#nini.requests

The second she finished her sentence, you saw Haechan come out with the hospital staff pushing him to his room. 

“Donghyuck!” you exclaimed happily. 

Your boyfriend seemed drowsy, probably the lingering after-effects of the anaesthesia. You had to hold your laughter back from how goofy he looked, especially combined with the hospital gown and the messy hair. 

“Who are you?” he asked as he smacked his lips a few times. 

You frowned at his question. “Are you really asking me who I am?” 

“Mhm, yeah.” He hummed and then giggled. “You’re pretty.” 

Oh, you wished you could film this moment and show it to the rest of the boys. Renjun would  totally make fun of him for this. But you also wanted to keep this moment to yourself. Was that selfish of you? 

“Can I have your number?” 

“You already have my number,” you answered, slightly annoyed, but also amused. 

“Stop lying. I don’t have your number.” 

“Donghyuck, I’m your girlfriend. I’m pretty sure that my number is on your phone somewhere.” 

“You’re my girlfriend?” Donghyuck gasped, almost exaggeratedly. “Wait, where’s my phone. I need to make sure that it’s true.” 

“How about I’ll give your phone back when you’re feeling a bit better, yeah?” 

“I’m feeling awesome, though?” 

“I bet you do.” You snorted and patted him on his head. “Stay here while I get your discharge papers, alright?” 

“Can’t you bring me with you?” 

You looked him up-and-down with a side-eye. “In your current state? Yeah, no. Why do you want to stick to me so much? Just be a good boy and stay in your bed until the anaesthesia wears off.” 

Donghyuck pouts, his bottom lip jutting out in disappointment. “Is it so wrong of me to want to be next to my girlfriend? I guess I’m a sugar because I stick to you like glue-cose.” 

You made a face of disgust and apprehension. “Babe, that was so bad. It wasn’t even funny.” 

But that didn’t stop him from dropping another line on you. “I wish I were adenine so that I could be paired up with YOU. Get it? Like adenine is paired with uracil, and uracil’s symbol is the letter ‘U?’” 

You sighed through your nose. 

“Oh, oh, I got a better one! If I were an enzyme, I would be a helicase so I can unzip your gene,” he said and looked super proud. 

Was this how he was able to seduce you and ask you out? 

“Are you really flirting with me, right now? In this state?” you asked him while pinching his cheeks. 

While you were slightly unimpressed by his choice of pick-up lines, you still somehow found him pretty endearing. 

“I’m always flirting with you. Keep up.” 

You shook your head and left to grab his discharge papers. 

You regretted just the slightest for not filming him. 

You wouldn’t call yourself unattractive – beauty was subjective, in your opinion – but you just didn’t thrive for the same things as Jaehyun. You didn’t mind just passing your four years of university as the random studious girl in people’s classes. Only you were perhaps the smartest person in your grade, if not, your whole department, and that was how you ended up becoming Jaehyun’s tutor, and eventually his girlfriend.

He was a popular guy – that much, anyone could tell – but his popularity never really hit you until you were in his setting, in his frat house, attending his frat house party, and you noticed just how many people would steal him away because they hadn’t seen him in so long. It was a side of him that you’d never really got to know.

(You also didn’t miss the meaning behind their glances whenever they mentioned to Jaehyun that they hadn’t seen him around in a while. They probably blamed you for Jaehyun’s lack of attendance.)

You remained in Jaehyun’s room and decided to go over your class notes of the week. While there was a party ongoing outside of his room, the music wasn’t deafening. With your focus, it was easy for you to block out any noises, which was why you didn’t notice Jaehyun entering his own room.

“Oh!” you exclaimed when you felt his lips press against the back of your neck. You quickly turned away from his desk and saw Jaehyun smiling down at you, and you smiled back. “Hi, there.”

“Hello,” he mumbled with a drunken, kind of dopey, smile.

You laughed at your boyfriend and helped him to his bed. “Are you drunk?”

“Nooooo,” he replied with a pout. When you finally got him in his bed, Jaehyun opened his arms to you and beckoned you over. “Come cuddle with me.”

