ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴇʏᴇs- ᴊɪ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴍɪɴ (TBZ) FF

18 💫

"What the fuck."

They're heads turn to the exit.

Jacob stands there in shock, still
processing what he saw.

"Ahem... Jacob, hi, nice to meet you," Lana stutters out, letting out a small laugh. She starts walking towards him, but he immediately goes to Nari.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" he asks her, cupping her face. He lets out a sigh, looking over to Lana. "Don't act like I didn't see what you just did."

He glares at her before taking Nari out of the staff room with him.

•

Nari takes a bite of the sandwich Jacob bought her.

"And yeah, that's what happened," she said, looking at him with her lips pressed together.

Jacob looks at her, not knowing what to say.

"What..."

"I know right," Nari says, cleaning up her sandwich wrap. "The beautiful sweet Lana Seo is a bitch." She huffs, standing up to throw away her trash.

"Wait," Jacob grabs her wrist. "You aren't gonna tell the others about this."

"Why would I?" Her answer shocks the boy. They're her friends, shouldn't she tell them?

"I know they're my friends, but they seem happy with Lana," she continues. "I don't wanna ruin that." She smiles.

But Jacob saw something else about it. How her eyes said something else, how she wasn't okay with it.

"But, they're also your friends, Nari," Jacob softly says. "They should know about this." He stands up, sliding his hand down to hold her's.

"Yeah, and friends don't ruin each other's happiness," Nari says. "And if they're happy with her, I don't wanna ruin that."

Jacob eyes soften. How can she think that after what just happened?

He cups her face with his other hands, slowly rubbing the faint tint of red on her cheek due to Lana's slap with his thumb.

"Nari—"

"NARI! JACOB!"

The two snap out of their little world, and Jacob lets go of her, stepping away a little.

"Oh, hi Changmin," Nari smiles at him.

"Hi," Jacob says, smiling at him as well.

Wow, two angels. Changmin looks at the two with a small smile. "Mind if I join you guys?"

If he were to be honest, he saw the two from a distance. How close they seemed, and how movie-like it seemed. Changmin didn't want that.

He couldn't let that happen. Something inside him lit up, and he blurted out their names without thinking.

"Oh yeah, sure," Nari replies. "We were just about to go to the mall."

"Yeah, what she said," Jacob says, grabbing their wrists. "Let's go~"

・・・

Nari and Changmin both walk in silence after dropping of Jacob at his stop.

"So..." Changmin starts. "How's life?"

"It's been okay..." Nari says. Looking down to the ground, contemplating whether or not she should tell him about Lana.

They're also your friends, Nari. Jacob's words replay in her head.

"Nari? Hellooo," Changmin waves his hand in front of her face, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she looks up at him. "Oh, yeah, hi, uhm, how about you, how's life?"

"Eh, it's okay," Changmin says, he looks away and looks at the path ahead of him. "I'm sorry."

Nari looks at confused. "For what?"

"I don't know..." he says quietly. "Not being able to spend time with you...?"

Nari lets out a laugh. "Changmin, you aren't obligated to spend time with me," she says, smiling at him. "Besides, we both got closer to new people so."

"But I want to spend time with you," he says under his breath.

"Hm?"

Changmin clears his throat. "Oh? Huh? Nothing, I said nothing," he nervously chuckles. "Oh look, we're here."

"Oh," Nari turns around to look at him. "Well uh, it was nice hanging out today, I had fun." She smiles at him, turning back around to go into her apartment complex.

Changmin looks at her walking away. He opens his mouth to say something, but she turns around and looks at him.

"We should start hanging out again," she says, smiling and giving him a thumbs up before walking in the building.

"wAit," Changmin says, his voice cracking. "Wait!"

He runs into the building, quickly getting to the elevator before it closes.

"Woah."

He looks up to see a random dude standing in the elevator.

Changmin laughs, covering up his embarrassment. "Haha... sorry."

"If you're looking for that girl, she took the stairs."

Changmin's eyes light up. He immediately runs to the stairs after thanking the man.

He catches up to a figure, who he recognizes as Nari. Changmin grabs the persons wrists, trying to stop them from taking any more steps.

But he ends up pulling her too hard, making her fall. Thankfully, Changmin was able to hold onto the railing and catch her before they both fell down.

Nari looks at him with wide eyes. "Ohmygod, are you okay?"

He chuckles. "I should be asking you that," he helps her stand back up. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she assures him. "Why—"

"Promise."

Nari slightly tilts her head to the side. "Huh?"

"I promise that we'll hang out more." Changmin grabs her hand, interlocking their pinkies.

Nari laughs. "All that running for this?" 

"See, you're even sweating," she smiles, wiping his forehead with her sleeve. "Well, it is pretty hot in the stairwell."

Changmin takes her hand away from his forehead, holding both of her hands in his. He stares into her eyes glistening eyes.

Though, it's probably just the light reflecting off of her eyes.

Changmin smiles. Stars, they're stars.

"I'll see you later, Nari."

He squeezes her hands, leaning in and kissing her forehead.

After that, he dashes out. Embarrassed, but proud of what he just did.

"All that running for this?" her words repeat in his head as he jogs out the building. He smiles to himself;

I'd run from the moon and back for you, Nari.