🍭

“what’re you doing?” this very day, your boyfriend catches your stares.

“looking at you,” you don’t flinch even slightly, you don’t even look away. you’re still set on staring donghyun down.

“why?” he questions you, a puzzled expression present.

“because you’re beautiful,” you tell him bluntly.

“y/n, stop…” he looks away from you now, a small smile creeping behind his hand as he covers his face in embarrassment.

“sorry donghyun, but it really still baffles me. I can’t believe you’re this breathtaking, in fact!” you stop mid sentence, clutching your chest dramatically. “I stopped breathing.”

“it’s been months since you’ve met me and I still take your breath away?” he asks in a chuckle, in disbelief at your tacky statement.

“always,” you tell him. you grab at his hands until they’re clutched by yours. “just like the first time.”

“ahhhh, enough!” he tries pulling away, but his grip is no match for yours. he’s unable to hide the bright pink his face has gotten. all he can do is smile wide. “I think I’ve blushed enough.”

“hmmm… no,” you thought about it for a bit, before deciding now is a perfect time to really embarrass your boyfriend.

“oh god,” he braces himself, you taking a deep breath.

“kim donghyun, you’re the prettiest person ever,” you start off slow.

“y/nnnn,” and he can’t help but interrupt you. but that doesn’t stop you, your words continuing on.

“I can’t believe your eyes are as shiny as they are,” you end up leaning as close as you can, donghyun is practically cornered. “and who said you could having the most dazzling smile in the world?”

“oh my god,” he has nowhere to hide, all he can do is look down and squeeze his eyes shut tight as an escape.

“your features work so well together… and long hair is such a strong suit on you,” you continue on.

“please stop…” he can’t take it much longer, him shaking his head rapidly to drown you out.

“and most of all, I love you,” you conclude, saving your most important words for last.

“y/n,” he opens his eyes, finally looking to meet yours. his cheeks are still a dusty pink.

“not because you appear as beautiful as you are, but because of the way you are,” you stare back at his big shining eyes.

what ended up as you teasing your boyfriend made you realize it. you’re extremely down bad for him. you can’t help it as you throw your arms around him gently, pulling him into a close embrace. you feel his arms wrap around you shortly after as you nuzzle your face into his neck.

“you’re so kind and endearing, you’re the best person I know,” you whisper to him softly. “I want to know you forever.”

“y/n?” he speaks once more, pulling you two apart to face you.

“yes, gorgeous boy?” his cheeks never stop being pink, and now he’s wearing a small smile that matches yours.

“you better quit before I kiss you to shut you up,” his smile pulls to a smirk, his eyes never breaking from yours. now your cheeks start to match his.

“eek!” but as soon as he does, he squeaks in your ear. “your hair is cold because it’s still wet.”

“yours is like, soaking and you’re all up on me,” you can’t help but smile because you found his noise funny, and also you just found him particularly cute.

“but you love it,” he deflects, and you smile again.

“I do,” you feel as his smile forms now, his cheek rested against your shoulder.

you two sit in a comfortable silence, sunoo unnoticeably rocking you two back and forth. you could sit like this for hours, but there’s something on your mind.

“sunoo,” you call to him, capturing his attention.

“hm?” he responds to you, clearly still dazed as you two still rock back and forth.

“I love you,” you tell him, and you feel his arms around you become more tense.

“what?” he slows you two to a stop, lifting his head off your shoulder to look at you.

“I love you,” you tell him again, more sure this time.

“hm?” he’s trying to conceal his evil grin, but a straight face was never his strong suit.

“hey! you know!” you whack him, wide grin on your face as you two fall over giggling.

“do I?” he asks, face fully smiling now. you admire his beautiful features as he lays next to you. his bright eyes that are shinier in the dim light, his pretty smile you could stare at for hours.

“you know,” you say again, turning your smile off as an attempt to be serious. but sunoo never liked serious, so he continues his playful attitude.

“prove it,” you can’t stand him. but you both know, his playful nature was one of the things that made you fall for him.

“should I?” you play along, because turns out that’s why he loves you, too. “but I don’t know if you deserve it. do you think you do?

