3
i never forgot about you
☆*:.｡.☆彡.｡.:*☆

avoidance.

that was the only word in jaemin's dictionary at the given moment.

for it had been around a week and he still hasn't stepped foot back into his own shared room with the name that was forbidden to ever be spoken by him, or his friends.

he had stayed in mark's shared dorm with liu yangyang, a transfer student from china, for the whole week. sleeping in the sleeping bag he brought on the floor with his backpack filled with clothes and his belongings along with his laptop bag beside it.

and jaemin probably would've stayed longer, absolutely not wanting to stay near his ex any longer until he was called by the dean of their school to go and talk to him.

with a gulp and a nervous sweat trickling down his forehead, jaemin walked to the office as slowly as he possibly could. and with that, it took him around 10 minutes to reach his destination instead of the 4 minute it would've taken him.

hand on the door knob and heart beating frantically out of his chest, the honey haired boy turned the door knob slightly and pushed the door open once he had turned it enough.

"mr. na jaemin, i'm supposing that is you?" the dean inquired from inside and jaemin had to stop the shivers from running down his spine when he heard how piercingly cold her voice was.

walking inside fully, jaemin stepped in and closed the door before nodding his head and bowing respectively towards her. "i-i'm sorry i was late, ma'am." he mumbled and she only rolled her eyes and nodded.

"i assume you know why you're here today?"

jaemin shook his head. "i'm honestly clueless." he replied half truthfully.

he's sure yangyang ratted him out or something. ratted him out for staying in his and mark's dorm for a week.

the dean sighed before slipping on her glasses and reading the paper that was placed in front of her. "na jaemin has been carelessly sleeping around in other people's dorms all because he wants to avoid lee jeno, his roommate. tell him to go back to his own room and quit being petty, thanks. liu yangyang."

i was right. oh is he gonna-

"that's funny because i wasn't sleeping around in other rooms, i only slept in his and mark's so i-"

"mr. na, i also do suppose you and mr. lee have an issue going on?" she cut the student from rambling once she finished reading the paper watching as jaemin picked at the skin around his fingernails. "kind of..." he mumbled in reply.

the woman sighed once again before removing her glasses from her face and setting them back down in the corner of her desk where she had picked them up from. "jaemin, you know it's prohibited to sleep in other people's rooms all the time. i allow quick sleepovers, but never permanent stays." she explained, the once cold tone in her voice evaporating into something more soft and sweet.

"you can't avoid jeno forever." she then reached down and opened a file cabinet to her left and took out a manila folder, opening it to reveal a single piece of paper with jaemin's name on it alone with the word: FINES. underneath it.

jaemin's eyes widened, "w-what-"

"each time you go and sleep over at anyone's room will cost you 570,000 won." she explained writing the total down on the paper, "but i'm letting you off with a warning. the next time it happens, i won't bee too easy on you."

"but ma'am! that's barely even how much i make a month!" jaemin exclaimed with obvious fear in his eyes. he couldn't afford that at all! what did she think he was made out of?? money??

the dean ignored him, closing the folder and placing it back in its place inside the file cabinet. "well then maybe you shouldn't go around sleeping in rooms that aren't your own now, correct?"

jaemin bit his lip in annoyance before letting out a breath of defeat.

there was no way he could avoid lee jeno now unless-

"jeno gets the same punishment too, if you had the thought of you kicking him out and forcing him to sleep somewhere else." she then added seemingly satisfied with what she had established with the young student. "so i recommend you fix whatever you have going on with jeno so you won't be tempted to do anything you'll regret."

dammit!

--🏹--

jeno didn't know what he was watching to get onto the weird side of youtube. he must've just been clicking on random videos until he did.

ever since jaemin had left to wherever, he hadn't been able to sleep right.

why? well, he knew he was the reason why jaemin left and would always be the reason why he did just because of some stupid scandal that happened 5 years before.

what jeno didn't find dumb or funny though was how jaemin kept falsely accusing him of, "cheating" and how he was a womanizer.

he knew he wasn't one and he didn't cheat at all. after all, jeno had his morals. and he had all the promises he made himself written inside his journal from when he was a child.

he had taken a picture the one he needed to look at the most to remind himself that he was always a good person at heart. from when he was 6 to now as a 23 year old.

