changer ❧ j.sc | ✔

book one ❧ [vii]

As you walked out of the library together after you'd finally determined that your studying was over, Sungchan checked his watch.

"You doing anything else tonight?" He asked.

"Nothing in particular." You shrugged. "Eating dinner. Sleeping. Why?"

"Want to come over?"

"Is Shotaro going to be home?"

"He's closing at the shop today I think."

You bit the inside of your cheek. Apparently sensing your hesitation, Sungchan nudged your side as he teased, "What? Am I not fun enough for you? You need Shotaro there to convince you to come over, too?"

"Yeah, you're such a snoozefest, Sungchan," you wrinkled your nose, elbowing him back. "Taro's the only thing that keeps me from falling asleep every time I'm over at your place."

"You hurt me, Y/N."

With a melodramatic sigh, you relented, "I suppose I'll make an exception. But I will nap where I see fit if you bore me too much."

"I'll take my victories where I can get them."

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

At Shotaro and Sungchan's place, you followed Sungchan into his bedroom. Normally, if Shotaro were home, the three of you would all hang out in their living room. But it was just you and Sungchan.

He toed his shoes off and flopped onto his bed face-first, spread-eagle.

"Oh, and who were we worried about taking a nap?" You scoffed, taking his desk chair. He had a gridded whiteboard above his desk that was mostly taken up by a to-do list of upcoming deadlines. But a small area labeled "Notes" by the company who made it was dedicated to pictures instead: the film strip of you two from Valentine's Day at Jasmine & Pearls hung there by a magnet in the shape of a hurricane, a picture from the group trip to Cape Solaria from last summer under a tornado, and another of a younger Sungchan and Shotaro (early high school if you had to guess) at an arcade pinned by a tsunami.

Your friend rolled over onto his back. "I'm not napping, just basking."

"Basking? In what?"

"Being done with today."

"Have a bad day?"

"Just long. Had a long week, long semester, long three years."

"Mm, felt that," you agreed, knocking your own shoes off and folding your legs up in the desk chair.

The two of you were quiet for a while, and you would've thought that Sungchan had actually fallen asleep, if you couldn't see that his eyes were open as he apparently just stared at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling with even breaths. You let the silence remain, content to just rest your arms on the back of the chair with your chin atop them, and look at him.

"Y/N?" He finally spoke, his voice soft.

"Yeah?"

Sungchan's head lolled so he could look over at you, his warm brown eyes focused on your face. He had an unreadable expression on his features; not one of sadness, or pain, or really much of anything. It was like he didn't even know what he was feeling. "Have you gone on a date? Since... you know, the one we went on?"

You blinked. You weren't sure what exactly you were expecting him to say, but it wasn't that. After a moment, you shook your head. "No, I haven't. Have you?"

The corner of his lip twitched, but from your positions, you couldn't tell if it was pulling towards a smile or a frown. "No."

Another beat of silence. You continued staring at each other.

"Do you want to?" He asked, his voice so unnaturally devoid of intonation that you once again couldn't glean the purpose of this discussion.

"What?" The word tumbled out of your mouth fast, defensively.

"I-I mean, are you going to? Like, is there anybody...?"

You looked at him, taking a good few seconds before you answered. He at least seemed nervous now, stuttering, his eyes flitting between you and the ceiling fan.

"No." You answered plainly. No qualifying statements: any attempts at expounding would just land you in trouble. "You?"

"No..." He echoed. "You would tell me, right? If you were?"

This felt like a trap. Not from Sungchan, you knew he wasn't like that, but from the Universe, somehow. And no matter what you did, you were going to fall into the spike pit.

"Yeah, Sungchan, of course." You mustered up your well-practiced casual smile. "Always need approval from the counsel of friends for that kind of stuff."

He did smile at that—not a full one with teeth, and it didn't reach his eyes—but he smiled and nodded. "Good. Got to make sure they're not a weirdo. You know there's all kinds of magical creatures who will just date human women for the ego trip in bed, right?"

"I did know that," you chuckled. "But thanks for looking out for me."

"Always am, Y/N. And I always will be."