#cwchallenges

“It was. It was meant to be. Instead, they went to see a movie that came out today. Without me.”

“If you know that, then they didn’t stand you up, Y/N. They just changed their plans,” your brother reiterated, rolling his eyes at your theatrics. “Which sucks, but it happens.”

“They didn’t tell me. I waited outside in the freezing cold for an hour before I stumbled over an Instagram story of the two of them at the movies together.”

“Harsh,” Jeonghan commented before patting the empty spot beside him. “Can we help cheer you up? We’ve got popcorn and a movie on.”

You eyed the tempting offer. Normally, you wouldn’t hesitate, even with Jihoon’s not so subtle sighing that meant he wanted to spend time without his little sister interrupting it. But you were too dejected and knew your mood would ruin any type of company you attempted to keep.

“It’s okay, I’ll just go brood in my room.”

“They’re dicks, so don’t dwell on it for too long,” Jihoon commiserated, and you gave him a half-smile before trudging into your bedroom.

At some point, you must have fallen asleep. You startled awake from a nasty nightmare and would have fallen off your bed had a warm hand not reached out to save you. You shrieked, which was instantly muffled by another hand. “It’s me, Y/N. Calm down.”

“…Jeonghan?” your grogginess evaporated as you stared at the man before checking yourself over to make sure you were decent.

“God, why would you even inspect yourself like that when it’s just me?” he murmured, removing his hands from you, and rubbing the back of his neck. “You know you’re safe around me.”

“I wasn’t… I didn’t… wait. Why are you in here in the first place? You know Jihoon would kick your butt if he ever found the two of us alone. He’s always talking about how he can’t even get a moment’s peace when we’re together. And that’s when he’s in the room. I doubt he’s—”

“The fact that your brother is ridiculously protective of you even around his longest friend is not something I want to get into at two in the morning.”

You arched an eyebrow at him in wild assumption, and Jeonghan hissed reproachfully. “Y/N, I don’t want to get into that either. I heard a noise coming from in here and came to check on you. Are you alright?”

Aside from being mortified that you so boldly rejected me just now, I’m peachy, you thought whilst feebly nodding. “What was the noise?”

“It sounded like someone was in here hurting you. You were whimpering and begging for help. I noticed it was a bad dream, so I shook you awake.”

“Oh.” You were thankful that Jeonghan hadn’t turned on the lights because you felt a flush make its way over your body. “You couldn’t sleep again?”

He smiled wryly. “You know more about my insomnia than your brother does.”

“We each have our roles in your life. I’m your friend too,” you reminded, and his lips grew into a smile.

“You are.” Sitting down next to you on your bed, Jeonghan stretched out his long legs before nudging you. “Was it a scary dream?”

“Yeah.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Glancing at him, you sighed. “Not really. I just feel cold right now.”

Jeonghan’s arm instantly wrapped around your shoulder, and you nestled into his side. “Let me warm you back up.”

“Jihoon will—”

“He’s asleep. And he’ll never know,” Jeonghan announced firmly, your body already relaxing against him. Perhaps you were still too exhausted to care about Jihoon finding you wrapped up in Jeonghan’s embrace, closing your eyes and listening to his even breathing.

The morning arrived, and you felt far too hot for being just under your thin blanketing. Opening your eyes, you gasped when you realised you had fallen asleep with Jeonghan. He was still sleeping, his arms around you, holding you to his chest. Biting back a smile, you gazed at him, soaking in this rare opportunity.

“Did you seduce him in here?” a quiet voice asked, and you flinched, Jeonghan’s arms wrapping around you more tightly to settle you, exhaling a small murmur as he continued to rest.

You diverted your attention to Jihoon leaning against the doorjamb with a cup of coffee held in his hand.

“Whoa. That’s not how it happened.”

“He seduced you then?” Jihoon asked, taking a sip of his drink.

“What? No! You know he would never.”

Jihoon snorted. “I’ve been cockblocking him for years from you.”

“What?!” you squeaked out and blinked several times. Questions rallied to the surface of your mind, but you didn’t get a chance to ask them when Jeonghan finally stirred awake.

“You both going to keep talking about me as if I’m not in the room? I swear. You Lee siblings are the worst for holding conversations without including all parties in the same vicinity.”

“I wasn’t wanting to talk to you, merely about you,” Jihoon sardonically replied, shaking his head before walking out of the room.

You and Jeonghan stared after his departure before you turned to look at one another, stunned. “Did he just… leave us alone after finding us together?”

“Yeah,” you breathed out and then slumped into the bedding. “Because he trusts you to do the right thing.”

