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You dash breathlessly into the large company building, your shoes squeaking against the tile as you hurriedly push through the heavy glass door.
Your chest heaves as you clumsily jump ID-regulated turning-gates, yelping as your knees buckle when another poorly aimed shot whizzes past your shoulder.
You don’t stop to face your pursuers, amping up your speed and making a mad dash for the elevator at the end of the hallway.
You scream at another shot, this time more from the pain of the bullet grazing your shoulder than fear (though that’s a pretty big factor, too).
Skidding to a stop in the elevator, you aggressively mash the Close Doors button, falling to the floor and sobbing with relief when it finally closes and the thumping of bullets against metal momentarily guarantees your safety.
You press a random floor number, trying to gather yourself and push to your feet despite how wobbly your legs feel. You aren’t looking forward to the shoulder-pain waiting for you once the adrenaline wears off…
The elevator doors ding open and you waste no time jogging down the long and winding hallways, the carpeted floors muting the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of your sneakers.
You push the door at the end of the hall open just as you hear men’s voices yelling orders back whence you came, a wave of anxious sweat cascading down your hairline.
You try to quiet your gasping breaths as you shut the door behind you, rushing to get your sneakers off and in your hands so your footsteps on the polished wooden floors don’t alert anyone.
The mirrors are everywhere .
You try hard not to look at yourself—the tangled, frizzy hair and mad look in your eyes is too much for you to handle right now.
Your heart-rate picks up as you begin hyperventilating, the sound of doors being slammed open heightening your senses tenfold—
You turn to the door hidden around the side of the room before the person behind it has it fully open.
His eyes are wide and fearful, shaky hands raised in front of him at the equally afraid look on your face.
Despite the bite of fear in your chest, your first thought is puppy .
The door to the practice room slams open and your muscles tense all over. Right as the guy carrying the gun raises his weapon to shoot at you—
You throw both of your shoes at him as hard as you can, using all your strength to launch yourself at the boy, letting him grab your hand and run with you at full speed through what you think might be a dressing room.
He leads you confidently through doors and down hallways, never once stopping to look behind him, an iron grip on your hand.
You wonder if he used to work here and hope you’ll live long enough to ask.
He stops so abruptly you slam headfirst into his back; hard enough for him to grunt and stumble forward.
The men ahead of you turn and immediately raise their weapons to shoot—
Your body moves for you and you yank the boy out of the way just as a shot is fired. Your pulse is deafening in your ears as he course-corrects and leads you down a different hall. Panting as the two of you come up on a metal door with a fire-escape sign flashing dimly above it, the boy hurriedly pushes it open and pulls you into the stairwell before shutting the door behind him.
You’re sweating in places you didn’t know you could sweat, and the brief glance you get at the boy’s face before he’s dragging you determinedly down the stairs tells you he’s not faring much better.
“I can’t—” you wheeze, trying to pull away from him as you lean against the railings, tears prickling your eyes and legs shaking with every step you take.
“You can,” the boy pants, tugging you along.
“I can’t —“
“Shut up!” he yells, his grip on your wrist tightening as he shoulders open a different metal door.
You’re wheezing with every step, blood rushing to your head.
Before he can fully turn the corner, a shower of bullets goes flying into the wall, spraying plaster all over the carpets.
“We found ‘em!”
“Go, go, go!” The boy shoves you ahead of him, the two of you running at full speed. You stumble over your feet and he grabs your hand to pull you into another practice room, this one much larger than the first:
Much larger, completely empty, and with nowhere to run.
“This is a dead end—!” you yell, frantically trying to yank your arm out of his iron-grip—if you can get out fast enough you can leave before they catch up—
“Shh,” he quiets you hurriedly as he pushes at a piece of wall that miraculously parts into what you belatedly realize is a hidden closet.
He rushes inside and pulls you in so forcefully you feel an ache in your shoulder, pummeling into his chest and trying to recover from all the running as he flips the panel back and you’re plummeted into darkness.
Your breathing feels heavy and ragged as the two of you stand chest to chest in the small space, your hands shaking as you wait for the group of men to find you.
You try desperately to breathe through your nose as th e stranger’s heart beats against your cheek, his chest heaving as he huffs breaths in through his mouth.
Afraid that you might be heard, you reach up to press his mouth shut and tap the side of his nose, shaking your head with a look you hope he understands. Surprisingly, he does, his breath no longer hammering down against the top of your head as he forces himself to breathe through his nose.
