rewrite the stars - jaywon

chapter 5

Jungwon almost felt bad for their neighbors when all the guys came out to his house. Sunoo's Mazda fit just fine in his driveway, but Sunghoon's SUV and Ni-ki's Jeep took up a sizable portion of the street outside.

"Yo, Jungwon!" Ni-ki shouted from his Jeep, "Can I use your charger? My car's almost out of juice."

Jungwon gave him the thumbs up. Jay stayed outside to help Ni-ki while Jungwon took the rest of the guys inside to raid the kitchen.

"Jay can cook literally anything we ask him to," Jungwon said, as he stood on his tiptoes to reach the popcorn.

"So why are we just eating the same thing we always do?" Sunoo sounded amused.

"Here, let me help with that."

Sunghoon reached forward to get the popcorn bags for Jungwon. He handed them over to Jungwon, smiling. And Jungwon smiled back. Even just a couple years ago, he'd probably be freaking out internally at Sunghoon's closeness, probably too nervous to smile back.

"Thanks, man," Jungwon said, unwrapping a bag and sticking it in the microwave.

"I like Jay," Jake spoke, out of nowhere, "He's cool, he's funny even if he's not really trying to be. Oh! And he makes Jungwon blush. That's hilarious. "

"What the hell? No, he doesn't," Jungwon crossed his arms, leaning back against the counter, popcorn popping at his back.

"We both saw it, in the car. You weren't exactly being subtle," Heeseung backed Jake up. But he looked nervous about it. He was wringing his hands.

Jungwon held his tongue, as tempted as he was to point out their hypocrisy. The two of them hadn't looked like they'd cared much for subtlety in the car, either.

"Whatever. The... A/C wasn't working well. I was getting overheated."

Jungwon thanked whatever deities were out there that the microwave beeped at that moment, saving him from facing four disbelieving pairs of eyes. Well, three. He was sure Sunghoon would be kind enough to buy his excuse.

"Do I need to fix the car's air conditioning?"

Jungwon jumped, as he was pouring the popcorn out. He hadn't heard Jay and Ni-ki enter. He wondered how long they'd been there, how much they'd overheard. He looked up at them, trying to gauge from their reactions. But Ni-ki only looked as amused as he always did. And Jay.. well. Jungwon frowned.

Jungwon was working on that, both at reading Jay's expressions and at making him actually have expressions.

"Nah, Jay. You don't need to do anything. Jungwon's just making shit up again."

Jungwon tossed a handful of popcorn at Sunoo's face. His heart was still beating too quickly at Jay's sudden appearance, and he didn't feel nearly as satisfied as he would have normally when a kernel bounced off of Sunoo's smug grin.

⭐

Popcorn in hand and cute android in tow, they went up to Jungwon's room. While the guys debated what movie to watch, Jungwon unearthed the projector attachment for his phone he'd gotten for his eighteenth birthday.

"Hold up. Why don't we ask Jay what he wants to watch?"

Jungwon's eyes snapped up from where he'd been fiddling with the projector. Sunoo was smiling magnanimously at Jay, gesturing to him.

Jungwon frowned. Sunoo never gave in to someone else's tastes that easily. He must've been playing at something.

Jay looked down, his lashes casting shadows over his cheeks. Then, he looked up to Sunoo, face expressionless as ever.

"The most popular movie release this year among your demographic is Avengers Thirteen. It has a ninety-seven percent rating on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and the words used most frequently by critics to describe it include 'exciting' and 'the best one yet'."

As Jay recited the knowledge he's dragged up from whatever database he was hooked into, his intonation remained the same. He'd said 'exciting' in a completely apathetic tone.

The guys stared at him, silent, blinking, their arguments from moments ago forgotten. Sunoo had his lips pressed tight together as he looked on at Jay in complete fascination. Following several beats of silence, Jay turned. He looked from Sunoo to Jungwon.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked-- directed at Jungwon, for some reason.

"N-no," Jungwon stuttered, wondering if Jay was asking him for reassurance, "Avengers Thirteen sounds great. I missed it in theaters. I'd be down to watch it now."

It was easy to forget, just by looking at him, that Jay was a robot. The designers who'd worked on him must have spent hours meticulously crafting every small detail. Then, Jay had to open his mouth and remind you, just when you started to get carried away.

Jay nodded almost hesitantly back at Jungwon, and cast his gaze downwards again. Jungwon cleared his throat, looked at the rest of the guys with warning clear in his eyes.

"Is Avengers Thirteen cool with the rest of you?"

Sunghoon nodded, Jake and Heeseung followed with twin agreements right after.

Sunoo looked from Jungwon to Jay and back again before smiling and saying, "If it's what Jay wants to watch, I want to see it too."

Upon hearing Sunoo's words, Jungwon felt something sharp lodge itself in his chest, right next to his heart. He tried not to let his inexplicable discomfort show as he turned away from Sunoo to face Ni-ki.

For the first time, Ni-ki was lacking his amused grin. His lip was curled with distaste. His eyes snapped from where they'd been resting on Sunoo to Jungwon.

"Whatever," Ni-ki said sullenly, as he brought up his knees to his chest and folded his arms around them, "I've heard it's overrated."

"Well, I guess we'll find out for ourselves if that's true," Jungwon said, injecting false cheer into his voice.

He didn't want Jay's gaze to be permanently directed towards the ground the rest of the night. For some reason, even though Jay had no feelings to hurt, Jungwon had an odd inkling that the only way to keep Jay's eyes bright would be to take his suggestion.

— the end of chapter 5 ♡

i will update again after this
reaches 20 votes ^_^