Homeless ➹ 2jae [✓]

- 11 -

The following Sunday, Jinyoung had another study group with some of his classmates, and he'd left early in the morning to attend. This, once again, left Jaebum and Youngjae in their dorm room together alone, but Jaebum wasn't planning on sitting in his own silence while the younger one was sleeping again. He figured that he'd call Jackson and Mark over to hang out, but neither of them picked up their phones. He didn't know what to do then.

By ten, his body was clean, his teeth were brushed, and his stomach was full of a salad that he'd bought the previous day. For once, he'd also remembered to take his medicine, which was a task he would constantly forget about. He was glad, though, that Youngjae didn't see him take it. In his mind, his roommates knew nothing about it, and he would have liked to keep it that way.

At eleven, after an hour of dully doing some work, Youngjae still wasn't awake, so Jaebum went out to buy some food for him. His only concern was that Youngjae wouldn't like it, but he thought it'd be a nice gesture anyway.

-:-:-:-

"Oh... Jaebum," Youngjae spoke groggily, stepping out from the bathroom as Jaebum walked inside the room. The older stopped for a second to look at the brown-haired boy in front of him, eyes widening for a short second. He felt a smile tug on his lips before ignoring it, listening to Youngae continue quietly. "Where were you?"

"Oh, I just... Went to get something to eat. Do you like waffles?" Youngjae nodded and stretched his back before walking over to Jaebum. Something about the 18-year-old with messy hair and an oversized shirt made Jaebum feel bad for looking at him. It was almost too innocent of a sight for him to bear after the kind of things he'd seen in his life. "H-how many?"

"Two's alright," Youngjae yawned, stepping back to let Jaebum put them on a paper plate.

"Three it is..." Jaebum whispered, making both of them chuckle. Quickly, he heated up the waffles in the microwave and served them to Youngjae on his bed, sitting next to him with syrup. "Here, if you want some," he said, handing the bottle to Youngjae.

"Thank you," the younger mumbled, taking the syrup. Together, they sat on the top bunk with their feet dangling off the edge of the bed while Youngjae made sure his syrup distribution was even. It was silent while Youngjae ate, until he said, "These are good for microwaved waffles." Jaebum chuckled, rolling his head against the wall.

He was trying to come up with something to say, – something to spark the conversation – but there was nothing that he felt like asking about. His mouth, however, was running quicker than his mind, and he asked, "Is that one of the shirts you bought yesterday?" He eyed the boy's collarbone, an uncovered sliver of skin that was paler than the face above it. He tried not to stare for too long, but he couldn't help himself.

Youngjae sighed, "Yeah... I like it, but I think it's too big." Jaebum watched the younger one take another bite of his waffles and play with the end of his shirt.

"I-I don't think so..." he said quietly, earning a sudden look from Youngjae. His eyebrows were raised, and Jaebum had realized that he'd just spoken his inner thoughts aloud. "Oh- I mean, I just..." He was annoyed with himself for stuttering even though he was a grown adult, so he paused before looking Youngjae in the eye. "I think it looks good on you."

A compliment that could be given and received by anybody was being given by Jaebum, the stranger that Youngjae was nervous around, and the younger didn't know how to react. The way Jaebum's eyes looked so sincere was something Youngjae hadn't seen, but he watched carefully as the older's eyes didn't budge from where they were. His eyes even trailed down a little, over his nose and to his lips, to step back, in a sense, and process what he'd just heard.

Youngjae almost thought that he was overreacting, or over thinking what he'd just heard, but he suddenly felt more comfortable. He slumped down the back wall a little bit, shoving the last bit of his waffles in his mouth so he would have an excuse to not say anything back, but he didn't know what to do when they were gone. In a slow matter of seconds, Jaebum had slumped down the same, and asked innocently, "You're not going to say, 'Thank you'?"

"Huh? Oh, th--" Yougjae didn't have time to thank the other, his sentence being interrupted with Taemin's Drip Drop.

"Hello?" Jaebum asked his cellphone, a little ticked off that Jinyoung's call got in the way of his time with Youngjae. The younger just sat back and listened to his voice talk to the person on the other end. "Why, what's up? ... No... What email? I haven't checked yet... Oh, sh.. Yeah, yeah, I will. Don't worry, uh... I guess so..." Jaebum looked back at Youngjae, lip in between his teeth. "Alright, see you." With that, he hung up, sighing.

"What was that?" Youngjae asked, concern in his small voice. "Did something happen?"

"No, no..." he answered, putting the phone in his pocket. "It's nothing." His smile masked the news that he'd gotten, trying to ignore it and focus on Youngjae.

"Are you sure?" he was asked, wide eyes accompanying the question.

"Yeah, it's fine."

No, it wasn't.

"Don't worry about it."

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a/n: i feel like the last few chapters have been kinda boring, but they're only leading up to the exciting stuff! thank you for sticking with me, it means a lot! ^^

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whaa 1k reads omg T-T thank you so much!!