#I binged the comic in a day and now im cursed (in a good way)

[scentedcandlecryptid]

The Glass Scientists has consumed my every thought, so naturally I had to draw my favourite characters, who can never seem to catch a break <333

click for better quality!!

[softforimjaebum]

죄라 (4)

Im Jaebum x Reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Genre: Angst

Summary: “How do you antifreeze?” “How?” “Steal her blanket”

Author’s Note: Spoiler; it is a little bit of a pun fest, and I refuse to apologise for it. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

You woke up the next day, in your all familiar bed with an all familiar smell. He tainted everything, and everyone. Including you. 

You didn't really remember how you got in your bed, the last thing you could remember was being in Jackson’s car. You were guessing he was the one who got you safely in bed too. Which is when a sudden panic hit you; in your frenzy to leave the club, you had forgotten to pick up your clutch from the booth. It had some money and your phone, the second one being of way more importance. 

As you were leaving your bed to possibly have to make a run back to the club, you were taken aback to see your phone charging on your bedside table with your clutch kept neatly propped up on it. 

 Jackson Wang; truly your knight in shining armor. 

 You checked your phone, groaning when you saw it was way past when you were supposed to be at the office. 

 The office. Your stomach churned uncomfortably at the very thought of the JYPE building. Even if the offices were a completely different section than where you would usually find the idols, and even if your job was way more involved with the trainees than the already debuted idols, it wasn't unusually to bump into them somewhere or the other. The bumping into each other is what kept your friendship with GOT7 alive after your temporary work with them was over. 

You never took days off, not even sick leaves. Whether you were dying of a cold or had fever high enough to be able to cook stuff on your own body, you showed up to work. Not because your bosses were devils who didn't give you any time off, but because you liked your work. It didn't seem like work on most days. 

But today you were still half asleep at the unacceptable hour of 11am on a Monday morning. So you texted you boss, telling him you were sick and you had only just woken up. And given your track record and friendly relationship with him, you knew he wouldn't mind one bit. If you were staying home as a sick day off he knew it had to have been bad. 

There were a couple of other texts, the most important of which was from Jackson asking you to let him know when you've woken up and if you're doing okay. That was sent at 8am, when GOT7’s practice starts. You decided on texting him later, who knows where his phone would be right now? And more importantly with whom it could be with. 

After you were done texting your boss, you made a mental to-do list in order of the necessity of the things you needed to get done. 

While you knew you were hungry and should have been eating right away, there was a voice in your head constantly reminding you of exactly what had happened on these very sheets the day before. So you decided that the first order of the day was to wash your sheets, again. This time you put in a little more than the necessary amount of the really flowery detergent, hoping it could somehow wash away the memories that were made on it along with everything else.

Your stomach grumbled loudly enough to pull you from your thoughts. Even if food was the last thing you wanted to be worrying about you had to feed yourself. Life had to take its course of moving on whether you were ready to tag along or not, so keeping yourself fed was an important part. Or so you reasoned with yourself to make yourself get to your kitchen and make some food. 

You dragged yourself out of your room, dreading to go to your kitchen and have vague memories of him there when a voice took you by surprise. 

“You haven't eaten since last night have you?” 

You let out a small scream, not expecting anyone to be home let alone the girl in front of you. If Cat was here it meant Jackson was worried enough to call her. And while you appreciated his worry, calling your closet friend during a time you knew she was busy with her work made you feel uneasy. 

“What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the gallery?” 

“Have you had anything to eat since last night?” Cat asked, ignoring your question completely. 

You shook your head.

“Okay, I got us some pizza on my way here. And I have Brooklyn Nine-Nine streamed on your Netflix. Help me get everything set up”

“Okay”

And just like that, your late morning turned into an early lunch. You realised it was a good thing Jackson had told her. If he hadn't, you would stay living inside your head all day and that would just do you no good. Cat didn't ask any questions, knowing you would talk to her when you were ready. But even that little human contact was good for you. 

