The Roommate family, aside from those who were working, sat around the living room together. Seho chattered away with Ryohei even though in retrospect, he was just MC-ing at the shier man. Joon hyung was talking over Ryohei, answering for him while trying to be funny and still slightly respectful of his actual answers. Guk Joo and Sunny were laughing along but more laughing Young Ji’s own wide-mouthed laugh and Jackson lightly tapped her chin and made a playful remark about how she would look.

The only people who weren’t engaging in the liveliness of the conversation were Kang Joon and Minwoo, both at opposite ends of the couch, surveying the situation and keeping tabs on each other. They both had on ‘copy/paste smiles’, the type of smiles that came so naturally to even rookie actors, that they could put on and wear them like glasses. They both forced themselves to dimple, but let the whisper of their secret pass through the slight glances.

Kang Joon was surprised to find once Minwoo had the misconception that he like Young Ji, that he ran with. It was almost like the game of ‘Telephone’ he had played when he studied abroad. Jackson gave him mixed signals and possibly liked Young Ji, which led Kang Joon to like him but believe he liked Yong Ji and gave Minwoo the impression that Kang Joon liked Young Ji and Jackson was in the way. How the truth got skewed was unreal. And now that Minwoo wanted to be a part of the whole story, there was no way to clear up what he got himself into.

Suddenly Seho got a text, and he cleared his throat to let everyone know it was from one of the writers. They usually got subtle messages on what to integrate into the day by the writers and directors if there wasn’t anything in particular going on.

“Everyone, I heard our Young Ji’s parents ran a café” Seho suddenly said, gesturing to the fresh member who was arguing with Jackson.

Kang Joon noted how the way his fingers lingered on hers, intertwined in hers as he reached for her phone. How she could easily yank away from him, but let him touch her while she talked to answer Seho. He noticed the comfortable look on his face when he was with Young Ji, how simple it was for him to engage her.

They were so cute together, Kang Joon vaguely thought as his own heart sank with the realization. He obviously liked her. Almost as if on cue, Jackson glanced over at Kang Joon who had let his smile slip for a moments, but hurriedly looked away before he could put I back on.

If Jackson was so in love with Young Ji then why was he avoiding Kang Joon now?

Suddenly Minwoo piped up to join Seho’s conversation, “We should make Kang Joon go”. He looked at his amused friend, curious since he hadn’t been listening. In Minwoo’s eyes, the exchange looked as if a smile-less Kang Joon had tried to intimidate Jackson, so he decided to take a step for his friend. “We should just send him to volunteer at Young Ji’s café since he used to be a barista”, Minwoo elaborated.

Kang Joon sighed and wanted to protest, but Young Ji was immediately fascinated, earning a heated response from the members that he had to go.

Jackson looked between them and said, “I’ll go too.”

Kang Joon immediately remembered one of his first big crushes was formed in the close quarters of a café. He imagined Jackson instead though, brushing his body as he went past to go greet the customers, putting his hands on his waist to move him out of the way, tasting things after each other to make sure the flavor was fine. He could imagine sleeping next to Jackson with the smell of coffee staining his skin and napping in the break room after the initial crash.

He started to blush and Minwoo gave him a sly thumbs up.

Thy all got their bearings and went out to the car, Jackson in the front right next to Kang Joon as he drove. They chatted as if they were friendly and Young Ji sang along to songs on the radio. Suddenly she started asking about Kang Joon’s time as a barista and Jackson simply put his hand on his thigh and looked directly at him asking, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

It took Kang Joon a moment to answer. Even though Young Ji was laughing, oblivious in the back and Jackson’s own tone was amiable, the tight grip on Kang Joon’s thigh spoke otherwise. “Uh . . . I just didn’t  . . .”, he tried to answer. The grip wasn’t just tight, but it was safe in its slight caress. Jackson leaned a little closer and asked again. It seemed like the grip traveled a little closer to dangerous place, distracting him momentarily.

Kang Joon flashed Jackson a sharp look, What are you doing?

Jackson only sat back in his seat and sighed under his breath, “You don’t know.” Kang Joon couldn’t tell if he was talking about the undeniably suggestive touch or talking about why he didn’t know about the barista thing, but either way the young actor was confused.

What was Jackson doing?

Thank you all for the support.

Your comments inspire me to do better.

I even broke the cycle in which I write just to add to this one~ :D