boyfriend for rent • kim yohan

022

Needless to say, the next day was very awkward.

Yohan was happily eating breakfast with Jiwoo when Wooseok started coming down the stairs.

The so-called boyfriend stared at Jiwoo for a few seconds before walking forward to take a seat at the dining table. Yohan couldn't even keep the stupid, satisfied smirk out of his face when he sensed Wooseok's discomfort, so he tried to hide it by stuffing his face with pancakes.

Wooseok stopped himself before he could pull out the chair and looked like he was having an internal conflict in his mind. From the chair's side sat a stiffened Jiwoo who was nervously holding in her breath, probably without her even realizing it.

"Actually," Wooseok finally said. "I'm going to go to school early today." He pushed the chair back in and when his eyes landed in the girl, Wooseok hesitated.

Yohan twitched when Wooseok had the nerve to place his hand on Jiwoo's shoulder, making her look like a deer caught in headlights. "I'll see you there, baby."

Any other day, the word 'baby' would've sounded natural in his sentence, because Wooseok was definitely a pro at his job. But here, 'baby' just seemed out of place and unnecessary, so Jiwoo simply nodded at the guy, her eye on his back as he left the house.

Jiwoo didn't understand herself. She finally got the boyfriend of her dreams- he was Kim Wooseok for god's sake. It's only been five days, and any sort of attraction she's had for him didn't grow. Sure, he's handsome and she was admittedly physically attracted to him in the beginning.

His light touches, gentle cheek holding, palm tracing were simply physical contact to her that didn't seem to hold any affection. Jiwoo felt like an absolute jerk. She felt like she was just using these 'boyfriends'- but the truth was, they were just doing their jobs too, so she didn't need to feel hurt when she didn't reciprocate the feelings that Wooseok didn't even have for her in the first place.

So, Yohan watched as Jiwoo held a thoughtful expression on her face, something that was actually very rare, and decided to not interrupt her train of thoughts. If Jiwoo was thinking, then he knew it was important.

If she wasn't thinking, well... that was just your typical Jiwoo.

———
"Do you still want to have lunch with me?" Wooseok stood by her table as Jiwoo sat in her seat and packed her books.

Jiwoo went silent for a bit and when she nodded and made a move to stand, Yohan immediately grabbed her wrist.

"Jiwoo." He said. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

She gave Yohan a smile, touched by his concern. "Thanks, buddy, but I want this. I need to talk to him."

Her seatmate pouted. "Why? What's there to talk about?"

Jiwoo leaned in to pat his head, and Yohan thought she smelled like clean laundry and fresh detergent, which honestly was very nice.

"Young one." Jiwoo used that tune she's always used when she pretended to be wiser than the rest of them (which rarely was the case). "When you're mad at me, the thing that got us back together was communication. So I'm going to fix things up with Wooseok by talking to him, not avoiding him."

Yohan felt a pang because avoidance was his go-to passive aggressive reaction. He avoided Jiwoo whenever he was angry at himself or at her (mostly with childish stuff) and she had always been the one to approach him. He felt like he was emotionally immature, and because of that, he couldn't keep up with his housemate sometimes.

He was smart, yes, he liked to read books, yes, but he couldn't talk to new people and commit to a relationship or friendship for god knows how much effort he puts in. He felt the need to grow up, and the first step to that was to let his friend go do her thing. Without feeling this ugly, painful feeling inside him, whatever it was.

"Fine."

And maybe one day, he would finally be as mature as Jiwoo when dealing with people. Maybe then, he would finally be able to understand Jiwoo better from her point of view.

Maybe then, he would finally have Jiwoo's attention.

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A/N:

fun fact: wooseok and jiwoo's ship name would be woowoo 😂😂