MOONCHILD, kim namjoon

09. d-day

To say Jaehyun was taken aback would be an understatement. His jaw was hanging as he was unable to form words, and the warmth in his cheeks was slowly increasing to its full potential, like it had finally found its time to get unleashed. He looked downwards and managed to stutter out a reply. "Uh—I. . . er, I told you not to throw around compliments like that!"

"And I decided I would get you used to them!"

"This is ridiculous. You know what, tit for tat. Your eyes are a work of art. Like how does one get that shape? It's basically impossible. Did your mom do some weird ritual of something to get a son this beautiful?"

It was Namjoon's turn to look flustered. He snuggled into himself and buried his face in the pillow that he was holding. "Fine, I won't do it. Can we please order food and decide on what to watch?" 

Jaehyun gave a knowing smile. "I was thinking of ordering from Liu's Box." 

"Oh, isn't that the place where we met for the first time?"

"H-how do you remember that? That was five years ago!"

Namjoon's eyes softened. "That was the place where my journey started. It led me here; it made me what I am right now. I can't just not remember it, you know? Plus, I met you there. Also, they have amazing food. Seriously. It's the best Chinese I've ever had. Ever. How did you even find that place?"

The editor curled into himself and covered his face with his hands. "Actually, it's owned by one of Xumin hyungsoo's friends. I just wanted to help him out, so. . . yeah."

"Well, that's nothing to be embarrassed about. Seriously, you're a kind person."

Says the one who gives away half of his earnings to charity, Jaehyun thought.

"Anyway, what about you?" Namjoon said, pulling out his phone to place the order. He scrolled down, looking for dishes, pondering on what to order, and finally setting on Peking duck with hoisin sauce and Xita Lengmian, which he knew was one of Jaehyun's favourites because of the little dash of Korean flavour. "When did you decide that you wanted to become an editor?"

Jaehyun pulled his knees towards his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He sighed wistfully to give a dramatic impact. "Well, when I graduated from high school, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a playwright. I applied for my Korean language and literature degree and spent my whole time loving it and striving for my goal."

"Playwright? I never knew you actually wanted to be a playwright. What happened, then?"

"Uh, I kind of lost motivation. By the time I was done with my master's and was doing my English literature degree, I got aware of something. After spending so much time studying about these splendid works by so many different authors, I realised that I couldn't even compare. I was like the earth, considering myself all majestic, but they were the universe, in front of whom I was nothing but a small spec of dust."

Namjoon looked like he wanted to say something but held himself back since he didn't want to interrupt. 

"It wasn't a sudden realisation. It took me hundreds of breakdowns, thousands of sleepless nights and millions of sessions with my psychology major friend to conclude that playwriting wasn't it for me. I gave up, and chose the next closest option, editing."

"But, you see, back then I thought I couldn't make it. I thought I would fail and all; and when someone asked me what my dream job was, I would go blank. But it's all okay now, isn't it? I mean, I'm on a date with a bestselling author. Pretty sure it wouldn't be the same if I was writing plays."

Namjoon looked like he was in thought as his brows drew closer. "I'm proud of your decision. I mean, giving up decisively takes a lot of courage. And giving up on something you decided to dedicate two college degrees over? That's hard. That's so, so hard."

An arm clasped over the editor's shoulder, and Jaehyun omitted all other thoughts, any hesitation, piled up all of his courage, and threw himself over Namjoon in a hug. The latter was taken aback and froze for a moment, but he immediately relaxed and placed his arms on Jaehyun's back. 

The author let out a chuckle. "Have you decided on what movie to watch?"

☾

FINALLY IT'S HERE WHOOO

this one is longer than usual as an apology. hope you liked it! 🫶🏼

[ UPDATE ] while editing this for republishing, i had been thinking of changing the series of events a little bit, but then i read this, and i was like, you know what, i'm keeping this the way it is because i can't seem to remove anything in this chapter <3