[21:23]

y/n’s eyes focused back on her surroundings when she noticed the golden hues painting around her room behind her phone.

her and haechan had stayed in for a lazy day and were just spending some quiet time. when the time had passed she had no idea.

a relaxed smile pulled at her lips as she lazily turned towards her left, wondering what haechan was doing. the boy had been awfully quiet; and although she knew sometimes the obnoxiously loud haechan could also be calm haechan, it was absolutely not in his nature not to cuddle up to her during their usual silent evenings.

her smile widened as her eyes rested on a sleeping angel. he was lying on his side, one hand under his cheek and the other between his knees.

his clear skin being kissed by the setting sun made him shine as bright as the sun he was named after.

knowing how much of a deep sleeper he was she didn’t think twice before turning to her side fully and resting her palm on his jaw. her thumb swiped at his cheek, before it ran lightly along his eyelashes. his bottom lip being the next target as she just admired his beauty.

she took a deep breath as she shuffled a bit closer and raised her self up to softly press her lips to his forehead, peaking through his parted hair.

haechan took a deep breath in as he blindly reached out, with the hand that was trapped between his knees, tapping the sheets in front of his stomach before his hand bumped against her elbow. he shuffled closer, and as he did he pushed her back until her back was flat against the bed again. a soft laugh left her lips.

“what are you doing?” she giggled as he wrapped one leg around her hips and his arm around her stomach. he just groaned before he settled and sighed.

“keep doing what you were doing,” he whispered, voice groggy and y/n laughed before grasping his face in her hands again. she waited a second for his body to relax against hers before-

“AHHHH YOU CRAZY WOMAN LET ME GO!” he wailed as she squeezed his cheeks all of a sudden.

y/n cackled loud as he scrambled away, eyes horrified, before soft laughs escaped him too. the look of pure happiness in her face warming his chest.

as the two looked at each other, in the golden hours of the day, they fell in love with each other a little bit harder.

haechan didn’t think twice to shuffle towards her when she opened her arms. his own wrapping around her as she cuddled her arms around his shoulders.

his nuzzled his head under her chin as she pressed small kisses to his hair.

“i love you,” she sighed and he hummed, the soft squeeze of his arms at her words letting her know he loved her just the same.

just listen, trust me.

synopsis: a misunderstanding drives jaemin away from the only person that he should’ve trusted. when reality slaps him in the face he feels miserable and tries to win his love back. or something of the sort lol

characters: Jaemin, Main Character, Jeno, and a bit of Haechan, Renjun, Chenle, Mark and Jisung.

pairing: boyfriend!jaemin x f.maincharacter

genre: angst angst angst and fluff

word count: 7k (fucking hell it’s THAT long?) sorry lmao

warnings: none

author’s note: this took way too long to finish jfvamejgf but i really couldn’t come up with a good enough ending. or more like i couldn’t write down what i wanted to write lol but i finally finished it heheh
i hope you like it and it satisfies the wait i made you go through lol

the many things people told him echoed in his head. the dimmed lights of his studio room and the slow, low beat of the music not doing much to brighten up his mood.

she’s being too friendly with that one friend of yours, don’t you think?

he’s warming up too much to her.

watch out, you wouldn’t want someone to whisk her away from you, she is a bit naive, she could be affected too easily.

and it would all have fallen to deaf ears, because he was never one to let anyone talk about his personal life, only if one of his closest friends hadn’t said something.

“jaem,” jeno’s voice made jaemin turn to his friend. jeno looked around to their other friends before figuring out they wouldn’t let what he was going to say out of the circle.

“yeah,” jaemin smiled at jeno, remnants of his laugher from what renjun was saying. jeno cleared his throat still unsure how to approach the topic.

as soon as the news reached his ears he had searched for his friend. he was unsure of the news but he figured jaemin could always ask y/n and they would solve things if it were to be lies. what jeno didn’t know at the time was all the other stuff jaemin had heard.

“listen,” jeno started, tongue darting out to wet his dry lips, “i.. people are saying some stuff and i-,” he cleared his throat again, in nervousness, “i thought i should let you know. i don’t think they are true at all! but… one can never be too sure, right?” he asked, voice unsure as his eyes darted to meet jaemin’s. the latter’s brows furrowed in confusion, wondering what the hell jeno was talking about and he was just about to ask when he continued.

“in case it’s wrong then you guys can always just clear it out but i heard this from someone close and thought i would let you know either ways,” jeno’s hand scratched his neck in nervousness.

“just fucking say it, oh my god,” chenle huffed, impatient with the suspense the older was building up.

“i swear to god, if you say something like a joke,” haechan warned, mark snorting.

“i’m serious, just,” jeno groaned, wondering why he had to be the one to break the news.

“just tell me, jeno,” jaemin smiled and jeno felt the already heavy load on his shoulder get 20 kgs heavier. he took a deep breath. all in one go, he thought, just like a band aid.

“y/n is cheating on you.”

and jaemin’s world fell apart.

everyone could have been wrong but jeno? could jeno be wrong too?

silence. total silence followed as jaemin’s smile fell and his eyes stared ahead to jeno but not really.

he thought about y/n, thought if he could picture her doing anything like than and the answer came right away, even before he finished his thought. no. just no. she could never. but they always said it’s the people you least expect it from. but y/n? she could never… right?

“what the fuck are you talking about?” it was mark who had spoken, the defensive tone evident in voice as he did nothing to mask it and jeno looked away from jaemin’s eyes to the eldest.

“y/n could never, she’s not like that,” renjun chuckled drily, in disbelief.

“jeno, are you sure about this?” haechan raised a hand in front of him to assess the grave situation.

“that’s what i said. i heard this from someone who’s reliable, i can’t say who, though.”

jaemin cleared his throat catching everyone’s attention. he gulped the lump in his throat before he looked around the group.

“i’ll handle this, don’t worry.”

that was all he said but even if he sounded calm and collected, his eyes said a different story, and his clenched jaw showed a different side of the coin. and as much as they wanted to believe he would handle it with care with y/n, they saw the storm coming even before he did. because jaemin’s eyes were on fire, he was aflame. and that uncertainty he had before had just been consumed with jeno’s confirmation. jaemin’s tipping point was reached. as he turned to walk away a hand grasped his arm.

“jaemin,” it was jisung, jaemin waited for him to go on.

“she would never do that.” was all he said.

the ding of his phone’s notification brought him back from the memory. he reached out to his phone deciding this could no longer be avoided. he was determined enough. with these thoughts running in his head he dialed y/n’s number and pressed the phone to his ear.

“hello? jaem?” she answered, and he sighed because how could she sound so angelic, and how was he supposed to confront her when he felt his heart tighten just by her voice. he sucked up the weakness he felt for her when she called out his name again.

“hey, where are you?” he asked softly, but no matter how much he tried to conceal it, the coldness in his voice seeped through.

“i’m at the cafe near my apartment with kyunhae,” she giggled and at the mention of the name jaemin saw red. what the fuck was she doing with him?

“when will you be done? i need to talk to you,” he deadpanned, voice colder than y/n had ever heard and she felt at alert right away. why was he talking like that?

“jaem?” wonder laced her voice as she silently asked what was up but jaemin said nothing.

“it’s urgent,” he specified and y/n had asked him to pick her up right away, sensing something was wrong. and jaemin was left confused to stare at his phone again.

how long are you gonna pretend you care about me? why are you doing me this dirty? why are you faking caring about me?

with those thoughts he had gotten up, whisked his jacket from behind his bedroom door and out of the house he was.

as he drove through the streets he tried to think again, he tried to figure out again if she could really have cheated on him. he was desperate for it to be a lie but then again, jeno had confirmed it, hadn’t he?

could the girl that held him so tightly when they slept, cheat on him? could the girl he grew to love so much do this to him? how could she even think about it when she cried during children’s movies, had ice cream cravings out of nowhere, cried in his arms, clinging to him when he had almost fainted from low blood pressure, helped him stand back on his feet whenever he was sick, babying him through the whole process. how could she cheat on him when she kissed him so softly, as if he was the most precious thing she had, when she held him so close as he murmured sweet nothings in her ears, when she looked at him with so much love when he smiled, when right as he laughed he would look over at her and she would be staring at him. her excuse? she loved seeing him happy. how could the same person that confessed her love for him in between shallow breaths, gasps and whines as he made her feel good be the same person to cheat. how could she make him feel so loved and so important if it was all fake.

it took him a total of twenty minutes to reach the cafe. he parked the car outside as he texted y/n he was out front. he waited for her leaned against the side of his car.

the door to the entrance to the cafe opened and y/n walked out first, face turned behind her as she laughed with kyunhae. jaemin’s hands balled into fists as he watched the interaction, the anger swam in his veins as he watched y/n collide her fist against his in a fist bump before calling out a text me later.

y/n turned out front to jaemin and the way her eyes seemed to genuinely spark up in bright stars as soon she saw him had his heart clenching in pain. how long have you been mastering this act? how can you look this genuine?

“hi, handsome,” she gushed as she pressed her chest to his, arms wrapping around his neck as she pressed a soft kiss to his jaw. jaemin gulped, eyes trained to her relaxed expression, eyes closed and a soft smile on her lips as she hugged him standing on her tippy toes. his arms shoot out out of habit as they went to wrap around her waist before his hands hovered over her frame. he couldn’t do it. he couldn’t pretend everything was okay.

as y/n didn’t feel jaemin hug her back she pulled away slowly, her eyes looking up at him as her arms slowly fell away from him.

“jaem?” she softly called him and his eyes met hers, cold as ever. her hand raised to rest on his cheek in affection but before she could touch his skin, his fingers wrapped around her wrist and stopped her in her tracks. y/n’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“let’s go,” he simply said as he stepped away and opened the passenger seat door for her, y/n looked at him for a few seconds more as he looked to the side and waited for her to get in, so she did.

the silence was eating y/n alive as she fidgeted with her fingers, suspecting something was wrong. she raked her brain, wondering if she did or said anything wrong but it all came empty.

“jaem?” she tentatively called for him. jaemin waited for a few seconds before he hummed in acknowledgement, but even that small sound seemed cold, colder than he had ever been.

“is something wrong?” she softly asked, hand reaching out to grasp his and intertwining their fingers before resting it on her lap. but as soon as the back of his hand rested against her jeans clad thigh he shook off her hand to grasp the wheel again.

she sat frozen, eyes trained where their hands were, her hand still in her lap the same way he had shook it off. what did i do so bad? she wondered.

“i’m driving,” came his excuse but she knew something else was up. he had never rejected her touch like this.

“if something is wrong please tell me, i’ll help you,” she shook off the hurt before turning to him and sending a small smile, eyes pleading, but jaemin stared ahead, silent.

a few minutes later jaemin parked the car in his apartment building garage before swiftly getting out and waiting for y/n. it took her a few seconds before she was out too. they made their way to the elevators. the elevator came, they got in, and it went up to jaemin and his friend’s apartment floor. all in silence.

jaemin walked in first, leaving the door open for y/n. as she closed the door behind her she made eye contact with jisung. the boy smiled warmly at the girl and stepped towards her.

“oh! didn’t know you were coming over, want some?” he raised the hot pot of ramen, seemingly on the way to his room, and y/n smiled shaking her head as she took her shoes off.

“i ate, but thank you,” she smiled warmly and jisung threw her a thumbs up before walking to his room and closing the door.

y/n walked into the apartment looking around for which way jaemin went before her eyes fell on his seated figure in the living room. everyone seemed to be in their own rooms apart from mark, who stood in the kitchen.

“hey,” he waved, a warm smile on his lips before his eyes shifted jaemin and his smile dimmed a bit, y/n waved back.

she shuffled towards jaemin, still confused as to what happened.

“jaemin?” she called for him, his head snapped her way before he slowly stood up.

“do you have anything to tell me?” he asked and y/n thought hard and careful if she had forgotten anything but came up with nothing so she timidly shook her head, hands picking at the border of her tshirt. the one that belonged to jaemin.

“did i forget anything?” she murmured, head low as she felt guilty for forgetting something that affected him so much.

“you have nothing to tell me?” he repeated, a scoff following and y/n looked back up at him, her brows furrowed.

“okay, let me ask you this,” he said, hands resting on his hips as he looked up at the ceiling. mark watched, debating whether he should leave or not, but then choosing against it, someone had to try and do damage control.

“what is kyunhae to you?” at the new question y/n’s brows furrowed even more.

“jaem what are you reaching at?” she asked, confusion eating her alive. jaemin’s eyes sent daggers her way and she realized that she never wanted to have that gaze on her ever again.

“answer my question; what. is. kyunhae. to. you?” he asked again, emphasizing his words. the agitation clear in his voice as he ran a hand through his hair. mark stepped into the living room area.

“jaemin, chill,” he tried to calm the younger and prevent him from saying anything he would regret later. this wasn’t how he thought jaemin would handle things.

“why can’t she just answer?!” jaemin exclaimed. the more she delayed her answer the more anger rose in him. her lips quivered seeing a jaemin she had never seen. he had never talked to her like that, with so much hartred.

“he’s just a friend! that’s all! why are you asking me that!” she answered, her voice a notch higher as she felt attacked. the way he talked to her made her feel defensive. she had never felt attacked by him and she was scared, she didn’t know what happened, why he was acting like that. but no matter how naive she was she wasn’t stupid.

she heard what people said about her, she knew things reached jaemin’s ears in the past and she had done everything in her power to show him he was the only person she loved, only person she cared about. that he was her everything, her all. she had gifted him with a matching promise ring, to reassure him that she was his, always will be. she had told him not to listen to anyone, only her. she loved him, she really did. that’s why she always told him when she would be out with kyunhae, she wanted him to know that whenever he needed it she will drop him and come running to jaemin. because jaemin was her priority. she had told him about meeting him today too but jaemin had forgotten it seems.

“then why the fuck do i hear different things?” he all but screamed and y/n stood frozen on her spot, scared. he had never raised his voice at her, much less in the process of accusing her of anything.

“i swear jaem,” her voice came out in a trembled whisper as jaemin breathed heavily, “none of it is true, i swear,” she pleaded, her eyes stinging in desperation. she needed him to believe her.

“you’re lying,” he shook his head, an empty chuckle leaving his lips as he threw his head back in disbelief and anger, “you’ve been lying for who knows how long,” he muttered and y/n’s brows furrowed, offended.

“i have never lied to you,” she breathed out, before she remembered mark standing nearby. she took two quick steps towards him, taking a hold of his hand softly, “jaem, let’s talk about it in your room, okay? let’s solve this,” she pleaded as she softly pulled his hand but jaemin snatched his arm away from her.

“no,” he shook his head, “we’re gonna do it here, so you can’t lie to me anymore,” his voice rose as he pointed around him and y/n’s eyes blurred in frustration and hurt. how could he be like this.

“jaem what has gotten into you?” she asked, voice a tremble as the first tears threatened to spill, “please, i don’t want to lose you, let’s calm down and talk about this,” she pleaded again.

“if you didn’t want to lose me you should’ve thought about it before you cheated on me!”

y/n felt her heart break at his words, she felt like he had pushed her off of a building, she felt like the ground was snatched from under her feet and she was left falling into the void. the emotion swam in her expression.

“what’s going on?”

mark’s head snapped towards renjun and haechan’s figures as they stepped out of their rooms and into the living room, eyes widened in alarm shifting from y/n to jaemin and then to mark.

mark shook his head. the three looked at y/n, her emotions set on her face and they knew right away they had the whole situation wrong. jaemin had it wrong.

she didn’t look alarmed, caught in the act or guilty, she looked down right betrayed, hurt, and deceived.

“i did nothing of the sort, jaemin,” her voice came out offended, disbelief swimming in her tone.

“jaem,” haechan walked in front of his friend, partially blocking y/n’s view, “that’s enough, calm down,” he muttered lowly, only jaemin hearing him. jaemin shook his head as he pushed haechan away softly.

“no, i need to know why,” he insisted, “why would you do that to me? why not just tell me?” he asked again.

“i didn’t do anything! i understand you heard it somewhere but hell, jaemin, at least ask me before you assume the worst!” she exclaimed her arms raising and dropping by her sides.

“and you’re still fucking lying to me!” he raised his voice again in exasperation.

“i have no reason to lie to you! why are you saying all this to me? how could i ever do that to you, jaem?” her voice grew quiet at the end, just the thought of his implications finally sending the tears tumbling down her cheeks. jaemin scoffed.

“exactly, how could you do that to me?! all i ever did was treat you with care, i always put you first!” he countered again, the vein in his neck popping.

“jaem, you’re not listening to me, please, just listen to me,” she pleaded a sob escaping her lips as she stepped closer t him, her hands grasping his cheeks in desperation for him to look at her eyes, to believe her, “i love you, i would never ever do anything like that, please trust me, let them all be, just trust me.”

but jaemin took a hold of her hands and let them fall in between them.