“The right thing by his books is to not even look at you,” Jeonghan pointed out, his hand reaching to smooth some of your bed hair away from your face. He seemed fascinated to do it, as if he never had the chance to look at you first thing in the morning before. And whilst he had seen you many times over the years, you guessed this was the closest moment he’d had. His lips moved into a lazy, satisfied smile. “He knows I do that all too often, though.”

“I’m not following you,” you admitted, and Jeonghan exhaled a deep breath.

“He wasn’t lying, Y/N. He has been putting himself between us for years.”

“Yeah but, you don’t—”

Leaning in to softly brush his lips against your cheek, Jeonghan watched as a dazed expression swept away your confusion. “I do. I have always liked you.”

“You have?”

“And I know you—”

“Okay, I tried. I really did,” Jihoon suddenly returned through the open door, breathing a little heavily. “If you’re going to have this heart to heart, I need to not be here. But the idea of it happening whilst you’re still in bed is doing me in, so, get out. Both of you.”

“What?!”

Jeonghan laughed heartily, prying himself away from your body, leaving you cold without him as he walked across the room. He patted Jihoon on the shoulder before looking back at you. “You’re right. This has been a long time coming. I’ll take your sister out for a breakfast date then. Will you be okay with that, Jihoon?”

“I—hey, I didn’t—”

You beamed at Jeonghan’s cheeky expression. “It’s a date.”

_________________

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[15:04]

“I have no idea where to go next.” You turn around slowly to look at Jackson. He’s honestly scared to look away from the map in his hands because he knows that you’re going to start scolding him, but eventually, he has to. Jackson’s brown eyes slowly move from the map to look at you and he can see a vein bulging from your forehead. “Please, (Y/n), I’m sorry, I-I know you should’ve taken the map, please don’t kill me!” he squeaks when you grab the map out of his hands and stare at the printed piece of paper. There’s no way for you to actually tell where you are because you’re literally in the middle of the forest. 

“Oh my god, why did Jaebeom give you the map,” you groan as you try to remember the way you came, but the forest is unfortunately not as forgiving as you hope it is because every direction you look at looks exactly the same as the last. “How are we supposed to get out! We left our phones at the camp!” 

“I know! I’m sorry!” Jackson whines. He watches as you repetitively look from the map to your surroundings, trying your best to at least figure out where you are. It was Jackson’s idea to go camping with you and your best friends, and honestly, the two of you were doing fine in your paired hiking until Jackson thought it was a good idea to take hold of the map and lead the two of you off trail. Which leads you to your current situation; lost in the middle of the forest with barely any kind of knowledge as to where you are or just how far away from the camp you are. 

“I think I know where to go,” you mutter, looking back down at the map. There’s a loud clap of thunder that makes both of your heads whip up to look at the gloomy sky and suddenly, you feel a single drop of water fall onto your face. You turn around slowly to Jackson once again and he’s never felt so scared in his life from just your gaze. 

“I-I have a mini tent in my bag,” he smiles nervously. 

“Set it up. Hopefully it doesn’t rain that bad,” you sigh, watching as Jackson starts pulling it out of his pack.  

It’s raining.

Heavily. 

You and Jackson are huddled in his freakishly small tent that barely fits two people but is enough to shelter you two from the rain. It’s cold and you have your windbreaker tightly wrapped around you as you shine your flashlight onto the map. 

“We should be able to find base camp if we head North East,” you mutter, circling what your assumed location is and drawing an arrow towards the small red tent you had drawn before you and Jackson had left the camp. 

“Can I see?” he questions softly. You look up from the map to see Jackson give you his best puppy eyes and you give in with a sigh, angling the map so that he’s able to look at it too. “That makes sense,” he nods. “I’m sorry we’re stuck in the forest now. Lost… and in the rain.” 

“It’s okay, Jacks,” you give him a small smile as you pat his head gently. You always thought that Jackson’s decision to go strawberry blond resulted in one of his best looks, but as much as you want to tell him that, you know you’ll end up saying something else instead. “We’ll find our way back. Worse comes to worst, they’ll send Jinyoung out with his strange tracking skills.” 

“I think he’d end up hunting us with a spear before actually bringing us back to camp,” Jackson quips, enticing a laugh out of you. His smile grows at the way you throw your head back when you laugh. He has so much he wants to tell you, but he fears that he’ll end up ruining the friendship you’ve built over the past four years. So, Jackson stays quiet when you laugh, only a small chuckle leaving past his lips at the way you smile. 

“Jinyoung would kill you for making us lost. He loves me too much to do anything to me,” you hum as you fold the map and stick it into the pocket of your windbreaker. 

