to put up with that.”

Riki scowled at her briefly before leaning back in the booth. He rested his palms on the back of his head, a look of nonchalance on his face. 

“Coaches don’t play,” he shrugged. 

“More like you get no play,” Heeseung snorted. 

Riki gave him a side eye, his nostrils flaring. 

“You’re one to talk,” Riki scoffed, “You got no play before Y/N.” 

“Yes, I did,” Heeseung retorted.

“You did?” Y/N turned to look at Heeseung with her eyebrow raised.

A smirk grew on Riki’s lips. He sat back and watched the drama unfold. 

“No! I mean, kind of?” Heeseung stammered. 

“Enlighten me,” Y/N crossed her arms in front of her chest, “What kind of play did you get?” 

“I dated this one girl for three months…” Heeseung trailed off.

“Ha! The one you pined over for three years, but then she dumped you?” Riki started wheezing. 

Heeseung’s lips flattened into a straight line as he glared at Riki. Y/N’s lips quirked into a smile, and she stifled back a laugh. She rubbed Heeseung’s shoulder comfortingly. 

“Aww. That’s kind of cute, baby,” she said, “You’re a yearner.” 

“I hate you both,” Heeseung sulked. 

Once they arrived back home, Riki sprinted to his room to do who knows what. Heeseung and Y/N remained in the living room, finally getting a moment alone. She sighed and sunk onto the couch dramatically. 

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Heeseung asked, sitting next to her and wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. 

She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Give me a second of silence. Riki overstimulates the fuck out of me,” she whispered. 

Heeseung chuckled and remained silent. His hand gently ran up and down her side, trying to soothe her. He watched her as she kept her eyes closed and her chest rose and fell slowly with each breath. He smiled and brought his other hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. His hand lingered behind her ear, slowly tracing her earlobe and jaw. She was so pretty and soft. Y/N’s eyes slowly fluttered open at the gentle touch. Her eyes were immediately met with Heeseung’s, and she noted how dilated his pupils were. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said.

“Like what?” 

“Like you want to devour me.”

He looked up at her with a growing smirk on his lips, his eyebrows rising slightly. 

“Is that what you think my staring means?” he leaned forward. 

“Is it not?” she tilted her head playfully. 

“I’m just admiring how beautiful you are,” he whispered, wrapping both of his arms around her waist, “Can’t I appreciate my gorgeous girlfriend without any lustful intent?” 

He gazed into her eyes, and she could see the pure adoration in them. Her pulse quickened as blood rushed to her face. His eyes traced down her face slowly, taking in every feature before stopping at her lips. She licked them without thinking.  

“You’re flipping the narrative, aren’t you?” she asked.

His eyes came back up to meet hers, and he tilted his head slightly.

“Don’t act coy,” she leaned forward, her breath fanning against his lips.

“If you want to devour me, just say that,” he murmured, closing the distance between them. 

Y/N had no more fight in her. He was so entrancing. His gaze, his smirk, his lips…She did indeed want to devour him. The way his hand came up to caress her cheek as he deepened the kiss only made her want him even more. Her hands roamed up and down his sides, and she felt Heeseung’s kisses become more urgent. She pulled him closer until there was no space between them. 

Suddenly, Heeseung broke the kiss, pulling back slightly. His hand was still cradling her cheek, his thumb gently tracing her skin. Both of their breathing was a little labored, and Heeseung’s eyes remained on her lips. 

“Maybe not while Riki is still in the house,” he chuckled. 

“We do need to get him a girlfriend,” she groaned. 

-

A knock at Heeseung’s door startled him. He opened the door to find Y/N, a duffle bag over her shoulder. His eyes raked down her body wearing her volleyball uniform. She wasn’t wearing her signature braided ponytail, though. She wore her hair down. 

“You had a game today?” he asked, bewildered. 

Her games were always on Fridays, and today was a Saturday. He was a little hurt. She knew he loved watching her play. 

“No game today,” she said, stepping through the door.

“Then why-”

She cut him off with a gentle kiss to his lips. Heeseung’s arms immediately wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. Her lips trailed from the corner of his mouth down to his jaw. She could feel the movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed nervously.

“I know how much you like the uniform,” she murmured. 

Suddenly, the pieces were falling together, and Heeseung understood why she was here. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, and his hands trailed down to her hips. 

Her lips connected with his again, but this time with newfound desire. He closed the front door and gently walked her up against a wall without breaking the kiss. She pressed herself flush against him, and he hummed against her lips. 

“You always look so hot wearing it,” he whispered.

His mouth trailed down to her neck, leaving open-mouthed kisses along her skin. Her eyes fluttered closed at the sensation, and she brought her hand up to tangle her fingers into his hair. 

“Especially after your matches when you’re covered in sweat,” he groaned softly.

He rested his hand on the small of her back, pulling her impossibly closer. He could feel every curve of her body against his, and he felt like he was about to fall apart. He continued to kiss and gently nip at her neck, feeling her pulse quicken under his lips. 

“Let’s go to my room,” he whispered softly.

She hummed and allowed him to take her hand and lead her to his bedroom, locking the door behind him. His hands rested on her shoulders, slightly keeping her at arms length as his gaze trailed down her body. The jersey hugged her torso perfectly, and the spandex shorts seemed to have rode up her thighs from the walk from the front door to his room. He groaned, and his hands trailed down her sides to rest on her hips before pulling her into another kiss.

“I love your uniform, but…” Heeseung muttered against her lips.

“You want to take it off?” She teased.

“Mhm,” he hummed.

His hands slipped under her jersey, resting on her bare waist as his lips trailed down her neck. She brought her hands to rest on top of his, guiding them upward as if encouraging him to undress her. His fingers gripped the hem of her shirt and slowly pulled it over her head. She would normally be wearing a sports bra underneath, but this time, she wore a bra that Heeseung wasted no time in taking off. 

Heeseung wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. He buried his face into the crook of her neck, trailing his lips down her collarbone and to the swell of her breasts. He could hear her breath start to hitch as his lips made their way even lower, gently wrapping around her hardened nipple. 

“Heeseung-” she gasped at the warmth of his mouth.

He moaned as her back arched slightly against his mouth. With one hand, he played and pinched at one of her nipples, while he swirled his tongue and sucked on the other. He loved hearing the soft gasps and moans leaving her lips. Her fingers gently played with the hair at the back of his head, making his eyes flutter shut. 

He switched his attention to her other nipple, trailing his hands down to her ass, pulling her flush against him. She could feel his growing erection press against her through his clothes. 

She gripped at the hem of his shirt, and he pulled away just long enough for her to slip it over his head. Her hands trailed down his chest and sides, making his breath shudder against her nipple. 

“Baby…” he murmured. 

His fingers slipped under her shorts, peeling them off her legs. He gently walked her backwards until she sunk onto the bed. His gaze was filled with desire as she laid there in just her underwear. He brought his hands to rest just above her knees, steadily caressing up her thighs. 

“God, I love your thighs,” he whispered, slowly climbing on top of her. 

The tent in his sweatpants was glaringly obvious. Her hands at his hips stopped him in his tracks, and he bit his lip as he watched her gradually tug his sweatpants down his legs. He kicked them off, leaving them both just in their underpants. 

He kissed her again, bringing his crotch to press against hers. They both moaned at the slight friction. His hands continued to knead her thighs, feeling the muscle under his grip. 

“Please sit on my face,” he pleaded softly against her lips. 

His hips bucked against hers involuntarily, making him hiss. 

“Please,” he begged again. 

She caressed the nape of his neck affectionately. 

“Okay, baby,” she said. 

He slid her panties off before rolling himself onto his back. He watched in anticipation as she crawled up his body until all he could see were her thighs and her glistening folds. The mere smell of her made his eyes roll to the back of his head. His hands gently grabbed her hips, pulling her down onto his mouth.  

His lips kissed along her slit, and his warm breath fanned across her skin, making her shudder. His tongue was gentle at first, exploring and tasting her, but eventually he wanted more.

He had to beg her to put her whole weight on his head. It happened every time. She was too scared of hurting or suffocating him, and he had to remind her of the numerous times they’ve done it before and he’s survived. He loved the rush of pleasure of having her thighs wrapped around his head. 

“I want it,” he said, muffled by her thighs, “You won’t hurt me.”

“Push me off if it gets to be too much, okay?” she said.

He hummed, his grip on her thighs tightening as she lowered herself completely onto him. He groaned and tried to pull her closer as if it wasn’t already enough. He buried the bridge of his nose on her clit, moving his head slightly from side to side as he pushed his tongue into her. 

The sounds that would leave her lips were music to his ears. His hands trailed up her thighs and rested on her ass, almost as if encouraging her to ride his face. Her hand was fisted into his hair as she slowly rocked her hips against his mouth. He moaned, and his hips bucked into the air. 

She leaned back slightly and slipped her other hand into his boxers, wrapping it around his hard length. She felt him pause between her legs briefly, his breath panting against her clit as she stroked him slowly. He whimpered softly, his dick was leaking profusely into her hand. His moans and whimpers vibrated against her core, making her throw her head back in pleasure. 

He grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand off of him. He wanted to focus on her or else he would finish. He dived back into her. She was warm against his mouth and tongue, and it made his head spin. God, she was so beautiful. He never wanted it to end. 

When he felt her legs starting to tremble, he knew she was close. He grabbed her thighs for support as she rocked her hips against his mouth. His eyes were closed, enjoying the feeling of her falling apart above him. Her orgasm made her legs like jelly, and he had to lift her by the thighs to get her back to her knees. 

She loved seeing his fucked out face afterwards. He looked like he'd just seen heaven, his eyelids hooded, his mouth slightly parted and panting, his face glistening. He left sloppy kisses down her thighs, making them shake. He gripped them slightly. 

“Sit on me again, baby,” he whispered almost pleadingly. 

“You’re so greedy,” she said, combing his messy hair to the side. 

He smirked lazily, caressing her legs affectionately. 

“I just can’t get enough of you,” he whispered, placing more kisses on her inner thighs. 

Although she was still sensitive, his lips trailed back to her core and she whimpered softly. This only drove him wild. His grip on her thighs tightened, and he buried his nose against her. His own hips were bucking against nothing. 

“Baby, please…” he murmured against her core, making her shiver. 

She crawled off his face, eliciting a low grumble of disappointment from him. She straddled his waist, bending forward to kiss him. His arms immediately wrapped around her, pulling her closer as he deepened the kiss. She could taste herself on his mouth as she traced her tongue along his bottom lip. He parted his lips, eager to feel her tongue in his mouth. 

She trailed open mouthed kisses down his jaw and neck. She loved his Adam’s apple. She loved the way it moved as he swallowed. She took her time with him, covering him in kisses and small love bites. He loved the attention. Her lips felt like fire against his skin, and he loved it. 

Once she got to his chest, it was when he started begging again. She was excruciatingly sweet yet slow with it. His hands rested on her waist, gently squeezing as his hips bucked up. 

“Baby…” he mumbled. 

“Hm?” She hummed against his sternum. 

“Fuck,” he whispered, “I need you.”

“I know you do, baby,” she whispered back, tracing her tongue along his chest. 

“Please,” he begged. He couldn’t take any more of this teasing. He loved it, but his dick was aching for her. 

He sighed in relief as her lips left his chest and she sat on her knees. His head fell back onto the pillow with a moan as she rubbed her wet folds along his length that had been pressed against his stomach. Beads of precum spilt out of his tip.

She lifted her hips up slightly, guiding his length to her entrance with her hand. Heeseung swallowed with anticipation, his eyes fixed onto his tip as it disappeared inside of her. 

“Fuck,” he moaned, his head thrown back onto the pillow again. 

She slowly sunk down onto him, watching his face contort with pleasure at her warmth wrapped around him. His hands were once again on her thighs, stroking them affectionately. His hips slowly thrusted upwards, not being able to hold back any longer. 

“Baby, can we switch?” His voice was hoarse with need. “I want your legs around me.” 

She looked at him with a slightly amused expression but nodded. He wasted no time in rolling them over. She wrapped her legs around his waist, allowing him to sink in deeper. His thrusts started off slow, his hips rolling in deeply and making her toes curl with pleasure. He loved this position because he was able to see her beautiful face as he made love to her. Every expression and every sound he committed to memory. 

The way her legs tightened around his waist pulled him in deeper and made him slightly lose control. His hips moved faster and her mouth fell open in pants. He was mesmerized. He leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers, swallowing any and all sounds that left her mouth. 

Her hands trailed down his back and spine, and that simple touch made his hips stutter a little faster. His lips trailed down to her neck.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he panted against her earlobe. He felt her walls pulse around him, causing him to moan. 

One of his hands trailed one of her thighs that’s wrapped around his waist, kneading it. 

“You make me crazy, you know that right?” He whispered. 

His thrusts became slightly erratic. He was a moaning and whimpering mess. He was getting lost in the feeling of her tightening around him. He couldn’t think straight. She felt way too good. His whispered praises and deep thrusts brought butterflies to her stomach. She felt her abdomen muscles tighten, her orgasm building. 

“Heeseung…” she moaned.

That’s all it took for him to groan and bury himself deep inside her. His length pulsed, but he forced himself to continue thrusting. He was whimpering with sensitivity, but he was not finished yet. 

“Keep saying my name, baby,” he pleaded.

His eyes met hers. His pupils were blown wide as he tried to take in every single detail of her pretty face pleading for release. 

“Heeseung…” she groaned.

His hips moved faster again despite the sensitivity threatening tears to prickle at the corners of his eyes. 

“Heeseung…” she moaned, her hands gripping his sides for stability as his pace continued. 

“Fuck,” he cursed, leaning forward to devour her lips once more. 

She moaned as he sucked on her tongue, his thrusts making her eyes roll back. Her walls tightened around him like a vice as she crashed through her orgasm. Heeseung choked at the feeling of her grip, his hips thrusting deeply into her as he came for a second time in such a short period. It hurt, but in a good way. 

He felt her walls twitching around him, milking him further. He thrusted lazily, making them both shake with sensitivity. He finally slowed to a stop as her legs unwrapped themselves from his waist. 

He gently slipped out of her, his length already softening. He laid down next to her, immediately wrapping his arms around her and pulling her flush against him. She nuzzled her face against his chest, and she began tracing patterns on his back. He loved this part too. He loved feeling her body pressed against his, loved caressing her soft skin as their breathing slowly came back to normal.  

“My beautiful baby,” he whispered against her hair, his hands softly trailing down her shoulders and sides. “Are you hungry? Do you want me to make you something?” 

She shook her head against his chest, content being with him in the moment. His body was warm and his words were comforting. 

“Let’s stay like this a little longer,” she whispered.

“Okay,” he smiled. 

They stay wrapped in each other’s embrace for a while. He placed soft kisses at the top of her head, making her heart flutter and swell. His hands ran up and down her back gently. 

“I feel very cherished,” she giggled softly. 

“Because you are,” he said, wrapping his arms around her a little tighter. “You’re precious to me.” 

She hummed and buried her face into the crook of his neck. 

“Don’t say that,” she whispered hoarsely. 

“Why not?” He murmured. 

“It makes me want to rip you apart,” she muttered. 

“I wouldn’t mind,” he said, fighting back a grin. The blood was already flooding back to his length, and her breath against his neck made him shiver. 

She pulled back from his neck to look up at him. Her eyes were sincere. 

“You’re precious to me too, Heeseung,” she whispered, gently pressing her lips to his in a sweet kiss. 

He groaned, his length already hard and pressing against her stomach. 

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” he mumbled as she straddled his lap. 

“You love it,” she grinned. 

“I do.”

He’s always felt rather ostracized in his science classes either because people didn’t take him seriously due to his age or people were annoyed that he knew the same, if not more, about the subject. He found a nice corner in the room to sit in for the year and remained rather quiet and minded his business.

Y/N immediately noticed Jake when the school year started. It was hard not to when he was a whole head shorter than most of the other boys in class. For the first month of school, she noted how quiet and reserved he was, always doing the labs by himself.

Y/N has a soft heart, and something about this adorable little kid doing all the school work himself makes her so sad. It doesn’t help that he reminds her of her own little brother, Sunghoon. He’s also very quiet and reserved, often struggling to make his own friends.

Next time they have to partner up for labs, she goes up to Jake and asks to be his partner. Jake is hesitant at first. He usually prefers working alone because most kids can't keep up with him and it annoys him, or students use him to get an easy grade. However, something about the warm smile on Y/N’s lips makes him agree.

“I’ll go get the materials,” he says softly before going to collect some wooden blocks and rubber bands.

They set up their experiment. Y/N is reading the instructions aloud as Jake wraps a rubber band to a hook at the end of each wooden block then attaches the other end of the rubber band to a wooden board. They take turns pulling at the blocks and watching them hit the wooden board.

As she’s reading out the discussion questions, Jake is practically bursting at the seams trying not to talk more deeply about the experiment and Newton’s laws. He loves physics. He could talk about physics all day if people didn’t get annoyed and tell him to shut up.

“Write one real-world example that demonstrates all three of Newton’s laws of motion,” she reads off the paper.

She remains silent for a bit, trying to think of something.

“Trains,” Jake murmurs.

“That makes sense,” she says.

He watches as she writes it down on the paper, elaborating the answer without him having to help. A sudden wave of relief decompresses him. At least she’s able to carry her own weight in the lab.

“Hypothetically, if you want to jump off a moving train, you should run in the opposite direction the train is moving at the speed the train is moving,” he says randomly, “and hypothetically, you’ll land at a stand still.”

Y/N snorts and looks up from her writing.

“Hypothetically, I think I’d roll my ankle and break a few bones,” she says.

“Yes, in actuality you’d probably die, but hypothetically…” he trails off, feeling like he’s probably already weirded her out.

“No, keep going,” she laughs, “this is more interesting than sling-shotting these blocks against the board.”

Y/N doesn’t know what she unlocked by saying that. Jake suddenly will not stop talking about anything and everything that comes to his mind that relates to physics. There are times where he catches himself when he’s rambling and will suddenly go quiet, thinking she’s getting annoyed, but she’s genuinely interested and will ask him more questions to keep him talking.

For their next lab, they have to build an electromagnet, and he’s come prepared with cool things to tell her about it.

“Electromagnetism is so cool. The earth is just like a giant magnet because of the liquid metal in the core,” he says as he’s wrapping copper wire around an iron nail. “Did you know birds use the earth’s electromagnetic field to navigate during migrations?”

Y/N just smiles and finds him so endearing. He gets so excited that sometimes he talks faster than his tongue can handle, and he starts stumbling over his words.

