(a/n: not exactly a chapter. i’ll explain at the end!)

(words: ~1.3k )

~⑨④~

“sehun, sehun-ah. sehun-ah, look at me, please” jongin chants. he tries his best to get the younger to turn his body around to face him to no avail. eventually, jongin stops and decides to take a step back, not wanting to overwhelm the boy in front of him. he watches sehun curl himself further into a ball and tucks his chin further into the blanket on top of him.

“sehun-ah, it’s ok. it’s nothing to be so disappointed about–” he’s surprised and manages to stop a yelp from escaping his mouth when sehun shoots up from his bed, eyes gazing dead at the space in front of him.

“i failed my exam. i managed to get the lowest in my class. i can’t even bear to look at my parents in the eyes, jongin. what am i going to do?” sehun whispers. jongin’s heart breaks at the sight of his boyfriend’s confidence slowly diminishing. everyone’s used to sehun as a charming person, easy going, can easily brush off comments about him here and there. but jongin knows better than that. he knows sehun better than that. there are some things that sehun can’t control and keep to himself at times so he ends up shutting down and turns passive, like a while ago.

jongin leans forward and slowly sits down on the bed to be in front of sehun. he lifts a hand to brush away a few stray hairstrands on sehun’s face, watching sehun’s reaction to see if he’ll approve or not. sehun doesn’t move which is good enough for jongin to brush away the hair from sehun’s face.

sehun’s gaze falls down onto his lap, fingers curled around the edges of his blanket. jongin brings his hands down to take sehun’s hands into his own and lifts them up to his lips to kiss them.

both remain quiet, which sehun is greatful for. jongin knows how to deal with him. he’s probably the only one who does. sehun doesn’t even know how to deal with himself. right now he’s too scared to say anything because he might say something wrong and hurt jongin’s feelings without even knowing.

but of course, if there’s something he’s learnt, things could always get worse.

“it’s only one exam. it’s alright, you can still lift yourself up with the future exams. i’ll help you” jongin offers, a small smile on his face. he slouches a little in an attempt to catch sehun’s eye but sehun beats him to it when his head snaps up, eyes glazed over as if he’s trying to stop himself from crying.

“jongin, you don’t understand. everyone around me keeps talking about how they’re going to fail, how they didn’t study and in the end they’re popping out of nowhere with percentages over 85!” sehun exclaims. “of course i understand the general doubt that everyone might have for themselves, but i can’t help but wish everyone would just – URGH” sehun falls back onto his bed, facing the ceiling. he knows tears are about to fall, but he’s not going to set them free without a fight.

“it’s just – even you, jongin, you’re so smart and i’m just – i can’t help it. it’s what i do. i keep comparing and it just stresses me out so much. and i don’t want to say anything about my mark because then that’ll either make them feel bad for flaunting their marks, advertise how stupid I am to them, or all of the above”

jongin shifts a little in his spot from the end of the bed. he knows sehun’s always been sensitive and to be honest, it’s one of his best traits as the pure-hearted boy that he is. that’s what attracted jongin to sehun in the first place, and also the reason why he’s so still so head over heels with the boy in front of him. he’s about to say something but then sehun starts to speak again.

“i’m just average, jongin. i always was, always am, always will be. they say things take time to improve but i don’t have time, jongin. i don’t have time and i just–” sehun’s voice breaks so he takes a deep breath before turning to his side to curl up into the position he had been in previously “i just really want to be alone right now”

sehun can feel his boyfriend’s eyes on him for a while before he feels the end of the bed rise and hears jongin move away. he feels the blanket lift up as jongin wraps him under the blanket. but to say he’s shocked by what happens next would be an understatement when he feels jongin lift the end of the blanket behind him to join him.

starting to show a little of his frustration, sehun turns around, a small frown on his face. “what are you doing…?”

jongin doesn’t answer but simply shakes his head and brings sehun down and wraps his arms around his boyfriend. jongin leans down and presses a lingering kiss on the top of his boyfriend’s head.

“just be quiet. i’m here for you. no matter what” he whispers to sehun.

sehun bites hard on his bottom lip to try and stop himself from crying. as if sensing what sehun was doing, jongin pulls away and gently grazes his fingers across sehun’s lips, silently asking sehun to stop. it works, and sehun opts to burying his face in jongin’s chest as he begins to cry.

jongin tucks sehun’s head under his chin and remains still and silent. he lets sehun do what he has to do, all whilst letting him know that jongin is there for him. there are times when jongin has to shake sehun out of his delusions, but there are also times when he knows that the silence of his actions will always scream depths that words will never be able to convey.

sehun wraps his arms around jongin and brings himself closer to the other. he finally feels himself calming down when he feels jongin tighten his arms around sehun and press another lingering kiss on the crown of his head.

they stay in bed in the comforting warmth of their body heat that’s trapped under the blanket. until sehun’s ready to talk (it may be soon, later, or never. but jongin’s fine with that as long as sehun’s feeling better), their arms remain wrapped around each other and legs tangled under the bedsheets.

all is still until jongin feels sehun’s finger tracing something on his shoulder blade. he has a hard time figuring out what it is without having to ask sehun, since he’s sure sehun doesn’t want to talk yet. jongin frowns, trying to figure out what sehun’s drawing when it suddenly hits him. unable to contain the smile on his face, jongin tightens his arms around his boyfriend again and repeats the two same on sehun’s arm with his index finger.

feeling jongin repeat the same gesture, sehun can’t help the small smile appearing on his face. he knows that no matter what, jongin will always try his best to understand him and he knows he’ll do the same for jongin as well.

with the two of them, actions have always spoken louder than words.

~⑨④~

(a/n: hi guys, so what i wanted to do was share with you snippets of sekai here and there to get a little more insight of their relationship, i suppose? i didn't really want this to be another chapter. so as you can see here, we get a glimpse of how jongin would comfort sehun! so this is not really a chapter but sort of a chapter? hope you enjoyed it!)