It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

6

Jeongin's POV

An old school friend from SOPA was back in town after having left for some film shootings, and we planned to meet up for a quick catch up sesh at the cafe by the river. I'd had a couple of easier days during this extended break, and was pretty refreshed and ready to go hang out again.

We haven't had a comeback in a year, to be honest. We all needed a bit of a break, especially with Channie hyung feeling burnt out from the constant years of being on. I guess all of us were a bit burnt out. I felt really bad for our Stay who had been there supporting us through everything — they would have to wait a little bit to get some new music from us. Luckily, Stay are really forgiving and understood that we would need this break after non stop comebacks for 3 years. There was a lot of other cool music coming out recently anyways, from the Gen 5 groups that had debuted over the past couple years.

Anyways, the boys and I decided that we wanted out of the dorm life. Sure, it was really fun and we all loved being with each other all the time, but continuing to sleep in bunk beds, sharing rooms with more than one person, and sharing everything was getting tiring. We were all growing up little by little, and needed some space, and at this point, we all finally were earning a living. (Splitting the profits between 8 people really made it not as sustainable to live alone). To be clear, there was nothing bad that triggered this. We are all as close as ever, and even made sure to find apartments all within the same 5 minute radius. For now, I was living alone. So were Seungmin, Changbin, and Hyunjin. Felix and Chan were living together of course, and Jisung and Minho were living together.

As for now, I was just working on some song lyrics and singing. The others were working on whatever they wanted to get better at. (I think Hyunjin just got cast in a morning drama!) Although I felt a little bit more lonely than usual, this separation was also refreshing.

Today I got up at around 7 and went to get a workout in at the local gym. This gym was probably one of the nicest gyms I'd been to, and the cherry on top was that JYPE was still paying for the membership. I think they wanted to make sure we continued going to the gym, and continued going to more high end gyms to avoid crowds from fans...Although, I'm not even all that sure about how famous or recognizable I am nowadays, having been off cameras and screens for a couple of months.

After my workout, I came home and showered before cooking a a nice breakfast of rice, soup, and some side dishes sent over by my mother.

Checking my watch, I noticed I was running late. Yikes! I rushed to put on black jeans, a knit sweater, and an overcoat, with a beanie and a mask. I pull on my Blundstone boots (so much more comfortable than Docs!), and rush out the door. I notice that my neighbor is moving out, but don't feel too sad about it because we hadn't talked too many times.

"Take care!" I bow to the woman, and frantically board the elevator.

20 minutes of commuting later, I arrived at the Cafe, and spotted my friend.

"Haneul!" I wave at him, and we hug hello. It's been quite a while.

We go inside and I order a hot Americano, while Haneul orders a latte. My eyes drift around the cafe to people watch for a second while we walked over to some seats by the windows. Not many people my age in the cafe today — mostly ahjummas chatting with each other about the latest gossip within their circles.

"One Americano!" 

I get up and walk over to the bar to pick up my drink. At the same time, I notice another girl with shiny black hair has also begun approaching the counter. Is she about to grab my drink or am I imagining things?

We both pause, and I grin a little, because this felt like something out of a book. Some chance encounter — the same drink order. It's...just a common Americano, Jeongin, calm down.

"Is that yours?" We both say. "What did you order?" I laugh a little.

"I got an Americano," she says, looking into my eyes with a bit of curiosity.

I'm in a cheeky mood, and reply with, "Oh? Me too, but ladies first." Maybe that was overkill.

She rolls her eyes slightly, and snickers as a second Americano comes out. Yep, definitely overkill, Jesus what a loser, Jeongin.

Hopefully she can't tell how awkward I feel as we grab our respective Americanos and begin walking awkwardly in the same direction to our seats. She pays me no attention and walks back to her seat. I guess I was the only one who felt awkward. I feel a little disappointed, but as it goes with cafe flirting, I tried to put it to the back of my mind.

"What was that?" Haneul says pointedly. He hadn't missed a thing.

"It was nothing — she doesn't seem interested..." I say, motioning to him to speak quieter.

"Hah!" He laughs, and says at the same volume, "Do you even have time to be dating right now?"

I pout at him with my forever-single ass, and tell him "If I found someone I wanted to date, I'd make the time."

"Yeah, like that one time with that trainee who had a massive crush on you?"

"Ok quiet down, quiet down, I was young, I was... how do you say... alone and missing out on certain things in life. It was harmless!"

We both burst out laughing at my adventures back during dorm life. (They really were harmless, and ended on good terms! We're still friends! None of us in our group were like he-who-shall-not-be-named haha #8orNone haha tbt)

Although I tried to focus on catching up with Haneul and his new adventures in grad school, my eyes kept wandering back to the girl with the pretty eyes and silky hair. She was probably too focused on her work to even notice me though. I still was drawn to her, and as if she could feel my gaze, she looked up, and looked around the cafe until our eyes met. I felt a jolt run through my body. Act. Natural. I gave her a small smile, which I hoped screamed interest. One corner of her lips lifted, and she turned back to her laptop, bobbing her head to her music.

For the next 20 minutes, we kept making eye contact. Even Haneul noticed ("Hey Jeongin, I'm here to hang out with you, not to third wheel you and cafe girl").

At one point, Hanuel sighed and said "Okay, lets go get dinner so that your eyes can take a break. Or do you want to go and get her number?"

"No, I can't do that, what would the media say if they found out that I.N. of Stray Kids went to go ask a stranger for her number and was ReJeCtEd!"

"I hate to break it to ya, Jeongin, but the media isn't covering you right now," he says, slapping my back as we both get up.

This guy's always keeping me humble.

The two of us make eye contact one last time, and I give her a big smile, before forcing myself to turn and leave. Why was I getting all excited about a girl at a cafe? Am I this alone? Get a grip, Jeongin.