The whoops and hollering died down pretty quickly.

“Holy ..”

“Oop.”

“Well, damn.”

Your eyes went wide as you realized what you were doing. Jae’s eyes were as round as saucers as he gawked at you in complete shock. What the hell do I do?! “Good God Y/N this is a family party!” Michael chastised you as he hobbled over on his knees to lightly push you away from Jae. In your panic you just went with the first plan you could think of and let yourself fall back completely after Michael pushed you. Sprawled on the ground you closed your eyes and grumbled some nonsense hoping they would think you were passed out. Not the best plan but at least I won’t have to deal with this right now… You heard Michael tsk tsk at you in condemnation, “She’s always been a lightweight. I should’ve known she was gonna pull some if we let her drink more than 3 wine coolers.”

“Let her? You were the one that kept making her drink!” Krystal came to your defense. “Someone should take her upstairs. Poor thing should sleep in her bed.”

There was a moment of silence before Jae cleared his throat and hesitantly spoke, “I'll take her. I think I'm going to go to bed anyways.”

You could practically hear the grin in his voice when Michael spoke. “You sure? She might attack you again. Want someone to go with you for protection?”

There was a light smacking sound before Krystal was heard defending you again. “Shut up, she's just drunk. Leave her alone.” Thank you, Krystal. You're an angel, I swear.

Jae spoke again before he stood. “Yeah I got it. My room is right there anyways.”

“Alright well let's move this party into the kitchen. I think Krystal still has some snacks hidden in the cabinet above the fridge.”

“Michael, you touch my snacks I will hurt you!”

The voices retreated to the kitchen and you felt footsteps coming near before Jae knelt next to you. “Y/N, can you walk?”

Lying there you thought about your options. I can not say anything and let him carry me up the stairs. I wouldn't have to talk to him but the idea of him carrying me up the stairs right after I kissed him is enough to send me into cardiac arrest. Or I could walk up the stairs with his help. Less physical contact means more likely chances I'll get to bed without having a heart attack. But I'll probably have to talk to him…

You must've been taking longer than you thought because you heard a sigh and a second later there were hands pulling you into a sitting position. An arm slid under your knees and another behind your back as he started to lift you but the second your body pressed against his chest you panicked. Rolling out of his grasp you tried to stand. “I got it! I'm good!” Clearly you did not have it because you lost your balance almost immediately and nearly fell. Jae reached out and tentatively grasped your shoulders to steady you. He lowered his head and studied your face. His brows scrunched up in faint concern. You stood completely still. There was definite heat growing in your face and you hoped the alcohol would be a suitable excuse for why you were blushing.

Avoiding his gaze, you stared at the floor for a few moments before you couldn't take it anymore. Stepping backwards out of his grasp you teetered slightly before you ran your fingers through your hair and tried to fake a lighthearted laugh. “I'm fine. I can walk.” Finally looking at his face now you smiled and tried to act nonchalant.

He stared at you some more for a second until the corners of his lips turned up a little. “You're good right? Like you're not going to get sick or anything?”

You shook your head. “Nope! I don't usually get sick.” Even you could hear that your voice was overtly chipper.

He was looking at you with a definite smirk at this point and if you weren't still mortified you'd wanna smack it off his face. He shifted his weight to one foot and stared at you with his stupid smug face. “Mhmm...okay. I'm going to head upstairs too though so I'll walk you to your room. Make sure you don't hurt yourself on the way.”

“Yeah okay. Suit yourself! Doesn't matter to me! I'm good with anything. It’s all chill on suburban hill ha ha. My mom used to say that.” you could hear how ridiculous you sounded but there was nothing you could do. It was complete word vomit. Jae’s smile grew with every stuttered sentence. “Makes no difference to me.” you finished with a small chuckle.

“Wow.” His smile never faltered as he nodded in mock awe. “That was some impressive rambling. Honestly. You should look into competing professionally.” he started shaking with quiet laughter.

He was definitely making fun of you.

“Thanks. I’ve been practicing for most of my life.” You were still trying to sound casual but his teasing was getting to you and you could feel the blush splashed across your cheeks.

