The sky was gray, the buildings were dull, and he was fairly confident he had put on way too many layers for -3 because the heater was blasting on the bus. Or was it because he was sitting next to Jaebum, thighs touching? He also could’ve sworn Jaebum had intentionally leaned into him as the vehicle took way too sharp of a turn, and had to hide his ever growing red face. 

Today was already too much, much like last evening, even though it was only 2pm.

Youngjae, upon hearing that, realized he had 4 options:
1) Play it off cool and snort in response, as if finding the word date hilarious
2) Fall on the floor and cease to function
3) Check his phone and use it as shield so he could have more time to think of a response
4) Combine 1 and 3

Youngjae picked option 4, half reading the Kakao message he had received from a school friend and snorted in amusement before his thoughts began. Was Jaebum messing with him, or did he intentionally say it like that? What if Jaebum really was gay, had sensed something about Youngjae and decided that the Choi seemed like an okay kind of kid to date? 

Unfortunately, fear kept him back from outright asking, so he just scrolled up and down the message screen, making it look like he was checking something important. “Sure.” He eventually answered in a completely and utterly casual way, looking back up at Jaebum who in that time had decided to down the entire ‘alright’ tasting americano. 

Jaebum straightened in his chair, seemingly brightening up. “Great! Where do you want to meet?”

“Uh...” Yeah, he didn’t have a clue. It seemed like his taste in coffee was completely different from Jaebum’s, so he wasn’t about to suggest another place. “How about we meet at the bus station that’s close by? The one saying 13?” That wasn’t exactly true, it wasn’t too close to where they were, but Jaebum probably didn’t know better. “Wait, where are you staying?”

Jaebum blinked, and looked up as if that was going to help the name of the hotel he was staying at dawn on him, “I think Jinyoung-” Who? “-said it was the W Motel. It was about a 20 minute walk from there to here.” 

Youngjae was so focused on the name Jaebum had said that he had hardly heard what Jaebum was saying. Jinyoung? Who was that and why was he jealous for absolutely no reason? 

“Youngjae?”

Youngjae shooed his thoughts away before nodding, “Sorry, I was thinking where that was. That sounds good though.” 

“Is 1pm okay?” 

He swallowed, the feeling of throwing up butterflies, flowers, all things colourful coming back. “Yeah.” Choi Youngjae had a (non) official date with Im Jaebum.

“Hey...” Jaebum brought Youngjae back from his memories, and Youngjae looked over, hoping his face had returned to its normal shade. Jaebum wasn’t even looking at him though, instead he was staring ahead, hands on the seat in front of him just in case the driver decided to do another sharp corner, “Do you fight, by any chance?”

Well, that question came out of left field, and Youngjae blinked in confusion. What kind of question was that? It certainly wasn’t one he was ever expecting, “Unless you count that one time I tried helping beat up a kid at school, then no.” 

Jaebum shifted his gaze from the front of the bus to Youngjae, “You tried beating up someone?”

Thinking back to all those years (it was more like 3,) he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying his hardest not to make any part of his body brush against the other. “It was more like there was a group that I was apart of, and when I went to kick the guy, I got shoved away by one of my...” He hesitated, really wishing he hadn’t brought up that incident. It probably didn’t seem like much to some, but it made him feel guilty and gross, “...friends. He laughed, saying I was too much of a weakling to actually do damage.” 

“Oh.” Was the response, and Jaebum returned to looking at the front of the bus, tilting his head to the right a bit. 

Youngjae wasn’t too bothered by the response, he expected as much after admitting that. Instead, he was curious as to why Jaebum had asked such a question. It was a strange one. “Why do you ask?”

The response came way too quickly, “Just wondering.”

Youngjae fell back into silence, not wanting to pry further so he resumed to stare out the window, hoping is their destination would come sooner. Jaebum had apparently found a place online, one on the other side of the river, and had insisted going there. Quietly, Youngjae had reminded him not to trust the internet because last time he did, he ended up at an okay coffee place with a stranger. The other laughed, throwing his arm at, cross Youngjae’s shoulders and brushed what he said off. “If it , we’ll just have to keep hunting for the perfect americano.” 

Youngjae could’ve sworn he was going to become one with the sidewalk at the sudden contact. 

So when the bus came, and Jaebum let go of him, Youngjae could only feel disappointed as they boarded.

“We’re getting close, right?” Jaebum began to tap the seat in front of him in rythm to a song Youngjae could’ve sworn he heard play on the radio. Lowering his head to get a better view of the upcoming street, he nodded when seeing the bus stop, mumbling a, “yeah.” and hitting the Stop button.

As they got off after a rather rough stop, Youngjae’s eyes fluttered downwards so he was not so subtly looking at Jaebum’s . It was so close, within his grasp, and just as he reached out to brush it Jaebum let out an annoyed hiss. Youngjae’s hand recoiled almost immideatly, his head shot up and he stared at Jaebum’s backside quizically. What was that noise about? 

“Did it drop 10 degrees!?” Jaebum's voice was full of irritation, folding his arms across his chest in an attempt to keep his body heat in. 

‘So that...was because he was cold?’ Youngjae couldn’t hide the silly grin on his face as he observed Jaebum pacing around, rubbing himself to get warm. That response to the cold was utterly adorable, “You got used to the heater, I guess.”

“We’re getting back on that bus, it’s too cold out.” Jaebum grumbled, despite the fact the vehicle had already left them in the dust. 

“Here,” Youngjae unraveled his admittingly massive scarf, handing it to Jaebum, “This might help.”

Taking it, Jaebum examined it with an eyebrow raised, “You could wrap a whole family in this thing.” Wrapping it around his neck, Youngjae tried so hard not to scream because good lord, did Jaebum make scarves work. Especially oversized ones, “Smells pretty good.” Youngjae had to strain himself to hear the comment, it was that quiet, but when he heard it he quickly his heels and covered his face. 

Youngjae couldn’t keep his composure anymore.

That was way too much for him to handle. 

“Are you okay?” 

‘No, I am not. Holy , you look unbelievably hot and you just said my scarf smells good which by default means you like how I smell.’ “I am, I just saw a little boy showing off to his friend fall. I’m just being embarrassed for him.” It was partially the truth, Youngjae had (barely) noticed a little boy off in the distance slip while his friend laughed. 

Jaebum seemed to buy it, “Alright.” He was beside Youngjae who was still hunched over, and threw his arm once more across Youngjae’s shoulder. “Let’s go, then. It’s this way, and I still owe you from yesterday.” 

Nodding, he walked forward with Jaebum still holding onto him, face still buried into his hands that were going to burn off at this rate.

He was not ready for this, or the coming days.