Golden ◂ NCT Jaemin

44 ◂ Naivety

◂ 44 ▸

The day was still drowsy, the sun had risen only a short while ago. 

However, Jaemin was already up. He had taken a shower, had drunk a cup of coffee and he had prepared a glass of water and a painkiller. He placed both on the bedside table before he sat down on the edge of his bed. 

Without even noticing that he started to smile, he watched the peacefully sleeping girl. She was calm, enjoying her rest. 

As he sat there, he couldn't resist stroking her hair and he couldn't help but keep his eyes on her wordlessly, admiring her. 

He couldn't. 

He couldn't understand why he felt bad for accidentally waking her yet felt equally as happy to get to see her brown orbs and hear her sweet voice. 

So he kept his smile when she opened her eyes just barely and gazed up at him. 

"You are up?" she asked in a whisper and Jaemin nodded. "What time is it?" 

"It's still early," he told her quietly as he moved his hand down to her cheek and ran his thumb over it. "I have something to do. You should get more rest."

Allowing for an understanding 'oh' to slip past her lips, she moved towards his touch as she asked, 
"Will you be back soon?" 

He nodded. "It won't take long." Which Jie was glad to hear. 

She glimpsed over to the other bed, spotting a sleeping Jeno there, then she looked back at Jaemin and inspected him carefully. She was interested in where he was going but she figured he would have told her if he wanted her to know.

Without saying another word, she curled her fingers around the fabric of his shirt and pulled herself up. When he noticed that, Jaemin quickly helped her, thinking she wanted to sit up. Only when she ended up wrapping her arms around him did he realize that she just wanted to hug him goodbye.

"Be safe," she whispered just in case, since she didn't know what he was up to. 

"I will," he whispered back, then helped her lie down again. He pulled the blanket over her, nodded towards the bedside table. "You drank a lot yesterday. Take a painkiller if you need it." 

"Okay." 

"Okay," he whispered back, ran his hand over her hair one more time while she was already drifting off to sleep. 

Not much later, Jaemin found himself in the office building. He put on a smile, a bag in his hand. He took a deep breath before he carefully opened the door to Doyoung's office.

At the desk opposite the door sat a tired-looking boy. He had his head hanging over a couple of files, eyes tiredly dragging themselves over the lines written on them.

Only now did Jaemin knock, attracting Doyoung's attention. He raised a brow, looked at the younger one in confusion.

"Why are you here?" he wondered. It sounded a bit gruff yet it was just his surprise that made it sound that way.

"I heard you are working hard filling in for Taeyong," Jaemin said, his tone a little off as he struggled between trying to sound sweet and trying to sound polite.

Taeyong had left for a short trip, to maintain contacts between business partners and allies. He also went to see Kwang-sik to try and put him in a good mood before WayV would visit him later that week.

"So I wanted to surprise you with breakfast."

Sweet, nice, considerate Jaemin - a rarity to see, making his behaviour utterly suspicious.