#love fools

You wake alone in your bed, room dark and warm. You can hear faint clattering down the hall, which you have to assume is from your boyfriend trying to throw together breakfast. It’s not that you think Jaehyun is incapable, he’s just kind of clumsy, and has a tendency to treat inanimate objects roughly, which usually leads to burned food and the occasional broken dish.

But you don’t smell burning, and the air is clear of the telltale panicked sweeping and clinking, so you sit up slowly, yawning widely as your body is overtaken by the need to stretch. It’s the weekend, and the weather was promised to be bright and beautiful.

You rummage around in the dark for some sweatpants, and then resign yourself to temporary blindness, pulling the blinds open and blinking in pain at the sudden stream of sunlight. You haphazardly make your bed—it’s not pretty, but at least now your blankets aren’t balled up in the corner—and head down the hall towards the enticing smell of food and coffee.

Jaehyun is cleaning up some dishes, and he turns when you enter with a sweet smile on his face. His eyes sparkle a little in the morning light, and his dimples make you melt a little. Or maybe it’s the way his hair is sticking up all over the place, assisted by the zig-zag headband he’s used to keep his bangs off his forehead.

“Good morning,” you say, unable to suppress a bubble of laughter at his appearance.

“Morning,” he says, voice deep and rough from sleep still, a wonderful contrast to his gentle appearance. He reaches out to you and pulls you into a hug, and you take a deep breath of his aftershave, smiling into his t-shirt.

“I cooked,” Jaehyun announces unnecessarily. “Without burning myself or anything else.”

“I—congratulations,” you reply, rolling your eyes and giving him a fond smile as you take a seat at the table. “Thank you,” you add as he slides a bowl of rice with an egg on top in front of you, along with a mug of coffee, made just the way you like it.

“So I was thinking,” he says as he brings his own breakfast to the table. “You’re not busy today, right?”

“No,” you reply.

“Wanna go to that coffee shop and, like, read and play board games, and then maybe take a walk by the river?” he suggests. “And then we can go to that boat restaurant for dinner.”

You smile. “Sounds like the perfect day,” you agree. You watch him through your eyelashes as he eats, laughing to yourself about how he eats in pout—you once told him he looked like Noot Noot the Penguin, and he had crossed his arms and frowned and insisted he did not (but all this did was look even more like Noot Noot in the moment). You find yourself endeared by the most obscure of his habits, like how now he’s rolling his rice into a little ball around his chopsticks before he eats it. It seems odd, but things like this, and the pout-eating, and the dumb little headband, make you love him more than his striking good looks or his beautiful voice. Those are nice, but really, I’m so lucky, you think, laughing when he spills a little coffee and stares down at his lap in shock and betrayal. I’m lucky to have this clumsy, silly, sweet boy.

Once the dishes are clean, you change into outside clothes and head out. It’s near afternoon now, and the late spring sun is pleasant and warm. Jaehyun skips a few paces ahead of you so he can walk backwards and talk facing you at the same time, and nearly trips over his own feet when he reaches an uneven patch of sidewalk. You’re reminded of how you met, two years prior. You literally bumped into each other in the dining hall of your university. You were both freshmen, and it was early April, and you were wearing a white shirt. To be fair, it was as much your fault as it was his; you’d both been walking backwards. You got tomato sauce all over. All Jaehyun had in hand was a glass of water, and somehow he’d only gotten it on his shoes.

You wanted to be angry, but he’d just looked so sorry when you turned around. He put his cup down and took his sweatshirt off and said you could borrow it “since your t-shirt’s kind of, um, ruined,” a comment you hadn’t understood until you ran to the bathroom and saw that the fabric had become see-through.

He offered to run into town and buy you a stain remover, and you’d accepted. He’d forgotten to pick up his sweatshirt when he came by your room later, and it had led to the two of you meeting in the very coffee shop you are now approaching. Though it hadn’t needed to be a meeting longer than five minutes, you ended up staying all afternoon, just talking, and by the time you’d finally parted ways, any lingering animosity you might have felt for him had completely disappeared, replaced by intrigue you later realized was budding attraction.

And now, here you are, grinning as he holds the door open for you. Here you are, finding a couple of comfy armchairs by the window while he goes to order for the both of you. Here you are, sipping the foam off the top of your latte and listening to Jaehyun talk about how the barista said their manager had approved of him and a couple of his friends to come perform on weekend nights.

“You’ll come, right?” he asks, eyes big and earnest.

“Of course I’ll come,” you reply, rolling your eyes.

