Third Person POV…

Sohee gripped onto the shopping bags, toddling to and fro as she moved her weight from one foot to the other. Jongup had given her the lightest four bags and carried all the rest. He walked easily; a pair of bags over one shoulder, tapping his back with every step he took; and the remaining three bags by his side, scrapping away on his outer thigh as it swung. He glanced at Sohee who was grimacing at the ground, changing the way she held her bags ever so often. Jongup sighed a chuckle—it was difficult to tell if it was one or the other. He swapped around the bags so that there were two in the hand between him and Sohee, he held the hand out.

“Sohee,” he called softly, “I can carry another.”

Sohee lifted her eyes to look at Jongup, doubt written in her face as she noticed the tensing of muscles around his neck. She glanced at his hands, the inner knuckles were covered in calluses and bruises from all the breakdancing making it difficult to notice the swelling, but his fingertips were turning a tint purple from the weight of the bags. Sohee shook her head, declining the offer.

Jongup frowned, feeling his pride slightly on the line as he reached out to steal one of Sohee’s bags. He stopped as soon as his fingertips glided across hers. Sohee turned her head but didn’t move her hand or the change the pace they walked, as if nothing was happening. Likewise Jongup tucked his eyes into the traffic beside him, their fingers beginning to find one another. They turned a corner, slightly stumbling into each other in fluster before regaining their posture. In the chaos Jongup’s thumb, index finger and middle finger had gently encased Sohee’s hand, saving the other two of his fingers for carrying the bags.

Sohee pursed her lips. He had big hands. Big, callused hands with thick long fingers extending from them, and yet they held onto hers so tenderly. Sohee bit her bottom lip and slowly swivelled her head around. Jongup’s ear was turning red as he continued to look out at the road with a serious yet slightly embarrassed face. Suddenly Sohee noticed a car, chugging along, coughing out smoke from the rear every now and then. She quickly slipped her hand out of Jongup’s. The excitement and nervousness suddenly left Jongup’s body, he glanced at Sohee. Her eyes were wide from either fright or shock, or maybe both. He turned his head to face the direction she was looking.

A car swivelled off the road and began moving next to them at a walking pace. The front seat passenger poked his head out of the window. Jongup gave a suspicious look at the two university-aged men in the car and began edging away from the road.

“SOHEE!” one of the guys called out.

Sohee smiled awkwardly, uncertain of what to do. Jongup turned to her, “Do you know them?”

“Uh—”

“Is that your boyfriend??” the guy in the car interrupted loudly. The car came to a sudden halt.

Jongup and Sohee stopped accordingly as if they were leashed to the vehicle.

“BOYFRIEND?!” The driver swung his head around. He peered through the window, squinting as he attempted to get a look at the ‘boyfriend.’

“That’s my brother and his friend who lives with us…” Sohee explained with an embarrassed face as they watched the commotion in the car.

Suho had tucked his head back into the vehicle and was conversing with her brother, Minhyuk. He popped his head back out, “C’mon! Put the groceries in the back and we’ll give you a lift!” Suho grinned. Minhyuk frowned in the driver’s seat, as if a rival was about to enter his vehicle.

Suho shuffled around in the front seat to get a better look at Jongup and Sohee. And every now and again Minhyuk stole glances through the back view mirror.

“Sohee-ah! Why didn’t you tell your oppas you had a boyfriend!” Suho whinged.

Sohee waved her hand, “N-no, he’s just a friend!” she insisted. It was a cramped old car so even though the seat between her and Jongup was empty their shoulders could almost touch.

Jongup looked uneasy but still managed to put on a genuine-looking smile. “I’m Moon Jongup,” he introduced himself, “I’m a year above Sohee.”

Suho lifted his brow and shifted in his seat. “A second year? How did you two love birds get to know each other?” A sly smile began to crawl up his face and glimpses of Minhyuk’s twitching could be seen from the rear view mirror.

“Oppaaaa!!” Sohee whined. “We’re just friends!”

Jongup winced slightly and began to massage the ends of his fingers, letting the blood circulate again.

