ever seen ༄ heejake

003

"Jay."

"Hm?"

"Why didn't you ever introduce me to Jaeyun?"

Jay freezes for a moment, then looks up from his lunch, chopsticks poised halfway up to his mouth, a piece of bulgogi hanging from the utensils. "You mean Jake?" When Heeseung nods, Jay sighs, putting his food back down. "It's complicated."

Heeseung narrows his eyes at his friend. "In what way could this possibly be complicated?"

Jay goes silent, shoving more food into his mouth. Eventually, he speaks again. "It just is."

"You're a dick," Heeseung mumbles petulantly, stabbing his chopsticks into his ramyeon. "I like talking to him. He's sweet."

Jay gets a weird look on his face, one that Heeseung can't quite decipher. Heeseung raises an eyebrow at him, but Jay just shakes his head, going back to eating his food as if the conversation never happened. Weird.

Heeseung almost brings it up again, but before he can, Jungwon shows up from practically nowhere and plops down in the seat next to Jay's. "Heeseung-hyung," he says without preamble, his eyes a bit wild. "Sunoo-hyung has been chasing me all day, I need you to get him off my back. He needs a model for an upcoming project, or something."

Heeseung groans, already knowing what that entails. He loves Sunoo, they're best friends after all, but he never looks forward to sitting around like a china doll while Sunoo makes him try on a dozen different outfit combinations. "Why can't you do it? I've gotten stuck helping him with his projects twice in a row already. You have way more free time than I do."

Questioning him is a mistake. Jungwon pulls the ultimate move as soon as Heeseung finishes speaking—he pouts at him. With his eyes round like boba pearls, lower lip jutting out ever so slightly, and cheeks puffed up; Jungwon basically has the power to manipulate people at will. It's part of the reason many people find him terrifying.

Heeseung tries to hold his ground, he really does, but he gives in when he swears he sees Jungwon's eyes start to water ever so slightly. God, no wonder he can get Jay to get him whatever he wants. "Fine," Heeseung grumbles. "But you owe me."

Jungwon's pout switches to a smile in an instant. "Thanks, hyung."

The three of them eat in a comfortable silence for a while, their usual routine. Heeseung isn't very close with Jungwon, really only knowing him by extension of Jay and Sunoo, but it's been nice talking to him during lunch breaks ever since they started eating together.

After a few minutes, Jungwon speaks up again, directing his voice towards Heeseung. "I heard that Jake-hyung texted you on accident a couple days ago," he says casually. "You're friends now?"

"I mean, we've only had two conversations," Heeseung says. "But I'd consider him to be a friend, I think. Jay doesn't seem too happy about it though."

Jay practically chokes on his food in his rush to respond. "Yah, I never said—"

"But you implied—"

"I only said it was complicated!"

Jungwon watches the both of them with amusement, eventually nudging Jay in the shoulder to get him to shut up. "I understand where you're coming from, but hiding Heeseung-hyung and Jake-hyung from each other was always bound to fail eventually."

Heeseung furrows his eyebrows at Jungwon's words. So Jungwon knows why Jay is being weird about it, then. Of course he does. And what does he mean hiding them from each other?

"Why do I feel like you two are keeping something from me?" Heeseung asks. Jay and Jungwon share a glance, looking guilty, and that solidifies everything in Heeseung's mind. He finishes off the rest of his ramyeon and stands up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I have to go. Bye."