“Dude, what’s gotten into you? You look so shaken,” Jaehyun says in lieu of a greeting as the door to Doyoung’s apartment opens.

“Nothing, nothing.” But Doyoung’s wide, unfocused eyes betray him.

Doyoung and Jaehyun had agreed on today to record Jaehyun’s guitar piece for the song he is writing. Where cabinets and shelves were presumably supposed to be was a makeshift recording booth Doyoung probably arranged just before Jaehyun had arrived. There lies on one corner of his living room a plastic stool, a mic on an overhead stand with a pop filter, and some wires Jaehyun has no idea connects to where.

He settles down on the seat, letting Doyoung pull down the mic to level with his guitar. He’s handed Doyoung’s expensive headphones as well, and Doyoung plugs the guitar to the desktop he brought out from inside his bedroom.

“No, really. Tell me what’s up,” Jaehyun says with as much authority as he can although they both know he holds no power over Doyoung.

And Jaehyun really knows something is wrong when Doyoung relents, when normally he’d be responded to with an amount of sass no person should ever be allowed to possess. “Okay. You know what, fine. But you can’t laugh, okay?”

And Jaehyun is enjoying the moment too much. He’s never had the upper hand against his best friend before. He barely suppresses a laugh as he just knows whatever he’s going through, it’s going to be a hilarious situation.

“Promise,” his face fails him as his lips thin out into a smile. He tries to cover it up with a cough.

And he can tell that Doyoung, his (very) loud friend, is simply dying to get it out of his chest, for someone to talk to about whatever it is. “You remember Taeyong, right?”

“Yeah.” Jaehyun doesn’t feel threatened by the name anymore.

“He took me to this coffee shop last night, and you know I never say no to free things, right? Well…” Doyoung bends down, and he fidgets and cringes as he loads some software on the computer.

“Well?” Jaehyun has never been this happy since the time Doyoung tripped on the stairs on their way to a class.

“He… Ah, freaking hell,” he slams his mouse on the desk and leans all his weight on the table. “Don’t freak out, okay?” and Doyoung turns around as if to gauge Jaehyun’s reaction. “He told me he liked me.”

“He - what!?”

“I said don’t freak out!” Doyoung runs his hands over his hair, like he himself couldn’t believe that even happened. “I was like, ‘oh, okay, maybe he’s an affectionate kind of guy,’ and so I said, ‘Yo, man! I like you, too! But no homo, though, right?’”

“I cannot believe you!” Jaehyun was outright laughing now. As he processed Doyoung’s words, things did start to make sense. Jaehyun is surprised at the revelation, too, but it’s absurd  how his friend missed the signs in all the times those two went out together. “How did you not see that coming?”

“Dude, get this,” Doyoung turns back to the computer and adjusts some settings. “He looked, like, so, so, offended. And so he - stop laughing! - that’s when I realized he was serious in, like, that way, and then he, like a soap opera, threw his coffee at me. I mean, I’m glad it wasn’t hot, but I was wearing white, man!” He listens to a test recording - of Jaehyun’s boisterous laughter - and continues, “He rage-quit without saying a thing. Just, stormed out of the shop.”

“Doyoung, how could you? Leading him on? Not cool!” Jaehyun jokes.

“Crazy, right? I’d never be able to face him again. Awkward as eff.”

“Apologize to him, at least!”

And now that that’s out, both of them have loosened up, and the afternoon continues as smoothly as it could. Now that he no longer holds any ill feelings towards Taeyong, he thinks he might want to get to know him, too.

Not only just to spite Doyoung. Only a little. But more because he wants to make up to Taeyong for ever thinking badly of him. And come to think of it, he’s been genuinely nice to Jaehyun in the few times they’ve encountered. Jaehyun makes sure to chat him up the next time they bump into each other.

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

As Jaehyun comes back from Doyoung’s place for some reason he really wants to talk to the girl. He realizes that aside from their meeting in the day or by coincidence in a park or something else, he doesn’t actually have any other outlet to contact her. He thinks to himself, is it too soon to ask for her number? Maybe he can text her? Does she even text because calling seems too personal. He lies down on his bed thinking that as much as he thinks he knows the girl, he doesn’t actually know her. He wants to take her out sometime, maybe to a lunch? Or a coffee shop and just actually make plan. He decides that he should ask her tomorrow, although he worries a lot, what if she gets creeped out? Are they even on that stage yet?

The next day Jaehyun goes to the library and he sees the girl sitting on her usual seat. He takes a deep breath, for some reason it’s more nervewrecking today.

