s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [ten]

The next day you went through the motions at school, trying to keep your mind off the nausea-inducing anxiety fest you were going to have this evening. In the long run, it was a good idea. In the short run, it made your stomach churn like nothing else. You'd texted Johnny that morning to ask if it was okay to leave Taeyong at his place for a bit, and he'd thankfully agreed. You just hadn't told Taeyong that yet.

So when you got back to your apartment after your Chemistry Lab, you checked the time. A little after five. Jaehyun said he'd be done on campus at seven thirty and would leave straight from there. That gave you some time before having to make the thirty-ish-minute round-trip to Lenticular Café and back.

Taeyong was on your couch, curled up in his corner, in his true form this time. To your fond amusement, he was still curled up much like a cat, despite the size and anatomy difference. You took just a moment to brush some of his hair away from his eyes before gently shaking his shoulder.

"Hey, Yonggie, wake up," you said quietly as he began squinting his eyes open.

"Hm?" He grunted, looking at you attentively.

"Still tired, huh?"

"Little bit."

"I need to tell you something, okay?"

He sat up properly this time, much more awake. Regarding you with wide eyes as you sat down beside him, he was clearly worried.

"It's nothing bad, Yong, I promise," you reassured him, grabbing one of his hands to squeeze it. "I just need to drop you off at Lenticular for a little bit tonight. Jaehyun is coming over to talk, and I'd like some privacy for this conversation."

He scoffed in disgust, "Oh, I am more than happy to give you two that privacy."

"Yeah, thanks," you snorted, all sweetness gone from your voice.

☆

Now alone in your apartment, you were just pacing in your living room waiting for Jaehyun to arrive. He'd texted you seventeen minutes ago that he was done with his class and was leaving campus. It typically only took fifteen minutes to commute between campus and your apartment. Could he have hit some kind of traffic? Seemed unlikely if he took the subway like you did, there was no traffic on the subway. Hit the crosswalks at all the wrong times and had to wait at every single one? Maybe...

Then there was a knock on your door. You first jumped out of your skin, then rushed to open it. Jaehyun was indeed on the other side, hands stuffed in the pockets of his navy blue dress slacks. Your breath hitched in your throat when he looked up from his feet to you, and you just stood there for an embarrassingly long amount of time before remembering to function like an actual human being and step back to let him in.

"Hey, Jaehyun..."

"Hey, Y/N," he stopped in the middle of your living room, looking around. "Where's Tama?"

"Uh, napping in my room," you fibbed, jerking your thumb over your shoulder at said bedroom. You were getting startlingly comfortable with lying to your friends.

"Ah."

You gestured to the couch, "Uh, you can sit."

He did so, "Thanks."

Jaehyun had sat on the middle cushion of the couch, and you immediately realized that now you couldn't be the furthest away from him as possible while still appearing normal and sitting on the same piece of furniture.

Oh my god, you needed to fucking calm down. You were over-analyzing every little thing and it wasn't doing anything to calm your nerves over the situation. Forcing yourself to take a deep breath, you sat as confidently as you could in the corner of the couch beside him. But you still brought your knees up to your chest in a self-comforting move, tucked safely against the arm of the couch.

"About Tuesday night," Jaehyun began, voice clear but soft. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable in any way, I really am. But I do really like you, Y/N, and would like to be with you, romantically."

He was being sincere, genuine. Not that you had doubted his authenticity at all, your brain was just running on dumb bitch fumes at that point, it was hard to fully process that. It was what you wanted as well, you just couldn't make your mouth form the words to properly tell him that, getting all to tongue-tied as soon as you tried to look at Jaehyun. He really was handsome.

So instead, you stared down at your knees as you carefully said, "I... yeah, me too, Jaehyun. And you didn't make me uncomfortable on Tuesday. I was just as into as you were, I just really couldn't do it with the cat looking, though."

You heard him chuckle, and looked up in time to catch his soft smile, the sight warming your heart. As his eyes opened back up, you cast your own back down.

"So are you going to look at me now?" He asked teasingly, setting a hand on your knee.

With a small pout and glare, you defiantly focused your gaze on his face, much to his delight. He patted your knee approvingly.

"Good, because it would have been awkward if you couldn't look me in the eye on our date."

"And what date is that?" You asked coyly.

"The date we're going to go on this weekend as part of the 'being with you romantically' thing we just agreed on."

"Ah, right, of course."

"Already forgot?"

You shoved at his thigh with your foot, "Piss off, Jung Jaehyun."

He grabbed your ankle with a snicker, "Sorry, Y/L/N Y/N."

"So what are we going to do on this date this weekend?" You asked, shaking your leg from his grip to instead rest it comfortably on his lap.

"What would you like to do?"

You took a moment to think about this. Like Jaemin had said, you didn't have too much experience with proper romantic relationships past what you did in middle school. But there was one date you had always wanted to go on.

"Stargazing," you determined. "I'd like to go stargazing."

Jaehyun smiled as he nodded his head, "Okay, we'll go stargazing. Leave the rest to me."

"Gladly."