DRAWINGS [jaeyong]

[11]

Doyoung bit the corner of his mouth, taking his hands off the table and leaving them limply swaying at his sides. "No. I don't actually know where Tae is, but he said he'd be back soon," he explained awkwardly, his eyes moving to the closed classroom door.

Jaehyun's voice lowered as he said without a second thought, "Are you worried about him?"

Confusion and shock creeped up on Doyoung's features from Jaehyun's inquiry, not really expecting someone like him to boldly assume something like that when usually he'd just let it go; Jaehyun obviously didn't enjoy talking about those things if it could be avoided. "What? Are you concerned?" he spoke defensively.

Regret swelled in Jaehyun's chest — I shouldn't have said that — "N-no, it's fine. I don't want us to do this alone, that's all. Don't— don't you think it's a little selfish of him to leave us to do this by ourselves?" he asked, and this accusation seemed to really throw Doyoung off the rails.

He narrowed his gaze, eyebrows furrowing down in discontent. "Jaehyun, you really confuse me sometimes. One minute you act like you are genuinely worried about Taeyong, but the next you are accusing him of being selfish — asshole move, by the way. Why are you so scared to admit that you are starting to care for him? It's pathetic. Stop being a little bitch," he condemned hotly; it was crystal clear that Doyoung was not afraid to speak his mind whatsoever under any circumstances.

Jaehyun opened his mouth to speak, feeling a harmful pit form in his stomach, but he suddenly felt like his throat had run dry and closed his lips. "You know what, we should really just start on this project," he said non-confrontationally, standing up and picking out a few random bobbles and the nicest looking paints.

"Wait a minute," Doyoung said, moving the box closer to his side of the desk so it wasn't so easy for Jaehyun to distract himself with it. The younger was quickly growing frustrated, and it showed in his hard gaze when he met eyes with Doyoung. "Are we just going to continue to pretend that you don't suddenly have a bruise on your cheek?"

Doyoung was quickly inching his way underneath Jaehyun's heated skin. "It's none of your business," he shot back swiftly. He felt a little vulnerable and he didn't like that one bit.

"No, it's not fair that you can be 'so concerned' about Taeyong, who you quite frankly don't even know, but I'm not aloud to be concerned about you. Jaehyun, I swear to god, I would love to call you a friend and be there for you but you never tell me anything and it's quite honestly pissing me off.

"I care about you. I don't know if you care about me, but I care about you. You need someone to care about you and Yuta and his dogs don't and never will. If you can't tell me why you have a fucking bruise on your cheek then please tell me what you have so against me," Doyoung rambled off, sincerely gazing at Jaehyun, desperately hoping for an answer or reassurance.

Jaehyun stiffly looked to the ground, washed over by weights of emotions that he couldn't quite comprehend at the moment. He wasn't sure if he ever will. "Doyoung this isn't the time and place—"

"I don't care. What do you have so against me?" he repeated, and it hurt to see the clever and mature boy look so distraught and authentically confused. It was strange, really, how he could conclude a direct solution to the hardest math problem in honor classes but couldn't figure out or understand how Jaehyun's mind functioned.

Jaehyun didn't know what to say for a long while before he finally said something. "It's nothing against you, Doyoung, please stop taking it so personally," he pleaded sadly.