Believe Again: Tease

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I'm going to change the archive warnings and rating for this story after further planning.

TRIGGER WARNING: There will be future instances of violence, as well as themes relating to past self-harm/suicidal thoughts. As much as I would like to keep these concepts out of my stories if I can help it, I believe it is essential to Saeran's character/story, hence the change. I will be putting up this notice on chapter 1 and in my tags as well.

Apologies for making such a belated decision, but I've been giving it a lot of thought and I'm sorry if I let any of you down because of this!

You had never seen him like this before. His jaw was set, his eyes narrowed into small slits, and his eyebrows pressed downwards into a deep scowl as he glared at his phone screen. His bangs were falling over his eyes, and you would catch the smallest hint of glowing mint each time the breeze brushed against his fiery red hair or whenever he fidgeted while typing furiously away on his screen.

You could feel the ice cream melting, drops of the sweet dessert starting to flow down the waffle cone onto your fingers, but you didn't care. You were enthralled, amused even, by this side of him that he had never shown you before. He was always calm, like a tranquil river, never bristling with annoyance like he was now. It was also one of the rare occasions you had seen him on his phone too, instead of sky-watching while lost in his thoughts.

You couldn't help but wonder who it was that was making him so irritated. It seemed to you that not many people could bring out such a reaction from him. Perhaps it was a disagreeable family member, or someone very close to him.

You quelled the urge to go up to him and ask him about it, instead choosing to content yourself with simply standing there and watching him, maybe until he put his phone away, or when you had finished imprinting that newly discovered expression of his in your head.

Or, of course, when the ice cream started to melt a little too much.

You were about to approach him, since the ice cream couldn't wait any longer, but thankfully, you didn't need to worry about interrupting him from his virtual conversation on his phone. Just as you made that decision, he shoved his phone back into his pocket, and stood up.

And then your gazes met.

You had never seen him look so flustered before. Not even once. His ears were slowly turning the lightest shade of pink, his eyes widening in shock as they remained locked on yours. His lips parted in a silent gasp, and his hands clenched and unclenched from loose fists at his side.

It was his first moment of vulnerability in front of you. He was unguarded, the surprise and embarrassment on his face raw, genuine, not hidden by the blank mask he usually had on.

You couldn't help the amused smile that your lips curved into. That only seemed to make him even more bashful, for he hastily looked away and stuffed his hands into his pockets, probably so you wouldn't catch him wiping his sweaty palms against his jeans.

Feeling a little mischievous, you began taking small steps towards him, taking your time to close the distance between the both of you. Each time you got closer, the reddening blush on his cheeks became even clearer to your curious eyes. "Here you go," you said, offering the cone to him once you got close enough. Technically, it was his turn to get ice cream this week, at least, according to the unspoken agreement between you two that entailed a weekly rotation for this duty. He had seemed busy on his phone when you spotted him earlier though, so you had taken the liberty of getting it today too.

Perhaps it was because of his embarrassment, for no protest was uttered when he accepted the cone from you. "It's melting, so eat it quickly." You chuckled when you saw him panic at the unusually watery state of his ice cream. He nodded, muttering a word of thanks before taking his spot on the bench once more. You followed suit, licking at the sweet droplets of melted ice cream that were beginning to spill out of the confines of the waffle cone.

Quite absently you glanced over at him, and the sight of him with his pink tongue stuck out cutely to lick away the melted ice cream made your heart skip a beat. At times like these, he seemed like just a little boy. Another pure, genuine side of him on display just for you to see.

His pupils darted to the side to meet your eyes. With a small start, you returned your attention to your ice cream cone, trying to ignore the sight of him staring at you from the corner of your eye. It seemed it was your turn to get caught off-guard. You willed your cheeks to stop heating up, barely suppressing the urge to smear the cool ice cream all over them just to stop them from reddening.

In the few seconds that his eyes were on you, it felt like time was dragging on and on, his fiery gaze burning holes into your head. When he finally looked away and returned his attention to his treat, you heaved a small sigh of relief. You could never concentrate on anything when he looked at you the way he did, studying you, examining your every word and action.

