°Jaehyuk x Asahi
°Jaehyuk always found paper roses in his locker.
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A small, brownish handmade paper rose- tender yet with good texture, fragile but able to sustain a whole day long stay in the depth of Jaehyuk’s school bag. Had it not been for the newspaper pages, the rose would have looked real, lively- the creator made it with such delicacy!
The roses were regular gifts for Jaehyuk, from an unknown, undiscovered soul. No, in no way was he a stranger to Jaehyuk. For, the roses he created bore his tales. Every petal of the lifeless aesthetic beauty talked to Jaehyuk, told him about the care and effort the certain someone had while creating it. Jaehyuk could only stare, try to comprehend how much love could the creator have inside him to never forget about presenting him with beautifully crafted roses. And when he felt the connection between him and the creator through the woody, papery smell of the rose petals, the creator seemed close to his heart; familiar, intimate, only good at secrecy.
Jaehyuk took good care of the roses. All day long, he would keep the roses on his desk, so that they didn’t get crumpled. He had friends who knew of the secret provider, hence was teased. He didn’t mind though, rather it filled his heart knowing someone did care for him. There was only one thing he regretted- his ignorance regarding the whereabouts of the origami expert.
Jaehyuk tried lots of ways to find out who he could be. His first attempt was flexing his roses to see any unnatural reaction in the students around him. It was funny in a way, a junior student carrying a paper rose all through his classes. Some made fun of him, but he was Yoon Jaehyuk, a man with positive mind set. He was true to his motive and thus, disregarded everything else.
But the maker of the roses had nerves of stone. No matter how many people Jaehyuk met, no one actually showed him any hint of being visibly nervous about the roses in his hand. Soon, Jaehyuk had to let go of the fruitless efforts of him.
He took extra care of his locker, noticed every single person walking close to it. Because the roses were always present in his locker, he knew if he could keep a keen eye on it for a whole day, he would find the one he was looking for. But no! His admirer was a clever person. Even after spending the whole day frequently eyeing his locker, Yoon Jaehyuk failed to identify the admirer, his secret admirer. Surprisingly, he still found the desired rose in his locker on the next day!
Trying and failing again and again, Jaehyuk realized that he had to follow some uncommon ways. So, for some days, he postponed his search. Instead, he focused on learning how to make the same rose.
Now, for someone with zero artistic sense, it was a huge task! No matter how many YouTube videos he watched, as detailed as they could be, he always struggled following the steps. Like how do you even remember all the cutting and folding of the pages? And once, when he took literally hours to pause and play the video to actually make something, it turned out to be a disaster.
Not only was the rose ugly to look at, it had petals that fell down as soon as he lifted it. The undried glue stuck in his hands and clothes, the small wires used to bind the petals pricked his finger, the newspaper pages were made into a complete mess. Frustrated and sad, Jaehyuk threw everything away.
He just wanted to return the roses to the dear admirer.
Sulking for minutes, Jaehyuk’s mind enlightened with an idea! Well, it could be a way to get to his secret admirer as well! He took a pen and a piece of paper and with his injured finger, wrote a small note to the creator of the roses.
‘Your roses are as beautiful as one can be! I was wondering if you would teach me how to make one as well.
PS. For the 1000th time, I'm curious to meet you, love♡’
How many times did Jaehyuk ask to meet the guy? Yet, he never received an affirmation. The replies would always be nothing more than another rose. No notes of explanation or apology, nothing.
This time too, Jaehyuk expected little. He wasn’t prepared for a huge note with steps and illustrations on how to make the roses with newspaper pages.
The admirer took all his time to even draw and paint the steps beside the description so that Jaehyuk found it easier to applicate. The Korean male escaped a smile, he surely knew how to draw!
That night, Jaehyuk did make a cute rose. But it still needed work. Half satisfied, he dumped the rose in a trash can and decided to try again another time. While going to sleep, he was recalling all the incidents he had with his admirer, never seen, but so close to heart! Then suddenly, he jumped up.
He found out the time of delivery of the roses.
Jaehyuk asked the admirer for teaching him in the morning when he delivered his note. The reply came right in the morning of the next day. Obviously, none could draw such a detailed guide at school, he at least had to do it at home. That could only mean that he delivered the reply to Jaehyuk’s locker in the morning of the next day.
