A/N: Charles was mentioned twice in the chapter before, so if you want to get a vague idea, please read the previous chapter again to understand. Enjoy!

Jongdae furrows his eyebrows. “Charles as in Charles Tsai? Emotionally constipated Charles?”

Cho chuckles at the insultingly honest description. “You know, for someone who didn’t keep in touch with anyone after high school, you have a pretty good memory of the people in our graduating class.”

Jongdae holds up his hands in surrender. “You can’t blame me. He left quite the impression on everyone before graduating.”

“That is true,” Cho nostalgically smiles and Jongdae lets his hands fall back to his side. But then her lips fall at the corners when she recalls how this conversation even started. “Why I have his shirt is a long story, I suppose. You should wash up.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

Cho turns and gazes at him for a bit. There’s genuine concern in his eyes and expression, emotions she hasn’t seen in anyone in forever except from Alysa, Arianna, and Mimi. It boggles her that Jongdae even cares this much about her since they haven’t talked in a long time, but she’s content with the new complacent addition in her life.

“Maybe another time, Jonggie.”

The nickname slips off her tongue before she can bring it back and flushes heavily whenever Jongdae closes in on her figure and playfully flicks her temple before tapping the bottom of her chin twice. Instinctively directing her attention to him instead of the floor, Jongdae gives a secretive grin. “Don’t let the past eat you up, okay?” He advises softly before heading to the bathroom to shower.

And for the first time in five years, Cho’s heart pounds and beats as quick as a drumline. She doubles over and gasps for breath as if she’s run for too long with some leftover adrenaline still running through her veins. It’s too early for this, she thinks, and coughs before getting up to set Jongdae’s spare clothes in front of the bathroom door. The water is already running as Cho can hear the droplets heavily pound the surface of the bathtub. Knowing that he probably wouldn’t be able to hear her knock over the noise, she scribbles on a notepad and rips the top piece off before sliding it under the door.

-

Jongdae comes out of the bathroom drying his hair messily, distracting Cho from her reading and causing her to chuckle when she directs her attention to him. She nimbly slides off the bed and takes the towel from his slack grip on the slightly damp cotton, only to gently dry his hair. Cho can feel his gaze, though as per usual, it’s not uncomfortable. The pleasant silence settles around them until she deems his hair dry enough, fingers swiping at certain parts in an attempt to restyle it.

She steps back with the towel in her hands behind her back and beams at Jongdae, to which he smiles in gratitude.  Cho skips away with the towel in her hands, hanging it on a hook on the back of the bathroom door for it to dry overnight. When she returns to the air mattress set up in her living room, Jongdae is already arranging the blankets as he pleases. “I’ll leave you to it then,” Cho speaks up, slightly startling the boy. “No nausea or sudden dizziness or anything?” She checks again just to make sure.

“Not at all, but knock on wood,” Jongdae laughs as he raps his fist against the coffee table three times in a quick succession. “Just shout if something happens then. I’m a bit of a light sleeper,” Cho says.

“That’s really funny coming from someone who took a couple of minutes of shoving and poking from other people to wake her up in class,” Jongdae smirks and chuckles at Cho’s embarrassed face. “Shove it,” she grumbles, though her eyes are clearly twinkling at the memory.

The laughter dies down as the familiar silence falls over them. Both faces are slightly flushed from laughing at high school memories, hearts beating fast but gradually falling to a normal pace. “Good night, Jongdae,” Cho softly speaks, soft smile crossing her complexion.

“Good night, Cho,” Jongdae returns with the same warm mirth.

-

It’s about 6AM when Cho snaps her eyes open and glances at the time on her phone. Unnaturally earlier than usual and a little too early for work, Cho languidly stretches underneath her comforter before falling limp with a serious case of bedhead. But then she sits up quickly and quietly kicks off her covers. She cracks the door open before it starts creaking and sidles through the crack given to check up on Jongdae.

When she sees his figure, she can’t deduce whether it’s because of the familiarity of him in general or her newfound feelings just from last night, that she finds him soothing right here on her air mattress in the living room of her apartment.

Jongdae is positioned on his side facing the window, inside hand touching the pillow next to his ear and the outside hand lightly resting on the crook of the elbow of his other arm. His lips are slightly parted with the blanket shoved down to the top of his waist, his skin exposed because of the t-shirt she had given him the night before. To Cho, he looks completely at peace, nothing to hide from, nothing to worry about except for whatever might happen in his dreams.

