Flutter//Jaehyun

Chapter 1

He pauses for a beat, staring at both Ki and I in our strange state. 

"Yeah, uh.." He fumbles with his phone.

"Who are your pretty friends, Jae?" says one of the men behind him. He wraps his arm tightly around Jae's collar, nearly making him drop his phone. I couldn't necessarily make out facial details on the man as he was wearing a dark, brimmed baseball cap. I could tell that he was smirking through his teeth, imagining twisted thoughts as he stared at both of us. "Wanna introduce us?"

"No need," Jae says quickly. He directs his attention back to me and Kiana--who appears to be directing all of her attention on the games she is playing on her phone--. "Let me take you to the pick up spot."

He unravels himself by the mildly threatening man at his side and grabs my arm in such quick pace. He begins speed walking away from the men with both Kiana and I struggling to keep up. 

"Hey, hey!! Where the fuck are you going!" says the man. I resist looking behind me in fear of them pulling weapons out on us or something. But the man beside me looked calm. He knew what he was doing. 

"I'll be back in a second guys! Don't worry!" He shouts back in a cheerful tone--which felt like the wrong tone of voice you would use to speak to potential gang affiliates, but oh well. 

After we walk about a block and turn a bunch of corners, he begins to slow down. He lets go of my arm and begins tapping on his phone, nonchalantly. I open my mouth to begin asking him what the hell is going on when a car pulls over towards us and waves at us. I'm guessing this is our Uber?  

I help Kiana into the backseat and slide in right after her. Before I can turn and say goodbye to this mysterious kid, he slides into the front seat.  

"What is going on?" I ask. He seems pretty friendly with the driver and lightly taps him on the arm as a thank you of some sort. 

"Oh, I had to get out of that situation." He turns back to me, "Did not want anyone getting hurt, is all."  

The driver speaks up as he begins to speed down the empty street. "Seriously, dude? I told you to not fuck with their spot and you literally did exactly what I told you not to. Do you want to die?" 

Ok, i'm beginning to think this is not an Uber. But it wasn't like I could just eject myself from this dicey situation, Kiana was falling asleep and I wasn't really in the mood to duck and roll out of the car. So I kept quiet and begin to stare out of the window while the two men in the front bicker about god knows what.  

Despite me living in this part of the city for years now the nightlife seemed so foreign to me, it's as if the streets of every part of the city blend into something homogeneous--like a bunch of cityscape paintings that accidentally melted into one another. I began to think harder and harder about the privilege of being able to observe and recreate as an artist does and recognize that despite this privilege, I still felt empty. And despite the warm bodies in this BMW, how i still felt bitterly alone.  

"Hey, sorry about that earlier...uh", Jae begins but realizes that we never really introduced one  another. 

"It's Deka, this is Kiana," I gesture at the sleeping figure to my right." and i'm assuming you're name is Jae?"  

"Ah no, Jaehyun. That dude back there is kinda scary, so I let him call me whatever." He replies.  He looks me in my eyes as I peer into his face once again. Jaehyun. I try to deconstruct and reconstruct that name in my head in a variety of ways in order to understand why hes so incredibly familiar. Who the hell is this man?   

He breaks our staring contest and bumps the driver--who has looked pretty irritated by this entire ride. "But this guy right here is my best friend, Johnny. He's not usually pissy but I think I woke him from a nap or something." Jaehyun chuckles while Johnny mumbles dick under his breath.  

"You know, I don't have your address--" Jaehyun begins to say. 

"You could just drop us off right here, actually. We can walk the rest of the way." I didn't want to stay in this car for too long and I also just realized how unsafe this situation was. And though I didn't care about what would happen to me, I wanted to make sure Kiana was safe.  

Johnny pulls over almost immediately. Jaehyun just looks at him in a judging glare in which Johnny replies "What. She says she wants to be dropped off." 

I gather myself and make sure I haven't left anything in the car that would require another meeting with them. As I take Kiana's arm to help her out of the car, Jaehyun gets out and begins to greet me goodbye. 

"Uh, sorry for tonight. But it was nice meeting you." He says earnestly. 

"Again." I add in an a muttered tone. 

"What?"  

"Just.." I scrunch my face for a bit and wonder why I'm still standing here speaking. I manage to sputter out, "bye."  

He chuckles as I begin to speed walk towards the direction of my apartment complex. 

"Bye!" He calls out. That genuinely cheery tone of voice is irritating. How could he be so coherent, neat, and yet so fucking mysterious? Like choose a personality and stick with it. I glanced back at him still standing there looking like model. He wasn't waving or attempting to get into the car, he was just looking at us. And for some reason I enjoyed this. I enjoyed the momentary attention I received tonight and I don't know if it is the alcohol or the distorted image of intimacy in my mind--but I wanted more.  

More of what? That is a question I can't seem to answer.  

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A/N 

HI! New story. Lets see where this goes lol