espresso shot ; njm ✔️

24

it was now march, and jaemin was gradually starting to feel more comfortable around aera. so comfortable that he was able to walk right into the cozy cafe and take a seat in front of her without hesitation. the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the soft hum of conversation created a warm backdrop for them. 

"oh, hi jaemin!" she greeted with her usual cheerful tone, a bright smile lighting up her face. "we haven't had a good conversation in a while."

he chuckled, feeling a pleasant surprise that she actually enjoyed talking to him. 

"you're a good listener," she explained, seemingly having read his mind. "even when i'm rambling on and on about something like, i don't know, stars."

"how did you even get into astronomy in the first place?" he wondered aloud. "it's not a very common major."

"in my ninth grade chem class, we had an entire unit on space and stars and i was really into it. did you know that our days are getting longer?" aera's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, and jaemin couldn't help but be captivated by her passion.

jaemin wasn't particularly interested in astronomy, but he listened intently because it was aera. "elaborate, please," he said, wanting to hear her voice more.

she had a boyfriend, who also happened to be one of his closest friends. yet, for some odd reason, he didn't feel guilty about his growing feelings for her. he knew he couldn't control how he felt about her, but unfortunately, he couldn't control aera's feelings either. 

"so basically the earth's spin is slowing down by about 1/500th of a second per century, so if my math is correct, then in a thousand years, one day would be two hundredths of a second longer!" she exclaimed excitedly. it was as if she was a young child talking about their favorite superhero. 

"tell me more," jaemin urged, his smile widening.

and so she did. "did you know the earth isn't actually a perfect sphere? it's more of an egg shape because of the moon's energy. the moon affects the tides, causing the earth's oceans to bulge wherever the moon is facing. and the earth rotates faster than the moon, so the bulge moves ahead of the moon. because of this, the moon pulls back on it, which causes the energy from the earth to be transferred to the moon. and this is why the moon moves away from us about 3.8 centimeters a year!"

at the end of her enthusiastic explanation, jaemin was beaming, a rare sight that made aera's heart warm.

"what?" she asked, the corners of her mouth turning up to mirror his smile.

"nothing." he shrugged, blinking slowly and suddenly shifting in his seat. "it's just that i think you found the right major; i can tell that you love astronomy."

"i want to be a planetarium director when i graduate," she said, her voice filled with determination. "i have a particular interest in stars and planets."

"i want to be a psychologist," jaemin responded, feeling a connection with aera about how passionate they both were when it came to their careers. "not only do i want to help people, but there's always something more to learn about human behavior and why we do the things we do."

aera giggled, a playful vision coming to her mind. "i can see you in a white lab coat and goggles; it suits you."

"that's not what psychologists look like!" he laughed, throwing his head back. 

"well then, please elaborate, because i feel like i talked too much about myself."

no, you didn't. i wish you talked more about yourself.

"okay, have you ever been stopped by someone on campus asking you for directions somewhere?"

aera shook her head.

"if you do, you're part of an experiment and the person asking you for the directions is a psychologist. because psychologists study human behavior, there can't be anything influencing their experiments, so they tend to blend in," he explained. 

"are you a secret psychologist or something?" aera jokingly said.

he denied the fact in a simple manner and continued speaking about his favorite topic. "there's this one video where a dude stops people and asks for directions and then these two people will walk between them, carrying a huge board. within that time, the person will switch and the ordinary person will have no idea and continue giving directions to that new person. most of the time, the ordinary people didn't notice."

"oh, that's cool!" she exclaimed, her interest piqued. "did the people who switched look alike or not?"

encouraged by her genuine curiosity, jaemin didn't hold back. "that's when it gets interesting. at first, they kept the people looking similar, but then they changed it to different races and different genders, but people still didn't notice. it's called change blindness."

when the girl could tell that he was finished, she chuckled in amusement."i can see that we're both pretty into about our majors."

jaemin nodded as he agreed with her.

as their conversation began to wind down, jaemin racked his brain for a topic to keep it going. suddenly, he remembered something. "hey, wait, your birthday is in five days!"

"i'm shocked that you even know that, but yeah, i'm excited!" she replied back with the same enthusiasm. 

this sparked a new wave of topics, and they continued chatting animatedly. at that moment, jisung passed by the café. peering through the windows, he saw jaemin smiling widely and aera aera bursting out in laughter as she threw her head back.

that's her ugly laugh, jisung thought to himself. she only laughs like that around me.

he recalled all the times aera would laugh in front of donghyuck, always with a more reserved laugh. it wasn't that she wasn't being genuine, but she was insecure about her actual laugh and only felt comfortable with it around certain people

but here she was with jaemin, not worrying a bit about what she looked like, even though her laugh was one of the things she was most self-conscious about. 

jisung's original plan to to just visit his sister, but seeing such a sight, he decided it would be a better idea to just turn around and go home, letting them enjoy their conversation. 

the video jaemin was talking about exists.

it's not a very long video, but it's very interesting!