SIX

Jongin.
The sunlight filtered in through the thin window curtains, shining brightly onto Jongin’s face. He groaned as his alarm started going off and pressed snooze. Just then his door swung open as a womanly voice called out, “Jongin, it’s time to get up!”
Jongin pulled the sheets over his head and groaned, “Ten more minutes.”
Said womanly voice stalked over and the warmth that enveloped Jongin disappeared at once, as the cold air hit his body. He immediately heard a gasp and that’s when Jongin sat up and groggily opened his eyes and saw Sunyoung turned around, facing the doorway.
“P-Put some clothes on and come outside!” She stuttered. Jongin, even in his sleepiness, smirked and said, “Why, are you stumbled by my beautifully chiseled chest?”
Sunyoung turned around to protest but then her eyes bulged again and she immediately turned back around, “J-just, I’ll be waiting outside!”
And with that, Sunyoung stalked out the door. Jongin laughed as she blushed and mumbled to herself while leaving his room. She was so cute.
Jongin froze. Did he just say Sunyoung was cute? Something was definitely wrong with him. He just shook his head and got up to get ready.
It was the special picnic day for the kids. Well, apparently for all the kids, not just the faces Jongin got familiar with in the classroom. Saturdays were usually his chill day, but this was “mandatory” for him because Jongin was technically doing the class with Sunyoung. Not that Jongin really minded, anyhow.  He quickly changed into some comfortable clothing and walked toward the classroom.
Sunyoung just walked out the door, struggling to carry a bunch of art items.
“Oh, hi, Jongin!” She said turning bright red, probably from their morning encounter. Jongin couldn’t help but smirk and compliment himself for his greek god like body.
“Here, let me help.” Jongin said as he grabbed some of the things Sunyoung was carrying. She grinned, “Thanks!”
“So,” Jongin said as they walked to the front lawn, “What are we doing today?”
Sunyoung smiled, “Just running around and playing and painting a big birthday poster. It’s almost Vic unni’s birthday.”
Jongin looked at her surprised, “It is? When?”
“Next week,” Sunyoung replied as they crossed the street and claimed a couple of the park benches. They started setting up the table with the different paints and material when someone just wrapped their arm around Jongin’s leg. He looked down and saw Soojung grinning, “Hapi teacher!”
Jongin smiled and ruffled her hair, “Hi Soojung. Did all the other kids come with you?”
Soojung nodded as she pointed at the big group of kids walking over. Jongin never realized that so many kids were living under that one roof. He took a big breath before everyone came over, aware that it was going to be a tiring day.
--
“Thanks for helping out today!” Sunyoung said with a grin as they were walking back to the orphanage. Jongin just nonchalantly shrugged, “Yeah, it’s chill.”
It was a LONG freaking day. Those kids had so much energy. The boys were charging at him to wrestle and the girls wanted to play tag or dress him up. Even art time wasn’t calm as the children all talked loudly about different things. It was one thing to have a classroom of kids who were 6-8. It was another to add 9 – 14 year olds to that mix. The older ones were even louder and acted like they were cool. One of the kids Kris, a young thirteen year old, was arguing with him about why there are different galaxies in the world. It was a really ridiculous conversation. But overall, it was a fun day. And it seemed like the kids were having a blast.  Plus they made a really nice card for Victoria. She’d probably be really happy with it.
Sunyoung’s laughter broke Jongin’s train of thoughts. She laughed, “I think the kids got comfortable with you. They were jumping all over you today.”
Jongin smiled, “Yeah, I guess they are. Which is strange… I always thought I was horrible with kids.”
They arrived at the orphanage and saw the kids running around in the kitchen, excitedly eating and talking. Sunyoung and Jongin passed them to go to the classroom and Sunyoung put all the supplies back to their usual place while Jongin just watched. You know, for moral support. Something Jongin noticed while watching her was that Sunyoung is very graceful. Every step she takes and every movement she makes, whether she’s picking up something or painting… everything about her was very graceful.
Sunyoung suddenly stopped moving and looked at Jongin strangely. Jongin realized he’s been staring very intently at her so he coughed very loudly and walked to the chalkboard to clean non-existent markings on the board.
Sunyoung yawned and said, “Well, we’re done for today. Thanks for all your help, Jongin! You’re so good with the kids.”
“How many times are you gonna thank me?” Jongin asked shaking his head. Sunyoung grinned, “You low-key are bad at taking compliments, huh?”
Jongin laughed at how ridiculous her statement was. “I am the king of compliments,” Jongin said with a cocky smirk, “That’s all I receive.”
“Okay, if you say so~” Sunyoung sang as she walked past him and out the door. Jongin trailed behind, “Where are you going?”
