Third Wheeling For Dummies | on hold

nineteen

As usual, Dejun ignores them.

Jungwoo stares at the back of his head, the thick, luscious locks of raven hair that curl almost to his nape, so unlike Yangyang's softer brown or Lucas or Kunhang's straight, long hair. It's hypnotic, almost, the way he tips his head back at regular intervals to chug some more Gatorade. God, that kid's an addict.

"It's a shame, really," Jaesun says, almost as if she read his mind. "He's going to be a real lady-killer when he grows up, with those cat-eyes and all."

Jungwoo nods, slowly, and takes another step on the spiral stairs to the first floor. "Maybe a gentleman-killer, you never know. Or both."

"Well, he'd be killing ladies anyway, if they were straight." She points out. "So that was unnecessary."

"If they were straight." He climbs ahead and knocks on the first door. It's such a routine geture that he almost doesn't notice it when his knuckles practically connect with Kunhang's face.

"Hey!" The younger exclaims in indignation, jumping back and holding his nose self-consciously. "No breaking noses."

Jaesun smiles, ruffling the boy's dark, already messy hair and stepping in after him. Jungwoo closes the door behind him, then offers the boy an apologetic smile.

"You're late," Yangyang points out from his comfortable position on the floor a as he lies on his stomach, and lets his feet sway in the air. His chin is tucked into his palms, the dirtied elbows of his t-shirt sleeves making him look more childish than usual.

Suddenly, Jungwoo feels nostalgic.

"Not just that, he almost broke my nose too," Kunhang complains loudly to his brother, holding the bridge of his nose.

The boy on the floor smirks. "That was a given, since he was with Jae and all."

Jaesun laughs at that, and Jungwoo feels his face go cherry-red. "That's—that's not—" he sputters, but somehow, the words don't come.

Yangyang grins at him, a huge, toothy grin that makes him look so boyish and small that the blond forgives him immediately—though he doesn't say it. "Don't even try to deny it."

"It's probably true," Kunhang says, more observantly than mockingly. "You've never accidentally hit me before, and it's been years already."

Jaesun turns to him, her signature crooked smile still curving her lips, and he averts his eyes in embarrassment.

"You know what, I'm gonna go get some ice cream so you can cool down," Kunhang says, scrutinizing him with eyes so calculating that he almost looks like an adult.

"Hold that thought," Yangyang announces, jumping to his feet. "I'll come along. Your taste is horrible, anyway."

But the mischievous look he offers Jungwoo on the way out is another story.

The door slams shut behind them with the finality of his doom. Still embarrassed and somewhat excited, the blond seats himself on one side of the window seat, resolutely ignoring the only other soul in the room.

"For a twelve year old, that kid sure is sharp," Jae mumbles, following him and sitting down just opposite him. "Hey, if you're that uncomfortable, we can just pretend that nothing happened."

Jungwoo presses his face to the glass, staying silent in self-absorbed shyness. He's not sure what he wants to do, exactly, because he doesn't want to outright forget whatever just happened—or maybe he's just so unused to this sort of thing, it's become embarrassing for him to be involved even a bit of light teasing...or maybe he's just reading too much into everything.

Something nudges his knee, and he looks up on instinct, straight into Jaesun's half-moon eyes, the corners of her lips turned upwards into a wide smile. "You're honestly so cute sometimes."

His collar becomes uncomfortably hot again, but he doesn't look away this time, choosing instead to laugh weakly. She smiles with him, though considerably more confident, and he's suddenly wondering when did this start happening?

Of course, there's a slight stutter in the usually steady pulse at the base of his throat, and he looks sideways out of the window, at the bare, leafless tree decorating the Wongs' front yard. A string of dark red-and-green electric lights hanging over the branches reminds him.

"It's going to be Christmas Eve soon," Jae says, as if she just read his mind. "What do you guys do on occasions like that?"

His heart falls a little when he realises she's asking about him and Ten, and maybe even Lucas. "Nothing special, actually," he says, tone soft, because the atmosphere between them is so tender at the moment that he can't bear to cut through it even with his voice. "Mostly we just...eat."

"Yeah, but that's what you'd do on a normal day, too," she answers, and he finds herself staring at the side of his face. Jungwoo really is lucky, in a way, because it wasn't normal to find a girl who was willing to let go of a possibly romantic moment to focus the conversation on eating.

He shrugs.

She looks at him oddly, and he blushes, realising that he probably just got caught staring. There's no weirded-out expression on her face, though—but a strangely crooked smile quirks the corner of her mouth. "You were staring."

Okay, scratch that.

He looks away hastily, but probably not before she catches the slight reddening of the tops of his ears. Sometimes he really hates being so obvious.

She doesn't say anything after that, just smiles in a really nice way and looks out the window next to him.

And they sit, and they wait for the ice cream to arrive.

|

my last exam was today and i feel great even though my next batch of exams starts by the last week of feb

yay for me

so i really look forward to working more on this story since it feels like the only one i haven't rushed, i mean like really. except maybe sexually inclined. though this one's longer and softer, and that one was...memey-er.

idk

i'll try to finish this by march/april, though i can't promise anything, and i really want to start cat boy by april w/ my cousin (he's really good with physics puns and i can handle the biology ones so i have a feeling the story's gonna start of pre smoothly lmao) and we're really excited to start working on it so please look forward to it <3

signing off because this is too long haha :')

love,
Manx.