Fate | Jakehoon

chapter 18: dealing with feelings

2023
Seoul, South Korea,
11th of February

The month of January was spent recording for their new album while flying between various countries. First, they went to Thailand for the Golden Disc Awards, then to Italy, for Prada's Fall 2023 Men's Show, less than a week after. It was their first time attending a fashion show, and they had a photoshoot for the brand, met the owner and other celebrities, and ate delicious pasta.

Nevertheless, the most unforgettable part of the month was performing at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka. It was by far the largest arena of their tour, and the fact that it was in Ni-Ki's home country, made it even more emotional for the youngest member. He wouldn't admit it, but Sunghoon saw him tearing up a little while hearing the fans cheer, before they went on stage.

Back in Korea, they're on a pretty tight schedule with album recordings, filming for EN O'Clock and attending the last award show of the season, next week.
Surprisingly though, in spite of their busy agenda, the boys manage to get some time off in between everything, like today, for example. Sunghoon and Jake have talked about going skiing months ago, if the opportunity ever arose this winter, and luckily for them, it did.

Flashback

They've officially wrapped up the tour in the Philippines yesterday, and returned to Korea this morning, heading straight to the dorm to take a quick nap. In the afternoon, they went to the company to practice, and came back a few hours later. Jungwon briefed them about their weekly schedule while eating dinner, and now they're chilling.

Sunoo and Ni-Ki are watching a horror movie in the living room, Heeseung and Jungwon are building legos, and Jay's practicing his french. On top of his laptop, the latter has three books spread over the table where Sunghoon is playing chess with Jake. The game's almost over, as Sunghoon waits for Jake to make the next move.

"You've been staring at the board for minutes now," Sunghoon remarks when he sees Jake so concentrated, as if his life depends on it. He's going to lose, anyway.

"Don't rush me! I'm thinking," Jake bites his lip and pouts, and Sunghoon's mind instantly goes 'adorable'.

Jake sighs as he finally moves his chess piece, which makes Sunghoon chuckle. It's been an intense game, but Jake's king is in a precarious position. Singhoon's the obvious winner this time.

"Check—"

"I can't anymore!" in frustration, Jay throws the headphones he was wearing, knocking all of Sunghoon's chess pieces off the board.

"Jay!" Sunghoon glares at the culprit that's standing next to him.

Jay purses his lips, retrieving his headphones. "Sorry, it's just that French is soo complicated. I'm tired," he exhales wearily.

"Nobody's forcing you to learn it," says Sunghoon as he picks up the pieces from the ground.

"Well, excuse me for trying to learn new things," Jay's sarcasm makes Sunghoon roll his eyes.

"I won!" Jake exclaims, and Sunghoon furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"No, you didn't. I was literally going to say checkmate."

"But you didn't," Jake grins, but Sunghoon won't just simply accept defeat.

"Let's have a do over," he proposes, hoping Jake would say yes.

If Sunghoon's being honest with himself, it's not really about wanting to win a stupid game, but he wants to spend more time with Jake.