Sunyoung yawned again, “Home. I’m very tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night and these kids just exhausted me.” They came to the front door of the house and Jongin watched as Sunyoung slipped her shoes on.
“I’ll see you next week,” Sunyoung said as she waved at him. Jongin subconsciously just waved back and watched her retreating figure. And then Jongin had no idea what came over him, but he suddenly had the urge to follow her outside.
“Jongin-ah, what are you doing?” the passing Henry asked as Jongin was putting his sneaker on.
“Oh, Henry!” Jongin said, “You need me to run to the market, right? What should I get?”
Henry looked at him in confusion, “I don’t need anything. Vic and I just came back from the market a couple hours ago.”
“Uhhh, I think we ran out of milk, then,” Jongin said, hand on the handle, “I should go get some, right? Right. I’ll be back!”
And with that Jongin left the older boy hanging and ran out the door. He saw Sunyoung’s little figure walking in the distance. How did that small girl walk so freaking fast? Jongin ran to catch up with her, when she turned to get on the bus. Jongin muttered under his breath and ran with all his might… and whew, he barely made it on to the bus. He breathed deeply as he made it on the transportation and looked for Sunyoung. She was sitting in the back of the bus, listening to music on her earphones. Catching his breath, Jongin walked back and plopped down next to her. She looked over at him surprise as she pulled out her earbuds, “Jongin, what are you doing here?”
“Henry asked me to buy some stuff at the market,” Jongin replied, trying to act cool. Scratch that, there was no need for him to act cool, since, you know, he already was cool.
“Speaking of which, do you know where the market is?” Jongin asked. Sunyoung blinked, “He sent you to a market that you don’t know how to get to?”
“Uh,” Jongin said, “I might have just… rushed out before he gave me instructions on how to get there.” Great cover up, Jongin mused to himself. He gave Sunyoung a sheepish grin and she just looked at him in disbelief.
“You want me to go with you.” Sunyoung said as a statement rather than a question. Jongin nodded, “Bingo. Or else I'm gonna get lost. I’ve never used this bus system before.”
Oh my god. Jongin just realized he was on a bus. A public transportation. He looked around in disgust… it was probably really dirty and gross.
“Are you serious?” Sunyoung said, mouth slightly opened, “You never rode the bus before?”
“What?” Jongin said, “I always had drivers driving us everywhere.”
Sunyoung just shook her head as she looked down at her watch, “Fine, I guess I’ll go with you. Or else you’re gonna get your poor little self lost.”
Jongin gave her a cheeky grin and said, “What an honor for you to spend more time with me!”
Sunyoung yawned as she rolled her eyes, “Sure, Jongin, sure.”
They got off the bus in two stops and strolled into the market. Sunyoung grabbed a cart and said, “What do you even have to buy?”
Jongin blinked, “Um… some stuff.”
Sunyoung raised a brow, “It’s not like Henry to send you without a list or something.”
“Milk!” Jongin blurted, “We ran out of milk, and I wanted to get some stuff, too. Like chips.”
“Alright then,” Sunyoung said smiling, “Let’s go!”
Jongin grabbed the cart from her and pushed it while Sunyoung walked along next to him. The went to the fruit section to which Jongin protested, “I don’t need anything here.”
“Instead of getting just chips, you should get some fruit, too.” Sunyoung said, walking towards the large bins of fruit. Jongin mumbled while following Sunyoung to the watermelons. She started hitting the watermelon with her fist and Jongin looked at her strangely, “What are you doing?”
“Checking to see which ones are ripe!” Sunyoung said as she continued to hit the different melons, “Ah! This one is gonna be good. I can feel it!”
Jongin’s lips twitched into a smile, “How does hitting the watermelon indicate the ripeness?”
“Just trust me!” Sunyoung said as she pointed at the supposedly ripe watermelon.
“I don’t even like fruit.” Jongin said, “Can we just go to the chips?”
“You really should get at least some apples or something.” Sunyoung said, clucking, “Although I think it’s watermelon season. Imagine a hot and sweaty day, you pull this buddy out of the fridge and you indulge in the sweetness of this cold melon. Doesn’t it sound great?”
Jongin tried to stifle his laugh. She was so adorable, knocking on these different watermelon rinds. Sunyoung frowned, “What?”
He couldn’t contain it and started laughing out loud as a confused Sunyoung looked at him. Jongin, recovering from his laugh, grabbed the watermelon and said, “There. We can buy chips now, right?”
Sunyoung laughed as she shook her head and pushed him forward along the aisles. When they arrived at the chips section, Jongin’s face brightened as he threw a bunch of different chips in the cart.
“You’re gonna eat all of this?” Sunyoung asked incredulously, looking at the cart full of chips. Jongin gave her a cheeky grin, “Yeah.”
