nebula || jungjaehyun

⇢ stains ⇠

03 

stains 

When he meets her eyes, he freezes. He feels his ears burn and there's this twinge that radiates from his kidneys. 

He doesn't even know her name. He thinks she might be staff, but her eyes widen in guilt -- he knows it as guilt because that's how he looks at her too. 

She clears her throat and keeps her head down as she marches down the hall. She's trying to vanish -- he knows that intimately too. 

As he brushes at the nicotine on his tongue with his toothbrush, he thinks to the first time he saw her. Behind the music hall, where he had been smoking and she had been sneaking -- her collar was ridiculously huge and hid most of her face. When their eyes locked, a silent contract passed between them: they will never speak of this. 

The stylist picks at his fingernails. He watches her face: the puckered lips of disapproval, the furrowed brows of frustration, the flared nostrils of impatience. Regardless, she scrubs away at the nicotine stains and he wonders if there's a stain remover for skeletons. 

"NCT, are we ready?" Taeyong calls, adjusting his earpiece and mic. 

There's a chorus of "Yes," but Jaehyun thinks, Never. He plasters a dimpled smile on his face anyway. 

;; 

a/n: if you've read any of my previous works, you might be able to guess who the mysterious woman in this chapter is??? 

comment your guesses! ❤️️