“what if it’s someone close to me that told me,” he scoffed stepping away.

“jaemin don’t,” renjun interfered, standing in front of y/n, blocking her completely from jaemin’s eyes.

“just go home y/n,” jaemin shook his head as his fingers ran trough his hair and he turned away.

“yah, you’re exaggerating,” mark called him out and jaemin threw him a glance.

“then why bring me here? why do this in front of everyone when you could’ve done that when you met me, why this whole thing?” she asked quietly. she didn’t know what she felt, she didn’t know who this person in front of her even was.

she understood jaemin, she really did. hearing so many things from so many people must’ve played with his head, she understood it. but fucking hell she wished he had talked to her about it, about all of it. she wished he didn’t lash out on her, she wished he had just remembered who she was and how much she loved him. she was a person too, wasn’t she? she could get hurt too, right?

when jaemin didn’t answer she hurriedly turned around, making her way to the door. she fleetingly saw the youngest two silently standing in front of their door at the commotion but she paid no mind to that. all she wanted was to go away. y/n felt so lost, so betrayed; why didn’t he believe her? why didn’t he just askher?

“y/n wait-” haechan tried to call back the girl but she was already out of the door, quickly walking to the elevator and pressing repeatedly on the button.

“fucking hell jaem, is this how you planned to handle it? really?” renjun scolded the black haired guy. jaemin sat on the couch, head in his hands and eyes brimming with tears. suspiciously all their phones dinged one after the other. chenle and jisung looking at each other in confusion as they were the only ones to notice.

mark ran out of the apartment slowly coming to a stop in beside of y/n. she kept her head down, tears dripping on the floor from the tip of her nose as she sniffled.

“y/n,” mark took a hold of her elbow, “wait for a second, you can’t leave alone. it’s late, I’ll take you home, hmm?” he tried to persuade her softly, careful not to be too loud. but she shook her head.

“thank you, but i need to be alone,” she whispered, her shoulder shaking as she took in a harsh breath. mark’s eyes softened.

“let me call you an uber, at least?” he offered again, hand caressing her hair in affection but she shook her head again.

“I’ll be okay,” she muttered as the doors to the elevator dinged and opened. y/n took a step forward before coming to a stop when another pair of shoes came into her view, she stepped aside muttering a sorry.

“oh, y/n..?” jeno’s voice was surprised, his phone held on his hand and his eyes wide. he looked at mark, who held the most disappointed look on his face, brows furrowed. jeno looked back at y/n in confusion.

she looked up at his voice and the sight of her wet cheeks, red nose and swollen eyes sent an alarm to jeno. his eyes widened as he stammered.

“fuck, y/n, I’m so sorry- i didn’t know-” jeno was at a loss of words as realization dawned on y/n and she smiled bitterly.

“it’s okay,” she simply said as she walked into the elevator and waited for the doors to close.

-

jaemin looked up as mark and jeno walked into the apartment, just at the same time as jisung and chenle stumbled out of their rooms, phone grasping in their hands.

“hyung, you gotta see this,” chenle shoved his phone into jaemin’s face. the latter took in a deep breath, taking the phone from the younger.

“jaem,” jeno muttered, eyes remorseful, “i’m so sorry,” he solemnly muttered out, and jaemin furrowed his brows in confusion before looking at the screen of chenle’s phone.

under the instagram picture, written in bold letters, the words “SHE SAID YES” and the small line underneath “thank you y/n for helping me make it even more memorable” were mocking him. and as jaemin ran his fingers through his hair for the nth time that evening and gripped his roots in a vice like grip, his eyes scanned the picture. the picture of kyunhee and who he assumed was his fiancé now. jaemin felt like the biggest idiot in the planet.

-

so as y/n helped kyunhee with the preparations of his engagement party with the biggest smile she could muster up, the happiness she painted on didn’t quite reach her eyes. jaemin had tried again and again to contact her but y/n made it a point to ignore all his texts and all his calls, only using her phone when extremely needed.

she helped her dear friend through the whole process, never missing a beat to tell him and the lucky girl how proud she was of them both.

kyunhee felt guilty taking her help, so much so that y/n had screamed at him to not give her the pity look. she had explained that she needed the distraction and after much thought he let her handle whatever she wanted.

he told himself if he ever came face to face with jaemin he would’ve made him taste his fist, but he knew they would resolve their misunderstanding. of course they would, they loved each other infinitly after all.

y/n was surprised when two days after the break up her mother came knocking on her door. at first she had thought jaemin had called her and as soon as she was about to send her mother away, the older woman had told, “i knew something wasn’t right, i could feel it.” and so y/n had her dearest mother at her apartment, making sure she got the energy she needed and she ate well.

jaemin on the other hand was lost. completely lost. he beat himself up for how he had talked to y/n, he scolded himself for not having talked it out. he regretted not listening to her when she was asking for him to listen.

he tried calling her a thousand times. he tried texting her from the boys’ phones and every time he would let a dry laugh out when she would reply “tell jaem i don’t want to speak.” he knew his girl knew him too well and he felt worse every time because how did he let go of her? what an idiot.

so it was with a heavy heart and jaw clenched in embarrassment that jaemin was standing in front of a building, waiting for the one he misunderstood. truth be told, he was nervous, for what he still didn’t know but he had a hunch.

“jaemin,” a voice pulled him out of his thoughts and jaemin turned to his right to come face to face with a poker face kyunhee. he cleared his voice, holding out his hand for a handshake.

“hey, i hope i didn’t mess up your schedule, i can only imagine how busy you are,” jaemin smiled a tight lipped smile. kyunhee stared at him for a second before deciding to be cooperative for y/n’s sake. he grasped jaemin’s hand and gave it a firm shake before letting go.

“you technically did,” he sighed, jaemin’s brows furrowed, a confused sound leaving his lips, “mess up my schedule. i had an appointment i had to cancel,” kyunhee said, arms crossing over his chest. jaemin blinked for a few seconds before muttering a soft sorry in embarrassment. silence fell upon the two guys. kyunhee’s eyes stayed put on jaemin’s wavering ones. he could practically see the wheels turning in the black haired guy.

“what the hell are you guys doing?” kyunhee sighed then. jaemin’s eyes snapped on him, eyes wide in alarm.

“i-i’m very sorry for misunderstanding your intentions. i really am,” jaemin blabbed, kyunhee rolled his eyes.

“why are you apologizing to me when the person you should apologize to is somewhere else?” kyunhee asked as a matter of fact.

“she doesn’t want to talk to me,” jaemin whispered, eyes looking away and jaw clenching. kyunhee scoffed catching jaemin’s attention again.

“yeah no shit she doesn’t,” the newly engaged one spat out and jaemin let out a humorless snicker, head nodding.

“you acted like a total dick to her, i don’t even know how she hasn’t blocked you yet,” kyunhee shot again and jaemin listened, for he knew he deserved it. the former’s eyes softened for a second at jaemin’s obvious miserable eyes, before hardening again.

“oi, dickhead,” he called jaemin, foot kicking at his shin, jaemin ducked to hold his shin out of instinct, eyes snapping up in despair.

“oi! what was that for?” he called.

“i won’t tell you to go to her place and beg for forgiveness, because quite frankly, that’s not going to work,” kyunhee deadpanned and jaemin nodded, hanging to his every word.

“give her time, jaemin, she’s hurt,” he continued.

jaemin stared at the floor at his feet as he thought. guilt enveloping him in its arms as usual these days. he took a deep breath again and looked up at his girlfriend’s friend, he offered a small smile.

“thank you, really,” jaemin muttered, genuine gratefulness in his voice, “for holding her up, i know it should’ve been me but i’m glad she has a friend like you, i’m really sorry again.”

“it’s okay, don’t worry about it. just think about what kind of pose you need to hold when you’re begging on your knees for her forgiveness,” kyunhee bit back in a lighter tone, feeling weird about all the formality. jaemin snorted the real smile in a while, grateful kyunhee got rid of the heavy serious air around them.

“congratulations on your engagement, by the way,” jaemin clapped the side of kyunhee’s arm and the latter thanked him, before a thought hit him and his eyes squinted as he looked at jaemin.

“uhhh why are you looking at me like that?” the black haired one asked, an unsure tone to his voice.

“you know what? why don’t you…”

-

“the place looks so pretty!” y/n turned to her mother with a proud smile as the older woman looked around the engagement party venue with sparkling eyes, “you did a great job, love,” she turned to y/n and lovingly caressed her face.

“thank you, mom,” y/n giggled, her hand grasping her mom’s as they made their way through the crowd.

the venue was decorated in hues of white and lilacs, the stage at the front of it was decorated with fresh flowers and thin branches giving it a very fresh look.

her eyes lit up when she saw her dear friend and his fiancé in the distance.

“let’s go say hi to kyunhee,” she told her mother as they made their way towards the couple.

-

it was thirty minutes later, when y/n was enjoying her time with a few friends and their families that the murmurs started.

at first y/n didn’t pay any attention to it because who cares if a handsome guy was at the party, she was already taken. well. not anymore, but that didn’t change the fact that her heart lay where jaemin was.

so imagine her surprise when she turned around to look around the place and her eyes fell on none other than the handsome guy everyone was talking about. na jaemin.

as soon as their eyes met y/n’s head snapped towards kyunhee a few meters away, talking to another guest, and the piece of shit had the audacity to smile at her and throw a wink before returning his eyes to the guest.

jaemin slowly came to a stop beside her, back as straight as a wooden plank, shoulders tense. he threw a tight lipped smile around the few people surrounding him as he greeted them.

“jaemin dear?” y/n’s mother’s eyes sparked up in adoration and y/n smiled softly at the scene as her mom engulfed a chuckling jaemin in her arms, hands grasping his face softly as she gushed over him.

“how long it has been, love, how are you?” she asked and jaemin chuckled before patting her back and stood back up straight to look at her.

“too long, sorry i couldn’t come to say hi sooner, i was stuck with all the assignments i pushed back,” he apologized, ever the gentleman and y/n’s eyes stung a bit as she blinked.

“ahh you study so well, but don’t neglect your health,” she smiled again as she hugged him tighter and jaemin nodded hugging her back. what he didn’t expect was the words the older woman whispered in his ear as she pulled away.

“make things right, love, fight for each other,” and she gave him the most loving smile as she said something about enjoying the evening and walked to a group of ladies.

jaemin’s eyes fell on y/n and she looked away as jaemin stepped up beside her as she pulled away from the small group, saying something about getting a glass of prosecco.

she threw him a side glance as she stopped at the table.

“why are you following me,” at the sound of her voice jaemin let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. his hand twitched to hold hers.

“i wanted some prosecco,” he muttered and a small smile pulled at his lips when she blushed in embarrassment before nodding and moving away with the glass in her hand, jaemin doing the same. the two stood at the side in silence.

“y/n,” jaemin called after a while and y/n hummed, her eyes trained to the live band, “i’m very sorry,” he whispered. y/n stopped in the middle of taking a sip before detaching the glass from her lips.

“i don’t want to talk about it, jaem,” she muttered before taking the sip, finishing the content in the flute all in one go. jaemin’s hand rested against the back of her waist in reflex.

“slow, you’re gonna get dizzy,” he muttered and y/n could hear the worry in his tone, and she hated it because how could he sound like that after all he had said.

there were a few things that put jaemin’s worry at rest. that assured him that y/n was still is girl. he felt a small smile tug at his lips when she called him by his nickname, when she didn’t push away his hand on her waist, his chest puffed out, and when she nodded at his words of worry he felt himself relax a bit.

“you’re beautiful,” he muttered loud enough for only y/n to hear as he took a sip of his prosecco, eyes set on her as she turned around with narrowed eyes, only to blush like crazy when her eyes met his. jaemin’s eyes held an intimacy she couldn’t hold right now. he let out a deep chuckle when her chest and neck set up in flames.

they stood there side by side as they watched the many couples dancing. jaemin’s eyes would settle on her every few seconds, so much so that she could feel it every time.

“what are you two doing?” y/n’s mother’s voice made the couple’s head snap to the side. y/n made sure a soft smile settled on her lips as her mother’s friends followed her.

“who’s this, y/n?” one of them asked, curious eyes settled onto jaemin, the latter giving a polite smile and a bow as he muttered his hellos. before y/n could answer, her mother chimed in.

“oh! this is jaemin, i told you about him! he’s my daughter’s boyfriend, such a gem, let me tell you. sweetest boy i ever met,” she gushed, and y/n’s panic stricken eyes met jaemin’s smiling ones. her eyes narrowed at his pleased look.

“oh my, he’s so gorgeous! you’re absolutely stunning, dear!” one of the women smiled as she caressed his cheek and jaemin chuckled, muttering a thank you.

“well, what are you two doing here? go for a dance!” y/n’s mother ushered as she pushed them to the clearing, where other couples were dancing.

y/n made to protest and push back but her words got swallowed up by the encouraging giggling of the older women as they stumbled upon the floor.

y/n looked at jaemin as he settled his prosecco flute on the tray of a passing waiter.

a few minutes later the two found themselves slowly swaying to the music. one of y/n’s hands in jaemin’s as his other hand rested against the middle of her back. his thumb brushed slowly in a comforting manner, so much so that y/n found herself stopping from leaning her head on his shoulder out of instict.

jaemin’s eyes stayed on her features as hers looked anywhere but him. his heart hurt that she didn’t want to even look at him, but he also understood. he had hurt her deeply, after all.

“y/n,” he called, voice loud enough only for her to hear. she hummed in acknowledgment, “look at me,” he tapped his thumb against her back and she reluctantly looked up at him.

“i’m sorry,” he squeezed her hand, and she remained silent. she didn’t know what to say. what do you say to sorry when you can’t say it’s okay? do you ignore it? do you say i heard you? do you just nod? what do you do?

people say sorry and expect everything to be fine, they say sorry when they know the answer is going to be it’s okay. but, to y/n it wasn’t okay, it couldn’t be okay. she didn’t know if it would be anytime soon or anything. all she knew was that she was hurt, extremely hurt. so she couldn’t say it’s okay.

she loved jaemin tremendously. so much so it was scary. she loved him so much her chest hurt sometimes, her lungs felt like giving out and her heart felt like squeezing the life out of it. it was painful how much she actually loved him. she felt like crying if she didn’t ignore how much she actually loved him.

not because it was unhealthy, but because she knew she would give it all up for him. she couldn’t dwell too much on the love she harbored for him, she just had to live with the knowledge that she loved him a lot. she knew if she tried to think about how much she loved him she would cry so much it would worry him. and she didn’t know how she could ever explain that.

because how do you explain to someone you love them so much you want to cry because your heart hurts, it hurts so much because even your heart is too small to contain that much love. because you love everything about them, all of it. and you know how cheesy it is when people list out all the reasons why they love someone but your love is different; you can’t pin point what exactly you love, you can’t pin point what makes you happy about them, and you can’t bring yourself to just find one physical attribute you love about them because that would be a lie, because that’s not why you love them, and you can’t say personality because as much as that’s the closest thing as to why you love them, it’s not quite there yet.

you just love them. the essence of what and who they are, with all their flaws and imperfections and all things perfect, it’s just them entirely. it’s their ability to smile when they’re hurting, it’s the way they make mistakes and they learn, the way they just are. and you can’t explain it so you just accept it that when someone asks why you love them you’ll just have to say a measly i love everything about them, and as cute as that sounds it’s so basic and so underwhelming to what you actually feel but that’s all that you’re able to say.

so y/n stared at jaemin’s eyes and her eyes stung and moistened up because she could feel her heart hurting, because she let herself actually feel how much she loved him. yes, he hurt her. yes, she was in pain. but the pain she felt from loving him was so much greater and so much more overwhelming.

jaemin was quick to softly push his hand on her back and encourage her to rest her head on his shoulder, knowing how much she hated crying in public. she gladly took the support, resting her forehead on his shoulder. he hushed her as his lips pressed against her hair.

“you hurt me,” she said, and jaemin rested her hand clasped in his on his other shoulder, fingers squeezing hers, arm tightening around her back.

“i know, i’m so sorry, really, i’m so sorry, princess,” he muttered, lips pressed to her hair.

“i felt like i lost everything,” she started, voice trembling as she forced herself to not cry, “everything we build up, everything we went through, i felt like i lost all of it. i tried to care so much for you, i tried to show you how much i loved so hard, but i-” her voice choked, “-i felt like i lost it all, and you wouldn’t even listen to me. i was so alone, i felt so alone,” she continued, and jaemin’s eyes stung as he listened to her, because that was all she needed; for him to listen to her.

he brought her hands behind his neck as he grasped her face in his hands and pulled her back to look her in the eyes. he sent her a soft smile as his thumbs caressed her cheeks.

“i’m so sorry i made you feel like that. i’m an absolute asshole,-” “yes you are,” he chuckled as she interrupted him, “i will make it up to you. i swear, i will, please accept my apologies.”

his lips downturned as she shook her head before his brows furrowed in confusion when she rested her head back on his shoulder and crossed her fingers at the back of his neck.

