Fate | Jakehoon

chapter 13: there's a first time for everything

The day starts pretty lazily, at Jake's parents house. He wakes up as late as possible, has breakfast with his father, and takes Layla out for a walk. It's the end of August, but the it's still very hot outside. The half hour walk in the burning sun does nothing but tire and make him thirsty. When he returns, he chugs a bottle of water, and takes a quick break before he continues the task he started out two days ago.
His mother hasn't moved in yet, but she has sent a lot of stuff from their house in Australia, so Jake has been helping his father unpack everything.

After finishing their comeback promotions, and going to KCON, a Korean music festival, in Los Angeles, they've immediately began preparing for their first world tour. But, in spite of the the busy schedule, the agency has given them an extended weekend off, from Friday till Monday. The members went home to their families on Friday, and Jay invited Ni-Ki to his house. Sunghoon was the only one who, unfortunately, still had to work on Music Bank. Jake sent him a selfie taken with the TV screen while Sunghoon was interviewing the artists, to cheer him up, and encouraged him to get through the day. He replied later, laughing, and saying he was finally on his way to his parents house. Jake texted him yesterday night too, to see if he wanted to play a video game, but he said he was hanging out with his sister, so Jake didn't want to bother him. He spent his Saturday night cuddled up in bed with Layla, listening to music.

In the evening, Jake is the first one to return to the dorm. It's strange sight to see the dorm empty, and entirely clean as well. He grabs a snack from the pantry, and settles down on the living room couch. He scrolls on twitter and tiktok, replies to fan comments on weverse, and then puts on a movie on the TV. It doesn't take long until Heeseung also makes his appearance.

"What's up?" Heeseung plops down next to him.

"Nothing much, just watching a random movie," Jake yawns, and truthfully, he's pretty bored by it.

"Are you coming with me to the party tonight?" Heeseung asks, and Jake shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't know yet."

Yeonjun and a few of his idol friends are throwing a party, and he had texted in their group chat yesterday, inviting all the members to come if they wanted. The people invited are from the 4th generation of k-pop, so they'll all be close in age.
However, since most of them are introverts who'd rather spend their free time alone, or with a small group of close friends, than surrounded by strangers, they weren't really interested. It's also an 18+ party, because alcohol will be involved, so Ni-Ki was unfortunately excluded.
Sunoo wanted to go, but he already had other plans for the night.
But, this morning, Heeseung texted that he's going because Beomgyu told him that the place they're renting has a gigantic game room, and they can play a lot of cool games. Besides, his other friends, Stray Kids' Jeongin, and justB's Lim Jimin will be there for the same reason, so Heeseung was sold on the idea.

Then, out of nowhere, Yeonjun specifically told Jake that he wants to introduce him to someone, if he's coming. Now this really piqued Jake's curiosity, and although he asked Yeonjun who, the older boy wouldn't say. He has to show up if he wants to know, but Jake still isn't sure if he wants to give up his chill night hanging at the dorm in exchange for a loud ass party.

"I'm leaving in about an hour if you make up your mind," Heeseung says, and Jake looks at the time on his phone. It's currently 7 p.m. , and the party starts around 9.

Jake could go, hang out for an hour or two max., and come home before midnight. Heeseung might want to stay longer.

"Ok, I'll come."

"Great." Heeseung smiles. "And don't worry, you can hang with us as much as you want," he refers to his friends.

It's a nice offer, but Jake doesn't want to be a bother. They're already an established friend group since ages ago, so he would probably feel out of place.