Notorious ⊷ Haechan

51 ⊷ Rough

guys this wasn't supposed to take literally 51 chapters omg 

but here we go~

⊷ 51

When he opened his eyes, he saw her. 

Just her, lying right next to him, her eyes closed and her breaths so small that he could barely even hear them. 

Heavy eyelids, hazy morning vision - all of that stood between him and her and yet he saw Ji-yoon clearly. 

He felt her hand on him. She gently ran her fingertips up and down the back of his neck all the way up to where his hair began and then back down. 

She was awake, yet she had her eyes closed. She was lying so close to him that their foreheads were almost touching, her soft breaths gently falling against his skin. 

"It's still early," she said in a murmur, "you should sleep more." Her voice was low and heavy as if she herself had only just woken up. 

His eyes travelled down to her arm. The tanktop that she wore allowed him to quickly spot the bandage around her arm that, by now, was a bit messy. The sight made him remember what Wooyoung had asked him to do last night. 

"She can take the painkillers as needed..." he said, "but she likes to play tough so maybe you can reason with her a little so she takes them even if she thinks it doesn't hurt that much."

"Does it hurt?" Haechan asked carefully to which Ji-yoon shook her head. "Okay. But if it does then please tell me." 

"Will do," she mumbled quietly. "Now go back to sleep. It's not even 7 yet." 

Haechan was surprised that it was still so early. He had slept well. He wasn't tired at all. 

Maybe it was the comfortable bed he slept in. Maybe it was the clean air that was streaming into the room through the tall, open window. Maybe it just felt like he was well-rested in contrast to the immense tiredness he had felt last night. 

Maybe it was all that.

Or maybe it was the fact that he was lying next to Ji-yoon. 

So he hummed. "I'd rather look at you a bit longer," he muttered. He spoke quietly, yet it was obvious that she would be able to hear him given their proximity. 

She finally opened her eyes and looked at him. She didn't expect him to say this and so her initial response was more so disbelief than anything else. 

However, it soon swapped places with a sense of exhaustion. She exhaled deeply, closed her eyes again and decided that,

"You're unfair." 

"What? Why?" 

"Just saying this like that to me as if it wouldn't make me fall even harder for you than I already did..." She nodded to herself as she concluded once more, "You're unfair." 

He had almost forgotten that from her perspective, it was different. That he hadn't told her yet. That they weren't lying next to each other as a couple nor as friends. 

Just as something in between, something ambiguous. 

And as such, she wouldn't have known that she was just as unfair as he was. That just her hand on his neck and those small smiles of hers felt insanely unfair too. 

"I talked to Kun a while ago," Haechan remembered. "He said that when the people around you get hurt, you are quick to blame yourself." 

"So now, whatever it is, the first person Joon will blame is herself. The thing you said about being on edge - I think you are right. She is worried the same thing might happen again and someone will get hurt and she will find a way to blame herself."