Cat left late in the afternoon, deciding to indeed check up if everything was working perfectly at the gallery. And you continued to binge watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine wrapped up in the softest comforter you could find. 

When you noticed that the lounge had gotten considerably darker, you decided you may as well get a head start on the dinner. Your roommate would probably be curious, and while you were really good friends you both were often known to lead very independent lives. 

You knew she would be there for you when you needed her, and she knew that you would do the same. But both of you never felt the need to constantly keep in touch, even when you lived in the same house. Most days you would have dinner together, but even when you didn't it wasn't such a big deal for either of you. 

Midway through the dinner prep, the bell rang and your heart rate instantly picked up. The two people who lived in the apartment never rang the bell. It was a thing between the two of you, both of you always carried keys and would let yourselves in regardless of whether the other one was home or not. Which meant that this bell ringer was someone else. 

Before you would control it your mind instantly raced to Jaebum. What if it was him? 

You mentally cursed yourself for that being the first thing you thought of. Why would it be him? What sort of wishful thinking had you landed yourself in?

You opened the door only to be engulfed in black hoodie followed by a tiny bark coming from below you. 

“Noona!” you heard the black hoodie say, immediately recognising the voice that said it. “You didn't text Jackson hyung. And you didn't come to office today, we were so worried!” 

Jackson Wang was about to need some life saving at this rate. 

“Noona did you have lunch today? Have you had water?” Youngjae continued rambling as he held you. 

You hugged him back, but it soon turned out to be a difficult task to continue. 

“Yah Choi Youngjae! You're suffocating me”

He pulled back and smiled sheepishly at you. 

“Noona is too small, what do I do?”

You hit his arm playfully and turned to the other one who was desperately wanted your attention on her. 

“My little Coco, come here” you said to her, her tail wagging even more vigorously upon hearing her name being called out.

You continued to coo at Coco and pet her, while Youngjae took it upon himself to close your main door and invite himself in. 

15 minutes later, all three of you were cuddled up on the sofa watching anime. Coco was squished between you and Youngjae, who kept talking mid way through, not that you minded. You loved Youngjae and just his presence was making you feel more at ease. 

You texted Jackson in the pee break Youngjae took, telling him that you were fine and didn’t get around to texting him because you were worried about who he would be with. Jackson’s reply was instant.

You chose one hell of a time. I’m with him for the first time in the day right now. Talk to you later <3

Your heart dropped at the insinuation of Jaebum, but Youngjae was back from his pee break. You told him that you had texted Jackson like he had asked and the conversation took a very unexpected turn.

He told you how he was babysitting Coco and couldn't show up at the club the night before, and how Jackson did not feel like going back to the dorms after dropping you off so he had crashed at Youngjae’s apartment instead; where he had also ended up telling Youngjae about everything that had happened. He confessed that he was afraid things were going to turn sour between Jaebum and you when he first found about your little arrangement.

“Wait, how did you guys know about- you know- everything?” 

He paused for a second. 

“Ah noona, wasn't it too obvious? The way hyung looked at you sometimes, it made all of us uncomfortable at the tension in the room really” 

You looked at Youngjae’s comical expression and it made you smile at him and lightly shoved him away. 

“And how you and hyung would not be available at the same times, that was way too obvious”

So as it turns out all of them had known about you and Jaebum, which made you feel just a little better. This would mean there wouldn't be any awkward questions about why you weren't spending as much time with them in your free time. 

Looking back, you knew you spent a little too much time with these boys. Your work had shifted to focusing on the JYP trainees and yet any time work was slow or you were free you were up in their practice room. It wasn't even because of Jaebum, you were just good friends with the boys. There had even been times you had hid in their practice room and times when you were swamped with work but you chose to bring it all to their practice room. You had sat on the couch that was always kept at the back of the room and done your work while they had learnt their choreography. 

You suddenly remembered the half prepped food you still had in the kitchen, and invited Youngjae to stay for dinner. He agreed on the condition that he got to help you make whatever you were making. While cooking pasta for three was an extremely easy task, he insisted on helping and so you let him. 