“Since the magnetic field varies in intensity and direction, the birds use that like a map which can be helpful when they’re flying over places like the ocean. Speaking of the ocean, it creates a second, weaker magnetic field because the salt generates an electric current and scientists use that to—“

She quickly becomes his favorite person. She’s the only one that tolerates his physics talk, and he loves it when she asks him questions. If he doesn’t know the answer off the top of his head, he will go home and research it then come back to school the next day and talk her ear off about it too.

One day during lunch, he shyly comes up to her table and asks if he can sit with her and her friends. At first, her friends whisper to her, “Why are you inviting this little boy?”

“Be nice,” she snaps at them before patting the seat next to hers for him to sit on.

He quietly eats his food as the girls talk around him about random things. He listens in as they talk about their crushes, recent things they did, and trends they’ve seen online. Y/N immediately notices how quiet Jake is being and leans over to whisper, “Do you know how cell phones work?”

Jake stops mid-chew and glances up at her. Her soft smile makes something stir in his chest and he blushes. A small smile forms on his lips and he wipes the crumbs off his mouth with the back of his hand.

“So you know how we learned about electromagnetism?” He says quietly.

She nods and that’s all it takes for him to start explaining how cell phones work.

He seems to follow her everywhere after this. He walks with her to and from physics class, lunch, and at the end of the school day, he finds her in the hallway and walks with her until they have to go separate ways.

Her friends find this really weird at first. He’s just some random 15 year old boy following them around, but eventually they get used to him. They see the attachment he has to her and start teasing her about it when he isn’t around.

“Why are you babysitting?”

“I’m not babysitting,” she scoffs.

“Does he not have other friends?”

“Not that I know of,” she says.

“He follows you around like a puppy. Do you think he has a crush on you?”

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

“Why? Do you have a crush on him?”

“He’s a child!”

“And you’re not?” her friend rolls her eyes.

“He’s too young.”

“But if he wasn’t too young, you would?” Her friend smirks.

“No! Stop! Oh my god.”

One day, Y/N is missing during lunch period, and Jake awkwardly asks her friends where she is. They mention how she’s been holed up in the art room for the past few days trying to finish a portfolio for an assignment. They don’t really acknowledge him beyond that, and he makes his way to the arts wing of school. He peeks through the classroom windows until he finds her form slumped over a table. He knocks softly on the door, making her jump. When she turns around and sees it’s him, she smiles and waves him in.

“What are you doing here?” She asks, wiping her charcoal stained hands on an apron.

“You weren’t at the lunch table…woah! You made that?” His eyes widen when he looks at the art piece on the table.

At first glance, the drawing is a bit disturbing. It’s a black and white drawing with multiple shadowy figures emerging from shimmering water. Jake glances over at her with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?” He whispers, making her burst out laughing.

“Yes, I’m okay, Jake,” she reassures.

She pulls out a few other pieces which are not black and white. One piece is an explosion of color being reflected in different directions and angles almost like a prism caught in the sun. Another piece is just a cityscape on a rainy day just at dusk.

“My assignment is to portray light,” she explains.

“Oh,” he says softly.

His eyes are captivated by the different pieces. He bends down to look at the details a bit closer. A small wave of guilt washes over him for not knowing about this passion of hers sooner. She was always asking him about physics, but he never once asked about what she liked.

“You’re really good,” he says, looking up at her with a soft smile. “Do you have any more drawings?”

“Hardly,” she waves his compliment off. “I don’t have any more here, but I have more at home. I can bring my sketchbook to school tomorrow so you can see.”

He eagerly agrees, already itching to see what else she’s made. When he glances back up at her, he notices a streak of charcoal smeared on her cheek. His face heats up, and he finds himself slowly inching closer to her. Just as he’s mustered up the courage to slowly bring his hand up to try and wipe it off, she says, “You know…physics and art are kind of interconnected.”

Jake freezes, quickly bringing his hand back down to his side with embarrassment. For once, he’s speechless when it comes to the topic of physics. His heart is racing wildly in his chest. She waits to see if he will say anything on the matter. When he doesn’t, she continues.

“Have you heard of color theory?” she asks.

“The color wheel, right?”

“Mhm, but it’s more than that,” she says, bringing the art piece that shows the cityscape to the top of the art pile. “It shows you how colors interact with each other.”

She points at a specific color on the painting.

“What color is this?” she asks.

“Blue…”

“I didn’t use blue paint for it though.”

Jake looks at her like she’s crazy.

“I used grey.”

“You’re lying,” he says, kneeling closer to the painting and squinting as if that would help him see the grey.

“It only appears blue because of the colors I used around it. It’s all about perception.”

“The color of light is determined by its wavelength,” he murmurs, ”and the color we see is only a reflection of the wavelengths an object doesn’t absorb…”

She hums, a smile growing on her lips because she knows the gears in his head are turning, and he’s about to start rambling. He glances up at her, and when he sees the look of affection in her gaze, his throat dries up. He feels like a deer caught in headlights, frozen in place. His eyes scan her face, noticing the charcoal smear on her cheek again. She watches as he brings a trembling hand to her face, using his fingers to gently brush off the charcoal. It only smears even more, and Jake’s eyes widen.

“O-oh my god. I’m sorry. I just made it worse,” he says, absolutely mortified.

She glances down at his hand, and his fingers are slightly smeared with the charcoal he tried to wipe off. She laughs and brings up her own dirtied hands. She drags her finger from his nose and across his cheek, leaving a black streak on half of his face.

“There. Now we’re even,” she smiles.

Jake’s heart is about to leap out of his chest at her gentle touch and teasing smile. He’s never liked a girl before. He doesn’t quite know how to approach this. Does he tell her? What if she doesn’t like him back? That would be so embarrassing. Does he flirt with her? How in the world does he do that? Compliments? He stares at her in silence for what seems like forever. His eyebrows are furrowed in concentration. She misinterprets this as him being angry that she smeared charcoal on his face.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go get you a wet cloth—”

“Did you know the sun isn’t actually on fire? There isn’t enough oxygen in space for it to burn. It’s actually a nuclear reaction,” he interrupts abruptly.

She raises an eyebrow, an amused smile forming on her lips.

“And?” she prompts.

“And,” he swallows nervously.

His eyes glance down at her mouth.

“Your smile is like a nuclear reaction,” he mutters. He looks away shyly, “Very bright.”

She’s caught off guard, and she only stares at him. Her cheeks heat up, and she brings her hand up to hide her flustered smile.

“That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she says softly. “Thank you, Jake.”

He glances back at her timidly, his cheeks flushed pink.

“No problem,” he replies just as softly.

They look at each other for a moment. Jake loves the way she smiles shyly. He wants to compliment her even more now. She notices the way Jake’s eyes sparkle slightly as they trail down her face, making her even more flustered.

“Are you hungry?” she asks.

“Hm?” he hums. His gaze comes back up to meet her eyes.

“You skipped lunch to come here. Are you hungry?”

“Oh,” he smiles sheepishly, “a little.”

“Let’s go eat.”

“Okay.”

Over time, Y/N’s friends warm up to Jake. While they don’t get him riled up by asking him about physics like she does, they do include him in their group conversations and sometimes ask for his advice when it comes to boys.

“If a guy only likes your stories when you post a selfie, does that mean he likes you?”

Jake sweats nervously. He has no experience with any of this kind of stuff. He tries to be as helpful as possible, but it doesn’t always come out right.

“It sounds like he only likes how you look…” he says quietly.

This practically brings the girl to tears, and Jake’s eyes go wide. He starts to panic. “I-I didn’t mean to—“

“No. You’re probably right,” she sniffles.

He looks over at Y/N with panicked eyes, and she just smiles at him reassuringly. She gently pats his shoulder and leans in to whisper, “She kind of needed that reality check.”

Jake’s cheeks flush pink as he feels her breath tickle his ear. He feels a slight shiver run down his spine, and he almost jumps out of the chair. Her hand on his shoulder is practically burning a hole into his shirt.

“I-I-I-“ he stammers.

“Jake, there’s this guy I like. How do I get him to ask me out?” Another girl from the friend group asks.

Jake swallows nervously, “I mean…he needs to know you like him.”

“I’m not confessing first,” she says.

“But—“

“Has a girl ever asked you out, Jake?”

“N-no—“

“Exactly. Guys are supposed to ask the girls out.”

“But…how would he know that you like him in order to ask you out?”

“I’ve given him hints,” she scoffs. “I say hi to him every day in class, I smile at him and I once even grabbed him a calculator in math class.”

Jake blinks at her, a clear look of concern on his face. Y/N bursts out laughing, making Jake turn to look at her with a confused expression.

“Oh, Jake, you’re so cute,” she pats his head. “Don’t listen to them. They’re boy crazy and hopeless.”

His cheeks flush a dark pink, and he stares up at her as she gently pats his head a few more times then goes back to conversing with the group. He stays completely still, trying to process what he just felt. Her hand in his hair felt nice…he wants her to do it again.

Later during the physics lab, he’s fumbling with the materials, knocking them over or dropping them often which is rare for him.

“Jake, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah? No? Maybe,” he stammers.

She grabs him by the shoulders and makes him stand still for a second. He looks at her, his hands still fidgeting.

“What’s wrong?” She looks at him with concern.

He instantly feels super embarrassed that he’s acting like a complete fool. Her hands on his shoulders aren’t helping either.

“I-I can’t think,” he mumbles.

Her lips quirk slightly. “That’s new,” she teases, making him blush.

“You’re not helping,” he says softly.

“Then how can I help?” She asks just as softly.

“Um…” he trails off. He swallows nervously. On one hand, he can tell her to stop touching him, but he doesn’t want her to stop. On the other hand, he can’t tell her how much her touch is affecting him. So instead, he blurts out,

“Did you know that when we touch something, the interaction of electrons create a repulsion so we aren’t actually touching anything in a sense…our brain only interprets it as touch because—“

“Where is this coming from?” She laughs.

Jake fidgets even more, his shoulders slightly tensing under her hands. She feels the muscles tighten under her touch, and it starts to kind of make sense. She slowly brings her hands back down to her sides.

“Is this your way of telling me to not touch you?” She asks seriously, worried she’s crossing a boundary.

“No!” Jake practically exclaims, making his cheeks turn pink. “I didn’t mean it like that. I like your touch. No! I mean—“

Her laugh makes him stop mid-sentence. He can’t even look at her in the face out of embarrassment.

“You’re cute, Jake,” she says again, but doesn’t touch him.

Jake would think he’d get flustered at the statement, but his heart only sinks because she didn’t pat his head like last time.

“I-I am?” He whispers.

“Mhm,” is all she says before turning back to the task at hand.

Jake tries to get back to working on the lab, but he continues to fumble with the materials. Y/N notices and finds it amusing. After the fourth time of him dropping the popsicle sticks, she grabs his hands and puts them on the table top.

"Stay. I'll set it up," she smiles.

"Okay," he whispers.

He feels like his hands are about to burst on fire.

Eventually, she tries to introduce him to her younger brother, Sunghoon. She thinks they’d get along well and they have some interests in common.

“Is there a Sunghoon in any of your classes by any chance?” She asks him randomly one day.

Jake furrows his eyebrows in thought. He roughly remembers a quiet kid in his history class that he thinks might be him.

“I think so. Super pale with thick eyebrows?”

She laughs and claps her hands together.

“Yes! That’s my little brother.”

“Really?!” Jake’s eyes widened. “You’re nothing alike…”

She waves him off. “You should talk to him. I think you’d get along. You two are very similar.”

“Similar?” Jake whispers, his face slightly falling.

Jake suddenly wants to shrivel up and die. She’s comparing him to her brother? Does that mean she sees him as a little brother?

“Yeah, you’re both little nerds,” she teases.

“Nerds?!” He squeaks. There’s no chance for him. He’s doomed.

“Just talk to him. He’s a little shy at first, but he likes fishing and legos like you do.”

“Fishing and legos…” Jake cringes internally. He really is a nerd…

He eventually does become friends with Sunghoon. They get along so well. She was right. Sunghoon immediately can tell that Jake has a fat crush on his sister. When Sunghoon invites Jake to sit with him at lunch, Jake asks, “Why don’t we go sit with your sister and her friends? I’m sure they won’t mind.”

Sunghoon’s face scrunches up in disgust. “I see enough of her at home. I don’t want to hang out with her at school too.”

Jake immediately becomes sulky. School is the only time he gets to see and talk to her. He doesn’t want to cut that time even shorter. Sunghoon stares at Jake and his pouty expression.

“Do you like my sister?” He asks bluntly.

Jake’s eyes widen and he starts stammering. “W-what? No!”

His eyes narrow slightly. “Yeah, you do.”

Jake’s cheeks are flushed, and he sighs in defeat.

“You have bad taste,” Sunghoon says.

Jake immediately gets defensive, naming every good quality about her that he can think of.

“Oh, you’re down bad,” Sunghoon says matter-of-factly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jake just stares at him, embarrassed and a little angry.

“I’m not helping you in any way,” Sunghoon starts. “I’m not saying you can’t like her because that’s none of my business, but I don’t want to hear about it.”

Jake’s face flushes and he nods, “Y-yeah. I’ll keep it to myself.”

When Sunghoon invites Jake over to hang out, he always asks if she’s home to the point Sunghoon tells him if she is or not before he enters the house.

The first time Jake sees her and Sunghoon fight, he has sparkles in his eyes. He’s never seen this side of her before.

“What did I tell you about leaving the toilet seat up?”

“Why do I have to put the toilet seat down for you when I’m done but you don’t have to put the toilet seat up when you’re done?”

“Because you can pee with the toilet seat up or down!”

Jake watches them argue for another few minutes with a slight blush to his cheeks. When they’re done and she storms off to her room, Sunghoon groans and sits on the couch next to him.

“I was the one that left it up,” Jake whispers guilty. “Why didn’t you just say it was me?”

“She assumed it was me and that pissed me off,” Sunghoon said. “You can do no wrong apparently.”

Jake blushes and stares at his hands in his lap.

“I’ll go apologize to her,” he says, getting up from the couch.

Sunghoon just waves him off, still irritated by the petty fight. Jake makes his way to her room, knocking softly on her closed door. The door opens a few seconds later, and her angry expression immediately melts away when she sees Jake.

“Oh, hi, Jake. Sorry you had to see that,” she smiles sheepishly.

Jake shakes his head as if to say it’s okay. “I fight with my brother all the time.”

They stand in the doorway in silence for a few moments as Jake builds up the courage to tell her the truth.

“Do you want to come in? You haven’t seen my room yet, have you?” She asks

“No. I haven’t…” he mumbles.

She opens the door wider and steps to the side to let him in. He’s looking around mesmerized. He’s never been in a girl’s room before. It was neat and tidy. The only thing that was a mess was her bed. Plushies pushed to the side and the blanket tossed and crinkled in the middle.

“Your room is nice,” Jake says. “It’s neat like Sunghoon’s.”

“I guess we have that in common,” she chuckles.

Jake turns to her and smiles sheepishly. He clasps his hands together nervously.

“I was the one who left the toilet seat up. I’m sorry,” he almost whispers. His head is downcast slightly as if he’s scared she’ll scold him like she did Sunghoon.

There’s a moment of silence before she bursts out laughing, causing his head to snap up and look at her.

“You’re not mad at me?”

She shakes her head, a smile still on her face. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“You got mad at Sunghoon…”

She waves off the statement. “Yeah, but that’s Sunghoon.”

Jake remains quiet, Sunghoon’s words about how Jake can do no wrong in her eyes comes to mind. He gets flustered.

“I’ll remember to put it down from now on,” he says shyly.

“You’re cute, Jake,” she smiles, ruffling his hair slightly. “Thank you.”

Ever since he became best friends with Sunghoon, he's been over at their house more often than he’s at his own house. He walks home with them after school, eats dinner with them, and has to get kicked out or else he will never go home. Most times they all do something together, but there comes a point where Sunghoon and Y/N are tired of each other, so Jake has the dilemma of picking who to hang out with. When he has to choose, most times he picks Y/N. No surprise there, but Sunghoon doesn’t mind. He sometimes just needs a break from social interaction.

It’s Y/N’s last year of high school, and it’s starting to make Jake a little restless. She’s going to be in university soon, and he still has another 2 years of high school left. There’s no way she’ll look at him when there’s probably better guys at whatever university she chooses to go to.

He thought about confessing to her before she leaves, but he thinks it would only make things worse. She’s going to turn 18, and what 18 year old would want to date a 16 year old. Is it still illegal if they’ve known each other since they were both minors? Jake shakes his head. Probably still illegal.

He groans and runs his hands in his hair in frustration. He’ll have to wait until he’s 18 to confess to her. It gives him some time to prepare. Yes. This is perfect. She’ll still be coming home for summer break and other major holidays. He’ll be able to see her then and show her how much he’s matured.

The day Y/N leaves for university, Jake is practically attached to her by the hip. He’s helping her pack her things, hugging her every five seconds, and telling her to not forget him.

“I’m not dying, Jake. I’ll be back in a few months,” she laughs.

Jake’s arms are around her waist and she’s practically dragging him along as she moves around getting her things in order.

“Don’t leave me,” he pouts, “Who will listen to me when I talk about quantum entanglement?”

“Sunghoon?”

Jake glares at her, and she laughs. They both know Sunghoon would rather die in a hole than listen to Jake talk about physics.

“We can talk on the phone,” she says.

“Promise?”

“Of course.”

When Sunghoon texts Jake that Y/N is back for summer break, Jake drops what he’s doing and races to their house. It’s been the longest 6 months of his life. He talks to her on the phone a few times a week, and he’s seen her posts on social media, but seeing her in the flesh was a hundred times better. He practically bursts through their front door.

“Is that Jake?” He hears a melodic voice say from the kitchen.

Y/N rounds the corner into the hallway, and Jake is frozen in place by the front door. She doesn’t look drastically different, but the way she does her makeup and her style has slightly changed. She’s still gorgeous to him.

“Hi,” he says, bringing his hand up in a small wave.

“Jake!” She smiles and brings him into a hug.

Jake wastes no time in wrapping his arms around her, pressing her closer and savoring the small form of physical touch.

“You need to stop growing,” she says, pulling back from the hug to look up at him.

He looks down at himself and blushes. “I think this is all I’m going to grow. I wish I was as tall as Sunghoon.”

“Don’t say that,” she swats at his arm. “You’re perfect the way you are, Jake.”

Jake’s face heats up, and the urge to wrap her back into his arms is overwhelming.