You lifted your hand in a ‘thumbs up’ kind of way and awkwardly gestured to the stairs behind you. “So uh... I'm going to go to bed.” Sloppily pivoting you headed for the stairs. As you stepped onto the landing you could feel Jae following closely behind but you tried to ignore it. Just make it to your room and you might survive this night with a little dignity. You were steadily making your way but you had to slow down to keep your balance. Between the alcohol and the nerves you definitely needed to concentrate extra hard.

Halfway up the stairs you chanced a glance at him and saw that he was watching your feet very closely. Making sure you got a decent foothold on every step with his hands were slightly raised, ready to catch you if you should fall. As if he could feel your gaze his eyes lifted to your face and met yours. When he saw you looking he smiled softly and pointed ahead. Signaling you to watch where you were going. Nodding quickly you faced forward again and focused on the last few steps. Breathing a sigh of relief as you took the last step.

As Jae followed you up the last step he raised his arms up high and smiled, “Look at that! You did it! And with no injuries.” His arms came down and he looked at the door to your bedroom. Walking passed you he turned the knob and held it open. Without a word you walked passed him and entered the room before turning back to the man standing in your doorway.

“Make sure you drink some water before you go to sleep! I’ve seen you take like 13 bottles in here and never saw you take any downstairs so I’m sure there’s one in here somewhere.” He laughed a little then nodded.

He started to close the door and you took a step forward. “Hey Jae?”

His head popped through the half closed door. “Yeees?~”

“I uh...I’m sorry I...kissed you.” At the mention of the kiss his ears twitched a tiny bit and you thought you saw the tips turn a little pink. “I’m not really sure what happened but I shouldn’t have kissed you out of the blue like that.” Looking away you shuffled your weight between your feet and stared at the ground.

It was a few moments before he spoke. “You know what? It’s cool.” You looked at him now and he was scratching at the side of his head nervously. He looked back at you and raised his hand to point at you with a smile. “I’ll give you this one free of consequence. Chalk it up to lowered inhibitions from your obvious drinking problem.”

“Thanks. That would be much appreciated…” you laughed softly. “Well, goodnight. Get out of my room.”

“Yeah night.” he chuckled. His head disappeared into the hallway for a moment and you let out a breath you’d been holding. Shuffling over to your bed you sat on the comforter for a moment before Jae’s head popped back into the room to speak again. “Oh yeah also... try to control yourself for the rest of the night, please. I have lessons tomorrow and I’d like to sleep without getting interrupted by your drunken ual advances. Actually, I think I’m just going to lock my door.”

And just like that the serious mood was destroyed. You turned and grabbed a pillow off your bed and threw it at his head as hard as you could. Jae ducked his head back into the hallway and closed the door quickly. You could hear him laughing on the other side and couldn’t help but join him. You heard his voice from the hallway, “Goodnight ya drunk!” and then you heard his bedroom door close.

You fell back onto your bed and slid under the covers. Turning onto your back you ran your fingers through your hair and prepared for bed. Not even bothering to change. I am never going to live this down… was your last thought before you passed out. For real this time.

------------------------------------

“Whoever you are I’m going to end your life…” your voice was thick and scratchy as you waddled to the door. Grabbing onto the handle you opened the door to figure out which of your housemates wanted to die. After all, what other reason could one have for banging on her door this early? The door swung open and Jae stood there dressed in casual athletic clothes with a million wat smile. “Your smile is too bright. Turn it down.” you grumbled as you turned around and shuffled back to sit on your bed. Jae followed you into the room and closed the door behind him before he came to stand next to you. You grabbed a pillow off the bed and crossed your legs before burying your face in it as you sat. Looking down at you he poked your head with his finger. Groggily you lifted your head to peer up at him.

The energetic boy squat down so he was eye level and stuck his lower lip out in a pout.

You narrowed your eyes at his sudden puppy dog face, “...what do you want?”

Jae clasped his hands together in front of him. “Please please drive me to my lessons? My cousin can’t come and I need to leave soon.”