“You’re crazy,” Sunyoung said laughing. She started putting some back and said, “You can’t even carry all this back.”
Jongin looked crestfallen as he realized that he couldn’t buy all the delicious fattening food. He dejectedly put most of the chips back and sadly pushed the cart along. Sunyoung giggled, “You know, when you’re not acting like a high and mighty rich kid, it’s actually kind of cute.”
Jongin froze as he heard the word cute come out of Sunyoung’s mouth to describe him. His heart started beating a little faster and his ears started turning red. He saw Sunyoung blink too in realization of what she said.
“Ah-hahHAh!” Sunyoung said awkwardly, “Oh, look. There’s a sample, let’s go eat that!”
And she quickly walked ahead as Jongin quietly followed her, trying to calm down his heart. Sunyoung popped up next to him and handed him a dumpling on a small paper plate. was full as she mumbled, “Eet theem. Eetz sho yummy!”
Jongin laughed as he ate one and Sunyoung stared for his reaction. Her round eyes bore into his and Jongin just smiled and nodded, “It’s really good.”
“Right?” Sunyoung beamed as if she made the dumpling. She grabbed more and sheepishly said, “Because it’s so good. Hehe.”
Jongin laughed and grabbed a bag of the dumplings and added it to his cart. “There, now you won’t feel so guilty now.”
They went around trying different samples before paying at the register and going back to the bus stop. Of course, Jongin was complaining about how heavy all the food was.
“It’s because you told me to buy the watermelon!” Jongin complained as they stood, waiting for the bus.”
“Well,” Sunyoung said with an amused smile, “I thought that you were strong enough to carry it.”
She innocently batted her eyes and Jongin just muttered to himself about being a man. How dare she challenge his manhood strength.
“Oh, that’s my bus!” Sunyoung said as she stepped toward it. Jongin stepped to follow when she turned around and said, “Jongin, this isn’t your bus.”
He blinked, “You’re gonna leave me stranded here!?!? I don’t know how to get home.”
Sunyoung groaned as she looked down at her watch and the bus driver yelled, “Hey, lady, are you getting in or not?”
She sighed before saying, “Sorry, ahjusshi! Go ahead.”
The man muttered something about inconsiderate teenagers these days and drove off.
“Really, Jongin,” Sunyoung said, “You owe me. I could’ve been in my sweet sweet bed thirty minutes ago.”
Jongin flashed his killer grin, “People would be honored to be spending this much time with me.”
Sunyoung rolled her eyes but Jongin caught the hint of a smile on her lips. Her lips. They looked very nice and soft. What would it feel like if he… Wait. Stop. Jongin shook his head and looked away.
“The bus is here, Jongin.” Sunyoung said as she pulled him onto the bus. They sat at the way back and Jongin put down the groceries, muscles feeling relieved from the weight. Jongin looked around, grimacing. How did people take the bus? Thank goodness the AC was blasting, or this would have been one ugly ride.
“Why are you so quiet?” Jongin asked. He looked and saw Sunyoung nodding off, with her eyes closed. He smiled as he saw her sleeping face, looking so peaceful. And then her head perched on top of his shoulder and Jongin froze. Her whole body was leaning against him and he could feel her taking small, steady breaths. His stupid heart wouldn’t stop pounding so Jongin sat up, straight and rigid the whole time. Crap, he didn’t know where to exit either.
“H-Hey,” Jongin softly said, shaking his shoulder. Sunyoung mumbled and just wiggled herself closer to Jongin. He took a deep breath and tried to look everywhere but her. The fact that her neck was exposed and her s were pushed against his arm was not helping.
Jongin didn’t know how long it took, but for sure, they passed the stop. It was starting to get darker outside and they were the only two left in the bus. The bus came to a stop and the driver said, “This is the last stop.”
He felt Sunyoung stir next to him and groggily get up. He immediately missed the body heat as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, “What?”
“We need to get off the bus,” Jongin said as he grabbed the groceries and went outside. Sunyoung looked up, alarm and confused. She followed Jongin out and said, “What happened?”
“You fell asleep,” Jongin said.
“You should’ve woken me up!” Sunyoung said, “Now we have to wait for the next bus and I have no idea where we are.”
She looked around for signs and gasped, “Oh my goodness, we came out of Seoul!”
Sunyoung turnes to Jongin, “This is all your fault!”
“Hey, you’re the one who fell asleep,” Jongin said, in his defense, “And besides, you looked so peaceful I couldn’t wake you up.”
Sunyoung sighed, “Oh well. I guess we have to wait for the next bus.” She went to the edge of the curb and sat down, wrapping her arms around her legs and lying her head down on her arms. Jongin sighed as he took off his jacket and placed it on top of her. He plopped down next to her as she raised her head, “I don’t need it.”