“I think so,” he says in a low voice, grin lessening as he holds eye contact with you intently.

you want to keep teasing him, to drag out giving him what he wants. but as you look at him longer, you find it harder and harder to hold back. even after all this time, you still feel so small under sunoo’s gaze. you put your hands on his face, quickly pulling yourself closer to him to kiss him.

“I think you do, too,” you say quietly, hardly pulling yourself any distance away from him after kissing him. that small smile of his back on his face.

“do I deserve another one?” he keeps pushing you.

“I’ll let you decide that one,” you tell him, but he had already made his decision.

he pulls you back in, kissing you with everything in him. you feel every emotion in him when his lips touch yours, the way he loves you so much. he doesn’t even need to say it.

“I love you, y/n,” but he does anyways.

“hm?” now it’s your turn to mess with him.

“hey… don’t do that to me,” he says in a whiny tone, smiling big once more.

“it’s revenge, sunoo,” you tell him, evil grin now on your face.

“I love you, y/n,” he says firmly, letting the pattern continue. so you decide to do the same.

“kyungmin, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t die any time soon,” today’s topic… was a hectic one.

“y/n, y/n I’m terribly sorry but to be fair it’s this assignment’s fault,” kyungmin was losing his mind! but what else was new?

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” defusing your friend was never your strong suit, with his bold and stubborn personality and all.

“not that bad…” oh, here it comes. “why don’t you try taking econ then, see how you like it!”

“absolutely not,” you shut him down quickly.

“okay then! so the least you can do is try to ease my pain,” and here comes the part where he throws in a request from you.

“good god, why did I befriend you?” you kid, a common theme between the two of you.

“to be honest y/n, I don’t wanna hear it,” you smile on the other end, because truth be told you did love his little attitude.

“yeah yeah, where are you at so I can make sure you don’t die early?” and you also did love him, so of course you’d give in to his requests.

“our usual spot of course,” ah yes, the campus quad, under the tree you both agreed looked like a bizarre version of the pokémon mew. “withering away… can’t hold out much longer…”

“you’re so dramatic, I’ll be there in a bit,” you smile to yourself once more.

“bring… snacks…” and then you roll your eyes at yet again another request.

“we’ll see. bye.”

-

finally managing to make it to the quad after about five minutes (which according to kyungmin time was an eternity), you finally spot your friend at the very spot he stated he was. he sat crisscrossed with his chin rested on one of his hands, textbooks sprawled on the grass. you speed walk towards him, careful not to make too much noise.

“hi, kyungmin,” you greet him, snaking your arms around his shoulders to hug him from behind. you feel a small jolt from his long frame, before he instantly relaxes upon realizing it’s you.

“y/n, what a relief,” he sighs while leaning his back into you, soon shifting to turn around and wrap his arms around your torso.

“I see you’re that excited to see me,” you say, taken aback by his embrace but still having your arms around him nonetheless.

“thrilled actually,” his voice is muffled as he speaks into your chest. “so if you don’t mind, I’m gonna stay like this for a bit.”

“if you insist,” you respond, and for a bit he does because it’s probably a solid minute before kyungmin finally lets you go.

“okay, okay. I’ve recovered,” he plants a small smile, eyes half open due to his drowsiness.

“so I’m the antidote to your studying sickness?” you tease as you always do.

“I thought that was obvious,” he says with a pout, enlarging his eyes.

“you’re ridiculous,” you laugh, because truly he is.

“ridiculous this, ridiculous that,”he rolls his eyes. “what’s really ridiculous is this godforsaken deadline.”

“okay, poor sap,” you smack a hand into his shoulder, then sliding yourself to sit opposite of kyungmin and his mess of textbooks. “just show me what you’re dealing with and I’ll try my hardest.”

“my hero!”

-

“I see you’re in your zone, kyungmin,” you’ve been observing your friend for the last few minutes as he’s been scribbling left and right, never looking up.

“huh?” he darts up to you the minute he hears your voice, the first he’s heard of it since a while. “oh, guess so.”

“question,” you probe him.

“hm?” he asks, tilting his head the slightest bit.

“have you ever considered cutting your hair?” you tread cautiously, because you don’t actually know what thoughts your friend has for his hair.

“hmmmm…” he looks away in thought, deeply considering your question.

“not that you need to!” you backtrack instantly, afraid you’d give him the wrong idea. “I like the length, but does it ever bother you like, especially because it’s warmer out now?”

