#jake shim x reader

[jjeongsa]

jake shim, husband material

[minizode]

[8:13pm] 

Jake was your best friend. That’s all he was.

You weren’t sure why exactly people liked to tease you two; maybe it was just because of the hugs he gave you after school, or maybe it was because every time you were texting someone, it was him. You didn’t think anything of it, though.

He was your best friend since middle school, when Park Sunghoon decided it would be a funny idea to trip you during gym class when you were playing dodgeball. Jake apologized profusely for his friend’s rude behavior and offered to take you to the nurse. You assured him it was only a little bruise, but nevertheless, he took you anyway.

Over the years, you, Jake, and Sunghoon became “the troublesome trio”, as Jay liked to call you. You wouldn’t truly ever do anything troublesome; only once did Jake and Sunghoon kidnap you from your house on halloween night so you could go trick-or-treating until midnight and watch scary movies at Sunghoon’s house until dawn when they had to sneak you back into your room. Naturally, Jake told you it was Sunghoon’s idea. It was always Sunghoon’s crazy ideas, and you and Jake would follow along quietly with the burn of rebellion in your veins. Other than that, you were all pretty good kids. Sure, occasionally you and Sunghoon would start a mini-revolution in class against your evil teachers (Jake always freaked out and told you to stop, but he never actually tried to stop you). You were just normal teenagers doing normal teenage things.

Like tonight, you managed to convince your parents to let you hangout at Jake’s house so you could watch a movie. They agreed: Jake was a good kid, he always had been and your parents loved him. It took a bit of convincing for them to approve of the mischievous Sunghoon, but they grew to love him. Just like you did.

You would be lying if you said you didn’t have a crush on Sunghoon. He made your heart flutter and stomach churn in a good way. Your face would burn up whenever he teased you, which you had to pretend to be angry at him for, but in reality, you were just flustered that he was paying attention to you. You had liked him for three years already; you decided this in ninth grade when he took you to the school dance because your date had bailed on you. Now, you were in your final year of high school, and you were tired of waiting for him to just make a move already. 

Tonight, you told yourself. Tonight you will tell him. You wanted to ask Jake for advice, but every time you tried to bring it up, you couldn’t help but feel nervous. Maybe it was best to just tell Sunghoon yourself, without anyone’s opinion or advice.

“Sunghoon,” you started once you were positive Jake had gone upstairs to the bathroom and was out of earshot.

He hummed, continuing scroll through his phone as he waited for the popcorn to finish in the microwave. Now or never.

“I need to tell you something.”

He looked up, his eyes widened for a moment before he put down his phone. He shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

“Huh?” You were taken aback. “Yes I do… you don’t even know what I’m going to say yet.”

Sunghoon sighed and leaned against the counter, looking you directly in the eyes.

“If it’s about your feelings towards me, I don’t wanna hear it.”

“What?” You nibbled on the inside of your lip. “But how did you-“

“I’m not an idiot, y/n. I can tell you have feelings for me. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t feel the same. But listen.” he shook his head and looked down at his feet. “Whatever it is that we could have… whatever it is that we want to happen? It can’t.”

Your throat tightened and you felt like you couldn’t move. “But why? Why can’t we? I just-“

“Because.” He ran his hand through his shimmering midnight hair. “Because of Jake. He likes you, y/n, and I can’t do that to him.”

Your heart sank. “What?”

“He’s liked you since middle school. That’s why I tripped you, just so he could get the chance to talk to you because he was too afraid to on his own.”

Your mind raced as he spoke, suddenly, everything seemed to make sense. Why he took you to the nurse that day, why he was so persistent on taking you out trick-or-treating that night, because he knew you wanted to do it so badly. Why he did everything in your friendship; why he always cared so much. You always thought that he was just being nice, just being a good friend. But now it all made sense.

“But…” you sucked in a breath. “what about when you took me to the dance?”

Sunghoon was silent as he avoided eye contact. “Jake wanted to take you, since he didn’t want you to be sad. But he chickened out last minute and asked me to take you instead.”

“But on halloween? That was Jake’s idea, not yours?”

“All Jake’s idea.”

You felt the tears threatening to escape from your eyes. “what are we supposed to do now?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t know.”

The microwave beeped, but the two of you stood still, looking into each other’s teary eyes. Jake’s thumping steps from coming down the stairs shook you out of your thoughts and you turned away from Sunghoon to look down at your phone, quickly wiping away your tears. Sunghoon opened the microwave and took out the popcorn, busying himself with emptying it in a large bowl.

“I’m back,” Jake said in a sing-song voice a little grin was etched on his face. “Did anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

You looked up at Sunghoon, who turned around to face the two of you. 

“No,” he said. “Nothing at all.”

[softbbyg0rl]

jake: *sees a ladybug*

jake: *tips hat* ma'am

[minizode]

[3:38 pm]

“When was the last time you smiled?” Jake’s words caught you off guard. 

“… maybe yesterday?” 