The door to the practice room smacks open and the two of you tangibly jump against one another, your shoulders tensing in anticipation.
“ Rats ,” a male voice hisses. “You fuckers are terrible shots for letting her get away like that.”
“Not our fault the girl moves like a fucking rabbit,” someone else snaps, the sound of his gun shifting against his back sending a shiver down your spine. “Fucking zig-zagging all over the fucking place.”
“Yeah, well, now she’s been picked up by someone who knows his way around. We could’ve gotten her so easy if you’d just aimed —“
Your knees knock together at the men’s conversation, taking another step toward the boy to press the two of you right up against the back of the closet in an effort to distance yourself from the people on the other side of the wall.
The boy’s hands wrap firmly around your forearms (to hold you still or hold you up, you can’t tell).
“Yah!” A deeper voice than before calls. “Stop fucking around and forget the girl. If we catch the guy, he can tell us where the valuables are.”
Your eyes widen fearfully, on the verge of an anxiety attack when you’re caught off guard by the boy in the closet shoving his face into your shoulder (you have to bite on your tongue at the shot of pain that ricochets down your arm), holding you against his chest like his life depends on it.
You try to push him away by his shoulders but come to a standstill when you feel the heat of his tears against your shirt.
“ I’m sorry ,” he whispers desperately against your shirt, his voice right by your ear.
Too afraid to soothe him verbally, you wrap your arms around his shoulders and squeeze .
“Forget it,” the first voice says, the sound of his gun making you hold onto your companion tighter. “They’re not here, Gunwook. Let’s go.”
“He’s right,” the second says. “We need to keep moving.”
Gunwook lets out an exasperated sigh. “ Fine .”
You keep your arms tight around the boy as you listen for their retreating footsteps, unable to comfortably relax without being certain that it’s not some sick trick meant to lure you out of hiding.
It feels like hours before the two of you finally leave the closet, loud sighs of relief exiting your lungs when you realize that you’ve survived.
You look across the room at the boy who risked his life to save yours, his eyes glossy with a fresh set of tears…
… and it takes less than a second for you to start crying.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“Jaehyun-ah!”
“어?“
“C’mere!”
You’re browsing through the racks of one of the many Everland memorabilia stores, your last stop in the city before you and Jaehyun start the long drive into the countryside.
“What is it?” Jaehyun asks, his boba eyes sparkling curiously. His hair’s gotten a lot longer since you first met: it blankets and curls around the back of his neck in fluffy tufts which make his eyes seem bigger and more puppy-like.
You break into a smile as you take the puppy-ear band from the shelf to stick it atop his head, giggling fondly when you pull back to look at him.
“What,” he deadpans, a small smile pulling defiantly at the corner of his lips. “You think it’s funny?“
You giggle, bowing with the weight of your joy. The faux fur atop his head is nearly the exact same color as his hair. “It looks good!”
He shakes his head with a fond smile, reaching up to take them off but stopping when you whine and hold his wrist.
“Don’t,” you pout.
He makes a move to pull them off again, but you tug his wrist back with another over-exaggerated whine.
He gives in, dropping his hand with a fond but defeated smile. His eyes scan the rack for more headbands and sparkle a little when he spots a certain pair in particular.
He takes it off the rack and places it delicately on your head, tenderly positioning the ears so one is slightly bent before he pulls away with a satisfied smile, petting your hair. “Bunny.”
You roll your eyes, shaking your head at him as he continues to faff with your hair before eventually letting his hand hang by his side.
“Are you ready to go?”
You look around: plushies lay dirtied and torn on the floor with entire shelves fallen over, glass jars previously filled with sweets strewn broken and empty around the looted tills.
“Yeah.” You choose to focus on Jaehyun’s face rather than the chaos around you. “I’m ready.”
It’s a much nicer sight.
He nods, holding his hand out for you to take before walking with you to where you left the car in a small spot of shade near the entrance.
You let go of Jaehyun’s hand to jog around to the passenger side as he climbs into the driver’s seat, starting the car as you buckle in, briefly turning around to double check that your bags are still sitting nice and snug on the backseats.
Assured that you haven’t lost your limited stash of supplies, you turn back around with a grunt, crossing your arms and leaning back to stare out the window as Jaehyun takes off.
“You don’t need the bathroom, right?”
