Seoul to Soul

Chapter 2: The Promise

September 4th, Wednesday, 8:12 A.M.

Jay's POV

The two of us stood silently in the hall, exchanging neutral glances. At this point, my nervousness died out, he's a person before he is a celebrity. So I'll treat him as such.

"Nice to meet you Park! I'm Jay." I introduce myself.
With a smile, I politely extend my right hand which he took into his much larger one and firmly shook.

"Thank you Jay." He smiles softly.

'Freak man, why is he so attractive?'!'
"No problem!"

There were so many things circulating my mind, so many things I wanted to ask but I had to respect his privacy.

"Jay.." Jisung began, snapping me back to reality.

"Ya?"

The boy seemed really shy, timid almost. It was strange to see someone of his stature be so.. like me. Normal.

"I don't have much friends here. Even back in Korea, people weren't nice to me.."

I listened intently, replaying his words in my head to make sure I wasn't mishearing things.

"I know we just met.. but.. can you be my friend? I know it's weird.." he begins to chuckle nervously, trying to hide his discomfort.

I begin to stammer over my words before finally
speaking.

"Jisung! It's okay! I get it really. I'd be honored." I say full heartedly.

I almost died in the process but, I could not let him down.
His eyes lit up with hope and his smile stretched out beautifully.
I extended my pinky finger.

"I, Jay Vinh Yoon, promise to be your first real friend no matter what happens."

I had a lot of things going on, a lot of things holding me back. I was shy, easily intimidated and afraid of confrontation. I was scared to be involved, to be committed only to be betrayed again. But here I was, promising to do exactly that, be committed. On the first day of meeting him too.
Jisung wrapped his pinky around mine and shook on it.

"I, Jisung Park" he whispers his name so no one but the two of us would hear.

"Promise to be real good to you, always."

My heart was melting in the palm of his hands.

'He's so pure..'

After realizing we were holding pinkies for a bit too long, we blush and split apart.

"So how about that Tour, yeah?"

The older boy nods and begins to walk alongside me.

"So, do I call you Hyung?" I ask.

I didn't wanna compare the start of our new found friendship, with his already established ones with Chenle and the others. After all, he grew up with them. I'm already 15 and he's 16, we just met.

He laughs, beginning to walk down the hallway.

"Well?" I pressed on, following him.

There was a passing moment of silence before he answered.

"No, it's okay. I get that here in the U.S, it's different.. besides.. even if I am your Hyung, I prefer being your friend."

"Got it."

As much as I would like to keep my cool and not spaz out every time he did something like breath in my general direction, it was pretty damn hard not to.
But it doesn't mean I can't try.

"So Park, I'm comparing our schedule and it's pretty identical. Even our homeroom is the same."

"Homeroom?" He asks.

"Uh yeah.. Um it's like the class we usually start the day in. It's not a specific subject or anything. Just think of it as free time. To study, or do nothing. But it is mandatory to show up or you'll be marked absent."

When I finished explaining the concept, I could see him quietly repeating it to himself, most likely trying to remember.

"I actually haven't been to Korea.. well I mean that's where I was born but I moved here when I was still a baby.. so I'm not sure what the education system is like there." I began to ramble off topic.

Again, we walked with another long pause.

"How come you're not asking anything about me?" He blurts out.

I was taken back a bit, I didn't expect him to be so intent about it.

"You mean like NCT Dream and all of that?"

He nods, his gaze never shying away.

"Well.. I mean, I am really curious.. you're such an interesting person to me but.. you are human you know? Whether you're famous or not. I feel like it might be tiring to be idolized for everything you do, to always be in the public eye. That you're always Jisung from NCT Dream not just You, Jisung Park. I wanna respect you and your privacy. Besides all that, as much as I think I really know you, I don't. It's all just speculation."

My heart was viciously pounding against my chest, it's melodic beat ringing sharply in my ears. I felt like I could choke. Talking about this made me feel really nervous, like anything I say or do can be a deal breaker. It was excruciating, it's been about 10 minutes at most but being around him makes me so happy as it much as it suffocates me.
However, while I was lost in my thoughts, I could hear a faint murmuring noise that grew louder and louder.

"Jay!" His voice boomed.

I flinched, snapping out of my spiral of ultimate social chaos.

"Sorry..I.." I'd stammer

He just kept staring at me, "you were so quiet for so long and you just kinda stood there looking at me.. is everything okay?"

I smiled weakly, rubbing the back of my neck.
'I really need to get ahold of myself.'
"Yes sorry, I was just thinking too much."

His eyes sort of lit up at my words. I didn't understand why or what he was feeling but, he pulled me into a brief hug.
As expected, everything he did sent me for a loop. This included.

"You'll be okay." Was all he told me.

He then took it upon himself to take my hand in his own and pull me along after him.
I don't know what this was or how I should feel, all I knew was that there was something deep within us both beginning to grow. Something I never would've seen coming.

~

A/N

Hi guys! It's ya boi Jay. Lol so ugh this is such a mess. Writing is so much harder than I remember it to be. I have all these ideas for future chapters and all that stuff but it's when the relationship is more developed and attuned LOL which is obviously not it right now. I'm just trying to plan carefully and have it follow this meticulous chronological order and be connected significantly to one another but let's see how long that lasts. Anyways, sorry for super late update. I know not many people are reading this right now or will ever read this (here's me hoping I'm wrong for once ahhh) BUT I'm grateful to those who do and have and alla thaaaaat. I hope to hear more from you guys as more chapters get released. I can't grow without your input. Once again, thank you! Have a beautiful day, night, afternoon etc! (:

- Jay