s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [twenty-eight]

Monday morning you woke up beside Jaehyun again. He'd only left your side once and that was to get school clothes from his place the day before when you decided that he'd be staying the night again. He didn't want to leave you by yourself at night yet, just in case you had another nightmare, and you didn't want him to leave you either. You weren't sure exactly, but just having him there made it feel like you could sleep easier.

Confused, you saw that he was still in his pajamas when you sat up. He was awake, reading of course.

"You didn't go to the gym?" You muttered, leaning against his shoulder to see what he was reading. The Odyssey.

"No, I wanted to be with you when you woke up," he explained quietly. "I'll go for a run later."

You pushed down your immediate want to insist that he doesn't disrupt his own schedule for you—a habit of wanting to not feel like a burden—and instead said, "Thank you."

He closed the book on his thumb to lean down and catch your lips with his. You kissed him back with ardor, pulling back a moment later to say, "Good morning, I love you."

"Good morning, I love you more," he whispered back.

"Good morning, I want to puke," came a voice from the end of your bed. Taeyong was sitting there in his cat form, clearly not amused by the sight in front of him.

"You can talk like that, he can talk like that, great," Jaehyun's surprise turned to acceptance as he stuck his bookmark into his book and set it on your nightstand before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "I'm going to take a shower."

"I'll make breakfast," you said, unable to hide your amusement at him still getting used to all the weird parts of your life.

☆

Walking onto campus hand-in-hand with him brought a certain kind of butterflies to your stomach. And this time the pretty, fluttery kind, not the giant, flesh-eating, acid-spitting moths from before. While you realistically knew that absolutely nobody would care about this little thing, your brain still felt like it was going to cause a scandal just a little bit. You, a student, openly dating the TA of your class. But when the world didn't explode throughout your entire short trip to the quad, the butterflies settled back down.

Jaemin was sitting on the planter, allowing his leg to be used as a pillow for Yuta, who thankfully looked a lot better than he had the last time you saw him. He was laying on his back as he flipped through a packet of some sort, and only spared you and Jaehyun a glance before returning to it.

"Shit, Y/N, what happened to your face?" Jaemin gasped, and you had honestly forgotten about the bandage still over your healing cut and the bruising around your eye. You had a hoodie to cover up most of the damage to your arms, and jeans to cover your legs, but there wasn't much that you could do about your face.

You easily spun up a lie, "Jae took me to one of his boxing lessons and—"

"He—"

"No," you insisted. "I was sparring with another student. Didn't block well enough."

"You got the bitch back, right?"

"Hell yeah she did," Jaehyun wrapped arm around your shoulders to pull you towards him proudly.

"Good," Jaemin grinned before his face turned serious again. "But never go to one again. Stick to books, you big nerd."

"Hey, Jae's a bigger nerd than me!"

"It's balanced out by the boxing," Yuta drawled, eyes still on his papers. "Keep up, Y/N."

"And what are you doing, Yuta?"

"Reviewing this case study before class. I'm supposed to be presenting it in ten minutes."

Jaemin spoke up, "Apparently Yuta was at a rager all weekend and is still a little hungover."

"Still have enough wits to hit you, Na Jaemin."

☆

As soon as you stepped foot in your World Literature classroom, your throat seized up for a split second. Mark was there, red hoodie pulled up around his face as he sat slumped in his seat. His head snapped up as soon as he heard the door open, hopeful eyes landing on you immediately.

"You going to be okay?" Jaehyun asked you for the third time that morning.

"Yeah," you nodded resolutely, squeezing his hand. "Talk to you after class."

Confidently making your way to your seat, you sat down beside Mark like you always did. He sat up straight now, eyes clearly taking in the damage to your face again.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "But I have information, I can help you guys get rid of them all! Please let me fix what I did."

You pursed your lips, still not exactly over what he'd done, even if it was an accident. But you knew that in order to take care of the Wraith problem, having the person who started it in the first place on your side would help a lot.

"We're all meeting at my apartment tonight. Seven o'clock. I'll tell everyone not to kill you. No guarantees though."

"Thank you, Y/N. I'll be there."