A Thousand Purple Stars (JinJi)

Opening Up

"What is your favorite color?" she asked. Jisoo crossed her arms, too, in such a way that did for her chest what crossing arms did for his biceps. Jinyoung forced himself to look at her face.

"White," answered.

"Okay. And your favorite kind of music?" Jisoo said, committing each answer to memory in case Julie Kiyoko happened to ask her.

"R&B," he said.

"Your favorite food?"

"The usual," he said. "Burgers, pizza, steak, though really anything with meat in it. Chocolate is good, too. And pasta. Rice is good, too. Anything with meat or rice in it."

Jisoo scoffed. "So you eat everything. Got it."

"Anything else?" Jinyoung asked, laughing lightly. There was a question that Jisoo had wanted to ask for a while, actually.

"Did you invite me to the gala to make Nawon jealous?"

He looked at Jisoo's face and saw that she was serious and wanted an actual answer. Jinyoung's playful smile faded. Her question saddened him. Is that really what she thought?

"No," he answered gently. He was about to leave it at that, but the way she raised her brows told him that she wasn't satisfied. She wanted more. Jinyoung sighed.

"We dated over seven months," Jinyoung began slowly, rubbing his wrist. "Nawon and I, we were the biology department's favorite couple. When we broke up, everyone wanted to know why. Everyone was so worried about us, about me. I couldn't take how concerned everyone was. I just wanted them to leave me alone."

He saw her nod. He took a deep breath.

"I thought that if I brought a date," he said. "People would think that I had moved on."

Jisoo understood doing things out of self-preservation better than most. She remembered Jinyoung being an intensely private person. She, too, was a very private person, at least when it came to certain things. Her writing especially. Writing was an intensely personal thing for Jisoo. It was a dream that she had nurtured and cared for her almost all on her own, and it was a dream that she didn't trust in the hands of anyone but herself.

She supposed Jinyoung was like that with his feelings. It was plain to see that he had cared for Nawon deeply and that her betrayal had hurt him, and even if he did hate Nawon now, she was still a part of his life and had been for seven months. Yet Jisoo never seemed to see him mourning.

"Have you moved on, though?" Jisoo asked.

Jinyoung stopped himself from answering too quickly and giving a reflexive, empty "yes." If Jisoo had asked him this even just a week ago, he might have said he hadn't yet. But finally being able to tell Nawon exactly how he felt and hearing her side of the story was exactly the kind of closure he needed to end that chapter of life and... move on.

And he wasn't oblivious: he knew that Jisoo was part of the reason for that. The corner of his mouth curled into a content smile.

"I'm starting to."

The publication party was taking place on the covered rooftop of The LEDGE, a trendy urban-style apartment complex. Tents had been set up, and string lights were hanging from the beams above. There was an open bar on one side of the area, hightop table for mingling, and a dance floor with a DJ playing 80's soul music. Julie Kiyoko found Jisoo almost as soon as she walked in.