“Why didn’t you tell me you were afraid of rides?” I pressed, sitting Daehyun down on a nearby bench after the ride had finally come to an end.

“I dunno,” he sighed, keeping his downcast eyes fixated on the ground.

Eying the heart-stopping, almost intimidating coaster that we had just left, I cringed. The way Daehyun kept his arms tightly fastened around my waist, his eyes crammed shut, and his head buried in the crook of my neck, not uttering a single word the entire time, I realized how freaked out he really must have been.

I slid down next to him and hesitantly placed my hand on top of his, unsure if he wanted to be comforted or not. I continued anyways. “If I’d known you were afraid of rides, I wouldn’t have even come here in the first place.”

Daehyun didn’t pull his hand away from mine, or even react at all for that matter, he only sighed once more, this time looking over at me. “You looked so happy before, so I didn’t want to ruin it,”

“Eh? Wait, wait wait, hold up,” I crossed my arms, my eyebrows furrowing downwards in disapproval. “You’re not Daehyun. Who are you and what’ve you done with him?”

“Huh?”

“The Jung Daehyun I know is never considerate of others or their feelings. Especially when it comes to mine. What’ve you done with him?” Seeing Daehyun’s strained expression from having rid the roller-coaster transform into the irritated glare he was so good at pulling off, I couldn’t stifle my laughter in any longer. “I’m sorry. I had to,” I said in between laughs.

“Yah! Not funny,” Daehyun frowned.

“Oh, don’t take it so seriously. You know I’m just messing with you.”

“Whatever, let’s just go home now. I’m tired.”

“Huh? Why? We just got here!”

“I’m just tired,” Daehyun replied, this time sounding more annoyed. “And you already know that I’m afraid of rides, so what’s the point of staying here any longer?”

I looked down. “We could still have fun. Even if you don’t like rides, just us being together…”

I peered back up to see Daehyun staring back at me with a look of distest. Even though his colored hair was windblown and messy and his jaded expression was less than amused, he actually looked quite cute at the moment. I wondered how somebody who's really irritated could still manage to look so effortlessly perfect. My eyes ventured and lingered on his lips, quickly remembering how sweet they had tasted against mine. I wanted to kiss him once again, right here, right now; in front of everybody, so that the whole world would see that we were together.

“Don’t do that,” Daehyun ordered, narrowing his eyes as he leaned forward.

“Don’t do what?” I inched backwards, startled that Daehyun had seen through my thoughts.

“Look at me like that.” Wrapping his arms around me, Daehyun brought me closer; our shoulder’s squishing together into a loose embrace. “I want to kiss you, but you yelled at me when I tried to before. But by the way you’re looking at me right now, can you really tell me that you don’t want to kiss?”

“Of course I want to kiss you,” I pried his arm off from around my shoulder, “But not until you admit that you like me. Remember?”

“Nope. Now can we go?”

I exhaled and stood up, feeling defeated, but out of the corner of my eye, the amusement park’s daunting Ferris wheel caught my attention. Daehyun had mentioned a Ferris wheel earlier… “Let’s go on one last ride before we leave. I know the perfect one, and you’ll like it too.”

Daehyun rubbed his temples, drained of energy and unsure if was willing to trust my judgment.

“C’mon, I know you’ll like it. Trust me.”

Daehyun pursed his lips. “Fine, but if I don’t like it, you have to take me out for bulgogi afterwards, okay?”

I smiled and grabbed his hand, hauling him off of the bench. “Deal.”

From the Ferris wheel cart, the rides and buildings almost seemed to sparkle in the setting sun’s luminescent, vibrant colors. Tiny cotton ball clouds hung nonchalantly above the ride, appearing almost touchable if someone were to reach their hand out of the cart. And from where we were, the people looked like ants; miniscule and unimportant compared to us.

I turned to Daehyun, who was curiously observing the surroundings below as well. I naturally grinned at his childish behavior as he glued his face to one of the cart’s oversized windows, ooing and ahhing at all of the interesting happenings going around the park. Score. No bulgogi dinner for us tonight. I’m sure my wallet felt just as relieved as I did.

“It’s like we’re in our own little world up here.” Unmoving, Daehyun’s attention continued to be occupied by who knows what outside of the Ferris wheel cart. “I like it.”

“Me too,” I replied without a second thought as I began observing everything outside of the cart once again.

“_____, can I… ask you something?”

“Hm?” I hummed, not fully aware that the boy next to me actually had a lot on his mind. Daehyun had been struggling with trying to ask me what had been poking at his heart for the entire day we had been at the amusement park, and now seemed like his last chance.

“You won’t ever leave me, right?”

This grabbed my attention.

Daehyun sheepishly rubbed his neck and bit his lip in a failed attempt to hide his nervousness. What a rare sight it was to see the too cool for school, hot-shot Daehyun bashful and embarrassed. It was so unreal that I could hardly believe my eyes.

“What are you…?”

“Even when I'm sometimes mean to you, and even when I become really famous and have tons and tons of fans, and even when I become old and fat and ugly, you’ll still be by my side, right?”

I laughed, more out of confusion than anything. “I guess so.”

Daehyun’s whole face lit up and he lurched forward, cupping my hands in his. “Really? Promise?”

I nodded feverishly, trying my best to work with his sudden shift in mood. “Of course! I do like you after all.”

Daehyun’s eyes twinkled, radiating with instant happiness as he pulled my into a spine-crushing hug. Nuzzling fondly into my neck, I was reminded of our earlier ride on the roller-coaster, except this time, it was different. Daehyun wasn’t cowering in fear, he was cradling someone whom he cared for more than words could express. “I like you, _____.”

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Hi everyone, it's Jooyeon~!! : ) I'm so so so sooo sorry that it's taken me this long to come out with the next chapter of Jerky Neighbor! ;o; I've been having to work a ton lately, so by the time I get home, I'm just exhausted... But I'm still working very hard so I hope you'll all forgive me and still continue to love and support this story!! : ) Thank you~~ <3