Part Five
;Insomnia
Part Five:
A week passed before JongHyun finally asked Jessica for her number. He called her that night, as a matter of a fact, and he couldn’t help thinking how cute she was when she shushed him when he was talking about how she enjoys the Twilight Saga. Jessica had shyly told JongHyun that it was embarrassing for her to enjoy such a girly series and that, made JongHyun’s heart flutter a bit as he realized that under her icy and intimidating aura, she was a shy, but adorable girl.
Two weeks passed when JongHyun called Jessica ‘Sica-noona’. He would chirp, ‘Sica-noona, Sica-noona’ at her when she began to doze off as they’d spend insomniac nights on the phone together. They’d exchange countless jokes about something as lame as elephants and when JongHyun would serenade something as simple as “Three Little Bears” to Jessica, her heart would beat a bit faster as she realized how much she enjoyed his company.
One night, JongHyun casually called Jessica after showering like any other night, only to be answered with the answering machine. He knew her phone was off. Shrugging it off casually, assuming she was asleep or busy, JongHyun sat on his sofa and attempted to watch TV. Somehow, time felt like it was ticking slower than usual. He grew impatient, but wasn’t the slightest bit willing to go to bed at such hour.
Normally, JongHyun would’ve forgotten all about the time, but lonely as he was right now, he somehow took notice that it was precisely 2:30. JongHyun remembered how it used to be quite amusing to wait for the loud thumping of the door. He realized he had forgotten about it completely since he had approached her that day.
Ding.
His apartment doorbell rang, which was strange because it was 2:30 in the morning. JongHyun slid on a hoodie over his white tank top and went to answer the door. He unlocked the door to find a thin figure, clad in a pair of pink pajamas pants with small strawberries, a white hoodie and a white tank top which matched his.
“ Let’s watch DVD’s ” Jessica said in an abnormally happy voice as she took off the hood of her white hoodie.
JongHyun, albeit a bit surprised, welcomed her in and got her a cup of tea as they sat down together on his sofa, “ Noona, why are you here at this hour?”
She thought for a moment before answering, “ I have Twilight and New Moon on DVD and I…just want to watch them with you.” She answered happily again, “ Come on, please? ” Jessica pouted.
He stared at her oddly for a second, before complying. JongHyun took the DVD’s from her and went to insert them into the DVD player; he smiled as he was fixing it up, “ You’re so silly sometimes.”
The movie finally began to play after they skipped all the previews and advertisements. The room was dark and the two sat next to each other on the sofa, snuggling each under their own blanket.
Nearly 15 minutes into the movie, Jessica was completely concentrated on the movie and the television screen, but JongHyun was different. With the room dark and Jessica next to himself, somehow, he felt he’d be able to sleep well for once. As the movie continued on, JongHyun was actually getting sleepier; eventually, he slid down from sitting position, asleep on Jessica’s lap. She looked down to find JongHyun sleeping on her lap peacefully; Jessica looked down and smiled a little at his cute sleeping self.
The movie was almost half an hour in when Jessica couldn’t hold it anymore. JongHyun was asleep on her lap and no one was around to see her like the way she was now. She tried; she attempted to watch some movies, try to be happy, and forget about it, but the more she tried to escape it, the more her mind would think about it and before she could avoid it, tears welled up in her eyes. The tears gathered more as Jessica felt more confused.
The tears overflowed her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. JongHyun woke up to a warm sensation on his face; his eyes fluttered a few times before he touched his own face, to find it to be a teardrop. He flew up from Jessica’s lap and looked at his television screen--it wasn’t even a sad part.
He stared at Jessica, who was blankly starring at the movie by now, letting warm tears flow out of her eyes endlessly. He felt his heart ache a bit as he wiped tears away from her face, “ Sica-noona.”
She seemed a bit soulless. She didn’t exactly budge at his calling of her name.
JongHyun’s heart ached more as he easily pulled Jessica close into his arms, trying to stop her tears through his embrace, “ Why are you like this? ……You didn’t even want to watch the movies, right? You weren’t here to watch the movies with me, right? You…were pretending to be happy earlier.”
He hugged her tighter, “ Sica-noona, my heart aches. Do you know that? ” His words were melting into whispers, tickling her ears.
Jessica succumbed to his soft caring words, she broke into sobs, “ JongHyun, I-I…It‘s DongHae…”
“ Your boyfriend? What did he do? ” JongHyun felt a stinge of jealousy and anger
“ We broke up today.” Jessica paused, “ I don’t know why. I-I’m sad that he left me in the end, but…”
“Hm?” JongHyun still didn’t want to let go of her.
“ But even if we continued, we had nothing left.” She bit her lips, “He doesn’t love me anymore…but…I’m not sure if I do anymore either.”
Jessica felt another teardrop escape down her cheek, but this time, onto JongHyun’s shirt, “ I miss what we had…so much. So much…I feel guilty that I don’t love him anymore…and I don’t know…how…when--”
JongHyun finally pulled her away from himself, but only to stare into her eyes. In return, Jessica stared into JongHyun’s eyes as well, as he looked at her with sincerity, “ Noona, the answer’s simple.”
