NCT Imagines (Requests closed)

Remember how... (Jungwoo)

Y/N stopped in her tracks, completely frozen.

She placed a hand on the door frame to support herself. Was what she was seeing true or was it just her imagination and wishful thinking?

"Y/N?" Someone nudged her. "Why are you standing here?"

"Oh, Lisa. It's nothing," she replied, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Why are you late? Did you oversleep again?" Lisa asked, shaking her head. "Mr. Kim marked you absent."

"Yeah, I just spoke with him on the way here," she said quickly. "But, who is that on the seat beside mine?" She gestured towards the desks placed next to the window.

Lisa grinned, "that's the new transfer student. Isn't he pretty? His name's Jungwoo."

Y/N felt her stomach flip. So it wasn't her imagination but Jungwoo was here in the flesh. It had been more than ten years but Y/N recognized him at first glance. Would he remember her too?

Sunlight poured in through the window, dousing Jungwoo. His curls and smooth skin shone brightly, making him look like an angel from heaven. Y/N knew he was an angel at heart too.

She took small steps towards her seat, her heartbeat picking up pace. What if he didn't recognize her? And what if he did? Y/N didn't know which was better. She pulled her chair back and sat beside him, angling her face away.

"Hello," he said in a soft voice. "I'm Jungwoo and I-" he broke off when Y/N turned her face towards him. "Y/N?" His eyes went wide and he looked almost like a puppy.

"Jungwoo," she replied when she found her voice. "You recognized me."

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" He smiled, sincerely happy.

The rest of the day went by showing him around the school and catching up on the years they'd been apart. Jungwoo was just as sweet and soft-spoken as the first time she had met him. It was when Y/N had first arrived at the orphanage, scared and bawling her eyes out. The caretaker there had not shown her much warmth, with so many kids there wasn't enough love for everyone she supposed.

Y/N was left parent-less and friendless, completely alone. And alone she had been crying, sitting on the swing in the playground. Then she saw a chocolate bar appear in her teary vision. She looked up and a boy was holding out the snack for her. "Want to be my friend?" He asked with a sweet smile. After that day, Y/N always had Jungwoo by her side. But that was until Jungwoo was adopted a few years later and Y/N was lonely once again.

Sometime later, Y/N was adopted too but that didn't stop her from missing Jungwoo. She always wondered how he was doing. Was his new family treating him just as well as Y/N's? Meeting him again in high school, she could tell that he did not have too hard of a time. Jungwoo was never good at hiding his feelings.

"So, do you like your new school?" Y/N asked him as they walked side-by-side to the bus stop.

"I wasn't sure I would when I first came here but now I love it," he answered.

Y/N smiled, "the cafeteria food is pretty good, isn't it?"

"That's not the only reason," he said, glancing at Y/N.

From the distance, Y/N saw the bus she was supposed to take arrive. "It's here already," Y/N gasped as she ran towards it, Jungwoo beside her. In her haste, she didn't realize that her shoelaces had come undone, causing her to trip and fall on her palms and knees.

Jungwoo let out an audible gasp and quickly knelt. "Are you alright?" His voice was laced with worry.

"I'm fine," Y/N reassured, standing up and immediately wincing because of the pain in her knee. She had hurried to catch the bus but it had been all for naught since the bus was already speeding away.

Jungwoo was still kneeling beside her. "Your knees are scraped," he said before standing up. "Come on," he pulled Y/N by the arm and made her sit on the bench at the bus stop. "Stay right here," he said before running off in the direction they had come from.

"Where are you going?" She shouted after him but he didn't turn around to reply. Y/N examined her knees and saw blood beading on them. Jungwoo had looked alarmed even though the injury was not too bad and her palms were completely fine. Y/N smiled to herself. She remembered how Jungwoo was back at the orphanage. Always caring, always worried about her.

Jungwoo came back running, a plastic bag in his hand. He sat beside her and took out bandages and a tube of ointment. "You're still so clumsy," he mumbled as he unscrewed the cap of the tube. After applying ointment on the scratches and sticking bandages he knelt in front of her to tie her shoelaces.

Y/N watched him in silence. His concern for her wellbeing touched her heart. She watched how his soft hair fell on his forehead, how his eyebrows drew-in in concentration, and his lips... She felt heat rise to her face and looked away.

She remembered having those child-like feelings of love for Jungwoo when they were kids. But now... could those feelings have lingered?

"All done," Jungwoo announced as he sat down next to Y/N again. He fished out a box of chocolate milk from the plastic bag and handed it to her. "You used to like this back then. I thought you still might."

"I do," Y/N smiled. "I'm surprised you still remember."

"Oh, I remember a lot of things."

"Do you remember how you used to cry whenever I scraped myself while playing?"

Jungwoo chuckled, "Yeah, I remember. And then you would hold my hand so that I'd stop crying."

Y/N held out her hand to him, "Want me to hold your hand in case you feel like crying after seeing my scraped knees?"

"Well then, I'll just pretend to cry," Jungwoo replied and clasped her hand. Y/N felt electricity rushing through her nerve fibers at the contact. Silence fell over the two while they waited for the next bus. "You know," Jungwoo spoke up after some time, "I missed you a lot after moving away."

"Me too," Y/N confessed, too shy to look at him in the eyes. Jungwoo gave her hand a light squeeze and Y/N knew that her childhood feelings hadn't gone anywhere.

xxx

Thank you @kpopologist for requesting this!

I hope you all liked this cute imagine for Jungwoo.