the birthday project

to you, the boy i love

a/n: probably the only time i will return to this fic/au/idea. the ending that i for some reason refuse to write on the actual published version of this story lol. i barely remember the movie or books, so this is just me winging it. enjoy anyway~~ pic from ljbxksg can't remember if it was twitter or instagram tho... probably twitter.

i pick up where i left off in the original story, but speed through time to get to the good parts lol.

november flies by in a blur of school assignments, thanksgiving break and more pretending. seulgi's older sister's request to follow jaebeom on instagram still sits in his notifications, and nayeon is still single too. seulgi asks him about it every once in a while, as if hinting that they should talk about it, but jaebeom avoids the subject. he's not ready to admit defeat.

the plan was simple in the beginning. they pretend to date so bogum would leave seulgi alone, and so jaebeom could get back with nayeon when she broke things off with brian. except... it wasn't ever that simple. old crushes die hard, and resurface quickly. the pretending didn't feel so fake anymore, and at times it was hard to distinguish whether or not this was fake.

they hangout all the time, jaebeom still drives yerim to school before he and seulgi go to school, and he has dinner with her family every wednesday night. but... as december creeps near... the inevitable starts to creep near too. the school trip is coming up, and they're supposed to go together if he hadn't gotten back together with nayeon by then... and jaebeom planned to just carry on and confess at the trip since he'd be with seulgi anyway, but he's afraid.

she could be acting still... even if it doesn't feel like it when they hangout and she lays her head on his shoulder or hugs him tight. it feels real when she comes to him, crying over her favorite movies or from laughing too hard with yerim. it feels real when she uses him as her still life model as she practices her sketches. and the kisses... don't even get him started on how those make him feel.

the school bell sounds, and he rushes from his history class and towards seulgi's literature one, arriving just as she exits. "seul!" he calls out, wrapping his arms around her from behind, lifting her off the ground and giving her a playful spin.

"someone's excited for lunch." she teases as he places her back on the ground and she turns in his arms to fix his shirt.

"let's eat in the courtyard today, get some fresh air." he suggests, and she nods in agreement. "great." he grabs her hand, intertwining their fingers as he tugs her towards the courtyard.

"joohyun is coming back home from university at the end of the week..." seulgi shares with him, as she takes a seat, unpacking the lunch her father made for her. jaebeom sits across from her, unpacking his own lunch, though they always share now. "i'm excited to see her... but we haven't spoken much, and i'm afraid."

"she's your sister... she's understanding."

"but i'm worried... i'll have to confess to... everything."

"when you say everything..."

"i mean it." seulgi sighs, "the letters, our conditions... the façade we put on all these months."

"... façade." jaebeom repeats carefully... not liking their relationship being labeled as such, even if it's true. "is... that all it is to you?"

"...what?" seulgi's brow furrows.

"what am i saying? of course right... this is all fake." he sighs.

"is everything okay?"

"yeah... it's fine. i just remembered something, i'll see you after school, i have to go do something."