CELEBRITY SKIN .. nct dream （✓）

sixty-eight

jiae sighed as she slung her bag over her shoulder, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked side-by-side with sosuke. the school hallways wasn't extremely busy, since most students had already filed into their classrooms. the pair decided to take a quick coffee break and held their vending machine drinks as they slowly made their way to their classes.

"and then he tried to kiss me." jiae concluded, having told sosuke all about her little idol rescue mission from the night before. he'd kept a stoic expression for most of the story telling, but once she was done, jiae spotted a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

she smacked his chest with the back of her hand, laughing. "what's so funny?"

"nothing," sosuke laughed back. "i just imagined you smacking him in the face to keep him from kissing you."

jiae's cheeks pinked at that. in a way, he wasn't entirely wrong. still, she said, "you're entirely wrong! it's not like... i mean..." she lowered her voice a bit as the approached a curve in the hallway. "yeah, he's an idol, but he's still just a guy, you know?"

"dating is weird." sosuke summed simply.

jiae nodded along. "dating is weird. idols are weird. haechan is weird. everything is weird."

they'd almost reached their classroom when jiae felt a quick tap on her shoulder and turned to see a few of the girls from another one of her classes. she wasn't too familiar with all of them, but the girl who tapped her, hyunseo, was her english partner the year before.

jiae smiled at the group, stopping outside of the room. "oh, hey, hyunseo. what's up?"

"you have a boyfriend?" hyunseo asked immediately, and jiae's mouth went dry. "that's so cute! do you have any pictures? can you tell us about him?"

jiae's fidgety gaze flicked between the group in front of her and sosuke as she stammered for a reply. "i, um, sorry? where did you hear that?"

hyunseo's smile was so sweet that jiae couldn't tell if she knew she was being inappropriate it not. "sorry, we didn't mean to, but we overheard you and your friend here. something about haechan? that he looks like him, or something? do you have any photos?"

"i, uh—"

"because after the whole dating scandal," another girl said, "it would be really uncool of you to joke about something like being his secret girlfriend. and kind of pathetic, honestly."

jiae was so taken aback that she could barely form a coherent thought. her immediate reaction was to defend herself and her credibility, but that was impossible given the fact that she was his secret girlfriend.

before she could stutter out an excuse, she felt sosuke toss an arm around her in a leisurely manner. she couldn't see his expression, but every one of the girls in front of them tensed up.