“Where are they? Is it far?”

He shook his head fervently before looking at you with that face again. “Not at all they’re like 15 minutes from here. Please, please, please?”

You glared at him while he jacked up the pouting. Huffing out a sigh you pushed his forehead lightly with your fingertips. “Get out so I can get dressed.”

He unleashed another million wat smile as he left the room. “Okay I’ll be waiting downstairs! Thank you!”

“You know what? From now on you are no longer allowed to smile before 10 AM.”

-------------------------------------

“15 minutes my , Jae. We’ve been driving for 25 minutes.” You shot him a glare as you checked your blind spot and changed lanes. Jae was bopping his head along to the radio and turned to smile at you as he shrugged, “I was estimating.”

“Yeah well you at it. What are these lessons for anyways? You said they were for work?” You swear you felt him tense at that. There was a definite change in his demeanor.

“They’re….uh vocal lessons. I...work in music.” He sounded really hesitant all of a sudden.

“What like a music teacher? Oh are you like a singing coach for idols?!”

Jae turned in his seat to look at you. “You know about idols?” His eyes were very focused and it was slightly unnerving.

“Uh yeah? I like a few groups from there. I don’t know many like in detail but I know a couple. I like BTS a lot. I know EXO, Mamamoo, and BAP. Outside of them I don’t know many other groups besides their music.” He seemed to slouch a little in his chair. Like he had released a lot of tension. You looked at him hesitantly. “Is that...bad? My friend from high school was really into kpop and she showed me a couple of groups.”

Jae looked much more relaxed now and turned to you with a smile. “Nah it’s not.”

“So is that it? You’re a music teacher?”

“Something like that.” was his only response before he rushed into a rather obvious subject change. “You wanna know what I’ve been thinking?”

Even though you could tell he was changing the subject you decided to drop it since you got the distinct feeling he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Yeah alright, I’ll bite. What have you been thinking?”

Jae leaned back in his seat and tucked his arms behind his head. “They say that the only honest people in this world are babies…” he paused here and turned to look at you. His smile looked like trouble. “-and drunk people.”

Mistake.

“I revoke my previous statement. I don’t want to know what you’re thinking. In fact I want you to stop thinking entirely. If you think even one more thought I’m going to open your door and kick you out and I won’t even slow down.” You could see his smile grow wide in your peripheral vision.

You arrived up to the building that your GPS was set to and pulled into a parking spot.

“We’re here now so get out of my car. Michael said he was going to come get you once the lessons are over.”

Jae unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out. He waved at you from the sidewalk on his way in, “Thank you~”

Once he was in the building you turned around and drove home. Your heart still thumping violently in your chest.

----------------------------------------

You were sitting on the living room couch watching a movie when Michael and Jae walked in. Michael danced passed the television pointing finger guns at you and headed towards the kitchen as Jae came and plopped himself onto the other end of the couch. As Michael entered the kitchen you spun around quietly to watch him from your spot and reached over to tap Jae repeatedly. He shifted his attention from the rerun episode of George Lopez to you and noticed your sneaky behavior. His face twisted in confusion before he spun around to see what you were so interested in. Following your gaze he saw Michael climbing onto the counter and reaching into the cabinet above the fridge. Seeing movement on the edges of his vision he looked to the left end of the kitchen and saw Krystal hiding behind a wall also watching Michael. He had pulled Krystal’s box of graham crackers out of her hiding spot and slid his fingers into the container.

“OH GOD!”

Krystal and you burst out laughing as Michael ripped his hand out of the box and shook it back and forth until something fell off his fingers and flew into the wall. Jae’s eyes followed the movement and saw a mouse trap laying on the ground.

“I told you to stay out of my snacks you mooch!”

“Who does that?! I thought there was a rat or something eating my hand!”

“That’s what you get!”

The two housemates were really going at it now so you looked over and tapped at Jae again. When he turned to you, you slowly stepped off the couch and pointed upstairs. He nodded to you and followed you up the stairs.

