🚩kiss it off me - nomin au

Chapter Four

|Jeno

Jaemin saw me and we locked eyes but I acted like he's just one of the people inside the cafeteria and kept on talking with Areum.

"Are you dating anyone right now, Areum?" I asked her and she laughed because of my question.

"Why? You're interested in me?" she asked and I felt like I should go with her flow.

"Maybe," I shortly answered.

Our order was served faster than we expected and I thanked the waiter for serving us our food.

"Been single for 6 months now," Areum said and sliced her pancake to eat.

Her eyes widened as she got a taste of the strawberry pancake.

"It tastes so good. You should try it," she offered and I sliced a spoonful of her pancake and tasted it. It really does taste good with the whipped cream and strawberry that I'm sure they put more on it than just the two toppings.

Eating this right now, I remember Jaemin hates strawberry and dairy, he doesn't like it when those two are combined.

"Wanna date?" I asked Areum out of nowhere and she just continued to laugh at the nonsense words I'm spitting.

"You're pretty famous around here, Jeno. And you're very good-looking so who am I to turn down your offer? It's just that I'm more into sincere guys. Sorry," she said and continued to eat.

"Nah, why are you apologizing? I'm just testing you but if you said yes, we could've been together," I said as I start eating my own pancake.

"Go find one in Tinder," she continued.

I'm actually trying to find a way out to what happened between me and Jaemin, huh? I thought that was nothing, that it won't affect me and I'm just merely trying to help him. Well, it looks like that I can't.

"Come on. Let's finish eating so we could start continuing our project," she said and we finished our breakfast before going to our classroom.

Jaemin and the guy with him left already, just like that, as if we're strangers.

It's fine. I choose it that way as well so no hard feelings, really. Just like before, best friends. Nothing more but could go less.

—

We're in the middle of doing our project when someone knocked on the open door, making all of us distracted.

"Sorry to disturb you," Jaemin said as he greeted us with his warm smile.

He's just probably here for his daily visit. Like the usual.

"You're here again," one of my group mates happily said.

They're probably used to Jaemin's presence being always here.

"Of course. I brought donuts for everyone, too. And of course, Jeno's latte," he said as he looked at me and smiled sweetly as he gave me a cup of Starbucks.

I returned the same sweet smile and tried not to look awkward. I won't risk the bright atmosphere we're having for my own feelings.

"It's not even break time yet," Areum said as she grabbed a donut as she also finishes her work.

"What about your group project?" I asked Jaemin.

"It's almost done and we're having our break so I decided to be here if that's okay?" he replied and I nodded.

"Of course, it is. You're always here. Why bother asking now?" I told him and sipped from the latte he brought me.

"Then I'll be adding my presence here for now if you don't mind," he said and went to the leather couch to lay down.