espresso shot ; njm ✔️

30

"i will protect you from me," donghyuck said, placing his hand over aera's head to shield her eyes from the sun.

at the moment, the couple was on a little picnic date, celebrating exams being over. it wasn't a terribly large picnic, donghyuck having only made kimchi fried rice and aera, a batch of cookies.

but it was just a way for the two to hang out after not seeing each other for a while.

donghyuck laid on aera's lap while she gently combed her fingers through his hair. "why did you even dye it in the first place?"

donghyuck sighed, as he reflected back to when he made that decision. "it was to get your attention, to be completely real with you," he admitted. 

aera couldn't help but to laugh at his honesty, always loving how straightforward he was. sometimes, it would blow up in his face, but that just added to his humor. 

"you should dye it pink one day," she suggested. 

the man scoffed. "then jisung and i would look like cotton candy."

"maybe that's the point."

donghyuck couldn't help but to smile at aera's playfulness. to him, it just made her cuter, because he knew that she wasn't even trying; that was the best part.

"i was thinking orange," he said, getting up from her lap and now looking at her straight in the face. 

aera seemed to think about it, nodding and coming to a consensus that he would look good in orange. "it would bring out your skin tone."

"like a rust color."

"yeah, that would really bring it out."

"can you dye it?" he asked her. "i don't feel like going to a salon."

aera furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. "but jisung's hair was already so much work and your hair is longer!" she whined, watching him smile a little too widely.

he suddenly burst out in aegyo, pouting excessively and shaking his shoulders. "but i only want my hair to be done by you!" 

this left aera absolutely horrified as she pushed head away from her, trying to keep her laugh in from how ridiculous he looked and sounded. "definitely not now," she chuckled. "besides, i don't want to accidentally ruin your precious long hair."

donghyuck then leaned in very close to aera's face, bringing his voice down a few tones. "you like my long hair?"

"i do, very much."

"then i will not be cutting my hair any shorter than this."

she gulped, seeing how close donghyuck was getting to her face. however, she did not expect him to land a quick peck on her nose before wrapping his arm around her. 

their conversation ended there, but the two leaned against each other, using the other as support, and comfortably laid there, taking in the peaceful park scenery.

-

jaemin sat at the dining table, looking down at the sandwich on the plate in front of him. 

i should ea—

the ringing of his phone cut him off mid-thought. when he picked his phone up to peek at the caller i.d., the color drained from his face. 

he had to take a minute to mentally prepare himself for whatever his mother would want to say to him, especially this late at night. but in reality, not amount of preparation would ever ready him. 

"hello?" he answered with a shaky voice. 

"how did you do on the finals?" replied back a stern voice, no warmth in it whatsoever. 

no greeting, of course. but jaemin was used to it. he was used to this uninvolved type of parenting. 

"i think i did good," he mumbled. 

his mother scoffed, all loud and obnoxious. she muttered under her breath like she didn't want jaemin to hear, but she made sure he heard her next words. "you should have studied more because if you think, then you don't know, and if you don't know, you didn't study enough."

"i know i got a high score on it," the boy corrected himself. 

"and how?" spoke another gruff voice, assuming to be his father's. 

jaemin couldn't answer. he definitely couldn't hang up. no, that was the last thing he wanted to do. if he did that, he'd be asking for it the next time his parents came home. 

he dejectedly continued to listen to his parents shout at him about his grades and taking over their business. no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't tune out their voices. he couldn't make their hurtful words leave his head, being so constant that he started to echo it back to himself.

"we'll be home in a month to see what your results are," his father said.

"you better hope you got the best score," his mother added right before cutting the call.

with all of the words swimming around in his mind, jaemin lost his appetite for the sandwich he'd made for himself. 

he pushed the plate away from him and ran to his room, locking himself in his room for the night. 

um stream hot sauce everywhere thank you and goodbye.