Only You, Jaeyun | JAKEHOON

Chapter 23

– “I like liking you.”

Spring had painted the rooftop.

The cracked cement tiles were still uneven, but someone had chalked a heart near the stairwell door. A cluster of dandelions had pushed up through the gutter lining the railing. The sky stretched wide and absurdly blue, with just enough clouds to look like someone had tried to watercolor them in a rush.

Somewhere below, someone’s speakers were playing a pop song on loop. Someone else was chasing someone with a water gun.

Jake sat cross-legged, peeling a tangerine.

Sunghoon sat beside him, back against the railing, one leg bent, the other lazily stretched out in front of him. His arms rested over his knees like he had nowhere else to be — and didn’t want to be anywhere else anyway.

It was their last week of school.

Jake hadn’t said it out loud yet. Neither had Sunghoon.

But the air felt like it knew.

Jake held up a slice. “Want?”

Sunghoon leaned in and took it with his mouth, brushing Jake’s fingers as he did.

Jake laughed. “That’s illegal.”

Sunghoon chewed with a straight face. “Tastes better when you’re annoying.”

Jake rolled his eyes and leaned against him anyway.

He wore Sunghoon’s hoodie again. His own was crumpled in his backpack. Unused. Forgotten.

Jake’s sketchbook sat open in his lap — halfway through a doodle of a sunshine hugging a small, round penguin in a scarf. There were messy stars around the border. A tiny heart in the corner. Jake had drawn it without thinking.

Sunghoon peered over.

“Is that supposed to be me?”

Jake shrugged. “Dunno. Depends. Are you secretly soft inside?”

“No.”

Jake raised an eyebrow.

Sunghoon plucked another slice of tangerine and stuffed it in Jake’s mouth.

Jake nearly choked from laughter. “Stop feeding me!”

“Make me.”

Jake opened his mouth to retort — but paused. Went silent for just a second.

Long enough to look at him. Really look.

Sunghoon’s hair was slightly messy from the wind. His lashes caught the sun just enough to look like dusted gold. And he was already watching Jake, still and open and so utterly Sunghoon that it made Jake’s chest ache.

Jake nudged his shoulder. “You waited for me again today.

“You say that like it’s new.”

Jake smiled, soft. “It’s not. That’s the part I like.”

Sunghoon didn’t answer right away. He just turned a little toward him. Leaned closer.

And slowly — like it was second nature now — he reached over and took Jake’s hand in his.

Their fingers twined easily. Like they belonged that way.