stealing glances.
@jinahcv
jinah has been a fixture in his life for so long he's never second guessed her presence. she's his safe haven, his best friend, his trusted companion. she's been with him for long nights bent over old books, for early morning walks across the grounds. she's been there when he was broken and when he was whole and she has, in both cases, loved him all the same. there are few things in life that remain constant and dependable and safe, and jinah is the most important of those.
but things have been different lately.
he isn't sure when he noticed it, the shift in the air, the shift in him - in her? - but suddenly he starts paying attention. he starts noticing. things like the way her hair falls around her face, the smell of her shampoo, the curve of her lips. it happens abruptly and he's pretty sure she wants him to see it, to notice it. he'd be blind not too, and now that he has he can't stop, offers her shy smiles and quick grins because there's a tension that has started to build between them, moments when he's thought she might want to kiss him, or want him to kiss her.
he doesn't, though, not yet. he doesn't consider it either. he doesn't think about what it could mean - for him, for her, for them. he's spent so much of his life hung up on taemin he doesn't entertain the possibility of someone else. even sehun, his nearly almost something, well, he's just biding time waiting for hyungwon. jongin is used to that. he's used to being the stand in, the filler, the boy people turn too when they need their hearts patched up again, only to leave him for the next one they flutter off to bestow with their love instead of him.
so the idea that someone - that such an important someone - might maybe possibly be looking at him first? its weird. its scary. and he doesn't know what to do with it, what to think of it, how to weigh the pros and cons of it. so he does what he does best and turns a blind eye. if he can ignore taemin returning to him only after he fucks his way down their hall, if he can ignore hyungwon turning to him when he's bored and taemin is busy, if he can ignore sehun cozying up to him because hyungwon is otherwise occupied? well, he can ignore this too.
so he does, and that's how they end up side by side, a bowl of popcorn on his lap and laughter on his lips, husky and bright as some stupid variety show plays over the television, shoulder bumping into jinah's to jostle her when something particularly hilarious occurs, his nose scrunched, smile boxy and wide, and his eyes crinkled at the edges. "ah, i miss hanging out like this. you should stop being so busy. i should stop being so busy." he determines as he threads a hand back through his hair to muss at the strands.