Early in the morning that is.
Jaehyuk quickly set his alarm and went to sleep. His excitement touched the roof and poor boy couldn’t fall asleep. After tossing and turning on bed for hours when he finally could, that too was a distracted, discontinuous sleep. However, that didn’t stop him from jumping up at the sound of the alarm, dress up in the speed of light and dash out of the house taking enough money to buy his breakfast.
Jaehyuk reached earlier than almost everyone. His first destination was the locker, which, as expected, wasn’t decorated with a non living rose. Satisfied with his accuracy of time, he moved away and hid behind a wall to observe his locker.
Minutes passed and more and more students started to arrive. Jaehyuk was patient at first, nervous too, but he lost hope every second. No sign of his admirer. Could it mean he calculated wrong? If the first period started and still there was no one to put a rose in his locker, that would mark the first day in months when Jaehyuk was deprived of the rose for a whole day.
Disappointing as it was, exactly that happened with him. He didn’t find his admirer, nor did he get a rose. All his waiting and rushing and a beating heart went in vain. Sighing, he left after the bell had rung.
He was exceptionally sulky that day. His usual cheerful self lost its originality. Students who liked his bubbly nature were worried, a bit mad too but he didn’t care. He never knew not getting a rose would make him so sad. Okay, not only that, but his desk looked so empty without the rose.
He went home finishing a long, sad and disappointing day.
However, at night, he felt a little bit better after actually making a decent rose following the instructions received from the admirer. While making the rose, he kept wondering whether the next day he’d get one again- the beautifully crafted rose, the embodiment of a patient and careful love.
Jaehyuk’s grin upon seeing two roses on his locker was priceless. One was a bit bigger than the other. A small note was also there, along with the two pretty roses.
‘Here’s to make up for yesterday :D’
Neatly written, no exaggeration, no outburst of emotion. Jaehyuk sometimes wondered if the admirer was really a reserved person or just plain unromantic. He feared the second one and fancied the first one. The aura from his admirer was mysterious, drawing him in more and more each day!
The two roses looked so good together! One a bit more brown than other. The stalk was longer in one, and the leaves as well. The shorter one had only one small leaf but it didn’t even need one. Keeping them together, it looked like the bigger one was enough to protect both if them.
‘You have such a pretty soul. If not, then how can you make something so unworldly?
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Jaehyuk started receiving roses regularly after that. He tried so hard but to no avail. His admirer was as clever as before, hiding every possible clue about him. Jaehyuk wondered how or when the said person put the rose in his locker but never was he able to find him. He asked to meet him few more times, but the closest he got was a note with a smiling emoji.
Maybe he never wanted to reveal himself? Maybe he was making fun of the excitement he was having? Maybe he’s mocking him along with his friends and on some day, he’d throw the truth at his face? Such awful thoughts occupied his brain one day, when he was walking towards his art class. Needless to say, he was quite frightened, but he shook it away. Someone who could make those pretty roses could never have such a stained soul.
Art class was a dread for Jaehyuk. He loved playing with colours though, he just wasn’t very good at it. When the teacher walked up to him and suppressed his laughter watching his childish work every time, he became more frustrated. Why forcing someone to do what he clearly can not?
That day, however, was different. Right from the beginning, Jaehyuk was having a nice vibe, a gut feeling that something great was about to happen. He didn’t know what, but when the teacher said that the theme of art for that day was ‘flowers', he became extra keen.
Wouldn’t it be possible for his admirer to draw roses of he indeed was from his art class? Now the admirer being of the art class was a random guess, considering how he was so good at painting. It might be untrue, but there’s no harm checking how many of the students actually planned to draw roses.
Jaehyuk did exactly that. When it came to drawing flowers, people usually chose easier ones, daisy, tulip or a sunflower. Most of them hardly chose a rose unless either it bore a nice meaning or that he's really good with the unique shapes and colours of rose petals.