Youngjae cut the tomatoes for the pasta sauce while you cooked the marinated chicken. Admittedly it took a lot less time to cook with Youngjae helping you around. 

An hour later, you were all sitting at the dinner table that you had been sitting with Jaebum just the day before, Youngjae, your roommate and you, along with Coco enjoying the little meat you kept aside for her. You tried explaining everything to your roommate but apparently Jackson had told her everything when he carried you up to your bedroom the night before. 

This boy really told everyone didn’t he?

It was an easy conversation after that, you sneaked in a little more chicken to a puppy eyed Coco much to the grump of Youngjae who whined to you about how ‘you're gonna spoil her and then she will ask me for more food’ to which you argued that as Coco’s aunt you had every right to spoil her. 

A little while later, all of you were sitting in the lounge sofa watching a romantic comedy to which Youngjae’s loud laugh made everything funnier. Coco was sandwiched between you and Youngjae, blissfully asleep with you scratching behind her ear. And as you sat there with your friends, life seemed way more manageable than it seemed that morning. 

A couple of hours later when Youngjae left, and you and your roommate got back to your own rooms, all the negative feelings came flooding back into your mind. It was like a tide of sadness hit you, and you were suddenly seeing Jaebum’s memories scattered everywhere in your room. It was like he was haunting you. Things didn’t seem nearly as manageable as it seemed just a little while ago.

That is how you ended up on the floor, curled up in a comforter watching anything and everything that kept your mind off him until exhaustion took over. 

The next few days were a blur, you did what every clichéd heartbroken protagonist does; busied yourself with work. You were glad the admin sections in the JYPE building were completely separated from the practice rooms and any other idol related areas because that meant there was no chance of you accidentally bumping into him. All you had to do was avoid him in the elevators, which you had pretty mechanically done. You were aware of the usual times they were supposed to come in and leave, and you purposefully avoided the elevators during those times or hid out in your office. 

Another thing you were glad for was the constant presence of your friends. The boys had taken it upon themselves to come meet you in their breaks, sometimes all of them would cram themselves into your tiny office and have lunch with you. 

Yugyeom took it upon himself to buy himself choco shakes and buy you coffee, and visit you whenever he had any free time; no matter how much you told him he didn't need to spend every free moment he had with you. 

Where once your den used to be the practice rooms, now it was Youngjae’s new apartment. It was close to the JYP building and Coco was there; double the excuse for you all to drop by his apartment every now and then. 

You knew that Jaebum had gotten back together with his ex-girlfriend, having had a very close call of bumping into her when Yugyeom and Bambam had once come over to whine to you to take them out for dinner and you had all left the building together. She was just entering and you had successfully hidden behind Yugyeom while Bambam distracted and dropped her till the elevators. 

It wasn't like you hadn't expected it; you knew the day you walked out of that club that they would end up back together. They always got back together. Maybe it was fate or maybe it was bad decisions, but it happened every time so you tried to not let it faze you. It fazed you, more than you ever let on, but pretending that it didn’t until you believed it yourself was how you chose to deal with that situation. 

In the month that followed, apart from the brief moments of hope you found when you were with you’re the boys and Cat, the only relief you found in life was in the form of a dear friend of yours finally being back in the city after a long tour. 

Song Minho was exactly who you needed to take your mind off of everything that was happening. He insisted on catching up with you over lunch, and was currently on his way to pick you up and take you to Aori Ramen, where admittedly, you were hoping to catch a glimpse of Seungri.

After all, you would be crazy to not be a fan of Big Bang.

Minho was a shameless flirt and in the best way possible. He flirted not because he wanted to get in your pants but because he knew his cheesy pick up lines made you laugh. You had picked up a bad habit from him in the form of making really bad puns. 

The bell rang just as you had put your bag together, and you found yourself really excited in to meet him after so long. You took the bag and quickly hurried to the door.

“Show Mino money!” you chirped. “How have you been?”

Mino laughed at you, shaking his head as he leaned in to hug you.

“When are you going to let me forget that awful pun?”

