Protection||Jay

chapter twelve

once the two older figures left the café, hana immediately grabbed jay's wrist and took him to the back.

"what do you have to say for yourself?" she asked, folding her arms, "the last time i checked, i wasn't aware of our relationship. what relationship is there? you call us bumping heads a relationship?"

"are you done yelling at me?" jay asked with a chuckle, leaning against the wall.

hana nodded, making an 'ng' sound.

"i did that to protect you."'

"what?"

"well maybe not necessarily protect you, but if we were to tell them no, if we told them that we aren't dating, they'd make me cut off all connections with you. and if they found out that we live next to each other .. oh boy. that would be another story for another time."

"but you already blocked my number, so you might as well cut off all other connections," hana bitterly replied.

jay gasped and turned to hana, crossing his arms over his chest. he went down a bit to make face to face contact with hana and smiled, "are you upset that you couldn't speak to me? have i already made that big of an impact?"

hana playfully rolled her eyes and replied, "well obviously i'm going to be upset if you block me without any context. do you know how many hours of sleep i lost while trying to think of what i did wrong to get blocked?"

"you lost sleep?" jay worriedly asked, receiving a hum.

"don't do that again. don't stay up for me," he stated, "i had to do it under the company's command."

"i'm not following along," hana spoke.

"when the company first saw the pictures, they asked me to block your number," jay explained, "i had no say."

"one second," he sighed, taking his phone out after feeling it vibrate.

enhypen

sunghoon
jay since when were
you dating someone?

sunoo
right! why would you
hide it from us

jungwon
he probably had his
reasons guys

heeseung
what are you all
talking about?

sunghoon
click the link under

clicking the link sent by sunghoon, jay was taken to an article page, titled "Breaking: ENHYPEN's Jay Confirmed to be Dating"

"no way," he spoke, "an article is already out?"

"what's wrong?" hana asked.

jay stepped next to hana, allowing her to see the article as jay read it aloud, "rumors about enhypen's jay secretly dating have been confirmed by the group's entertainments, belift and bighit. although who he is dating has yet to be revealed, the confirmation statement of jay's relationship was released today."

hana widened her eyes and said, "wow .. is this how celebrities deal with relationships? you get a whole article confirming our fake relationship? that's definitely something."

"right, but no one can no we're faking, okay?" jay whispered, "if word gets out, i'm absolutely done for and we would no longer we able to see each other."

slightly frightened by jay's tone, hana nodded, "but why did you confirm it in the first place? like i know it was to protect our whatever we have, but we're not even that close. we're not even friends, are we?"

jay gasped and crossed his arms, "you don't consider me as a friend yet? i am absolutely devastated."

"well go cry about it," hana spat.

"you're only putting your career at risk now," she mumbled.

"well at least word is out, so i don't have to worry about it. i just don't know how the fans are going to take it," jay replied with a slightly sad tone.

"yeah and that i'm worried about. you didn't take all those notes and comments so well. you looked like a total wreck, jay," hana spoke.

he chuckled, "i think you've told me that already."

"but no i'm serious," hana sighed, "you didn't talk to me for days and the one time i go to see you, it was in the middle of the night and i had like five boys answer the door. gosh you live in a place full of boys? how does that even happen?"

"then i go to see you in your room and oh my. your hair was a mess. you had eye bags, meaning you didn't sleep for days. your room was a mess with all those notes. and i even think you lost some weight," she rambled.

hana grabbed jay's wrist and waved his arm in the air, "see i was right! you starved yourself, didn't you?"

"gosh how could you not take care of yourself? don't you have like .. a boss .. or manager or something to make sure you're staying healthy?" she asked with disbelief.

the whole time hana stood there rambling and lecturing jay, he stood there and watched in amusement with a smile on his face.

"you done?" he smiled.

"are you worried about me?" he teased.

"correction, were. past tense, meaning i no longer worry about you. and i don't want to have to worry about you again, so take care of yourself, yeah?" hana replied, receiving a nod.

"nope. pinky promise or i can't trust you," she added.

"you are definitely a child for sure," jay chuckled, wrapping his pinky around hana's.

"there you are!" eunbi exclaimed, standing in front of hana and jay with andrew behind her.

"i knew something was going on between you two!" andrew exclaimed, "it's all over the media!"

"how do they know it's you?" jay asked.

"um .. i sort of told them about it," hana replied, "i'm sorry. i didn't know i wasn't supposed t—"

"it's okay. i get it," jay comfortingly smiled.

"oh boy," andrew sighed, "don't tell me we're going to be third and fourth wheeling now."

"why did you hide it from us?!" eunbi whined.

"i—" hana began, "i had to. i'm sorry. it was to uh .. protect jay. who knew dating someone famous would stir up such a big issue."

andrew and eunbi cooed at hana's response, "love birds indeed."

hana nervously chuckled, "haha .. yep .. that's us."