You were actually planning to finish studying before joining him in his bed. You usually were pretty strict with yourself when it came to your studies, but you could feel your determination waver as Jaehyun continued to plead with you with his puppy eyes and dimpled cheeks. With a small sigh, you went into Jaehyun’s arms.

Jaehyun instantly tightened his arms around you and tucked you under his chin. He gave you a small kiss on the top of your head before continuing to hold you tight. You chuckled at how childish he was acting.

“Babe, I’m not going anywhere,” you told him. “Why are you holding me so tight?”

He moaned a little as the alcohol probably caught up to him and he was now sleepy. “I dunno,” he said as his words slurred a little, “it just feels like, if I don’t hold you tight, then you’re going to slip away from me or something.”

Maybe everyone out there knew Jaehyun, but you knew a side of Jaehyun that no one else seemed to know. You hoped that it remained that way.

“...you,” he mumbled with his eyes closed. But then his brows furrowed and he opened one of his eyes before asking you, “Why are you not saying it back?”

You quickly blinked. “Sorry, Jae, I got lost in my thoughts. What did you just say?”

He shook his head lazily. “S’okay, it’s one of the things I love about you… the way you kind of drift off… with that dreamy look… and your eyes… they look as if… they got the whole galaxy in them… not just stars.”

You looked up at him with a curious look. “Since when were you such a poet?”

“Mhm, anyway… I said I love you.”

Oh.

“And I’m asking if you love me too.”

Without even hearing your answer, Jaehyun fell asleep, his light snores filling the room. You quickly refrained yourself from laughing too hard, afraid that you might wake him up from his slumber.

You pushed yourself on your elbows and then kissed him on his lips that were still pouty from earlier. Jaehyun looked so lovely, almost cherubic. And despite all your differences and people’s irrelevant opinions on your relationship, one thing was clear for sure.

“Congratulations on your engagement,” Doyoung said to you.

He and Yuta were friends you had in common with Jaehyun, meaning those two were also the only ones who knew about your obvious crush on your fiancé. 

You thought it was stupid, not to mention cliché, of you to fall for the person you were engaged to. What made things worse was that you knew of Jaehyun’s dislike for you and you had an inkling behind his dislike. 

“Thanks,” you muttered through your teeth, ignoring both how smug your two friends were and how hot your cheeks felt. 

Your family knew of your small crush on Jaehyun. From the moment you first laid eyes on him at your first meeting, your parents just knew that you fell for the man. 

But that was all it was—just a small crush that would come and go the second the party was over. However, they thought they were doing you a favour by arranging the marriage with his parents. What they didn’t know was the fact that Jaehyun was already taken at that time. 

You didn’t know how serious Jaehyun and his girlfriend were. But you knew they were serious enough that Jaehyun would always look at you with contempt whenever you two locked eyes. However, you refused to take the blame for the fall of their relationship. Jaehyun was an adult who could have refused the arranged marriage if he wanted. 

But he didn’t. 

So, what exactly was he thinking? 

“I’m going out for some fresh air,” you mumbled to Doyoung, expecting him to relay the news to Jaehyun. 

On your way out, you managed to pass by the bar and grabbed a whole bottle of red wine from the bartender (and then proceeded to give the bartender a very generous tip).

You expected to have some time to yourself, to take a breather from all the hecticness that came with both the party that was going on inside as well as the planning behind a marriage that your partner didn’t even want to be part of. 

The last thing you expected was for Jaehyun to join you. 

You sighed tiredly to yourself and took a swig from the bottle of wine.

“What do you want, Jung?” You paused and pointed an accusating finger at him. “I don’t have the energy to deal with your negativity. But, feel free to torment me after our marriage is officialized. You’ll have the rest of your life to do it.”

He remained silent and you couldn’t quite distinguish his expression. 

You scoffed, the alcohol slowly getting to you. “How dare you blame me for this bullshit of a situation we’re in. You could have said no to this arranged marriage. You could have just refused, and then both of us wouldn’t be stuck in this loveless marriage and–”

You exhaled sharply.

“I didn’t expect to fall for you. I never planned on falling for you.” 

“You could have done the same,” Jaehyun said after a long pregnant silence. “You could have said no, too.” 