Jaehyuk found two or three of them to go for roses. One was a girl and the other two were guys. He didn’t even know if the person making all those roses were a girl or a guy. He didn’t want to come to a false conclusion. If he could one day catch that person red handed, only then would he take action. Other than that, he'd wait for the admirer to have mercy on him and actually reveal who he had been.
After the art class, Jaehyuk had two more classes till school was over. He felt euphoric once the final bell rang. If not for the paper roses, school would just be hellish for him.
He walked towards the gate and then heard that there wouldn’t be any bus for him in the next two hours due to a sudden road block. It made him so upset, because he wanted nothing more than to go home. Sulking and whining with his friends for a while, he decided to do something fruitful.
He walked towards the school library and took an empty seat at one corner. Releasing a contented sigh, he took off his bag and tore off some pages from his notebook. Then slowly, he recalled the steps to make a paper rose which he already learnt by heart by practising again and again. The first few steps were easy, so he made a decent structure pretty soon. Luckily, he had scissors with him, so he could even shape the petals. But he didn’t have a strong support to hold the petals in place. At home, he could either use a thin wire or wooden sticks, but at school, he couldn’t.
He pouted. He didn’t want to leave the work half done, but he didn’t find any way to actually make a rose that he could say looked pretty nice. Pondering about what to be done next, he decided to just try. He made small, thin yet strong rolls of paper and planned to work with them.
The rose looked a bit fat at that. Instead of a full bloom on a slender stalk, the rose looked like a dull bloom on a thick, straight stick. Even though he failed himself once again, Jaehyuk couldn’t but laugh at his work. I mean, it was quite cute as the petals were in fact nicely placed.
How about leaving it for his admirer?
As soon as he thought that, he packed his bag and took the rose in his hand. He scurried towards his locker. There was still half an hour left for the bus to arrive. So, he was supposed to be in no hurry but yes, the excitement made him run.
When he finished putting the rose in the locker, a very obvious question came in his mind.
‘Morning isn’t the only time a student can do something unnoticed. In fact, waiting for everyone to leave before doing something secretly is in fact, more convenient.'
Jaehyuk wanted to slap himself hard on the face at his stupidity. Why didn’t he think of it before??
Then he thought, there was no other rose in his locker, could it be possible that the admirer would come and put it there anytime soon?
Jaehyuk felt the same rush of adrenaline through him as he quickly hid behind the wall. He had thirty minutes, thirty long minutes to wait and check. He was determined to do it well.
Hardly anyone was to walk to his locker after the school ended. So, it would be plain to see if anyone did try.
And he did see someone. A small foreigner, Japanese to be exact. Ethereal looking with skin colour a porcelain white. He was known as a robot because of the rarity of expression on his face, but to Jaehyuk he was a mystery.
The small boy with caramel eyes looked here and there, standing in front of the locker, then swiftly took out a handcrafted rose from his bag. Oh the beautiful rose! It suited those white hands a lot!
Jaehyuk walked out of his hideout. To get the attention of the admirer, he coughed. The other trembled a bit and snapped his head to look at the source of the sound. Who said he was not expressive? The moment Jaehyuk locked eyes with him, he could see an ocean dancing on those nervous eyes.
“I found you!” Jaehyuk said with a happy tone.
But words got stuck in the other one’s throat. The lone rose on the Japanese boy’s hand had its stalk crumpled, as the boy squeezed on it from nervousness. His lips curved downwards, as if he would cry anytime soon.
Jaehyuk quickly walked towards him. “Hey! Don’t be upset!”
But the boy, instead of relaxing, looked down.
“I'm sorry it had to be me.” He slowly spoke.
“No why!” Jaehyuk tried to console him, “I'm lucky that it’s you! I always wanted to know you, and now that I know you already have an interest in me-"
“You don’t have to like me back; it was supposed to be just me.” The shorter one blurted out. Jaehyuk stopped in utter confusion and blinked. Just how inferior was the boy feeling?
“Hold on! Why are you saying this?” he asked.
“I'm a guy.” The other one replied.
“So?” Jaehyuk asked again, “You being a guy doesn’t make any difference.”
“How?” The smaller one sounded desperate.
“Because I'm okay with guys. I didn’t care about your gender even for once!”
The shorter one’s ethereal eyes seemed to get back the life in it. “You mean it?”