“Speaking of Sunghoon, he told me to tell you that he’s playing some video games in his room if you want to join,” she says.

Jake gets flustered. Sunghoon knows him too well. “If you want to join.” He knows Jake is going to want to spend time with Y/N, and he’s absolutely right.

“Actually…” Jake trails off. “Can I see your sketchbook?”

She grins at him. “You haven’t changed,” she chuckles. “Always needing to look at what I’ve made.”

“Of course I do. You’re like the next Picasso,” Jake exaggerates.

They make their way to her room where she already has her personal sketchbook and school projects out on her desk. They slip into an old routine where he flips through the pages while she lays on her bed and watches and listens to his reactions. Jake is painfully easy to read. His expressions don’t hide anything. She can tell when he really likes a piece or when he finds one slightly disturbing.

Her personal sketchbook is all over the place. Some pages were complete with color while others were half-finished ideas. When he moves onto the giant paper pad, it’s clear from the drawings inside it that they were assignments. They’re all beautiful, elaborate and finished. He loves asking her what inspired each piece. Sometimes the reasons are a glimpse into her psyche while other times it’s just “because it looked cool.”

He flips a page, and he’s so shocked at what’s on the paper that he almost drops the whole pad. His cheeks turn red with embarrassment before quickly turning the page to the next drawing. She immediately notices his expression and sits up on the bed.

“What was it?” she laughs.

“O-oh…” he murmurs. His whole face is red at this point. “A naked man.”

She bursts out laughing, and it doesn’t help Jake with how flustered he already is. He knows anatomy is a part of learning art, but he wasn’t expecting a fully posed and naked man in excruciating detail. He can’t help but feel a little jealous. How long did she have to stare at this random man? Was it a random man or did she know him? Was it all in one sitting or was it multiple sessions?

“You have questions,” she says matter-of-factly after seeing his expression.

“Yes,” he blushes, “but they’re stupid.”

She shakes her head, “No question is stupid.”

Jake bites his lip nervously, debating whether or not to ask the questions he was thinking.

“Do you know him?” he asks shyly.

“No. He was a volunteer. I don’t think I’d be able to do it if it was someone I knew,” she chuckles.

“Oh, I see,” he says, his shoulders relaxing for a moment. “He wasn’t weird or anything, was he?”

She shrugs, “He seemed nice enough. I didn’t really talk to him like some of my classmates did.”

Jake hums, his worries smoothing over seamlessly.

“Have you drawn anyone else? Not necessarily naked or anything…” he blushes again.

“I’ve tried drawing random people out in public going on about their lives, but it’s hard to do when you only see them at a glance before they’re gone,” she says, bringing out a separate sketchbook and handing it to him. It’s small and could fit in a purse.

He flips it open to see rough sketches of different city landscapes with blobs of people walking around doing different things. Some are in color and some are just in pencil. Some sketches are clearer when the subject is sitting down somewhere like a coffee shop or a park bench. He smiles when he sees a rough outline of someone playing fetch with their dog.

“I think I like these the best,” he says.

“Really? I’m still bad at it,” she laughs.

He shakes his head slightly, “It’s like you’ve captured a small moment in time in these people’s lives.”

“When you put it that way, it sounds super deep and intentional,” she smiles.

“Is it not? What makes you choose someone to draw?” he asks.

She thinks about it for a moment. Jake watches her face carefully, loving the way her eyebrows furrow slightly. He suddenly wishes he’s able to draw. He wants to be able to capture her beauty on paper, but he doesn’t think even the most skilled artist would be able to do that.

“Either the way they’re moving or the clothes they’re wearing. Sometimes people’s clothes contrast really well with the surroundings,” she flips through the sketchbook and points to a colored drawing of a woman carrying a bright red umbrella in a sea of black umbrellas.

“I see,” he says, but he never once looks down at the drawing. His eyes stay glued to her face. “So you’ve never drawn someone you knew?”

She looks up at him and shakes her head.

“I’m not good at realism just yet. I don’t want to botch someone,” she laughs.

“But you can botch random people?” he smiles teasingly.

“Duh,” she smiles back.

He glances down at her smile then back up at her eyes. The way her lips curve into a soft smile, and the slight mischievous sparkle in her eyes makes him turn away and pick up a random book on her desk. The urge to kiss her is overwhelming, but he can’t. At least not yet.

“Are you interested in the history and evolution of human sexuality in art?” She raises an eyebrow.

He looks down at the book he picked up, his cheeks turning pink when he reads the title. He opens the book to a random page, too embarrassed to admit he randomly picked it up to distract himself from wanting to kiss her.

“Yeah. It’s super important,” he says matter-of-factly.

“I’ll let you borrow it,” she laughs.

His cheeks only turn a darker shade of pink.

While Y/N is away, Jake misses her so much. He’s tried different ways to still feel connected to her other than calling and texting her. It starts off with coming across things that remind him of her like the crunch of a leaf under his shoe that he knows she would rate a 10/10 crunch. Then it escalates to eating her favorite foods even when he isn’t that big of a fan of them. He finally decides to start drawing. He’s horrible at it, but he buys the same small sketchbook as her.

He tries drawing random objects he sees like a table or a fork, then he gradually starts attempting harder stuff. He’s nowhere near as good as Y/N, but that isn’t the purpose. Every time he draws, he thinks of her, and it brings a smile to his face.

He keeps this a secret from Y/N, of course. While she would be thrilled about the fact that he’s interested in drawing, he wouldn’t be able to explain why he started in the first place. He eventually tries to draw people, or more like one person. He pulls up pictures of Y/N on his phone and tries to draw her. He botches her so bad, he feels like burning the entire sketchbook out of shame.

He decides to start with cartoon renditions of her. He may or may not have drawn himself as a cartoon character with her, but that’s besides the point. When he’s comfortable enough with that, he tries drawing her one feature at a time. He starts with her eyes which he deems might be the easiest part, but boy was he wrong. He doesn’t know how to shade or create any sort of dimension. He watches videos online that help, but it all comes down to practice. He has plenty of time to practice, since he practices when he misses Y/N. Which is all the time.

Jake and Sunghoon finally graduate from high school. Y/N is coming back home for the winter break, and Jake is itching to confess to her. He turned 18 a couple of months ago, but he wanted to wait until after he graduated at least. He wants to push the image of him as a high schooler far away from her mind, hoping that will better help in his confession.

Jake had it all planned out. Sunghoon invited him to a small get-together for New Year’s Eve. He said Y/N would be there along with some other people, but he didn’t pay much attention to that. He would ask her to go to the park with him where they would watch the fireworks as the clock strikes midnight. Then he would tell her he had something important to say and then confess his feelings for her. It’s planned out perfectly, he thinks. Nothing can go wrong. Until everything went wrong.

Y/N shows up to the get-together with some random guy named Heeseung and introduces him as her boyfriend. Jake has to lock himself in the bathroom for half an hour to try to calm himself down.

“You didn’t mention she had a boyfriend,” Jake whispers angrily to Sunghoon.

“I didn’t know she had one,” he scoffs. “It’s not my job to keep tabs on her for you.”

“She didn’t even post him on her social media. Does that mean it isn’t serious?” Jake asks, grasping at straws now.

“She brought him home for New Years, didn’t she?” Sunghoon says. He’s clearly not making things any better, and Jake groans.

Jake avoids Y/N and her boyfriend like the plague. Mostly for his own sanity, but he also doesn’t trust himself to not blow up and make a fool of himself.

Midnight comes and goes. He watches the fireworks by himself.

“Jake! I haven’t seen you all night. Where have you been?” He hears an all-too-familiar voice call out from behind him.

His body stiffens slightly before he turns his head to look over his shoulder. Y/N is waving at him from further down the park trail. She’s walking over to him with her stupid boyfriend in tow. They probably watched the fireworks together.

“Here and there…” he mumbles softly as they approach.

“Jake, have you met Heeseung yet?” she motions to her boyfriend. “Heeseung, this is Jake.”

Jake is surprised when Heeseung waves at him quite bashfully.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you actually. Like a lot,” Heeseung says awkwardly.

Jake stares at him, scrutinizing every detail of his appearance and demeanor. I guess he isn’t ugly…Jake thinks. He didn’t expect for Y/N to be into the shy and awkward types, though.

They stand there in silence for a while until Jake realizes they’re waiting for him to say something.

“O-oh, yeah. Nice to meet you too,” he smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I haven’t heard about you.”

Y/N practically coughs on her spit, and Heeseung’s face turns scarlet red. Jake immediately feels guilty for saying that, but he can’t take it back now. It wasn’t a lie anyway.

“We’ve only been together for a couple of months. I didn’t want the evil eye or anything,” she laughs awkwardly.

Too late, Jake thinks. But if she’s saying they’ve only been together for two months…Jake smiles, this time with more sincerity.

“You seem really cool, Heeseung. Do you play video games?” Jake asks innocently.

“I do,” Heeseung shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Do you?”

A relieved smile forms on Y/N lips at the sight of them seeming to get along.

“I play them with Sunghoon all the time. Do you want to join us sometime?”

“Yeah, that sounds cool,” Heeseung smiles.

Not even a day later, Jake dreadfully shows up to Y/N and Sunghoon’s house to play video games with Heeseung like he had promised. He almost talked himself out of going, but despite the circumstances, he still wants to see Y/N.

He barges in through their front door like normal.

“Jake?” Y/N calls from the kitchen.

Without thinking, he storms into the kitchen and wraps his arms around her in a tight hug.

“Where’s this coming from?” She laughs, hugging him back.

“I didn’t get to hug you yesterday,” he mumbles.

She pats his head gently before turning back to the microwave.

“I’m making you guys some popcorn,” she says.

Jake’s arms linger around her a little bit too long to be normal, but she doesn’t notice. Heeseung, who has been watching the whole interaction from the bar stool across the kitchen, does notice. He can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable at how close Jake is with Y/N, and how Y/N just lets him get away with all the touching.

When Jake turns around to head to Sunghoon’s room, he notices for the first time that Heeseung is in the kitchen with them. Instead of trying to act innocent, Jake doubles down and glares at him as he walks by. He leaves them in the kitchen and barges into Sunghoon’s room with a slightly terrified look on his face. He can’t believe he just did that.

“What happened to you? Did you see a ghost?” Sunghoon asks, handing him a controller.

“What do you think of Heeseung?” Jake changes the subject, taking the controller into his hands.

“I mean, he seems nice. I haven’t really talked to him much,” Sunghoon says. “He slept over last night.”

“HE WHAT?” Jake practically screams.

“Relax. Nothing happened. At least I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so?!” Jake paces around nervously.

“Her room is right next to mine. I would’ve heard something. Unless they were really quiet about it—”

“SHUT UP! You’re not helping,” Jake tries to smother Sunghoon with a pillow before he can keep talking. Even if he’s right and nothing happened, they still would have had to share a bed, and the mere thought is making him go crazy.

Sunghoon and Jake are wrestling on the bed when the bedroom door opens, revealing Y/N and Heeseung. She immediately laughs at the sight, making Jake freeze to look over at her, allowing Sunghoon to shove him off and get back to his controller.

“Anyway, here’s your guys’ popcorn. Have fun,” Y/N hands the bowl to Heeseung before shoving him into the room with the other two. Heeseung stumbles slightly and looks back at her just as she smiles and closes the door behind her.

“Do you play Overwatch?” Sunghoon asks Heeseung, holding out a controller for him too.

“Yeah,” he says, placing the popcorn bowl down.

“How old are you?” Jake asks abruptly, grabbing a handful of popcorn and shoving it into his mouth.

“I’m 19…” Heeseung trails off, watching Jake angrily chew on the kernels.

Jake’s eyes narrow slightly before turning his attention back to the TV screen. Sunghoon had already started the game, but Jake wasn’t paying attention. Heeseung is younger than Y/N by a year. Does that mean she likes younger guys? He shoves more popcorn into his mouth. He might still have a chance.

For the next half an hour or so, Sunghoon and Jake are the only ones talking as the three play. Heeseung remains quiet, occasionally munching on the popcorn. When he first met Sunghoon, he thought they would get along just fine. It was Jake he was most nervous about meeting. The way Y/N talked about him, made him seem like someone very special to her. At first, Heeseung thought it was more of a sibling dynamic because Jake is friends with her little brother, but after seeing them interact with each other, it was clearly something else. He definitely couldn’t miss the animosity Jake had towards him.

“So Heeseung,” Sunghoon asks in an attempt to include him, “What’s your major?”

“English,” he responds.

“How’d you meet Y/N?” Jake asks with no shame. Sunghoon shoves Jake’s shoulder.

Heeseung blushes slightly at the memory, and he tries to avoid Jake’s intense glare.

“We had a class together,” he says, keeping things short.

“And?” Jake continues to press further.

“I didn’t really talk much. We didn’t interact for most of the semester, but I always thought she was cute,” Heeseung continues. By the looks of Jake’s scowl, he doesn’t know if he should continue or not.

Sunghoon’s snort somewhat eases the tension.

“You have bad taste, too,” he tells Heeseung.

Heeseung furrows his eyebrows in confusion then suddenly, Jake is trying to smother Sunghoon with a pillow again. He watches as they fight playfully, the video game playing out in the background. When Jake gets the advantage, he shoves the pillow against Sunghoon’s face then turns to Heeseung with an unnerving smile.

“Please continue,” Jake encourages.

Heeseung feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Um, well…She caught me looking at her way too many times throughout the semester. I was just content with that, but then she randomly came up to me and asked if I wanted to go out,” he blushes.

Jake’s grip on the pillow tightens to the point his knuckles are white. “She asked you out?”

“You’re going to fucking kill me!” Sunghoon’s scream is muffled under the pillow, and he shoves Jake off of him, practically throwing him to the floor.

Jake looks at Sunghoon with an apologetic smile. The one he truly wants to suffocate is Heeseung. Jake spent years planning the perfect confession, and this guy only stared at her and she asked him out? He scrutinizes him again. What’s so special about him?

“I’m going to get more popcorn,” Jake blurts out.

He grabs the empty popcorn bowl and storms out of the room and into the kitchen.

“What’s gotten into you?” Y/N chuckles when she sees Jake stumble in, almost dropping the bowl at the sight of her.

“Nothing,” he deflects. “We ran out of popcorn.”

She stands up from the chair and places her hands on his shoulders.

“You look stressed,” she murmurs.

He looks at her. The warmth of her hands on his shoulders is comforting, and her eyes are filled with worry. His emotions whirl inside of him, hard to control and decipher. He wants to tell her everything, tell her he likes her, tell her to break up with Heeseung, but he can’t. It wouldn’t be fair. It feels like his world is crashing down on him. She can see the pain he’s going through just by looking into his eyes. She gently places her hands on his cheeks.

“Jake…” she whispers, and that’s all it takes for Jake’s bottom lip to start trembling.

Tears start to well up in his eyes, and Y/N’s eyes widen slightly. She’s never seen Jake cry before, and it’s absolutely devastating. She brings him into a hug, and he immediately starts sobbing into her shoulder. He wraps his arms tightly around her, savoring her touch as if it will be the last time he’ll ever hug her. She feels his desperation through the hug, and she pats the back of his head soothingly.

“I’m right here, Jake. I’m not going anywhere,” she whispers against his ear.

They remain like that for a while. He’s quietly crying into the crook of her neck, and she’s rubbing his back. Once his crying turns into sniffles, she dares to ask, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jake shakes his head deeper into her neck.

“Do you want to go get some hot cocoa?” She asks softly.

Jake hesitates for a second before nodding.

She pulls away slightly, so she can see his face. His eyes are slightly puffy and rimmed red from crying. She gently grabs his face and wipes the tears away with her thumbs.

“Let’s go. My treat,” she smiles warmly.

For the rest of the winter break, Jake finally comes to terms with Y/N dating Heeseung. He’s waited this long, he can wait a little longer. It’s not like they’ll get married, right? After the day he cried and got hot cocoa with Y/N, she has been a little distant. She wasn’t treating him all that differently, but whenever he would try and hug her, she would find a way to deflect it. He couldn’t touch her at all, and it only made him even sulkier. He tried hanging out with Heeseung a few more times, and he isn’t a bad guy, but Jake couldn’t help getting irritated just breathing the same air as him.

By the time Y/N had to go back to school, Jake hadn’t spent a single day alone with her, and he felt horrible. She would make plans then a few days before, she would apologize and cancel. Just by the tone of her voice through the phone, Jake could tell she was sad and slightly frustrated, but he wasn’t sure why.

Jake spent the rest of the spring refreshing Y/N’s social media to see if she ever posted Heeseung, but she never did. He thought it was odd at first. They would’ve been together at least 6 months by now. Isn’t that serious enough to post online? He just assumed Y/N and Heeseung were more of a private pair.

When Sunghoon texted Jake that Y/N was back for summer break, Jake didn’t immediately stop what he was doing to go over like he normally would. He did not want to see Heeseung’s face if he had come back with her. It wasn’t until Y/N herself texted him if he had time to go out today that Jake tore his closet apart trying to get dressed.

They agree to meet at a coffee shop. Y/N is already there when he arrives. She’s tucked into the corner booth with her people-watching sketchbook out on the table. He smiles and slides into the seat across from her.

“Who are you drawing?” he asks, glancing down at the paper.

She glances up and smiles at him.

“Just doing the background for now. I haven’t picked who to draw yet,” she says.

“I’ll go get us some drinks. Do you want the usual?” he asks, standing up from the booth.

“Yes, please,” she says before turning back to her sketch.

As Jake waits in line to place their order, Y/N can’t help but draw him. He’s standing perfectly still which is easier to draw, and the way he’s glancing up at the menu was intriguing in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. She quickly sketches his outline and adds some basic shading until he comes back with two drinks in his hands. She closes the sketchbook and places it back into her bag.

“Thank you,” she smiles, taking the mug into her hands.

“No problem. Did you finish the drawing?” he asks curiously.

“Not yet.”

They catch up until they’ve finished their drinks. Jake has finished his first semester of university, and he’s telling her all about it. Jake is trying his best not to touch her since she had clearly been trying to silently set that boundary back in winter break, but it’s so hard. He wants to hug her. Jake can’t help but ask about Heeseung. He doesn’t want to know, but at the same time he does.

“Oh, we broke up,” she says rather nonchalantly.

“What? Why? When?” Jake is astounded by how calmly she delivered the news, but on the inside he’s thanking every god known to man.

“About a month after we started school again. We didn’t see eye to eye on some things,” she says.

“Like what?”

Y/N bites her lip in contemplation.

