buy me your love (no returns)

chapter 7 ☆

「for reference!」
☆⇢ chan (seventeen)
☆⇢ changbin (stray kids)
☆⇢ mark (nct)
☆⇢ hyeop (maroo)

☆

"open your fuckin' eyes, jihoon!" that was what jihoon woke up to.

he wasn't sleeping in the middle of lectures.

honest.

"yah, park woojin!" jihoon groaned, still drowsy, "why would you wake me up like that..."

woojin snorted, pulling a limp jihoon out of the lecture hall. this had somehow become their routine: woojin would forcibly drag jihoon out after lectures (because god knows jihoon couldn't do it himself) and to the comfort of their friendship group. said group were already gathered outside and sitting together in front of one of the many oak trees. upon seeing him, they began calling for him.

"jihoon, woojin, over here!" daniel called, waving them over enthusiastically.

jihoon sat down beside his cursed friendship group. there were way too many of them but he wouldn't have it any other way. woojin sat to his left, whilst mark slept on the grass to his right. hyeop and chan were busy arguing over some movie together, whilst changbin was attempting to rush a last minute assignment.

"hey y'all, hows it going?" woojin immediately asked, gaining mixed reactions from the group. daniel and hyeop had both clearly slept on the right side of the bed last night, with their bright and optimistic grins. chan and changbin both looked ready for death, truly. he understood them perfectly.

as the group delved into meaningless conversation, jihoon found himself drifting off into his thoughts. ever since they walked through the park together, jihoon couldn't get his mind off of jinyoung; sometimes it felt like he couldn't go a few minutes without his thoughts turning into jinyoung, one way or another. it was quite stressful, as i'm sure you can imagine, because this feeling was way to sudden for his liking.

in his defense though, jihoon had no idea as to what he was feeling in the first place.

it was as if overnight, someone had replaced all of his coherent and useful thoughts with reminders of jinyoung's smile, and his laugh, and the pout he would make whenever jihoon refused to listen to-

"oi, earth to park jihoon!" said boy was snapped out of his thoughts by chan impatiently waving his hand in front of his face. without realising it, everyone's attention had diverted to him. shit.

"you look stressed," mark spoke up, brow furrowed, "is something on your mind?"

jihoon blinked in momentarily confusion because when the fuck had mark woken up? how hadn't he realised? honestly, he needed to work on not getting so lost in his mind...like he was doing right now.

"it's probably nothing..." bad. never a good way to start a sentence. as mark's look of concern intensified, hyeop decided to talk.

"bullshit, if it's bothering you then it's something, right?" hyeop looked so proud of himself for stating that, bless his heart.

"we won't force you to tell us...yet, at least." woojin winked at him, gaining a nod of agreement from everyone else. jihoon debated on telling them all about his dilemma, he really did, but how was he meant to bring it up?

"i'm having really conflicting feelings about this boy who always rolls up to my shitty part time job. he's cute but he has fuck all sense in gift ideas." that wouldn't go down well with them. knowing his friends though, they would listen to his issue well. sure, they would probably take the piss out of him but in this case, it was worth it. jihoon needed help figuring out whatever the fuck was going on within him and pronto.

sighing, jihoon recounted his entire issue to them, beginning to end (end meaning the present.) he detailed jinyoung entering the store for the first time and buying that horrendous bathe and brew set for his crush (as he told them this, jihoon swore he saw changbin and hyeop share looks of disappointment) and all the other things he'd ever purchased from the convenience store. the weirdest part to describe remained their time in the park where this all started; the day he began to see bae jinyoung in a new light.

a much brighter light than before, one might say.

"sounds rough dude." chan stated after he'd finished talking.

"it really does," daniel sighed overdramatically, "our little jihoonie has fallen in love..."

huh?

jihoon's look of shock at daniel's words quickly turned into an icy glare at how stupid the older boy could be. why would he crush on jinyoung knowing fully well how in love the other was with his girlfriend? qué? che cosa? quelle??? the sheer idea of it was impossible, almost prompting jihoon to laugh.

"i'm not in love dumbass, start thinking harder!' daniel pouted at him, pretending to wipe a tear. jihoon chuckled softly at how cute daniel looked when he fake pouted. it was adorable but not as adorable as bae jinyoung-

he physically swatted the thought away because no! this is what he was trying to prevent! he needed to stop thinking so much about jinyoung and actually figure out why the other kept coming to his mind so often.

"ah, we've got a minute until humanities lectures!" changbin suddenly shouted, springing up quicker than any of them had ever seen.

"shit, really?" this conversation had gone on longer than any of them had realised, but that usually happened with them.

"yes really, let's go!" without another word, hyeop grabbed at changbin and jihoon's arms. he waved a speedy goodbye to everyone else before practically darting off to lecture with the other two poor boys. the run was short but it have jihoon a bit of time to mull over everyone's words.

a crush on bae jinyoung?

no, of course not.

jihoon mentally reminded himself to cross that one off the 'list of reasons why he couldn't get bae jinyoung out of his mind."