In Between Worlds | Lee Juyeon x Reader

Chapter 14:

"May I still stay here?"

Juyeon asks, sitting on my chair as we just finished talking about his reasons as to why he didn't want to tell me the unknown issues. His excuse was that "everything is broken" in Underland and he had no choice but to preserve it well. I was laying down on my bed, staring at the ceiling while he sat on the chair near my desk. The silence was filling in the room and I still wasn't sure if I should talk to him. Juyeon was staring at the window blankly, shaking his head every once in a while.

"Hey."

I decided to call him, causing Juyeon to look at me with both his eyebrows raised.

"I'm sorry, I just got carried away. I was being too harsh again."

I started apologizing, feeling sorry for what I did to him. Threatening him that I'd end our friendship, forcing him to just go home, without even understanding his reasons? All of what I did to him just didn't sit right with me.

"It's not your fault, Y/N. I wasn't being true to you and I just didn't think of it getting to this point."

Juyeon says, standing up from the chair as he sits beside me on my bed.

"We can still be friends, right?"

The look on his face seems pitiful, desperately wanting to still be friends. I sit up from my bed, looking at him for a little bit. I took a pause to think about my response this time.

I could be aggressive at times and there are already a lot of times that I've intimidated him by only using words. I still have to understand his state. He's not a normal human being like me, having heavier duties than I do.

It's time for me to adjust even more.

Even if he chose not to tell me about his purpose here, he did help me get through a lot of things. He helped me sleep better and I have someone to talk to every day at school, making me feel less lonely. He even offered to do my homework multiple times already but we'd always end up doing it separately.

"Of course, we can be friends. I mean, do I have better classmates to deal with?"

I joked, causing him to snicker before he walked towards me as the mood started to lighten up. He sits at the side of my bed, staring at me as he blinks his eyes slowly. I still didn't know what that meant but that's probably because he had bad eyesight or something.

I'm not sure. I've never owned a cat before.

"It's near midnight already, Y/N. You have to sleep by now or you'll lack energy at school."

He says, lightly pushing my shoulder as I rest my back onto the soft mattress of my bed once again. I could feel the way the cat watches me come up with a decision. He's right. I should sleep now.

"Yeah, maybe I should... What about you? Do you have plans to sleep in your cat form?"

I ask, pointing at him as he's still in his true form. He usually turns into a cat before sleeping at the pile of used fabric at the corner of the room so that he doesn't really take so much space. Besides, he's tall and he could easily take so much space if we shared a bed.

Not that I considered sharing a bed with him.

"... Not now."

He says as I nod, later widening my eyes in realization. What does he mean by 'not now'? Is he going to sleep in his true form?!

"What do you mean 'not now'?! Are you not going to sleep in your cat form?!"

I asked, jolting awake suddenly as he flinched at my sudden response.