Haerin settled for a denim blouse and a white crop sweater over black leggings and casual boots before she walks out into the cold air of the nearing winter.  She has half an hour to get to the amusement park and find Kai, and then find out about what happened last night.  She wasn’t only looking for that, though.  She was looking for things that would keep her mind off of what had happened with Kyungsoo, because it seems to strike her every single second of the day.

“Hey, Kim Jongin,” She says when he picks up his phone.  “Where are you?”

He chuckles through the phone.  ‘The question is, where are you?’

Haerin feels a creeping sense of deja vu.  “I’m making my way towards the amusement park,”

‘No, you’re supposed to snap at me for being such a bad friend,’ He corrects.

“What?”

‘Oh, nothing,’ He singsongs.  ‘I’m waiting, noona,’

With that, Kai hangs up.

Haerin groans in frustration, begging the bus to go faster in her head.  What had she said to Kai last night? She could practically imagine him smirking that smug smirk of his in her head, laughing at her obliviousness.  

She pretty much flew out of the bus when it finally stopped in front of the amusement park, and she was up to dialling Kai again.  “Pick up the phone!” She clenches her hands into fists as she shivered in the cold wind.  

“That’s exactly what happened last night,” A voice said behind her and she feels warmth wrap around her neck, along with a red scarf that smelled of Kai.  Whoa, how did she know how Kai smelled?

“Jongin!” She turns at her heels and tucks her phone in her bag.  He looks down at her with a wide grin on his face.  She couldn’t help but smile back at the sincerity he’s showing.  He was genuinely happy to see her.  “Hi,” She breathes out.

“Hi, how are you feeling?” He gestures for her to walk by his side as they enter the amusement park together.  He hands the counter lady two tickets and Haerin eyes him suspiciously.

“Fine, but that’s not gonna make you let me pay for those tickets, right?”

Kai’s eyes go to the ticket stubs in his hand and his laughter tinkles in the air.  “No, I’m going to cheer you up, today, so let me do all the paying,”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” Haerin wiggles her eyebrows playfully.  “I’m going to let you pay, but first; tell me what happened last night, because apparently, I had been too drunk to remember,”

Kai raises his eyebrows suggestively at her sentence.  “That wasn’t a ual innuendo, wasn’t it? ‘What happened last night’?”

Haerin slaps his arm, colouring at his joke, although she couldn’t help laughing.  “Kim Jongin!”

He chuckles and tucks his hands into his pockets.  “Let’s go on rides first, and then I’ll tell you,”

Kai was doing an excellent job of cheering her up.  Haerin finds all her troubles disappearing one by one with every ride she took with Kai.  For once, it felt like he was the same age as she was.  They weren’t noona and dongsaeng; they were Haerin and Jongin.  Somewhere along the way, she told him to call her by name.  Kai was more than happy to do so.  They shared ice cream and cotton candies, even took pictures in the photo booth.

“Look at your face,” Kai doubles over in laughter as the pictures are printed out.

“Why do you have to be such an attractive bunch of boys,” Haerin grumbles, snatching the picture away from him.  “Your ugliest picture still looks so good,” She whines.

“Where, where, let me see,” He leans over to take a look and shrugs one shoulder shamelessly.  “Can’t deny it,” Quickly, he takes the picture of the weird Haerin that she had snatched away from him and stuffs it into his wallet.  “I’m keeping this, so I can blackmail you to do what I want you to,”

“To do what, or who, exactly?” Haerin smirks.

“Another ual innuendo,” Kai gasps.  “Seriously, woman, what is wrong with you?”

The two bursts out laughing as Haerin wonders what has gotten into her.  “You started it!”

They both settle for the ferris wheel as their last ride and as it ascends slowly into the sky, their chatter dies down, replaced by serene silence.

“Does it still hurt?” Kai starts.  He decided to bring it up; the breakup.

“Hm?” Haerin turns her head to meet his eyes and falters at the way he looks at her.  “When I’m alone and when I have nothing to do, yeah,” She hugs herself, rubbing her arms.  “Still don’t understand why it was so easy for him to end.  No, actually, I still can’t understand how he thinks that I don’t like him enough,” She chuckles.  “I was that close to loving him and right when I was about to get to that point, that image I carefully built around him crumbles straight down to the ground and showed me his true feelings,”

Kai listened to her silently, placing his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward in attention.

“I know he’s a good person, but I guess even nice people disappoint you sometimes,” Haerin adds so softly, Kai had to take a moment to let her words sink in.

Haerin lifts her head up and sees Kai stretching out an arm towards her.  “Come here,” He says.  She needed all the comfort she can get.  She was so weak, so lost, Kai couldn’t help but to offer her his consolation.

As she stands up, longing for the only warmth she can afford, the carriage of the ferris wheel they were riding suddenly shook, and just as Haerin took Kai’s hand, she stumbles forward, unceremoniously ending up on top of him.  “Oh God!” She pushes herself up awkwardly from his chest.  “Sorry!”

“It’s fine,” He keeps a firm grip on her hand when she pulls away, keeping her in the position she was in.  Smirking, he tilts his chin slightly to look up at her face.  “This is actually what happened last night,” His eyes unconsciously flicker towards her lips.

Haerin looks down at the way she was straddling him and flushes, before looking down at his face in question, despite being embarrassed about their closeness.  “S-seriously?”