“make it up to me and maybe i will,” she spoke softly and jaemin smiled fondly as he rest one arm around her waist and the other rose up to caress her head lovingly, and y/n’s eyes closed at the action, a smile pulling at her lips.

“deal,” he chuckled, before he smiled teasingly, “i’m surprised you didn’t cry, you crybaby,” he teased and she mutter a fuck you.

“why would i cry,” she scoffed and jaemin laughed at her words.

after a beat of silence, “i read somewhere if you clench your butthole right when you’re about to cry it stops the waterworks, guess it works.”

and jaemin laughed loudly as she shook in his arms from her own laughter.

bet! | lee jeno.

summary. it was bound to bite both your asses eventually. just plain ‘ol comedic luck that you and your best friend’s shared tradition of petty bets get you two to finally cough up years of repressed feelings for one another. 

pairing. y/n x nct’s jeno

genre. college!au, best friends to lovers!au

word count.17k

warnings.swearing,fem!reader, underage drinking, emotional constipation lmao, hyuck and yeri hustle often, general dreamies tomfoolery, hyuck and nana are like dumb and dumber, honestly just super chaotic since it’s slice of life :)

taglist.@donutswithjaminthemiddle@dvickyyy@jenosbliss@matryoooshka@luvenshiti@nap-of-a-starr@dojun00@nctdom@yangsbff @bockhyun

i feel like i did a pretty bad job rounding this fic up, my bad… still hope this lives up to the hype from the teaser! to those tagged, many hugs and kisses!! tysm for the interest <3

also biggest thank you to yunn aka @kdyism for being my beta reader and just being super helpful on absolutely everything for this fic! it def got finished faster bc of ya, much love bun :3

“WAS HE DROPPED on the head when he was a kid?” 

You can’t help the snort that passes your lips, making a satisfying slap to Jeno’s arm. “Don’t be mean.” 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Jeno raises an eyebrow.

“Eh… maybe like once or twice. Not that I would know, I was the same age as him but I’m just guessing.” 

You two continue to watch the disaster in front of you befold. Hyuck was currently bothering Yeri. Apparently, he didn’t know the limits as to when to stop because the older senior’s ears are burning red. You’re sure if you were in a cartoon right now, Yeri would have smoke coming out of them, nostrils flaring. 

“Should we intervene?” You side-eye Jeno and he’s the least bit concerned, eyes blearily watching the soon-to-be wreck happen in slow motion, cheek squished against his palm. 

“Nah. This is way more entertaining than continuing my stats homework.” 

You peer over his notebook and he has the word problem and equation written down. Humming, you bring your attention back to the stars of the show and see Yeri grip her notebook tighter, knuckles going white. 

“Here we go.” You sing, Hyuck’s screams of protest soon alerting everyone in the campus plaza of his pain. 

“He never learns his lesson, huh?” Renjun finally joins, his boots making the fall leaves on the ground crunch. Throwing his book bag on the table, it scrunches Jeno’s current page in his statistics work but the latter doesn’t care. 

The two of you nod simultaneously. You and Jeno halfheartedly discouraged Hyuck from going to poke at Yeri around five minutes ago, soon after the three of you had sat down at your usual spot under the only weeping willow tree on campus. It was honestly impressive how quickly your mutual friend could annoy someone so quickly. 

“We should time him next. See how long it takes for Yeri to lash out at him next.” You mutter the idea, Jeno pursing his lips after the two shift left and right around Yeri and company’s picnic table, a textbook held high in Yeri’s nimble fingers. Wendy and Seulgi are ducking as Irene begins trying to stop the madness, scolding Joy for cheering on their youngest.

“Not a bad idea to be honest. Bet?” Jeno grins and you shake on his hand without looking at him. 

“Bet.”

It was just getting good. Hyuck doesn’t have the endurance to continue but Yeri does. Pilates has done her well. 

Renjun quirks an eyebrow, pulling out his laptop as an apple slice is shoved into the corner of his mouth. “You don’t even know the conditions of the bet yet.” 

You shrug, thoroughly entertained as Hyuck sits on his knees, his hands rubbing together furiously as he begs for mercy. “Next time, he gets Yeri to go after him in under two minutes.” 

“I say three.” Jeno nods and he offers a hand again which you shake. 

“You underestimate that little lady’s body. She can hold a lot of anger.” 

Jeno hums in response, ending the conversation quickly as Hyuck stumbles his way over, a pout sat on his lips. The well-beaten idiot rubs at his forearms, mumbling curses under his breath as he plops down beside Renjun. 

“Didn’t end well, did it bud?”

At the smug expression you have plastered on, Hyuck’s pout deepens. “It’s not funny. I need her to partner with me in Psych. I’ll go fucking crazy if I actually have to work with Felix.” 

“Felix’s a sweetheart. I don’t know why you have it out for him.” 

Hyuck rolls his eyes, running his hands through the ruffled brown strands. Yeri managed to grab a bunch of pine needles and aim correctly enough, even with the air resistance the leaves have. 

Renjun beside him plucks a long green one out the battered boy who’s seated beside him, slouched over on the picnic table. “You can’t have two eggheads who don’t pay attention in class paired together. Isn’t that so, Hyuck?” Renjun baby-voices, the latter placing his chin on his stacked wrists to glare. 

“Somebody’s cranky.” Chenle swings by, a childish smirk gracing everybody’s presence. 

“It’s justified.” Hyuck huffs, turning away from the new arrival. You scoot over, bumping into Jeno’s large body to allow Chenle to sit. 

“Why are you so meaty nowadays? Take a break from the gym, will you? We can barely fit eight people at this table as it is.” There’s playful malice in your voice but a little truth in there. The asshole was getting too bulky for your liking. 

“Ohplease. Mark hardly swings by for lunch with us anymore. And why by chance are you bothered by me bulking up?” Jeno leans closer, eyes impossibly close to yours, “Are you swooning yet?” 

Ignoring your heart racing faster, you slap a palm to his forehead, pushing Jeno further away from your face. “No, I’m sick of these freshies asking me for your number, that’s why. You want to know how many have asked for your digits indirectly through me this entire week?” 

Chenle and Renjun have suddenly started bickering about something and you have to raise your voice a little. 

“Five.Fivepeople. Four girls and one guy. I’d be proud of you if it weren’t for the annoyance starting to kick in.” Jeno raises his eyebrows at the number, finally flattening down his stats paper. 

“And what’d you tell ‘em?” Jeno bites distractedly at the cap of his pen, seeming to hit the realization his work has to get done by midnight. 

“That they should ask you themselves,” You’re rolling your eyes, nudging at Chenle to back off on his squishing, practically half his body across the table to try and snatch at Renjun’s sliced apples, “I’m kind of sick of your posse trying to scour me for your personal information.” 

“Get your own, dingus! We get our rations per month at the commons!”

“I’m not giving up a precious coupon just to get one apple slice, come on!” 

“Tell them to stop then.” Jeno tries to solve.

You laugh incredulously, watching Jeno’s concentrated (confused more like) side profile. “You think that deters them? They regenerate into different people every week. The message is not passed on from generation to generation apparently.” 

Jeno makes that endearing ‘huH?’ sound and you grab at the notebook yourself, having taken Statistics 101 before. He thanks you under his breath, which you nod at before Jeno slumps onto your shoulder, sighing heavily. 

“Sorry. I know it bothers you. I would go around and tell them to back off of you and me personally but I don’t know all their names.”

Glancing at Jeno, it irritates you helplessly that you know he’s not even trying to sound dickish. He’s just that sweet and kind of a guy that makes other people not want to talk to him and ask those types of questions themselves. You know those people that seem too perfect to want to approach? Yeah, that’s Lee Jeno in a nutshell. If you looked up the definition of that type of person in a book, Jeno would be grinning that Samoyed smile of his from on that cursed page. 

“I should tape a sign to my back that says, ‘Ask Lee Jeno himself. I’m not his personal owl,’” You peek at his face, “What do you think?” 

He slightly smiles, eyes crinkling almost shut even at such a small gesture of amusement. “Okay. I’ll add my signature to it so that they know it’s approved by yours truly.” He looks up to your face and you’re glad the cold can disguise your flustered face easily with this type of weather. 

Guess it’s time to actually settle this officially since it’s been clued at a little, but yes: You do have a crush on Jeno. And no, he does not know because when does telling one of your best friends’ that you’ve been crushing on them ever worked out? 

No, not in the Wattpad story kind of way, you mean trulyworked out. Because personally, you’ve never heard of it working out ever, especially since you’re practically in the you’ve-seen-him-in-his-boxers and he’s-seen-you-shirtless stage of friendship. Don’t ask, it’s a long story that’s already too long for this kind of boring read. 

So,no, you will not take your chances, thank you very much. There were many signs flashing neon that told you Jeno didn’t see you in a romantic or sexual kind of way but the glaringly obvious sign was actually the one you two are discussing currently. 

What’s the appropriate way of acting if your crush is being berated by other peers on campus to give them your number? You’re not confident in what it actually looks like because for one, you’re not on the receiving end in this imaginaryscenario, and two, it’s exactly that; an imaginary scenario. You can’t even seriously dream of Jeno liking you if you could. It was just that bizarre. 

In the two years you’ve known the boy, he’s never even once mentioned another human being that he could potentially be interested in on campus. It’s not a problem of him not being comfortable telling you either because he’s told you upright that he’s not interested in anybody here (including you who’s enrolled in this stupid university). You’ve even nonchalantly asked Jaemin before and he’s confirmed that even in high school, this kid did not have wandering eyes. 

You had wondered if Jeno was asexual, aromantic, or something along that line in the spectrum, eventually having the courage to ask him one day and he shook his head no quite confidently, a small smile laid on his lips. 

You don’t know what Jeno’s deal was but the risks in finding out really didn’t lean in your favor. And that’s fine, considering how many fish are available on Earth’s wide sea of potential mates. You’ve killed off even the chance of dating Jeno and that’s all good in your book. You’ve been attracted to your guy friends once and twice and they faded away with time exploring their weird quirks or horrible habits. And even if Jeno was a strange case where you’ve even seen the dude have beer dripping from his nostrils from a shitty keg stand and you still manage to harbor feelings for him… eh. 

Time brushes away a lot of problems if you’re desperate and willing enough. Luckily for you, you checked off both boxes easily with this special instance. 

You open your laptop and scour your documents for your old stats notes on chi-square tests. Bleh.

Pretending to gag in your mouth at the sight, Jeno smothers a laugh that shakes your shoulder and you share the document his way before scrolling and finding the right topic. You do the problem with few difficulties and write a quick message in the corner of his notebook page. 

‘Actually study this because Y/N did the example and took time from her day to do so, thank you.’

“Thanks,” Jeno chirps as he takes his notebook back, removing himself from your shoulder (to your well-hidden disappointment), “I owe you one.” 

“You’re right. A coffee works just fine, thank you.” You pipe back, folding your hands on the table cheerily. Jeno is shaking his head in mock annoyance but you knew the next time you two meet, you would not be disheartened, a warm cup pressed in hand. 

“A four-dollar coffee is worth one solved problem in your book?” Jeno argues. 

You fire back without hesitation. “It’s statistics. And I just sent two semesters’ worth of notes to you. You’re very welcome.” 

“You’re right,” Jeno turns, stowing his notebook away, “That’s like seven coffees then.” 

“And a scone if you’re feeling nice. A croissant works too.” You beam. 

“Now you’re pushing it. Those things are stupidly overpriced.” 

“Even for me?” You playfully place your chin in your cupped hands, blinking slowly and looking through your lashes. 

Jeno sighs, placing a hand on your head of hair. “Fine. You win, you spoiled princess.” 

In times like these, you knew you really asked to be put in these types of situations. And you’re not one to start being a saint and stop being hypocritical but… you deserved what you were putting yourself through, saying these types of things and teasing like this. Trying to get a stir and playact with being more. 

Maybe it was a little cruel, somewhat tricking Jeno into saying sweet things to you, just to let your mind wander for a second. Call it… taking advantage of his friendship to pretend a little. Harmless but still adds into your ledger of sins for Judgment Day right? 

“Why are Jisung and Jaemin taking so long? I’m running out of apples.” Renjun whines, looking at the bag that’s been emptied. You’re almost one hundred percent sure it was the two other hungry animals sitting at this table and you weren’t even listening to their argument earlier. 

“They’re carrying seven people’s worth of food. I think that warrants a little patience.” 

“I wouldn’t be nearly upset if these two idiots didn’t steal myapples.” Renjun spits out, glaring. The two culprits wholly ignore the oldest. 

A whole two minutes later, Jaemin and Jisung arrive, lugging four plastic bags of takeout. Jisung’s thin arms are shaking with the effort to hold them, Hyuck getting up to relieve him. 

“Wah, took you two long enough. Thanks for losing the bet last week.” Chenle slaps a hand to Jisung’s heaving back. 

“We just walked… half a mile carrying all this.” Jisung breathlessly collapses beside Hyuck, bent over with his hands on his knees. 

“Why didn’t you take Jaemin’s car?” Jeno mumbles around his hamburger. 

Jaemin laughs, out of breath as well. “I left my fucking car at Yangyang’s from Friday. I didn’t even remember until today because I can walk to my Monday classes.” 

“What the fuck did you do without a car on the weekend?” Hyuck wonders, chipmunk cheeks stuffed full of fries. 

Jaemin makes a suggestive face and everybody recoils, not willing to be curious anymore. The culprit laughs airily. “Why are you all assuming bad things right now?” 

“You didn’t go crawling back to Eunji or something, right?” Hyuck squints, “Because I saw you talking to her that night and that would be pathetic to hear about right now—”

“No, I’m not that kind of asshole—”

“At least you can acknowledge you are one…” Jisung comments under his breath. 

“I simply asked her how she was doing. It was completely innocent,” Nana’s wide bunny eyes scan the table, “Really! I conked out in Hendery’s room after the party.” 

“And just so happened to leave your car at Yang’s which is directlyacross from Eunji’s dorm—” Hyuck continues before Jaemin cuts him off with a scoff. 

“Again. Not that kind of an asshole. Besides, if you had looked closer Hyuck, we were civil Friday night. I doubt she would ever let me get near her that way again… except for maybe with a baseball bat.” 

The table stifles laughs at that, chowing down the food. Everyone murmurs a quick thanks halfway through every food item getting demolished.

“Can you even afford this Jisung?” You mention on second thought, considering the younger boy sat diagonally from you.

“Jaemin owed me too so he paid for everything.” 

“Man, you just rack them up, don’t you?” Jeno pityingly looks over to his best friend at the end of the table. 

He shrugs, not all that bothered. “I’ll eventually learn my lesson, right?” 

“Not if you keep agreeing to our daily bets, stupid.” Chenle quips past his tenders, shoulders shaking in mirth. 

“That’s true. You walk right into them when we bring it up.” Renjun supports. 

“You should be glad you’re never around to accept Ten’s though. I like to think you would fall for them easily.” You crunch at Chenle’s fries, the younger boy not noticing your swiping. 

“What do his bets look like?” 

“Skinny dipping. Egging houses. And occasionally, seven minutes in heaven.” Jisung answers for you, which you backtrack at. In fact, everybody does. 

Hyuck blinks owlishly at him. “What?” 

“How do you know these things, kid? Spill.” You threaten with a long fry of Chenle’s, the soggy potato cut flopping as time goes by. 

“You’ve never seen me at Ten’s?” Jisung spills. Everyone gapes. 

“Why the fuckwould we see you at Ten’s!?” Hyuck laughs in disbelief, hilarity at the situation peeking at the twinkle in his eyes. 

“Yeah, what the heck? Why am Inever invited?” Chenle sulks.

Jeno scoffs. “Because you two are freshmen, that’s why.”

“What are you, fucking Casper the ghost in the corner? How come we’ve never seen you?” Nana is skeptical as well, the only one upset that his baby freshie has managed to sneak into an upperclassmen party. 

“Johnny invites me sometimes. When he remembers.” Jisung shrinks at all the attention, nervous with the sudden interrogation. 

“Johnny is a bad influence,” Jaemin argues with a fold of his arms. 

“Like you’re any better, Nana.” You laugh, bringing an arm around Jaemin to offer comfort. You don’t see Jeno shift at the contact. 

“And you don’t take part in the bets, do you?” Renjun implores before he shakes his head, “Wait, no, I definitely would have heard of Jisung having seven minutes in heaven with someone.”

“Oh,no. I’m not insane,” Jisung shivers at the thought. “It’s fun to watch Taeil go crazy though.” 

Hyuck slaps a hand to Jisung’s back, the latter wincing at the battering his body is taking today. “Welcome to the real deal, man! My god, why did I not know you came to upperclassmen parties? You sneak in sometimes?” 

“What? No! Do I look even close to a sophomore to you?” Jisung looks to make a point, gesturing towards himself. “There’s your answer.” 