Minhyuk’s eyes flickered to Jongup. “You two weren’t holding hands before we came right?” He scorned in the driver’s seat as he noticed Jongup fidgeting with his fingers. “You were walking pretty close to my sister… I thought I saw you two holding hands,” he persisted.

“You must’ve been mistaken,” Jongup denied smoothly, the hesitation in his voice coming off unnoticed.

Sohee pursed her lips and looked outside her window.

Jongup suddenly came to realisation as he peeked out his own window. “Um where are we going?” Unfamiliar houses and trees ruggedly passed behind the vehicles smoke.

“Are we going home already?” Sohee asked as she became aware of the route.

Suho’s lopsided grin could be spotted in the side mirror. “Already inviting him home, our Sohee is so sly,” he chuckled and began his teasing again, pretending not to have heard Jongup’s question. “You can invite him for dinner, Sohee. Jongup-ah, what do you say?”

Jongup furrowed his brows. “I really should be getting home.” He laughed uneasily.

Suho frowned, “it’s been awhile since we’ve had company though…”

Minhyuk turned a corner and was already parking by their apartment. “We’re here.” He chirped as he unbuckled his seatbelt and clambered out of the car.

Jongup’s eyes widened in panic as the others began to get off the vehicle.

Suho smiled. “We’re already here so you might as well join us, Jongup-ah. You’re a highschool boy so your parents shouldn’t mind,” he paused then added, “or you could txt them just in case.” He hopped out of the car and opened the younger boy’s door. After a moment Suho popped his head down and gave Sohee a forceful look.

Sohee pouted and pushed open her car door. She quickly turned to Jongup. “Sorry… do you want to join us for dinner?” she finally asked, conceding knowing very well that Suho would have found out a way to drag him inside.

Jisu’s cell phone beeped, she picked it up from the floor and stared at it for some time.

“Who is it?” Zelo asked perking up. For some reason he hadn’t bothered to leave yet.

“None of your business,” she said scrolling through her messages. “Actually—” Jisu paused, smirked and turned the screen to face Zelo.

To: Jisu

Subject: eat dinner without me

Jisu, I somehow got forced into staying over at Sohee’s for dinner. Sorry. I don’t know what time I’ll be back—Jongup

The whites of Zelo’s eyes grew, his mouth unlatched and hung open for a minute; disbelief written all over his paling face. ‘Forced into having dinner??’ Zelo thought and then said out loud with some kind of strained relief, “Suho-hyung must’ve forced him…” he assured himself out of experience.

Jisu lifted a brow. “Really?” she couldn’t help but grin. “Maybe Sohee wanted him to stay over?” she teased. She snickered at Zelo’s expression. “Maybe she’ll ask him to stay the night…”

Zelo winced and furrowed his brows, sneering slightly just at the possibility.

“You better get your act together if you don’t want someone else to steal her away,” Jisu said in a more serious tone. “But seriously? My brother??” She cringed and pretended to put two fingers down and gag “She really has horrible taste.”

The kitchen sizzled with noise and running feet. Suho and Minhyuk were in the kitchen, cooking up a storm that would have to be brutally forced down one’s throat in a few hours. All the dishes would probably just barely make it into the ‘edible’ category—that is if you’re generous or enjoy the taste of char and mismatched flavours. Even so the two guys were busying themselves, rushing here and there with poorly cut meat and barely washed vegetables.

Jongup sat on the couch, uncomfortably sitting on the edge of the seat and shifting his eyes every few seconds. Sohee poked her head out from the corner—she had gotten dressed into a loose pale blue shirt and a pair of shorts and her hair was twisted into some sort of bun on the top of her head. She smiled sweetly at Jongup that at some point became a look of concern just as she took a seat on the other end of the couch.

“Sorry, this must be awkward.” Sohee laughed, picking up a cushion that had fallen on the ground and placing it on her lap. She put her elbow on the cushion and tipped her head into her palm. “Sorry,” she echoed.

Jongup smiled and lightly shook his head. “No, it’s fine.”