His eyes hasn’t left hers, “ The first time I met you, I ran from the third floor all the way to the first to get there ahead of you.”
JongHyun took her hands and cupped his on top of hers.
“ The second time I approached you was after I read all of the Twilight Saga in two days and one night, with a dictionary opened the entire time because one, I only pretended to know it in front of you, and two, my English .”
JongHyun continued to confess all the dumb things he never thought he’d do.
“ The third time I spent two hours waiting for the loud thumping noise your door made, for you to get home, so I could call you.”
JongHyun paused.
“ I knew that Lee DongHae was your boyfriend…”
Jessica stopped crying. She listened to JongHyun’s words attentively, surprised, with an influx of mixed emotions.
“ …but I continued to love you…”
JongHyun’s hand wandered into Jessica’s face, wiping away tears still damp on her face delicately, “ Jung Jessica, I can’t call you noona anymore…you became an addiction of mine. Jung Jessica, I can’t deny that I love you.”
Jessica was quiet the entire time, but when she opened to talk, no words came out at first, “……Why am I like this though? ” Her raspy voice managed to spill out.
JongHyun smiled, “ The answer’s simple.”
“ My answer? ” Jessica looked at JongHyun.
“ --maybe you love me too.” JongHyun leaned in and pecked her forehead.
Jessica looked a bit surprised; she repeated what she had just heard in her head again, “ maybe…I love JongHyun…” Jessica recalled the way she happily skipped to work that day she got the random white post-it on her mailbox. She remembered their elephant joke. She remembered feeling her heart flutter at his serenade. She remembered how even when she argued with DongHae during the last stage of their relationship, once she was on the phone with JongHyun, she felt happy again.
Jessica questioned herself. She questioned when she had fallen out of love with DongHae while JongHyun took their cups to the kitchen to wash.
Just then, she remembered one thing her mother once told her,
“If you think you love two people at once…you’re in love with the second…
because if you really loved the first, you wouldn’t have fell for the second.”
**I do not own the quote.
Just then, Jessica knew.
At one point of time, there was no hope to her relationship with Donghae anymore, no matter how long they had been together. At that same point, JongHyun entered her life. He was her neighbor on the 7th floor, who happened to enjoy the Twilight Saga as well and whom had a complaint about her loud door…but before her heart realized, Kim JongHyun had grown into someone way more than that.
Jessica threw her blanket onto the sofa and ran into JongHyun’s kitchen, barefooted against the cold kitchen floor and threw her arms around him from behind. She leaned against him, holding JongHyun tightly, “ JongHyun-ah.” Jessica whispered.
JongHyun turned around in her embrace and swung his own arms around her waist as well, “ Hm? ” He answered.
Jessica looked up at JongHyun confidently, “ Don’t call me noona anymore.”
He starred at her face, from her eyes to her nose to her lips, “ why? ”
“ Because I love you too.” Jessica pecked his nose and smiled.
JongHyun was surprised for a split second, “ You…silly…idiotic…loser…” He ran out of words of affection for her and kissed her cheek instead.
Jessica looked at him playfully and kissed his other cheek, “ Is that the game you want to pla--”
He loved everything about her, he loved her voice, but JongHyun didn’t want to hear more from Jessica at this moment. JongHyun smacked his lips onto hers and affectionately kissed her. Jessica hadn’t been happier in months as she returned his kiss.
The two both stood on his cold kitchen floor barefooted enjoying their first kiss. His hand her hair and felt her ears as they kissed and her hands were wrapped around his waist the entire time.
When they had pulled away from each other to breathe, JongHyun curiously asked as well as confessed to Jessica about the door thumping at 2:30 and 4:35 which caused his interest in her in the first place.
She laughed and called him a stalker before answering.
“ That’s classified information.”
“ That’s cool too.” JongHyun looked away, pretending to be angry, “ It’s not like I was seriously curious…”
Jessica looked at him and broke out laughing, “ You loser. Catch me first.” She pinched his nose and ran away.
JongHyun chased Jessica into the living room and around his small coffee table until they both toppled onto the sofa together. The two laid there. She fitted perfectly in his arms, snuggling against him and he loved the scent of her hair, as he held her preciously.
“ You know…when you’re around, even my insomniac self can fall asleep soundly.”
“ That’s because you don’t feel lonely anymore.”
“ Really?”
“ Mm, you won’t be lonely anymore.”
At 2:30 a.m, Jung Jessica used to take walks because she couldn’t fall asleep, because she was always lonely.
Jung Jessica now, at 2:30, would creep into Kim JongHyun’s house because now she figured that only in his embrace, she could sleep soundly and now he realized, only at the scent of Jung Jessica could he sleep soundly too.
So maybe, Jessica shouldn’t change her door afterall.
___
Comments are loved. I know you're out there, JongSica shippahs (;
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