cool hot sweet love

final

jaebum's crush on seulgi bloomed out of nowhere when he comes to think of it. it could have easily been a single crush back in middle school that slowly and surely grew as they did, only to fester now that they're in their final year in high school, but that seemed too romcom for his taste. they're in a weird place. not boyfriend/girlfriend, but not just friends with benefits either. it's all new, and fun, and there's no real need to put a title because they're comfortable. no one else even knows about them. in school, they carry on like they've always had, just two friends who've been neighbors since grade school. they have separate friend groups, separate after school clubs, share classes but don't sit near each other. no one's the wiser, and jaebum thought that was a good thing at first. but now...

the feelings are getting stronger and a lot harder to hide. he blames it on himself. it's easy to fall for seulgi's charm, her smiles, her giggles, her kisses, her moans. it's years of friendship with the intimacy his hormones crave. no real need for a title, but jaebum wants one. 

he's making his way to the dance clubroom to pick up his little brother, yugyeom, so they can head home. he peeks into the room, and it looks like they're just finishing up. there's some showcase coming up, at least that's what jaebum thinks yugyeom said over dinner. jaebum watches their club president talk to them before dismissing them, which is his cue. "yugyeom!" he calls out, poking his head through the entrance, "ready to go?"

"coming hyung!"

as yugyeom gathers his things, jaebum takes the opportunity to walk over to seulgi. "do you need a ride today?"

"nope, i'm going over to wendy's." seulgi tells him. "thank you though."

"oh, by the way, do you think you can help me with science homework tomorrow after school?" he then asks. not that it matters, but there's too many people around. sure, jaebum wants to have that conversation with seulgi, ask her out on a proper date or something, but not in front of the entire dance club.

"sure, directly after?"

"there's no dance tomorrow, right?" seulgi nods, "perfect. see you then."

"ready to go hyung!" yugyeom announces walking over, "bye noona! get home safely."

"bye yugyeom." seulgi waves them off. as jaebum grabs yugyeom by the neck, playfully ruffling up his hair, he glances back at seulgi who holds up her phone and motions for him to text her later. 

the next day, jaebum bribes his younger brother to stay and hangout with his friends for as long as he can by giving him some money for snacks, and then meets seulgi at the front entrance. they walk home together, talking about everything under the sun: from their weird homeroom teacher, to jaebum's obsession with stray cats and to seulgi's new nail color. she doesn't pull away when he reaches to hold her hand, which jaebum counts as a win.

when they arrive at his home, he's glad that his bribery worked and yugyeom is nowhere to be found, while his parents are still at work, so he has seulgi all to himself for at least an hour. he leads the way to his room, closing the door, and standing around as seulgi figures out where she wants to sit. she chooses the edge of his bed, so he sits at his desk. "are you excited for your showcase?"