PROMISE NUMBER 12

i will never ever ever cheet on my preety girlfreind or hansom boyfreind. i'm not sure what cheeting is but mommy told me it makes your love sad and hartbrokin... is that how you spell it????????????? neways, i want him/her to always bee happee!!

jeno kept the picture on his phone of the page that had horrible spelling mistakes and even worse handwriting. it was obvious that a 1st grader had written it. but the purity and innocence from it was what made it have sentimental value.

reading over it, he completely ignored how his laptop now had a random man on the screen screaming, "SAKITAN, GI BUHAT MAN UNTA NAKO ANG TANANNNNN GI PALITAN MAN UNTA NAKO CYAG TAG PISO NANGA CHOCOLATEEE."

of course he heard it, but he could care less because what language even was that?? the only thing he got was the word, "piso" and the word "chocolate".

the weird side of youtube really is weird, huh?

as jeno was staring at the picture on his phone, his head suddenly turned to look at the door and watched as the door knob rattled as if someone was unlocking it.

jae...min????

with a raised eyebrow, jeno's eyes stayed trained on the way the door opened to reveal, not only his ex boyfriend na jaemin, but a disheveled and red in the face na jaemin, too.

"if.... if i get fined five hundred whatever the fuck thousand because of you..." jaemin slurred as he slammed the door behind him causing jeno to flinch slightly. "mark- my words. you won't li-ve to see tomo-rrow." he hiccuped as he shuffled over to his bed with his backpack on his back and his laptop bag in hand.

and jeno could only watched as jaemin, who was obviously intoxicated, flopped down on his bed with his head faced towards him.

"you kn-ow what, nono?" jeno took a sharp breath in as he heard the younger speak of the nickname he gave him all those years ago. "i... i ha-te you." he muttered.

"i hate h-ow you le-ft to run away with min-seo after leaving that stu-pid note at t-he seven ele-ven."

jeno frowned, "i didn't leave to run away with minseo, jaemin." he agonized. so he still remembers that, huh?

"the-n why?!"

sighing, jeno turned his chair back around to face his laptop that now had that stupid video of that girl with fingernails that were longer than his will to live saying something about, 'spilling the motherfucking tea.' whatever that meant.

"i'm not telling you anything when you're drunk, jaemin." he spoke calmly as he clicked off the video. "sober up, and then we'll talk. though i highly doubt you'll listen." muttering the last part, jeno opened the assignment he was working on before he got lost in his thoughts on youtube and before jaemin had barged in.

"i he-ard that!" jaemin slurred loudly, "i'm a go-ood listen-er! fuck you!"

rolling his eyes, jeno simply typed the remaining words missing on his essay. "yeah? if you were, then you would've listened to what i had to say five years ago instead of running off like some stupid pokemon not wanting to get caught by a ball."

pausing on his typing, his fingers leaving his keyboard, jeno twisted his chair back around to look at jaemin who he was guessing was glaring at his back, his position now different to as he was sitting up. his bags on the floor beside his bed.

the blonde smirked, "rendered speechless might i say? i proved a point, didn't i?" he spoke cockily. "you're a good listener when it comes to your friends, professors, and taeil hyung and jaehyung hyung. yet when it comes to me, it's like you've suddenly gone deaf and can't seem to hear any of what i have to say."

"i'm gi-ving you a ch-ance to expl-ain so do it be-fore i change my m-ind!" jaemin expressed, frustration laced in his voice. "so-ber jaemin doesn't wanna he-ar it, but dru-nk jaemin does!"

"well then tell sober jaemin i think he's stupid for letting the drunk version of himself, the one that'll forget everything by the time he wakes up in the morning, listen to the explanation i wanted to give five fucking years ago but never did cause he's impulsive and petty. thanks."

angrily turning back around, jeno picked back up on his work. and it was like that for a while since jaemin didn't speak afterwords, before he felt something sharp hit his head.

"ow, what the fuck jaemin?!"

"my aunt hit me with a rice bowl when i was sixteen when i talked back and wouldn't listen so now i'm doing it to you, fuck face!" jaemin yelled, his hiccups seemingly vanishing, and jeno was about to retort until the sentence processed in his head.

he's guessing he got the rice bowl from when he ate rice and noodles for lunch and forgot to give the dishes back to the cafeteria and instead left them on his bedside table.

with a confused expression on his face, jeno once again swiveled in his chair to look at jaemin who was still in the same position as he was before. "what do you mean?"

"have i never told you, or did you just forget like you did me for-"

"jaemin, i never forgot about you when i was gone and you never mentioned anything about your aunt." jeno informed him as his thoughts suddenly went back to what he and his friends had talked about a long time ago.

renjun's friend sicheng... ah. he was abused wasn't he...? what renjun said about jaemin... fuck no way.