“hm, a little I guess,” he admits, tugging at the ends of his shoulder length hair. “and I try to tie it up every now and then, but to be honest…”

“what?” you’re intrigued by his next words, him dragging them out.

“I don’t really…” he still hesitates, before he’s finally admitting it. “know how to use a hair tie.”

“you grew your hair and you don’t know how to work a teeny elastic…” you can’t believe what you’re hearing.

“I don’t need you shaming me!” he’s locks down into defense mode quickly.

“alright, alright,” you backpedal, deciding not to tease him today. “but at least let me help you.”

“yay,” he says straight faced. perhaps admitting he’s bad at something aside from his econ class brings him shame.

“give me the hair tie,” you demand, hand outstretched doing grabby motions.

“it’s on my arm,” he says, extending his right arm out to you. somehow, you didn’t even notice he had something attached to it.

“okay. one day I’ll probably use hyunwoo or yejun’s head as an example to actually show you how to use it, but for now I’ll just do it for you,” you say, dragging your friends into it as you remove the tie from his arm.

“y/n… you’re my lifesaver. what would I do without you?” he says with a pouty expression, you swear you see his eyes start to glaze over.

“I thought we’d already established you’d be dead,” you reply, dragging yourself to be positioned directly behind him.

“we did, didn’t we?” he nods.

“dork,” you can’t help but chuckle a little. but back to the task at hand. “do you want it in like, a low pony or half up?”

“I think half up is fine,” he answers surely.

“your wish is my command,” you rub your hands together, as if you’re a mosquito.

“okay, genie,” now he’s the one laughing.

you start grabbing pieces of kyungmin’s hair, smoothing out the top and making sure you’ve grabbed enough before you finally tie it all together with the band.

“alright done, now let’s see…” you shift back to where you were before right in front of him now, examining your hard work.

“is it fine?” he asks, eager to see the result of your hard work.

“ah, hold still,” you grab the right side of his face, tilting it so it’s angled more downwards. “I grabbed too much of your bangs…”

“oh,” kyungmin’s breathing stops as you pull away at his bangs, grabbing the few you accidentally tied up.

“okay!” you let go of his face and examine your work once more. “perfect as always, suh kyungmin.”

“ah… thank you,” he says, feeling the tiny pony tail you tied up. he attempts to hide the blush he didn’t even realize was growing on his face.

“of course!” you examine him fully, looking at every detail of his hair and face. but clearly more his features, and not the obvious cherry he turned into. “it suits you too, your bangs frame your face so nicely but you can hardly tell when your hair’s just down.”

“maybe I really do need to learn how to use a hair tie then,” he says in a chuckle, looking away from you now.

“you definitely do,” you laugh back.

“now uh…” he starts, but it seems he’s hesitating as he looks back up to you. “before we continue my suffering I mean studying, I have a question.”

“shoot,” you respond eagerly.

“y/n?” your eyes widened once you noticed him waking up.

“oh, jaehyun…” and you felt terrible, did you disturb his sleep? “I’m so sorry, did I wake you up?”

“no of course not, it’s okay,” the sigh you released was a big one. “just woke up is all.”

“ah, that’s a relief…” the last thing you want is to bother him while he’s sleeping.

“but is something wrong? why are you awake?” you found it hard to reach the right words to explain to him.

“can’t…” you struggled, until you decided on your words. “I can’t go back to sleep.”

“awe, y/n,” jaehyun frowns.

he reaches his hand up to set on your arm, pausing the minute he reaches contact with you. nonetheless, he continues and rubs your arm.

“well it’s no wonder you can’t go back to sleep, you’re an ice cube,” he says in a chuckle, which explains his pause.

“ha… yeah it is kind of cold,” honestly, you hadn’t even realized your low body temperature.

“no matter,” he smiles. “I’ll warm you, come here,” he wraps the hand he had on your arm around you fully, pulling you extra close to him.

“thank you, jaehyun,” you reply, settling into his sudden embrace.

“of course, babe,” he speaks softly, you breathing in his scent.

“jaehyun,” a few moments had passed, but you had words you wanted to share with him.

“hm?” he hums lightly.