“About having friends of the opposite gender,” she says.

Jake blinks at her. He tries to hide a smile that’s fighting to show on his lips.

“It was because of me, wasn’t it? Be honest,” he asks.

She glares at him. “Not entirely, but yes, you were part of it. Why are you smiling?”

Jake’s smile immediately drops from his face.

“No reason,” he mumbles.

“I tried to appease him to a certain extent, but it came to a point where it just wasn’t working,” she says.

Jake nods in understanding. He believes men and women can be just friends, but in the case of him and Y/N, Heeseung did have a reason to worry.

“How’d you try to appease him?” Jake asks curiously.

“First it started off with limiting physical touch with guys, which I understood completely, but then he started to get a bit controlling. He didn’t want me hanging out with any guy that wasn’t him or Sunghoon. I can understand to an extent, but I think if you can’t be just friends with people of the genders you’re attracted to, you have issues.”

Jake snorts, “Issues?”

“Yeah,” she says, “It comes across as only being able to view them as potential romantic suitors instead of being able to connect with them as people.”

Jake stares at her. There’s something so mature about the way she thinks, and it only makes him fall for her even more. It also makes him feel bad about how he acted around Heeseung. It was quite immature of him. She must’ve seen the guilt written all over his face because she reaches across the table and pats his head.

“It’s not your fault we broke up, okay?” She reassures him. “It would’ve happened eventually.”

“I’m sorry,” Jake sulks, “I gave you the evil eye.”

“Why? Were you jealous?”

Jake glances up at her with a flustered expression, giving him away instantly.

“No relationships. It’s best to focus on your studies,” she advises.

“Like you were with Heeseung?”

“Hey!” She laughs. “I’ve learned from my mistakes.”

Jake makes sure to hug her extra this time around, making up for all the hugs he missed while she was dating Heeseung.

Jake is over the moon knowing that Y/N is single again. He can start planning a new way to confess, but this time, he thinks he should build up to it. He did learn a few things about Y/N through Heeseung that he will use to his advantage.

Next time they hang out, Jake doesn’t even try to hide his staring. His gaze trails across Y/N’s face as she talks, but unlike Heeseung, he doesn’t shy away when she catches him. At first, she brushes it off, but after a half hour of him looking at her like she’s some sort of painting at a museum, she laughs.

“Is there something on my face?” she brings her hands up to gently pat at her cheeks.

Jake smiles and shakes his head.

“No, I’m just looking,” he says.

“Looking at what?”

“You, obviously.”

Y/N’s face heats up, and suddenly she’s hyper aware of what she looks like.

“You’re acting like you haven’t seen me in years,” she laughs.

“That’s what it basically feels like since I only get to see you during winter and summer breaks.”

“Come visit me during the semester. I’ll hide you in my dorm room,” she proposes.

“Really? You better be serious because I will go,” Jake says, leaning closer.

“No. Don’t skip your classes,” she scolds.

“Yes, ma’am,” he smiles.

Silence falls between them, and Jake’s smile never fades from his lips as his eyes start to wander over her face again.

“You have a staring problem. Maybe I should stare back at you so you know what it feels like,” she teases.

She rests her chin on her hand and furrows her eyebrows, staring at him intensely. Jake’s smile only grows wider, and there’s a sparkle to his eyes. He blinks a few times before copying her stance and locking in. At first, it’s a staring contest, but gradually it turns to full on admiration on Jake’s part. He likes having her eyes on him.

She’s never paid this close attention to him before, and she’s starting to notice how much he’s grown up. His face is more angular, his eyes are sharper, and he seems to carry himself with more confidence. She’s starting to reminisce their high school years.

“When did you get so manly? Where is baby Jake?” She grabs a pinchful of his cheek in between her fingers.

“You think I’m manly?” He grins.

“Yeah, where’d all your cuteness go? Your round cheeks are gone, we used to be the same height, and you used to ramble about physics all the time.”

“I mean…I can still talk about physics. I just thought you’d get bored of it,” he says quietly.

“I won’t get bored of it. I like listening to what you have to say.”

His smile grows wider if that’s even possible.

“Is there anything you’re curious about?” he asks.

“Since you’re studying civil engineering, tell me how skyscrapers don’t just collapse under their own weight.”

Jake chuckles softly. He’s always admired how interested in everything she is. In a way, it makes him feel like she’s interested in him to an extent. Interested in what he’s learning, interested in what he thinks, how he thinks.

“Well steel is very strong,” he starts. “And there’s different ways to distribute the weight. Foundations are very deep and that helps the building anchor down safely. The floors are supported by a steel frame instead of each floor supporting the weight of the floors above it, and—“

Y/N listens intently, occasionally asking for clarification on certain things like “load paths” and “caissons.” She loves the way his face lights up when he’s explaining something he’s passionate about, and he’s always done an amazing job at explaining things in a way anyone can understand even if the concepts can be difficult to grasp.

“Oh my god. Is this why you liked legos so much?” She acts like she made an epiphany after Jake spent the last 5 minutes explaining the basics of how to build a skyscraper.

“What?” he laughs, “I guess so. I was practicing and getting experience.”

Y/N looks at him, and for a split second, it feels like they’re in high school again. Jake is looking at her with flushed cheeks after having rambled for a while, a shy smile on his lips. She reaches out and pats his head.

“You’re cute, Jake.”

“Do you prefer my cute side?” He asks sincerely.

He looks straight into her eyes as she continues to gently pat his head. The stare is too intense for Y/N and she drops her hand and looks away, coughing slightly.

“There’s no preference. I like every version of you,” she says.

Jake bites his bottom lip in an attempt to hide his growing smile, but it fails. Y/N’s gaze flickers to his lips, and a strange feeling blossoms within her. She accidentally knocks her purse off the table, and everything scatters across the floor. They both immediately get up to pick up the items, but Jake’s hand gently holds her waist as if to stop her.

“It’s okay. I’ll get it,” he says, dropping his hand to start picking everything up.

Y/N stands there in shock. She watches him pick her stuff off the ground and put them back in her purse. She can still feel his phantom touch on her waist. When Jake finishes and looks back up at her, her face is beet red.

“What’s wrong?” He asks worriedly.

“Nothing,” she murmurs, but she can’t look him in the eyes.

Suddenly, it feels like the roles are reversed. There’s a teasing smile on his lips as he gently places his hands on her shoulders.

“You look stressed,” he says.

“I do?”

“Mhm,” he hums, “maybe you should sit back down.”

His hands trail down her arms as he guides her back to sit in the booth. Y/N’s mind is spinning. What is this? Has he always been this touchy?

Her face is still burning hot, and Jake places the back of his hand on her forehead to check for fever. Suddenly Y/N is highly aware of every micro touch, every lingering glance and smile. Was it always like this or did she never bother to pay attention until now?

“Jake?” Her voice is hoarse.

“Yeah?” He takes his hand off her forehead and uses his fingers to gently fix the hair he misplaced.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

Jake’s fingers freeze at her temple. His heart is racing in his chest, and suddenly the elaborate plan to confess to her is thrown out the window. He almost just wants to tell her he likes her now, but that would be too impulsive.

“No,” he coughs, bringing his hand back to his side. “I’m focusing on my studies, remember?”

She rolls her eyes. “Just because I gave you that advice, doesn’t mean you’ll actually follow it.”

“Well, I’m following it,” he huffs, and he’s suddenly cute again.

“Are you, though?” She probes.

“Yes.”

“Not even a little crush on someone?”

“W-well that’s different,” he stammers.

“No, it’s not.”

After he doesn’t reply, she adds, “do you plan to confess to this crush of yours?”

He glances up at her.

“Eventually…”

“That’s not focusing on your studies,” she shakes her head.

“But—“

“Focus on your studies. If it’s meant to be, she’ll be there when you finish.”

Jake pouts.

“Why do you get to experience college romance but not me?”

“I’m not forcing you. I’m just…advising you,” she says.

She swallows nervously. If her intuition is right, she knows who Jake’s crush is, and she doesn’t know how to handle it. At least not yet.

“Well…consider me advised,” Jake huffs.

His puffy cheeks only make her want to reach across the table and squeeze them.

“But not willing,” he murmurs.

“What?”

“Huh?” He smiles innocently.

She narrows his eyes at him playfully, but she can hear her heart hammering in her ears. She needs time to process all of this. Maybe it’s all in her head, and her intuition is wrong.

It isn’t until she accidentally stumbles across a sketchbook that looks exactly like hers, that her thoughts were confirmed. She didn’t mean to peek into Jake’s sketchbook. She saw it in Sunghoon’s room and thought he had taken hers for some reason. She grabbed it, thinking it was hers and put it in her purse only to see she had two sketchbooks now.

At first, she thought it was Sunghoon’s sketchbook, but as she flipped through more of the pages, it became clear whose it was. Why was it in Sunghoon’s room to begin with? Who knows. Jake practically lives at their house.

Jake likes to date his drawings at the bottom corner of the pages, and she’s shocked to see how long he’s been trying to draw. Her face flushes when she realizes the super cute, almost chibi-like, cartoons he’s been drawing are of her. They gradually get better and more detailed, and he draws them so often. She comes across two characters holding hands, and she immediately knows it's her and Jake. She has to close the sketchbook for a moment.

When she finally gets to the attempts at realism, her heart flutters in her chest. The drawings look nothing like her, but she can tell it's her, like every other drawing in this book. He squiggles out any drawing he thinks isn’t good enough but doesn’t want to rip out the pages.

Y/N smiles and brings out her own sketchbook, opening it to the most recent drawing she’s working on.

The next day when Jake comes over to play video games with Sunghoon, he doesn’t notice that his sketchbook has been switched out. It’s only when Sunghoon gets tired of video games and they’ve both been lounging around his room for a while, that Jake decides to draw. When he opens the sketchbook, he’s confused for a second, but then he smiles when he notices it’s Y/N’s. He flips through the pages, looking to see what new things she has drawn. It doesn’t cross his mind where his sketchbook might be.

When he reaches the latest drawing, he freezes. His hands begin to tremble, and he excuses himself before Sunghoon realizes something is amiss. In the hallway, Jake stares at the drawing intently, as if the different lighting would have changed what had been drawn. It’s a drawing of him standing in line at a coffee shop, and he knows immediately when it was drawn. This drawing had more detail in comparison to the other “people watching” drawings Y/N made. While in other drawings, the faces of people were more plain, more blurred, it was clearly Jake in this one.

He gently traces the lines with his fingers, a small smile on his lips. His finger stops abruptly at the bottom corner of the page where two chibi-like characters are holding hands. Jake recognizes it immediately, and he almost drops the whole sketchbook. He’s embarrassed. Y/N has clearly seen his sketchbook, but there’s a small fluttering feeling of hope in his chest.

Without thinking, he bursts through Y/N’s bedroom door. She practically screams in fright, but once she sees Jake, she starts laughing.

“Maybe knock next time?”

“Oh, right,” he blushes. “Sorry.”

Her eyes glance down and notice the sketchbook in his hands. She gets up from her bed, and gets the matching one off her desk, holding it up for him to see.

“Here to switch?” she asks teasingly.

“I-” he blushes so hard, “You saw…”

She walks up to him, handing him the sketchbook.

“Yes, and it was very sweet of you, Jake,” she says softly.

Jake’s hand lingers on the sketchbook she’s handing him. His world just got flipped upside down. He had a whole plan…

“Y/N…” he murmurs.

His gaze is fixed on the sketchbook. He’s trying to remember the speech he was going to tell her when he planned to confess, but his mind is coming up blank.

“I’ve been reading up on quantum physics,” she says.

Jake’s eyes flicker up to meet hers in surprise but also nervousness.

“Nothing is real until you observe it, right?”

“In simple terms, yes…” he mumbles.

“This concept made me realize something,” she says, “Every single possibility for my life exists at all times, but the one I’m experiencing is the one I’m paying attention to.”

Jake stares at her in silence. It’s a strange feeling having Y/N talk to him about physics. Let alone quantum mechanics.

“Only recently have I been paying attention to something that’s been there the whole time.”

She takes back his sketchbook and opens it to his most recent drawing. It’s a rough attempt at drawing her lips. She watches as Jake’s face flushes with embarrassment.

“You like me. Don’t you, Jake?”

Their eyes meet, and he has a mix of shyness and guilt in his expression. Well there goes his plan…

“Yeah…” he whispers. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she replies.

Jake’s head is held low, his hair covering his eyes from her view.

“Once I started paying attention…” her voice becomes softer, “I realized I like you too.”

Jake’s head immediately snaps up to look at her. His eyes widening with shock and a sliver of hope.

“You do?” he asks, his voice hoarse.

“Mhm,” she hums. “I should’ve known since you compared my smile to a nuclear reaction.”

He covers his flustered expression behind his hands as he laughs in disbelief. This is really happening. She’s being serious. He’s ran through so many scenarios in his mind, so many discarded plans on how to tell her how he feels, but in the end, she beat him to it.

“I didn’t know you studied physics in your free time,” Jake finally says.

“Someone special to me really likes physics,” she says. “I was curious.”

Jake’s lips curl into a smile, and he steps closer to her. She looks up at him expectantly. His eyes flicker down to her lips, and there’s a moment of hesitation. He brings his hand up to cup her cheek before slowly leaning down to place a soft, chaste kiss to her lips. His lips linger before pulling away as if that’s the only kiss he’ll ever get. Y/N giggles softly, making Jake smile giddily. They’re both blushing messes once they pull apart.

Jake’s hand is still resting on her cheek, and he slowly runs his thumb across her skin. His gaze traces her features adoringly.

“Since you’ve been learning how to draw, do you need a live model?” she asks, striking an exaggerated pose.

Jake laughs softly and brings his hands to rest on her waist.

“No live model. I’ll get distracted,” he says before leaning in for another kiss.

During recess, she notices how Sunghoon remains by himself, playing on the swings alone. She always invites him to play tag with the rest of the kids, but he shakes his head.

One day, instead of playing tag with everyone else, Y/N sits on the swing next to Sunghoon. They swing in silence for a few minutes until she turns to him.

“Do you want to see something cool?” She asks him.

He looks over at her skeptically, but once he sees her big smile, he reluctantly nods. She cheers before getting up from her swing and grabbing his hand, pulling him to a rocky patch at the edge of the park. Sunghoon watches curiously as she starts flipping over the rocks and moving rotting leaves with a stick.

“Aha!” she exclaims, moving the leaves with her hands. “Look!”

He peeks over her shoulder to see a metallic green beetle scuttling along the dirt. He cringes away immediately with a small shriek. She looks up at him and giggles.

“Isn’t it cute?” she asks, picking up the beetle with her fingers.

“D-don’t touch it,” he stammers.

“Why not? My dad said they’re harmless,” she says, holding out the beetle towards him.

Sunghoon takes multiple steps back. He’s scared of the bug, but he’s also wondering if she’s doing all of this as a way to make fun of him. He’s “Bug Eyes” after all. She notices his discomfort and puts the beetle back underneath the leaves.

“You don’t like bugs?”

He shakes his head.

“Oh, sorry,” she says, walking over to him. “I love bugs.”

He stares at her as if she’s lost her mind.

“I think they’re cute,” she says, “You don’t like any bugs?”

He shakes his head.

“Not even butterflies?”

He shakes his head again.

“What do you like then?”

“I like fish…” he says softly.

“Fish are cool. Do you have a favorite?” she asks.

Sunghoon nods and starts to quietly tell her about his favorite fish. It’s the first time Y/N has ever gotten him to talk to her for more than three sentences, and she’s excited. She keeps asking him about different fish, if he likes fishing, if he has any pet fish, and so on. Sunghoon slowly opens up and happily answers her questions.

“What’s your favorite bug?” he asks shyly.

This triggers a long spiel from Y/N about different types of bugs she likes. By this point, they’re back on the swings, and Sunghoon is gently swinging his feet and listening to her quietly with a bashful smile on his lips.

One day during P.E., when they’re both age 7, groups needed to be formed to play a game of dodgeball. As students were being picked one by one, Sunghoon stood there awkwardly knowing the teams would fight to NOT get him on their team.

“Bug Eyes is so uncoordinated.”

“Yeah, he’ll make us lose.”

“Hey, stop that!” Y/N storms over to the two boys that were making fun of Sunghoon.

Sunghoon stands quietly with his head slightly downcast. She has her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

“What? It’s true,” one of the boys says.

“Say you’re sorry,” she huffs.

“Or what?” the other boy challenges.

Sunghoon watches with horror as she picks up a dodgeball and hurls it at the boy’s face. The sound the ball makes as it slaps the boy’s cheek echoes through the gymnasium, making everyone fall silent and look over in their direction. The boy that got hit starts crying while his friend looks back at Y/N with fire in his eyes.

“Bug Girl is defending Bug Eyes. How fitting,” he snarls.

He picks up a dodgeball, rolling it in his hand.

“It’s a perfect match,” he says just before he hurls the ball at her.

She tenses and closes her eyes, waiting for the ball to hit her. She hears another slap of the ball against skin, but she doesn’t feel anything hit her. When she opens her eyes, she finds Sunghoon on the floor in front of her with his glasses broken and scattered on the ground.

“Oh my god. Are you okay?” she crouches down to look at Sunghoon. His face is red from where the ball hit him. He nods ever so slightly, his hand trembling as he cradles his face.

Y/N’s head snaps up to glare at the other boy. Before anyone could stop her, she hurls herself at him, knocking him down to the floor with a thud. She starts yanking at his hair as he begins to scream.

The fight is over quickly, the teacher pulling Y/N off the boy and sending them all to the principal’s office. She gets suspended from school for a week, and when she comes back she’s shunned by most of the kids in her class.

She’s swinging alone during recess when a timid Sunghoon comes up to her. His glasses are taped back together and his hands are clasped together in front of him.

“Do you want to see something cool?” he asks softly.

She nods, her eyes flickering down to his hands. He unclasps them to reveal a spotted black and white beetle. Her eyes sparkle with excitement.

“Oh my god. An ironclad beetle!” she exclaims.

As she gets closer, she notices his hands slightly shaking. She immediately takes the beetle from his hands and watches as he brings his arms back to his sides and wipes his hands on his pants.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“For what?” She asks as she watches the beetle crawl between her fingers.

“For making everyone hate you.”

“It’s okay. You’re cooler than all of them combined,” she smiles.

Sunghoon looks down at his shoes, a pink blush painting his cheeks.

From then on, they are practically inseparable.