“Yeah,” Kai lets out a throaty chuckle.  “You get when you’re drunk.  And it wasn’t even half a bottle; it was a single shot,” Again, the way Haerin’s lips moved as she spoke caught his eye.

“That’s… not good to know,” Haerin frowns when Kai refuses to let her go once more.  “Jong-“

“There’s more,” Without warning, Kai moves in to capture her lips, his kisses hastily escalating from short pecks to lingering smooches before he starts nibbling at Haerin’s lips exactly like the way she did to him, tongue flickering out for the briefest moment when she gasps before he takes a daring leap and starts placing kisses along her jaw.  

“J-Jongin- ah,“ Haerin lets out the quiet moan she tried to hold back and in surprise, Kai’s eyes snap open and he pulls away abruptly.  He was apologetic, but it was evident that he was struck by an excitement he himself didn’t expect.  Gritting his teeth, he mutters a string of curse words and apologies before looking up into her eyes, naturally tucking a lock of hair behind her ear when he finds her looking back at him, dazed and confused.  God, he has to get a hold of himself.  He should stop losing control when he's with her.

“Along with having to carry a sleeping you back to your place, that’s pretty much all that happened last night,” Kai regains his composure, smirking lightly to cut off the strange atmosphere that had settled in between them.

Haerin, too, raises her eyebrows in surprise as the mood shifted and pulls her leg over his, quickly sitting with her legs tightly closed.  “I-I was the one doing those things to you, w-wasn’t I?” She clears at the way her voice cracked nervously.  She reflexively swallows as she pushes away the memory of the affectionate exchange she had with Kai not 10 seconds ago.

“You tried to my shirt, too,” He chuckles.

Haerin looks up in disbelief and lets out an ugly sob.  “Open the door, Jongin, let me jump to my death,” She strides towards the carriage’s door and as she stumbles again, a chuckling Kai stands up with her, holding on to her waist with one hand while his other steadies them by grabbing the overhead railing.  

Haerin wonders if there were more to his kisses than a simple reenactment of what had happened last night.  He could have just told her, but he showed her instead.  Does that mean anything? And the way he was holding her right now; they were so close and he was hugging her so tightly.  She didn’t even know why she was giving in so easily; letting him inside her personal space.

“You asked me if that was what you should have done,” He softly breaks the silence.  “Use your body to keep hyung by your side,”

With that said, Haerin finally remembers what had happened and all the things she had said to Kai back in the karaoke room.  Why she did that to Kai, why she had said those words.  She even remembers what she had been singing when he came in.  “Kyungsoo, h-he was kissing me like that, that very night, right before Nara showed up, because he was jealous of me talking to Doojoon-oppa,” She laughs morosely as she explains.  “And then he saw Nara outside and s-she was doing all those things to that man and he was watching so closely and the next day; Kyungsoo and I broke up.  I must have acted based on that memory.  I’m so, very sorry, Jongin,”

Kai shakes his head.  “It’s okay,” He couldn’t make the sense out of how even the slightest of a suggestive kiss could affect her like that and how she could possibly come to relate things that way.  He most certainly can’t believe Kyungsoo had kissed her that way that night and broke up with her in the next, knowing how gullible Haerin is.  “And then you said that hyung couldn’t keep his eyes off of Nara’s body, and told me you couldn’t understand anything,” He softly states further.

Haerin sinks deeper into his warmth after he speaks, basking in the way he was cradling her like she was made of glass.  He was holding her so tightly but at the same time so carefully, and it was gratifying for her.  Kai was reciting their conversation again and she buries her face into his chest as she continues for him.  “You told me I don’t have to-“

“-try to understand everything,” He joins in what she has to say and it was as if she shattered; her jaw unclenches and she lets out a sob.  Her arms reach out to hug Kai back and she grips at his shirt, crying, letting loose.  How could Kai say that when they haven’t even talked that much? How could he possibly understand her so well? How could he hit the jackpot with just a few words? She really hadn’t realised that she had always been looking for someone who would just say those very words to her.  She sobs and sobs, as reality starts dawning on her; she was losing her first love.  And she knew Kyungsoo well enough to know that even if she did fight for him, he would still cling on to Nara.  He had that look in his eyes that mirrored Haerin’s feelings for him when he talked about Nara.  That's why she didn't even bother.

“Ssh, hey, it’s okay, Haerin-ah, it’s going to be alright,” Kai coos, tightening his arms around her, grimacing, as if every sob she let out pained him.  “You're going to be okay,”

Kai looks at how the frail, delicate girl who had always put up a strong demeanour in front of everybody break into pieces before him, in his arms.  It sure is painful to feel that you’ve found what you had been looking for after a long time only to see that you were looking for the wrong thing all along, after all the sweat, tears, and blood you used up.

As the carriage doors open, he takes her hand and guides her out carefully before bending down to look straight into her eyes.

“You don’t have to hurt anymore, Haerin,” He cups her face.  “I’m here, for you,”

MY HAERIN X JONGIN SHIPPERS MAKE SOME NOOOOOOOOOIIISEEEEEEEE

lawl guys i mean

WHOOP u guys give hands down the best comments

I KEEP SMILING BCS OF ALL OF U MWAH

anyways

you might suspect this and that to happen

but it might and might NOT

so

stay with me no matter what k?

<3