Rubber Bands {2Jae}

-5-

Jaebum collapsed on his bed after taking a long, hot shower.

"Took you long enough, what did you do? Put your princess makeup on?" Youngjae grumbled as he walked past Jaebum's open door, heading towards the bathroom.

"I swear to god princess, if all the hot water is used up...." He left the threat hanging as he slammed the door shut.

Jaebum laughed to himself. He allowed himself five more minutes of laying down. Jaebum was exhausted. It had been a looong day. A first day could be very tiring on the soul.
But....he had homework to do.

He pulled himself up and almost fell off the bed when he lost his grip on the blankets.

He rolled out of the wierd position he was in and sat up, coming face to face with Mrs. Choi.

Jaebum screamed and jumped backwards causing her to laugh even harder.

He laid down and patted his chest, in attempt to calm his pounding heart.

"Are you alright Jaebum?" Mrs. Choi asked, trying to stifle her laughter.

Jaebum nodded, "Let's pretend that never happened."

"Alright, I was just wondering if you wanted to have something to eat as you do your homework."

Jaebum nodded. Mrs. Choi chuckled and ruffled his hair, "Alright, work hard Jaebum."

Two hours and three empty bowls of grapes later, Jaebum stared at the last math problem he had to do.
But there was one issue, he didn't know how to do it.

Jaebum flipped the paper around, maybe if he looked at it in a different prespective....

"What are you doing?"

Jaebum jumped when he heard a voice behind him.

"I'm trying to solve a problem Youngjae."

"So you flip a algebraic question upside down?"

"I thought looking at it differently might help..." Jaebum trailed off, slightly pouted.

Youngjae sighed, "Fine, just turn off the lights in the hallway when you're done."

Youngjae walked out of Jaebum's room.

"Wait! Youngjae come back."

Youngjae stopped in the middle of the hallway, "What?"

"Please help."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"I'll buy you lunch tomorrow."

There was a long pause before Youngjae turned around.

"Fine, but I'm eating something really expensive."

"Okay."

Youngjae pulled up a chair next to Jaebum and started explaining the question to him.

About halfway through, he looked up and noticed that Jaebum wasn't paying attention at all. In fact, he was staring at Youngjae.

Youngjae sighed, "Can you at least pretend to pay attention."

Jaebum snapped out of his trance and looked back at the paper, his cheeks slightly turning red.

Youngjae snorted at the other boy's behavior and continued his explanation.

"So that's how you get the answer."

"Okay, so I've been listening....but could you go over that once more....just in case."

Youngjae let out a loud groan.

"Just, figure it out yourself."
He said, standing up.

Jaebum grabbed Youngjae's wrist, "Wait, please. I'll be serious, I promise."

"No. Let go." Youngjae said coldly.

Jaebum didn't let go and he begged even more.

"Please Youngjae, it's only one quest-"

"No means no Jaebum! Now stop talking to me. You're so annoying." Youngjae shouted.

Jaebum winced at the latter's sudden raise of voice and let go of Youngjae.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled while looking down.

Youngjae huffed and walked out of Jaebum's bedroom, slamming the door shut on his way out.

The thing that Youngjae hated most was that he was softening up to the boy. It's been only a week since Jaebum started living in his house, and already he bought him food, walked him to school and for the first time, Youngjae helped another person.

He hated it so much.

The next morning, Youngjae walked downstairs to see a school-ready Jaebum on his phone.

"Oh you're already down here."

"Yeah." Jaebum said, preoccupied by his phone.

"Are you texting someone?"

"Yeah."

"Who?"

"Yeah."

Youngjae scrunched his face. The boy wasn't even listening to him.

Suddenly Jaebum let out a loud laugh and frantically typed on his phone.

"Jaebum, are you a butthead?"

"Yeah."

Youngjae sighed as Jaebum laughed again and continued his little texting- sesh.

Youngjae hated to admit it but he was getting a weird feeling from being ignored. Usually Jaebum was the first to greet Youngjae. And this morning, he was completely ignoring him.

Youngjae finally tugged the phone from Jaebum and stuffed it in his back pocket.

"HEY!" Jaebum protested as he glared at Youngjae.

"Don't ignore me, it makes me mad."

Jaebum raised an eyebrow, "But wasn't it just last night you told me not to talk to you because I'm annoying?"

Youngjae huffed as he threw the phone back to its original owner.

Jaebum smiled to himself as the flustered boy stormed out of the house.

Youngjae crumpled the piece of paper in his hand as he watched Jinyoung place a hand on Jaebum's shoulder while laughing.

Why was that boy so clingy? God, grow a pair and stop touching him.
Youngjae froze when he realized what he was thinking.

Youngjae groaned as he banged his head on the table.
"Get it together Youngjaae." He scolded himself.

Another loud laugh grabbed his attention. He looked up to see Jaebum and Jinyoung laughing.

Youngjae clenched his fists and got up. He walked to the annoying pair and banged his fist on the table.

The table of boys quickly quieted as Youngjae glared Jaebum down.

"Can I help you?" Jaebum asked with a sharp tone.

"Actually yes, someone owes me lunch." Youngjae retorted as he grabbed Jaebum's wrist and dragged him away from the God forsaken Jinyoung.