12

another normal night

Good luck, our peach Jaehyun! With love from all of NCT <3

Jaehyun stared at the huge banner draped over the front of the coffee truck, smiling to himself and wondering how they managed to fit twenty-one people and Haechan’s big face into one picture.

Everyone on set, including his fellow actors and actresses, had already swarmed the truck. They snapped away at every possible angle, trying to capture something for the ‘gram because it wasn’t every day that one could claim that one of the biggest groups in the Korean entertainment industry had sent them a coffee truck. Sometimes Jaehyun wondered if that was why they hired him over some Tom, and Harry who did things the right way – studied at an acting school, auditioned for an acting agency, was actually an actor. It came as no surprise when the initial reports were filled with criticism about him just being another one of SM’s nepotic shoo-ins.

He took another glance at the twenty-two faces grinning all-too-brightly back at him. At the end of the banner, Mark’s face peeped out, a bear headband sitting on top of his crown of fluffy blonde hair. He was also clutching a bear plushie and letting it occupy an unnecessarily big space on his side.

Jaehyun chortled. He knew exactly who Mark was in cahoots with. Mark was Seulgi’s favorite NCT member –below him, he hoped– for a reason. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.

Peach Jae to Seul-bear: Wow. Secret message – success!  

The basketball flew into the air, made a nice curve, and then anticlimactically bounced off the rim. Mark dramatically collapsed onto the ground, burying his head in his hands as Haechan danced frenetically around him.

“Hey, hey, that’s a foul! Haechan grabbed him just as he threw the ball!” Doyoung, ever the fighter, was ready to go up in arms against the captain of the other team, which was coincidentally Taeyong. Against Doyoung, it was always Taeyong.

Taeyong shook his head in a proud, triumphant way. “Nope, we won fair and square. it up, squirt!”

As they continued to quibble on the game specifics at the other end of the court, Jaehyun splashed the remnants of his water on his face. Puffing and panting, he slung his towel over his neck and started to gather his things into his sports bag.

“You’re done?” Lucas asked, his big eyes somehow widening even more than they already did.

Jaehyun nodded. “Yep, heading back for the day.”

“Seriously?” Taeil ambled over. “You’re usually the last to go.”

Jaehyun zipped up his bag. “Well, I’ve got somewhere to be,” he replied, eyes glinting.

“What the , hyung?” Chenle exclaimed, his cry echoing across the court. “We’ve got to beat their asses! Did you see what they did to Mark? Mark!” He accentuated his name as though anything committed against Mark’s person was a capital crime.

Taeyong patted Chenle’s back reassuringly. “Leave him be. His missus is calling.”

“Whipped!” Johnny called.

Jaehyun casually flicked him –and by extension, all of the other idiots howling with him– the middle finger and exited the basketball court. Within seconds of Jaehyun’s departure, Johnny’s phone began to ring. One of those loud, violent rings that seemed like a call from the government.

Johnny tapped to his phone and brought it to his ear, nearly jumping out of his skin as Wendy’s voice erupted from the speaker. “Sorry, sorry, sweetheart,” Johnny said, his baritone several octaves lower and sweeter. “I’m going to head back in a minute, I promise, just a bit more–“

All the other boys shook their heads in disappointment. “You whipped bastards,” Doyoung groaned.

Peach Jae: Hey Seul, I’m downstairs. You coming down?

Seul-bear: You can come up!

“You alright?” Jaehyun asked.

He was leaning over the couch, watching Seulgi scuttle about the kitchen, throwing green onions, garlic, and whatever else she had chopped up into the pan. It was strange watching her move around anywhere that wasn’t the practice room, the stage, or somewhere that had an entire entourage of cameras following her.

In fact, it was strange to even be there – on her couch, in her home, watching her cook. For most of his life, she had been an omnipresent yet somehow transparent figure in his life, a person who was beautiful but only just as beautiful as every other face that passed the training hall, whose brief “hellos” in company corridors were polite and sweet but nothing really more than that. He never quite imagined that there would come a day when he would want more.

She cocked her head to the side and shot him a grin. “Of course!” she replied. “You’re not the only one who can cook, you know!”

He chuckled, shifting back to his original position on the couch. He had the script he was supposed to go over for the next day’s drama serial shooting, but he hadn’t touched it since he stepped into her place.

On a first glance, Seulgi’s place was somewhat like her – minimalist, with a good amount of white, grey and brown tones to plant a sense of peace in one’s mind. It would have been somewhat like his too, if not for the little quirks that she left lying about: a tribal throw on an armchair, a strange leopard figurine, and a neon peace sign on an iron grid. And in the most random alcoves, Seulgi would set up a bunch of photo frames.

He rose to his feet, deciding he would rather check out her pictures than procrastinate on a script he probably wasn’t going to look over until much later. He crouched down, eyes catching the sight of several versions of Seulgi over the years – elementary school Seulgi with adorable pigtails, middle school Seulgi in an outfit that she could have used for her Russian Roulette promotions, and post-high school Seulgi onstage, pictured in the middle of one of her signature dance moves.

“How old were you here?” he asked, pointing at pigtailed Seulgi.

She turned. “Oh, that?” she chortled. “Probably about eleven? My dad took that when I was coming home from ballet class.”

“Oh, really?” he said, taking a better look at the photo. “Did ten-year-old Seulgi also like to dance?”

“Too much,” Seulgi laughed. She threw chicken into the pan, stirring the rest of the ingredients as she did. “Tha