“Just take it,” Jongin said, “I feel bad now.”
Sunyoung had a small smile on her face and coughed while saying, “This small act does not make up for the huge amount of services I offered today and the great inconveniences you have brought upon me.”
Jongin laughed, “What will suffice, madam? A nice steak dinner?”
Sunyoung looked up thoughtfully and said, “That does sound nice. But isn’t that too easy for someone who is supposedly heir to like a bajillion dollar company?”
He smiled, “Ah, not yet. I can’t get it yet. So technically, I’m poor and unemployed.”
Sunyoung laughed, “Then a small dinner will make do.”
The bus finally pulled up and they rode back in silence. It was comfortable though. Sunyoung was humming a song while Jongin just looked ahead. It was strange. How comfortable he was right now. How content he was. Sitting in this dirty, probably bacteria infested bus next to this strange girl. Jongin was deep in his thoughts when Sunyoung nudged him. She sleepily rubbed her eyes and said, “Jongin, this is your stop.”
He looked over at the sleepy girl and pulled her up, “Come with me.”
She looked at him confused, “My home is further down.”
Jongin just grabbed his groceries with one hand and pulled her along, “I’ll drive you home.”
Sunyoung was too tired to bother fighting with him and just let herself be dragged by Jongin. They kept walking in the direction of the orphanage. Or at least Jongin really hoped it was the direction of the orphanage. Sunyoung was barely conscious and walking along. She kept stumbling so Jongin sighed and stopped.
“Why? Did you forget something?” Sunyoung mumbled, rubbing her eyes. Jongin bent down in front of her, “Get on.”
“What?” Sunyoung said, “No, no. It’s okay, We’re almost there. I can walk.”
“You almost fell three times already,” Jongin said, still bent down in front of her, “Just get on.”
Sunyoung just sighed and climbed on his back, her arms wrapped around his neck. Jongin got up, surprised she was so light. But that stupid watermelon. Jongin just shrugged and threw it away in the trashcan. Sunyoung will never know.
Jongin had a cute little smile on his face as he walked with the sleeping Sunyoung on his back. Something about it made Jongin feel all giddy. Sunyoung started incoherently mumbling and nuzzled her face against Jongin’s bare neck. Jongin froze. Oh dear. Her lips were slightly grazing his neck and he felt her warm breath tickle his ear. And then he swore she mumbled, “Oppa’s back is nice and warm.”
Jongin flushed… did she just call him oppa? He couldn’t contain his happiness and let his smile spread on his handsome face.
They soon arrived at the orphanage and Jongin gently placed her on the passenger seat of his car and drove off. It was dark now outside and Jongin looked over at the sleeping girl. She looked so cute, wearing his jacket and peacefully sleeping.
And then Jongin looked forward to continue driving and frowned. What was wrong with him? He slapped himself and just focused on the road.
Jongin pulled up to Sunyoung’s driveway
He gently shook her arm, “Sunyoung. We're here.”
Sunyoung’s eyes slowly opened as she looked around, “Hm?”
Jongin smiled, “Home sweet home.”
She smiled back as she took off her seatbelt and looked at Jongin, “Thanks for the ride back. Sorry I was so out of it.”
Jongin shook his head, “No, it’s fine. But my arms are pretty tired from carrying you.”
Her eyes opened in shock, “You carried me?!?”
Jongin laughed, “You were sleepy, not like you were drunk. How is it that you don't recall?”
He flicked her on the head and she pouted as she rubbed the sore spot. She sheepishly grinned, “Sorry you had to carry me. But thanks.”
Jongin nodded, “I’m pretty sure my debt to you is paid off now. My arms are so sore.”
Sunyoung playfully glared at him and got out of the car
“Bye, Jongin. Drive safely!” Sunyoung said with a bright smile as she waved at him.
“Wait!” Jongin called out. Sunyoung turned back around and looked at him through the open window.
"Yes?” Sunyoung asked. Jongin coughed as he handed his cell phone, “I uh.. I realized I don’t have your number and you know what if I had to ask you about some art or class thing or if there is an emergency or anything and yeah.”
He felt his face heat up, but Jongi hoped that it didn’t show. Sunyoung just giggled and put her number in and gave it back to him.
“Bye! Thanks for the ride!” Sunyoung said cheerfully as she walked in. Jongin smiled and waved back as he watched her go into her house.
Oh, man. There was some knotting uncomfortable feelings dancing in his stomach. And Jongin did not like that one bit.

A/N: Hi guys. Sorry it took a while. My fire and motivation to write this fic is dwindling... so updates might be a bit slower. Anyway, this was sort of a filler fluff chapter. Hope ya'll enjoyed it. Please leave a comment if you wanna see a jealous Jongin! ^___^