Not Your Lover (2PARK✔️)

Step Seventeen: Plunging

seventeeeeeeeeeeen yUP

it took me a really long time to choose the correct song by svt for this chapter. i went through all 1,000,069 songs, including solo ost's and part switch stage performances, and this is all i managed to pull up lmao. i almost went with OMG to keep it light, and then SIMPLE because dAYUM power vocals. TRAUMA works tho.

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Day By Daehwi: You guys missed the meeting.

Day By Daehwi: WHERE ARE YOU?

Day By Daehwi: My manager says you two get your own meeting with CEO Shin whenever you return.

Day By Daehwi: You missed a lot of new stuff. We're supposed to do a Halloween chor. video for a song and we couldn't film without Jihoon.

"I swear to God, if one more message pops up from that kid, I'm taking your phone and smashing it against this train floor." Jihoon peeks one eye open beside me glaring over at me in a sleepy daze.

"Sorry," I say gently, silencing my notifications and pocketing my phone. "Has he been texting you nonstop too?"

Jihoon shakes his head, shuffling uncomfortably on the hard bench seat. "No, I told him to text you instead." He smiles up at me jokingly, his eyes almost shut and barely any color is visible through his lashes. "I just wanted to take a nap before getting back, and he's finding every way to wake me up."

"Sorry," I say again, reaching out to tuck his coat up under his chin like a blanket. "We're almost there though, maybe about twenty minutes. One stop before Yongsan station." He nods, his eyes drifting shut once again, his head lolling until it hits my shoulder gently.

I stare down at his still form, my hands itching to brush his growing bangs away from his forehead. I fight the urge, sitting still as the train makes its way into the outskirts of Seoul, the city rising up outside the window as we trundle along. When the intercom awakens with a grainy message of our final arrival, Jihoon lifts his head slowly.

He swipes at the edges of his lips, glancing at me to see if I've noticed that he's begun to drool. I stand and turn away with a small smile, pretending nothing's been seen, and he stands a moment later with a sigh. "How bad do you really think it'll be?"

I shrug, shouldering him into the aisle so we can clamber off the train together. "My guess is you'll have to make a public apology for the huge troubles you've caused, and I'll have to disappear." I think a bit harder, chuckling to myself before speaking again. "Or they could pretend that it was a girl you were on top of, and not me in that specific photo. But either way, I suppose you'd be cheating on Nayoung to anybody who saw that one."

Jihoon whines under his breath, kicking out at my shin as we hop down from the train, hitting concrete for the first time in hours. "Now isn't exactly the time for jokes," he says through his teeth. His eyes scurry around the people gathered on the train platform, tugging his hood up over his face nervously. "Put your hood up too, idiot."

He scurries off, small yet quick steps that have me chasing after him through crowds of disembarking passengers. "Why are we running?" I shout out to him, no answer coming as he rushes into the train station and towards the main entrance. His sneakers slap against the floor, each step echoing around the large space and drawing the very eyes I imagine he's running to avoid. "Hey!" I call after him, only catching him when he stops outside the front doors.

"Sorry," he mumbles, bent at the waist to catch his breath. "But with the amount of people everywhere, I suppose a fresh batch of photos could get uploaded at any time."