The Boy From The Bridge - Jakehoon

Chapter 31: Test the Water 1/3

"My man!" Jungkook exclaimed, a huge smile sounding in his voice from the driver's seat. Jake was focused on the eye contact he was having with  his friend through the rear view mirror. Their eye smiles mirroring one another in the reflection.

The eye contact was maintained as they drove to Heeseung's home. En-route Sunghoon explained how he had had one of those dreams that night where one finds oneself in an awkward position wearing nothing but their underwear and had been thinking on it all day. When the woman, either Donghyun's mother or a maid had caught him he had slipped it into the elastic of his boxer shorts. Despite being pressed however, Sunghoon refused to elaborate on the nature of the dream despite the questioning from Jungkook.

Sunghoon's retrieval of the hard drive midway through their journey brought some exaggerated groans of disgust from Jake and Jungkook. "C'mon - it's not that bad!" Protested Sunghoon, "It was held in place above everything, it's clean"

"We're still going to need to sanitise that before giving it to Heeseung's mum" Jake said laughing at his friend's defence.

The journey was fun, there were plenty of jokes to be had and Jake was unable to stop staring at the rear view mirror. Every time he looked, he saw Sunghoon staring straight back at him. The scrutinising eyes from his friend made him blush. While he was trying to suppress the involuntary actions of his face Jake could swear Sunghoon was grinning.

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Arriving at Heeseung's address, Jungkook directed Sunghoon to the car's glove compartment where there were some wet wipes. After the customary jokes at the nature of the  inventory, Sunghoon wiped clean the hard drive and the exited the car.

'Jaeyun' had texted Heeseung that they were on their way, so they didn't have to wait long to be buzzed in. Heeseung's apartment building was smaller in height than their building but it was substantially large in width, it also seemed more modern. The building's facade was predominantly glass and the interiors were lined with hard wood.

Sunghoon had visited a few times previously and lead his companions through the building to Heeseung's apartment. Heeseung greeted them with an open door, he was standing with  a smile of gratitude and relief plastered across his face.

"Oh my god guys, I owe you the world." Heeseung began, "I could have sworn that my mother was going to kill me."

"Ha ha, it's nothing" Sunghoon said, handing the hard drive over.

"Well I wouldn't go as far as saying it's nothing" Jungkook commented before gesturing at the hard drive and adding, "you might want to wash that"

Heeseung gave him a quizzical look as if to say, 'and you are?'

"This is Jungkook, Jaeyun's uh, uncle" Sunghoon said, sensing the question in his friend's face. "He masterminded the whole operation - so really you owe him"

Heeseung moved to shake the adult's hand before 'Jaeyun' chimed in, "Well he might have Hoonie but you did all the heavy lifting. Heeseung you should of seen him. Our Sunghoon, playing the role of a spy"

"Haha" Heeseung laughed, "You really have  changed him for the better Jaeyun". The back and forth fawning over him made Sunghoon swell with pride. It was so rewarding to receive the praise from 'Jaeyun'. As they were lead inside Heeseung's apartment, Sunghoon accepted his reality. He was falling for 'Jaeyun'.

Sunghoon had only known 'Jaeyun' for the best part of five weeks but already he was being positively transformed into a better version of himself. So much so that it was able to be picked up on by those who knew him best. Sunghoon knew that he had been having feelings towards 'Jaeyun' for a while now. While initially he had been struggling to understand them it was becoming more and more apparent that it was attraction.

Not just primal lust but a more developed emotional attraction and it was growing.

"Welcome, welcome - I'm so grateful to all of you", Heeseung's mother was of a similar age to Sunghoon's mother and welcomed the guests into her home. Sunghoon and 'Jaeyun' were sat either side of Jungkook as they exchanged pleasantries with her. In the ensuing conversation. Heeseung's mother went at length to extol the flaws and failings of character of Dongyun's father during which Sunghoon said nothing.

Sunghoon was able to manage a smile at Heeseung, who brought them all refreshments of tea but his mind was focused on thoughts around his attraction to 'Jaeyun'. Did this mean that he was attracted to guys, that he wasn't straight? Sunghoon supposed so, surely there were only so many times you could fantasise about someone of the same sex without reaching that conclusion.

Sunghoon was torn emotionally. On the one hand he was annoyed with himself, it seemed that his sexuality was just another aspect of his life that he didn't have control over. As a teenager living in a cramped apartment ir felt like he had no control over anything - the dark, sordid corners of his mind had always been his domain. In there he could control who came in and who didn't, or so he  had thought. 'Jaeyun' had entered without being asked. His good looks, charm and charisma were so beyond anything Sunghoon had witnessed before and that was before one considered his smell.

'Oh god his smell' Sunghoon smiled at the thought and tried sniffing in the scent from the other side of the sofa but to his disappointment all he could pick up was the aroma from the tea. The mint in his nostrils brought Sunghoon to his senses. He had allowed his mind to wonder too far about the positives of 'Jaeyun' and his body had involuntarily followed suit. Embarrassed Sunghoon crossed his left leg over his right - hoping no one would notice.

'God that's making it worse' Sunghoon thought, 'c'mon, think of something else'. As if by divine intervention Sunghoon felt his intestines knot. His mind had drifted to his parents. What would they think? They had always appeared to him as socially liberal economic conservatives but he guess he'd never spoken to them about such things.

His mother had always enjoyed programs with effeminate guys doing fashion but his father, he was an unknown quantity in this equation - would he be okay. The patriarchal nature of their family would mean whichever way his father leaned his mother would probably follow. Sunghoon felt his heart drop in anxiety at the thought. "I'm going have to test the water"

Sunghoon suddenly realised he had spoken that last thought out loud. All the eyes in the room were  suddenly upon him.

"Test the water?" Heeseung asked him, on behalf of his mother whom Sunghoon had interrupted.

"Uh - sorry, I was thinking about swimming" Sunghoon lied. Despite the false nature of what he had said in a way swimming was quite a good way to talk about 'Jaeyun' - swimming was their time together,  alone with one another.

"Swimming?" Heeseung's mother looked at him quizzically. "I didn't know you could swim Sunghoon."

"I'm teaching him" 'Jaeyun said', "he's getting really good."

Sunghoon turned to look at his friend, through the gap between Jungkook's back and the sofa's cushions. 'Jaeyun' stared back at him and gave him a thumbs up and a wink. With that Sunghoon's heart melted all over again. 

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Jakehoon fanfic 5.1