𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 | csc

𝙭𝙞𝙞𝙞.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Is that the first fucking thing you say after I wake up from a coma Ji?" Three excruciating hours had passed and now Aerin was all packed up and ready to continue on with her life. As expected, her cousin had rushed there to escort her seeing as Seungcheol got back to the dorms 2 hours earlier than he was supposed to and acted like a spoiled baby, slamming the door and stomping to his room.

Despite being Seventeen's leader and oldest member, when action did not need to be taken, he acted like the most childish of them all. Not to mention his sulking habits. The members would have normally grilled him about it but it was actually 8 in the morning and only Hoshi's sugar-rushed-ass was wide awake.

"Yes, yes it is." Contradictory to his response, Jihoon went to give his cousin a tight hug and grab her bags, despite her multiple complaints.

The weather was cold and gloomy due to the early morning snowfall. But luckily for Aerin, this was what she deemed ideal.

Unfortunately, regardless of the perfection, her peace was momentarily paused as Jihoon's ringtone went off. For some reason it was the standard iPhone one which Aerin found awfully annoying, attempting to steal his phone and change it to spice his monotone life up. But of course, he would die before letting Aerin have her way.

Jihoon hummed into the phone and nodded his head, only speaking twice: once to say bye, and the other to tell the person on the phone "She's doing fine."

"Was that auntie?" She asked. Who other than her aunt would want to know if she was okay and call Jihoon to confirm it?

"Nope, it's Seungcheol-hyung." At the mention of his name, Aerin tensed up, remembering the conversation that had occurred only a couple of hours ago. Part of her began to regret pushing him away, but she equally clung to the fact her member would never do something to harm her. To Aerin, that was clear bullshit.

Unfortunately, her small change of character had been picked up by her cousin. He was normally very blunt and spoke with no second thought to his words.

"What, you good? Oh, was it cause I said Seungcheol? That's right he just left to take my spot to watch over you. . .so random." He found himself trailing off as Aerin struggled to keep up with him until his last statement to which she stopped in her tracks.

"Wait...random? I thought he was forced to come here because you were in a meeting?" Aerin's cousin turned to face her with confusion in response to Ari's own perplexed tone.

"Meeting? I just forgot to leave your phone and jacket with you and he like volunteered as tribute immediately. I thought he was going because you were maybe good friends."

At first, Jihoon wasn't so interested, but at this point cared more than he should. The cousins were now sitting in the back of an Uber, continuing their conversations after showing the driver PLEDIS' address.

It took a moment for Aerin to process what Jihoon said, but as soon as she did, she was once again confused. She and Seungcheol were just friends as far as she knew, so how come he went that far to care for her unprovoked? It lingered in her mind for a second until she remembered her cousin talking about a jacket.

"Hold on, backtrack for a sec. Jacket? I didn't see any jacket in my hospital room?"

"Shit...I left your jacket at the dorm. I forgot to give it to Hyung." He groaned into his hands at his unusual forgetfulness. Well to be fair, he had been awake for almost 24 hours and was one expresso shot away from being able to make it any time longer.

"Well, I guess we can just drop you off and I'll deliver your jacket later. You should rest after, you workaholic."

"Says you." Jihoon only rolled his eyes and leaned forward to notify the driver of their change of location. The car then fell into silence leading Aerin to whip out her phone, immediately noticing a fresh notification on her lock screen.

𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐥

𝙨𝙚𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙤𝙡
Hey. I'm sorry for what I said last
this morning
I shouldn't have gone that far
and i hope i can make it up to you
somehow :) And i understand if
you still don't want to talk to me,
but i'm glad you're doing good.
If it's okay, can i call you?

sure

Aerin didn't feel comfortable going back to normal just yet, but the guy was sincere and didn't do anything inherently wrong, so why not call him? He was just trying to look out for her. Besides, Jihoon's headphones had made a return so he wouldn't care anyway. Well, as far as Aerin knew.

At that moment exactly, her ringtone sounded throughout the vehicle, I.O.I's Pick Me momentarily blasting from the device.

"Hey."

"Hi, so I'm just feeling really guilty about this and I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to make it up?" Aerin had to admit she was a bit flustered he was calling about this immediately.

"Oh uh- I mean...Jihoon forgot to return my jacket I left at his dorm studio so you can deliver it to me over coffee tomorrow. If you're free of course." She had to admit she was surprised with herself. He'd only wanted to help her after all and backed off at her word earlier. And while she wasn't sure why he cared so much, she appreciated it. The two had been meaning to go out to eat before this whole mishap so maybe it was time Aerin got over herself. Of course, her guilt from bursting out in anger at him played a part though the in-denial Aerin paid it no mind.

"Really!? Um I mean, okay sure see you at noon in Brew café if it works out for you?" Aerin chuckled at his exclamation before going to answer him.

"It does, I have to record from 8 to 11 so it's all good."

"Are they seriously making you work two days after you went into a coma?" His tone immediately flipped and Aerin had to admit it was kind of attractive. Oh what the fuck was she saying.

Before going to reply, the familiar PLEDIS building impaled her line of view.

"i guess so. Anyways I gotta go, see you tomorrow Seungcheol."