“I think Johnny favors you then. He has a soft heart for freshies, who knew?”

“Where is my invite then?” Chenle whines, still sulking. 

“I’ll take you as my plus one.” Jisung placates his best friend with that and he continues to happily chew on his cheeseburger. 

“When’s his next one? Oh, I can’t wait to see how Jisung acts wasted.” Hyuck wiggles in his seat, giggling like a happy toddler. 

“Oh no, noton my watch. Baby Jisungie is not getting wasted at any party, ever.” Jaemin acts tough, glaring at the youngest of the group. 

“Oh, please Grandpa. You didn’t even realize I was present at these until I just told everyone.” 

Nana bursts at that, screeching a scolding noise that startles a pair of girls walking by. “Because I never even expectedyou to be at one! That’s why!” 

Jaemin looks to you, eyes wide. “My baby chick. At an upperclassmenparty.” 

Giggling, you push at his jaw to turn his gaze towards Jisung again. “Jisung’s got a fair point. Who are you to stop him?” 

“I never get wasted anyway. I just come to watch the chaos.” Jisung grins, munching on his chicken tenders like Chenle. As you watch longer, you understand why Nana babies the youngest so much. He’s cute in moderation and it looks easy to want to mother him. 

“Whatever,” Nana grumbles, “Guess I have to watch out at parties and babysit now.” 

“Oh,pleasedon’t.” Jisung’s face scrunches up.

“This Saturday. You coming, Jisung?” Hyuck grills, pocketing his phone which you didn’t even realize he pulled out to text presumably Johnny or Ten. 

“I guess… if Johnny asks me.” Jisung drags out, glancing at Hyuck. 

“This sounds like a disaster now that everybody knows.” Renjun leans across to whisper to you and Jeno. 

“You two should come to watch the shitshow with me,” You grin, wiggling your eyebrows, “I know you two usually don’t come but sometimes they can be fun.” 

“I don’t wanna drink to have fun.” Renjun wrinkles his nose at that. 

Waving a hand at that, you offer a tip, “Just fill your cup with a liquid. Nobody is sober enough to check you like a cop.” 

Jeno hums at that, Renjun saying that he’ll think about it. Hyuck pockets his phone once again, having pulled it out to ask about Jisung.

“You got the go-ahead, dude. Ready to party with the big boys?” Hyuck wrestles Jisung’s long neck into the crook of his elbow as the younger boy cringes. 

“I don’t know about thatbut…” 

Jaemin stands up dramatically, slapping both hands on the table. Your cup of soda spills a little when it knocks over, Jeno cursing as the two of you rush to correct the drink’s position. 

“Oh,noton my watch, you won’t!”

The table is quiet, absorbing Nana’s usual dramatics. 

Chenle raises his hand a little. “I’m going too, right?” 

|—————|

It took a little more convincing for Renjun to come. You and Jeno usually like to watch havoc together, pure rapture and popcorn shared between you two. You seriously considered bringing the movie snack to the party but in the end, was unconvinced by the others. Using the microwave at a frat party didn’t seem so smart, especially if your attention dragged away and someone nagged the bag from the microwave before you could notice. Would just be a waste of popcorn. 

Jeno and Renjun swing by your dorm building, waiting outside in the cold for a minute or so before you pop out. 

You shiver, pulling at your black jean jacket. “How many more layers do I have to put on to not be cold?” 

Renjun shakes his head, observing your legs. “You’re wearing thin ass tights, Y/N, what were you expecting?” 

Teeth chattering, the three of you begin to walk to the 127 house. “Jokes on you, I’m wearing leggings underneath. These are fake tights with fleece in them.” 

“Why are you so cold all the time? Is your body just that weak?” Jeno genuinely queries, your black skirt flying a little too high with the current wind for his comfort. He slows to walk behind you, conscious of the nonexistent people on the deserted streets looking.

“Yeah, you’re actually shaking. Do you wanna turn back to change?” Renjun offers kindly and you shake your head, committed. 

“I look cute right now. Fashion sacrifices, am I right?” You grin impishly, eyeing your company’s outfits. 

Following your act of observing everybody’s clothing choices for tonight, Renjun laughs at all three of your different fashion senses. “We look ridiculous walking together right now.” 

Jeno peeps up from the back of the two of you leading the way. “How? I think we look fine.” 

You hum in agreement. “We look like college students going to a party.” 

A bark of laughter escapes Renjun’s mouth, tugging at Jeno’s jacket zipper. “Yeah, three differentparties. Jeno looks like he’s about to rob a store. Y/N looks like a grunge girl and I look like I’m heading to the fucking library.” 

He’s not that wrong. Jeno’s wearing all black, cargo pants, tee, chunky boots, and zip-up hiding his good figure in the darkness of his clothes. A navy blue cardigan covers Renjun, wearing similar beat-up Converse to you, with a white tee and light blue jeans. Looking down at your own outfit, you pluck a piece of lint off your gray sweater. 

“But we all look great. Killing the fashion game. Fabulous.” You strut forward with confidence, the other two amused at your antics. 

The 127 frat house lays ahead and you speed up to get out of the cold. Mark greets you with a hug and shout of happiness. You can smell the alcohol reeking his breath and the entire vicinity already. The floor bumps beneath your feet, everyone else in the building bobbing their head to the beat. 

“Hi, Y/N! Oh shit, what?” Mark calls out to Jeno and Renjun, dapping them up as his Solo cup dangerously leers to the left. You hurriedly correct it in his hold, not willing to get beer stains on your nice clothes this early into the night. 

“What the fuck are you two doing here?” Mark shouts down to you, a dopey grin implanted on his expression, “You convinced them to come for once?!” 

“I know, right? It’s a rare occasion tonight!” You yell back, a contagious smile growing on you at Mark’s infectious mood. 

Jeno leans closer to break your close proximity to Mark, “Hyuck is gonna get Jisung to let loose. Seems like a good disaster to watch unfold.” 

Mark shakes his head fondly at that, grabbing a hold of Renjun’s shoulder and leading all three of you into the kitchen. It’s crowded with humid heat, too many bodies in one room for comfort. 

“Grab a drink and toss any cups just laying around, please. I gotta get back to door duty but have fun!” Mark sings, planting a brave wet kiss to your forehead in goodbye before he’s off, shoving to the front of the house again. 

You wipe at your forehead, deciding to make fun of sober Mark for this innocent kiss later. Jeno bristles at the sight, grabbing three red cups and pulling out the unopened liter of Coca-Cola in the back of the line of sodas. 

Renjun holds the three cups gladly, there being no counter space to easily maneuver for pouring, before passing on the beverage to you. You press your cup to the ice machine and grimace as no ice chunks come flying into your cup. 

“Lukewarm Coke it is.” You toast the other three, clinking your Solo cups together before sipping. Getting out of the small kitchen, your eyes scan the crowd. 

“See Jisung, Chen, or Hyuck anywhere?” Renjun queries, yelling over the thumping bass. You climb onto the step bar of a stool someone’s currently sitting on, placing a hand on Jeno’s shoulder for support. The height lets you look over the big jumble of people in the large living room, not noticing any familiar heads.

“I see Jungwoo. Maybe he knows.” Jeno calls out, before stepping into the mass of moving bodies. He abandons the two of you for a total of thirty seconds before dragging not one, but two of the 127 boys over. 

Doyoung gives a quick side hug, shoving at Jungwoo who comes to lift you off your feet. You make an impact sound at the tall puppy’s strength, patting at his arm to let you down. 

Jungwoo’s blonde head of hair is all mussed up and you brush at the strands, laughing. “How much have you had to drink already?” 

“A good, healthy amount! I’m on water for the rest of the night!” Jungwoo happily confesses with a thumbs up, all his perfect white teeth on display. 

“You two know where Hyuck is?” Renjun bellows. 

Jeno adds on, “Or Jisung! We’re here for them!” 

Doyoung makes a pulled face at that, Jungwoo bending over in laughter. “What!? Jisung is here?” 

The younger of the two frat boys begin darting over the crowd, trying to locate the tall beanstalk. 

“What would Jisung be doing here?” Doyoung is puzzled, a little concern crawling into his expression. 

“Apparently all Johnny’s doing. Or Hyuck’s, we don’t know at this point.” Jeno shrugs. 

“We’re here for the shitshow to commence!” You revealed a little too happily, Doyoung making a forced smile. 

“I don’t know anything about this. Johnny’s DJing right now! You can go ask him though.” He points to the far back of the living room. The black-haired senior is head bobbing to the music, a set of headphones half on his head as he waves his gigantic arms around. 

You giggle nervously at the obstacle between you and reaching him. “Oh hell no,” You push at Jeno’s arm, “This tough guy is going to go ask for us.” 

Doyoung cradles his favorite underclassman by the neck and joins him in his journey to the front. Jungwoo’s a little ways away, dancing wildly. Renjun laughs at the sight, bringing your attention to the silly junior. 

“I dare you to join him.” You challenge playfully, and Renjun shakes his head adamantly. 

“Fuckno! You think I dance at these parties?!” 

“If you have alcohol in you, anyone can dance!” You try to convince Renjun, pulling his lips down. 

“Good thing I’m not drinking tonight then!” 

Jungwoo gets swept out into the dance floor again, not allowing the three of you to converse more before Jaemin joins the two of you out of seemingly nowhere. He cheers at the sight, ruffling Renjun’s well-styled hair, much to the older boy’s disappointment. 

Jaemin grasps at your opposite shoulder, leaning on your head to heave some of his dead weight. 

You nudge his side, Nana yelping at the contact. “You know where Jisung is?” 

Nana widens his eyes at your question, suddenly remembering his self-proposed babysitting job. 

“Ohshit!I forgot! Where is that idiot?” Jaemin gasps, helplessly looking around. 

“Trust me, we’ve been trying to navigate this mess for ten minutes since we’ve arrived. Just wait here with us!” Renjun pulls at Jaemin’s belt loop, yanking the same-birth-year boy back into your talking circle. 

Jeno arrives a minute later, lugging a slouching Jisung on his back. Hyuck is laughing his ass off, pushing the hair off of Jisung’s forehead to catch the youngest’s drunk face better. 

Jeno practically throws Jisung on the now-available stool this stranger just gave up, blowing out a breath of relief. “This kid is way heavier than he looks!” Jeno complains.

Hyuck is still dying of laughter and you and Renjun can’t help but follow in line as Jisung groans, pulling at Jeno’s waist to cuddle him. The latter is halfway between uncomfortable and endeared at Jisung’s affectionate behavior, who’s mumbling nonsense. 

“Jesus, why did he drink so much?” Jaemin worries, patting his baby chick’s head. 

“Dude, I didn’t even need to say anything! Chenle is the bad influence here, not me!” Hyuck throws his hands up at Nana’s deadly glare. As if on cue, the second youngest of your friend group gathers everybody’s attention in the crowd, pulling 127 boy Jaehyun on the table he’s standing on to make a speech. 

“There’snodamn way…” You whistle at the sight, Jaehyun patting the underclass man in pride. 

Jisung mumbles something into Jeno’s stomach and the older boy leans down to hear him better.

“Hm… w-wanna go… home…” Jisung hiccups, eyes barely open and Jeno nods.

“I better bring this idiot home. I’ll probably have to sneak his dumb ass past the RA, I’ll be right back.” Jeno grunts as he wraps Jisung’s long arms around his neck, practically carrying the beanstalk like a backpack. 

“It’s okay, I’ll do it!” Nana rushes to switch off with Jisung’s dead weight. He groans, looking to Jeno with a grimace. “Ugh, you were right. He is a lot heavier than he looks.” 

“Are you sure? I can help?” Jeno halfheartedly makes sure, to which Jaemin nods resolutely. 

“I need some fresh air anyways, been here too long!”

“Do you want me to go with you?” You offer, only because you knew sneaking around the RA would manage to get rowdy with just the two of them alone. 

“Nah, it’s okay. I better have a drink after getting back from this though.” Nana jokes and you shove the pair towards the door. 

Jeno stuffs his hands into his pockets, low-key relieved that he doesn’t have to go back into the cold night. He had just gotten here and despite how disgusting it was thinking about how much heat was being produced, it was better than freezing outside. 

“There’s our entertainment for the night.” Renjun lifts his cup in salute. 

Hyuck nudges everyone to watch Chenle though, who wants to crowd surf but fails to, nobody willing to hold him up. Everyone starts cackling at the sight, peers practically making space so that Chenle won’t be convinced to just commit and dive onto them. 

“Up for a game of beer pong, anyone? I’ve been trying to play all night!” Hyuck hooks around the boys, dragging everyone over to the foyer where two tables were set up. Tons of spills made you almost slip and split your head open. Thankfully Jeno is like a solid wall behind you, not fazed by your clumsiness. 

He gets close behind you, hands still on your waist and breath tickling your ear as Hyuck and Renjun take the other end of the pong table. “Wanna bet Mark comes in for a celebrity shot later?” 

You laugh nervously, getting hot under his hold and turning to look at Jeno’s expression. “That is oddly specific. How are you so confident?” 

Looking over to Mark, he’s chatting with Mina and completely distracted from answering the door now. You’re sure that Johnny, the brother he’s been shadowing in the frat, would not be happy with Mark ignoring his job. Or maybe he would, knowing Mark was actually shooting his shot with a girl.

“I don’t wanna tell you why. Then you won’t agree.” Jeno argues, finally getting his hands off you to roll up his sleeves. You slightly roll your eyes at his words, trying to subtly look at the veins in Jeno’s hands’ flex. 

“I think he’ll come in later too. But I say it’ll be for us. Not for Hyuck or Renjun.” 

Jeno makes a tutting sound, collecting the empty cups on your side and making the triangular shape. “You’re trying to sell me out here, no way. You’re just gonna convince Mark to come over by…”

Your eyebrows lift. “By what exactly?” 

Jeno shakes his head, a small smile sat on his face. You poke at his side, curious. “By what? Now you’ve intrigued me!” 

“Whatever. I’ll make a better bet,” Jeno nabs Renjun’s missed shot, to which Hyuck whines, “Mark is gonna ask you out tonight.” 

Sputtering on the soda you’ve been sipping on, you watch Jeno whip his ping pong ball like straight butter into your opponents’ cup. The other side’s loud protests distract him from your obvious gaping, confused at the sudden thought of Mark likingyou.

Jeno eventually eyes your expression, making a weird face. “What?” 

“What? What do you mean, what?Are you insinuating Mark likes me?!” You angrily whisper, afraid that somehow the person you two were talking about would hear over the loud music flowing throughout the house. 

“Why are you so surprised? It’s very obvious! At least in my eyes.” Jeno shrugs. The ping pong from Hyuck hits your stomach, confusing him. You grab at it, just tossing it without a care. The ball whooshes in and you don’t notice, still frazzled. 

“You’re joking, right? This is a sick joke of yours?” Peering over at Jeno, he scoffs. 

“No. Don’t tell him I said this but when we first introduced you to him, he said you were pretty.” The deadpan way Jeno utters this makes your eyes squint. 

“That seems like an innocent compliment to me.” (News flash, you’re denying reality here.) 

Jeno lifts a dark eyebrow at that. “When has Mark Lee ever gone out of his way to intentionally compliment a girl?” 

You scrunch your nose at that, rubbing at the kiss he planted on your head earlier. “This changes things.” 

Jeno only chuckles, plucking the ball from one of your cups and setting it aside. He closes one eye, practically doing the same with the other as he aims. He groans with a failure, looking back to you. “Do you not like him? He’s nice, though you haven’t known him as long as I and the others have.” 

“No, no, he is nice! I like him.” The last sentence is pronounced like ‘I like him as a friend’ in your head but Jeno interprets it differently. Maybe the bass from the speakers morphed the tone of your words in his thick skull. 

“Youlikehim?” Jeno’s voice tilts high. Hyuck’s next horrible shot plonks straight at Jeno’s forehead, which he ignores in shock. 

He’s never shown incredibility like this to show you. You’re diverted to denying his words instantly, not thinking of the consequences. 

“He’s… a nice guy.” You look to Mark again and this time, he senses your gaze, throwing up a nerdy gesture of a peace sign. You wave back with a smile and don’t catch Jeno’s suspicious tonguing of his cheek at the interaction. 

“Are you accepting the bet or not?” Jeno holds a hand out, which you wait to contemplate after absolutely dunking your next shot. On a roll.

“Mark’s wingman now, are you?” Your tease causes Jeno’s jaw to shift. He acts it off as confidence, nodding with reluctance. 

Maybe he had gone too far with the little game of bets now. 

“Okay! Bet!” You perk up, wanting to win this easy wager. Mark wouldn’t ask you out, no way. 

Accepting the deal easily, you shake on it and smirk internally. 

Jeno was easy to read. An open book, you could say. Everyone in your friend group knew it as well, which made him the butt of jokes and teases all too often. He made it too fun to poke at him and you’ve joined in on the game plenty of times. This was just another game of prodding the naive Samoyed you had, though a little different. 

