Lingering Jasmine | Im Jaebeom

Chapter Seven

The morning sky was still blanketed by darkness when Jaebeom awoke the next morning. Now that they were getting closer to finishing their album, the early morning meetings were beginning in order to complete the music video and photoshoot concepts. Jaebeom rolled over in bed, trying to allow himself some time to fully feel human again. He squinted at the bright phone in his hand as he checked his messages, hoping he received a new one after sleep tugged him from this waking world. Unfortunately, to his disappointment, there was nothing. A meow sounded from the direction of his room's entrance, he strained to see which of his cat children the meow originated from. A pair of glowing lights were making their way to his bedside, followed by a second and third pair. Nora, Odd, and Kunta all bounced up onto his bed after realizing their dad was awake. 'The others must still be sleeping.' Jaebeom thought to himself in loving adoration, imagining his companions curled up in little balls, emanating tiny kitty snores. Finally, after a few minutes of cuddling, Jaebeom stretched and slid out of bed, ready to begin his day.

When he got to JYP entertainment, he made his way up to the conference room. Luckily, he was early today, unlike their last studio session. As time passed, one-by-one, the rest of the 6 members and both the company's marketing team and production team came trickling in. There was a long presentation from each team, expressing what they intended to focus on this comeback. Somehow, Jaebeom's mind started wandering as their voices became background noise.

'I wonder when she usually gets up.' Jaebeom said internally as he glanced at his watch to see what time it was. His watch read 7:00AM. He then let out a small sigh, which captured Jinyoung's attention. 'Would it be too early to message her? It can't be right? She can just read it whenever she wakes up, right?' The leader thought to himself, conflicted on what he should do. He then decided that messaging her now would do no harm.

'Good morning, I was wondering if you were available this Sunday for that date I mentioned last night.' Jaebeom typed out on his phone. His thumb hesitated over the 'send' button knowing that once it was done, he couldn't turn back, but he closed his eyes and without a second thought, he pressed it.

Now fully intrigued by the weird behavior of their leader, Jinyoung observed Jaebeom as he clearly was at war with himself, then silently chuckled when he saw the leader close his eyes as he fiddled with his phone. He found the childish behavior endearing. This action of his led to a chain reaction, drawing the attention of all 5 other members who were now silently staring at the odd pair, the two still completely unaware of their gazes.

"What are you doing right now?" Jackson asked, breaking the silence. At his sudden remark, the presenters stopped their explanations on marketing strategies to figure out what was going on. The atmosphere in the room felt so uncomfortable, until suddenly all of the members burst into a fit of laughter. Jaebeom joined, not knowing exactly what it was they were laughing at, but knew that it had to involve him due to his absentmindedness. Bambam and Yugyeom then let out a long string of 'chu chu chu chu's and 'skrrt skrrt's as the room grew louder with conversations and laughs, adding to the energetic mood. It seems as though this high energy was a direct result of the morning coffee finally kicking in, now fully roused and returned to their usual, chaotic selves.

The day wore on and Jaebeom was saddened to see that there was still no response. Now lunch time, he and Jinyoung broke away from the group to have a meal at the nearby BBQ joint. As they were seated, Jinyoung decided to inquire about the leader's actions earlier that day in the meeting and why he seemed so distracted.

"So what was up with you this morning?" Jinyoung gave a side-eye, already having an idea of what was going on.

"Ah... I was debating whether to message Soomin or to wait." Jaebeom responded, almost in a deflated tone.