His favorite thing to do with her is explore the pocket of woods behind his house. It’s the perfect place to play pretend. Some days they’re wizards making potions with dirt and leaves, other days they’re pirates looking for treasure. Sunghoon particularly likes digging in the creek to see what he can find. Y/N likes pretty rocks which leads to him compiling different rocks and bringing them to her to inspect.

One day, when they’re both age 8, he’s ankles deep in the creek while Y/N is climbing a nearby tree. He’s using a net to sift through the debris in the water when he finds a rock with many tiny ridges. When he looks closely at it, it looks like some sort of bug. His face immediately lights up.

“Y/N!” he exclaims, stumbling through the muddy creek bed to get ashore.

She’s halfway up the tree when she stops and looks down at him. He excitedly waits at the base of the tree trunk and holds up the rock for her to see.

“I think I found a fossil,” he says.

“No way!” She beams and climbs down as quickly as she can.

Sunghoon watches with a smile on his face as her eyes light up at the small fossil. Her finger traces over the ridges.

“It looks like a trilobite,” she says.

Sunghoon stares at her.

“Ancient pill bug,” she clarifies.

“Ohhh,” he nods. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” she smiles. “You’re always finding all the cool stuff.”

“I can show you where I found it. Maybe we can find some more,” he says, grabbing her arm gently and pulling her towards the water.

They search for another hour, but they don’t find any more fossils. When Sunghoon is crouched down sifting through the rocks, Y/N comes up behind him and pushes him forward. Since the water isn’t too deep, only half of his body gets wet. He looks up at her in disbelief, and she’s laughing.

“Maybe if I bury you, you’ll turn into a fossil,” she says, grabbing a handful of mud and throwing it at his chest.

“Hey—” he’s cut off by another handful of mud hitting his shoulder. He stops talking and starts grabbing handfuls of mud and throwing them back at her, making her squeal and run away. They chase each other until they’re both covered in mud from head to toe, leaves and twigs stuck to their bodies from rolling around on the ground. They’re giggling messes.

There’s something about the way the leaves cling to her hair that make him stop in his tracks. The way her smile shines brighter with mud all over her face, and her little giggles as she bends down to grab more mud. Something stirs within him, but he doesn’t know what that feeling is exactly. He just can’t stop staring.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Y/N asks teasingly.

“Um…mud.”

“Yes, I know, stupid,” she laughs.

He’s glad that the mud on his face covers his blushing cheeks.

Y/N doesn’t realize she has feelings for Sunghoon until she’s 11 and he starts wearing contact lenses. Suddenly girls are talking about how cute he is and that they didn’t know he was so good looking without his glasses on. It starts to irritate Y/N overhearing the girls in her classes whisper and talk about him.

“Why’d you stop wearing your glasses?” She asks him. “You look better with glasses.”

Sunghoon frowns. “Are you saying I’m ugly?”

“No!” She immediately interjects. “I just think you should go back to wearing your glasses.”

“Why?”

She groans and paces around for a moment. She’s frustrated she can’t put her thoughts into words. She can’t put her thoughts in order at all. Sunghoon watches her grow even more restless.

“If it bothers you that much, I’ll start wearing my glasses again,” he says quietly.

“No. It’s okay,” she sighs, defeated. “It’s not the glasses that’s bothering me.”

Sunghoon’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “What’s bothering you then?”

Suddenly, Y/N gets shy, which hardly ever happens. Sunghoon’s eyes widen as he catches the tips of her ears turning pink along with the apples of her cheeks. His heart flutters at the sight.

“It’s just,” she pauses, collecting her thoughts. “It’s making me mad how people are suddenly interested in you just because you got rid of your glasses.”

He stares at her with a stunned expression on his face, which makes her keep going.

“You’ve always been an amazing person, and I’ve been with you since the beginning. All these other people don’t deserve you,” she grumbles.

Sunghoon’s heart is about to leap out of his chest at her words. He looks away bashfully, trying to hide the small smile on his lips.

“Don’t worry,” he says softly, “you’re the only person I want to be close with.”

Their eyes meet momentarily, both of their faces red with blush. She looks away, not being able to maintain eye contact with him. He smiles and looks down at his hands.

The next day he wears his glasses again.

One day, when they’re 13, Sunghoon’s family goes on their yearly weekend trip to a cabin, and he begs his parents to let Y/N come this time. During the trip, Sunghoon teaches Y/N how to fish.

“Ugh, I’m boredddd,” she groans.

They’re standing at the edge of the pier with their fishing lines cast out into the lake. They’ve been waiting for a total of 30 minutes so far.

“Fishing is all about patience,” he tells her.

“What if I went into the water and tried catching one with my hands?” She asks.

“You’ll scare the fish away,” Sunghoon clicks his tongue.

“But what if I stayed still and waited for the fish to jump and come to me. Like how the grizzlies do it.”

“They can only do that because the fish are swimming upstream. We’re at a lake,” Sunghoon points out.

She groans again. Her next complaint is cut short when something starts pulling at her fishing line. She practically screams.

“Sunghoon, what do I do?” She frantically grabs the fishing pole.

He chuckles and grabs her hand, placing it on the reel handle. He moves her hand clockwise, causing the fishing line to pull towards them.

A fish about the size of Y/N’s foot splashes up out of the water, dangling from the end of the hook. Sunghoon grabs the fish and holds it out for her to see. It wiggles in his grasp.

“Oh my god. It’s kind of cute,” she says. “Can I hold it?”

He places the fish in her hands, showing her how to hold it without dropping it. He grabs a bucket and fills it with some of the lake water.

“You can put it in there. We can eat it for dinner,” he says.

Y/N freezes. “Eat?”

Sunghoon looks up at her, slightly confused. What else were you supposed to do with a fish you just caught? He sees the tears welling up in her eyes and he immediately starts backtracking.

“Or you can release it back into the water,” he says.

She sniffles and nods. He watches as she bends down at the edge of the pier and lets the fish wiggle out of her grasp and slide back into the water.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“It’s okay. We can eat something else,” he reassures her.

“I was talking to the fish,” she says.

Sunghoon chuckles softly and walks up to her crouched figure.

“Maybe fishing isn’t for you,” he starts, “did you want to go look for some cool bugs in the woods?”

She shakes her head. “You don’t like bugs.”

“That doesn’t mean I won't help you.”

“But I want to do something we both enjoy,” she murmurs.

He smiles and squats down next to her. She glances over at him with tearful eyes.

“There’s a waterfall not too far down the trail into the woods. Do you want to go see it together?” He asks softly.

She sniffles and nods again. “That sounds fun.”

“Okay. Let’s go,” he says, standing up straight and holding out his hand for her to take.

They often have sleepovers at each other’s houses on the weekends, but this particular sleepover when they’re 14 is different. They’re watching a movie in Sunghoon’s room like normal until Y/N turns to look at him. 

“Have you ever kissed anyone, Sunghoon?” she asks abruptly after seeing the two main characters in the movie share a kiss. 

Sunghoon practically chokes on the popcorn he’s eating. 

“W-why are you asking?” he coughs, trying to avoid eye contact.

Y/N sighs and leans back on the headboard of his bed.

“I keep hearing every girl in class talking about the boys they’ve been kissing. I’m just curious.”

He remains quiet for a second, not knowing where this is going.

“No. I haven’t,” he finally says.

“Thank god,” she sighs in relief. 

Sunghoon’s heart leaps in his chest, and suddenly all he’s thinking about is what it would be like to kiss her. His eyes flicker to her face for a brief moment, his face turning red. He quickly looks away. 

“W-what?” he stammers. 

She turns to look at him. She immediately notices how shy he’s gotten.

“I’m not the only loser that hasn’t kissed anyone yet,” she says. 

Sunghoon’s mouth falls open, and his head snaps over to look at her in disbelief. She smiles at him, making his face turn even redder. He frowns slightly, but his eyes flicker down to her curved lips. 

“Why does that make us losers?” he mumbles. 

“It doesn’t,” she says, “I just feel like I’m missing out.” 

Sunghoon furrows his eyebrows together. He didn’t understand the need to fit in with what most of the other kids at school were doing. He thought their idea of fun was boring. 

“So you want to kiss whoever just to say you’ve kissed someone?” he asks, his tone of voice growing slightly irritated. 

She shakes her head.

“No, I want to kiss someone I’m comfortable with.” 

Their eyes meet for a second, and Sunghoon’s throat dries up. He looks away again. 

“You’re the only person I’m comfortable enough with,” she starts, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I can always wait for someone else to—“

“NO!” he practically screams. His cheeks turn pink when he startles her with his objection. “I-I mean…I can help you…i-if you want.” 

“Really?” She smiles. 

His eyes flicker to her mouth again, and he nods. 

“Are you sure?” She asks again. She scoots closer to him, making his heart race. 

He nods again. 

She leans forward slightly, her eyes glancing down at his lips. They’re slightly parted, his chest rising and falling in short breaths. He stays completely still, letting her get closer and closer until there's no space between them anymore. He freezes when he feels her lips press against his. He closes his eyes and stops breathing for a second. The kiss is over before he can fully register what happened. 

He blinks at her, his emotions tangling in knots inside him. He’s absolutely terrified. How does this change their relationship? Does she like him too?

“Um…” he starts.

She’s watching the TV again, rewinding the movie to the part where the main leads are kissing again. 

“Do you want to try that?” She asks. 

Sunghoon glances over at the screen, watching as the characters move their lips against each other’s. He swears he saw a tongue peek through. 

His face is flushed when she turns to look at him. She watches him, waiting for his reply. 

“I’m sorry. I’m making you uncomfortable,” she says after he’s taking a little too long to give her an answer. “That stuff should be reserved for someone you like.” 

Sunghoon’s heart sinks to his stomach. She’s getting the wrong idea from his stunned silence, but it’s already too late. She turns back to watch the movie, skipping the makeout scene. 

For the next few weeks, Sunghoon tries multiple times to bring up the topic of kissing again, but he gets too flustered. He’s losing sleep because of it. He keeps replaying what happened in his head and groans at how he handled it. 

Things between them hadn’t necessarily changed since they kissed or at least it didn’t seem like it from the outside. On the inside, both of them were dealing with some very conflicting and heavy emotions. 

Sunghoon was under the impression that Y/N didn’t like him in a romantic way because she mentioned kissing as something to mark off a bucket list, not something she wanted to do with him because she had feelings for him. Y/N, on the other hand, was under the impression that Sunghoon didn’t like her in a romantic way because he refused to keep kissing, and that he only agreed to kiss her in the first place to help her as his friend. 

So what do they do? They act like it never happened, but it doesn’t stop their feelings for each other from consuming every fiber of their being. 

Then they hit puberty. Their physical and emotional changes alter their dynamic significantly. 

Sunghoon grows taller and his voice grows deeper. He stops wearing his glasses again, causing girls at school to chase after him. Y/N also grows taller, but not by much. Her body is changing and Sunghoon is definitely noticing, especially after one summer at the pool where he almost drowned after seeing her wear a bikini for the first time. 

Sunghoon is very attractive…just extremely beautiful. It has Y/N fighting for her life. She has to endure all these girls at school confessing to him and fawning over him. When a particularly pretty and popular girl shows interest in Sunghoon, it has Y/N losing her mind. She’s scared that eventually Sunghoon will date and forget about their friendship. She’s jealous. She wants him all to herself. 

She’s jealous for no reason, though, because Sunghoon does not give any girl the time of day. He’s polite, but he always declines their confessions or attempts to ask him out. Most of the time, he sees right through these girls’ intentions. They find him attractive, but they don’t like him for who he is. They compliment his looks and make assumptions about what he’s like, and when they ask him about himself and they find out he likes fishing and playing chess, they look at him with a blank stare. 

Meanwhile, Y/N gets no play. It’s not because she isn’t pretty. She just gives no attention to any guys. She has a habit of scowling at any man that looks her way. They just don’t compare to Sunghoon. He’s all she ever needs in a man, even if it’s just as friends.

Sunghoon grows a little too comfortable in the fact that Y/N doesn’t have any secret admirers, so when she starts ranting to him about a supposed stalker in her economics class, he has to remain calm. She describes how this guy is always staring at her, smiling at her, trying to talk to her. He comes up to her desk and asks why she’s always so quiet and what her hobbies are. Somehow this guy finds out that she likes bugs and tries to start a conversation with her about it.

“He’s just so creepy, Sunghoon,” she groans. “Whenever I walk into class, he’s already staring at me.” 

Sunghoon is clenching his fists at the mere thought of this random guy clearly having a crush on her. He wishes he had the class with her so he could glare at him, but all he can say is, “Yeah, he seems weird. You should ignore him.”

He teases her a lot more too. Maybe it’s puberty or maybe his feelings are just harder to contain, but looking at her pretty face makes him get cuteness aggression. He loves getting a reaction out of her. 

He loves to randomly come up to her and play fight with her. He throws playful punches at her arms and dodges her failed attempts to hit him back. He sometimes lets her hit him, but it just ends up with him tackling her playfully onto the couch or bed. 

“What happened to my sweet Sunghoon?” Y/N whines. “Now I just have a bully.” 

He smiles at her fondly, “You’re just fun to mess with.” 

“It’s only fun for you. I’m out here getting assaulted,” she continues pouting. 

His smile grows wider, and he extends his arms out in playful surrender. “Okay. Hit me then.”

She glances over at him quizzically. When she sees he’s being serious, her expression changes into something mischievous. Before Sunghoon could backtrack, she pulls his sweatpants down leaving him in his boxers.  

“What the—“ 

As he’s bending down and picking up his pants, she jumps on his back and puts him in a chokehold. 

“Y/N—“

“This is what you get,” she says playfully. 

He starts laughing and takes a few steps back until the back of his knees hit the edge of his bed. He purposefully falls backwards, landing on top of her. Her arms slacken around his neck, allowing him to pull free and spin around to face her. He pins her arms down and smiles triumphantly. When he looks down at her, her cheeks are painted pink and her eyes are fixed somewhere to the side. That’s when he realizes the position they’re in and blushes. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles, getting off of her and sitting down on the bed. 

“It’s okay,” she says, sitting up. “Sorry for pulling your pants down.”

“It’s okay. It was funny,” he replies. 

They sit in silence for a moment. 

“Do you want to watch a movie?” He asks, getting up to turn on the TV.

Girls eventually leave Sunghoon alone when it’s clear he only ever has eyes for Y/N. No one knows how they are able to stay just friends with the amount of tension between them. All of their classmates can see it except for Sunghoon and Y/N. God forbid they ever have a class together because they will be giggling and whispering in the back of the room the whole time. They always disappear during lunch hour to sneak onto the track field and lay in the grass. They walk home together after school every day, always going to each other’s places to hang out. 

You would think they’d get bored of each other eventually, but they’re always finding things to do together. They also love to do their own separate things in the same vicinity. Y/N would be working on her latest crafting project on her desk while Sunghoon is on her bed playing with a deck of cards trying to learn magic tricks. When Sunghoon wants to go fishing, Y/N will sit on a floaty and read. They’re comfortable with silence as long as they’re together. 

“Would you rather fight ten, kid sized Y/Ns at the same time or one, 10 foot tall, buff, Y/N?” Y/N asks Sunghoon as they’re sitting in her bed with face masks on during a sleepover.

“Oh god. They both sound terrifying,” he says with horror.

She hits his shoulder playfully, making him giggle. 

“Mm…” he thinks about it a little too seriously. “You were very feisty as a kid, so having to fight ten of you at the same time…I think I’ll take my chances with the buff Y/N. I feel if someone is that tall and buff, they will be slow. I just have to dodge.” 

Y/N rolls her eyes. “I wasn’t that bad.” 

“You got suspended for fighting that kid remember? You definitely gave off ankle biter—OW!” 

Y/N starts to yank at his hair, stopping him mid-insult. He grabs onto her wrist to try and get her fingers out of his hair. 

“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry.”

She releases his hair, and he glares at her. 

“Now I’m questioning my decision. I’m scared what a buff Y/N would do in comparison to that,” he says, rubbing his scalp. 

She grins at him. He stares at her for a second, a smile growing on his lips too. 

Sunghoon and Y/N make the decision to attend the same university because they can’t bear the thought of being apart for 4 years. They decide to move in together, so they don’t have to deal with the school’s prison-like dorms. Off-campus student housing isn’t the best, but they make it work. 

Sunghoon is still scared of bugs, so Y/N always has to catch all the spiders and moths that make their way into their apartment and release them outside or else he will be yelling and throwing things. 

One time, as Sunghoon is about to go to sleep, he sees a cricket crawling on his pillow and he absolutely freaks out. He has to wake Y/N up to come catch and release it. 

“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” he asks her.

“It was a cricket, not a cockroach, Sunghoon,” she groans, half asleep.

“But it touched my sheets, and I don’t want to stay awake for two more hours to wash them,” he whines slightly.

She keeps mumbling in her sleepy state and doesn’t protest any further as he follows her into her room and climbs into bed with her.

Sunghoon gets strangely more clingy once they start living together. He’s always tagging along when she goes to run errands. She needs to return a library book? He’s trailing behind her with his backpack saying he’s going to the library to study anyway. She’s going out to get a sweet drink? He’s tagging along claiming he’s never been to that coffee shop before and that he’s been wanting to try it out. Y/N doesn’t mind, though. His presence always makes things more comforting. 

They’re busier due to the amount of workload some of their classes have, so he’s constantly wanting her attention. Sometimes a simple, “do you want to go eat?”  will do the trick, but sometimes he has to resort to more drastic measures for her attention. 

He starts off by sighing loudly. If that doesn’t work, he starts poking her repeatedly on the shoulder or sides. If all else fails, he will hug her waist and push her onto the couch. 

“Why do you hate me?” He grumbles. 

“Who said I hate you?” She laughs, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. 

“You don’t want to go out to eat and you’re ignoring me. Just say you hate me,” he says. 

She playfully pulls at his ear. “Ok, babygirl, sorry for not giving you my undivided attention.” 

The tips of his ears turn red and he buries his face in her shoulder. She pats the back of his head. 

“Let’s go eat,” she says. 

“No. I don’t wanna eat anymore,” he mumbles. “I’m comfortable here.”

He definitely lets her get away with more things now too. She just has to bat her eyelashes and he will willingly be dragged around to do absolutely anything. He hates how she’s able to figure it out too. It’s like she knows the effect she has on him. 

“Sunghoonnnn,” she calls sweetly. 

Oh no. 

“Can you do my laundry? Pleaseeee,” she clings to his arm. 

“I don’t want to do your stinky laundry,” he groans, trying to pull away and not look at her face before he folds. 