“Just be normal, talk and just ask, the worst she can say is no…” Jaehyun speaks to himself

“Hi Jaehyun!” The girl says to him first as Jaehyun walks closer to her.

“Hi, how did you know I’m coming?” Jaehyun puts his bag down and pull the chair from the table to sit down

“I hear your footsteps and I guessed it was you”

“What if you’re wrong” Jaehyun chuckles

“Well then I’ll say sorry and move on” She said “So how’s your day been going?” she continues

“It’s fine, the usual, although for some reason I think I’m doing better in my classes right now though” Jaehyun pulls up his book from his backpack and put it down

“Oh that’s good to hear, although I’m not surprised, you’re in the library a lot!” she smiles “Library~! Source of inspiration of knowledge~!” she sings a bit dramatically as she laughs

“Yeah it truly is” Jaehyun stares at her in admiration thinking that it is true that it’s a source of inspiration for him, not so much the later but also not so much because of the library itself.

As Jaehyun opens his book, he think to himself, how is the best way to ask her about what he was thinking last night. He spaces out for a bit before opening his mouth, thinking ‘screw it, the faster you ask, the better’

“Hey, so, I was thinking last night how….we’re friends right..?” Jaehyun pauses a bit

“Yes, of course! I mean if you think of me that way?” The girl exclaims but then reluctant of her own answer

“No, I mean of course, I just realize, is it too much if I can ask for your number? I mean, I don’t even know if you’d like to call me, or me calling you, or text? If you can text? Oh my God, I didn’t mean it that way, just I’m not sure, bottomline is that I want to actually hang out with you, outside of the library, Maybe make plans?” Jaehyun blabbers as he panic about his choice of words

The girl was silent for a while and Jaehyun is ready to bury his face on his book and maybe apologize and leave the place but then the girl laughs.

“Jaehyun of course! You can have my number! Don’t worry, I also text, we have this speech synthesizer to do it, but if you wanna call me I’m fine with it too! I would love to hang out with you sometime” She answers as Jaehyun breathes in relief, knowing the girl is not creeped out or offended by his choice of words. The girl then gives Jaehyun her number as Jaehyun gives his back.

“So, I’m not sure if this is a lot, but I saw this jazz in the garden event on Facebook a while ago and I was thinking if you would want to go with me! Of course Taeyong else could come too, I know he might be worried if you’re only going to go with me” Jaehyun says

“Yes! I would love to, is it on the weekend? Taeyong would love to come along! You can also bring Doyoung, it seems that they’ve become good friends recently, I heard a lot about Doyoung from him” the girl says excitedly

“Ah yeah, I can ask him, the more the merrier right” Jaehyun thinks whether the girl know about the whole thing about Doyoung offending Taeyong a while ago, but whatever Jaehyun think. As they were chatting, Taeyong enters the library, picking the girl up to get her home.

Jaehyun looks up to Taeyong about to help the girl back but Jaehyun then ask Taeyong if he can talk to him privately which Taeyong answers with a surprised face at first but then he agrees to.

“So what’s up?” Taeyong says as they’re alone

“Don’t freak out, Doyoung is my best friend, he will tell everything to me and he said something about the thing from a while ago between you and him” Jaehyun says as Taeyong exhales loudly hearing it

“It doesn’t matter. If you’re worried I will talk badly about you to her because Doyoung is your friend then you should not worry, you’re not Doyoung so it’s fine” says Taeyong

“No, I’m sure you’re not that kind of person. I just want to say that….Doyoung is not like...that” Taeyong furrows his eyebrow to Jaehyun’s statement

“I mean, he’s not homophobic I swear, he actually feels a bit bad about it, about how he handles the whole thing. Just give him a chance, he’s a really nice friend” Jaehyun continues

“Obviously, I was a bit quick too to act like that. Is he scared of me now or?” Taeyong sighs

“No, not at all, I’m sure he’d be thrilled to know that you’re not totally angry at him” Jaehyun says

“Ok yeah, I’m not, I thought about it and I was harsh too”

“So...I was thinking all of us can go out this weekend if you’d like? If you don’t mind” Jaehyun says

“Yeah sure, I mean I won’t expect Doyoung to come too, thanks for telling me though” Taeyong answers

“No, I’m sure he’ll come along” Jaehyun smiles which Taeyong replies back with a nod

Taeyong and Jaehyun gets back to the girl after the talk and then Taeyong takes her back home after saying bye to Jaehyun, and Jaehyun reminds her about their weekend outing, which she replies with ‘well yeah call me’ making Jaehyun smile.