You didn’t really understand the reasoning behind Jeno’s disturbance all that much but he was the one that brought Mark’s supposed “crush” to you. And you’re not one to fuck with someone’s feelings that far, especially with sweet ‘ol Mark’s. 

You were pretty confident the older boy did not fancy you though; he was never around you in the first place to hint at the notion. Mark was pretty private with his romantic life so you’re not all that surprised you don’t know much. He was glued to the frat more often than usual and has been hanging out with you and company less often. 

To be fair, if Mark was with someone, hopefully, he was not blatantly kissing your forehead without care. You were never as close to Mark as the other boys like Jeno had stated before. You suppose if he did happen to ask you out tonight, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the desire to win this bet burns in your veins, even more than usual with the bizarre behavior Jeno is exhibiting at the mere thought of you returning Mark’s so-called “feelings”.

“If you’re making a bet to win this game right now, you’re gonna eat shit!” Hyuck brags, practically vibrating in excitement because the two of you were somehow tied up. Even with this dude drunk, he could be somewhat decent at games. How irritating.

Biting the corner of your lip, you ignore Hyuck, plan to win this short game of cup pong, and then win this bigger game of bets with Jeno. To gain this extra favor initializes a step-by-step scheme of what you were going to do. There was no way Jeno could beat you.

Jeno watches greed grow in your irises, probably confused. 

“So you’re confident he won’t ask you out.” He drags out his words, making sure you understood what you just shook on. 

“Yeah,” You bob in place now, trying out his strategy of closing one eye to shoot, “Mark won’t ask me out. He’s not thatdrunk.” 

“Really?” Jeno feigns interest, throwing his head to Mark fast approaching you, “You sure about that?” 

You don’t get to answer, Mark’s alcohol-hazed eyes crinkling. Mina follows close behind, waving a greeting to the both of you. “Hi, Mina! Mark— oomph!” 

Thinking Mark’s walk trajectory would stop before reaching so close, the junior bumps chest-first into you. 

“Hi!Can I take a celebrity shot?!” Mark yells, overcompensating his volume when you’re glued to him. He swarms your space, placing a touchy hand on the small of your back before standing on his tippy toes and stealing your ping pong. 

His mouth is instinctively making ‘Oh!’ noises as he readies it, failing miserably and pouting at the loss. “I could’ve sworn that was close, dude!” 

You and Mina share a smile. She knew her friend was a little touchy when drunk so the two of you chalk it up to being just that. Jeno doesn’t though, burning eyes watching the tight hold Mark has on you. 

Mark blinks rapidly down at you, pleading with big doe eyes, “Just one more shot I steal. One more celebrity shot!” 

You nod, easily agreeing with a laugh. Maybe you had underestimated how turnt your dude was right now. Mark leans backward a little, losing his balance and almost toppling you over with him. Mina pulls Mark away from your space, probably deciding he’s had enough of bothering you. 

“Sorry, he is sowasted right now.” Mina apologies, pushing the boy away from your beer pong table to the kitchen for water. 

Jeno makes a face that reads “I told you so”, forcing you to bend over in laughter. 

“Jeno, you can’t be serious. He acts that way with everyone!”

“You think that Mark touches up every girl like that? He kissed your forehead earlier too.” Jeno genuinely notes and you pause. Just for a split second. 

“We’re friends.” It’s as if that statement alone will end this argument and Jeno rolls his eyes. 

“And we’re friends too, dimwit. Wedon’t act like that, do we?” 

You shift at his words, uncomfortable at the sudden lodging of your throat. Oh, how you wish Jeno did. At least then, you’d have a pathetic hope he had an inkling of an interest in you too. 

Instead of replying to him, you turn and take Jeno’s shot for him to end the game. The last cup is yours for the taking and Renjun groans with his head thrown back, almost flying off balance at the shove Hyuck gives his partner for more space. 

“Okay, okay! Redemption shot, I got this!” Hyuck steadies his hand and bounces off the lip of your side’s last Solo cup. 

“FUCK!” 

“YOU ABSOLUTE DICKHEAD, LEE DONGHYUCK!” 

There’s a forced smile on your lips at the victory, one that only Jeno can notice is fake up close. Thankfully, he doesn’t pry on it more, seeing as he knew you weren’t going to give a truthful answer in this setting. 

You were starting to wish you had a bit of alcohol in your system, as much as you hated the taste of it on your tongue. 

|—————|

By the end of the night, you had won the bet as expected. But Jeno being the sore loser he is, tried to convince you to drag the bet on. He was super confident that Mark was into you. Maybe his friend was too wasted to ask or remember your answer if he were to come up to you about a date. 

“I’ll sleep on it,” You had said, “Especially since I pity you and I haven’t decided what I want the favor to be yet.” 

With that, Jeno breathed out a sigh in relief as he walked you home. 

|—————|

You didn’t realize how committed Jeno was to this particular game. And you don’t know why because you had honestly forgotten about it yourself the morning next. Maybe it was his pride and stubbornness stopping him from giving up.

When Jeno swings by your dorm, texting you to come downstairs quickly, you’re confused. 

He’s in comfy clothes, hair a little frizzy as he hands you a croissant and a warm cup of coffee that heats up your body temperature. 

You blearily squint your eyes at him in suspicion. “What are you buttering me up for right now?” 

With no RA in sight, you usher him into the warmth of the dorm lobby, virtually no people around to notice your blatant disregard for rules. 

“I’m not buttering you up. I just wanted to be nice this morning.” 

Staying silent, Jeno watches your expression breathe incredibility. 

“Really! I didn’t know it was a crime to be nice to you anymore, jeez.”  

The bet comes to mind and you mention it. “You’re hoping I’m not going to make you splurge your money on my favor, aren’t you?” 

Jeno laughs, the sound deep in timbre as the sun rises higher in the cold blue sky. “No, I swear. Although talking about Mark, he is going through it right now. I woke up to a video Doyoung sent me of him vomiting into the toilet.” 

You suck your lips in, holding back a laugh. “You know, if you’re trying to sell your man to me right now, describing his hangover is not working.” 

Jeno quirks the corner of his lip at that. “He probably drank half his body weight last night.” 

You roll your eyes. “And here you were, thinking he was going to be sober enough to consider asking me out. Alright.” 

Your friend shrugs, sipping at his drink. “I’m not wrong, Princess. I’ll show you with your own two eyes Mark Lee has the hots for you.” 

Cringing at the way Jeno phrased his words, you stuff the pastry you were kindly gifted into your mouth, muffling your reply. “Plea don’ efersay if like ‘at again.” 

Jeno’s shoulders shake at your antics. “You’ve slept on my proposition now, ma’am. What’s the deal?” 

Swallowing roughly, you mutter, “Can I raise the stakes to three favors?” 

Jeno scratches at his hairline at that, face in a grimace. “Fuck. Is this worth it?” 

At the hesitation in Jeno’s eyes, you jump like a hound to the smell of meat. Or in this case, a perfect opportunity to score on some free meals. 

“Yes!Yes, it’s worth it. I accept your deal!”

“Woah woah woah! I haven’t agreed yet!” Jeno is shaking his hands in front of him, dangerously leering his hot drink side to side. He licks at the lid, the brown liquid sloshing everywhere. 

“You brought this new condition up in the first place so,” Taking Jeno’s distraction as a chance to dunk cheaply on him, you take his free hand in yours, shaking on it, “Bet.” 

|—————|

It was game on from the damn get-go. 

Any chance that Jeno got, which was within a hundred feet radius of a certain junior named Mark Lee, he bolted to the boy’s side. 

Poor Mark is so confused at the sudden ramblings Jeno has of you. He’s also even more conflicted because Jeno is going in on his compliments of your smile, smarts, humor, you name it. Mark wasn’t sure whether his friend was either crushing hard and needed to only confide in him, or whether Jeno was trying to make him like you indirectly through his selling words. 

Another thing the boy stuck in the middle of this mess notices is your sudden disappearance from his vicinity. You two didn’t exactly share a class but shared a professor, who taught two subjects back to back. 

Usually, you would wait around in the auditorium-shaped classroom to catch up with him, just say hi. But no, apparently you now bolt as soon as the professor calls it quits for the day. Mark had a greeting on the tip of his tongue opening up the doors, only to scour your usual seating arrangement and come up empty. 

Poking his head out down the sidewalk, you’re speed walking away like your non-existent pet was on the verge of death. 

Mark would brush it off to some urgent duty you had but… at the odd behavior of his two friends, he decides to swing by the willow tree at the end of the week. Maybe start his own experiment on what was going on. It just didn’t seem like a coincidence to him. 

Andrighthe was in his thoughts. 

At the sight of Mark approaching the table, your eyes widen to the size of saucers, whipping your head around to Jeno. You want to slap his smug face right off. 

“What the hellis Mark doing here? Did you convince him to come?” You spit out in a whisper, Hyuck none-the-wiser as he hollers for his best friend to sit beside him. 

Jeno shakes his head no innocently, lips pouting out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Swearing under your breath, you plaster a smile onto your face, breathing out a greeting to the upperclassman. He grins at you, to which your cheeks heat up for some reason. 

Maybe it was because this dudebeside you had been bragging about you to Mark. Jeno had told you his genius plan of planting unconscious thoughts of you in Mark’s head a few days ago and its effects are now catching up to you, sweat building on your hairline.  

Jeno misinterprets it as you getting nervous in the presence of Mark, probably wishing rain to fall on his head at manifesting his final Lee brother to sit down this afternoon. 

“What’s up, man?” Mark exchanges a handshake with Jeno as he swings his bag to the ground and tucks his legs under the table. He watches with rapture as you busy yourself with the textbook splayed out in front of you, eyes skittering. 

Before Jeno can give a general reply to Mark, Hyuck bumps Mark’s shoulder. “You should text Renjun your order from that Mexican place down the street.” 

“Who’s favor are we using today?” Mark asks in curiosity. 

You raise a hand rather timidly, to which the entire table is bewildered and bemused. The bewildered people are only Hyuck and Mark because they don’t know the absolute pain-enduring embarrassment to which bemused Jeno has cursed you to withstand. You’ve always been very comfortable with the guys, including Mark, so the oblivious two not in on this bet are raising their eyebrows at your behavior. 

“What did Renjun lose against you again?” Jeno pretends to ponder deeply while you throw a heated glare his way. You wish you could burn his eyebrows right off in this moment. 

“Oh!” The bulky meathead gasps, “He lost ten-to-two against a game of naming capitals of countries. Isn’t she so smart?” 

Jeno is being soobvious. You grit your teeth as he pets your head. 

“Take your hand away before I biteyour pinky finger off.” You seethe past closed lips, the audience not hearing your threat. 

Jeno jolts his limb away at that, instead, grinning a Samoyed smile toward Mark. The latter is mainly lost in trying to navigate what the fuck was going on. 

Hyuck only rolls his eyes, a little more used to your duo’s antics. “They’re probably betting on something right now.” 

Mark blinks at that. The picture was becoming a little clearer. He wasn’t sure which way to start investigating this dilemma next. 

“No!” The two of you deny instantly, sitting up straighter. It’s even more cause to believe Hyuck’s point. 

“Ignore them,” Hyuck acts like an exasperated mother to you and Jeno’s Dumb and Dumber act, pulling out his phone to show Mark the Mexican place’s menu. 

As the other pair get lost debating what to order for Mark, you turn to Jeno with a death wish written in your eyes.

“Are you crazy, Lee Jeno!? Whatare you doing right now, you’re practically on the verge of cheating! You’re going to give this entire thing away!” 

“No,” Jeno drags out in denial, acting like you’re a child that doesn’t understand his obvious tactic, “I’m just telling him of your intelligence. I have no clue what you’re on about.” 

You’re heavily tempted to close your textbook and go bonkers Yeri-on-Hyuck style on him but Mark butts into your killer thoughts before you can pull through. 

“What are you ordering, Y/N?” 

You stutter to Jeno’s, albeit bitter, amusement. “Um, a chimichanga. It’s… pretty good from there.” 

“Okay!” Mark perks up, tapping at the phone in Hyuck’s hand, “I’ll get the same.” 

Jeno giggles into your ear and irritation bubbles to the surface of your skin. 

“I swear to fucking—”

Mark interrupts your threat once again and you paste another pleasant smile on. “Y/N, I missed you before my class on Wednesday. You were gone before I could even say hi.” 

“Oh, yeah. I uh…” You rush to make an excuse, “I really had to water my— plant. Yeah.” 

You want to punchyourself. 

Hyuck snickers as he texts Renjun Mark’s order. “What the fuck…” 

“Yeah, what the fuck? You don’t even havea pet plant in your room. Everything you attempt to raise dies.” Jeno feels the need to contribute. You’re seething at this idiot’s audacity. 

Clarifying your mistake in excuse will only deepen the hole you’ve dug for yourself so you shut up, wanting the ground to swallow your entire being whole instead. 

“Huh,” Mark chuckles, “Okay. You’re not avoiding me for some reason, right?” 

“What? Oh, no. Not at all!” As if to prove a point to Jeno, you give the most convincing smile you can to Mark. 

“Okay, that’s good.” 

Renjun saves you from continuing this conversation as Hyuck’s phone rings, pressing the speaker button to the call. 

“What’s up?” 

“Could two of you come to the restaurant real quick? I’m going to need help carrying all this food back.” 

“Why didn’t you use your car, dumbass?” Hyuck whines. 

“Because it’s a two-minute walk from campus grounds? Come help me!” 

Jeno pipes up, “Make Jaemin and the two youngest help you. They haven’t shown up here yet.” 

“Wellobviously I had thought of that, Jeno,” Renjun sasses back, “They aren’t answering.” 

“I’ll go!” You practically trip in getting up from the picnic table, dying to get away from this awkward atmosphere. 

The other three make eye contact. 

“Not it!” 

“Not it!”

“Not—!Ugh.” 

Forfuck’ssake. Your luck is actual dog water.  

“Why are you so slow at this game? Your reaction speed is usually good,” Hyuck questions Mark, who groans as he gets up. 

“Well, why do we alwaysplay “Not it” then? It’s targeting mespecifically.” 

You wholly ignore Jeno’s disgusting grin of satisfaction as the two of you begin to tread down the street. You curse to all above that Jeno gets kicked in the shins one day. It was looking like you were going to be the perpetrator more and more these days. 

“So…” Mark drags out, his hands in his pockets, “Do I even want to know what it is I’m currently stuck between?” 

You hum as you genuinely consider Mark’s words. “I can’t tell you. It’ll break the bet. And I really want to win.” 

Mark’s eyes crinkle in mirth. “The two of you are so competitive. It might take forever for you to win at this rate…” 

“Are you willing to be on my side?” You raise an eyebrow, secretly wishing.

To be fair, there were no very clear-cut boundaries to other methods of getting the dub. After all, Jeno is practically begging Mark to get the idea to ask you out. 

You could still cheat but not… outrightcheat. 

“I guess so, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.” Mark shrugs innocently. You fold your hands together, laughing under your breath as you close your eyes while looking up. 

“Damn, this is serious, dude.” Mark laughs boisterously, observing your silly act of gratitude. 

“It’s on three favors,” You mumble past your silent prayers to the sky, “Of course this is serious.” 

“Three?Shit… Well, you have me at your disposal as long as you don’t tell me what the bet is, right? What should I do?” 

You smirk, finally looking at Mark with sinister eyes. 

The ball is in your field now. 

|—————|

“Huh.” 

Jaemin looks up from his laptop to Jeno who makes the noise of discernment, watching two figures from afar. Following his best friend’s eyeline, you and Mark are walking side-by-side toward the commons. You’re grinning as Mark laughs, bent over with difficulty while walking. 

“When did they get closer?” Jaemin asks in bewilderment. Jeno stays silent as Mark holds the door open for you and the both of you disappear into the commons. 

“Don’t know,” Jeno mumbles, finally looking down to his device and rereading the same paragraph over again. 

Jaemin makes a face at that, having been able to read his buddy for a while now. 

“So…” 

Jeno sighs, knowing that Jaemin is obviously hinting at something. “Spit it out.” 

“What bet did you make with Y/N?” 

Jeno side-eyes Jaemin with annoyance. “How do you even know anything about this?” 

“I have my ways,” Jaemin concludes mysteriously, “Answer me.”

“We bet at Johnny’s party two weeks ago.” 

“On what though?” 

“I said Mark would ask her out.” 

Jaemin snorts at that, going back to his laptop. “He’s not into her. He likes Mina.” 

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really seem that way anymore. They’re getting all giggly and close with one another.” Jeno has a tone of temper growing in his words. 

“If the bet is over then, why is this dragging on?” 

“I raised it to three favors now. It’s indefinite.” 

Jaemin glances at Jeno again with fingers halted on his keyboard, holding back laughter. “Why would you ever, under anyconditions, accept that? Against Y/N of all people too? She’s going to drain your wallet for food.” 