“C’monnnn, don’t you love me? I wash your dishes when you leave them in the sink because I love you,” she says, placing her cheek against his arm. 

Oh, he’s a goner. His cheeks are bright red.

“Fine, fine,” he grumbles. 

One night, Sunghoon gets a call from Y/N at around one in the morning. 

“Sunghoon…” he hears her slurred mumbling from the other side of the phone, and he instantly knows she’s drunk. He can hear the loud music in the background.

“I thought you said you were going to a friendly get together?” he sighs into the phone. 

“I know…I lied,” she mumbles, “I’m sorryyyy. I didn’t want you to get worried.” 

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“Mhm,” she hums, “Can you pick me up?” 

“I’ll be there in a bit,” he tells her after getting her location. 

He finds her immediately. She’s outside the club, digging through the bushes. 

“Y/N, what are you doing?” Sunghoon asks, the worriedness he had dissipating at the sight of her. He chuckles slightly when her head pops up from the bushes, leaves stuck to her hair. 

“Sunghoonnn,” she whines, stumbling out of the bush towards him. 

He grabs her by the arms, making sure she doesn’t topple over. 

“I thought I heard a katydid. I can’t find it,” she frowns.

“You probably scared it away,” he says, picking the leaves from her hair. 

She pouts, ducking her head to let him run his fingers through her hair to flatten out the knots caused by the bush’s branches. “But I tried to be super stealthy.” 

“I know, Y/N. I know,” he says softly. 

He wraps his arm around her shoulder for stability as he starts to walk her back home. She leans her whole bodyweight against his side. She’s mumbling incoherently and dragging her feet sluggishly. By the time they make it through their front door, he’s practically carrying her inside. She clings to him like her life depends on it. 

“Sunghoonnn, you smell so nice,” she mumbles. Her eyes are closed as he drags her to her room and makes her sit down on the bed. 

“It’s the cologne you got me for my birthday last year,” he says as he bends down to take her shoes off. 

“Mmm,” she hums, “I have great taste.” 

She sways slightly even though her eyes are closed. Sunghoon goes into their shared bathroom and grabs her makeup removing wipes. She tries moving her head away from his touch as he begins to wipe her face with the towelette. 

“Nooo,” she whines, “I worked so hard on this makeup look.”

“I know, Y/N. It’s very pretty, but you can’t go to sleep with it on,” he says, gently grabbing her chin to hold her still as he continues to wipe it off. 

“Why not?”

“You’ll get your pillow dirty.” 

She groans but complies. She stops resisting and lets him finish. When he tries to get her to stand up and go wash her face in the bathroom, she whines again and flops backwards into her bed. Sunghoon sighs and gives up. He walks over to her dresser and pulls out a pair of pajamas, throwing them at her. 

“Change at least,” he says. 

Instead, she pulls up her covers and hides under them. 

“Y/N, stop being difficult,” he sighs, ripping the covers off her completely. 

“Why can’t you change me?” she whines.

“You know I can’t do that,” he says.

“Why not?”

“You need to change yourself.” 

“But what if I want you to change me?”

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Then I’m sleeping in this,” she gestures to her dress, her eyes still closed.

“Y/N…”

“Sunghoon…”

He sighs, “How about this? I can unzip your dress and you do the rest yourself.”

She thinks about it for a second before nodding. She sits back up, opening her eyes slightly. He helps her back to her feet, and she turns around, holding her hair out of the way as he unzips the back of her dress. He turns around and gives her some privacy as she changes into the pajamas. 

“Sunghoon, you’re so nice to me,” she starts sniffling. 

He turns around to find her sitting back down on her bed with tears in her eyes. He sighs and sits next to her. She immediately leans her head on his shoulder. 

“I hope you never get a girlfriend,” she mumbles. 

He pats her head gently, letting her talk herself out until she falls asleep. 

“I think I’ll die if you get a girlfriend. Promise me you won’t get one?” 

She lifts her head up from his shoulder to look at him with tear stained cheeks. His eyes soften at the sight of her. 

“Y/N, you should get some rest,” he says, gently trying to lay her down. 

She starts sobbing at how he evades the question. 

“You probably already have a secret girlfriend. That’s why you didn’t promise me, right?” She cries. 

Sunghoon sighs and grabs some tissues from the nightstand. He gently wipes the tears from her face. 

“I don’t have a girlfriend, Y/N,” he says. 

“Then why won’t you promise me?” She looks up at him with the most adorable pout, making his eyes flicker down to her lips. 

“Because I want a girlfriend eventually,” he says softly. 

She starts crying again, pulling the covers over her head so he can’t keep wiping her face clean. 

“Y/N…” he sighs. 

He tries to pull the covers off, but her grip is strong. 

“Go away, you traitor,” she hiccups. 

“Y/N, you’re drunk. You should get some sleep.” 

But she continues rambling. 

“I thought we were going to stay together forever,” she cries, “You’re the only man that exists to me. Every other man is boring and ugly compared to you. Do other girls exist to you? Do you find them pretty? Is that why you want to get a girlfriend?” 

Sunghoon’s heart races, but he tries to stay calm. He crouches down so he’s eye level to her on the bed. 

“No, other girls don’t exist to me either,” he says gently. 

She sniffles and peeks her head out from under the covers to look at him. 

“That doesn’t make sense,” she says. 

“Yes, it does,” he says, pulling the blanket lower so he can see her face fully. 

“If other girls don’t exist to you, who will be your girlfriend?” She asks. 

“Think about it.” 

She remains quiet for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. 

“I don’t know…” she mumbles eventually, making him sigh. 

He notices the way her eyelids droop, fighting to stay awake. He pats her head gently. 

“I’ll tell you tomorrow. You should sleep.”

She protests weakly, but he brings the covers up to her chin and tucks her in. Her eyes are closed again and her breathing even. He stares at her sleeping form for a moment before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

“Think about it,” he whispers before leaving her room. 

Sunghoon, in fact, does not tell her tomorrow. She completely forgets the conversation, and he gets cold feet. They fall back into their routine, but Sunghoon can’t stop thinking about what she told him. She wants to stay with him forever…

“Why are you blushing?” Y/N asks, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

“Oh…nothing,” he mumbles.

They’re at the library trying to study for midterms. It’s been three hours already, and it’s getting harder to focus. Sunghoon’s mind keeps drifting off. 

“So,” he starts, catching her attention. “After you graduate, what are you going to do?”

“Pick a city we want to live in, find jobs and move there. Preferably somewhere that has a lot of parks or outdoor recreation,” she says. It seems like she has it all planned out. 

“As in us together?” He asks. 

“Yeah. Obviously,” She looks at him, immediately noticing how flustered he’s getting. “Why? Do you not want to be together?” 

The wording she uses makes his heart want to leap out of his chest. 

“It’s not that. It’s just…” he pauses for a moment, debating whether or not he wants to ask this. “You don’t want to branch out on your own or anything? Live alone, be independent…get a boyfriend?” 

She makes a face. “Living alone as a girl is scary, I’m already independent, and I hate men. Except you of course.” 

Sunghoon remains silent. She makes him feel like he’s the center of her universe and it only makes him fall for her even more. 

“So we will be old and still living together?” He asks. 

She shrugs. “Why not? I can see us sitting on our porch, yelling at random kids to get off our lawn that we perfectly crafted to have a fish pond and flowers for pollinators.” 

She watches him as his face turns even redder. 

“You’d want to spend the rest of our lives together?” He asks softly. 

“Yeah. I mean I can’t see it without you.”

They stare at each other in silence. His eyes flicker down to her lips before looking away sheepishly. 

“As friends?” He asks.

It’s Y/N’s turn to blush, realizing how what she said may have come off. 

“If that’s what you want,” she says. “I’m okay with being just friends.”

His heart pounds in his chest, and he looks up at her. “Just?” 

She quickly realizes her slip up and hides her face behind her hands. 

“I meant…” her voice trembles slightly. 

“Y/N…” he smiles and gently pulls her arms to the side so he can see her clearly. “Quite frankly, if we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, I don’t want to be just friends.” 

Her eyes flicker between his, her heart racing in a panic in her chest. 

“Y/N…” he says softly after seeing the panic in her eyes. “I’ve loved you for almost as long as I’ve been alive.” 

He gently cups her face with his hands. 

“And I will love you for the rest of it.”

Her breath comes out shaky as she continues to look into his eyes, seeing the sincerity in them. 

“I don’t want to be just friends,” she whispers finally. 

She watches as his eyes glance down at her lips then back up to her eyes. His thumbs trace her cheeks. 

“Can I kiss you?” He asks. 

She nods ever so slightly. His smile as he leans in makes her heart flutter. His lips are as soft and gentle as she remembers, and it makes her head spin. The kiss is short and sweet, and when he pulls away, he’s still running his thumbs across her cheeks. She blushes and tries to pull away from his touch. The smile on his lips only grows, and he leans in for another peck to her lips. 

“Sorry,” he laughs. “I’m just very happy right now.”

His hand runs through her hair and rests at the back of her neck. The cuteness of her flushed face makes him gently squeeze her cheeks with his other hand, swaying her head side to side every so slightly. 

“Is this what I’m gonna have to deal with for the rest of my life?” She chuckles.

“Unfortunately, yes. No take backs now,” he smiles, squeezing her cheeks again before placing another kiss on her pouty lips. 

The transition between friends to lovers is surprisingly difficult for Sunghoon and Y/N despite the years of tension. They fall into their routines and end up forgetting that they’re actually a couple now. 

They get shy when it comes to any form of intentional physical affection. They have always been somewhat affectionate towards each other but now there’s romantic intention behind it, and it makes them shy, especially Sunghoon.

Sunghoon has been dreaming about the day of them becoming a couple, but he’s scared of moving too fast and scaring her. This results in shy touches or Y/N having to initiate things. She teases him a lot about it.

They’re cuddling in bed, facing each other. His arm is loosely draped over her waist, and his eyes are closed as she traces his face with her fingers. There’s a small smile on his lips and a pink tint to his cheeks.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you this up close,” Y/N whispers. “You have a small mole under your eye.” 

He hums, and his eyelids flutter open to look at her. He remains silent as he watches her admire him, a warmth spreading through his chest. Her eyes lock with his for a brief moment. The look of pure adoration in his eyes makes her melt.

“It’s kind of surreal,” he whispers. “I’ve thought about this for years.” 

Y/N chuckles softly and brings her hand to cup the side of his head. Her thumb gently traces over his ear. 

“Oh, you want me bad,” she teases. 

Sunghoon bites his lip out of embarrassment and tries to look away. 

“I mean, yeah…” 

Y/N’s heart races in her chest, and a blush spreads to her cheeks and ears. 

Sunghoon loves to be babied, but in private or else it hurts his pride. 

After a long few days of final exams, he walks into their shared apartment. He drops his backpack on the floor by the door and shuffles to the couch where Y/N is sitting. He whines softly and lays on top of her. 

“Hold me,” he says. “Comfort me.”

She laughs as he wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her neck. She rubs his back comfortingly, and he instantly melts into her. She plays and runs her fingers through his hair. He hums happily. 

“Finals were that bad?” she asks after a while of silence.

“Mhm,” he hums against her neck. “It didn’t help that I was sitting next to this guy who does not know what deodorant is.” 

He buries his face deeper into her neck, inhaling deeply. 

“You smell so nice,” he mumbles. 

The feeling of her hands running up and down his back is so comforting to Sunghoon. He wants to be even closer, wants to fuse with her if ever possible. He’s already face deep in her neck, getting lost in the smell of her body wash. His hands start roaming her sides, and he starts planting kisses to her neck.

Once she realizes what he’s doing, she clicks her tongue and gently tugs at his ear, pulling him out of her neck. He looks at her with the saddest eyes.   

“Can I please just kiss my girlfriend?” he asks.

“Last time I let you do that you left my neck purple,” she glares at him.

He looks up at her with the smuggest grin on his face.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“What look?” He tries to act innocent, but the smug expression is still there.

She yanks at his ear again, and his grin turns into a pout. He buries his face back in her neck.

“Fine,” he grumbles and calms down. 

Y/N has a habit of teasing Sunghoon into getting boners, especially when he’s still hesitant about initiating anything with her out of fear of making her uncomfortable. Poor Sunghoon would be fighting for his life.  

A hand up his shirt and gently rubbing his belly? Hard. A playful bite on his bicep? Hard. A little tug on his hair as he lays his head in her lap? Hard. 

At first he’s so embarrassed about it and apologizes, but once he finds out she’s doing it on purpose, he starts to get a little more comfortable. 

He’s cooking one evening, and she comes up behind him in the kitchen and gives him a back hug. She presses her body against his back and purposely wraps her arms a little too low on his waist than normal. It really doesn’t take too long before his sweatpants tent up. 

“Whatcha making?” She asks innocently, but he knows what game she’s playing now.

“Just ramen.”

“Mm.”

He plays along with it for a bit, grabbing her hands and pulling them up higher around his torso, but they always find their way back down around his hips. He turns around which makes her stop hugging him, and she looks at him as if she’s doing nothing wrong. He shakes his head and grabs her by the waist and sits her on the counter.

“Stay,” he points at her, and a smile breaks out on her lips.

He knows damn well she isn’t gonna stay.

“I’m not a dog,” she grunts playfully, swinging her leg out to poke the side of his thigh with her foot.

“I’m cooking,” he says, swatting her leg away.

She scoots closer to him, still sitting on the counter. He gives her a side eye which only makes her scoot even closer. He stirs around the ramen then turns off the stove top. He grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her back to the place on the counter she was supposed to stay at. She groans and swings her legs slightly in protest. 

He cups both of his hands on her cheeks, making her go still. He looks at her briefly before pulling her face toward him and kissing her. It turns into a makeout session real quick, and she tries to wrap her legs around his waist. His hands grab her by the thighs and push them, holding them back.

“I said stay,” he whispers against the kiss, making her go crazy.

Even then he's too scared to take things too far. He presses his body a little closer to her, but other than that, he keeps things PG-13. 

She gets super frustrated. She tries to give him hints by running her hands all over his body. His breathing becomes shakier, but they have never actually gone all the way before, and he’s kind of scared.

His hands are still gripping her thighs away from him, and she’s getting more desperate. She can tell he’s clearly hard and enjoying this. She grabs his waist and pulls him flush against her so he’s nuzzled between her legs, and he short circuits. 

He stops kissing her and buries his face in her neck, his breath shaking and his hands on her thighs trembling slightly.

“Why are you hesitating?” She whispers softly. She runs her fingers through his hair soothingly. 

He stays silent for a while, his face still in her neck as he tries to calm down. 

“I’m nervous,” he whispers back.

“About what?” 

“I don’t want to mess things up.” 

She pulls back slightly, making him stop hiding and look at her. His cheeks are flushed and his eyes scan across her face. She smiles, trying to ease him a little. 

“How would you mess things up?” 

He shrugs. “A lot of ways. I don’t know what I’m doing.” He looks away shyly. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and ruin everything.” 

He was clearly talking about more than just what was unfolding at the moment. She brings him into a comforting hug, resting her chin on his shoulder. 

“I’m scared you’ll think this was a mistake. I’ve loved you for so long…” he trails off.

“Do you not think I feel the same way?” She asks softly, her nose burying into his neck. “Every time you hesitate it makes me think you’re regretting this.” 

His breath hitches, and he pulls back slightly from the hug to look at her. 

“I love you, Sunghoon,” she says. “And I want you. All of you.” 

His heart practically beats out his chest, his cheeks turning a bright red. He swallows nervously. 

“I love you too…” he whispers, his eyes trained onto her face. 

“So…” she says, running her hand down his chest

His eyes follow her hand as it stops at his stomach. They’re both blushing messes at this point, ramen long forgotten as he grabs her hand and helps her off the kitchen counter. 

Their first time is definitely clumsy but cute. They’re both shy about taking their clothes off for the first time. It really solidifies their relationship switch from being friends for so long to actually being in a romantic relationship, which is both scary and exhilarating at the same time. 

They start slow, just making out and their hands roaming and exploring over their clothes. When her hands make their way up underneath his shirt he practically buckles. His breath hitches, and she can feel his stomach tighten under her fingers. 

She smiles against his lips before trying to pull his shirt up and off. This part was easy enough. She’s seen him without a shirt plenty of times, so he isn’t too flustered. As they continue kissing, she can feel his finger tips hesitantly slipping under her shirt and resting at her hips. He clearly wants to take her shirt off too and her cheeks turn red. 

Her heart pounds in her chest as she pulls back from the kiss and looks at him. He’s like a deer in headlights, frozen, thinking he did something wrong to make her stop and pull away. He notes how flustered she looks, and it brings him a little more confidence. 

He pulls her shirt up slightly then stops to look at her to see if she’s having second thoughts, but she raises her arms over her head and lets him take it off. His hands caress her bare sides, feeling the warmth of her skin. He shakily fumbles with the clasp of her bra. It takes him a bit until he’s able to get it off, but once he does, he can’t stop staring. He blushes and looks away when he catches himself staring. There’s so many thoughts going through his head. He suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

She sees the slight panic in his eyes and pulls him into another kiss. His thoughts are temporarily silenced. She presses her body against his, and the feeling of her bare chest against his makes him groan. His arms snake around her and his hands splay across her back, pulling her even closer. 

He’s lost in the moment, his hands roaming across her bare back and feeling her soft skin under his fingertips. He trails kisses down her jaw and neck, feeling her pulse quicken under his lips. Her hands tug at his hair, eliciting soft grunts out of him as he trails his lips down her shoulder. He presses closer, gently laying her backwards onto the bed. His hands trace up her sides and stomach, still somehow hesitating despite being face deep into her neck. 

She lets out an exasperated noise and grabs one of his wrists, leading his hand to her chest. He makes a choking sound against her neck and stops kissing for a second, his heavy breathing making the hairs on her skin stand up. 

“It’s okay. Touch me,” she whispers, a slight shakiness to her voice. 

She can’t suppress the soft moans that leave her lips as he begins to slowly knead her chest. His nose trails across her shoulder as he places kisses along her collarbone, her sweetly fresh scent filling his nose. His thumb circles around her nipple, playing and slightly pulling on it.   

Her breathy moans make him groan with pleasure, his hips involuntarily bucking against hers. His sweatpants are practically strained around him. 

“S-sorry,” he mutters, pulling his hips back slightly. 

Her hands are already at his waistband. His arms brace on the bed at either side of her head, his breath shaky as he looks down at her fumbling with the drawstrings of his sweatpants. She pushes his sweatpants down his thighs, leaving him in his boxers where his arousal was even more apparent. She looks up to meet his eyes and he immediately looks away, red in the face. 

