My Lifeline - Jaywon Shortstories

Bus Stop Pt.2

Jay stood there, not understanding what was going on.

He knew Jungwon and him weren't friends, but he did care about him more than he wanted to admit.

When he moved in the new house with his parents, he thought he would meet people his age in the neighborhood, but it turned out that there was only Jungwon. Now, usually Jay was a social butterfly, easily making friends, or at least easily talking with people. However that didn't happen with Jungwon.

Truth was Jay had felt what cinema calls "love at first sight" the first time he saw Jungwon. Ever since, he had been scared to talk to him.

He didn't want to mess it up.

So he had decided to gather some information about Jungwon at school, and he had learned that Jungwon was part of the taekwondo club. In order to get to know him better, he decided to join said club, but it turned out that Jungwon didn't take part in it.

Junghwan on the other hand did.

So Jay found himself stuck for the whole year. He had misheard Junghwan's name and now he had to stay at school every day to do some taekwondo without Jungwon.

That sucked.

However, today Jay wasn't feeling so well, and he had decided to skip the club. After getting his teacher's blessing, he had ran to take his bus just in time.
And the cherry on top was that in was the same bus that Jungwon took to go home.

Jay loved those little moments. He always tried to stand far away not to be creepy, but close enough to be able to admire Jungwon. He had such soft hair! And cute dimples!
Jay knew that because he had caught Jungwon smiling at his phone twice, and he was hooked.

Twenty four minutes isn't that long, but it was long enough for Jay to imagine a lot of different scenarios, in which he walked to Jungwon to introduce himself.

Yeah, make believe scenarios...

Until today actually. This afternoon Jungwon seemed different. He seemed upset. Jay had noticed that he had spent the whole ride frowning for a second before stopping and starting again, as if he was experiencing mixed feelings.

He had gotten out of the bus behind Jungwon and had walked minding his own business, but then he heard Jungwon crying.

Months of fake scenarios had disappeared in an instant. Jungwon needed help right now, right?

"Are you okay?" asked Jay, getting closer to Jungwon.

The latter stopped walking. He turned around, revealing cute puffy eyes, and adorable red nose from crying. Jay's heart skipped a beat. He was rarely this close to Jungwon.

Jungwon his neighbor.
Jungwon his secret crush.

Jungwon didn't say anything, he simply turned back and started running very fast.

"Hey!" shouted Jay.

Jay didn't really know if he should follow Jungwon, but he was feeling concerned and wanted to offer his help, so he ran after his neighbor. Jungwon was fast, but Jay was faster. He reached Jungwon easily.

"Jungwon, wait" he said, putting a hand on Jungwon's shoulder.

"Just let me go" said Jungwon, looking down.

So Jay took his hand back and Jungwon ran away for the second time. Jay on the other hand stood there, not knowing what to do.

His body refused to move. Jungwon had asked him to let him go, and he didn't want to disobey. That wouldn't be okay.
He didn't want to force Jungwon to talk to him.

But he also wanted to help.

~

Jay was extremely nervous. He was convinced his plan was a good one, but he was still nervous.

Just go for it.

So he reached for the bell and rang it. A minute later, the front door opened, revealing a beautiful middle aged woman.

"Hi" she said. "Jay, right?"
"Exactly madam!" replied Jay. "I, uh, made some cookies and I thought maybe I could give some to Jungwon? I noticed he often eats cookies as dessert at school."

As he said that, he showed her a little care package filled with cookies.

"That is so thoughtful, thank you" she answered with a big smile. "Do you want me to call him?"
"Oh, uh, no that's okay, I need to run anyway" replied Jay.
"Alright then, I'll make sure he gets the cookies" she said.
"Thank you" replied Jay.

~

Jungwon recognized the soft knocks on his bedroom door.

"Yes?" he asked, still focused on his math homework.
"Jay dropped something for you" she said.

Jungwon frowned as he stood up. He opened the door, only to find his mother with a package of cookies.

"There you go" she said, giving him his present.
"Tha-thanks" replied Jungwon, absolutely lost.

His mother smiled and left. She probably thought Jay and Jungwon were friends at school, because she didn't even question anything.

Jungwon on the other hand had A LOT of questions.

Why had Jay made cookies for him?
Why had he asked his mother to hive them to him?

...

Why had Jay made cookies for him??

That seemed so weird.
Jungwon closed his door and carried the little package to his desk. Upon closer inspection, the cookies turned out to be chocolate chip ones, Jungwon's favorite.
He opened the package and tried one.

Everything was perfect. The satisfying "crunch" sound when he took a bite, the softness of the middle part, the dough to chocolate chip ratio.
Everything was perfect.

So perfect that Jungwon closed his eyes to enjoy the cookie properly.

As soon as he was done, he found himself wanting more, so he opened his eyes and as he reached for a second cookie, his hand touched something different.

Is this paper?

Intrigued, Jungwon looked inside the package and saw a little folded paper he hadn't noticed before.

A note?

He took it out and unfold it.

"Hey,

When I'm feeling down I usually bake myself some cookies. Today I thought you could use some, so knock yourself out!
If you need someone to talk to, please know that I'm there for you (if you don't it's okay too), my number is on the back

Jay"