“I love you,” you finally speak it out, needing to get it off your mind.

“…I love you too, y/n,” jaehyun is silent for a moment, focusing on your sudden love confession before he shares the same ones back.

“no, like…” but it wasn’t like that. “I really do love you.”

“I know you do,” he chuckles as he speaks.

“but I can’t…” you shut your eyes tight, stuck on your words. all you can do is continuously state the obvious. “jaehyun, I love you so much.”

“y/n…” and he notices, your tone easy to hear.

“and it’s so frustrating,” you want to be honest with him, share how you feel.

“what is?” and he listens, hanging on to your every word as you begin to explain.

“I love you so much, but I can’t express it,” you hate it… hate it so much. “it’s like telling you I love you isn’t enough, but I can’t do any more to tell you.”

“y/n, it’s okay,” and even though you explain, he still doesn’t seem to get it.

“it’s not, jaehyun,” you say firmly. “you do all these things to tell me you love me and all I can do is say it.”

“y/n, that is enough. I know you love me, it’s okay,” you know he means it and he means well… but your frustration won’t leave.

“it’s just hard for me…” you tell him in a whisper.

“it doesn’t need to be, I promise,” you take your head out of of his chest and meet his eyes. “you may think you’re only saying it, but I feel it from you every day.”

“you do?” you’re in disbelief.

“I do. the little things you do to put care into me… of course I notice,” and you… you didn’t even realize. “maybe you do things subconsciously, but I always feel it.”

“jaehyun…” you’re stuck staring into him.

“plus you let me be physical,” now you’re the one hanging on to his every word. “you let me hold your hands, play with your hair, pull you into me.”

“…I know,” you say, finally looking away from him. “but I can’t help but worry if I’m doing enough.”

“you are,” you feel thankful of his reassurance. “and I completely understand being frustrated and worrisome, but shouldn’t all that matter is that I know how you feel?”

“yes…” you know he’s right. “of course.”

“then don’t overthink it, y/n,” if only your brain could shut up… but it’ll definitely be better now. “you’ll always be enough.”

“jaehyun, I’m just really fucking in love you,” you sigh greatly, burying yourself in his chest again as you melt into a puddle.

“you are,” he giggles, grinning widely as he hugs you tighter. “and good thing, because I’m completely in love with you, too.”

“stop,” you laugh a muffled laugh into him.

“now enough overthinking my poor little ice cube, go back to sleep,” he brings his hand up to your head, petting you lightly.

“…okay,” you agree. and you try, but your overwhelming feelings start to get the best of you.

your feelings about jaehyun… are so large. you don’t know what you’d do without him. you know he’s the best thing you could’ve possibly found, and you still can’t believe it. you love him… god, you love him so much. and thinking about it brings you to tears.

“y/n…” jaehyun can hear your sounds, worry filling him.

but he doesn’t need to worry. after all, it’s just love.

“y/n,” jooyeon calls your name, now just as awake as you.

“oh… joo,” you didn’t even realize he woke up.

“what are you doing awake?” he stirs, squirming a little from underneath you.

“ah… just woke up,” your head is turned upward, facing your best friend.

“can’t sleep?” bingo.

“yeah,” you don’t provide an explanation for him, because even you don’t know what’s keeping you up.

“well, you can come closer to me. maybe that’ll be better,” jooyeon shifts more, pulling you even closer to his embrace. you’re hardly any distance away from him, personal space practically nonexistent.

“ah,” you feel a little flustered at his sudden action, looking away. you try brushing it off. “haha, any closer and we’ll-“ you meet jooyeon’s eyes. they have a glimmer to them, and for some reason you can’t look away.

it’s like you’re both in a trance, jooyeon never breaking eye contact with you and you somehow not able to break it either. that’s when jooyeon starts to move. he reaches his arm off of where it’s rested on your waist and moves it up, gently setting his hand on your cheek. you can tell, he’s getting closer if possible. his face now not even an inch from yours… but you can’t.

“ah… jooyeon,” you pull back, putting the most distance between the two of you you’ve had all night.

“is that… not what I was supposed to do?” he blinks at you, a tinge of confusion on his face.

“we can’t,” you say to him, voice gone quiet.

“what do you mean?” he asks before he pauses, hesitant. “you… like me back?”

