I Like Me Better [JaeYong]

Nine

Running out of food in your fridge is the worst thing for a person who'd rather stay indoors than live life outside of their comfort zone. Except, that's exactly what happened to Jaehyun just now, and he hasn't had the chance to go out and do any grocery shopping. He's yelled at himself for multiple days for ordering takeout, but never fully convinced himself to actually get real food.

Once Jaehyun had realized all the cabinets are empty, he fell back onto his couch in frustration. He places his hands on his face and drags them down, pulling on the loose skin. This action makes him look old or, even better, demonic, but he's alone in his apartment so he doesn't care.

Jaehyun groans in annoyance, truly not wanting to go outside on a day like this, which was reported to be one of the coldest ever recorded that season. He'd rather be inside and cuddled up in a warm blanket with hot chocolate, cliché as ever.

"Maybe I'll just not eat today, I'm not really feeling take-out again for the..." Jaehyun pauses his speech to himself and proceeds to count nine days on his fingers, "tenth night in a row."

On cue, Jaehyun's stomach rumbles as loud as it could, signaling that it needs food and it needs it now. His face shows that he's shocked, he didn't know his stomach could emit such a loud and threatening sound.

"Alright, fine! I'm getting up and going now!" Jaehyun's body shoots up, swaying a bit from side to side due to all the blood leaving his brain. Once stable enough to actually move, he grabs his keys off the countertop and heads out the door to his regular grocery store.

The weatherman on TV wasn't lying when he said that it would be in the negatives that day because no matter how many layers Jaehyun had put on, it wouldn't be enough to keep him warm. Yes, he 100% regrets not putting on more jackets before he left, but in the heat of the moment, he had forgotten.

Being in the cold had remind Jaehyun that the store is relatively far away. The fact that it's close to negative fifteen degrees Celsius doesn't help the fact that he would get hypothermia before he could ever make it back to his apartment.

Jaehyun spots a 24-Hour Convenience Store across the street and decides to go in there instead. Jaywalking across the busy road, of course he gets honked at by multiple different cars, and even flipped off. He bows his head in apology, but it was half-assed and didn't even look like he was bowing anyways.

Pushing the store's glass doors open, Jaehyun hears the jingle of the bell above his head, indicating to everyone inside that he's entered the store. He peers over to the cashier behind the counter, seeing that she's busy in the world of social media rather than busy with running the store. Something could easily be stolen and it'd take her three days to realize, but in the end she wouldn't even care.

Besides the girl who's "doing her job", Jaehyun appears to be with another shopper in the store. The customer had his hair attempting to cover his eyes, a shiny black color that seemed to be freshly done helps him with in blending into the crowd. Though, his matching black face mask makes him appear to be an idol, especially since he's keeping his head down. Jaehyun shouldn't be talking though, since he is a (somewhat) famous fashion designer aimlessly walking around with no fear of any media news or crazy fans following him.

Jaehyun could've sworn the possible-idol-customer was Taeyong, but before he could get a good look at him, the customer had moved onto the next aisle. He wasn't going to get his hopes up, there's more of a chance of the fellow customer not being Taeyong than any other option.

Though, Jaehyun's curiosity truly got to the better of him, since he follows the stranger into the same aisle after a few minutes of awkwardly staring at weird and useless products on the shelves. He acts as if he's trying to find an item, but really his gut feeling is telling him that the fellow customer is the one he's been looking for since they've met months ago. He can't stop glancing back and forth, from the products in front of him to the short stature of the one he believes to be is Taeyong.

Jaehyun truly looks like a creep and he can feel the tension rising up. His shoulders are tense and his heart starts to pick up its pace, having a mental debate with himself on whether he should ask the stranger if he's Lee Taeyong or not.

"Well, it's now or never." Jaehyun convinces himself. He takes a few steps closer to Maybe-Taeyong and taps on his shoulder, almost instantly melting at the sight of the familiar eyes.

"Are you Lee Taeyong, by any chance?" Jaehyun whispers with hope, praying to any god that it's really him. The person's eyes connect with the younger's and makes a run for it out of the store, all the groceries that were once in his arms are now dropped and scattered all across the aisle's floor.