baby fever | na jaemin

do you like him?

Yeona stretched by the barre, the soft strains of classical music filling the spacious ballet studio. The mirrored walls reflected her graceful form, but her mind seemed elsewhere. Renjun, slightly out of breath from practice, approached her with a casual air that didn't quite mask the concern in his voice.

"Hey, Yeona," he began, his tone light but probing.

"Have you seen Jaemin since... you know, that night?" He asked, wondering why for the last week she had been quiet ever since filling him in with details on how they had slept together at his place

Yeona straightened up, her expression tightening just a fraction. She turned her attention to adjusting her ballet slippers, a small frown forming on her face.

"No, not really," she replied after a moment.

"I mean, he works a 9 to 5, and with my schedule being all over the place..." She shrugged, her eyes avoiding Renjun's.

"We barely cross paths." She shrugged simply, as if she wasn't the reason for them not crossing paths. Renjun crossed his arms, watching her with a frown. He knew Yeona too well to let this slide.

"You're overworking yourself," he said, his voice firm but laced with concern.

"I know you do that when you're trying to run away from something." He added, knowingly. Yeona glanced at him, a hint of defensiveness in her eyes, but she quickly looked away, focusing on the floor.

"I'm not running away from anything," she insisted, her voice steady but lacking conviction.

"I'm just preparing for the upcoming Swan Lake season. You know how important that is." She said, shifting her eyes down to the pointe shoes that were tight on her feet, pale pink ribbons tied against her ankles. Renjun wasn't convinced by her answer. He took a step closer, his gaze searching her face.

"Yeona, do you even think it's going to work out? Do you even like him?" Renjun asked, knowing that the girl who tended to keep to herself usually bit the bullet by going on a date with Jaemin, let alone go this far with him. Yeona was not one for relationships.

"I don't know...Maybe not it won't work out" she admitted softly, her voice tinged with sadness. She sighed, the weight of the question settling heavily between them.

"We're so different as people. But..." She hesitated, struggling to find the right words.

"I still really like him. I just—I don't want to let him down one day by not being able to give him enough time." She admitted, her voice faltering.

So many friendships, potential relationships, even familial relationships had fallen apart due to her hectic lifestyle. She stretched herself thin everyday just by sending time with her own sister and Yurim—now barely even that as the Swan Lake season edged closer.

And Renjun, a fellow dancer, knew it all too well. Any break they ever had is better spent resting, patching up their wounds from practice, perfecting their movements. It wasn't just a job, it was a lifestyle. A lifestyle that didn't exactly have time for relationships or feelings to get in the way.

"I honestly don't know how people do it" Yeona said, as if she was reading his mind. She didn't even have to, they were both thinking it. How do people in this industry manage their time so well to balance their work life with their personal lives?

And they both knew the answer, those who do never really make it to the top.

Renjun watched her, his expression softening. He could see the conflict in her eyes, the uncertainty that had been gnawing at her.

"You need to figure out what you want, Yeona," he said gently.

"Don't lead him on if you'd rather focus on your career. He deserves to know at least that much" Renjun said, trying to sympathise as best as he could with his best friend but also being rational about the situation.

Yeona had to choose between her feelings or her career, before the situation got more serious.

"I know" Yeona nodded slowly, her mind a whirl of thoughts and emotions. She whispered, more to herself than to Renjun.

"I know..."

________

"She said she would be here" Yurim said with a saddened voice, her cheek wresting against the palm of her hand as she sat in the empty classroom, colouring in between the lines of a cartoon.

Jaemin looked up from his desk, pausing his review of what he was going to be doing with the class tomorrow, before standing up and walking over to Yurim.

"Will I call her again?" He asked, unsure if his calls would even go answered by the girl who hasn't texted him back in a few days.

"Please?" Yurim asked, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. But that hope was unfortunately crushed in the matter of seconds as his call when unanswered.

"But she promised..." Yurim said with a small voice, the corners of her lips tugging downwards as her tears started to fall down her cheeks uncontrollably

"Hey...hey it's okay...maybe she just got held up with something. Let me call your mom, I can drop you home if she can't come get you" Jaemin said as he tried to comfort her while she let out choked sobs. Minutes passed with Jaemin doing everything in his power, from his aegyo voice to his funny faces, to get her to stop crying and feel better. And it worked—for a second.

"Yurim! I'm here!" Yeona exclaimed, running into the classroom, breathless like she had just ran for the last twenty minutes—because she did.

She ran all the way over here, bruising her feet and gaining a few blisters, just to make sure she didn't break her promise to Yurim. But it was too late.

"I hate you! I'm not going home with you!" Yurim shouted, her sobs returning to her lips quickly as she hid behind Jaemin's legs

Jaemin watched as Yeona's guilty smile falter slowly, realising that the little girl had unfortunately become too hurt by her actions. She was late, she was always late.

"Yurim don't be like that—I-I got stuck—"

"You're lying! You forgot about me!" Yurim cried, gripping Jaemin's hand tightly as Yeona took a few steps towards her

"No I didn't—I would never..." Yeona said, desperately trying to defend her mistake to not have the little girl hate her already

"Hey guys, how about we all just calm down okay?" Jaemin said quickly, trying to stop the two from making matters worse

"I don't want to go home with you" Yurim said through her sniffs and Yeona swore she felt her heart sink to the pit of her stomach at the tone

"Yurim, let's all go home together okay?" Jaemin said, looking down at the girl and squeezing her hand reassuringly as she looked up at him with tear stained cheeks

"Come on" Jaemin said, a comforting smile on his lips as he walked towards Yeona

"Hey, you too...let's go home" he smiled and Yeona looked up with a hesitant look on her face, opposite to the look on his face.

His hand extended out to grab hers before she could reconsider, walking the two upset girls out of the classroom as they silently followed him out. And whether she realised it now or not, she was really grateful in that moment to have Jaemin around.