Love Me | MarkNoHyuckMin

chapter sixty nine

Jeno enters the restaurant, heading straight for the counter until he gets a glimpse of the girl at the table in front of him.

"Sam?"

She looks up and smiles. "Jeno!" She holds her arms out. "Can I hug you?"

Jeno nods and lets himself be hugged, the feeling familiar and different. She smells the same, her hair looks shinier, he's never seen her in red lipstick before, and he's not used to her in all black.

"How are you?" He asks, feeling a little awkward.

Sam chuckles. "You're welcome to eat with me so we catch up, but I understand if you have something else to do."

"You don't mind?"

"Not at all." After he gets his sandwich, Jeno takes a seat across from Sam, unsure how to feel as he remembers the last time they saw each other. "I'm fine, by the way", she answers. "What about you?"

"I'm alright."

"You're thinking about our breakup, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

The girl shakes her head. "It's okay. I saw it coming."

"What do you mean?"

"Jeno, the week before we broke up, I could've told you you were gonna break up with me. I know you weren't happy and that you weren't comfortable. I was being selfish by dragging it out that long and ignoring how you felt. I was stupid and insecure and I wanted to prove to myself that you liked me so I thought if we kissed, if we touched, whatever, it would prove that."

"I really liked you. And you could've asked for reassurance, I would've made sure you knew that."

"You're right. But why didn't you tell me I made you uncomfortable? I only realized that after reflecting on our relationship, close to before we broke up."

"I wanted to try, I just quickly realized I didn't like some of those things."

Sam nods in understanding. "You were more for hugs and stuff, weren't you?"

Jeno nods. "I'm still like that now and I prefer when I initiate touching, 'cause I don't like everything."

"That makes sense. How's your love life?"

"I'm kinda dating three guys."

"Kinda?"

"It's not official but we all agreed to be exclusive and we're like boyfriends, most of us."

"Most of you?"

"I'm more like friends than boyfriends with one of them."

Sam takes a sip of her iced tea before asking, "Do you like him?"

Jeno nods, a slight pink decorating his cheeks. "He likes me too, but we haven't...had that kind of shift until recently."

"Just go on more dates."

"We haven't had our first date", Jeno admits, now feeling embarrassed upon saying it out loud.

"Jeno!"

"I'm waiting until my feelings are in the right place. We only admitted we like each other the other day and that was the only time he looked at me like he likes me."

"How long have you liked him?"

"I started liking him more a couple weeks ago."

"How long has it been?"

"The four of us had our first date in June."

"So you've gone on dates with the other two?"

"Chenle and his boyfriend dragged us into group dates."