“She’s convincing.” 

“Oryou’re whipped for her.” 

“I’m not.” Jeno gives a dirty look to the poor paragraph he’s been on for five minutes.

“You’re in deepdenial, bud. I’ve been saying this for an eternity.” 

Jeno scowls at his best friend, not appreciating the entertained, twinkling eyes shot his way. Jaemin tilts his chin toward his neck, looking up through his long eyelashes at Jeno. 

“Deny it all you want but I know my shit. She likes you, you like her. It’s simple.” Jaemin chirps.

“Oh, and you’rethe love expert, aren’t you, playboy?” Jeno’s exasperated, practically pouting. “I don’t likeY/N.” 

“Really? Why are you bothered with the idea of Y/N being with Mark then? You’rethe one that suggested to her Mark was interested. Now that Y/N is entertaining the idea, you’ve backed off on trying to win,” Jaemin lands a slap on Jeno’s back, “You’re deserving of what you’re putting yourself through, man.” 

Jeno sighs as he folds his arms onto the table, laying his chin down. “I don’t like it when you speak sense.” 

“For one, I’ve always been speaking sense. But I’m glad you’re finally acknowledging my genius good points. I’ve been trying to get through your thick skull about her for two years.” Jaemin nods in gratification, glad Jeno is opening his eyes a little, even if it took some good ‘ole jealousy to stir his best friend’s heart around. 

|—————|

“Ow!” 

You cringe, the corners of your mouth reaching your ears. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to do that.” 

“S’okay.” He grumbles at the way, rubbing at the eye you just poked.

Pressing the face mask firmer on Mark’s already milky skin, you fixate on a bump and attempt to smooth it over. Once you’re satisfied, you wipe your hands on your pajama pants and clap in completion. 

“Perfect!” Twisting Mark’s shoulders around so that he shifts on the bed to face his mirror, he immediately ruins your hard work by bursting into laughter at the sight of the sheet mask on his face. 

“Mark! You fucking ruined it!” You can’t help but fall in line with your friend’s contagious sounds of amusement, slapping his arm lightly for him to face you and fix it again.

“I’m sorry! I look so stupid, I can’t—” 

Urging him to sit up straight, you shake your head side to side, not able to be actually mad when Mark was so humored by the new experience of night skincare. 

“Whatever. I guess I don’t care since you paid for dinner and I paid for this.” Grinning down at him, knees planted on the bed, Mark naturally returns your smile and regrets it as you lightly pinch his ear in retaliation for again, messing up your hard work. 

“My bad, my bad. But it’s whatever. Pizza isn’t expensive.” 

“That restaurant is kind of expensive though.” You mutter under your breath, brushing Mark’s hair from his head and adjusting his baby lion headband you bought for this tiny sleepover. 

“It’s chill. No big deal.” 

Settling back to sit on your heels, you raise a teasing eyebrow. “And if I make you sleep on the couch in the living room?”

Mark falls line and sinker, pouting a little. “You said we would put pillows between us tonight.” 

Laughing lightly, you rush to reassure Mark. “I’m joking, you know I am,” Throwing yourself back to the pillows on your friend’s bed, you pat the spot beside you and Mark follows, “What movies do you wanna watch?” 

He hums, tugging his laptop from its charger on the bedside table, “Didn’t we decide on binging the Tom Holland Spiderman movies earlier this week?” 

“Ohyeah, I forgot about that! I—”

Your phone begins to b

bet! | lee jeno. [TEASER]

FINISHED AND POSTED! READ HERE.

summary. it was bound to bite both your asses eventually. just plain ‘ol comedic luck that you and your best friend’s shared tradition of petty bets get you two to finally cough up years of repressed feelings for one another. 

pairing.y/n x nct’s jeno

genre. college!au, best friends to lovers!au

word count. 2k (of around 17k currently still in the works!)

warnings.swearing,fem!reader, hyuck and yeri hustle LMAO, humor if you can call it that somtimes, general dreamies tomfoolery (all these listed for just the teaser)

taglist. none! (if you would like to join, please comment on this post!)

making a lovelycomeback from my angst train to hit u with the classic college!au featuring ma boy jeno!! this is currently the longest fic i’ve ever written and i’m trying to gain some hype for it right now (started this beast in january can u believe that…) please repost if u want to see it out soon!!! estimated release is early june!!! see y’all soon <3

“WAS HE DROPPED on the head when he was a kid?” 

You can’t help the snort that passes your lips, making a satisfying slap to Jeno’s arm. “Don’t be mean.” 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Jeno raises an eyebrow.

“Eh… maybe like once or twice. Not that I would know, I was the same age as him but I’m just guessing.” 

You two continue to watch the disaster in front of you befold. Hyuck was currently bothering Yeri. Apparently, he didn’t know the limits as to when to stop because the older senior’s ears are burning red. You’re sure if you were in a cartoon right now, Yeri would have smoke coming out of them, nostrils flaring. 

“Should we intervene?” You side-eye Jeno and he’s the least bit concerned, eyes blearily watching the soon-to-be wreck happen in slow motion, cheek smushed against his palm. 

“Nah. This is way more entertaining than continuing my stats homework.” 

You peer over his notebook and he has the word problem and equation written down. Humming, you bring your attention back to the stars of the show and see Yeri grip her notebook tighter, knuckles going white. 

“Here we go.” You sing, Hyuck’s screams of protest soon alerting everyone in the campus plaza of his pain. 

“He never learns his lesson, huh?” Renjun finally joins, his boots making the fall leaves on the ground crunch. Throwing his book bag on the table, it scrunches Jeno’s current page in his statistics work but the latter doesn’t care. 

The two of you nod simultaneously. You and Jeno halfheartedly discouraged Hyuck from going to poke at Yeri around five minutes ago, soon after the three of you had sat down at your usual spot under the only weeping willow tree on campus. It was honestly impressive how quickly your mutual friend could annoy someone so quickly. 

“We should time him. See how long it takes for Yeri to lash out at him next.” You mutter the idea, Jeno pursing his lips after the two shift left and right around Yeri and company’s picnic table, a textbook held high in Yeri’s nimble fingers. Wendy and Seulgi are ducking as Irene begins trying to stop the madness, scolding Joy for cheering on their youngest.

“Not a bad idea to be honest. Wanna bet?” Jeno grins and you shake on his hand without looking at him. 

It was just getting good. Hyuck doesn’t have the endurance to continue but Yeri does. Pilates has done her well. 

Renjun quirks an eyebrow, pulling out his laptop as an apple slice is shoved into the corner of his mouth. “You don’t even know the conditions of the bet yet.” 

You shrug, thoroughly entertained as Hyuck sits on his knees, his hands rubbing together furiously as he begs for mercy. “Next time, he gets Yeri to go after him under two minutes.” 

“I say three.” Jeno nods and he offers a hand again which you shake. 

“You underestimate that little lady’s body. She can hold a lot of anger.” 

Jeno hums in response, ending the conversation quickly as Hyuck stumbles his way over, a pout sat on his lips. The well-beaten idiot rubs at his forearms, mumbling curses under his breath as he plops down beside Renjun. 

“Didn’t end well, did it bud?”

At the smug expression you have plastered on, Hyuck’s pout deepens. “It’s not funny. I need her to partner with me in Psych. I’ll go fucking crazy if I actually have to work with Felix.” 

“Felix’s a sweetheart. I don’t know why you have it out for him.” 

Hyuck rolls his eyes, running his hands through the ruffled brown strands. Yeri managed to grab a bunch of pine needles and aim correctly enough, even with the air resistance the leaves have. 

Renjun beside him plucks a long green one out the battered boy who’s seated beside him, slouched over on the picnic table. “You can’t have two eggheads who don’t pay attention in class paired together. Isn’t that so, Hyuck?” Renjun baby-voices, the latter placing his chin on his stacked wrists to glare. 

“Somebody’s cranky.” Chenle swings by, a childish smirk gracing everybody’s presence. 

“It’s justified.” Hyuck huffs, turning away from the new arrival. You scoot over, bumping into Jeno’s large body to allow Chenle to sit. 

“Why are you so meaty nowadays? Take a break from the gym, will you? We can barely fit eight people at this table as it is.” There’s playful malice in your voice but a little truth in there. The asshole was getting too bulky for your liking. 

“Oh please. Mark hardly swings by for lunch with us anymore. And why by chance are you bothered by me bulking up?” Jeno leans closer, eyes impossibly close to yours, “Are you swooning yet?” 

Ignoring your heart racing faster, you slap a palm to his forehead, pushing Jeno further away from your face. “No, I’m sick of these freshies asking me for your number, that’s why. You want to know how many asked for your digits indirectly through me this entire week?” 

Chenle and Renjun have suddenly started bickering about something and you have to raise your voice a little. 

“Five.Fivepeople. Four girls and one guy. I’d be proud of you if it weren’t for the annoyance starting to kick in.” Jeno raises his eyebrows at the number, finally flattening down his stats paper. 

“And what’d you tell ‘em?” Jeno bites distractedly at the cap of his pen, seeming to hit the realization his work has to get done by midnight. 

“That they should ask you themselves,” You’re rolling your eyes, nudging at Chenle to back off on his squishing, practically half his body across the table to try and snatch at Renjun’s sliced apples, “I’m kind of sick of your posse trying to scour me for your personal information.” 

“Get your own, dingus! We get our rations per month at the commons!”

“I’m not giving up a precious coupon just to get one apple slice, come on!” 

“Tell them to stop then.” Jeno tries to solve.

You laugh incredulously, watching Jeno’s concentrated (confused more like) side profile. “You think that deters them? They regenerate into different people every week. The message is not passed on from generation to generation apparently.” 

Jeno makes that endearing ‘huH?’ sound and you grab at the notebook yourself, having taken Statistics 101 before. He thanks you under his breath, which you nod at before Jeno slumps onto your shoulder, sighing heavily. 

“Sorry. I know it bothers you. I would go around and tell them to back off of you and me personally but I don’t know all their names.”

Glancing at Jeno, it irritates you helplessly that you know he’s not even trying to sound dickish. He’s just that sweet and kind of a guy that makes other people not want to want to talk to him and ask those types of questions themselves. You know those people that seem too perfect to want to approach? Yeah, that’s Lee Jeno in a nutshell. If you looked up the definition of that type of person in a book, Jeno would be grinning that Samoyed smile of his from on that cursed page. 

“I should tape a sign to my back that says, ‘Ask Lee Jeno himself. I’m not his personal owl,’” You peek at his face, “What do you think?” 

He slightly smiles, eyes crinkling almost shut even at such a small gesture of amusement. “Okay. I’ll add my signature to it so that they know it’s signed by yours truly.” He looks up to your face and you’re glad the cold can disguise your flustered face easily with this type of weather. 

Guess it’s time to actually settle this officially since it’s been clued at a little, but yes: You do have a crush on Jeno. And no, he does not know because when does telling one of your best friends’ that you’ve been crushing on them ever worked out? 

No, not in the Wattpad story kind of way, you mean trulyworked out. Because personally, you’ve never heard of it working out ever, especially since you’re practically in the you’ve-seen-him-in-his-boxers and he’s-seen-you-shirtless stage of friendship. Don’t ask, it’s a long story that’s already too long for this kind of boring read. 

So,no, you will not take your chances, thank you very much. There were many signs flashing neon that told you Jeno didn’t see you in a romantic or sexual kind of way but the glaringly obvious sign was actually the one you two are discussing currently. 

What’s the appropriate way of acting if your crush is being berated by other peers on campus to give them your number? You’re not confident in what it actually looks like because for one, you’re not on the receiving end in this imaginary scenario, and two, it’s exactly that; an imaginaryscenario. You can’t even seriously dream Jeno liking you if you could. It was just that bizarre. 

In the two years you’ve known the boy, he’s never even once mentioned another human being that he could potentially be interested in on campus. It’s not a problem of him not being comfortable telling you either because he’s told you upright that he’s not interested in anybody here (including you who’s enrolled in this stupid university). You’ve even nonchalantly asked Jaemin before and he’s confirmed that even in high school, this kid did not have wandering eyes. 

You had wondered if Jeno was asexual, aromantic, or something along that line in the spectrum, eventually having the courage to ask him one day and he shook his head no quite confidently, a small smile laid on his lips. 

You don’t know what Jeno’s deal was but the risks in finding out really didn’t lean in your favor. And that’s fine, considering how many fish are available of Earth’s wide sea of potential mates. You’ve killed off even the chance of dating Jeno and that’s all good in your book. You’ve been attracted to your guy friends once and twice and they faded away with time exploring their weird quirks or horrible habits. And even if Jeno was a strange case where you’ve even seen the dude have beer drip from his nostrils from a shitty keg stand and you still manage to harbor feelings for him… eh. 

Time brushes away a lot of problems if you’re desperate and willing enough. Luckily for you, you checked off both boxes easily with this special instance.

You open your laptop and scour your documents for your old stats notes on chi-square tests. Bleh.

Pretending to gag in your mouth at the sight, Jeno smothers a laugh that shakes your shoulder and you share the document his way before scrolling and finding the right topic. You do the problem with few difficulties and write a quick message in the corner of his notebook page. 

‘Actually study this because Y/N did the example and took time from her day to do so, thank you.’

“Thanks,” Jeno chirps as he takes his notebook back, removing himself from your shoulder (to your well-hidden disappointment), “I owe you one.” 

“You’re right. A coffee works just fine, thank you.” You pipe back, folding your hands on the table cheerily. Jeno is shaking his head in mock annoyance but you knew the next time you two meet, you would not be disheartened, a warm cup pressed in hand. 

“A four-dollar coffee is worth one solved problem in your book?” Jeno argues. 

You fire back without hesitation. “It’s statistics. And I just sent two semesters’ worth of notes to you. You’re very welcome.” 

“You’re right,” Jeno turns, stowing his notebook away, “That’s like seven coffees then.” 

“And a scone if you’re feeling nice. A croissant works too.” You beam. 

“Now you’re pushing it. Those things are stupidly overpriced.” 

“Even for me?” You playfully place your chin in your cupped hands, blinking slowly and looking through your lashes. 

Jeno sighs, placing a hand on your head of hair. “Fine. You win, you spoiled princess.” 

In times like these, you knew you really asked to be put in these types of situations. And you’re not one to start being a saint and stop being hypocritical but… you deserved what you were putting yourself through, saying these types of things and teasing like this. Trying to get a stir and playact with being more. 

Maybe it was a little cruel, somewhat tricking Jeno into saying sweet things to you, just to let your mind wander for a second. Call it… taking advantage of his friendship to pretend a little. Harmless but still adds into your ledger of sins for Judgement Day right?

enjennie:

Checkmate (L.JN)

Pairing: Jeno x Fem!Reader

Genre: enemies to lovers, bet!AU, college/university!AU, basketball player!Jeno, angst & fluff.

Warnings: profanity (swearing), dirty jokes (like, one) and alcohol intake.

Synopsis: Unrivalled, to be the best and to win. Jeno is a team player and it’s all he has ever known, but when one fateful night leads him to you, he realizes that one must never play games especially when hearts are at stake.

taglist:@7wrldstar@gaeulswrld@sourguk@matryoooshka@h1acynth@chitaphrrrr@marahuyornjn @donutswithjaminthemiddle @subhyuck @jaemboi64@kshynj@mi1ktaeyongs@chansbabygirl02​ @infnteen @if-i-like-i-reblog @bbypawpaw​​​

a/n: hi there! i am so excited to be sharing this story with you all. it’s been under the works since April of last year in collaboration with a group titled ‘Hiraeth’. I hope you enjoy! Reblogs are appreciated, tell me what you think :] Also, please let me know if you want to be added to my permanent taglist. Happy reading!

i. Empty words

Parties have always been your scene, and tonight you found yourself in yet another one since the start of your third year of college. Lip locking with someone you just met, their identity unbeknownst to you. It’s not like you could give two shits with all the alcohol in your system at this point.

The crowd that gathered around you were upperclassmen like yourself. The room is doused in darkness and strobe lights scattered the vicinity while the loud music vibrated through the walls. You’ve spilled half your drink dancing against this stranger. You really couldn’t tell if it was a girl or a boy in the darkness. It could be anyone. Again, not like you cared.

“Hey,”they purred in your ear. Short and simple… boring, but it sent shivers running down your spine. So it’s a man, you know this much. His breath tickled your ear and you turn to face the stranger, looking up at him through your lashes. Lee Jeno stood before you in all his glory, white shirt unbuttoned dangerously low, chain peeking out from it.

It must be the alcohol in your body, but you wrap a hand around his neck and pull his face down to meet yours. A kiss, full of want and desire. His mouth tasted like beer, lips molded with yours perfectly. You would definitely be regretting this in the morning.

Keep reading

JISUNG TEXT RECS

Bestfriend-ish Texts w Jisung

Boyfriend!Jisung Instagram Ver.

