before you / jung jaehyun

twenty three

aeri
:(

-
[ 7:12PM ]

"did jungwoo tell you yet?" jaehyun asked, bowing to the old man behind the cash register. he took his groceries that he just bought and stuffed it in his bag. jaehyun was at the supermarket with aeri. he said he needed to run some errands cause it's been long since the last time he did.

aeri hummed a soft, hm? then jaehyun looked over at her, "a party," he said. suddenly, she remembered. "oh yeah, sorry. he did," she voiced out. jaehyun finally zipped his bag, before fishing out a can of chocolate milk and handed it over to the girl next to him. "what's this?" she asked.

"i bought it for you, of course," he sheepishly smiled. "so you coming?" he continued on. aeri nodded her head, "i dont know why you would even think of asking me. it's weird, dont you think?" but jaehyun just furrowed his eyebrows and chuckled. "why would it be weird? you're like my bestfriend. you invite me to your highschool parties and i'll invite you to my college parties,"

you're like my bestfriend.

"come on, the food's gonna get cold. we're having dinner at my place," jaehyun exclaimed and then ruffled her hair. "i ordered in, duh," he rolled her eyes, then he put her arms around her shoulder, dragging her out of the supermarket and having a long walk home over to his house.

they arrived over to his house at about 7:50pm, food was on the table. aeri just kept quiet, she was getting kind of awkward around jaehyun ever since that night they almost kissed.

i mean what was that? they were literally about to kiss. maybe it was all part of god's plan. maybe they would've fought and argued about it after. maybe they would've been awkward around each other or even avoid each other. but you still cant deny that not only aeri leaned in, jaehyun did too.

and why would he do that if he didnt have any feelings, right?

"this is to make up for what happened the other day. we would've probably had a blast if chungha didn't interrupt us," he sheepishly smiled, handing aeri her takeout food, and beckoning her over to the couch to watch netflix.

aeri just went with the flow. should she bring up about what almost happened the other night? no, it would only be awkward. right? why would jaehyun bring that up knowing that they almost kissed? maybe he doesnt care. he doesnt, aeri. he does not care about the almost-kiss.

"yeah, well. maybe it was good that she did interrupt us," she softly blurted out, hoping that he wouldnt hear but he eventually did. his eyebrows raised, and his stance changed. he knew what aeri was talking about. he just softly chuckled, "about that," he trailed off.

aeri knew he was about to say something that would break her heart. so she prepared for the worst thing he could say possible. "i just woke up and i probably couldnt think straight," was his excuse. "i dont want to lead you on or anything," was his other excuse. "but it's good, right? that we didnt. we wouldve probably ruined our friendship later," was his last excuse.

"yeah," i knew it. was all she could say, smiling and then her attention went back to her food. of course, it was a mistake. it's unfair how aeri's feelings for jaehyun only grew bigger by each minute, but not jaehyun. it's unfair that only aeri was feeling that way. it's unfair that it's unrequited.

"if we kissed, goddamn. imagine what would happen," he kept saying. on and on and on, non-stop. "i mean we kissed twice," aeri said. jaehyun stopped for awhile to think, "oh yeah. but we did it because we were forced to, you know?"

"if we did kiss in our own will, it would be weird for both of us! i mean, we're bestfriends, we can't be more than that," jaehyun rambled on. which not only made aeri uncomfortable but also annoyed. she went on to interrupt him in the middle of his talk.