“No,” you say. “I’ll be fine for the next while, I think.”
He nods, taking one hand off the wheel to reach into the center console. You watch curiously as he pulls out a black case of some sort, holding it out to you with his eyes still fixated on the road.
“What’s this?” you ask, turning it around in your hands and unzipping it while sitting straighter in your chair.
“CDs.”
You look at him with bright eyes. “Really?!”
“Yeah,” he laughs. “I found it in one of the drawers in that house we looted last night.”
“And you’re only telling me now ?” you gasp, laughing and good-naturedly touching his arm when he shakes his head at you.
“A lot of them were pretty badly scratched,” he explains.
He takes his eyes off the road to make eye contact with you. “I didn’t wanna mention it and then not be able to play it.”
You stare at each other for a moment before he clears his throat again and turns his attention back to the road; always trying to put on a tough act despite being the sweetest person you know.
You smile softly and poke his cheek in thanks, flipping through the CDs until you find the perfect one.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“Let’s stop here for the night,” Jaehyun says, apologizing under his breath for accidentally frightening you as he turns into a different lane.
You sit up straighter, trying to calm your startled heart as you stretch your arms and legs.
As Jaehyun pulls into the taxi lane on the side of the road, you notice his eyes drooping and how it takes him longer than usual to park the car.
“You must be exhausted,” you mumble.
Jaehyun pulls on the handbrake, leaning back against his seat with closed eyes and a sigh. “It’s fine.”
“We should’ve rotated.”
“It’s fine , Y/N.”
You sigh, slowly leaning back in your seat. You look out your window at the yellow-orange sky, feeling weirdly nostalgic for the time before.
“Why were you in the building that day?”
“Hm?”
You face Jaehyun expectantly.
He’s adjusted his seat so he’s lying down, his eyes closed and likely on the verge of sleep.
You stare at his side profile since you can’t stare at his eyes, waiting for a response. “The building, on the day we met. Why were you there?”
For a while he says nothing, but eventually he speaks.
“I worked there.”
“Doing what?”
He scoffs, the corner of his lips rising in a half-smile you haven’t seen since you left Everland. “I was an .”
“ What ?!” You sit up straight in your seat, your jaw hanging loose from its hinges.
“Yeah,” he laughs, still with his eyes closed.
You grin. “Were you famous?”
Jaehyun snorts, slowly opening his eyes to give you the full effect of the humored smile on his face. “No, I don’t think so. We were still rookies when the world went to shit.”
“Oh,” you pause… “We?”
Jaehyun’s eyes seem to lose their light almost as quickly as you managed to flick them on, dimming and dimming until they’re back to the defeated muddy-brown you’re used to.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he whispers, staring at a spot past your shoulder with a veiled look.
“I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head and heaves a sigh, laying back down with his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest.
“We should get some sleep,” he says.
You nod even though he can’t see, turning onto your side.
But, even after you’ve settled in and settled down, you find yourself struggling to fall asleep. Now that no one is talking and the engine is off, you’re starting to hear a light buzz in your ears, every snap of a twig or rustle of a branch making your heart race.
It’s too quiet without any of the sounds you’ve gotten used to. No sounds of people leaving home to work the night shift, no sounds of dogs barking at police-sirens three blocks away… only the sound of your slow breathing and the wind howling outside your partially open window.
You breathe a shaky sigh and turn your back to the door, ignoring the uncomfortable tug in your stomach at leaving yourself so exposed.
Your eyes are well-adjusted to the dark, so you easily make out Jaehyun’s silhouette. You shuffle closer and release a nervous breath.
“Jaehyun—?”
He wakes with a surprised whine, groaning when he sees it’s just you. He stretches his legs and arches his back off the seat with his eyes half-closed. “Y/N…?”
“Sorry.“ You bite your lip and play with your fingers. “I just… I… can’t sleep.”
Jaehyun stares at you, blinking slowly as he wakes up. You can’t make out what he’s thinking, so you sit in the silence while you wait for him to… to what?
What were you expecting?
You watch dazedly as he suddenly jacks his seat further back, leaning back and holding his palm out to you over the center console.
“Here,” he says.
You look at his hand, then his face, then his hand again.
“Just take it.”
Slowly you take his hand, naturally following his (mostly) non-verbal instructions as he guides you across the center console and into his lap, your legs astride his hips and your hands curled up against his sides.
