"You gotta WAKEY!"

As Jaehyun fluttered his eyes open, he was met with the sight of Johnny's face. Despite the fact that he had probably just woken up, Johnny seemed to be full of energy and Jaehyun definitely did not feel the same.

"You're up," said Johnny with a smile on his face.

"You know, you could have woken me up without shouting," replied Jaehyun with a chuckle before continuing, "It would have caused you less trouble; you know I'm a light sleeper."

"Yeah, so much that you managed to wake up at three in the morning."

Jaehyun was taken aback by his response. He had hoped that Johnny would forget about earlier because he was not ready to be bombarded with more questions. However, he was Johnny. Nothing ever escaped the older male and this was no exception. Johnny saw the expression on Jaehyun's face and scoffed.

"Did you really think I forgot about earlier? Tell me, what's really up?"

"You have really got nothing to worry about; I just somehow couldn't sleep...it happens sometimes. You can tell Jungwoo or Donghyuck if you don't believe me." He could feel his ears burning up due to lying and he hoped that Johnny would think that it was out of embarrassment.

Johnny squinted at him but afterwards, he laughed it off.

"It's okay man, I believe you! But if something is ever troubling you please don't hesitate to talk to me."

"Thank you hyung," said Jaehyun with a genuine smile. Johnny ruffled his hair and then turned to leave. While Jaehyun was watching him do so, Johnny suddenly traced his steps back to him and with a cheeky smile plastered on his face said,

"Oh, by the way, you really shouldn't hug your blanket THAT tightly, even when you sleep."

Jaehyun looked at his arms and realised that he had been nearly squeezing the life out of his blanket. He wore an embarrassed look on his face while Johnny got out of the room chuckling.

He slowly got up from his bed and walked groggily to the ensuite. Jaehyun could not help but stare at himself in the mirror. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep as well as from crying. They mirrored his tiredness but he did not want to grab attention from the other members.

He hoped Johnny would not say anything to the others about last night because he knew they would all be super curious about what really was the reason.

As soon as he turned the sink tap off, he suddenly heard a knock on the ensuite's door.

"Hyung, are you there?"

"Yeah!" Jaehyun replied.

"Okayyy 'cause we were worried; you're taking a longer time than usual," said Mark from behind the door.

Jaehyun had not even realised how much time had passed by. He quickly dried his face with a towel before opening the door and seeing his younger best friend. Mark shot his usual wide smile at him and hit the older one on his arm.

"Bro, what took you so long?"

"I'm sooo tired; I don't feel like doing anything today," replied Jaehyun while hoping that he sounded credible.

"Did you forget what we're going to do today?" asked Mark while raising an eyebrow.

Jaehyun gave him a puzzled look.

"We're filming the NCT 2020 YearParty! You were super excited about it; you've taken me by surprise," admitted Mark.

Jaehyun's eyes widened at the sudden realisation and smiled again. Mark giggled at his reaction and convinced his older friend to hurry up and go downstairs along with the others. Jaehyun's heart got lifted a little bit but he still thought about his soulmate.

I wish I could share the news with her, he thought to himself before coming back to reality after Mark slapped his arm once again. Seeing and hearing Mark's contagious laugh, Jaehyun could not help but laugh along with him too.

****

"I got the guy!" Mark bellowed in front of the other members.

"The guy is FINALLY here," Taeyong played along before sticking his tongue out at Jaehyun. He got up from his seat and approached Jaehyun, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

Jaehyun smiled shyly at the leader and walked slowly towards his seat. Everyone was chattering about the filming for that day. Mark was blabbering about how glad he was that all the NCT members were finally in one team again.

"You know, speaking about teams...now that I'm back in Dream, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm added to WayV too," he said before taking a deep breath and starting to laugh.

"Now you're just inflating your ego," Haechan remarked teasingly.

'It's not my fault that this company keeps putting me into nearly all of the units that it continues to create!"

All of the other NCT members began to laugh. Shotaro, who was between Yuta and Jaehyun, asked while chuckling, "Are they always like this?"

"Always," said Jaehyun and Yuta at the same time.

As Haechan was about to say something, they got called upon to start the day. Johnny shrieked a "YEAH!" and this was soon followed by all of the members huddling into each other, forming a crowd. They all walked at the same pace towards the makeup rooms.

Jaehyun was happy. The thought of not having his soulmate beside him and not expressing his happiness with her saddened him but he could not let this cloud his excitement for the project at work. She and him just needed time and he was willing to wait if it meant that he was going to spend the rest of his life loving her and being loved by her.

I hope you are happy too, he thought while a smile started to plant on his face.