"Donghyuck! Didn't we agree not to actually punch Jaemin?!" Renjun shrieks at the tanned male whilst smacking him on the arm.

The younger boy winces at the treatment he was getting and raises a brow, "we did?" Earning him another smack on the back of his head this time.

Ignoring the other two, Jisung face palms as a sigh escapes his lips. "You know Jeno hyung is going to get mad at us, right?"

"Why would he?" Chenle makes a weird face at him, "we just taught Jaemin hyung a lesson, that's all." Shrugging his shoulders in nonchalance.

"Nah, Jisung is right– once Jeno sees Jaemin's bruise, he'll go berserk on us no matter what. You know he can be too nice." Mark purses his lips whilst glancing at a still frowning and wincing Jaemin.

"But it's not like we bullied him." Donghyuck gestures towards Jaemin, getting a glare in return, especially when he was the one who landed a punch on his face very unexpectedly.

Even to the others, hence why Renjun freaked out.

"Seems like it, though." Jisung pinches the bridge of his nose. Already knowing the consequences of this mishap.

Honestly, they were just talking to Jaemin. Confronting him and spilling everything, though they know Jeno told them not to, it's for the better anyways.

But then, it came to the point Donghyuck finally punched Jaemin in frustration, probably from bottling up everything since the beginning.

He needed to let it all out– wrong timing though.

"Hello? I'm still on the floor!" Jaemin yells at them whilst covering his right cheek, wincing even at the softest touch when his fingers briefly brushes on his skin.

The others who were arguing glances at the raven haired boy, Chenle then snickers earning him weird looks, "imagine someone walks in on this–"

Creak

"What the hell?!" Jisung lost count on how many times he's shown how disappointed and done he is with this situation.

He didn't wanted it to turn out this way, never even planned to. He thought they all came to an agreement that they'll handle this without anyone getting physically hurt.

But look at them now.

Mark scratches his nape whilst Donghyuck tries to hide behind Renjun and Chenle, "before you yell– it's all Donghyuck's doing." Chenle immediately tattles.

"Wait– Jeno, hold on, I promise I didn't mean to– well, I did. But like, you know..." The tanned male stammers, eyes looking everywhere but the said person.

"Can someone please tell me why the fuck Jaemin's sitting on the ground in pain while holding his cheek?!" They all wince the second Jeno yells at them.

"I know this looks like a bullying scene, but we promise it isn't–" Donghyuck spoke up behind Chenle and Renjun who roll their eyes in response.

"Then what the fuck is it?!"

"Let me do the explaining, clearly you guys are making it worse, or not really helping." Renjun sighs as he steps away from Donghyuck.

The tanned male whines about not having a proper shield anymore, low-key scared Jeno's about to march up to him and punch his face like what he did to Jaemin.

❈

"Shit, ouch!" Jaemin hisses in pain, leaning back in instinct with one of his eyes shut, forehead creased as well.

The younger boy in front of him frowns and looks at him apologetically, "sorry, Min." He mutters.

Patiently waiting for Jaemin to calm down slightly, he fiddles with the cotton ball between his fingertips.

Jaemin smiles a little, but Jeno can still spot the feeling of guilt in his eyes; the way they only meet his for a brief second before averting his gaze.

Sighing, he purses his lips and continues to gently treat Jaemin's bruise on his cheek.

Trying to ignore the painful winces the elder boy lets out here and there whilst his eyes are twitching, Jeno was surprised to hear Jaemin speak up.

"So... Jisung likes you?"

"We already talked about it, I don't think I like him in that way, he said he understands and we're luckily on good terms." Jeno shares, not meeting his eyes.

As if Jaemin could even do the same thing now.

"Th-that's good, I'm glad you guys talked it out..." He trails off, stuttering a little.

"Yeah, me too."

When Jeno goes silent again, getting the bottle of betadine and applying it on to the cotton ball, Jaemin licks his dry lips nervously.

"I... Uhm..." Jeno automatically looks at him with a brow raised, it has Jaemin sighing, seemingly in a defeated manner before continuing.

"Listen, Jen... I'm really sorry for everything." He starts off, "it was a really dick move to ignore your feelings like that."

"You thought it was a joke."

"Well– at first yeah, especially when you immediately said a second after that that Donghyuck dared you to." Jaemin pauses.

He looks down with his fingers fidgeting, "I didn't want to get my hopes up." He said in a murmur.

Jeno raises a brow not catching it the first time, but the more he tries to guess and get his brain to work, he realizes what the elder boy was saying.

"Ha?!" He shrieks, getting Jaemin to flinch as well and snaps his head up to look at him. "What ar– what do you mean?!"

Jaemin scratches his nape and ignores the still-stinging bruise he has on his face, "I kinda hid my feelings for you..."

"YOU LIKED ME BACK?!"

"Yeah," Jaemin practically hisses at the way Jeno's raising his voice right now.

He hopes others won't barge in the room because at this point, he wouldn't know when he'll get the chance to have this talk again if they'll just leave it at that.

"But I thought you didn't and wouldn't ever like me the same way–"

"HOW?!"

"Jen, you usually try to push me away when I get touchy to you in public," Jaemin brings up. Which is sort of true.

"But besides that, I just thought you friend zoned me or some shit." He sighs deeply, as if disappointed at himself; which he is.

"But then when the others confronted me earlier..." Jeno rolls his eyes when Jaemin mentions the said event. "I realized I really fucked up and was being an idiot."

"Wha–how– I'm so confused right now..." Jeno blinks several times, trying to keep up with Jaemin babbling away with this serious topic of theirs.

"I thought you didn't like me back because you went off to flirt with other people..." He also admits honestly.

Jaemin blushes in embarrassment, "yeah, shame on me for that." He says, "but, to answer that... You know I can be really flirty, even though I try not to, it just comes off as that."

"Hence why a lot of people approach me, think of it as that way and all." Pursing his lips, "but I never liked any of them, nothing like that. Because I already liked you."

"What about your dates, the ones you've told me so far... Xiaojun hyung... Felix maybe?" Jeno furrows his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side.

"Those were attempts to try and move on, like I said before, I thought I had no chance with you." Jaemin explains.

"Oh, and the Xiaojun one was just him wanting to make Hendery jealous."

"Oh for the love of– HOLY SHIT YOU LIKE ME!"

Jaemin laughs wholeheartedly as he watches his beloved drop the cotton ball and almost kicks the first aid kit.

"Is that why you said you thought we were just friends?!" When he gets a nod in response, he immediately smacks Jaemin's bicep.

"You fucking idiot! We could've been dating by now!"

"Ouch! I know, I'm sorry!" Jaemin yelps while Jeno continues to grumble, aggressively proceeding to treat Jaemin's bruise as the latter smiles softly.

It's all been a misunderstanding after all. If we've talked about it sooner, we could have avoided all this. Jaemin thinks to himself.

❈

Thoughts??

Also, lemme know if there's an error part where it got confusing/ask me if you didn't get it–

Because honestly, this was drafted and I forgot what the other parts were supposed to be 💀

So I high-key improvised the rest LMFAO.

Oh and– are y'all happy now? :p

Again, sorry for making Jaemin have a mean character role–

For those who would want him to have a decent or nice role/have them switch personalities–

BUT it's STILL JAEMJEN (top!jaemin bottom!jeno) bc I'm a JAEMJENIST/JaemJen writer...

Then you'll have to wait for my future works ;)