Sohee rocked herself to and fro, glimpsing at the kitchen. “I wonder what’s for dinner… Is there anything you want to eat in particular?”

Jongup looked up, shook his head then immediately dropped his eyes. Though not completely, he seemed dazed, thinking about something beyond what was happening in the kitchen. His eyes fluttered pass Sohee’s face. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her in the eye for some reason without his chest drumming.

Sohee pursed her lips, “Are you okay?” she asked, “You’ve been blanking out recently.”

Jongup’s mind instantly jumped back to earlier in the day—

‘Would you tell her if you had a crush on her friend?’ the question rung in his head. He winced as his reply echoed after it.

‘If I had a crush on you…?’

‘If I had a crush on you… If I had a crush on you…If I had a crush on you…’ the thought repeated in his mind until he concluded with: ‘I don’t think it would be that bad.’  Then without a second thought, Jongup blurted, “What would you do if I liked you?”

Sohee stared back at him, looking slightly shocked by the sudden question. “Uh—” she started awkwardly.

Jongup snapped back to his usual self, in absolute disbelief that he just blurted out such a question. “I was just thinking about what you had said earlier and—” Jongup hastily explained, feeling slightly out of character. Then he suddenly got up, looked somewhere between the kitchen and Sohee he stammered, “Sorry, I’m going to the bathroom.”

Suho lifted a brow and put down the carrot he was peeling. “Tsk tsk tsk, Sohee,” he snickered to himself. “I wonder why he asked—? What’s our Sohee got herself into…”

Minhyuk frowned, “she’s too thick-headed to know.” He grumbled and dumped a hunk of extremely over-cooked meat into the bin.

“Hm,” Suho hummed as he continued to peel the carrot. “I wonder who she got that from.”

Four people sat around the dinner table that was lavished in all sorts of food, from instant noodles and scrambled eggs to takeaway.

Sohee frowned. “I can’t believe everything got burnt,” she said eyeing at the cuts of meat that had been carved down in order to get rid of the char.

Minhyuk shrugged, “At least we had enough grocery money left to buy takeaway.”

Suho turned to Jongup, “It’s okay, right?” Though he asked with a smile something in his expression urged him to nod.

Sohee frowned. It was awkward. All throughout the meal was small talk.

Straight after dinner Jongup excused himself and thanked them for their hospitality. Minhyuk had offered to drive him and they left without another word once the table was cleared.

Sohee tossed in her bed, her hair becoming looser with every turn. She squeezed her eyes shut and scrambled under her blankets. The lights outside her room seeped beneath the door. After brushing her teeth and washing her face Sohee had escaped into her room, hoping sleep would fall upon her. The night was cool. A cooing of wind would rush past her window every now and then as it weaved itself between trees.

Sohee opened her eyes, a boy’s voice still questioning her in her head. ‘What would you do if I liked you?’ it asked. Sohee groaned in embarrassment as the boy’s face flashed into her mind, uncomfortably excusing himself to the bathroom right after asking her. She sat up in her bed—the blankets still over her head like a white tent made out of heavy cotton. The night light shone dimly around the room, melting through the blankets with its yellow glow. Sohee’s face burned as thoughts whizzed around her mind and memories about someone in particular ran non-stop. She cupped her hands over her ears in attempt to lock out the voices. She gradually sunk back into bed, the covers still over her head.

“What would I do?” she mumbled as she rolled onto her stomach. She pulled herself back out into the world, a cool air greeting her face as she rested her cheek on her forearm. Sohee stopped her tossing and began to seriously think about the question. “I guess it wouldn’t be too bad…” she concluded shyly to herself. Suddenly her mind froze as something interrupted the thoughts in her mind. Sohee sighed and rolled onto her back. The room suddenly became silent as another thought eased itself into her head, sinking deeper in as she stared at the ceiling. “Junhong…” she murmured before drifting to sleep.

Consider this as a late Christmas present... I would've released closer to Christmas but I had a road trip for a few days.. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year !
 

By the way, if I started an action/romance/drama, would you consider reading it ? ;;;; Anyway-- Zelo or Jongup ?

-SK