You wondered if he felt the same way when you did that to him, scrutinizing every action and habit of his as if he were a rare specimen located beneath the lens of a microscope.

At that moment, a small vibration that you felt through the bench snapped you out of your thoughts. You could hear a tiny buzzing sound too. You thought it was your phone, until Saeran made an irritated grunt in the back of his throat and yanked his phone out of his pocket. In less than a second, a scowl appeared on his face and he resolutely turned it off before stuffing it back in his pocket.

You tried to keep your amusement from showing, but the small breath of laughter that you emitted failed to go past his notice. Before you knew it, the scowl was directed at you too, as he demanded, "What?" in a harsher tone than you were accustomed to hearing. He immediately regretted doing that though, apparently realizing that he was speaking to you. It was plain in the way his scowl dropped instantly, replaced with bewilderment. His face started turning a bright shade of red as he looked away, mumbling a vague apology for his rudeness.

Honestly, you were far too amused at the way he could change his demeanor so quickly to even think about getting upset over his little blunder. It was a side of him he had never shown you before, and you wanted to see more of it.

"Who was it?" you questioned, leaning a little towards him and bending down as you tried to make your face level with his. He stubbornly refused to look you in the eye, however, turning to look the other way. "No one important."

"Really?"

"It's nothing... Stop looking at me," he muttered with a dismissive wave of his hand to shoo you away.

You decided to comply with his request, withdrawing slightly from him, but it wasn't every day that you got to tease him. It was fun, and you wanted to see what kind of reaction he would make if you pushed this just a little more.

"Why not? Are you shy?"

"...No."

"You're blushing."

"N-No, I'm not!"

"Yeah, I was kidding, you're not," you laughed. A small lie like this wouldn't hurt. You didn't dare to go any further than this, he seemed plenty annoyed already. He sent you a mild sideways glare at the sound of your laugh, releasing a long exhale as he took a large bite into his cone.

"Sorry for teasing you," you said apologetically. "Are you mad?"

"It's fine," he replied, puffing his cheeks out slightly. "I'm not mad."

A smile touched your lips. He was softer at heart than he appeared to be. As you continued nibbling on your cone in silence, your gaze traveled towards the bulge in his pocket. You wished he would tell you who it was. You weren't a particularly nosy person; it was simply that he intrigued you endlessly. Was it a family member? A friend?

A girlfriend?

The thought had never occurred to you before, simply because he was always seated alone out here in the evenings, never with anyone. He didn't seem like the type who would be in a relationship. Even so, you didn't want to make any assumptions.

You disliked the unpleasant feelings stirring within you at the thought of him having a girlfriend. You wouldn't call it jealousy, but it unsettled you. Even if he didn't have one now, if he ever got one in the future, would you still be able to meet with him like this? Would you still have the chance to get closer to him?

You realized then that you didn't want to lose this, the precious meetings you would have with him nearly every day, the small exchanges you would share, the quiet staring matches you had with him. You didn't want all of this to disappear.

You mentally berated yourself for having such strange thoughts, and promptly shrugged them off, channeling your energy into eating your ice cream. You took another bite of the cone into your mouth, realizing with some disappointment that your cone was already half gone. You sighed inwardly. Was there a way to get a bigger cone for the same price? Or buy ice cream that would never melt?

The thought of wanting to spend more time out here in the park with him had been crossing your mind more frequently than you would have liked lately. You also tended to wonder if he thought the same.

Maybe it was just your imagination, but you were fairly sure that Saeran's eating pace matched yours, one that helped to drag out the time you two had together second by second. You glanced over then, seeing that he had finished almost the same amount as you had.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, catching your eye.

It was an assumption, but... perhaps you weren't the only one who thought that way.

You shook your head, offering him a smile. "No, everything's fine."

Hopefully, this would never disappear.

A/N: Hihi, just a head's up for you guys, next update will take a longer time to arrive, because Valentine's day is coming up and that means hell week at the florist's ahahaha. OTL I'll try to update it within a week if I'm not too dead! (:

Thanks for reading!