blue hour

CHARIOTS ; TEASER

―PAIRING: jeong jaehyun x f!reader ―GENRE: university/college au, break-up au, angst, romance/light fluff ―WARNINGS: time line jumps, suggestive content, alcohol/drinking, light on plot/heavy on atmosphere, general angst, probably some innaccurate depictions of law school lol [finalised warnings on finished fic] ―ANTICIPATED WORD COUNT: 14k [approximately] ―EXPECTED RELEASE DATE: august 1st

―SUMMARY: you've had your whole life planned out since you were a child. every move calculated accordingly to achieve the goals you had mapped out on your timeline. jaehyun was never part of that plan. but when you meet him at a halloween party in your first year of university, it becomes incresingly harder to ignore his influence on your emotional landscape

―AUTHOR'S NOTE: i've had this story in the works since early 2021 and could never fully lay it to rest. it has finally been completed and heavily overhauled from it's original iteration. i dont know whats left of nctblr at this point, or if anyone really reads for them these days, but i had to see this one through for my own sanity

March 12th, Junior Year

Half-asleep, Jaehyun intertwines his fingers with yours. He tugs you closer to his side in bed, sheen of sweat over your bare bodies shining in the lights that filter in through his open window. You stare up at the ceiling, gaze unfocused, and let your mind wander. Your thoughts twist around each other before flowing outwards and escaping the confines of the apartment walls that surround you. Dancing away into the night air. You let them go—let them surge forward as your conciousness trails behind.

meeting jaehyun only happens by chance. by running into him during late night corner store snack runs, and slowly developing... something.

it goes from eyeing each other in the foggy glass off the ice cream freezer, keeping a safe distance while you take turns picking a treat. then, most times, he disappears into the night by the time you're done paying.

he figures out your favourite snacks over time, waiting for you in the glow of the 24/7 neon sign blinking tirelessly above the entrance.

he's not much of a talker at first, only silently offering a different crinkly bag each night. it's not in friendship territory, maybe something adjacent. it's a silent deal, one where you don't learn his name for the first month of sitting on the curbside and sharing a bag of candy. he holds it out for you, the back of his hand briefly grazing your thigh before he carefully retreats.

tonight, it's a family size bag of peach rings.

you bump your knee against his, and he repeats the gesture with a smile on his lips. the dimples on his cheeks deepen, and his eyes mirror the moon's crescent shape in the sky, twinkling even in the orange light of a street lamp above.

you wonder if he's even prettier in daylight.

it's silent for another beat, before he presses his knee back against yours. you don't miss the way something flashes in his eyes, and his cheeks along with the tips of his ears, turn pink.

the bag falls from his hand, landing in front of your feet, and the peach rings spill on the concrete. his hand, now empty, is warm against your cheek, cradling your face as he leans closer. his lips are soft against yours, gentle but impatient as he kisses you again and again.

tonight, he tastes like peaches.

♡ ♡ ♡

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