He tucks your head under his chin. You can feel his heartbeat against your chest, aware of each rise and fall of his rib cage as he inhales and exhales against the top of your head.
“Good?” he asks, clasping his hands high enough around the small of your back to be considered respectful, but low enough for it to feel decidedly intimate.
“Y-yeah,” you stutter, wondering if your breath against his neck makes his heart beat as fast as his breath against your hair does.
“Thank you,” you whisper, warm all over and already succumbing to sleep.
Jaehyun says nothing. Instead, he presses his lips to the crown of your head, whispering something into your hair you can’t make out, and you fall asleep to the sound of rhythmic breathing and the soft pitter-patter of his heart against yours.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“You know how to jump a fence?” Jaehyun asks skeptically.
“Sure.” You shrug. “How hard can it be?”
Hard enough for you to roll your ankle, apparently.
Jaehyun is crouched in front of you, gently cradling your throbbing ankle in his hands as he shares a concerned look with you from behind his bangs.
You smile through your pain and reach out to touch his hands. “It’s not too bad,” you lie, even though the furrow in his brow tells you he doesn’t buy it. “C’mon, help me up.”
Jaehyun bites his lip as he contemplates, heaving a sigh before he stands and lifts you up. He wraps your arm around his shoulders and his around your waist, patiently guiding you to the grocery store.
How he managed to jump the fence without suffering your same fate remains a mystery.
“Earth to Y/N?”
“Huh?”
Jaehyun laughs as he sets you down by the register, fondly shaking his head and grabbing a basket from the front of the store. “I’m gonna grab some stuff and see if they have anything we can wrap around your foot.”
“Let me help.”
“You’re injured.”
“ Jae hyun,” you whine.
“ Y/N .” He gives you a deadpan look. “You can’t hop around the store. Just… wait here, okay? I won’t be long.”
You pout and cross your arms like a child, reluctantly huffing your agreement. His sympathetic shoulder-touch is enough of a consolation for you not to bitch and moan about it, even though you don’t stop pouting.
You watch from the register as Jaehyun moves through the different aisles, wandering from shelf-to-shelf with a concentrated furrow in his brow.
It’s almost… domestic .
You wonder what coming to the store with him would have been like before the country went to shit, easily slipping into your world-before daydream.
You’d have arrived in his car, probably wearing matching shirts—he seemed like the kind of guy to want to do that, you think. You would’ve walked through the doors holding hands, bowing at the cashier with dopey smiles on your faces... You’d probably argue about which piece of meat you’d want to buy for the upcoming family barbecue, and then, after agreeing to a game of Rock Paper Scissors, Jaehyun would pout and whine when he lost…
“Look what I found!”
You jump, loudly clearing your throat as Jaehyun approaches again holding a thick roll of bandaid in his free hand. He sets a blue basket down and crouches in front of you.
“What were you daydreaming about?” he asks conversationally, gently removing your sock (and apologizing under his breath when you wince away,) so he can start wrapping your foot.
“Nothing,” you deflect a little too quickly, nervously avoiding his gaze when he tries to meet your eyes. “I was just spacing out.”
“Yeah…” he mumbles, totally not believing you.
You clear your throat. “You found a lot of stuff.”
“Yeah.” Jaehyun briefly glances at the nearly overflowing basket beside him as he finishes up your foot-wrap, groaning a little when he stands. “It might be because we’re so far away from the city. Maybe the people here weren’t as worried about supplies as the rest of us.” He grabs the basket and hoists you up by the waist.
“Maybe,” you agree, hopping along as fast as you can, occasionally taking breaks to lean against Jaehyun until you finally make it back to the car.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” you ask as you buckle in. “I feel like we’ve been driving for years.”
“It’s a little late to ask that now,” he laughs, setting the basket next to and on top of the rest of the supplies you’ve collected in the trunk of the car. “But, yeah, I’m sure. My grandma used to live out this way.”
“Oh.” Your eyes widen. “I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah.” There’s a moment of silence. “We came out once every three or four weeks, I think. She died my freshman year of high school.”
“I’m sorry,” you whisper, reaching over the center console to squeeze his hand.
Jaehyun shakes his head. When you try to move away, he holds your hand in his lap.
“How about you?” he asks as he clears his throat. “Did you have any family outside the city?”
“Not… really ?”
He frowns. “How do you mean?”
