#95-liners

next door neighbors, how cliche. childhood friends, smothering what could’ve beens if you’d had some distance. proximity can do two things after all - provide immunity or attraction.

in your case, it’s the latter. you’ve believed this for years, throughout middle school and in your last year of high school, you’ve slowly began to accept it. after all, accepting it is one step to moving on from it… right?

so after years of turning down dates, you finally accept one. jeonghan asked you after school, and while you were surprised, you didn’t see a reason to say no. especially after he mentioned that seungcheol was fine with it.

‘practically gave me his blessing and all—“

which brings you to your current predicament.

“seungcheol! what the hell?”

wide-eyed and with the cuffs of his pants soaked, seungcheol stands in the middle of what previously was a beautiful spread of sandwiches and fruits on a checkered blanket.

what started out as a picnic under the stars is now a whole mess, with the soda tipped over, and the blanket underfoot. ways away, jeonghan sits, his hands up in a placating manner, with seungcheol as the tiger.

instead of answering you, seungcheol turns to jeonghan with betrayed eyes — “you traitor-!! you didn’t tell me it was y/n!”

“Y/n is right here!” you protest, “what the hell is happening! seungcheol— don’t choke, hannie!”

“Hannie?” seungcheol chokes, “hannie??” and turns to jeonghan, his voice increasing in volume, grasping his collar.

you’ve never been a patient person. it’s one of your flaws, your mom said, but really, if you’ve been one jeonghan’s beautiful face might end meeting seungcheol’s fist.

pulling them apart is a chore but easy enough because seungcheol will never risk hurting you in the crossfire. with them apart and you in the middle, you ask again, “what’s this about?”

seungcheol looks away with his lip suspiciously in a pout and jeonghan does his eye roll thing that says he doesn’t want to answer.

you don’t waver and focus your glare on your date, annoyed that apparently he has an idea, if not the knowledge of the whole thing and you really don’t want to deal with a pouty seungcheol.

“he likes you, okay?” jeonghan throws his hands up in the sky, exasperated and pushed his friend towards you. your eyes are wide and so are seungcheol’s at this wild turn of events.

your heart leaps at the statement but it also pinches a bit in confusion, “but… but you asked me out?”

jeonghan shrugs, and if not for the small fond smile on his face, you’d be hurt, “he needed a push. joshua agrees.” from a distance, you see joshua’s silhouette in the driver seat of a car, honking his horn.

seungcheol squints. joshua drove him here reluctantly, what an actor. also, what the hell? “so this is a set-up? ya!”

jeonghan lets out a long-suffering sigh as if he’s a dad of two teenagers, “dude, you’ve been dragging your feet about asking y/n out for years, it’s pathetic.”

your cheeks flush and your ears burn as you turn to a blushing seungcheol. there’s a lot to unpack there but, first, “you like me? like… more than a friend?”

“i-i…” seungcheol stammers, and he shifts his weight from one foot to another his back turning to jeonghan. “yes.”

“oh.”

“yeah.”

there, underneath the stars, something new blooming between the two of you - two awkward young adults with stars in your eyes - seungcheol is breathtaking — of course.

eyes caught with one another, you don’t even notice jeonghan sigh and walk away.

extra:

in the car, joshua starts the engine and pulls back from the clearing. beside him, jeonghan is silent, the humor in his eyes fading and his smirk falling flat.

following his line of sight, joshua stares at the clearing now covered by the trees and bushes. he knows beyond it, you’re there with seungcheol, finally honest and finally together.

“you’re really not going to tell her?”

jeonghan shrugs, remembering the way your eyes lit up at his friend’s confession, “no, i’m not.”

“you sure?”

jeonghan hums, leaning his elbow against joshua’s car window. he could, he thinks, he could tell you. and he’s pretty sure he can charm you, steal you from seungcheol. compared to him, he’s smoother, refined, and he’ll treat you better too.

but he doesn’t want someone he needs to steal away.