Craving (JJ x James)

22.

'Well what was that about?' James asked Justin in the bathrooms. 'Do you know how embarrassing it was!? Now everyone thinks I'm some sort of wuss!'

Justin couldn't help but laugh internally. 'Well you didn't specify what you wanted me to sketch.'

'Because I don't know a thing about art, I just expected you to be sensible enough to not sketch something so weak and stupid. Next time, don't do something like that again.' he warned.

'Fine,' Justin nodded. 'By the way, are you in such a bad mood because your girlfriend broke up with you?'

James chuckled in surprise. 'No. By the way, my girlfriend didn't break up with me, we're just on a break. I know you're wishing that my girlfriend and I will break up but that won't happen.' he walked closer to him. 'And even if I did break up with Hikaru, I wouldn't date you...because you're a boy.'

Justin didn't know whether to believe his words more or his actions. He simply took a deep breath. 'I don't know whether to believe you or not.'

'If Hikaru does decide to actually break up with me, I'm moving on to Wonyoung.'

James sounded so disgusting. How the hell was he even contemplating moving on to another girl already when he claimed to be in love with Hikaru? If Justin didn't know James beyond everything, he would surely resolve that James was not even worth his time or attention. James sounded like a real jerk just as Sangwon had described.

And it didn't make Justin feel better that he had to worry about both Wonyoung and Hikaru just to get to James. Maybe it really wasn't worth it.

But what if it was easier for James to not make a move because Justin was so available? He wasn't an expert at this, but he had seen shows where this method was used.

He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Yorch's number, a number he simply kept in his phone because they had had a conversation once or twice over Justin's mental health which didn't lead to any fruition.

'Hey.' Yorch greeted.

'Hey Yorch, have you already left? Can we walk home together?'

James looked at Justin and scoffed. Was Justin trying to make him jealous or he was actually friends with Yorch? Either way, the fact that they were going to walk home together made James loathe Yorch to a certain degree.

'Sure, I haven't left yet.' Yorch replied over the phone.

'Cool, I'll meet you at the exit.' Justin hang up his cell phone. 'Bye James, have a nice evening.'

James simply glared at him and watched him go.

𓆩♡𓆪

'So what made you want to walk home with me today?' Yorch asked him interrogatively as they made their way off the school campus. 'If I remember well, last time I tried to walk home with you, you said you're uncomfortable walking home with someone and would rather walk alone.'

'Well,' Justin gritted his teeth. 'Can I be honest with you? I kind of did this to make someone jealous.' he turned around to see if James was in sight. Luckily, he was. He was walking with his three friends, but Justin noticed he had his eyes on him and Yorch. It was surely working, Justin smiled to himself.

'Who?' Yorch also looked behind them and looked at the numerous students. But among them, James caught his eye. He looked back at Justin. 'Please don't tell me you want to make that guy jealous.'

Justin gave him a guilty smile.

'Geez Justin,' Yorch stopped in his tracks. 'Don't give him so much power over you. Just get over him already. Even if he gets jealous, what do you think he's going to do? Date you? I don't think he would, he's a pretty terrible person.'

'Yorch I just can't help it,' he admitted. 'It is working though! Did you see!? He was looking in our direction!'

'I don't want to be a part of this!' Yorch exclaimed. 'I really would have loved to take a U-turn and leave you alone but I guess I don't want to embarrass you in front of your crush. But this better be the last time.'

'Yes Yorch.' Justin nodded and the two continued to walk.

Meanwhile, Jungwon tapped Sunghoon's shoulder, grabbing his attention immediately as the quartet made its way to the pavement.

'What?' Sunghoon turned to Jungwon.

Jungwon immediately made a signal with his hand for Sunghoon to lower his voice. 'Have you noticed the way James is looking at Justin and Yorch and got all quiet?'

Sunghoon looked in James' direction, then back at Jungwon. 'Yeah? But what does that mean?'

'He seems jealous.'

'Oh my goodness,' Sunghoon whispered. 'James wouldn't like Justin would he? There's no way. Not after how we totally made fun of him in the cafeteria, that couldn't be all pretense right?'

'Well I hope it's not. Because if it is...I'm not sure how well James fits in with us.'

𓆩♡𓆪

'I never thought I'd say this, but you should come over one of these weekends,' Justin said with a chuckle to his cousin over the cell phone that evening. 'I never thought we'd become close Sangwon, I'm sure my mom will be shocked to hear that I really wanted you to come to our place.'

As if she heard her name, the door slowly opened and in walked Justin's mother. He looked towards the door and watched as she made his way to his bed and took a seat on the edge.

'I'll call you later.' Justin hang up the cell phone and looked at his mother, who obviously seemed like she wanted to talk. 'Hi mom.' he greeted.

'Hey honey,' she replied with a smile. 'How have your nights been? Have you been getting enough sleep?'

'My nights?' he asked her in surprise. 'I guess they have been okay, why do you ask?'

'Well I've noticed that we haven't been checking on you since you came from Sangwon's place, we didn't even ask how you were doing. We assumed you were better now because you seem to be talking to Sangwon more.' She explained, 'but...the neighbor Mrs. Chung told me that she saw you at the park late at night a few weeks ago.'

Justin felt a lump in his throat, he was very nervous. Did she also tell his mother that Justin was with a boy when he should have been inside? Why would Mrs. Chung expose him that badly?

'Me?' Justin asked hoarsely. 'Maybe she made a mistake.'

'I told her she must have made a mistake because you would never do that.' She touched his hair lightly. 'But it made me realize we haven't really been checking on you like we should. In fact, you shouldn't even be up this late. It's 11 pm and you're still up and active...'

'But I'm not a baby.' he muttered.

'I know you think you're all grown up, but you still need to be supervised especially when you went through that downhill period. I'll make sure to tuck you in every night, we can talk about your day and then you should be asleep by 9 o'clock – staying up late is associated with depression you know.'

'Mom there's no need,' he groaned.

'No dear, you'll see the need as time goes by.' she smiled at him. 'That's the arrangement okay?'

He sighed. 'Okay.' who was he to say no after all? He was still their child who was going to have to listen one way or the other.

His mother gave him a peck on the forehead and left the room.

Justin groaned and dropped himself on the bed. He shut his eyes and surprisingly started to drift to sleep before his cell phone vibrated and roused him from his sleep.

He grabbed his cell phone and checked the notification. It was a message from James; he had simply sent him a middle finger emoji. 

craving.