“ Well ,” you start, “my parents are divorced, so I moved to the city with my dad while my mom stayed out in the countryside with her family. I didn’t really see them much, and when I did it wasn’t super pleasant.”
“Ah…” This time Jaehyun squeezes your hand, his thumb rubbing light circles against your knuckles. “I’m sorry.”
You shrug. “It is what it is. I don’t even know if any of them are still alive,” you laugh bleakly.
Jaehyun smiles sadly, but says nothing else.
You sigh, leaning back against the chair with closed eyes. “Wake me up when we get there?”
“‘Course.”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
It’s been a crazy couple of hours.
When you got to Jaehyun’s gran’s house (you hadn’t even considered that was where he was taking you), you were met with his family.
His mom, his dad, his older brother… they were all there. You’d watched the reunion mostly from inside the car because Jae’s parents had come out of the house as he was coming around to help you, so you had no idea what words had been exchanged.
They’d all wrapped around each other and when Jaehyun remembered you were still in the car (you’d opened the car door and started maneuvering yourself outside), he jogged to you, his face red and tears still flowing down his cheeks in waves.
“Jaehyun…”
He cried harder at your soft tone, and you pushed yourself to standing so you could wrap a hand around the back of his neck, guiding his head to your shoulder. He wrapped his arms around your waist, holding you against his chest as he sniffled and cried. You petted his hair and whispered assurances into his shoulder, telling him that it was okay and they were all safe and you’re finally together again .
“Y/N, darling, is something wrong?”
You snap out of your thoughts, hurriedly bringing the spoonful of chicken soup to your lips to appease the questioning eyes suddenly trained on you.
“The food is great, Mrs. Myung, thank you.” You smile as you bring another spoonful to your lips. Jaehyun is sitting next to you, his smile slowly returning to his face as he looks lovingly at all his family members spread out across the dining room table.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Mrs. Myung waves off, a smile on her face. “I’m just glad you’re finally getting some proper food in you. I can’t believe you guys have been living off of canned beans and raw noodles for the last… god knows how long!” She shook her head with an exaggerated shiver, very motherly, and you laughed awkwardly to dispel the strange tension in your shoulders.
“We’ve been doing our best with what we have,” Jaehyun says, gently so as not to accidentally hurt his mother’s feelings, though you wonder how much he’s told them about your situation. Do they even know how you guys met?
“So,” Jungkook starts. You straighten your back and sit with your hands in your lap, nervously swallowing down your soup. Jaehyun’s older brother is almost nothing like him. He’s tall, has a full sleeve of tattoos, several piercings and hasn’t exactly been the most welcoming presence since their reunion earlier that evening.
“How did you two meet?”
So Jaehyun hadn’t told them everything.
“Oh, uh…” Jaehyun searches your face, probably hesitant to talk about something neither of you had really spoken about since it’s happening. Especially considering the… less-than-ideal circumstances.
You clear your throat. Despite not really wanting to relive any of that, you do want Jaehyun’s family to like you. So you put on what you hope is a friendly smile and tell them about what happened.
“I was being chased by a rogue group,” you say simply, ignoring Jungkook’s sympathetic frown and the widened eyes on his parents’ face. “I don’t know what they were going to do with me, but I ran into Jaehyun’s old company building and he found me and helped me escape.”
“That’s terrible…” Jaehyun’s mom sympathizes, reaching across the table to squeeze her son’s hand. He squeezes it back before pulling away.
“It’s over now.” Jaehyun says, smiling softly at you and reaching under the table to hold your hand.
“What happened to the boys?” Jungkook asks with a concerned frown. “Were you separated?”
Jaehyun’s grip on your hand tightens, his face paling so suddenly you can’t help but worry he’s about to pass out.
Jaehyun swallows and shakes his head.
“Jaehyun—“
He pushes up from the chair hard enough the legs screech against the floors, effectively cutting Jungkook off. “Thank you for the food, Eomma, but Y/N and I should probably get to bed. We’ve had a long day.”
“Jaehyun,” his dad says gently.
“C’mon, Y/N.”
You push out of your chair and fall into Jaehyun’s side, his arm around your shoulder and yours around his waist as he helps you hobble towards what you assume must be the guest bedroom.
You say nothing as he sets you on the side of the bed to remove your socks for you, glossy-eyed and frowning.