Stepping into the hallway you turned to explain yourself, “Sorry, it’s just that they can get really heated and I figured I’d rescue the new kid. They would’ve tried to get you involved.”

“Ohh gotcha. Thank you then that would have been really uncomfortable.”

You were leaning against the stair railing and Jae stopped to lean against the wall across from you.

“Yeah. So, how was your lesson? What did you do?”

“Not much. Just kind of got to know the new instructor and did some vocal exercises.”

“So are you any good? At singing I mean.”

Jae made a face. ‘‘Uhmm I’m kind of amazing actually.”

You couldn’t help but smile and scrunched up your nose at him. “I don’t believe you.”

“How dare you. You know what, come here.” He pushed off the wall and you followed him down the hall to his room. “You’re going to feel really foolish in a few seconds so you might want to prepare for that.”

“Yeah yeah. Just show me whatever you’re showing me so I can go.”

Jae gestured towards the bed in the corner and you walked over and sat down on the edge. He walked over to the chair against the opposite wall and grabbed the guitar before heading back towards the bed. He sat next to you and adjusted the guitar in his lap. Jae strummed the strings once dramatically and lifted his head with a big ol smile. “Are you ready to be amazed?”

You sighed dramatically although you were definitely smiling, “Good lord dude just do it!”

His gaze turned down to the strings again and he started to play a peppy melody and let out a breathy sigh and looked up to you again before he started to sing.

“I was so high I did not recognize

The fire burning in her eyes

The chaos that controlled my mind”

Jae looked back to the strings and you nodded along to the song. He seemed like a completely different person. His voice was melodic and soft and his finger moved along the chords easily. His voice picked up as he hit the chorus.

“This love has taken it’s toll on me

She said goodbye too many times before

And her heart is breaking in front of me

I have no choice

Cause I won’t say goodbye anymore.

Oooh oh”

His voice carried the notes out perfectly until his fingers slowed to a stop and he lifted his head with a smug smile. Turning his head to you dramatically he confidently asked, “So, you amazed? You know that would’ve cost you a fair amount to see back home.”

You were definitely impressed. “I kind of am, actually. You’re really good.”

His confidence faltered at that. He brought his hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Well, it’s no fun if you just cave…” His face was warming up and you noticed the red tints spreading along his cheeks.

“Are you blushing? Oh my god you are! Where did all that bravado go?” You teased as you poked at his side repeatedly. Jae started wriggling around almost immediately.

“Who tickles people anymore?! What are you, 5 years old??” his voice was thick with indignation.

The guitar slid to the ground and Jae turned to try to grab at your hands. He managed to capture one but you were definitely not going to let him get the other. He’s been giving you all day and it was about time you got to give him some. Laughs rang throughout the room as you jabbed at his stomach with your only free hand. Jae finally got a hold of your forearm and held tight. You tried to pull your hand free but you knew he had you beat. Smiling brightly and panting you lifted your head to look at the face of your wrestling opponent. And suddenly realized how little distance there was between you.

You saw his smile soften as his eyes scanned your features. His gaze drifted down your face until it came to a stop at your lips. You could feel your heartbeat in your ears as you watched him hesitantly lean forward just a bit. Jae flit his eyes to yours, looking for some kind of confirmation. You met his eyes for a moment before you closed yours and leaned in to close the distance. Although you’ve kissed him before it didn’t feel that way. Everything about this kiss was new. Jae slid the hand holding your forearm down to your hand before entwining your fingers in his and bringing the other to slide up the back of your neck to hold your head gently. The kiss was soft and a little hesitant but it was wonderful.

And short lived.

The door burst open suddenly and Michael and Krystal stormed into the room still arguing. Michael had an ice pack on his fingers and Krystal was waving around two separate empty boxes of graham crackers.

They stopped in their tracks as they saw the two of you. Jae’s hand was still on your neck and though your lips weren’t touching anymore it wasn’t hard for them to guess what was happening.

Michael looked at the two of you and his face twisted into an amused grin. “Well, what is this…?”

(Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! This is my first story so I'd love to know what you think! You can find me on tumblr too! My username is wangcrusher)