You were not one to cry easily. But the way that he so easily dismissed your feelings, purposely ignoring your drunken confession made you feel like such utter crap that you hated yourself for ever thinking that perhaps with time, Jaehyun’s feelings might change. 

“You are the rudest man I’ve ever met in my life,” you straight up told him, missing the small flash of insecurity in his eyes. 

If he weren’t so mean and rude to you, you would have suggested to divorce him a year later. If he weren’t such an ass to you, you would have done everything in your power to reverse this situation. But it was only too bad that Jaehyun decided to remain so negative and to put the blame on you. 

It was only too bad that you were such a petty person too. 

“And just for the torture you’ve put me for the past few months,” you said with a small sneer as you left him alone outside. 

“I’ll make sure that you will suffer for the rest of your life.” 

You shook your head. “No, actually, I was just thinking about how you, Doyoung, and I joined the company at the same time, and look at him now, promoted and shipped off to the Singapore office.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to miss him,” Jaehyun said with a snort, jokingly.

“Har, har,” you replied. “He’ll be back in six months. What is there to miss?”

“Then why the sigh?”

You gave Jaehyun a small look and closed your fridge. You leaned your whole body against it and then crossed your arms. “Promise you won’t make fun of me?”

He smiled mischievously. “Depends.”

You rolled your eyes and motioned him to follow you to the living room, where you had a small glass cabinet displaying some of your favourite alcoholic beverages: the Hennessy XO cognac your parents had gifted you when you got your position at the company, the Disaronno Originale amaretto you bought for yourself, your favourite moscato white wine from Jacob’s Creek and–

“High West’s Midwinter’s Night Dram whiskey,” Jaehyun said in admiration when you pulled out the bottle. You handed it to him and he turned the bottle around while whistling lowly. “You sure know your alcohol. Doesn’t a bottle cost about $300? How did you get your hands on this?”

Your eyes bulged out slightly at the price tag. “Wait, is it actually $300?”

“I mean, it’s probably one of the least expensive ones if we’re talking about the nice and expensive whiskeys, but definitely one of the best ones out there, in my opinion,” Jaehyun rambled and furrowed his brows. “Don’t tell me you bought this without knowing its worth.”

You shrugged one of your shoulders. “Bought it? No. But I certainly didn’t know its worth when it was gifted to me.”

Jaehyun suddenly went silent, his eyes still on the bottle of whiskey. “Who gave it to you?”

He looked so crestfallen. You resisted the urge to laugh at his demeanour. He looked kind of adorable with his pouty lips, so adorable that you felt like teasing him. But you knew that Jaehyun wouldn’t take your teasing too well as he gets embarrassed very easily.

“An old uni professor gifted it to me, actually,” you revealed with a reminiscing smile, “when I told him I got my first permanent job. Who would have thought that six years later, I would still be working there?”

He looked at the bottle again and noticed something odd. “Six years and you never opened it once?”

“Nope,” you answered, popping the ‘p’. “This is the part where you promised you won’t make fun of me.”

You looked at him, making sure he wouldn’t, and only continued when you got his confirmation, “I told myself I was only going to open this bottle when there’s something to celebrate, and perhaps with a special someone if that ever happens.”

“A special someone?!” Jaehyun’s voice squeaked and you snorted. He quickly cleared his throat and repeated with a more serious tone, “I mean, a special someone?”

“Yes, a special someone,” you replied with a small laugh, emphasizing the word to make fun of him. “Maybe I should open it with Doyoung since he got a promotion.”

Jaehyun scoffed loudly. “Doyoung? Please, why would you open such a precious bottle with Doyoung out of all the people?”

You tilted your head in amusement. “Are we feeling jealous, Mr. Jeong?”

“Jealous? Me? Of Doyoung?” Jaehyun rolled his eyes. “I’m not jealous.”

You put the bottle of whiskey back into the glass display cabinet before you two went back to the kitchen to finish cooking. Jaehyun still seemed dispirited from your small conversation about your special bottle of whiskey, for some reason, and he didn’t utter a single word while he was cutting up the vegetables.

