It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

33

A/N: Ahh, sorry for the late upload. But it's thanksgiving break from work for me which means that I have the whole week off, which means that I can upload more this week!! I already have a couple more longer chapters to upload, in addition to this one. Maybe later today! maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned :) 

ALSO THE CONCERT THO OMG IT WAS SO GOOD. 

Jeongin's POV

I could feel my stress melt away as soon as my arms wrapped around Yeona, like I could breathe again. Nothing could wipe the smile off of my face. I finally pull away from the hug, keeping one arm around her waist, and lift a hand to cup her face, my thumb brushing along her cheekbone. I look deep into her eyes, study all of the familiar features on her face, and lean in for a kiss.

That night, we kept busy at home, catching up on everything, unable to keep our hands off of each other. It was better to be at home when we hadn't seen each other in so long, if you catch my drift. I could tell that Yeona had been really stressed and trying hard to stay positive while I was away, and that made my heart ache — I had caused that. She kept telling me that I didn't need to worry about her, but I knew that she deserved better than what I had been giving her.

"Jeongin, really, don't worry too much. I know you're busy."

I interrupt her before she continues to ramble, saying, "Yeona, I love you." She blinks her big eyes at me, as if it were the first time I had said those three words to her.

"I know. I love you too," she coos softly. "But don't overwork yourself because of me."

"I love you too much, and know you too well, that I know this isn't what you want from me." I look at her pointedly.

She purses her lips, and huffs a sigh.

"See?" I mutter to her.

We're sitting on the couch, her koala-style hugging me. No part of us wasn't touching; we were simply one.

"Felix said that what he and Jason are doing is working well for them."

"Oh?"

"What do you think about it?"

She hesitates before replying, "Yeah, I mean, it's better than before when I would be waiting all the time for a text from you."

I laugh a little, mostly to mask my guilt.

"You know that I changed your ringtone so that I would know when you texted me?"

I pull her away from me to look at her. "What?" I have a look of skepticism on my face, my chin tilted to the side.

She rolls her eyes and grabs both of our phones from the coffee table. She unlocks my phone and texts her phone, before holding her phone up.

Bark bark bark!

I burst out laughing. "You made my ringtone the barking dog??!" I clutch onto my sides laughing at how she trolled the way Stans would react to hot pictures of idols.

She shrugs her shoulders with an unapologetic coy look on her face.

"My point! Is!" She grabs my shoulders to make me stop laughing, with no success. "My POINT is that the scheduled communication is better than what we had before."

I wipe away a tear from laughing so hard and reply, "Good. Good good good."

"That isn't to say it's the most ideal set up, but I think..." she trails off, so I continue, "Given the situation, it isn't the worst solution?"

She nods, shrugs, and gives me a small sad smile. The two of us want the best for each other, but also want each other, and that kind of balance is pretty hard to figure out.

I felt more reassured about how the rest of the tour would play out after this conversation. Yeona had her own things to do, and shouldn't be expected to have to spend energy wondering. She was doing really well with climbing, and had even signed a small sponsorship deal with a small up-and-coming climbing shoe company based in Seoul. She was promoted to technical manager for her team, and was leading an important project for her team.

I was honestly so proud of all of the things that she was accomplishing, and even more proud that I was her boyfriend. It made me feel secure because when both people had their shit figured out, the relationship was stronger. I am forever grateful for how well we know each other, at how we can manage to be as level headed about things because the one thing we share is love for the other.

"Wanna get out of here and go on a walk?"

She nods, and gets up so that we can both put on our inconspicuous outfits. At the front door, we both put on our black caps, black masks, and big jackets. We are matching with our black outfits, and it seems like that would be a bit too conspicuous, but luckily, we just looked like a typical couple taking part in Korean couple culture.

We made it out to the Cheonggyecheong stream in the center of Seoul, bought our second round of ice cream of the night, and walked along the gentle flowing water.

"So what stops are you coming out for? Did you make a decision yet?"

"So, I'm definitely coming to the Berlin stop," she starts, her eyes turning into crescents as she smiles big. "And I'll be there for all of the US west coast tour stops. Definitely will be stopping by home while I do that."

She turns to face me, and I raise my eyebrows like, What's up?

Taking a deep breath, she starts rambling, "I just, I know that you're really busy and might not have the bandwidth to do this, and you'll have to ask management and figure out all the scheduling but —"

I burst out laughing and interrupt her, "Whoa, slow down!"

She rolls her eyes and asks, "If all of that works out, would you want to meet my parents? See my hometown?"

I stop walking and my heart flutters a little bit. Meeting the parents??

"Yeona, that would be amazing. I really want to meet your parents! And your dog! And to see sunny California, see where you grew up and where you hung out, where you went to school!"

She beams at me, and replies, "we just need to get that scheduling and permission first."

"Right," I agree with her. I'm honestly not too sure if we can pull this off, but at the very least, our last leg of the tour is in the US, so I can just fly directly to San Diego and spend a couple days after the tour there. My eyes suddenly widen as it sinks in.

"What, what's up?" She sees my big eyes and immediately can tell what's happening, and bursts out laughing. "Are you nervous already?"

I give her a little nod, eyes still big, and pout from under my mask.

"Are you pouting?"

I nod to her again, and she throws her head back laughing. She pulls on my hand to stop walking, turns me toward her, and lovingly pats my cheek, saying, "You're so silly. I love you."