“jooyeon…” your cheeks light ablaze. you can’t bring yourself to look at him again.

“I like you, y/n,” but soon enough, your eyes dart to his once more. your whole body in a shock, because it’s different hearing the words straightforward. “and to be honest, I’ve probably liked you since we met. I just only knew for sure when we got even closer a couple months ago.”

“I…” you don’t know how to respond. you hold back, before deciding to be honest. “I liked you the moment we met.”

“you do like me…” jooyeon realizes it. “so why don’t you want to?”

“just…” you find it hard to explain, because deep down you do want to. no matter what you say, you know it’s really an excuse. “we’re friends, you know? and I don’t want to complicate anything with the group.”

“who cares about the group? I want you,” jooyeon says it so bluntly, no hesitation either.

“jooyeon,” you know he means it. and you’re glad he does, but you also know that other part of you wishes he didn’t.

“y/n, it wouldn’t be any different. it would still be the way we are now just… a little more.” you know he’s right… you know it.

“I know,” your voice is as quiet as can be.

“then what’s wrong?” along with confusion, you can hear the hurt heard deep within his voice now.

but you don’t want to say it. deep down you know the problem, you know what it is. and even though lee jooyeon has been your best friend for years, you can’t bring yourself to share the words with him.

“y/n… are you scared?” leave it to your best friend to be able to read you like a book.

“…yeah,” of course he knew.

“you don’t have to be, I promise. not with me.” you’re worried he feels bad, maybe at fault. but it’s not him, of course it isn’t.

“I know,” you want him to know you trust him the most. “I know you, jooyeon. it’s just… scary for me.”

“I understand.”you sigh one that’s full of relief. “and I don’t want to pressure you to make a decision. but… can I persuade you?”

you stare at him intently, and now it’s his turn to be full of thought. however, you can tell he has his mind set on his next words. maybe now he’s the one who’s scared.

“you can say no but…” he can’t keep in his thoughts much longer. “can I kiss you?”

your eyes go wide. if you from a couple years ago would’ve known that your best friend in the entire world would ask you that… you swallow hard before you answer. “yes.”

jooyeon wastes no time once you give him the okay, because his hand is back on your face faster than the first time. he leans in close, hesitating a little before he finally allows his lips to make contact with yours. you kiss him slowly, your grip on his side tightening. it isn’t long before he’s the one who pulls away.

“y/n… was that okay?” he asks you quietly, face still only an inch away from yours.

“jooyeon,” you feel fuzzy, maybe a little too in the moment because you go to kiss him again. he feels a small shock, but of course he kisses you back. this time is faster, more sure. you only break away once you’re not able to breathe.

“I take it you liked it,” he lets out with a chuckle. you laugh back, face on fire.

“I did,” you tell him shyly. never have you ever felt this flustered in front of jooyeon.

“I know it’s late so I’m probably in my head, but there’s something I wanna tell you,” his words catch your attention, and now you’re fully alert.

“tell me,” you tell him surely. as if he can just say that and not tell you.

“but, I don’t want it to scare you,” him dragging it out is what makes you more anxious. although, maybe he’s just scared again.

“you can just tell me,” you tell him gently, you want him to know he can trust you as much as you trust him.

“I love you,”you swear it, your breathing stops. “y/n… I love you.”

“oh…” it’s all the noise you can manage to make, and you actually hate it. lee jooyeon, your best friend…

“you don’t have to say it back, I don’t want to force you to,” it hurts to hear him say that but… it’s relief. although you know deep down, he’d love nothing more than to hear it back.

“I’m sorry, jooyeon,” it’s unfortunate you can’t give him what he wants.

“you don’t have to be,” if you didn’t force them away so hard, you’re certain tears would’ve fallen. you want to love him so bad… but that fear can’t go away in an instant. “besides, with more time I know you’ll love me. you’ll be completely obsessed with me.”

you laugh, and he laughs with you. you love moments like these with jooyeon. the vibe can become serious to lighthearted in an instant.

“guess we’ll see,” you say, a sharp smile present. he looks at you for a moment, and just for a second, you swear you can see another glimmer in his eyes.

“now! we should get rest,” he says suddenly, breaking eye contact. you decide not to press him about it, making at least this wish of his come true.