You bite your lip nervously, hesitant to say anything that might make him even more upset than he already is, but you have a feeling if you don’t say anything at all, things might turn out even worse, so you clear your throat and start off small.
“Where are you sleeping tonight?” you ask, watching him walk around to the other side of the bed.
“Here.”
“ Here ?”
“Yeah.” Jaehyun hesitantly sits on the edge of the bed, searching your face for signs of discomfort. “Why? Do you not want me to?”
“No—I mean, I don’t mind .” You pray he can’t tell how flustered this conversation makes you. “I just… I guess I assumed you’d go to the room with your brother.”
“I don’t…” Jaehyun sighs, raking his fingers through his hair as he sits back against the headboard, your legs touching. “I can’t deal with him right now.”
You bite your lip. “Do you… wanna talk about it?”
Jaehyun looks at you for a bit before shaking his head. “I don’t know. I missed them, of course I did, and I couldn’t be happier that they’re all alive and well and here .”
You carefully cross your legs and turn so your whole body is facing him. “But…?”
He follows suit and turns to face you, grabbing your hands so he can play with your fingers. “But… I just… I can’t deal with it all right now. The whiplash of them being alive, of us being reunited when…”
He inhales sharply, holding your hands a little tighter. “When they’re— they’re not here —“
Jaehyun breaks down, bowing his head as his shoulders shake with tears. Your heart aches for him as you maneuver yourself in a way that lets you get closer to him without putting your ankle at risk, wrapping your arms around his shoulders to pull him close.
You pat his back as he cries into your shoulder, eventually pulling away to hold his face and wipe his tears away with your thumbs.
“We got— got separated and they, I don’t know how it happened but they got— got cornered and I didn’t do anything because I— I was frozen and I didn’t do anything and now— and now they’re all dead —“
“It’s not your fault.”
“Yes it is!” he sobs, his breath stuttering in his chest as he grips your wrists, holding your hands against his cheeks like they’re his lifeline. “I could’ve done something, I might’ve saved them if only I’d done something—“
“Jaehyun, look at me .”
He makes a noise of a wounded animal, and your heart clenches uncomfortably in your chest as you wipe your thumbs under his eyes. “You couldn’t have saved them in the state you were in. The only thing that would’ve happened is you would’ve died with them—“
“That would’ve been better than this —“
“ No . Don’t say that.” You exhale shakily, annoyed at yourself for getting emotional when you’re trying so hard to be strong for him. “If you were dead what would have happened to me, Jaehyun? You wouldn’t have reunited with your family. Don’t say that.”
He whines again, shaking his head. “I just… I miss them,” he sobs, “I miss them so— so much and I wish they could’ve b-been here to meet— to meet you. Woonhakie” — he gasps like he’s out of breath— “Woonhakie would’ve loved you,” he wails, curling in on himself.
You hush him again, fighting back your own tears as you bring him back to your chest. You let him cry it out as you rub comforting circles on his back…
•••
You don’t know how long you both sit there, but when it’s done you’re emotionally exhausted and your foot is aching.
You and Jaehyun lay curled up against each other, closer than you’ve ever been before. Your heart pounds against your chest at the proximity, and you find yourself falling more in love with his scent every time you inhale against his neck.
“Y/N?”
“Mm?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Those things I said.” He swallows, his thumbs drawing pictures against your shoulders. “I’m glad I got to save you. I—“
“I know,” you assure him quietly, feeling your head get heavier. “They were like family to you. It’s a lot to deal with.”
“Still. I don’t want you to think I regret living.”
You can’t tell if it’s the closeness or mental exhaustion of the last month catching up on you, but whatever it is it gives you enough confidence to turn your head and kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Jaehyun. I’m glad we stayed alive long enough to know each other.”
He tenses up ever so slightly before nuzzling deeper into your shoulder. “Me too…
“And Y/N?”
“Mm?” you mumble, eyes already closed.
“I think I love you,” he whispers. “I know it’s sudden and maybe it’s not the right time, but I— I’ve actually felt this way for a while but I didn’t want to ruin everything or scare you off, or—“
“Jaehyun-ah.”
He swallows hard. “Mm?”
“I love you too. Now try to get some sleep, will you? Tomorrow’s going to be a really long day.”
Jaehyun stills as he takes in what you said, and then he turns his face into your neck and shakily inhales, holding you tighter than ever before.
“Y/N?”
“Mm?”
“I can’t wait to spend my tomorrows with you.”