MOONCHILD, kim namjoon

07. a date (not clickbait)

They weren't sure how they came to playing twenty-one questions, but they did.

At some point they just decided they wanted to know more about each other, because all Namjoon knew was that Jaehyun had two dogs, a rock, a sister-in-law, a brother, a sister, a niece, glasses, love for brown hair, and a niece who demanded that she wanted to have the same hair as him. He might've mentioned niece twice. He didn't remember.

"If you could talk to any famous person, living or dead, who would it be?" Namjoon read from his phone.

"I'm doing it right now." Was the answer, which caught Namjoon away. "My turn. Which movie would you not get tired of even while watching it plenty of times?"

Namjoon looked down, turning red. "My Neighbour Totoro. Don't judge."

That caused Jaehyun to laugh, and Namjoon would admit he really liked the sound of it. When he had first heard it, he had become insecure of his own laughter, if that kind of thing made sense. He just liked how the older male's eyes turned into crescents and his lips widened, forming a heart, and he had to say, that also made him wonder how he had never had any lovers before.

When the laughter abruptly stopped, Namjoon realised he fucked up. Jaehyun was looking at him with wide eyes, biting down on his bottom lip.

"Did I say that out aloud—I'M SO SORRY! That was the truth, though—I MEAN, I do think someone might've had a secret crush on you or something but was too scared to admit it OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING—" he slapped a hand over his mouth and put his head on the table, all the while Jaehyun sat there, frozen.

"Well. . . you could change that," Jaehyun slowly said, pursing his lips after. 

Namjoon looked up so fast he could've snapped his neck. He had been thinking about it, and he found himself wanting the feeling of Jaehyun's lips on his again, but he stayed in denial of his feelings. Them being confronted like this head on — he was totally not ready for this. 

"Uh, please don't think I'm weird for doing this, but, well, would you, uh, would you," the editor cleared his throat, "Would you like to go on a— uh— d-date with me?"

Namjoon froze. 

Like dramatic life changing 360-degree turns tabled froze.

He didn't know what to answer. His heart wanted to say yes, but his brain did an analysis of the situation. Did he actually like Jaehyun? Or was it just mutual respect; they'd known each other since five years, which was not a short period at all. How come all his feelings only showed themselves at this time?

Or was it the fact that he'd always liked him, but the feelings decided to show up only after the kiss? Was it a sort of trigger or what? He didn't know. He was so confused and perplexed that he didn't realise that he'd taken too long to answer. Knowing Jaehyun, Namjoon was sure it had taken everything in the editor to actually say that out aloud. But was he ready for this?

"I'll take that as a no, then. Sorry." Jaehyun bit his lip and got up. Before he could get away, though, Namjoon reached forward and took a hold of his wrist. 

"Aren't we already on one?" he prompted, raising an eyebrow. He threw all his thoughts aside. Fuck all the hesitation and overthinking. He might as well go with his heart. He was the author of a romantic tragedy, after all. Besides, the work of the author was to go with their instinct. Write what they want, all they want, whatever comes in their head. Brains was always the editor's forte, checking for errors, plotholes, citing resources. It's not like authors didn't put in any analytical work into their work; they just preferred going with what their heart would think was the right thing to do. And Namjoon's heart told him this was the right thing to do. He didn't ponder about the fact that both of them were guys. He did not care about what would come after. All that mattered to him that he was here. With Jaehyun. 

Jaehyun smiled and heaved a huge sigh of relief, which made Namjoon wonder if he would cry again. He had known him for five years, and he definitely was acquainted with the fact that the shorter male could get massively emotional. "You know, if you wouldn't have stopped me from going when you did, or worse, if you would've rejected me, I would've locked myself in a room, wouldn't have come out for three weeks and cried and I would've never shown my face ever again to you—" Namjoon shut Jaehyun's rambling by placing a finger on his lips.

"But I didn't," he said, smiling.

Jaehyun's eyes widened. "Is this how those girls in those teen fiction romance novels feel? Because I can definitely feel those fireworks in my stomach or whatever they feel. Oh my God! Am I acting like the protagonist of a poorly written American teen highschool romance drama? But that can't be possible, because people say I'm an aunty in the body of a middle-aged man— wow, don't you get bored listening to me?"

Namjoon laughed. "You actually keep me entertained. Listening to you is one of the least boring activities of my life."

Jaehyun looked at him with an are-you-for-real look, to which Namjoon replied with a do-you-think-I'm-lying look.

It was interrupted by the phone call that Namjoon got. It was from the graphics team, saying that they had finalised some good covers for him. He had to go, and he kind of felt bittersweet after that. Like what, did they actually confess to each other? Or was it just something Namjoon had hallucinated. Being an author, he did have those a lot. Dreams, hallucinations, something his friends said, while writing something, he would jumble all those events together and pick out the most suitable things to spice up his story.

"Wanna meet up at my place whenever you're free this week?" Jaehyun asked. The author was pretty sure he also had those kind of thoughts but he either didn't wanna address them, or he thought they could do it when they had plenty of time, unlike now. Either way, Namjoon was glad to spend time with him, anyway. 

"Sure! Just, let me find sometime when I'm free, I think I won't have any work to do while typesetting is going on. I don't think I'll be free for a good while after that, because after the binding is done, I'll have to sign a buttload of copies. And then, of course, the post-publishing hassle, so we won't be able to see each other for a sometime after that."

"Okay, it's a deal, then. Let me know the date."

"Of course. I'm looking forward to it, you know, uh, figuring out our feelings and all."

Jaehyun hummed, and they decided to walk together to the publishing house. Jaehyun was kind of excited to meet the new author he would be editing for. 

☾

jaehyun did it hjbasnjksasnjkcjkncldcjkndsakjndskj

tbh idrk abt this chapter it's like a thought vomit.