Jaehyuk never had a wider smile on his face, “Obviously! Do you know, even without knowing you or seeing you, how much I already like you?”
The other one chuckled shyly. If luck was money, Jaehyuk was a billionaire by then, because in no way did he expect the rose creator to have a smile that pretty!
“You have a pretty smile, just like the roses you make.”
The other one became even more shy, his ears turned into a crimson shade and so did his cheeks. But what surprised Jaehyuk was the light slap on his arm. Honestly, it was too cute for him to take.
“Aren’t you gonna introduce yourself to me?” He asked, standing closer to the shorter guy.
“I'm Hamada Asahi. Maybe you already know this, I'm in the same class as you.” The one said, “Um... I have been crushing on you for a while, but couldn’t find the courage to say it to you... that’s why...”
Jaehyuk side hugged Asahi, “First of all, your name's just as pretty as your eyes, second, I am really really grateful that you took an interest in someone like me.”
Asahi didn’t respond. Jaehyuk’s Body heat made him silent with its warmth.
“So, aren’t you gonna give that to me?” Jaehyuk asked, pointing at the rose in Asahi’s hand. Asahi looked at it for once.
“Here, it was supposed to be yours anyway!”
Jaehyuk took it, smelt the papery smell and stared at it with smiley eyes.
“Why did you start giving me paper roses?” Jaehyuk asked, unintentionally holding Asahi’s hand.
“It matched you. Both the beauty and the meaning.”
“You mean love?” Jaehyuk asked again. All through his life he knew roses meant love.
“Mostly, yes. But that’s what only red roses mean. Other roses have other meanings and I kind of find everything in you.” Asahi replied.
“Oh. That’s why you stuck to paper roses...” Jaehyuk observed the flower again, “You really do have a very skilled hand! I wasn’t even close to make one as nicely as you!”
Asahi raised a brow, “You actually tried?”
Jaehyuk happily nodded and opened up his locker, “Here, I made one today too! And you know, I didn’t even take help from your note."
Asahi watched with amusement as Jaehyuk brought out a decently shaped rose, the stalk a bit thicker than usual, but that’s okay. It was the effort and obviously the petals were really nicely done.
“Give it to me.” He spoke. Jaehyuk looked a bit embarrassed and refused to comply.
“It’s not even nice. I'll make you another one later.”
“You left it in your locker so that I can have it, right? So, give it to me.”
“But it’s ugly.”
“Just do as I say.” Asahi’s voice sounded commanding and for a moment Jaehyuk had his heartbeat quickened. The sudden dominance in Asahi’s tone made him excited.
“Alright.” He said and handed the rose over to Asahi. The shorter put it in his hair.
“How does it look?”
Jaehyuk chuckled, “Pretty. Just like you.”
Asahi shyly smiled and playfully hit Jaehyuk again. They already had their hands intertwined, so Asahi just gave them a pull.
“Let’s go. You’ll miss the bus.”
“You do care about me, don’t you?” Jaehyuk teased. Asahi deliberately ignored that and dragged Jaehyuk with a huge smile on his face.
They had to wait a bit in the stop and in the meantime they talked. Jaehyuk asked most of the questions because Asahi already knew quite a lot about the taller one. It felt like they were meant to talk just like that. Nothing felt quite as right as them talking to each other, one with a rose in hand, one with a rose on his ear, both lifeless, both made of paper, yet both bearing so much love!
And the love had its outburst when the bus arrived and Jaehyuk had to step on it. He waved bye to Asahi, who, in a split second, placed a small kiss in between the taller one’s jaw and cheeks, a bit near his ears. He glanced downwards with rosy cheeks soon after. Jaehyuk had to stand on the bus door, petrified when the bus started.
Leaving Asahi with a paper rose stuck on his ear in the bus stop, blushing and waving back to the stunned Jaehyuk.
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Hi lovelyjaehyuk here you go💞
I did change some things, some deatils and sadly failed to bring comedy as you wanted; I'm not a fan of comedy :(((
But it came out pretty well and I like the language of this story ♡ (must be my upcoming English exam effect :P)
Stay fine everyone! Try to maintain good health too! 💞💞 Love u💎