Soon, you’re both engrossed in a very heated game of Uno, volume perhaps a little above what would be considered “indoor voices”; an elderly man glares at you over the rim of his glasses after a particularly loud minute or two that ended in Jaehyun angrily drawing eight new cards.

You stay for a few more hours, and when you tire of sitting in the same chair, you put your mugs up and head back out onto the street. It’s a little cooler out now, and a pleasant breeze kicks up as you get closer to the river. A little blush has risen to Jaehyun’s cheeks, maybe leftover from the Uno game, or maybe a result of being outside, but it’s cute, and you resist the urge to take his head between your hands and kiss him. It’s a little early in the day for that behavior, and you’re surrounded by families. We’ve probably already reached our quota of being a Public Nuisance today anyway, you think to yourself.

A ball rolls in front of your feet, and you bend to pick it up. You look in the direction from which it came, and see a little girl running up to you. You offer it to her, and she accepts, giving you a grin. One of her front teeth is missing. “Is that your boyfriend?” she asks, pointing at Jaehyun.

“Yep,” you reply, laughing.

She gestures you closer, and Jaehyun looks on in curiosity as you bend to hear her secret. “Your boyfriend is handsome,” she whispers in your ear, and you laugh again.

“Don’t tell him,” you whisper back. “He already knows, and he uses it against people way too often.”

The girl looks at you with wide-eyed sincerity. “Is he evil?” she asks.

“No,” you reassure her, trying not to laugh. “No, he’s the nicest.”

Apparently satisfied, the girl waves shyly at Jaehyun, and then runs back to her mom, who’s waiting a couple of yards away. You stand, smiling at the family, and then nudge Jaehyun forward.

“What did she say?” he asks.

“That you’re handsome,” you reply, sticking your tongue out at him. “I told her not to tell you ‘cuz it’d go to your head.”

“I’m the most humble person you know!” he protests.

“Uh-huh.” He’s kind of right though. Though at times he can get a little obnoxious (usually when he’s been hanging out with Johnny and his frat for a bit too long), he’s usually quiet and unassuming. He minds his own business, and doesn’t try to stand out or get attention. He gets it anyway, for being talented and smart and physically beautiful, but it’s not because he seeks it out. You really love that about him—that he’s down-to-earth, that he manages not to be conceited even though it would be completely fair if he was, that he’s happy to be a little bit of an oddball. You love that he’s the kind of person who doodles weird little faces in the margins on his notebook, declaring next to them, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING”; that he’s hardworking but still self-aware; and most of all, that he’s caring in little, gentle ways, almost nonchalantly, like it’s in his nature.

You tilt your head, looking him over where he walks beside you. Even though you’re not really doing anything right now, the corners of his lips are curled into a tiny smile. His hair is being blown back by the breeze; his hands are shoved into the pockets of his army green bomber jacket. It strikes you, solid and piercing, in your chest, just how content you are with your life, and with him. You focus as best you can on the scene, on the moment, and on him. These moments are ones you kind of wish you could tattoo to the inside of your eyelids, so that it’s easy to remember the good times, no matter where you are.

You realize Jaehyun’s gotten a bit ahead of you, and you hurry to catch up. He grins back at you, and points ahead. “Look,” he says. “We’re already there.”

You blink, and realize that the boat restaurant is in the distance. You look the other way, and see that the sun is low in the sky. You’ve been walking for a while now, and your stomach grumbles a little. “Good,” you say, taking his arm. “I’m starving.”

You get a nice window view table, and chat as you watch the boats go by while you wait for your food. You make fun of a couple of fancy pleasure boats that pass, suggesting the ridiculous names their disgustingly rich owners probably gave them. Jaehyun bobbles back and forth a little with the force of his giggling, and you find that you can’t stop smiling.

You eat until you can’t anymore, and Jaehyun insists on paying (“I have that new gig at the coffee shop, remember?”) even though he paid last time, too. And then the only thing between you and cuddling on your bed with Netflix in the background is the stroll home.

The sun is setting as you leave the restaurant, painting the sky a brilliant red and gold. Jaehyun takes your hand, swinging your arms between you as you walk. You’re both quiet for a minute, taking in the sunset over the river.

“Hey,” he says finally, turning towards you. “Today was perfect. Thank you for spending it with me.”

You look at him, so many responses filling your head, too fast for you to process them. Of course I spent it with you. What else would I be doing? You stop walking, pulling him to a halt, too. “I love you,” you say simply.

Jaehyun gets this big, kind of stupid grin on his face. His eyes nearly disappear, and little shadow whiskers appear on his face. His dimples are prominent as ever. He’s the picture of adoration as he leans in, giggling his way through an “I love you, too,” and then he’s kissing you.