Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋🤭

2023

"Noona!  Are you almost done with the macarons?" I frowned and looked up from the bowl of dry ingredients.  NiKi was standing on the other side of the counter with a big grin.  Like a dog waiting for a treat. 

"NiKi, I haven't even started with the meringue yet.   I'm not gonna be done for a while." I said with a small laugh. "I'll text you when I'm done.  And you can be the first to try." I was trying a new recipe my grandfather had sent over.  And the boys were very excited try it out.

He let out a loud very dramatic sigh before sauntering away back to the living room. I shook my head. I was so done with him.

As I was separating the whites and yolks, I heard someone walking into the kitchen thinking it was NiKi I sighed, "NiKi, I told you it'll be like another half hour." I said absentmindedly, trying very hard not to break the yolks.

"Well I'm offended."

Immediately heading Jungwon's voice I looked up. I smiled sheepishly at him, "Sorry! NiKi's been pestering me a bit." I excused.

Jungwon grinned, "It's fine, I just wanted to ask do you want to go to lunch with me tomorrow with an old friend of mine from SM?" He asked, sitting down across the counter.

I shrugged, "Sure. Not even a question." I said while grabbing the hand mixer, "Won, could you grab me the sugar?" I nodded my head to the back counter that had all the ingredients out.

"Mhm," Jungwon got up from his seat and grabbed me the sugar. He placed it on my left and I kissed him on the cheek as a thank you before focusing again. Meringue is a an art of precision.

"What's his name? Your friend? Is it someone from Riize?" I asked, momentarily stopping the mixer to spoon in the cream of tartar.

Jungwon hesitated, "Nari. Min Nari." He said.

I frowned, "A girl?"

"Yeah... she trained with me in SM but I think she moved to Starship not to long ago. She wants to catch up. I haven't talked to her in a while." Jungwon mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah." I honestly didn't know what to say so I just continued mixing the meringue. It was almost done. I could feel Jungwon just watching me. I did not like the uneasy feeling I had in my stomach as I thought about this Nari girl. Jungwon's told me so many stories about his SM days. I never heard about. And she definitely hasn't debuted yet. I wondered what she looked like.

Jungwon wrapped his arm around my waist while I turned off my mixer and dropped a couple drops of blue food dye. "You don't have to go with me if you're uncomfortable... or I just won't go. I'll tell her we had a change in sched.ule."

I shook my head, "No, no, you do whatever you want." I muttered. I winced when I realized how bad that sounded. "If you want to catch up with Nari, catch up with her. It's not often we get to hang out with friends outside of the industry... And if you want me to go, I'll go."

"Taste good." I turned my head and saw that Jungwon had dipped his finger into the white chocolate ganache I had made. Jungwon smiled softly and buried his face in the nape of my neck. Giving me all I needed to know. I felt the uneasy feeling fade as I reached for the spatula.

Well I spoke too soon. I honestly didn't remember the lunch until Jungwon texted me today telling me we'll go when he comes back from vocal lessons. So now I was freaking out. Last night Jungwon constantly assured me that they were strictly just friends. Not even super close ones at that. It was really hard to tell if this was just me scared to meet someone new (as usual) or me being a freaked out girlfriend. I was trying to lean towards the former.