Stay With Me?

Chapter Three: Unlikely Friends

Jisung walks into the kitchen after cleaning up, Hyunjin was still downstairs, finishing up the last of Changbin's stitches. He had told Jisung to check on the two boys, Felix and Jeongin. When he enters, Felix is talking rapidly, how he could have this much energy at, he glance at the stove, 3:48 am, he would never know. Jeongin has his head in his hand, eyes drooping. He keeps making noises of interest towards what Felix is saying. Jisung isn't really sure if he's actually paying any attention though.

"Hey Lix, everything good up here?" He places his hand on the back of Felix's chair, leaning over his shoulder. "Of course! I was just telling Innie about how I broke my leg in the fourth grade!" Just then Hyunjin walks up the stairs, sleeves rolled up, lazily drying his hands on a towel. "Oh no, Hyunjin, he's given him a nickname. There's no turning back, we have to keep him." Hyunjin scoffs, "Lixie gives nicknames to everyone he meets." "Not true! Only the people I like!" Felix scrunches up his nose all cute-like.

Jeongin takes the time, while everyone else is talking, to finally get a good look at Hyunjin. He couldn't before, it was either too dark or too crazy to focus. Hyunjin's in a well fitting white button up, blood stains, that were probably not there before, dot the front. He fills out the shirt nicely, you can tell he has quite a bit of muscle beneath it. The sleeves rolled up to his elbows make his forearms look strong, and the peeking of a tattoo on his left forearm that he can't quite get a good look at, intrigues him. Hyunjin's also wearing black dress pants, obviously tailored, they fit far too well not to be. Don't look at his butt, don't look at his butt, damn that's a nice booty. To top it off, he wears a nice pair of dress shoes, slightly creased but not by much.

Once Jeongin finishes his once-over, he trails is eyes slowly back up to Hyunjin's face, up his lips, over his nose, and to his eyes, eyes that are watching him closely. A smirk begins to form on Hyunjin's pretty lips. Thankfully he doesn't call him out on his staring, just smiles and then says softly, "Let me go change quickly then I'll take you home, is that alright?" Jeongin can only nod.

As Hyunjin turns the corner, Felix speaks, fondly, "He must really like you, he's never this nice to new people, hell, he's not even that nice to us." Jeongin turns to him with a look of confusion, "Really? He seems like such a kind person." "Oh, he is, he just doesn't know how to show it properly half the time," Jisung speaks up from his perch behind Felix.

Jeongin hums, looking past Jisung at the painting behind him, mind too sleepy to process much of anything.

"Are you a photographer?" Jeongin is brought back by Felix excitedly pointing at his camera slung around his neck. "Sorta, it's really just a hobby of mine," he shrugs his shoulders. Felix makes grabby hands at Jeongin and vibrates in his seat, "Can I see? What kind of pictures do you take? I love photography but I've never taken the time to learn how to use a camera!" Jeongin is taken aback by the burst of energy that comes from Felix.

Jisung has moved to the fridge, searching for something. He waves his hand in their direction with his head still in the icebox. "Lix, buddy, calm down, you're scaring him." "No it's fine, of course you can see, just be careful."

Jeongin pulls the camera from around his neck and turns it on. Passing it to Felix, he explains how to search through the recent pictures he's taken. Felix takes the camera excitedly and begins looking through the photos. He's calm clicking through the pictures for a while but after some moments he speaks up. "Is this your boyfriend? He's very pretty."

Jeongin's head shoots up. Felix has turned the camera towards him and on the tiny screen is a picture he had secretly taken of his best friend, Seungmin. The picture was taken last week, Seungmin had gotten all dressed up for some student counsel ceremony. He had makeup on, glittery eyelids sparkling against the sunset behind his figure. Head thrown back in laughter, soft smile on his face. It's one of the best pictures Jeongin has ever captured.

"No, that's my best friend." A fond smile makes it's way onto Jeongin's face, "but I agree, he is very pretty."

Felix turns the camera screen back to himself. He lingers on the photo and hums to himself a bit, before moving on to the next picture.

"Alright, Jeongin, are you ready?" Hyunjin turns the corner into the kitchen. He had changed into a pair of black jeans, a nice silk top tucked into the waistband. Did this guy not own casual clothes or something?

Jeongin just nods, standing up. He stretches his stiff muscles, it's the first time he has gotten up since he had arrived there. Before he could blink, Felix was hugging him. "By Innie! Please visit sometime!" Jeongin flinches at the pressure on his sore side but hugs back, loosely, regardless.

He waves at Jisung before making his way to Hyunjin, who leads him back through the house and out to his car. When Jeongin attempts to open the passenger door, Hyunjin stops him with a hand on his wrist. He pulls the door open for Jeongin and shuts the door softly once he is in. Jeongin finds that slightly odd but endearing at the same time.

He spaces out as soon as he gives Hyunjin his address, too sleepy to pay attention to the surroundings passing by. Before he knows it, Hyunjin is slowing to a stop outside of his quaint two story home.

They are both silent for a few moments before Hyunjin speaks up, "I'm really sorry about hitting you with my car, and not taking you to the hospital like I said I would." Jeongin's sleep deprived brain thought that now would be a great time to start laughing, and not one of those cute giggle's either, a gross cackle of a laugh.

"No, it's really okay, I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. Thank you for driving me home, I appreciate it." With that, Jeongin opens the door before Hyunjin can say anything else and gets out. He gives Hyunjin a small wave before he shuts the car door, walking to his front door and finding the spare key he keeps buried in the flower bed.

Once he is inside, he creeps quietly upstairs to his room. He is way too exhausted to shower, even though he is a bit grimy. He simply changes his clothes, being careful of all of the scrapes he has accumulated. Grabbing his phone, he looks at the time, 4:59 am, his parents would be awake in less than an hour to get ready for work. He scrolls through all of his missed calls and messages. He ignores all of the ones from his parents, it seems that they stopped trying to contact him around 10 pm. Jeongin focuses on the missed call from Seungmin and reads the message that followed it.

From: Seungminnie - Your parents called me and said that you've been gone for hours and aren't answering your phone? Are you okay?

To: Seungminnie - I'm fine, wild night, update you later.

     Jeongin keeps his reply short and simple, he really just wants to lay down in his soft bed and sleep for seventeen hours straight. So that's what he does.