Jaehyun was the first person you befriended when you joined the company. He was popular with everyone thanks to his kind and caring nature, it was a wonder how he was still single. At first, you only thought of him as a friend, but your feelings slowly started to develop over the years and eventually, you admitted to yourself that you liked him in a romantic way.

You shamelessly used your friendship to your advantage and flirted with him whenever you could, much to Doyoung’s chagrin who had to witness your conversations every day. Not to mention, it didn’t help that Jaehyun would also shamelessly flirt back with you too.

However, you two never crossed that line.

Both of you had some issues to work with. Jaehyun had his heart broken by his ex and you had commitment issues. It was hard for the two of you to start a new relationship, but there was no denying that you two had feelings for each other.

Slowly but surely, you two took steps to cross that line together.

You leaned on the counter next to Jaehyun. When he finally noticed that you were not doing anything but staring at him, he grew shy. “W-why are you staring at me? Am I that good-looking?”

“Yeah,” you admitted without hesitation. “You’re very pretty to look at.”

“You think I’m pretty?” You nodded and his eyes crinkled. “Well, I think you’re pretty too.”

You hummed in response and rested your chin on your palm. “Say, Jaehyun.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s open that bottle of whiskey together one day.”

Jaehyun’s hands suddenly stopped and his eyes slightly widened at your declaration. When he saw how serious you were, he dropped the cutting knife and his hand then went to your cheek, caressing it in soft circles.

“Fuck,” you mumbled under your breath, not liking how your head was starting to spin.

Before you could have gotten up and perhaps called it for the night, a water bottle appeared in front of you, startling you. You raised your head, wondering just who had the same idea as you to hide from the party, and you were surprised to see that it was your rival, Jaehyun.

“Do you not need it?”

You wordlessly took it and drank the cool water before sighing at how refreshing it was. While the water did help you, you were still very much drunk.

“Thanks,” you said, avoiding Jaehyun’s stare as he took the seat next to you.

You squirmed away from him, hoping that Jaehyun wouldn’t realize how uncomfortable you were around him (and the fact that you were drunk was not good either).

You and Jaehyun belonged to the same creative department of your advertising agency. You entered as a planner and were responsible for creating commercials, whereas Jaehyun was originally in the accounting department before being transferred to your department and ended up being a copywriter – a very good copywriter.

It turned out that you and Jaehyun worked super well with each other and ended up being put in projects together. However, what your manager didn’t know was that despite the end result of a successful commercial, the process was a pain in your ass.

Correction: Jaehyun was the pain in your ass.

Ever since you two were introduced to each other, he always had a comment to make and those comments often resulted in your female co-workers to fall head over heels for him. It was to the point where you asked Seulgi if he was that attractive and if his pick-up lines actually worked, and Seulgi’s silence was all you needed.

If someone were to ask you if you liked Jaehyun or not, you would straight up answer that you didn’t like him. But as people say, there was a fine line between love and hate (and you unfortunately blurred that line too much).

“Do you like blow jobs or sex on the beach?” Jaehyun asked you out of the blue.

That definitely sobered you up.

“Excuse me?” you replied indignantly.

Jaehyun had the audacity to smirk at you, and then he raised his own glass. “I’m talking about cocktails, of course.”

You scoffed in amusement. “Are- are you flirting with me, right now? In this situation?”

He comfortably leaned back against the sofa. “You only noticed just now? If you haven’t realized, I’m always flirting with you.”

“No…” you said in uncertainty. “I haven’t realized.”

“Well, keep up,” he answered cheekily before looking around and then at his watch before getting up from the sofa. He then cocked his head at you as he asked, “Say, do you need a ride?”

Looking at the time, you knew that it was too late for the last metro and taxis would be too expensive or almost impossible to catch. Though, you were skeptical of Jaehyun’s offer too.

“You used that line a lot?” you asked with a raised brow.

“Not really, you’re the first one I used that on, actually,” he replied honestly. “So? Need a ride or not?”

You sighed and got up from the sofa. “Lead the way.”

“Oh, and also.”

“Mhm?”

Only, they hadn’t mentioned it to you.

