no strings attached. jay enhypen

08. girlfriend for hire

"have we met before? maybe
in another time i loved you.
maybe you're the one i'd
run to. "

"class dismissed!" the teacher bids the class farewell as they exit the room. the class greets the teacher a collective farewell, earning a wave from their instructor. the copious amount of shuffling in the room, students rushing as they shoved their items back into their school bags. chatter filling up the room along with the squeaks of chairs being pushed in.

jake pulls his schoolbag over his shoulders as he wanders over to jay, who was busy typing away in his phone. jake's eyes fall on chaerin, whose mood seemed so sullen now. her movements were slow as she put her items away into her cabinet. the boy brushes the feelings of guilt away before speaking, "so, what's the move for today?"

"hm? what're we doing?" jay doesn't bother to look up, continuing to look down onto his phone. after sending one last message, he shoves his phone into the pocket of his blazer.

"today? we were gonna meet up with the rest, weren't we?" jake asks, raising an eyebrow in confusion. the sounds of the door sliding open, caught jakes attention. his eyes avert to the door, seeing sunghoon walk in.

the realization was clear on jay's face as he realized he already made plans with kyorin. he placed a palm on his forehead and sighs, "yeah about that, i forgot and made plans with someone later."

chaerin's ears perked up with curiosity at the sound of jay's statement. she slightly looked up and looked at the three boys who were now standing together. her eyes grazed over jay's face, the familiar feeling of sadness coming over her once again. she could only see his face as jake and sunghoon had their backs towards her. jay blinks only to have his gaze on her. the eye contact made chaerin nervous, making her look down once again. she hurriedly shoves her books into her backpack, zipping it shut.

distinct knocks on the door frame caught the attention of those left in the room. the familiar, happy-go-lucky gal stood there with a smile on her face. yoojin was present in the room as well, slowly packing up as it bothered her to not have her book back organized. nari walked with a skip in her steps, "kyorin left early, so it's just us today!"

yoojin raised an eyebrow, "so soon? why?"

"she told me that her mom had an emergency, so she has to go pick up her little brother from school." nari explains, fiddling with her backpack straps. jake catches sight of nari and waves, earning a wave back from the girl.

"seems like they got ditched too," sunghoon says, looking at the two girls before looking at jay, "coincidence?"

"hey, i told you already. it's not like that between us. i'm taking it slow for now, besides she's not a rebound either way. i wouldn't do that to her." jay says, trying to reassure his friend.