rewrite the stars - jaywon

chapter 9

Jay was nowhere to be found when Jungwon came back home from hanging out with Sunghoon. The initial park meetup had turned to a brunch together which had, in turn, stretched into lunchtime. They talked at length about their friends' ridiculous fight.

Jungwon had felt guilty. He'd been so caught up on his own feelings about Jay that he hadn't spared a thought to how Sunoo and, by extension, Ni-ki were affected by Jay's sudden appearance. Meanwhile, it'd been all Sunghoon could worry about. He voiced his concern that this tension between the two of them was looking to become worse even than their disagreement when Ni-ki got a girlfriend for a couple weeks in their sophomore year.

"The difference," Sunghoon had said, "is that it's Sunoo, this time. Ni-ki never had to watch Sunoo be like this over anyone before. He doesn't know how to react."

Jungwon stomped around the kitchen, denying that his louder steps had anything to do with Jay's persistent absence. He sighed. If Jay hadn't heard him drive in, then he wouldn't have heard Jungwon being noisy anyways, right? Jungwon didn't even have a concrete reason for wanting to see Jay. He'd just... hoped for it.

He trudged up to his room and started in on his homework for the upcoming week, for lack of anything better to do. The guys' group chat had been suspiciously quiet since Saturday. Only Sunghoon and Jungwon sent any messages in, with Jake sparsely replying to their texts with reaction pictures.

Jungwon stared at his calculus assignment until the numbers on the screen blurred before his eyes. It was no use. The only problem he could focus on finding the solution to wasn't calculus related at all.

⭐

A knock at his door caught Jungwon in the midst of another tangential thought. He shook his head, checking his screen and finding its gone dark in his inactivity on the tablet.

"Come in."

It was Jay who walked through his door, and Jungwon hated the answering swooping feeling in his chest upon seeing him. It had just been a day since he'd seen him last, and his body was reacting like it'd been weeks instead.

Jay inched into the room, carefully pulling the door shut behind him. He had a plate in his hand, apple slices arrayed in a neat circle atop it.

The lights in Jungwon's room must have needed to be replaced, because it looked a little like Jay was concerned. His brows were knitted slightly together and the corners of his mouth were pulled down. Or, at least, that's how it appeared to look in the poor lighting of Jungwon's room.

"You didn't come down for dinner," Jay said, and his voice lifted at the end, as if it were a question.

"Oh."

Jungwon hadn't realized. He looked back down at his tablet, remembering the minimal progress he'd made on his homework, and frowned.

"I brought you a snack." Jay walked over to Jungwon and set the plate down in front of him. Jay was careful enough that the porcelain made no sound against Jungwon's plastic desk surface, "Just in case you were hungry."

Jungwon snorted. He supposed it was also in Jay's programming to check up on him periodically, to make sure he wasn't starving himself. Still, he hadn't eaten since lunch. His stomach growled traitorously, and Jay's eyebrows lifted at the sound.

Jungwon raised his hands in surrender.

"You caught me."

He took an apple slice, puckering his lips as soon as the sour taste hit his taste buds. The tartness was overwhelming; it was to the point where Jungwon had to make a face. Suddenly, an idea hit him.