She bites her bottom lip before snapping a quick picture of him, feeling like a fifteen year old with an obvious and uncontrollable crush on one of the most perfect people on the planet. It’d be her little secret for a while now as long as no one goes through her photos on her phone. Her thumb is quick as she sets it up as his caller ID photo and tentatively crouches in front his sleeping face at a comfortable distance.

Not surprisingly, a few bangs have fallen in front of his face and Cho softly tucks them behind other strands that haven’t been displaced by sleep. At this moment, the sky starts to glow a mild orange-red, as can be seen on the wall opposite the window. Sunlight then starts to peek through the blinds and Cho takes this as her cue to whip up some breakfast for the both of them. As she lightly steps towards the kitchen, she casts one more glance over her shoulder at his dormant figure, understanding that she will probably never be able to seem him like this again. Her eyes soak in the moment, along with her body, and she turns back to continue her soundless trek to the stove.

-

Senior year, 2009

“Hey, have you done the problem she assigned us?” Cho’s seatmate asks and Cho shakes her head. “I at focusing whenever doing statistics problems at school, for whatever reason,” she sighs and her seatmate nods in understanding before turning back to her book.

For the third straight week in school, her AP Statistics teacher is on sick leave. In Cho’s opinion, she’s been here for too long and, though not in a negative way, should retire after this year. It’s about time.

People have taken the chance to get on their phones or sleep, even though it’s the middle of the day. But school doesn’t know time when it comes to quick naps in class, ironically blissful inside the lead box of a prison.

“--basically the two most perfect boys in our graduating class is Jongdae Kim and Joshua Worthings.”

Cho’s ears subconsciously perk up, eyes stuck repeating a single line in the book she’s reading.

“They’re both really smart and nice and also really cute and just they’re the complete full package freakin’ UGH they’re completely out of my league,” one girl whines slightly and Cho chuckles mentally before casting a glance to her left.

Four or five chairs down is Jongdae sleeping with his face in her direction, left arm stretched out across the desk with the other bent at a bit of an awkward angle. His Apple earbuds stay firmly in his ears, iPhone lying face down on the desk. Evidently, he’s quite oblivious to the conversation behind him, probably not even hearing it over whatever music he might be playing.

“So at peace,” Cho thinks to herself, smiling slightly before turning back towards her book.

Ten minutes later, the bell rings and everybody scrambles to get their stuff together. Evidently, the music was loud enough to muffle the sound of the bell and louder-than-indoor-voice chatting. She shrugs and gathers her stuff unhurriedly before turning to see that the rest of the students have left and it’s just her, Jongdae, and the sub. The substitute teacher gestures towards her and Jongdae and she waves it off to say she can wake him up.

A couple of steps later, she’s next to Jongdae who is truly knocked out at this point. With a tentative poke, there’s no reaction. Cho shoves his arm a little, yet still has no reaction. She sighs and shoulders her purse before leaning over and plucking the earbud out of his right ear, whispering, “Yah, Jongdae, wake up. You’re late for class.”

He groans and Cho leaves the earbud on the desk while watching him in amusement. Jongdae sits up, leans back in his chair, and rubs his fists into his eyes for a good ten seconds before blinking around lazily and finally landing on her figure. “Did the bell already ring?” He mutters and lackadaisically grabs his things.

“Obviously so, Jongdae. You were out,” Cho chuckles. “I’m assuming you had a bit of a hangover this morning?”

He snaps his head towards her in shock. “H-how did you know?”

“Please,” Cho scoffs and rolls her eyes. “People will always get rumors of the parties the next day, even wallflowers like me. Take some Aleve,” she advises, taking his hand and putting a small bottle of the blue pills in his palm. “And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Bryce’s one too many times on Twitter by now. I’ll see you in sixth period.”

She passes him and before she’s out the door, her name is called. Naturally, her body spins around halfway to see Jongdae pocketing the bottle of pills with a small smile of gratitude on his face. “Thanks, Cho.”

Cho returns it with one of her own secretive grins and her head to the side. “What are neighbors for?”

Jongdae watches her smoothly step out from the door and into the halls filled with students bustling to get to their next class.

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