He shook his head. It was definitely longer than that, and he knows it. You know it too, deep down, but you would never admit it to his face. He was always happy, always smiling, always making sure everyone around him was okay. How could you openly admit the fact that you weren’t happy? You didn’t even know why you were sad.

“When was the last time you cried?” an odd question, even for him.

You thought about it for a second. “I haven’t cried in a while. It’s too much effort.”

“Are you okay?” Jake asked. He wanted you to tell the truth.

“I don’t know,” you replied, turning your head away from him to look out at the busy road. You were waiting for the bus. “I’m just tired. School is too much right now, there’s a lot going on in my personal life too. I don’t really care about doing anything anymore.”

There you go again, opening up to Jake. Why were you doing this? You weren’t even friends. If anything, just mere acquaintances. You didn’t even have a class together. Sure you had mutual friends, but that didn’t mean anything when the two of you had barely shared a conversation before. He was just easy to talk to, a quiet boy who was always happy. At least he seemed that way. Maybe he was like how you were before; always putting on that mask of a smile so no one could tell how you really felt. Maybe one day he would become like you now, growing tired of everything. But you shouldn’t be making assumptions about anyone.

Jake frowned. “Is there anything I can do?”

“I doubt it.”

“I’m sorry.”

Clearly, this conversation was going nowhere. An awkward silence fluttered between you. “Hey wait,” you turned your head to him. “Don’t you usually get on the bus with Jay and Sunghoon?”

Jake touched the shell of his ear. It was pink, probably due to the cold. “Umm yeah. I do.”

“Why didn’t you get on the bus with them?”

He hesitated. “Uhh… I just wanted to talk to you. You know, make sure you’re okay.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s really nice,” you stated.

“Is it?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool,” Jake said awkwardly. Why was he so nice? It didn’t make sense. You never did anything to help him, never even talked to him. Why did he feel the need to wait with you for the bus, and miss his own? 

Your fingers fiddled with the hem of your uniform skirt. “So… how are you going to get home then?”

His eyes were watching your hands. “I’ll just wait for the next bus. Your hands look cold, do you have gloves?”

Your eyes flicker back and forth between his face and his hands, which were on his knees. He looked like he was going to move them, but they rested tensely on the polyester of his navy blue pants. 

“Jake,” you started. “Are you okay? Is something going on?” he wouldn’t even look you in the eyes. What was going on?

“Can I kiss you, y/n?”

“What?” you sat there, staring at each other. You felt the itching need to laugh out of disbelief, so, you did. “You’re joking, right?” you began to laugh louder. “That was all to make me laugh, huh. You’re funny, Jake. Thank you,” you brought your hands up to your face to cover your mouth. 

Jake sat there, awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck. “I wasn’t joking.”

Your laughter stopped and the smile slowly dripped off your face. “You… weren’t joking?” you turned your body to face him. He shook his head. “Wait…” you trailed off. “Is the reason you stayed here… so you could confess to me? I’m sorry if I sound like I have an incredibly inflated ego right now I’m just so confused.”

Jake shook his head. “No, confessing wasn’t part of the plan. I really did want to stay back and check on you, the kiss part just kinda came out of nowhere.”

“So you don’t want to kiss me?”

“No! No that’s not what I’m saying!” he replied quickly. “I just mean that I only came here to make sure you were okay, but I kinda got super like, antsy or whatever, and I wanted to kiss you and-” he cut himself off. “I really like you, y/n. That’s basically what I’m trying to say. I know we aren’t super close or anything, but you’re really pretty and you talk in the best way and you are always so nice and you care about your friends! I like you; you that I’ve seen whenever we’re at lunch, or at an assembly, or whenever you show up to debate club with donuts for everyone when you aren’t even in the club!” He stopped and took your hands in his own. “And you’re just a really cool person, and I really want to get to know you better. It makes me really sad seeing you down because you don’t deserve to feel that way. Any negative emotion shouldn’t even make it’s way inside of you because you’re the best, and you deserve the best. So… yeah. I really like you. And I really want to kiss you. And take you out on dates to go bowling, or get food, or go to the bookstore and just spend time with you in any way I can. So I guess this is me asking you out on a date… maybe now’s not the best time but I needed to tell you before I exploded.”

You sat there in awe. You had no idea, literally NO IDEA, that he had ever liked you. You didn’t even think he paid attention to you. And why did he like you so much? All those things he listed were just normal things. You were you, normal, plain, you. There was nothing special. No little talent, no extra beauty. But part of you wanted to spend more time with him. Not because he thought the world of you, no. But because he was… kind of the best person you had ever met. You were always just too scared to get close to him. 

“I don’t want you to think I’m saying yes just because you like me,” you stated. “But, you’re really cool too. I’m not that good with words, and I haven’t fully processed my emotions yet. But…” you paused, gathering your thoughts. This would be okay, right? “Maybe we can try things out? And see how it goes?”

Jake squeezed your hands a little tighter and let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, of course we can! You can back out at any time, no hard feelings.”

You smiled, for the first time in a long time. A real, genuine smile. 

“So… what should we do first?”