CHAPTER seven

Our House

Jaejoong finds himself sitting at the small dining table at the middle of his living room, chewing on unbelievably horrible ramen cooked by the house pet - if one could even label what she did as cooking.

“Do you have any friends?” Boa questions. Jaejoong coldly side-eyes her serious, inquisitive face.

“Don’t speak.”

“Why? I want to know. I mean, I had thought about why you decided to keep me, and one of the possible reasons is that you don’t have any friends, and that you’re lonely, but now that I am here, you have me!” Boa even cutely throws her hands in the air. Ta-da.

Without a word, Jaejoong puts his chopsticks down and whips out his phone from his pants pocket. He places it on the wooden table and opens his contact book to show off his list of friends.

Boa takes the phone in her hands and gapes at how many numbers are saved. “That’s amazing.”

Jaejoong chokes down some soup when she smiles admiringly at him. “What’s so amazing. My work requires me to make connections.”

Boa giggles at his mouth full of blackish noodles. “But still. I mean, I don’t have any friends.”

For a moment, the annoyance of his realization that he fancies Boa is subdued by his pity for her.

But he doesn’t ask.

“You can meet my friends,” Jaejoong automatically replies as he shoves his phone back into his pocket. “Any time.”

“Really?” Boa’s eyes light up and Jaejoong swears that they emit hearts and stars. “Well then, I do have one friend.” She gives him a wink, and nearly kills him.

“Don’t speak.”

☆

Jaejoong scowls at the way his friends joyfully greet his new pet.

“She does seem like a puppy.” Junsu smirks, with his arms folded as he looks on at the scene of Boa being surrounded by their other co-workers.

“Right. And look how she’s wagging her pretty little tail at everyone,” Jaejoong huffs. “At anyone who gives her the time of day.”

“Give her a break, Jaejoong. Didn’t you say that she’s never had friends before?”

“It looks like she has no problems making them.”

Junsu throws an arm around Jaejoong’s neck, catching him in a playful headlock. “Don’t be jealous now.”

Jaejoong somehow maneuvers himself out Junsu’s grip and lightly shoves him aside as Junsu laughs. “I don’t get jealous,” he retorts and makes his way towards that unbearable scene to break it up.

“So Boa-ssi, how did you meet Jaejoong?” Jiyong asks out of curiosity.

“Ah, well, actually, we-”

“We’re neighbors,” Jaejoong plainly states and pulls Boa up out of her chair by the peter pan collar of her dress.

Boa holds onto the ends of her skirt over her legs. “Jaejoong!”

“Come, let me give you a tour of the building. Get back to work, wolves.”

Jaejoong rolls his eyes when he hears Jiyong, Heechul and Junhyung snicker as he and Boa swiftly walk away.

“Did you design this studio building too, Jaejoong?” Boa wonders aloud as she wipes the glass desk with her slender fingers. “It looks a lot like our house.”

“Our house?” Jaejoong repeats, and his face heats up at the thought of that reality. He doesn’t dare to let Boa see his face now, pretending to work on his computer so that she doesn’t notice.

“Yeah,” Boa says in a whisper as she admires the awards hung up on Jaejoong’s office walls. “Honestly, I would have never thought that you’re a songwriter.”

Jaejoong scoffs. Of course you would have never thought so, stupid woman.

“But now that I know, I feel so proud of you for some reason,” Boa declares cheerfully and a shiver runs down Jaejoong’s spine when she pats his head in a friendly way.

Just as her small hand was about to leave him, Jaejoong grabs it, surprising her, and spins around to ask, “Why are you so calm about touching people and being touched by others?”

He stands up tall, towering over her shortness. “Do you know what it does to people when you nonchalantly touch them like this?”

What it does to me?

The sudden onset of seriousness confuses Boa, but Jaejoong persists. “Do you not feel anything when I hold you like this?”

Boa tugs her hand away from his grip, a little defensively, and Jaejoong was relieved at that response.  

So she isn’t completely unguarded around me all the time.

“Well, I was taught that it means that you’re close to someone, that you like them, and that you value them,” Boa explains in confidence, puffing up her chest. “What’s wrong with that?”

“That’s not all that it means in the real world, princess,” Jaejoong tells her firmly, and approaches her step by step until Boa is stopped by the wall behind her.

She doesn’t move an inch and barely blinks as Jaejoong leans in close, his eyes staring deeply into hers.

‘Tell me,” he breathes out quietly.

“How much do you value me?”

Boa stays fixed to the wall, having to really think about this one.  She has seen many kinds of gazes come her way -careful ones, tender ones, loving ones- but the way that Jaejoong looks at her makes her feel different.

But she just can’t place her finger on it.

Jaejoong throws her a devilish smirk before he exits the studio to give her a moment.

Just outside the door, he immediately collapses against the wall and slides down until he sits on the carpeted floor, holding his head, heavy in his hands.

Jaejoong didn’t need to see his own reflection to know that his face was unbeatably red. The burning sensation radiating from his body is worse now than the times he gets drunk.

“I can’t with you,” Jaejoong whispers in a low groan, running his fingers rapidly through his blonde hair, trying to shake that pure image of Boa’s face out of his troubled mind.

“I hate you.. stupid woman.”

AN: hey y'all! a somewhat short-ish chapter but I want to post the next one as soon as I can~ expect it^^ and thanks always