Instead, amidst your confusion , you distinctly remember Krystal pulling you out of your bed and forcing you to wash up, Jennie in the background making breakfast for all of you (while you sincerely hoped that she wasn’t making a mess out of your kitchen), and Yuqi and Seulgi packing your clothes and essentials for the trip.

Not even an hour later, you five squeezed into Krystal’s sleek black Audi e-tron GT and they whisked you away for a fun trip. It was very Sex and the City-esque of them, and you were most certain that it was Jennie’s idea.

And that was how you ended up lying down on a beach towel with your four best friends, in a bikini and black Gentle Monster sunglasses on, and a mango margarita in your hand.

It was the third day of your trip — and you had no idea how long the girls planned this trip for — and you were still, and you quote from Yuqi, “as lifeless as ever”, and un-quote.

“Ma’am,” Krystal said to you. “We’re at the beach for the first time in so long, and you haven’t caught a single wave yet? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

“Not in a mood to surf,” you muttered back as you perched your sunglasses over your head so that they could see your deadpan expression.

“More importantly, you have all this eye-candy in front of you,” Yuqi motioned the people in front of you with a dramatic hand while the other three nodded furiously, “and you’re telling me not one of them caught your interest?”

They saw a flash of interest flash through your eyes and they immediately hounded you like a pack of coyotes around raw meat. “Who is it, you bitch!”

You turned away from them. “No one.”

“Come on!” Jennie whined. “This is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to you in the past two years!”

You narrowed your eyes. “I started going out with my ex two years ago.”

“Exactly.”

You flipped her your middle finger.

“Okay, okay,” Seulgi said as she pushed your finger down. “Let’s stop bullying her, she already has a lot to deal with.”

“Thanks, Seul.” You hugged her. “I knew there was a reason why you’re my favourite.”

“It’s not her fault if she looks too depressed for anyone to even approach her.”

You let out an offended gasp and pushed a guffawing Seulgi away while the other girls laughed and snickered at your misery. Amidst your fun, you didn’t even notice a certain man approach your little group.

“Having fun, ladies?”

You all whipped your head towards the source of the question and a smile immediately made its way to each of your faces. More so on your friends than on yours, though.

“You know it, Jaehyun,” Krystal answered with a wink.

Jung Jaehyun was one of the eye-candies that Yuqi mentioned beforehand, something you five determined the second you set foot on the beach. You six met when you were all trying to get your surfboard down from the top of Krystal’s car without hitting an innocent passerby or the cars parked nearby. He happened to pass by and offered his help.

You then proceeded to find out that he was also from Seoul and always came down to this beach to work as a lifeguard seasonally. That fact added to his face and body and his good manners, it was a no-brainer for all of you to put him in your communal eye-candy category.

It just so happened that Jaehyun was the only person that has caught your attention.

“Hey,” he addressed you specifically, and you only hoped that your friends wouldn’t embarrass you. “Some of the other lifeguards and I are having this small bonfire party later in the evening after the beach clears out. We’re going to have some booze and maybe surf a little at night. Would you like to come?”

You blinked your eyes repeatedly. “Uhh, just me?”

It was then that Jaehyun seemed to have realized his mistake. “Oh, I mean, your friends are obviously invited,” he said with his eyes darting around like crazy, making sure that he didn’t offend the other girls, before he meekly added, “But I would love it if you came.”

“Yeah, we’re just–” Yuqi started to say and got up with the other girls. “–we’re just gonna go and uh, leave you two lovebirds alone.”

When they finally left, Jaehyun plopped down on the bath towel next to you and focused his attention on you, flustering you a little.

“So, what do you say?” he asked with a cute, dimpled smile.

You raised a skeptical brow. “Careful there, Jaehyun, or else I might think that you were flirting with me.”

Jaehyun threw his head back in laughter before slowly shaking it at you. “Oh, babe, I’m always flirting with you. Keep up.”

His confession took you by surprise. Your mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish out of the water. “Y-you are?”

Jaehyun chuckled lowly, his deep voice sending tingles down your spine, and he nodded. “Yeah. So, are you coming?”

You nodded slowly and wordlessly — as if you were going to say no to him.

