Nevermind, Goodnight (JinJi)

Part 4

Once in the ground floor elevator lobby, Jisoo saw Jinoyung's silhouette in the opaque glass doors. She felt like her soul was fighting to get out of her body through her throat as she walked over. Waving a key card in front of the sensor, she opened the door.

Jinyoung turned around to face her.

He looked much as he did earlier that day, before the makeup and the styling. Fresh-faced, soft hair, normal, sensible clothing, but there was a tenseness in his shoulders. Jisoo took a deep breath and silently moved aside to let him into the building. His shoulder brushed hers as he stepped in.

Jisoo closed the door behind him and fidgeted with her hands as she faced him. Jinyoung, too, played with the heath strap of his watch, but he kept his eyes on Jisoo while she looked down at the floor. The silence was becoming awkward, so they both looked up and tried to say something, only to wind up talking at the same time. They stopped, laughed a bit and then Jinyoung said:

"Sorry. You go first."

Jisoo shook her head.

"No, you go," she said, quietly. Jinyoung nodded and then took another deep breath. The elevator lobby was silent except the sound of bells whenever the lift stopped at a certain floor. Jisoo was telling herself to look up at him, but she couldn't bring herself to look at his eyes. She stared at his neck instead. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed before speaking.

"So, then," Jinyoung began carefully. "It was me you were talking about the other night."

Jisoo closed her eyes and sighed. No point trying to skirt around the subject now.

"Yes," she said. "It was."

Jinyoung suddenly felt weightless. Jisoo looked up at him and saw him trying and failing to repress a smile.

"Why didn't you just say so, then?" he said, his voice soft.

"Because... Because you're so... you know, and I'm so... you know," Jisoo said with a shaky voice. She was so nervous, and her feelings for him were so close to the surface now, she was fighting to keep them from swelling up and overwhelming her. But here he was and she had liked him for so long. She crossed her arms.

"And anyway, I was scared that you didn't feel the same way," she said, looking aside. "And I knew that if you didn't, I'd feel hurt and that it might make things awkward between us, and then it would just ruin everything, including our professional partnership. I was scared that if you didn't feel the same way, you'd distance yourself from me—"

"I wouldn't have," Jinyoung said, his voice rising and taking as top toward her. "You should be more confident in me, I'd have respected your feelings if you told me."

It had been months now that they hosted the music show together. During that time, he and Jisoo had become especially close. 

When he first heard that she'd be on of his co-MC's, he was afraid that she would be cold and chic, but it didn't take long at all for him to realize that that was just an image she projected when promoting Blackpink. The real Jisoo had an open heart, a genuine personality, and the brightest, most beautiful smile he'd ever seen on a girl, and it was her openness that had drawn him in and captured his heart. That she had hidden something like this from him for so long saddened him.

"And anyhow," he said softly. "I do feel the same way."

Jisoo finally looked up at him. Her eyes were wide, hopeful.

"You do?" she said. Jinyoung couldn't help smiling.

"When you said all those things in your message the other night and I thought they were about me, I went a little crazy," he said.