“Jinyoung only has a soft spot for you because you’re not me,” he huffs as he sits upright. The temperature’s starting to drop even more the heavier the rain’s getting and it’s not helping that all you have are windbreakers. You can’t even start a fire because you’d just end up lighting the tent on fire and Jackson forgot to grab the heat lamp before you guys left the main camp. To be fair, you both thought that the heat lamp would just add weight to your backpacks since it was pretty hot and you were only supposed to be hiking for about two hours. 

It’s been four hours. 

Which makes you wonder whether or not your other friends had already started panicking or already had a feeling that you’d get lost. 

“Do you think they’re looking for us?” you question, turning to Jackson. 

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure Youngjae’s the only one that would be worried and maybe Mark’s girlfriend, but other than that…” he trails off as he thinks about it before shaking his head, “I’m pretty sure they know that we’d get lost.” 

You raise an eyebrow, “why?” 

“Jinyoung specifically told me not to take the map from you,” Jackson confesses with an awkward laugh. Your eyes narrowed into slits, an accusing look directed at him. 

“Then why did you take the map?” Your arms cross over your chest when he lets out a long, awkward laugh. 

“I wanted to prove a point.” 

“Well, point proven,” you huff. There’s a loud clap of thunder that makes you jump and let out a squeal, your heart suddenly pounding in your chest. Jackson instinctively moves closer to hold onto you but he stops himself right before, arms reaching towards you. 

“You didn’t tell me you were scared of thunder,” he points out, moving slightly closer to you so that at least you’re more aware that he’s there. 

“It’s not something you just tell someone,” you mutter, looking around the tent. Jackson’s torn between holding onto you or just staying still. He wants to comfort you, but he also doesn’t want to make it awkward between you two. There’s another clap of thunder that almost makes you scream and Jackson works on instinct. His arms immediately wrap around you as he pulls you into him, one hand holding onto the back of your head and the other wrapped around your torso. Your hands are folded in between the two of you as you let your face lean into his chest.

You don’t even register the fact that you’re securely held against his chest until your heart rate slows down. You freeze when you realise the hold Jackson has you in. You feel like you should move away before it gets weird, but his grip on you makes you feel secure. You look up to see him looking down at you, brown eyes gentle. 

“Are you okay?” Jackson asks softly. You nod slowly and he smiles. “We can stay like this if it makes you feel safe.”

“R-Really?” Your eyes widen when he nods.  Your hands slowly move to wrap around his waist, feeling more comfortable that way. “Thank you.”

It was rectangle-shaped and small but kept in neatness; you wondered if it would be the same if you hadn't preannounced your visit.

You took in the walls full of posters and photos as you ambled deeper, slowly making your way towards the desk on the very end. The table wasn't as tidy as the rest of the room, pens and scrunched pieces of paper sprawled around.

And an opened notebook.

The two visible pages were covered in sloppy writing and had many of the words crossed out. Even the margins had almost no clean space.

Before you could think twice about it, you started reading the messy notes. You'd never had an opportunity to partake of Youngjo's process of making music and was always put with the finished product like everyone else, so the temptation was too strong to resist.

From the first line, you were doubtless that it was a love song. You couldn't recognize the lyrics, so you thought it must have been something he was still working on and was yet to be released. The lines consisted mostly of beautifully written, poetical almost, descriptions of a person. Ravn included their every trait - from the top to the bottom, even digging deeper into their character.

But what struck you the most was that all those descriptions, although in your opinion were a bit magnified, matched you.

Before you got to the middle of the right page, your eyes filled with tears, blurring your sigh and making it impossible to read further.

When you covered your mouth with one palm and put the other one on the back of the chair to steady, a quiet squeak came from behind you. 

"Y/n? What are you doing hereㅡ are you crying?" Youngjo made a bee-line to where you stood, automatically placing a hand on your shoulder as he worriedly scanned your figure.

He followed your gaze to the notebook he hadn't thought of closing before heading out, and his eyes widened as he realized.

"Iㅡ" uncovering your mouth, you swallowed to steady your tone. "I wasn't meant to find this, was I?"

Ravn sighed, yet his expression wasn't angry nor annoyed as you expected. He did seem a little taken down, but his face still had the usual softness to it.

"No, you weren't." He confirmed, moving his hand from your shoulder to place it gently on your cheek. "To be honest, I wanted to record it after I finished the lyrics and give it to you for your birthday."

Your sinus stung, and you felt another wave of tears coming up to your eyes, so you quickly wrapped your arms around him and pressed your face to the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry..." you breathed. "I shouldn't have read it."

Youngjo returned the hold, patting the back of your head delicately.