The relationship between you and the band, NCT’s, bass guitarist, Jeong Jaehyun, was like the sea.

When turbulent, the last thing you wanted to see was your boyfriend. Oftentimes, the fights and arguments between you two made you feel like you were lost at sea, unable to see the light and the end of the storm. You yearned for some stability that Jaehyun’s music career couldn’t possibly afford.

Yet, when everything was calm, your relationship seemed endless. Like a never-ending open sea that you wished to sail on forever with Jaehyun by your side.

You two first met in your first year of undergrad. You both studied music, but while he majored in composition and preferred rock and modern genres, you fit into the stereotypical classical student trope. Least to say that you and Jaehyun were from two very different worlds. It was still a wonder to you, how you two came to be.

He wanted you to go on the road with him, but you had your own plans and you weren’t the type to throw your whole education away just for a guy.

(Though, at some point at the very beginning of your relationship, you were close to accepting his offer).

The familiar strum of the electric guitar to the beginning of their song Without You began to fill out the small concert venue, immediately eliciting cheers from the crowd. Jaehyun, with his bass guitar, started to sing right after Doyoung, his baritone voice bringing goosebumps to your skin.

Your friends pulled you towards the stage and away from the bar as the song slowly approached its chorus. You all automatically started to jump along with the crowd as the beat dropped when the chorus started.

“Take my hand and draw a circle. This is how much we’ve shared. My whole heart is by your side. Your dreams are by my side.

Living and enduring. If we’re together, we can be a little happier. Once again, we’re connected without an end. Can’t live without you.”

As Jaehyun started to sing the second verse and as you listened to the lyrics, a wave of emotions threatened to overcome you for some reason. You knew that Jaehyun wrote the lyrics, but you didn’t dare to think that perhaps you were meant to be the recipient of the message hidden behind the lyrics.

The concert lasted for about two hours, with the band playing their song Highway to Heaven to conclude the event. The bar was always reserved for the bandmates and the crew to kick back and relax after the concert, and you and the other girls, being as close as you were with the bandmates when they were still in university, always stayed to hang out with them and catch.

“So, what’s new with you all?” Taeyong, the leader and lead guitarist, asked with an arched, curious look before downing a shot of tequila.

Jaehyun’s arm was loosely around your shoulders. His hand played with your hair as you all listened to Jennie’s rant about one of the guys who had been acting cold with her.

“You looked a bit weird at the beginning of the concert, when we sang Without You,” Jaehyun mumbled next to your ear, careful not to raise concern with the others around the two of you. “Was something wrong?”

Your body froze at his question but you quickly shook your head and gave him a small smile in reply. “No, I just needed some fresh air.” You then motioned the glass of rum and coke in your hands. “You know – because of the alcohol.”

“Right,” he replied with a small smirk before giving a small kiss next to your temple before mumbling, “because of the alcohol.”

You snorted. “Are you flirting with me right now?”

“You're my girlfriend. I’m always flirting with you,” Jaehyun chuckled. “Keep up, doll. It’s nothing new.”

You remained impassive and bit your bottom lip asking him softly, “Hey, can we talk?” He arched a questioning brow at you. “Like alone, without the others?”

Jaehyun nodded and grabbed your hand before leading you backstage, where thankfully, all of the employees were already gone. He hadn’t let go of your hand. He looked at you with the same distressed face he had when you told him that you couldn’t give up going to university to accompany him on the road.

You promised each other you were never going to hurt each other again following that conversation, but it seemed like you were going to be the first out of you two to break that promise.

“I was right,” Jaehyun started off, his voice unbelievably grave. “Something is wrong.”

You ran a hand through your hair and sighed. “I can’t do this anymore.”

His grip loosened just the slightest. His bottom lip quivered as he answered, “What do you mean?”

“You can’t just come back in town and ask me to attend your concert and act like everything’s fine when you know it’s not!” you burst out like a dam and leaned your head against his chest. “I’m just so tired, Jae.”

You could feel Jaehyun’s slight hesitance as he hugged you tight, almost as if it was going to be the last time he was going to hold you like this.

The lack of response on your boyfriend’s part only proved what you two had been feeling for perhaps a while now.

