- wanna one next door -

seventeen

a/n thought it'd be appropriate to play a seventeen song for chapter seventeen, shoutout to my fellow carats out there 

- seojin pov -

I tried to control my hormones as much as possible, but my heart would not stop beating. Perhaps it was the coffee I drank earlier... or no, I'm just extremely tired from the lack of sleep I got last night. Yeah, that's got to be it.

To be honest, I think I like Woojin... no, I've completely fallen in love with him. But for some reason, I don't want to let myself to feel this way. At least not yet, in the middle of our developing friendship. Sure, we were close. Real close. People at school even had some speculations that we may be dating. But the important thing is, we aren't, and there's no way to confirm whether Woojin would feel the same way as me, as more than a friend.

For now, I'll just ignore my feelings. Simple as that.

- woojin pov -

Seojin and I sat next to each other on the couch, watching the movie side to side separated by a large bowl of popcorn. I looked over at her casually once in awhile, curious of her reactions to the movie. While watching, I grabbed for a handful of popcorn, but instead, I grabbed something else. Looking over, Seojin was looking at me like a deer in the headlights, and when I looked down to see what had happened, our hands were caught together. Her face turned red, and she looked bewildered. A small smile began to form on my face, but at that instant she pulled away and looked forward, completely concentrating on the movie.

I never feel very confident about anything, but with Seojin, I wanted to be, even if she didn't feel the same way about me. I vowed to myself that I would be honest about my feelings and maybe even confess to her when the timing feels right.

During the entire movie, Seojin was fighting her conscious to stay awake. She must have not gotten enough sleep... maybe I shouldn't have come, so she could just rest...

- seojin pov -

I felt bad that I had difficulty staying awake. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy spending time watching the movie with Woojin, but it had just been such an exhausting day, and it all hit me at once. I could feel my head getting heavy, and I woke up from my sudden jerky movement to the side.

"Seojin, are you okay? You should sleep...," Woojin said, trying to shake me awake. I regained my conscience at his voice.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Woojin... I didn't mean to fall asleep, like I really enjoy spending time with you so it's not that you bored me but I was just so tired from today and last night I didn't get enough sleep - "

"Did you stay up thinking of me?" he suddenly asked. My heart froze. But I just scoffed, in a friendly way.

"Psh, think about you? No of course not," I replied, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Do you think I like you like that or something?"

Woojin looked at the ground and ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. I could tell maybe he was upset by what I said, but I didn't think into it too much. He looked at me, pursing his lips together. "Maybe I do think you like me. And maybe I like you too," he put his hands to his face and breathed into them. "I can't control my facial expressions around you."

I could feel heat rising to my ears, and an overwhelming tingling sensation taking over my body. "Wha... what?"

"I like you, Seojin. When you're close to me, I have no choice but to smile. Feel this," he said, and he took my hand placing it on his hard. Against my palm I could feel the intense force from his heart, and the same force began exerting on my heart. My head went white and I felt like fainting. He frowned. "Why do you keep fronting me?"

"I... I don't know... I mean... Woojin, I... I like you, too." In a quick motion, he pulled me into his arms, and the whole world went silent. The whole world was quiet for that moment, and I could feel our hearts beating. Beating together.