Boyfriend!Jisung Snaps

Daily Texts w Bf!Jisung

Fluffy Texts

In Which Jisung Can’t Bring Himself to Tell You He Likes…

Jaemin Exposes Jisung’s Crush in the Group Chat

You’re Nervous to Meet his Friends

❥JISUNG NAVI

[main masterlist] [nct masterlist] updated 7-25-21

Summary: When you decided to apply for a researcher post in an elusive institute, you already had the feeling that you’ll be getting yourself knee-deep into something out of the ordinary. But desperate needs require desperate measures, and so you embraced the invite, despite all the alarm signals urging you to run away. What you found out was nothing you’d ever expected.

Seven boys.

Seven human deviants granted with abilities tied to the legendary Arcana Cards.

Welcome to Project Dream.

Pairing: Various Dream Members x Reader

Trigger Warnings/Themes: violence, torture, trauma, very slight yandere themes, poly dynamics, suggestive themes, language, psychological, mystery, sci-fi. Romance will take a little bit of a backseat on this one since this is more of a suspense-driven plot, but it will still be threaded in the overall story. The concept of the tarot or Arcana cards will be loosely used throughout the series. Note that I am not a trained doctor so there may be some slips here and there about medical things. Again, this is a work of fiction and I am not implying any likeness between the characterization here of the boys to their real life counterparts. I also reserve the rights to all my work—I do not post anywhere else other than tumblr. Minors DNI.

>CH. 1|CH. 2|CH.3|CH.4|CH.5|CH.6|CH.7|CH.8 |CH.9

Chapter Song:

Dynasty > MIIA

“Hey babe? Do you have a minute?

The white noise in your head was disrupted by the sound of a gentle, hesitant voice. Blinking, you tore your eyes away from the window and turned to see the worried face of your best friend peering at you from around your bedroom door. You didn’t have any idea how long she’s been standing there, but she smiled at you understandingly as you finally gave her your attention. You returned the gesture as you ever so slightly shifted the angle of your bandaged shoulder so you could look at her better. 

"Hi. Yes. What’s up?”

She finally let herself inside of your room and settled on the edge of your bed. She still looked a little bit hesitant, but you just know she’s been trying her hardest not to fuss over you too much. Mijeong glanced at you before unconsciously trying to fix the edges of the blanket that you had thrown over yourself. 

“I got a call from one of our family doctors. I got you an appointment with one of our therapists. He can help you with your shoulder injury. He is one of the best in the country.”

That made you smile. In the past two weeks that Cypher has released you after your accident, the girl had never really left your side. You can still remember the look of worry in her face when you first got back, though you have to say… you’re even more thankful for her for giving you your space to recover. Mijeong is like your guardian angel and your soul sister in one… you knew she is aware that something’s been weighing you down, but she has also never asked questions to respect your privacy and silence. For you, that was more of what you needed at the moment to sort things out on your own. 

“You didn’t have to. But thank you, Jeongie. My shoulder’s feeling better, but sure, I’ll come if that will make you worry less,” you replied lightheartedly as you gently bumped your good arm against her. Your teasing made her slightly frown before a pout tugged at her lower lip.

“Yah. Don’t try to lie to me. It must still hurt. And I’m really really worried.”

Well… she is not exactly wrong. While you have been recovering, you also noticed that you’ve been healing at a slower pace than normal. Your guess was because your injury was caused by something out of this world so your body was struggling harder to fix itself.

“Can’t you… just quit? You’ve paid all of your father’s debts, haven’t you?”

Mijeong’s soft voice broke through your thoughts again before you could even offer your comforting words to her. Glancing up, you can’t help the flash of guilt that made your heart clench as you saw the look in her face. She sounded so hesitant that you just know she’s been holding herself back in asking that question for so long. This time, the smile you’ve been trying so hard to keep dropped a little. You knew she was waiting for an answer, but you also couldn’t bring yourself to feed her an outright lie. She gave you one look before giving a soft sigh.

“You did. But you’re still not leaving, aren’t you? Something else is making you stay…”

You tried to swallow the lump in your throat and avoided her gaze. You can’t deny it. The past few quiet days that you’ve had have left you standing before a fork in the road. If there was any other time that you could decide to pursue or drop this, you knew in yourself that the best time would be now. You started to throw yourself headfirst into this rabbit hole not knowing any better, but everything that has been revealed to you so far has also given you the free pass to stop if you wanted to. You can choose to go on with your life and live with the bliss of ignorance if you so choose. After all, you didn’t need to save anyone. Not your father. Not the boys. Let alone the world.

But what if it wasn’t even the world that needed saving? What if it’s people like Mijeong who does?

Your eyes found your best friend’s face now as your fingers reached out for her hand. You don’t have any comforting words to say to her, but you knew deep in your heart that she is one of those you’ll be willing to fight fire if you needed to. If Cypher turns the world upside down, it is going to be people like her who would also suffer. Maybe you can’t turn the tables, but can you really live with the idea of not having tried at least?

“I’m sorry…” you managed to say now through the tightness of your throat. You couldn’t offer anything else other than that, something she knew even with just a look as she studied you.

“Are you hurting too much though? Can I help?”

You shook your head and tried to give her your most convincing look. “I’m okay… I can live with it. I’m sorry if I can't… share anything with you.”

“It kills me, but I understand. I just want to let you know though, if you need me for anything, I’m here. You are my dearest friend.”

Your heart clenched at her words. You probably looked pained and unsure because Mijeong intertwined your fingers together to give you comfort. You answered by giving her a brief smile and tapping her nose.

“I need you to be safe. That’s all you need to be right now.”

She gave a playful scoff. It’s obvious that she was still on edge about everything, but she was also trying her best to lighten up the mood for your sake. 

“Says the one who is currently in bed rest right now. For your information, I have been doing a swimmingly good job chasing your suitors away. Well, except for today. This one’s really persistent.”

The smile you had froze on your lips at what she said. 

“What do you mean?”

Mijeong shot you a slightly guilty look in reply before clearing her throat. 

“Well… Some visitors have been trying to see you in the past few days. They said they’re from your work. I turned them all down because I knew you needed to be alone…”

Oh my god… 

Kun and Ten.

“They… And they’re here now…?”

“Well, one of them. That’s why I came. I wanted to ask if you wanted to talk because he really doesn’t want to leave.”

You leaned over and gave your best friend a quick hug with your good arm.

“Thank you, Mijeong. But it’s fine. I think it’s about time for me to talk to them again. I kind of left them hanging.”

The girl gave a soft sigh before she drew back so she could stare at you at an arm’s length.

“Fine. He’s downstairs. If you need anything, I’ll be in my room, okay?”

You shot your friend a smile and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before swinging your legs over to the side of the bed. You made sure to pull on the closest cardigan you could reach to cover your arms and quickly breezed out of your room to head into the living room.

You found him standing next to the window, his back on you as he stared at some random photos of you and Mijeong resting above the fireplace. He did turn at the sound of your approaching footsteps, but it was you who was soon stopping dead on your tracks when he finally fully faced you.

“…Winwin?”

*******
“How are you doing?”

You carefully placed back the cup of tea you’ve been using as a distraction back to its coaster, your gaze looking at anything except for the boy in front of you. After the initial shock of finding out that it was him who was visiting, it didn’t take long for an undeniable and overwhelming sense of guilt to sink in to you. Honestly, you haven’t really thought much about reaching out to him in the past few messy weeks that you’ve had, which makes everything all the more worse now that he is personally here trying to check on you. Sure, you and Sicheng have never really gotten past a few dates, but it wasn’t like you weren’t interested in him—a message that, unfortunately, your flakiness must have sent him. 

“I’m doing so much better. I had to take a few weeks off because of something that happened at work.”

“Were you… hurt?”

You hesitated before giving a slight nod.

“Yes. But I’m recovering now.”

“That's… that’s good to hear.”

None of you really said anything for a while after he trailed off. Winwin looked relieved, but now that he seemed to have gotten his agenda off his chest, he looked a little bit unsure of what else to say. Another flash of guilt went through you as you studied him silently. After a brief moment, you sighed and decided to finally address the elephant in the room.

“Winwin, I’m really sorry… I shouldn’t have flaked out on you like that. I know we only went out a few times, but I also left you hanging for a bit there. I really didn’t mean to.”

He gave you a slight smile as his shoulders slumped a little. He seemed to have already expected your words, but there was still a look of subtle disappointment in him as you addressed it.

“I mean, I wasn’t really in a position to actually expect anything… but I was also concerned when things just seemed to have stopped. And then I heard that you got into a work accident so I got worried even more.”

You held back the wince that almost took over you. It seemed like guilt was set on chewing your ass today. How can he be so kind… after what you haven’t done?

“Winwin…”

“It’s fine. I understand. Please don’t look so guilty. I really just wanted to check on you,” he said, managing a small laugh. You stared at him and finally reached out for his hand. He didn’t move away and simply let you rest your fingers on top of his.

“Don’t get me wrong. I really like you…” you started carefully. 

“But… you can’t really focus on a relationship right now…” he added, finishing what you couldn’t say. You looked at him, pained, but he only smiled.

“I got it. I guess I just needed to hear it straight from you.”

“Can we… Can we still be friends, at least?”

Your question finally made him move his hand that you have been holding. His fingers intertwined with yours to give them a comforting squeeze.

“Of course.”

For the first time since he came, you were able to finally smile genuinely at him. You felt disappointed in yourself, but you also didn’t want to string him along. With how kind he has been to you, Sicheng deserves more than what you can offer at the moment.

“So, since we are friends… I can expect you to always be honest with me, right?”

His question made you frown a little but you nodded anyway.

“Yes. Always.”

“Good. So tell me, is your accident somehow connected to the experiments of Project Dream?”

In a split second, you found yourself freezing in his hold. You looked at him, shell-shocked and speechless, and he stared back at you unwaveringly. You didn’t need him to speak to realize what was happening.

He knows.

“I know you went around some of my files…”

Your heart fell to the pit of your stomach.

“I… Since when…?”

“Since after that date when you spent the night over. When we had dinner. I have a keystroke system that lets me see the action history in my computers,” he said with a soft amused smile.

“Winwin, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean t—”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not like you really snooped around without my permission. I did show you what I was doing willingly at first. To be honest, I didn’t really think too much about it, until I heard about your work accident.”

You held your breath, waiting for him to speak more.

“That’s when… I decided to take a look at the files myself and I sort of pieced things together.”

“What were you able to see exactly?”

“Just the same ones that you already probably know about too. Technically, I have access to all the files as long as they are housed within Cypher’s database—it’s just that I haven’t really had a reason to actually do that before this. I’ve read everything that was being fed into the information system of Project Dream, some of which were from you.”

You didn’t really know how to react to that. Before you could say anything, you felt a gentle tug at your hand again. You met Winwin’s concerned gaze.

“Are you in trouble?”

You kept silent. He didn’t push through that question, having gotten the answer he needs. However, he was soon asking a new one that you couldn’t entirely escape from.

“Is someone else in trouble then?”

You faltered. You shouldn’t be pulling anyone else in this mess—hell, you even owe Kun and Ten for looping them in on this. Now Winwin is here and you’re sure where the conversation is already headed if you don’t do something.

“Don’t worry about it—”

“I want to help.”

Your gaze snapped back to his. He had such a set look in him, one that told you he already had his mind set on this before he even asked. You slightly shook your head at him. 

“Why? It will only get you in trouble.”

For a while Winwin looked like he was struggling to find the answer to that question himself. You knew that look in him. It was the same one you also have every time you’re about to make a life or death decision.

“I don’t know. Probably the same reason you are doing this. I’ve worked for Cypher long enough to know that the Institute is dealing with shady things, but I didn’t think they’d go this far. I’ve read enough to assume that a lot of people might get hurt if they get their way around this,” he stopped, throwing you a glance. “You already were.”

You didn’t give any reply to that. He took that silence to drive home his point by leaning towards you again.

“Look, I can’t force you to trust me. But if you need me, I just want you to know that I’m willing to help. I can… you know… do things. I can be valuable.”

You threw him a helpless glance. 

“You might be disappointed, but it’s not like we’re pulling off anything James Bond-esque here.”

“Well, maybe now you can. With a hacker,” he answered confidently. 

You paused. The implication of his words were moving slowly in your head, but then it clicked and you slightly widened his eyes at him. Winwin understood the look and slightly raised his brows at you.

"So? What’s my first assignment?”

*******
“Let me see your shoulder. Now.”

You gaped at the boy in front of you before glancing at the one standing beside him with a look of help. Kun, for once, seemed to take Ten’s side and simply gave you a shrug. You groaned, a frown gathering at your forehead as you hesitantly started taking off your lab coat.

“What? You want me to take off my top?”

“You’ll do it or do you want me to undress you myself?”

“Kun, please stop him. He’s acting like a mom.”

“Maybe he should, since you’ve been acting like a child.”

Well that shut you up pretty fast. When you were dragged out of your will into the infirmary the moment you stepped into your office, you already knew something like this was going to happen. Swallowing back your words, you finally decided to undo the first few buttons of your top before pulling the sleeve covering your injured arm slightly. Ten immediately ducked over it and undid your bandages while Kun silently watched behind him. You sighed as you saw the former wince slightly at the sight of your wound. The harsh glare of ward lights made your injury look even worse than usual, but you would admit, it’s still not a pretty sight.

“It’s really not that bad…” you mumbled as you tried to pluck a loose thread from your skirt. Both Kun and Ten shot you a look that immediately made you shut up again.

“It’s healing, so that’s good. She’s lucky that it’s mostly a flesh wound. Her motor skills won’t be affected since there were no tendons or ligaments affected,” Ten said, mostly to himself. He started rummaging around his tray of tools to disinfect the wound again. “I’ll have you take another x-ray again just to be sure though that everything is healing as they should.”

"Can you still remember what happened with Haechan? What exactly was it that attacked you?” It was Kun who asked this time. You turned your head away slightly in an effort to hide your expression. This is the first time you three have been together again, and you know it’s about time you will be asked to answer the questions you’ve tried to ignore for weeks. 

“Yes. I went to the Institute as soon as I saw your message and found Renjun and the rest. Haechan was… I think he simply lost control. We were sucked back into that bodiless dimension—almost the same as the one back at the arena, but he was controlling everything there like it was his own world. It wasn’t just illusions. He was manipulating everything there, from the temperature down to the very matter making up that place. I got injured when I tried to pull away the woman he wanted to hurt.”

Both boys silently listened to your words. After a while, you heard Kun sigh in disappointment. 

"I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sent you that message. I didn’t know things would turn out this way. I could have done something, but I felt like Cypher was already keeping a target on my back and I didn’t want to risk them kicking me out. I… wasn’t sure if you would come back so I had to fake it, or else the boys would be left with no one from the inside.”

The weight of his words made you wince. You looked at both men now, guilt evident in your expression.

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have left you two hanging. It’s just that, I was going through something, too. That was very selfish of me, I know.”

Kun and Ten exchanged glances. From the looks alone, you could tell that they’ve already gone through this conversation a couple of times between them. Ten was the one who answered as he finally finished changing your bandages.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to tell us what you don’t want. But don’t try to carry everything yourself too, okay? Well, at least for me, I’m the one who volunteered to help. So yeah, let’s all finish this together.”

That made you smile. Ten gave you a wink that lifted just a little bit of the weight from your chest.

“Do you have any news on the boys though? I tried logging into the report database while I was recovering, but I haven’t seen any updates.”

At that, it was like the air in the room suddenly shifted again. Ten shot Kun a glance before the latter shifted his eyes a bit. The silent exchange made you stop. The past few weeks went by in a blur that you’ve barely even had the energy to dig deeper for any updates. A chill crept into your spine now as you waited for the two to give you an answer.

“Kun…? Ten…?”

The former winced at the sound of his name. You tried to wait patiently for his answer despite your heart picking up in your chest.

“After what happened, all the boys were shipped into another place. Nobody knows where. I just came in one morning and was told that they will be gone for an indefinite amount of time. I wasn’t given any context on why they were moved but they’ve been gone until yesterday when I was finally given the heads-up that they will return to Cypher.”

You didn’t know which part of what he said you wanted to pick apart first. You voiced out the most pressing thing gnawing at you though.

“Have you checked if they are okay?”

“I was given the order to keep away from them until I’m given permission,” Ten answered the question. “I was given their medical records during the time they disappeared, but I’m not dumb to take whatever’s written on them as true until I see them myself. Renjun’s the only one I’m allowed to check later.”

“Oh my god…”

“Have you gotten any leads while you were gone?”

You gave Kun a quick look before shifting your eyes away. You did indeed. A couple of leads in fact. You pulled your blazer over you again as a feeble excuse to gather yourself before offering a reply.

“I did. I talked to Dr. Lee and she told me what she’s planning to do with the boys,” you paused for a second, and you could almost physically feel the tension that suddenly charged the air. You can’t stomach voicing out the next part of your story, but you braced yourself anyway. 