Love simply wasn’t enough to keep this relationship afloat.

“Like being pulled by the current. Like floating around the ocean. I’m getting tired, but I don’t see paradise.”

You inhaled deeply and tightened your arms around Jaehyun’s torso, trying to imprint his warmth and scent to your memories one last time before letting him go.

Before letting this relationship go.

Weirdly enough, your break-up with Jaehyun didn’t affect your relationship as much as you thought it would. It remained relatively the same, just without the labels and PDA. Though, to your slight dismay, the skinship remained.

The way you two behaved around each other was almost as if nothing had changed. People wondered why you two even broke up in the first place. But things were just more complicated than it seemed and you didn’t have the mental capacity to tell them your whole history with Jaehyun.

Not that it was any of their business, to begin with.

There was just this pull between the two of you that you couldn’t quite dispel, no matter how hard you tried. And frankly, Jaehyun didn’t try that hard either to make the boundaries clearer.

“We should stop this,” you muttered as you looked up at the ceiling while lying down on Jaehyun’s bed.

“Stop what?” he mumbled back as he flipped through his novel at his desk, where he was sitting.

You sighed and flipped onto your stomach before giving him a look. “You know what I mean.”

“Actually, I don’t know what you mean,” he replied back stubbornly, never meeting your eyes completely.

You opened your mouth, then closed it — there was no point in arguing with him when Jaehyun was adamant in not listening to you.

He exhaled sharply and got up from his seat before heading for his bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower now. We can talk when I’m done.”

You didn’t even bother responding.

You got up from his bed the second you heard the water from his shower and perused the numerous picture frames that decorated his bookshelf. Picture frames that consisted of you and him only.

Your heart tightened at the trail of memories in front of you, bringing you back slightly in time and leaving you wishing for things to be as lighthearted and easy as before.

But that was the thing about growing up.

Some people just didn’t grow at the same pace as you did and they ended up not being at the same stage of life.

You were too focused on the picture frames that you almost tripped over a small round box that laid near the bed, just barely out of sight.

Your brows furrowed and you wondered what it was. You didn’t feel shy about opening it up either since you practically knew everything there was about Jaehyun and you knew every crook and nanny of his room. So, where did this box come from, exactly?

So, you opened it, not expecting much. It probably just contained some random music memorabilia — he loved collecting those vintage collectors objects.

But to your utmost surprise, you found…

Museum tickets from your first date.

Plane tickets from your first summer vacation together abroad.

Polaroid pictures from your first road trip.

Random notes you once had passed to each other during class.

Receipts from all the restaurants you had eaten at with each other.

“What are you doing?”

Jaehyun’s voice startled you and you whipped your head around, your eyes brimmed with tears. But his expression didn’t reveal anything.

“Wh-what is this?” you asked, your voice barely a whisper.

“You weren’t supposed to open that,” Jaehyun answered briskly, but made no move to take it away from you.

“Well, how was I supposed to know not to open the box?!” you exclaimed. “And besides, you still haven’t answered my question — what is this?”

Jaehyun looked away from you. “Just a box with stuff that reminded me of you…”

You blinked in confusion. “Yes, but I don’t understand why you still have this — we broke up a while ago.”

Jaehyun remained calm, the complete opposite of you. “Do you want the truth?”

You gave him a nod apprehensively.

“The truth is that I miss you.”

But you began to shake your head and got up from the floor before you started to pace around his room. “No, you can’t do this to me, Jae. You just can’t– You broke up with me.”

Jaehyun followed you. “I know, I know! And every day, I wake up and regret ever making that decision. Why do you think I keep ignoring you whenever you bring up the fact that we’re too close for a pair of friends? It’s because I never wanted us to be friends and–”

“And, now what? You just want us to go back to how we were?” You scoffed and rubbed your forehead. “Jae, we broke up for a reason. We can’t just go back to how things were!”

Jaehyun managed to grab your hand amidst your turmoil and brought it to his heart. You could feel his heartbeat and how it got stronger with every second.

“I know, but all I’m asking is a second chance.”

You bit your lip as you could already feel your walls crumble.