The Project 'Buddy'

~12~

"Hey, you alright?"

Jungwon's head snapped to his right, where the source of the question came from. Jay was looking at him curiously and Jungwon just nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jungwon responded.

"Huh, really? Seemed like you were deep in thought while staring at that giant ass maknae over there."

Jungwon snorted. "Giant ass....and that was a long time ago."

Jay tilted his head. "What? Liking him?"

At this point, Jungwon wasn't surprised at how Jay was able to guess things easily. It was probably just luck on his side. Still he asked, "yeah, how'd you know?"

Jay smirked. "You're not that hard to read, you know?"

Jungwon felt a blush creeping up his cheeks and ears. He patted the side of his hair to cover them up, only to receive a laugh from Jay.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's not like I can just see through you but like, when you let your guard down, it's kinda easy to guess what you're thinking," Jay explained.

"Another reason why I always have it up," Jungwon joked back, but didn't get a response from Jay this time. He looked over to see Jay looking seriously at him, slightly frowning.

"What happened?" he asked, "why are you always having your guard up? Did something happen?"

"Oh. It's just that I used to be in a relationship with this girl in like, high school. But she cheated on me and kept saying stuff like I was too cold to her friends and they're scared of me while not even bothering to introduce them to me. That's why we broke up," Jungwon scoffed slightly, playing with his leftover ice cream.

He could feel Jay's stare from beside him, piercing through his mind. He didn't want to admit that he had felt hurt when he and the girl broke up. It was honestly so unexpected for him, which was why he wanted to be more careful. He just didn't want shit like that to happen again.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his arm, and he looked up to meet Jay's soft and emphatic eyes. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, squeezing his wrist gently.
The little gesture made Jungwon's heart beat twice as fast. Why was it doing that? He had only read that in romance novels, when the character was started to get feelings for the other character.

Was he catching feelings for Jay?

What? No! Jungwon, you don't even know if he likes guys! Snap out of this, I command you!

He bit down on his lip and gave Jay a small smile. "Thanks," was all he could say in response to the older's warm gesture.

Jay smiled back, finally releasing his hand from Jungwon's wrist. He could still feel his skin tingling at Jay's touch. Gosh, what was happening to him?

"Hey guys! Everyone ready to go?" Sunoo suddenly announced, snapping Jungwon out of his thoughts.

He quickly nodded and all of them stood up, leaving the table. Outside the cafe', they waved goodbye to K who was heading back to his apartment.

"That was great!" Jake exclaimed, and the others nodded along eagerly. "What are you guys going to do now?"

"Hmm, maybe just go back. It's been quite a day. It's almost 7pm!" Heeseung said, glancing at his watch. Then, he faced Jake and smirked, raising an eyebrow, "unless you want to spend more time with me?"