“She’s going to weaponize them. Use their abilities for warfare. She’s been putting them under distressing tests so that she can finally see the extent of what they could do. She’s been using Renjun’s ability to erase the boys’ memories too so they wouldn’t psychologically break.”

“What the actual fuck…?”

You swallowed and pushed yourself to continue.

“The thing is, I know that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I think studying the boys’ powers was the main goal of Project Dream, but it was already the second phase. There was also Project Irregular which started it all. Right now, we really can’t know for sure what her actual plan is until we unlock what the pioneer study was about.”

“But how do we do that?”

You gave both a look before offering an answer. “I got some help.”

Kun and Ten looked utterly confused.

“I got someone to try and hack the locked files. Remember the boy I was going out with? It was a long story but he… kinda found out what was happening and said he wanted to help. He’s the head programmer of Cypher.”

“You—you’re saying you told your boyfriend? How can you even be sure that he’s really here to help?” Kun asked with a deep frown. You sighed as you tried to wave him off.

“There is no way I can be sure, but I trust him, okay? And he’s not my boyfriend.”

Ten looked on the fence of the reveal at first too, but he seems to be more open than the other boy at least.

“She’s right. We can’t know for sure. Besides, it’s not like we have any other way around our dead end other than him. Now that I think about it though, I can’t believe Dr. Lee even gave you a hint. Why would she even do that?”

Your jaw locked and tightened at his question. That’s one question that you have admittedly been turning again and again in your head, too. The woman is the personification of smart and cunning… There is no way she told you that on a whim, nor do you believe for a single minute that she fully trusts you. In fact, it is the opposite. She knows you are up to something, and she’s exactly using that fact for her own plans. She wanted you to play at the palm of her hand… Which is a shame for her.

…Because play, you will. 

“She’s using me… to get to them,” you said now in a low voice. You felt Kun and Ten’s confused gazes rest on you. There was a determined look in your eyes now, one that’s the perfect opposite of the woman’s icy stare.

“She doesn’t trust me at all, that’s why she told me. She wants me to play her game.”

“And I’m going to give her exactly what she wants.”

*******
“You know you’ll hurt your legs if you stand there for a minute longer, right?”

Your hands stilled in the middle of fiddling the hospital curtain in front of you. It was late at night at the infirmary and you deliberately tried to stay behind to catch up with work so you’ll have an excuse to stay longer than your shift. The room you are standing now is dark, but Ten made sure to leave you his keycard before he left. You didn’t know what’s gotten into you, but all of a sudden, you felt so hesitant to actually face the boy on the other side. Before you could even change your mind, you finally forced yourself to part the curtains and step inside the quarters.

Renjun smiled at you from his hospital bed, the yellow glow of the lamp beside him giving his skin an unnatural glow. The rest of him was bathed with shadows though and you had to step closer for your view of him to properly focus. You have just settled on the seat closest to his bed when your eyes fully caught sight of his face. He seemed to have noticed the expression because he gave you a slightly cheekier smile before you could even find your words. He looked tired and his cheeks seemed more hollowed than usual, but what really grabbed your attention was his close-cropped hair. Gone were his blonde highlights that used to perfectly frame his face. Instead, his dark locks barely grazed his forehead and the sides of his face.

“Renjun… Your hair…”

“Do you like it?” he asked, his voice sounding thin than usual. It was as if he hadn’t used it for a long time. “I was kinda not into at first, too, but it has sort of grown on me by now.”

You wanted to give him a proper answer, but a malicious thought has started gnawing at you the moment that you saw it. You could tell that he was also following the same line of logic, though he tried to keep the air as light as he could in his state despite the meaningful look you gave him.

“Why did you cut it…?” was your simple question. Renjun’s face fell a little as his hand unconsciously reached out to feel for the back of his head. Your heart fell constricted in your chest. When you asked Ten to let you meet him tonight, you were expecting the worst. Your look of relief upon seeing him uninjured was short-lived as you waited for his answer. It took him a while, but he finally gave a sigh and tried to give you a small smile.

“It was getting on the way…”

He didn’t need to say anything more than that. You were speechless for a moment, and he was kind enough to pull you out of your emotions by reaching out for your hand. He gave it a comforting squeeze and you let it ground you.

“Hey… I’m fine. Don’t worry too much about it.”

There were a ton of things that wanted to spill out of you, but you tried your best to hold them back. Focusing your gaze on him, you tried to see again if he was hurt anywhere, though you knew that whatever it is that he might have gone through could not be seen by the naked eye. It was a hard pill to swallow, and it didn’t make you feel any better that it’s been a long time since you’ve actually been close enough to him to check if he was alright.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” was the first phrase that slipped out of you after the prolonged silence. Your fingers finally wove around his as well, and you silently took notice of how cold his palms felt. Unconsciously, you started running circles there with your thumb to lend him some of your warmth.

“Don’t apologize. It’s not not like anyone could have done anything anyway. Haechan barely snaps, but when he does, there is basically no one who can stop him.” 

The mention of the boy’s name made you momentarily pause. 

“How is he?”

 Renjun’s gaze shifted a little. “He’s okay. He’s trying to recover after what he has accidentally done to you. He’ll bounce back, if that’s what you were worried about. I think he just needs some time.” 

You wanted to ask more but you opted in giving a nod instead. You pretty much know Renjun by now. If he wants to tell you something, he’ll give it to you with good reason. The same thing applies when he wants to keep silent about other things. 

“And the others? How are they? Ten and Kun said that you were moved somewhere else.” 

“If you want to know where they took us, I can’t really answer because I have no idea myself. As far as I know, all of us are still alive.  I haven’t really seen the others that much myself because I have been isolated, but I knew the others are just a little worse for wear. I don’t think I need to go into detail about what exactly happened…” he trailed off and glanced at you again. “You already know, don’t you?”  

You felt nauseous but pushed the feeling back. At that moment, you didn’t really know what to say next, with so many questions and thoughts swirling in your head. Renjun once again tried to reign you in by tugging at your hand. When you finally glanced back at him, you almost flinched at the look of guilt in his face. 

“I’m sorry… All of us are, for everything that has happened so far… We didn’t think it would go this far to be honest. If you want to ask me anything about your father, I’ll try my best to answer to the limits that I could. It’s the least we could do for you.”

His words were your undoing. You didn’t really have a set agenda when you came to him tonight, but you also know, deep inside of you the questions you needed answers to. For some odd reason though, the thousands of things you wanted to ask seemed to have gone out of the window now, all except for one thing. You met Renjun’s gaze, your voice barely heard when you finally spoke up.

“Do you think… he cared about me?”

For a few quick seconds, Renjun’s emotions faltered. He moved his hand slowly and gently tucked a lock of your hair behind your ear. 

“He does. A lot. You might find it hard to believe, but he told us a lot of stories about you while we were growing up. Every little thing he found amazing about you, he made sure to share with us,” he smiled and you tried to blink the strange dryness in your eyes. “It made us feel like we really knew you, even from a distance.”

“Why did he leave me then, if he cared?”

Renjun seemed torn on how to answer that. His eyes bounced on your features for a moment before he finally found his voice again.

“Your father… was a very special man, noona. But he was also involved with a lot of things that could hurt the people he loves. I can’t speak for him, but believe me when I say that I knew he loved you so much that he was willing to do everything to keep you safe.”

You were speechless. Another question was on the verge of spilling out of you, but you took your time before finally voicing it out.

“My father also tried his best to protect all of you… So why are you sacrificing everything by giving yourself to Cypher? When will this stop, Renjun?”

That made him pause. Slowly, he pulled away from you, drawing his hand back to himself.  It hurt you a little, but you knew it was him trying to draw back to himself for self-preservation. 

“We need to find out about Cypher’s plans about Arcana users like us. Right now, we are the only ones who can do that… by staying here.”

“Did you decide on that, or did ‘she’ tell you?”

You saw the quick storm of emotions that passed through his delicate features at your question. He didn’t answer and you took the chance to lean forward to urge him to look at you. 

“They’re going to use all of your abilities for evil, Renjun.”

“We know that. She knows that.”

“Then why?”

“Because we know that’s not just it that they want,” he answered, finally looking at you. “We’ve only ever had two choices. To run away and live a life with the Institute hunting us forever, or put a stop to it once and for all. Somebody had to do something and the best way around it is by infiltrating the very place that’s after our heads. You might not understand it, but if you’ve spent the rest of your life trying to being chased, you’re willing to sacrifice things to finally be free.”

“But what is her plan? Look at you. All of you are suffering. Do you even know what she is up to? Is she even doing something to help out?”

Renjun kept quiet at first and simply stared at you. You couldn’t entirely read the emotions shifting under his eyes, but you have a feeling he was contemplating over something. After a moment, he fumbled for something from the pocket of his cardigan. You didn’t exactly know what he pulled out, but you soon felt a cold metallic sensation against your palm as he pressed something against it. You looked down in surprise and opened your hand to see a small silver locket attached on a thin chain resting there. It was round and only slightly larger than a coin, but the warm glow of the night lamp caught the intricate patterns carved on its face.

“I don’t. But you might… She told me to give you this. She says it will give you all the answers that we need.”

You shot him a confused look before bringing your gaze back at the locket. You have no idea what he was talking about, but it also didn’t seem like he was giving anything more. You turned the pendant once in your palm now before finally picking it up to open its face. There was no picture inside of it, but when you angled it better against the light, your gaze finally caught the sentence inside of it, engraved in script.

“In memories there is love. In memories, there is power.”

*******
You rushed to your bedroom and went straight to your dresser after turning on all the lights. Your drive from work was all but a blur as you tried to wrap your head about everything that has happened. So many questions and thoughts were fighting to swim to the surface and take over you, but you tried your best to focus on what only is necessary at the moment, because you have a hunch that you were at the precipice of uncovering something big.

You don’t have any idea why that unknown woman decided to give the locket to you, but you are sure she is trying to tell you something that even the boys probably don’t even know how to decipher. Why she chose you and what exactly her message was were two questions you didn’t have any answers yet, but you’re convinced that the clue you need is just hiding in plain sight. It was the locket, for sure… but the phrase engraved on it made zero sense to you no matter how hard you thought it over. It took you almost three passed red lights for something to finally click in your head.

It was not the phrase in the pendant that was the clue… but the pattern on its face.

You quickly pulled your backpack now from the corner of your closet. The last time you touched it was when you went to Rosewood, after which you stashed it away from your sight in an effort to forget about it. You desperately tried to rummage on it now, however, your breath held back until you finally found what you were looking for in its inside compartment. Quickly, you pulled out the picture frame and went over to the side of your bed where you opened your study lamp for extra illumination.

You took in a shallow intake of breath as you clutched the photo in your hands and held it out into the light. It was the framed image of you that you found in your father’s desk, the one of you as a child with half of the frame and the image of your face burnt off. The rest of the frame retained its original pattern though, the ornate bronze woven with a design that looked similar to the complex beauty of snowflakes under a microscope. Swirls and spikes spread out like a sunburst from its center… 

Similar to the etched pattern on the locket.

You pulled the said jewelry now from your pocket and put the two close together just to be sure. There is no mistaking it… The gilded frame looked much more complex because of the interweaving designs, but there is no doubt that the separate patterns were the same as the one in the woman’s pendant. Your eyes moved all over the photo now, trying to decipher what it must be that you should look at.

In memories there is love. In memories, there is power.

What does that mean? Other than your childhood photo, there is nothing else out of place that gives away anything that you need. What was she trying to tell you? Randomly, you tried to turn the frame on its back, your gaze now going over the hardwood backing to quickly check it.

That was when you found yourself stopping again at the sight of something on the lower left of the frame. It was small and surrounded by a border that separated it from the otherwise spare backing of the photo, but it caused your eyes to go round soon enough when you brought it closer to the light.

Again, it was the same pattern that was engraved on the locket you received… the one that looked like a cross between a sunburst and a snowflake.

You tried your best to control your breathing now as you took it in. The logo was resting on the corner, right at the part you would lift if you wanted to open the back of the frame. You didn’t exactly know why, but something told you to do just that, your shaky fingers undoing the clasps sealing the photo inside. Carefully, you lifted the edges, opening the frame slowly so as not to cause any damage.

The photo of you didn’t budge as you did, but you noticed how the white of the back of its printed image has already yellowed. At its bottom, written in the same script you found in the locket was your name, birthday, and the same message engraved on the pendant. Your throat felt tight as you took those details in. What you found next, however, was something you’ve never expected. When you turned the back of the frame, your eyes zoned in on something else—a small black memory card taped against the wood.

You didn’t know where you got the sense to do your next sequence of steps but the next thing you know, you’ve plucked the card from its hiding place and grabbed your laptop. You felt lightheaded as you inserted it on the slot, but you forced yourself not to blink as you waited for something to happen. After a long pause, a small window finally opened on your screen with a slight ding. 

You took in a shallow gasp of breath. It looked like a login portal, but there was only one entry space there asking for what seemed like a password. At this point, your heart had started picking up its pace in your chest too, but you tried your best to focus by keying in the first thing that popped to mind—your father’s name.

Entry Denied.

You tried again, now using his birthday. The same error message showed up in sickly green font on the screen once more.

You were at a loss for leads, so then you started trying other combinations with the hopes of finding the right passcode. Your name. Your mother’s. All your birthdays. From there, you moved on to random words. Winter. Snow. Sunburst. Pendant. Locket. Arcana. You even tried typing the phrase engraved on the pendant only to be met by the same error again and again.

You were on the verge of frustration when your gaze landed on the upturned childhood photo of yours still stuck on the frame. You took in every single detail there that wasn’t burned off. Your animal pajamas… your favorite book in your hands….

You stopped.

The book in your hands.

Your eyes slipped into the locket next to it. And then it clicked.

The snow pattern. And the book you were holding. With bated breath, you typed the only thing that is currently making sense for you on the screen.

The Snow Queen.

You watched with a mixture of numbness and surprise as the welcome portal finally dissolved in the screen. Instead, it was replaced with a new one, a window that has a single folder in it. You moved your cursor over it now, your heart drumming painfully against your chest as you double-clicked it.

A new panel opened up on the side at your command, a long document that, upon closer inspection, looked like a scanned version of a physical page from a book. You slightly squinted at it to try and make out the words there, but before you could even fully focus, some of the names there already caught your attention. It felt like all the wind was knocked out of you when you finally realized what you were looking at.

Typed in neat rows were the names of Mark, Jisung, and Renjun together with others that you weren’t familiar with. All had one similarity…

The Arcana labels tagged under their identification.

You felt cold. Your eyes moved upwards, right at the very top of the page, and silently read the bigger print there. The Italian words stared back at you, confirming your hunch. 

La Famiglia Arcana.

The Arcana Family. 

…Could you be staring at the database of all the Arcana users in existence?

You had to try your best to keep your attention from reeling then. Your eyes glazed over the rest of the page as you scrolled numbly until you caught one phrase that made you stop. The words echoed in your head as you started reading the random paragraph. 

“…And the third classification of Arcana users—the most elusive ones—as their abilities go beyond physical manifestations or psychic control. Their gifts stand on the fence, for they are not soldiers, not are they defenders. What they have is so much more, for they have influence over assets only they can unlock.”

“Their fellow Arcana users.”

The words jumbled in your head, both making sense and drawing more questions at the same time. Your eyes moved downwards, and that’s when you really felt your mental walls start to close on you.

Written after the block of text you just read was something that fully rendered you numb. Your father’s name burned from the screen straight into your mind’s eye, the label underneath it echoing in your head like screams.

Arcana Master 20.

The Judgement.

*******
Winwin paced across the length of darkened room as he tried to press the call button again for the dozenth time that evening. In front of him, his computer threw its harsh glare on what it could reach, panels after panels open on its screen. He had been working non-stop trying to crack something and he’d finally stumbled upon a significant piece of information. Now, if only she would pick up the phone. Hearing the line drop again, he cursed softly under his breath and finally decided to leave a message instead. He would have preferred to say this in a call, but it’s not like he really has much choice at the moment.

“Hey. This is Winwin. I’ve been trying to call. I think I found something,” he said urgently as he bent over his monitor again. “I finally hacked the locked files of Project Irregular. It was on a different database so it took a while. Listen, I have no idea if this is important, but I think I got the names of the subjects of the research,” he said as he squinted at the screen. The codes he were running had only loaded half of the file he had managed to snitch for now, but he can already see a name there. 

“I think these are aliases, but there seems to be only two of them. The first one is Patient 20, The Judgement. There is another one but I’m still waiting for it to load. Oh, there it is—”

"It says Patient 21. The World.” 

*******

A/N: Chapter 10 is out! There’s a lot of dialogues going on here but please bear with me since the reveals are rolling out little by little. Thank you so much to those who have left sweet messages, replies, and reblogs for Arcane. <3

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