boyfriend for rent • kim yohan

025

Kim Yohan knew something was wrong with him.

He didn't know how to explain it. When he was with Jiwoo, his heart fluttered like there was no tomorrow, but even so, there was no place he'd rather be.

When she was by his side, he always had the urge to put his arm around her and bring her closer to him, to protect her from all the dangers from the outside world.

Yohan had never felt anything like this before. He truly felt comfortable with Jiwoo (despite his rapidly beating heart), and he didn't like it when she was hanging around the other guys, not even her best friend Yuvin.

The first day he had realized this abnormality was when he found Jiwoo asleep on the couch, the TV in front of her still flashing with bright colors.

Her form was a comfortably fit on the couch, her head at one end and her feet at the other. A small smile flitted across his face at her peaceful expression, but then a frown took over when he realized how vulnerable she looked in those shorts that had always seemed to be a little bit too short for her.

Yohan's feet carried him to his bedroom upstairs and his hand grabbed the only blanket from his bed, before bringing it downstairs to the living room.

Slowly draping the blanket over the heavy sleeper, Yohan's hand lingered longer than necessary on her shoulder.

A loose strand of Jiwoo's hair was in her face, and Yohan thought that it must've be uncomfortable for her, so his hand involuntarily tucked the strand behind her ear, freezing slightly as the girl adjusted in her sleep. Relief filled him when he realized that she was still asleep, a small smile etched onto her face. She must be having a sweet dream.

A light, feathery feeling engulfed his heart and Yohan knew from that moment on that Jiwoo meant to him more than a friend.

He pressed a light kiss on her forehead, a small smile playing on his face when he recognized a familiar scent of lavender.

Yeap, he was whipped for Jiwoo.

———
"Y-Yohan, may I please talk to you?" An unfamiliar female voice came from behind, and the five friends whipped their heads around.

"Me?" Yohan asked, blinking at the shorter girl who he thought looked familiar. His mind raked through names and faces, trying to match them together.

"Hi, Saerin!" Jiwoo greeted the other girl brightly once she noticed the look on Yohan's eyes. It was one where he showed whenever he had trouble remembering people's names, so Jiwoo decided to help out.

"How many Yohans are there? Stupid." Yuvin rolled his eyes, pushing the other boy forward.

Jyunhao watched the scene where Yohan stood in front of Saerin before his mouth formed an 'O'. "I think I know what she's going to do."

The four friends stood by the sidelines. They could've give the two people some privacy by walking to the cafeteria first, really, but all of them were just too nosy when it came to their friend's business, so no one budged an inch.

"I like you, Kim Yohan, please go out with me!" Saerin managed to say that without stuttering, but her face was so flustered that people were worried she was going to faint.

A shocked silence filled the hallway, and the girl who confessed couldn't look at Yohan in the eye, so she failed the notice the way Yohan spared a glance at Jiwoo.

"Oh my god." Yuvin whispered. "Is everyone else here getting confessed to except me?"

"And me." Jyunhao added. "I'm the one who confessed. There's a difference."

Wooseok shrugged. "I've been confessed to far too many times to count."

Jiwoo, the girl who always had something to say, was oddly quiet, so Yohan couldn't help but feel the corner of his lips tilting upwards. Is she perhaps jealous?

"U-um, Yohan?" Saerin asked again once the boy in front of her had been quiet for far too long.

"Oh, right." A pretty girl was confessing to him, and all he could think about was Jiwoo, what was wrong with him?

"Sorry, Saerin. I like someone else." Short and blunt. Yohan never really had a way with words.

Jiwoo didn't know what felt worse. The fact that Yohan got confessed to, or the fact that he had a crush on someone else. She looked at her feet. Why did she have to feel bad? If it was Yuvin, she would be teasing him all the way to Mars, but now that it was Yohan, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Yohan was too busy looking at the girl whose hair was covering her face and whose eyes were on her shoes to see a saddened Saerin walking away, tears dripping down her face.

"Damn it, Yohan, couldn't you be nicer about it?" Yuvin asked while watching her retreating back, feeling a little bad for the emotional girl.

Yohan didn't reply, but instead chose to walk to the uncharacteristically quiet girl, and put an arm around her shoulders out of habit, drawing Jiwoo's form next to his. Jiwoo was rarely quiet, so Yohan couldn't help but feel something inside him being torn apart by how out of place the lively girl was.

"Let's get lunch, shall we?" He asked the girl, his hand tightening reassuringly on her shoulder when she didn't reply.