“Never” you said, hugging him back.

Minho was so familiar, in all the good ways too. You had known him the longest out of the whole lot of people you knew in the industry. You had bumped into him in your first year of college, before Winner had debuted, even before Team A was a thing. Initially you didn’t think that after his debut you would able to stay in touch with him, but Minho had turned up on your doorstep one night, takeout and a couple of soju bottles in hand, tired of the pressure he was under. You knew after that night that fame wasn’t getting in the way of this friendship.

“Okay let’s go I’m dying for lunch” he hurried you, handing you the keys from the hook they were hanging on near the door.

You quickly put on your shoes, and locked your door. You were probably starving just as bad as him, which was saying something.

Once you were both seated and had finished ordering food, Minho showed you pictures of Johnny and told how she had been bossing around the rest of the pets at the dorm. You missed Johnny so much, and he made you promise you would come visit everyone soon. You were glad to agree that whenever they had time next time around, you would drop by.

The food came and you both initially got busy trying to stuff your face with as much as food as possible. The conversations could always wait till later; food was a very important aspect of your lives. On your way back, you both stopped by to get your favorite mint chocolate ice-creams from a place near your apartment which you ate sitting in car while you told him about Jaebum.

He knew about everything that was between you and Jaebum from the beginning, and had once even called you out on the feelings you had been secretly harboring for Jaebum. Minho was a no-bullshit friend and on most days you appreciated that. Today, however, he was just a little disappointed; at the situation and at the man who put you in it. He could tell that your mood had turned just a little sour at the recollection, and he knew exactly how to fix it.

“Hey, I have a question for you” Minho said, a cheeky smile evident on his face. You knew nothing good came out of that smile, ever.

“How do you make antifreeze?”

You stared blankly at him, “How?”

“Steal her blanket”

“Oh my god, Song Minho, I am disowning you” you said, a smile creeping its way onto your face regardless of how lame the pun was.

“Oh please, you love it” he teased you, quickly stealing a little ice cream from you, having already finished his own.

You tried to turn away from him to save your ice cream but he held your hand as he scooped a little onto his spoon.

“Ah, let go, get yourself another one man”

“Nuh-huh” he mumbled, eating the ice cream he stole from you while you scowled at him. “Stealing from you is so much better, look at how annoyed you get”

You rolled your eyes at him, “Just take me home, Myno”

It was his turn to roll his eyes at your usage of his “rapper” name as he called it.

Once in front of your apartment, you collected your bag from the back seat and Minho got out of the car to drop you off till your door.

“Oh hey wait I have another question for you” he said as you both made your way to the front door of your building.

You stopped before buzzing in, turning around to look at him and asked, “What is it this time?”

“Do you have a map?”

You narrowed your eyes at him, “Why? Don’t you have GPS?

“No, because I just keep getting lost in your eyes and my GPS doesn’t know how to navigate that”

“Yuck!” you exclaimed, laughing at his cheesy pick up line. “Do you ever run out of these? Yuuuck”

He laughed with you, “Never”

You hugged him and he lifted you up, giving you a little swirl as he reminded you of your promise

“Come meet all of us soon, okay? Everyone misses you”

“I promise” you said, laughing as he put you down, trying to steady yourself.

With one last peck to your cheek, Minho made his way back to his car and you buzzed yourself in. You went inside, turning back one last time to wave goodbye to Minho.

He waved back at you, and just as Minho drove away you saw a familiar figure standing next to a car on the other side of the road.

Your heart picked up its pace at once, Jaebum was staring right at you. And you were staring right back. He didn’t look too pleased, and if you were honest you didn’t even want to believe he was here for you. You wanted to believe he was here for some other purpose, for someone else, for anyone else; as unlikely as the chances of that hope being true was.

You tried your best to steady yourself as you closed the front door as calmly as you could manage to do, hoping that he wouldn’t see right through your panic even from that far away.

As soon as the gate bolted shut, you sprinted for your apartment, hoping Im Jaebum standing across the road from your apartment was just a figment of your imagination.