Coming Home

seventeen.

You widen your eyes at his statement. It felt like your eyes were going to pop out any second. "You did WHAT? Jaehyun, are you out of your mind?! Are you crazy?! That was your dream, why did you do that?"

Jaehyuns shifts his eyes to the ground, then back at you, taking in a deep breath before a smile grows on his face.

"I am so in love with you Y/N. Not in a best friend kinda way, but much more than that."

"What?" You blink at Jaehyun a few times, processing everything he had told you so far.

He takes a step closer to you. "I love you, Y/N"

Silence fills the room for at least 10 seconds before you manage to say anything.

"Being in love with me doesn't equate to quitting your job! I think? Unless you're really crazy." Your eyes widen again as you put your hands on your temples. "Oh my god, I hope that's not the only reason why you quit."

"Y/N" Jaehyun removes your hands from your face, taking them in his. His thumbs soothing circles on them as a way of telling you to calm down.

"Sorry, this is kind of a lot of information to take in." you grimace, as you pull one of your hands away to scratch the side of your neck a little. A habit that you developed over the years when you realised you may have overreacted. "You know I never want you to give up your dreams just because of me."

"There's a lot more to it, trust me."

You gave Jaehyun a worried look, and he took it as a sign for him to elaborate.

"It was getting really stressful and it was starting to take a toll on me. I also felt really lonely without you. And maybe it's time for a change; relax and take it a bit easy, you know? I'm sure I can find a job here in Seoul."

You nodded at his words, giving his hands a little squeeze. "If that's what you want, I'll 100% support you."

"Ever since your parent's death, it made me realise how life can just be taken away suddenly. The most important people in your life can be gone in an instant. I want to spend more time with everyone, especially with you. You've gone through so much, and despite all that has happened, you've remained so strong and positive. I absolutely love you for that."

As you listened to his words, tears clouded your eyes before they quickly fell down your cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, I should've come back a long time ago." Jaehyun says as he wipes one of your tears away.

You shake your head and smile. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You're here now, in the flesh." you chuckle. "That's all that matters."

"Don't get me wrong, I was happy over there, but I'm the happiest here, with you."

You sniffle a few times and take a deep breath. "Jaehyun, there's a lot of things I've been wanting to tell you, but... I don't really know where to start." letting out a laugh as your tears continue to fall.

"It's okay, we have plenty of time."

"You came home"

Jaehyun nodded. "I did."

"And you're kind of crazy too."

Jaehyun looks confused. "How?"

"You know you could've just dropped your suitcase off before coming over here since you live next door. You could've said hi to your parents first before coming over and had dinner with them, or you could've-" You suddenly feel a pair of lips on yours. Jaehyun cuts you off mid-sentence with a kiss. Something, of course, you didn't expect, but you kissed him back, and you felt him smile. But Jaehyun pulls away from you when he feels something wet on his face.

"Why are you crying?" Jaehyun chuckles as he wipes the tears off your cheeks delicately.

"Because I never thought there'd be a day where my best friend feels the same way as I do."

"So you love me too?" Jaehyun grins.

"Of course I do, you crazy, stupid man," you say, as you lightly slap his shoulder before wiping the remnant of your tears away. "I've been throwing signs everywhere since forever. Did you not pick up on them?"

"Me too Y/N! Did you not pick up on mine too?"

"Oh. Well, I guess we're both crazy and stupid then." you pout, before Jaehyun pinches your cheeks. This is one of the things that Jaehyun loves about you, your silliness.

"You're still crazier than me though."

"How so?" Jaehyun raises an eyebrow.

"You quit your job, flew thousands of miles back here, just to tell me in person that you love me. Tell me that's not what a crazy person who's in love would do."

"Hey! That is not what I- ... Actually, that is kind of what I did."

You shake your head and laugh, Jaehyun joining in with you, taking your hands with his and swaying it side to side gently. It's quiet again after a few moments, but Jaehyun continues to look at you with happiness on his face. You start to look anywhere but at him as you feel shy from his gaze.

"Y/N?" His tone is a bit more serious this time.

"Yeah?" looking at Jaehyun again.

"I will never leave you again, I promise. I know, I haven't kept a lot of my promises, but this is the ultimate promise of all promises." You let out a chuckle at the last bit. "Just trust me, Y/N."

You nodded at him. "Okay, I trust you"

Jaehyun cups your cheeks with the palm of his hands. He's leaning in closer and closer—

ding dong