HEAT • Chanrosé

sixteen

He let her be. Chaeyoung didn't even have to ask.

He didn't hover over her, or constantly check in. No timid and repetitive 'are you okays' were asked. Chanyeol just let her be, and it was all she needed. Offering her wine and some silent company while she wrapped herself in bed, her favorite poem book in hand. When she lived alone, this is what she would do to clear her head. But now there was someone next to her, and she didn't mind.

Chanyeol sat towards the end of her bed, her sock covered feet in his lap and his back against the neighboring wall with what looked like finances in one hand and a pen in the other. She figured it was the restaurant's expenses. Every so often, her eyes would lift from the calming words her pages and watch him instead but he caught her almost every time. Turning his head and locking their eyes for a brief moment before looking away.

They barely spoke a sentence to each other throughout the rest of the night. She didn't want to talk about Jungkook or her feelings that felt like they would come out in word vomit any minute. Though, she knew Chanyeol wanted her to talk. To stop hiding and confide in him but that just made it all the more real. More real than it already felt and at this point, she wasn't sure how much of that she could take.

Her eyes kept drifting to him, tracing his side profile by each centimeter. She knew that he could feel her watching him just like all the other times Chanyeol had caught her but this time, he didn't turn to meet her gaze.

Chaeyoung mapped out the small moles and freckles on his skin, the one on his nose being her favorite. Her sight trailed from the curve of his ears to the lines of his lips that had touched her own and her body so many times in such a short amount of time that she had lost count. She could feel herself becoming bound to him, in every way.

It felt like a trap her heart was leading them into, a first love. Before, Love didn't seem scary or terrifying. But the idea of loving him shook her to her core with fear. It seemed so easy in the real world and even in movies, just blurting it out and then making passionate love. Though, sitting her in a moment where she could, Chaeyoung could find the words. I think I'm falling in love with you. Even just thinking it brought chills to her skin. It felt like such a risk.

"Do you remember when you first came here?" Chaeyoung suddenly spoke. Her voice quiet as she placed her book face down on her lap.

Chanyeol didn't look from his own work, "As in came to Exodeux or back from the states?

"Exodeux."

"You mean the night you told me that you didn't need advice on how to touch a man's balls." He mused, a smirk slipping onto his lips. "Because you were right. You definitely don't need advice."

Chaeyoung cocked a brow, "I don't lie."

"Now, we both know that's not true." He replied, finally looking from his page of numbers. His stare was intense, she knew what he meant. That she wasn't being fully honest about her thoughts.

"Did you expect this?" Her hand lifted from her and gestures between them. The words came out with a small, shaky breath.

"This?" His low voice questioned, "You mean, us."

Chaeyoung felt her body still the second the word left his lips. She had never heard him speak of them as an us. Chanyeol placed his pen and pages aside, "No, I didn't expect it"

"You said us." She repeated it back, dazed. Her heart was thumping deeply in her chest as her head moved to shake gently. "We haven't talked—"

"We haven't talked about a lot of things, Chaeyoung."