rating: G

genre: slice-of-life-ish, romance is definitely implied sorta

word count: approx. 600+

*this is somewhat of a follow-up to “in plain sight”

Head buried in one of their several road maps, Jongin frowned as he turned it ninety degrees. Then another ninety degrees in the opposite direction. Sitting across from him in the booth of a road-stop diner, Soojung fiddled with her French fries as she watched him in evident amusement. She bit the tip of a fry and tossed the rest of it at the map in front of Jongin’s face, laughing when he lowered it to reveal a displeased expression.

“Can I help you?” he demanded, his gaze pointed like a pair of daggers. Soojung was hardly threatened.

“We’ve been sitting here for almost an hour,” she said.

“And?”

“Aaand, you’ve been staring at that map longer than you’ve been eating your food. If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed that we were lost and you used lunchtime as an excuse to stop driving and to figure out where we’re supposed to go.”

Jongin’s nostrils flared slightly as he raised the map again, using it as an arbitrary partition. “I know where we’re supposed to go,” he muttered. I just don’t know how to get there.

Soojung rolled her eyes. “Sure you do. But, while you’re still busy gawking at a road map I’m pretty sure you don’t even know how to read, I’m gonna go ask for directions.”

The top half of Jongin’s map flopped downwards as he watched—in complete horror—Soojung slide out of her seat and walk towards a waitress standing at the cash register. After a few words and vague gestures pointing north, south, east, and west, Soojung smiled and said thank-you before returning to the booth. Crumpling the sides of the map where his hands were, Jongin narrowed his eyes at Soojung.

“I can’t believe you,” he said.

“Can’t believe I what?” Soojung raised her eyebrows.

“Asked someone for directions!” Jongin flailed his arms in the air, then crossed them tightly as he fell back in his seat.

Frowning, Soojung said, “There isn’t anything wrong with asking for directions.”

Jongin still appeared closed and unrelenting. “Isn’t there? What if we were given the wrong directions—thinking they were right—but instead ended up somewhere completely and totally off the road map?”

“That could never happen.”

“Humans are fallible.”

“You mean like you?” Soojung shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t understand what men have against asking people for directions.”

“Well, since we’re being honest,” Jongin started, “I don’t understand how women think it’s actually okay to ask for directions when men spend so much time fixing GPSs and reading road maps so they don’t have to ask for any help to begin with.”

“You’re being stubborn.”

“So are you.”

“Well at least my case is justified!”

“It is not!”

“Okay.” Soojung threw her hands in the air. “Now you’re just being childish.”

“… Am not,” Jongin said with a deliberate pout.

“Really, Jongin? Really?”

“Anything to get you to deviate on a conversational tangent that will keep us from arguing any further.”

The corners of Soojung’s mouth quirked into a grin. “Well played, sir, but this needs to be resolved immediately. It’ll make me feel better knowing that the person driving isn’t completely unreliable.”

Jongin sighed. “Fine. But just so you know, this is gonna hurt my ego. Like a lot.”

“Don’t worry, your ego is big enough to sustain a few minor defeats,” Soojung said, waving a dismissive hand in the air.

“You overestimate me,” Jongin warned—mostly in false seriousness—to which Soojung could only laugh.

“Not really,” she said. “I just know you all too well.”

“I guess,” Jongin chuckled. Then he leveled his eyes with Soojung’s, his face a mixture of exasperation, amusement, and subtle adoration all at the same time. “Where would I be without you, Jung Soojung?” he asked aloud.

“Not quite sure—but frankly, it’s an alternative I can’t bring myself to imagine.”

“Neither can I.”

At that, Soojung smiled at him and said, “Well, I’m glad we can finally agree on something.”

author's note: /barges in all breathless and wild-like/ WELL HELLO, EVERYONE. I haven't been on for ages - and believe it or not, I have very legitimate reasons! One, I had exams last week. Two, I had to rehabilitate myself after experiencing a writing slump for about 5-7 days. And three, my laptop got infected with a virus and I didn't know what the cause was until yesterday. So now, it is safe to assume that I AM BACK IN BUSINESS. Well, sorta. Tests are coming again pretty soon ( they come every two weeks for me OTL ), but after that is my spring break! A WHOLE WEEK I CAN USE TO READ, WRITE, TUMBLR, AND ETC. That's the general idea, anyways.

And in case you missed the little asterisk note thingy before this drabble, this was a "follow-up" of sorts for kaistal's road trip au "in plain sight." I have a feeling I'm gonna be doing another one of those with "formidable" since EXO's teasers look vampiric and etcetera and in that drabble in question, Kai is a bloody vampire. Assume that the pun was intended. Also, I'm still planning/writing those Divergent au multi-shots. So updates here will still come only once a week, every Friday ^^

Aaand finally, I hope you all are doing well - wherever you are xD April has just begun, and springtime has most definitely sprung on my side of the planet, so now it's starting to get all hot, humid, and horrendously buggy. Like seriously, the bugs where I live are large in size and in number. It's ridiculous. I'll see you guys again next Friday! - Ella