She reaches up and traces his ear, the tip bright red to match his face. Her touch lingers on his earlobe before tracing down the side of his neck. She can see his adam's apple bob as he swallows nervously. 

“Take mine off,” she whispers, trying to distract him from the embarrassment.

“Okay,” he whispers back. 

His eyes flicker down to her bottoms which are just some pajama shorts. His fingers trace the waistband.

“Both? Or…” 

It was her turn to turn beet red. He looks up at her and blushes seeing her blush. 

“Unless you don’t want to—“ he immediately backtracks. 

“All of it,” she cuts him off and looks away shyly, not wanting to see his face as he takes everything off and looks at her fully. 

His hands are shaking as he pulls her shorts and underwear off, but once she’s lying there fully bare in front of him his breath is taken away. His hands trail up her legs, gently caressing her skin. Once they reach her thighs, he slowly kneads them and pushes them apart to look at her. She closes her eyes as if trying to hide. He notices immediately and his hands come up to grab her waist as he leans forward and places soft kisses to her face. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks softly.

She shakes her head slightly, her eyes are open now but still not looking at him. 

“I’m a little embarrassed…” she mumbles.

He looks at her, his gaze softening as he cups her cheek in his hand and makes her face him. He brushes strands of hair out of her face. His fingertips trace her features, running across her eyebrow bone and down her nose bridge, across her cheekbones and down her jaw until they land on her bottom lip. 

“You’re so beautiful. You don’t need to be embarrassed,” he says softly. “But we can stop if you’re not comfortable.”

She looks at him as he traces her face, his eyes soft and so full of affection she wants to cry. Her bottom lip trembles slightly and he leans forward to place a tender kiss on them. 

“You’re so precious to me,” he whispers against her lips. 

Her arms wrap around him and into a hug, overwhelmed with emotion as he buries his face in her neck. 

“I love you,” she says. Her hands run down his back, making him shiver. “I trust you.” 

He hums contently into her neck but doesn’t make any moves to continue where he’d left off earlier. Instead, his hands roam her sides, caressing her curves as he gently sucks on her neck. Her grip tightens on his back, and she moves her head aside to expose more of her neck, soft whimpers leaving her lips. 

The sounds she makes are making him slightly lose control. His hips press against hers, and he groans into her neck at the slight friction. He hears her breath hitch too, her hands on his back trailing down to his waist to pull at his boxers. 

He pulls back from her neck to let her take them off. His eyes are fixed on her face, his cheeks flushed as he watches her gaze run down his body completely. He swallows nervously as her hands trail down his sides, stopping at his hips. His length immediately twitches at her simple touch. 

“Let’s…” he swallows again. “Let’s focus on you.” He mutters.

Her eyebrows furrow as she looks up at him. Her mouth opens to say something but he quickly leans forward and kisses her. Her hands stay at his hips, slightly gripping his thighs. He feels her hands inching downward, making his head spin. He pulls back to look at her, his face flushed. His hands gently pull hers off of him, and she’s about to protest again, but he brings them up to his lips and kisses them gently. 

“Let me focus on you, please,” he whispers, voice shaking. “I…if you touch me, I will probably…finish,” he looks away shyly. 

This gives Y/N such a rush. Any insecurity she has about her body is completely gone seeing how worked up he is. Her hand trails down his arm and grabs his wrist. She gently guides his hand between her legs. 

He says he doesn’t know what he’s doing. She guides him at first, showing him where to touch her. He’s a quick learner, though. He’s an observer. He knows he’s doing a good job by the sounds she makes and how her body responds to his touch, getting closer and wanting more. If he’s unsure, he just keeps his hand still, and her hips will move against it how she needs to. 

The palm of his hand grinds on her clit as he pumps his fingers into her, making her see stars. His face is back in the crook of her neck, kissing and sucking on her skin. He can feel her tightening around his fingers, and he groans in her neck as if it’s his dick and not his fingers. 

She tugs the hair on the back of his head, pulling him out from her neck to have him look at her. His eyes are glazed over. He is absolutely gone. She has to kiss him to snap him out of it, but it only works for a little while until he’s groaning and devouring her mouth. 

“Sunghoon,” she pants against his lips when he even gives her time to breathe.

He responds with a sound between a hum and a grunt, but he doesn’t stop. She grabs his wrist that’s still lazily fingering her, and he immediately freezes. He pulls back and looks at her with a guilty expression. He's about to apologize, but she releases his wrist and instead wraps her hand around his length. 

The facial expression he makes is so perfect, she almost thinks he finishes. She rubs the length of him along herself, coating it. He almost collapses on top of her, his breathing shaky and a raspy moan leaving his lips. She guides his tip to her entrance and his head falls forward, his hair covering his face.

“Fuck,” he gasps. “Are you sure?” He’s breathing heavily now, his eyes trained on her face. 

She bites her lip and nods. His eyes flicker down to her lips as she bites them. He leans forward to kiss her again, but gently this time. 

He pushes himself deeper little by little, stopping for a bit whenever he sees her face scrunch up with discomfort. He continues to kiss her until he finally bottoms out. He stays still, letting her adjust as he buries his face in her neck again. His breathing is raggedy as he tries not to cum right then and there. She runs her hands down his back soothingly as if reassuring him it’s okay. He slowly rolls his hips, thrusting shallowly, not fully trusting himself to last long.

“God, you're beautiful,” he mumbles against her jaw. 

His hands are roaming up and down her body and kissing her lips. His thrusts slowly become deeper yet still gentle. Her warmth is driving him crazy. His arms wrap around her in a hug as he tries to control himself. He can feel her tighten around him, making him groan against her neck. Her fingers yank at his hair as her strangled moans brush against his ear. 

“I love you. Fuck…” he pants, “you feel so good.” 

He's mumbling praises into her neck as his thrusts become lazy and his hips are shuddering. That’s her undoing. He’s just so hot as he gets desperate and out of control. Her walls grip around him as she feels her orgasm, making him choke and bury himself fully into her. He groans and slightly collapses on top of her as her grip makes him finish. 

He stays still for a second but then starts to thrust again. Very slowly and gently, prolonging both of their orgasms. 

They’re both shaking by the end of it, bodies sweaty and heaving. She pulls him down on top of her, knowing he’s tired. He obliges, letting her wrap her arms around him. She likes the feeling of his body weight on top of her. She runs her hands down his back soothingly as both of their breathing slowly goes back to normal. 

“I love you,” he whispers into her neck.

“I love you too,” she says, patting his head. “You did so good.” 

He hums, his cheeks flushed. He wraps his arms around her and rolls onto his back, pulling her along with him. He smiles up at her, tucking strands of hair behind her ear. They stay in each other’s embrace for a long while. Her cheek is pressed against his chest, and he’s tracing lines onto her shoulder when her stomach growls.

“Do you think the ramen is still good?” she asks softly.

“Probably not,” he laughs. “I can make you another one, though.”  

“Manager wants you on register,” she says.

His face would flush so red, and he’s stammering, “o-okay.”

While he’s washing dishes in the back room she comes up behind him and runs her hand down his back.

“I bring more dishes if that’s okay,” she says.

“Y-yeah. That’s f-fine. Put them in the sink…”

When he has enough of her teasing, he corners her somewhere private and hugs her waist and buries his face in her neck

“Can we go to your place after work? Pleaseeee,” he begs.

“Sure, baby,” she laughs.

She pats the back of his head and he immediately pulls back and away from her.

“And don’t touch me for the rest of the shift,” he warns.

She bursts out laughing but complies. She doesn’t touch him for the rest of the shift, but each time they lock eyes, he blushes so hard and has to look away. His thoughts are going wild with images of what’s to come.

He’s practically dragging Y/N out the coffee shop doors once everything’s been cleaned and counted.

“Someone’s eager,” she points out.

Jake blushes and takes her hand in his.

“I can’t help it,” he whines softly and brings her hand up to his cheek and nuzzles into it. “You’re so pretty, and you kept touching me.”

“Alright, baby, let’s go.”

Jake’s smile brightens up his whole face, and he’s eagerly pulling her along, his hand never leaving hers.

He giddily follows her into her apartment, taking off his shoes by the door and throwing his bag on the floor.

“Are my spare clothes still here?” He asks.

“Why bother changing when I’m gonna take everything off you anyway.”

Jake’s face burns bright red. He looks away shyly. No matter how many times they’ve done this, he still gets nervous.

“What? You’ve been waiting for this all day,” she says softly. She steps up to him and wraps her arms around his waist. “Getting cold feet?”

He shakes his head, burying his face in her neck to hide his blushing face.

“Let me shower first. I feel stinky,” he mumbles.

“We’re gonna have to shower afterwards anyway…”

Jake pulls back from her neck to look at her. “Now who’s the eager one?” He laughs softly.

She grins and pats his head. “I can’t help it. You’re so cute, and it’s hard to wait.”

Jake bites his lip, the thought of showering no longer appealing to him.

“Okay, let’s not wait then.”

Y/N gives him an amused smile before softly placing her lips on his in a sweet kiss.

Jake wastes no time in devouring her lips. He’s been eagerly waiting for this all day; he doesn’t want sweet, chaste kisses. His hand rests on her jaw while the other roams up and down her sides.

Her arms drape around his neck, her hands playing with the hair at the back of his head. She twirls and tugs at the strands, making his breath quicken.

It doesn’t take long before he’s pressed flush against her, wanting to be as close to her as humanly possible, his hands splayed across her back. His hips press against her, already seeking some type of friction against the tent in his pants.

She helps him undress, her eager hands roaming every inch of his torso. She’s also been waiting for this all day.

Jake is not shy when it comes to noise. He pants and groans as he kisses down her jaw and neck, feeling the warmth of her fingertips as they trace his spine, making him moan and shiver. His hands roam up her shirt to touch and caress her bare skin.

“Please let me take off your clothes,” he pants into her neck, his fingers squeezing at her hips in restraint.

She barely gets in a hum of approval before he’s already ripping her shirt over her head, making her laugh. He grunts slightly as if pouting before burying his face back in her neck and sucking on it lightly.

His fingers play with the clasp of her bra until it unhooks completely, and he rips that off too.

“Mm, you’re so pretty,” he mumbles, almost slurring as if he’s drunk on her skin alone.

His hands trail down her bare sides before reaching her pants and unbuttoning them. His lips trail down to her collarbone as he pushes her bottoms down her hips until they fall to the floor, leaving her completely nude before him.

His hands rake over her body as he gently bites and sucks on her skin, leaving marks in his wake. She moans softly at the sensation, her hand gently patting the back of his head in encouragement.

He groans at the feeling of her fingers in his hair, his hips bucking against her somewhat mindlessly and lazily.

His lips trail down her sternum, between the valley of her breasts. His hands gently cup her breasts, bringing his lips around one of her nipples. The arch of her back as his tongue circles around her nipple makes him moan softly. His mind is clouded with desire and pent up frustration from the day.

Eventually, his lips travel down her stomach, his hands trailing down her waist and hips as he sinks down to his knees. His hands grip the sides of her thighs as his ragged breath fans against her pubic bone. He looks up at her, his lips swollen from all the kissing he’s been doing.

“Please,” he pants softly.

She looks down at his pleading face, her fingers running through his hair soothingly. His eyes close for a brief moment, enjoying the feeling of her touch before he opens his eyes again and buries his face between her legs.

She widens her stance, allowing him to run the bridge of his nose along her folds, nuzzling her affectionately before pressing his lips to her most sensitive area.

Jake loves eating her out. He can get off on it alone. He loves having his face buried between her legs and having her squeeze his head with her thighs as he devours her. The warmth of her against his tongue and lips and the way her hips move against his face has his dick twitching and aching.

He wraps his hand around his length, stroking himself to the rhythm of his tongue, making him moan against her core.

Y/N’s grip tightens in his hair as he starts lapping at her faster, using his lips to suck on her clit lightly. Jake practically whimpers at her grip, taking his hand off his dick to plant both of his hands on her ass, pulling her harder onto his mouth as if encouraging her to fuck his face.

He can feel her legs starting to shake, and he holds the outside of her thighs for support. This is his favorite part, the desperate movements of her body and the strained moans leaving her pretty lips until she completely falls apart above him.

Her hips shudder against his face. “Jake…” she moans softly, adoringly. She finally releases her grip from his hair. He continues to lick her gently, placing soft kisses on her inner thighs as she slowly comes down from her high.

She looks down at him, and he’s already looking up at her with an admiring grin on his lips. His hands are still gripping her thighs, and his eyes are hooded with pleasure. Her eyes flicker to the hardness of his dick pressing against his stomach already leaking with precum. Her hand cups his chin gently, and she uses her thumb to wipe his lips.

“Your turn, baby,” she whispers.

He smiles and gets up from the floor, allowing her to push him back onto the bed. He watches giddily as she crawls up his body, planting kisses on his chest.

Her hands grip his sides gently as her lips trail up his shoulders and neck. “You have no idea how hard it was to control myself at work today, Jakey,” she whispers as she kisses the spot where his earlobe connects to his neck.

She can feel his dick twitch between them, a soft whimper leaving his lips. His hands rest on her waist, pulling her closer.

“I didn’t like seeing you smile at all those pretty customers,” she says against his neck. Her lips press against his Adam’s apple, feeling him swallow.

“I-it’s my job…” he pants softly. He looks at her with pleading eyes, a slight grimace on his face as he tries not to cum already.

She pulls back from his neck to look at him and uses her hand to brush some of the hair out of his face.

“I know, baby, but do you have to be so nice to them?” She pouts slightly.

Jake’s eyes flicker down to her pouting lips, his dick jumping against his stomach again.

“I-I’ll be nonchalant,” he stammers, making her laugh.

“You? Nonchalant? I don’t think that’s possible, baby,” she smiles, leaning down to press her lips to his.

He moans into the kiss, feeling her body press against his. He wraps his arms around her, his hips slightly grinding against her.

“I-I’ll wear a button…o-on my apron…” he swallows, his breathing becoming heavy. “T-that says ‘I h-have a girlfriend’.”

Her hand slips between their bodies, gently wrapping around his length. He immediately moans, his hips bucking against her hand.

“Ah…” he pants. “And I’ll…I’ll…”

He can’t even continue to talk, the pleasure consuming him as she twists her fist around him.

“You’ll what, baby?” She whispers.

Jake whines, his hands gripping her waist as his back starts to slightly raise off the bed.

“Ah…please…” he begs. He’s doing everything in his power not to explode in her hand. He wants more. “I want you.”

She takes her hand off him, making his back fall back on the bed. His chest heaves with his heavy breaths. Her eyes flicker down to his length covered in precum, the tip flushed a pretty pink.

“A button isn’t enough, baby,” she says softly. She kisses him again, distracting him as she straddles his hips.

Jake whines into her mouth, his hands flying to rest on her thighs, pulling her to sit on him fully. The feeling of her wet folds pressed against the length of his dick makes his eyes roll back.

“A-anything. I’ll do anything,” he pants. At this point, if she told him to shave his head and wear a potato sack to work, he would. “Please…”

She smiles at him, knowing she’s got him exactly where she wants him. She starts grinding her hips on his, making his head fall back in a groan.

“I’ll only talk to you…” he pants.

She lifts her hips, grabbing his length in her hand and guiding it toward her entrance. Jake’s grip on her thighs tightens as she slowly sinks down on him.

“Fuck,” he moans, his eyes squeezing shut. His hands slide up to her waist, guiding her movements as she slides up and down his length.

“I’ll s-stop working register,” he continues. Now he’s just blabbering, telling her anything as long as she keeps making him feel good. His eyes are fixed on her bouncing chest, and he bites his lip.

“I’ll stay in the b-back and…fuck…wash dishes.” His breathing becomes more labored, his hips bucking upwards as she sinks down, allowing him to go deeper.

“Baby,” he whines, his hips lifting off the bed as he thrusts upwards almost frantically. She leans forward, kissing his neck. His arms wrap around her again, pulling her closer.

“You’re mine, okay, baby?” She whispers before wrapping her lips at the crook of his neck, sinking her teeth gently into his skin.

Jake’s eyes roll to the back of his head, a strained moan leaving his lips. His hips thrust into her one last time until he stills completely, falling limp onto the bed. He’s a panting mess, burying his face in her neck as she continues to place gentle kisses where she bit him.

His hands roam her back, wanting her comfort as his body twitches slightly from the intense orgasm. She pulls back to look at him, his eyes are glazed over and his hair is slicked with sweat and sticking to his forehead. She brushes it out of his face, and he whines softly.

“Baby,” he murmurs. “Should I just quit?”

She frowns. “Why do you want to quit?”

“Because if I keep being nice to customers, you won’t fuck me,” he says softly.

She gently flicks his forehead with her finger, making him pout.

“Stop being an idiot,” she says.

Jake’s cheeks flush with embarrassment, and he buries his face in her neck again. She pats his head gently.

“I know you only have eyes for me, Jake,” she says.

He nods against her neck. “Only you,” he mutters, “you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and I love you even if you’re mean to me—“

She pulls him out from her neck, and he grins at her.

“I’ll wipe that goofy grin off your face,” she threatens playfully.

Jake bites his lip, and his eyes flicker down to her lips. “Do it,” he says.

She laughs, causing him to look back up at her eyes and laugh too.

“Anything for you, baby,” she whispers before placing her lips on his once more.

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

Jake has tried multiple times to befriend Y/N, but he always gets cold shouldered. This doesn’t deter him though. He’s still super friendly and sweet to her to a point where the other employees had to ask him why he bothers still being nice to her when she clearly doesn’t like him. He stops in his tracks to think about it. He can’t really put his finger on it. There’s just something about her that draws him in. The way her nose scrunches when she scowls at him, the way her eyelashes flutter when she rolls her eyes at him, the curve of her lips when she frowns at him. When he really starts thinking about it, he realizes he’s developed a crush on her.

At the end of the shifts, employees get to take home any leftover pastries, and Jake LOVES macarons. Everyone at the shop knows this because he never shuts up about them. Especially the strawberry flavored ones. Y/N, on the other hand, does not get the hype. Just to get on Jake’s nerves, she starts calling dibs on the strawberry macarons at the end of the shift. Jake always gets pouty. At first he’d ask if she could share a couple, and when she wouldn’t, he’d try calling dibs before her, but she was faster. He’s about to lose his mind until he realizes this could be an opportunity.

“I didn’t know you liked strawberry macarons this much as well,” he says to her excitedly. “We have a lot in common.”

After that, Jake purposefully separates the strawberry macarons for her and makes sure no one else takes them before her. He puts them in a to-go box and hands it over to her before her shifts end. This deters her though. It ruins the fun out of trying to get back at him.

“You can start taking them from now on,” she tells him.

Jake becomes starry eyed, a wide smile growing on his lips. His first thought is “Wow, she’s giving up her favorite pastries for me. Does she like me?”

Everyone and their mom are able to see Jake has a crush on Y/N. He follows her around every shift and makes a one person job a two person job. Mopping requires two people. One person holding the mop and the other person standing around making sure no customers walk onto the wet floor. Refilling napkin dispensers also needs two people. One refilling and the other handing over napkins. If he could follow her into the bathroom, he would. Y/N finds this infuriating.

“You know, we’d get things done faster if you do your own job,” she tells him as he hands her the coffee cups and she restocks them.

“What’s the rush? There’s no customers,” he says, a goofy smile on his face as he hands her more cups.

She rolls her eyes, but deep down she likes it. She likes the attention he gives her, but she just doesn’t want to admit it. It takes Jake having to go through something and not act like himself for her to realize it.

He never tells anyone what he’s going through. He may be a yapper, but he’s not that kind of yapper. He’s not acting like his usual friendly self. He’s quiet for once, doing his job to keep his mind off things.

This makes Y/N so uneasy. At first she thinks, “finally some peace and quiet,” but after a couple of days the feeling wears off. She starts to feel kind of guilty too for treating him so badly. Dare she admit she misses his pestering.

On the fourth day of sad Jake, she can’t take it anymore. On her lunch break, she walks ten blocks to a specialized macaron shop and gets him an assortment of different flavors. She slides them over to him on the counter after she comes back.

“For you or whatever,” she mumbles and clocks back in before she can see his reaction.

He blinks at the box in front of him. He peeks inside to see all the macarons and a smile grows on his lips. Sadness? Never knew her. He’s back to pestering her in a heartbeat.

“You went all the way over there on your break? Did you even get to eat? Do you want the strawberry macaron? I can make you a coffee to go with it—“

Y/N almost regrets giving him those macarons, but she smiles a little when he isn’t looking. She’s glad he’s feeling better.

She isn’t as mean to him anymore, but he does this thing where he acts dumb on purpose, and it irritates her. He only wants to spend more time with her and get her attention.

“Jake, can you not read? The instructions are on the box,” she exhales exasperatedly.

“My eyes hurt,” he whines. “Please just explain it to me.”

“You’re so annoying,” she groans, but she does it anyway.

She reads the instructions to him out loud, and he stares at her with a blank expression.

“Can you show me instead? I’m more of a visual learner,” he smiles sheepishly.

“Jake—“ she pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Pleaseeee,” he pouts slightly and knits his eyebrows together, looking up at her with puppy eyes.

She glances down at his cute face and groans.

“Fine! But I’m only showing you once,” she points a finger at him, and his lips stretch out into a pretty smile.

Once it’s clear she’s being a little nice to him, he starts to test her boundaries. He likes to see what kind of reactions he can get out of her. He starts off with drive-by pokes to the shoulder. He notes that it makes her jaw clench, but other than that, she doesn't lash out. He upgrades to lightly kicking her foot with his when they work side by side. This doesn’t slide with her. She shoves his foot out of the way with her own foot.

“Stop that,” she says sharply.

“Okay.”

He never does it again.

He tests her in other ways. He jumpscares her from around corners, holds things just out of reach, etc. Each gets different reactions out of her, but if she tells him to stop, he does.

One day when it’s slow, he playfully throws a sugar packet at her expecting her to get angry and tell him to stop. She glares at him, but she grabs a sugar packet and throws it at his head. It bounces off and falls to the floor. He looks down at it for a moment then starts to giggle.

“What’s wrong with you?” She glances over at him. “Weirdo.”

He continues to giggle, his cheeks turning pink. He tucks a piece of hair behind his ear before looking at her again. She raises an eyebrow at him. Then she gets hit in the head with another sugar packet.

“Jake—“

She lunges at him, but he’s already giggling and running away into the back room.

A new chapter in their dynamic unlocks, and they start to be more playful. Y/N never misses the opportunity to shove his shoulder as she walks by. If he’s just standing around doing nothing, she will come behind him and push the back of his knee. The first time she ever did it, he fell to the ground, and it made her laugh so hard. She’s clutching her side and leaning on the counter, tears almost running down her cheeks.

Jake stares at her from the ground with a goofy grin on his face. He’s so awestruck at the sight of her laughing. He feels like he just hit the jackpot. She notices his intense staring, and her smile immediately drops. Her eyes narrow suspiciously.

“You better not do that shit to me,” she says, pointing at him.

He shakes his head quickly and gets back up to his feet. He’s still smiling uncontrollably.

“I won’t. I promise.”

One day, Y/N comes into work with her hair in two braids. It’s the first time Jake has seen her in that hairstyle, and he’s about to combust. He thinks she looks super pretty, and he wants to tell her, but he keeps choking on his words when she looks at him.

Without thinking, he tugs on one of the braids. Not super hard but enough for her to notice and turn around. He’s frozen in fear, his fingers still pinched around the braid.

“What are you doing?” She asks flatly.

“Y-your braids…I—“

She stares at him as he’s stuttering like a fool. Her hand comes up and he flinches, thinking she’s gonna smack the shit out of him. She gently tugs at his hair in return before turning back to her work. Jake stands there dumbfounded. What just happened?

“Why did you flinch?” She asks. “Acting like I abuse you or something.”

Jake blushes and pats down the piece of hair she tugged at. He starts giggling and presses closer to her, poking her shoulder.

“You kind of do though.”

She glares at him. “No I don’t.”

“Yes you doooo.”

“I’ll show you what real abuse looks like,” she says, playfully bringing her fist up to threaten him.

Jake just starts giggling again. “You won’t hit me. You like me too much.” He playfully shoves her shoulder.

“Don’t push your luck,” she glares at him.

“I didn’t hear a noooo,” he sing-songs.

“Shut up and get back to work,” she grumbles. She starts to somewhat aggressively wipe the counter clean. “Always gotta be slacking off,” she mumbles.

Jake just lets it go and starts to get back to work. He’s extra smiley that day. Extra chatty with the customers too.

After that, Jake has an inkling that she might reciprocate his feelings, but he doesn’t want to overdo it. He tries flirting with her a little, but unfortunately he is horrendously bad at it.

One day, she’s wearing a different lip gloss color, and he’s been trying not to stare at her lips all day. He wants to compliment her on how the color matches well with her skin tone. He gives himself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror before he walks up to her while she’s working at the espresso machine. He has a confident yet smug look on his face.

“Hey,” he says as he leans on the counter.

As soon as she turns to look at him his confidence is stripped away. His legs turn to jelly, and he starts stuttering.

“Your uh…” his eyes flicker to her lips then back at her eyes. “Your skills at the espresso machine!” He says quickly. “Are really good. Haha yeah.”

She gives him a look insinuating she thinks he’s being weird. Jake continues laughing awkwardly.

“Thanks?”

“Yeah. Okay bye,” he says and turns quickly. He walks into the back room, pacing around like he wants to scream and bang his head on the oven.

His attempts at flirting go straight over her head. Not only because he sucks at flirting, but because she doesn’t think Jake likes her in that way. He’s friendly and nice to everyone, so she’s under the impression that the way he treats her is the way he treats everyone. Does that stop Jake from trying to flirt? No.

“Your, uh, shoes look nice today.”

“I wear these every day.”

“Right.”

To be fair, Y/N is hardheaded and can’t fathom the idea of being flirted with. She’s content with whatever the hell they have going on. She doesn’t want to ruin it, but boy does Jake want to ruin it. He wants her so bad. He’s like an old timey cartoon that floats at the smell of fresh pie when he catches a whiff of her perfume.

He gets a little more handsy. He pulls at her wrist to get her attention for something, he places his hand on the small of her back when he needs to get past her, he gently squeezes her arm when he laughs at something she says. Since she doesn’t tell him to stop, he assumes she’s ok with it. Little does he know, she’s living for it.

One day, Jake is his usual chatterbox-self at the register. Y/N is making drinks right beside the register, and she can’t help but eavesdrop when one of the customers starts being a little too friendly with Jake.

The girl flirting up a storm with Jake was really pretty. She was twirling her finger in her hair as she held up the line asking Jake for his recommendation.

“I want to know what kind of drink you get,” she glances down at his name tag. “Jake.”

Jake beams, always excited to put people on his drink.

“So actually this isn’t on the menu—“

“Ooh, so a secret menu item?” She leans in closer.

“It’s just something me and my coworker made up while we were bored. It’s kind of a weird combo, but I think it works somehow,” Jake starts rambling about the time he and Y/N were messing around with the drinks and syrups when it was slow.

It was like they were playing witches and magic potions in the back room. Some of the drinks were actually horrendous and one almost made Jake throw up. They eventually mixed espresso and orange juice thinking it was going to be absolute ass. (Y/N already had the trashcan ready for Jake.) However, once they tasted it they just stared at each other in silence. Since then, it’s become their favorite drink to make.

“So if you don’t mind a little strange combo—“

“I think I’ll just get a vanilla latte,” the girl gives him a tight smile. She had given up halfway through his yap sesh, slightly irritated that he didn’t acknowledge her flirting and that he didn’t flirt back.

Jake doesn’t even register the girl’s change in mood and distaste. He just smiles and shrugs, “it’s not for everyone. One vanilla latte coming up.”

Y/N tries not to burst out laughing from the espresso machine right next to the register. After Jake is done ringing her up he glances over at Y/N.

“What?”

“Are you always this dense? Or are you just that friendly?”

“Huh?”

She shakes her head and sighs. “She was flirting with you.”

“Oh. I know”

Now it’s her turn to be stunned. So Jake isn’t always the brainless meathead he makes himself out to be?

“What? You think I’m stupid?” Jake tilts his head slightly as he looks her dead in the eyes. “Actually. Don’t answer that.”

Y/N stifles a laugh. “I wouldn’t say stupid…just less aware of things.”

Jake pouts slightly. “Hey. I’m plenty aware of things. I noticed when you tried out a new makeup look, didn’t I?”

“Ah, yes. You told me I looked like a raccoon.”

Jake stares at her as if trying to find out what was wrong with saying that.

“It wasn’t a compliment,” she says.

“Yes it was. Raccoons are cute,” Jake says matter of factly.

“So if I call you a pig because I think pigs are cute, you would be flattered?”

Jake blushes slightly. “It would mean you think I’m cute, no?”

She blinks at him, glancing down at his pink cheeks then back at his eyes. She’s confused. Is he just an idiot or with his logic, him calling her a raccoon means he thinks she’s cute?

She gives him a side eye before going back to work, but Jake isn’t letting her end the conversation so quick.

“You didn’t answer the question,” he whines softly, poking her shoulder repeatedly.

“What question?” She’s starting to get irritated.

“Do you think I’m cute?” Jake stares at her with his big puppy eyes, blinking his lashes.

She looks over at him briefly before turning back to her task at hand so he can’t see the effect he has on her. “You look like a dog.”

“Do you think dogs are cute?” He presses further.

“Just go back to work.”

Jake sighs but does as he’s told. He hates getting mixed signals from her. She’s very hot and cold with him, so he’s going crazy trying to find out if she likes him.

It’s been a few weeks since that conversation, and Y/N has mostly forgotten about it. Jake, however, is hyper vigilant, stalking her socials to see if she has a dog or if she follows any cute dog accounts. He finds nothing. He’s starting to think Y/N calling him a dog was more of an insult than her calling him cute.

Then one day Y/N comes into work in a rush, sneaking away into the back room as soon as she comes in. Jake notices immediately and curiously follows.

She pulls a cardboard box that usually holds all the styrofoam cups to the floor. She snatches a few cleaning rags from the kitchen and places them in the box.

“What are you doing?” Jake asks suddenly, making her jump.

Before she could answer, a small crying sound came from her giant work bag that was placed just beside the box. Jake’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He’s about to say something when she shushes him.

“Don’t say anything to anybody. I’m just gonna keep it here until the end of my shift. I couldn’t just leave it on the street.”

Jake walks over to peer into her bag, only to see a small puppy all muddy and disoriented stumbling around. His eyes instantly light up and he crouches down to take a better look.

“Oh my god she’s so cute. Where'd you find her?” Jake immediately scoops up the puppy from the bag and cradles it against his chest, petting its head gently.

“I was walking over here, and I heard her crying from a patch of tall grass. I couldn’t just leave her, and I didn’t have enough time to drop her back at my place.”

She reaches out and scratches the back of the puppy’s ear.

“She’s so cute,” Jake says.

“Mhm.”

Jake’s eyes immediately turn to look at her, and he starts giggling.

“What?”

“So you find this puppy cute?”

“What kind of dumb question is that? Yeah, she’s cute.” She watches his cheeks turn pink, and his expression turns all giddy.

“Weirdo” she mumbles.

“So you think I’m cute.”

“When the fuck did I say that?” She snaps.

Jake covers the puppy’s ears at the sound of her cursing. “Not around the child.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Remember when you called me a dog?” He asks.

“Yeah…?”

“You find dogs cute so, therefore,” Jake holds up his pointer finger as if he’s making a point, “you think I’m cute.”

“Me when I jump to conclusions,” she huffs, but her heart is slamming against her chest.

Jake’s lip juts out in an adorable pout, and he huffs. He turns away from her, bringing the puppy with him.

“Why are you so insistent on having me think you’re cute?” She asks.

“Why are you so insistent on not calling me cute?”

They stare each other down. Jake buckles real quick. He looks down shyly, his cheeks turning even pinker.

“Because I want you to think I’m cute…” he says softly.

She blinks. Something within her stirs.

Jake looks back up at her when she stays silent. His face is burning with embarrassment. He thinks he’s definitely fucked up now.

“Forget it,” he says quickly. He hands the puppy back over to her and runs back to the front to get back to work.

Throughout the shift, he’s avoiding her as best he can. When she tries to come talk to him, he tells her he has to refill the napkins and scurries off or makes an excuse about needing to deep clean something.

He’s refilling the syrup bottles when she sneaks up and corners him. He jumps and knocks over one of the bottles, making it spill on the ground.

“Sorry,” he apologizes and gets to his knees to start cleaning it off the floor.

“Jake.”

“I got some on your shoes. I’ll clean it.”

“Jake,” she says, placing her hand on top of his head, making him freeze. He doesn’t even look up.

“Why are you avoiding me?” She pats his head ever so slightly.

“I’m not,” he says, his voice trembling slightly. His heart is going crazy at this point.

“Don’t lie,” she says softly.

He slowly gets back up to his feet, not being able to make eye contact with her. She moves her face into his field of view, but he looks away again.

“Am I making you nervous?” She asks.

“No.”

She steps closer and his breath hitches. He finally turns to look at her. Her gaze is intense as if she’s trying to figure something out. He watches her as she takes her time studying his face.

“You’re like a puppy,” she says finally. “Very energetic, friendly, playful, a little silly…”

Jake just stares at her, not knowing where this is going, but his heart is racing. Her hand comes back up to pat his hair, “Fluffy too.” She looks him in the eyes then, “And cute.”

Jake immediately blushes and looks away.

“Are you only saying that because of what I said earlier?”

“Yes, but not because I don’t think it’s true.”

Both of them are blushing at this point. She shyly takes her hand off his head and clears her throat. “I’m going back to work.”

“Wait,” he says as she’s turning around. She stops and looks back.

“You’re cute too,” he says softly.

“Like a raccoon?” She smirks slightly.

“No!” He shakes his hands. “Like a human.”

“Thanks,” she smiles then gets back to work, leaving him standing there with a goofy smile on his face.

After the shift ends, Jake is glued to her side, "Do you need help with the puppy? I can carry her. She looks heavy you know.”

“Jake, she’s like 3 pounds.”

“She’s all dirty! I’ll carry her so your clothes don’t get all muddy.”

“I don’t care what happens to my work uniform.”

Jake groans and clasps his hands together. “Can’t you tell I want to go with you?”

Y/N looks over at him, and he's doing those puppy eyes again. She flicks his forehead, making him flinch.

“I can’t tell which one is the puppy here.”

Jake pouts and rubs his forehead. He then snatches the puppy and starts walking.

“You have no choice now. It’s either let me go with you or I’m dog-napping this puppy.”

She gives him an amused look but doesn’t stop him. They walk together just talking about whatever.

After a long silence, Jake clears his throat. He unconsciously rubs the puppy’s head to soothe his nerves.

“Um…”

Y/N turns her head to look at him, making his face flush immediately.

“I was wondering…”

He felt like he was about to crap his pants.

“Since I think you’re cute and you think I’m cute…” his face was beet red at this point. As soon as he takes a glimpse of her face, it’s like it triggers the yapping.

“Would you like to go on a date? With me? We can go eat and then go to an arcade and play air hockey. I kind of suck at it though. Last time I played, I jammed my finger on the puck real bad, but anyway. We could also go watch a movie or go roller skating. I’m not good at that either though—“

“Jake,” she starts.

“Or if you’re feeling whimsical, we can have a picnic at the park. I’ll bring the bug spray. The mosquitos this time around are so bad. I can’t be outside without at least one biting me—“

“JAKE!” she exclaims.

She has to physically put her hand on his head and turn him to face her for him to shut up. His gaze falls to the ground shyly, not wanting to see her reaction.

“How about food and a movie?” She says.

Jake’s eyes snap up to look at her, a sparkle twinkling in them. He smiles really big and starts yapping again.

“Really? Okay, what day works best for you? I know your next days off are Tuesday and Friday, not that I have your schedule memorized or anything. I promise I’m not a creep. Unless you don’t want a whole day kind of date. We can go after our shift ends. Ugh, but I’m gonna be all sweaty and stinky. I’d want to look good for you…Oh god, I’m sweaty and stinky right now, aren’t I? Stay at least 6 feet away from me. I don’t want you to smell me like this—“

“Jake” she laughs, making him snap out of his rambling. “You look and smell just fine.”

“Liar. I probably smell like coffee beans and syrup.”

“I probably do too.”

Jake shakes his head. “No. You smell like vanilla and a little bit of ginger.”

Y/N raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you sniffing me when I’m not looking or what?”

Jake blushes.

“No! It’s just what the air smells like after you walk by,” He looks away with embarrassment, knowing that didn’t make it any better.

She chuckles. “You’re cute, Jake.”

“Like a puppy?”

“No. Like a human.”

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──