"my aunt abused me for years, nono! surprise! we were together for years yet you never caught on?" jaemin laughed like a maniac and jeno could only watch, not knowing what to do, what to say, or how to comfort him. "rice bowls, punches, days in the basement without food or water, being pinned up against the wall by your neck and waiting until all your oxygen runs out? god, that was the life!"

"but... even with my past traumas, why did it hurt more when the person who saved me from that, the one who healed all the wounds and made the pain disappear... left?"

jeno didn't know what to do. he didn't know if he should stop jaemin from talking, he didn't know if he should continue listening, he didn't know if he even wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say in all honesty.

it was already a shock that what renjun had theorized was true, and it already upset him that jaemin had never bothered to tell him because first of all, he wants to meet this aunt of his and have a talk with her. and second of all, 1 fucking 1 9.

as jeno opened his mouth to reply, jaemin threw a pillow at him signifying that he wanted him to keep his mouth shut. "don't say anything before i change my mind and never talk to you again."

"my aunt was ruthless. and i had to take care of myself ever since i could walk. my parents abandoned me when i was 1 and never came back for me. ever. i don't even know if they're still alive or not." jaemin had dialed down his tone of voice to where it was now slightly below his normal. "that's why i was always so clingy around you and our friends. i never had someone who loved me, so i tried to.... i tried to love the people around me as much as i could as impossible as it seemed. even if my knowledge on it was limited."

"you were the person who picked up my broken pieces and put them back together as cliché as that may sound. you were the one who showed me what love was and what it felt like to love someone and have it returned fully."

"that's why... that's why when you left... it-" jaemin took a second to breathe, jeno noticing that his eyes were becoming glassy. "it broke me. we- if you had stayed... i think i would've been willing to hear what you had to say."

jeno felt a pang in his chest, what jaemin was saying was beginning to hurt him too.

he didn't just leave because he wanted to, though. the story goes much more deeper than that. it was like jaemin and his friends were in the 3ft part of the pool and he was in the 6ft.

though, never would he have thought jaemin would be such an emotional person when drunk. it was so odd how he was making perfect sense and how he was able to understand all of what he was trying to get at.

in fact, maybe he liked jaemin drunk better than sober because drunk him would tell him all his feelings and pent up emotions from no matter how long ago they were.

when jaemin opened his mouth to continue, jeno held his hand up. "i-i think that's enough for tonight..." he whispered. "get some rest, nana. you have classes tomorrow..."

jaemin rubbed at his eyes wanting the tears to go away, but to no avail. "can y-you call injunnie over?" he sniffled. "i wanna talk to him... b-but i'm not gonna risk getting fined."

jeno nodded silently before picking up his phone on his desk and texting what he hoped was still renjun's number.

zitao🙄

renjun?

zitao🙄

i'm not sure if this is still your number, but jaemin wants you to come over...

injoong🧁

you're the last person i would've expected a text from. but no, i never changed my number. and what does jaem need me for??

injoong🧁

don't tell me he got drunk again.

zitao🙄

what if i told you he did...???

injoong🧁

what did he tell you. he tends to talk a lot about himself when he's intoxicated. or just in general, he never shuts up unless you force him to.

zitao🙄

stuff about his aunt

zitao🙄

which by the way, i never knew about?

injoong🧁

he doesn't like talking about his past. he may be over it, but he's never comfortable mentioning anything about it. took us 2 years to even know what happened to him when he showed up to the first day of uni with his suitcase that had a broken wheel.

injoong🧁

anyways, i'll be over in a minute. but just because i'm texting you doesn't mean i want to have any contact with you at all. i'm still mad at you, jeno. i'm only doing this for jaemin, so until i leave, i want you to lock yourself up in the closet or whatever.

zitao🙄

why would i go into the closet when i'm already out of it...?

injoong 🧁

....

injoong🧁

i'm gonna pretend like you didn't say that, and that i didn't chuckle at it.

with that, jeno clicked his phone shut and grabbed his laptop after unplugging it from its charger, stood up, and made his way to the only closet in the room that surprisingly had a lock on the doorknob and proceeded to lock himself inside.

it was fairly empty, so it wasn't so hard to adjust. jeno moved around a bit to make himself comfy, and when he finally felt as if he was at peace, he opened his laptop again and continued to finish his work...

in the closet.

--💌--

the next morning, jeno woke up to the sound of the closet door opening and a human being looking down at him with an unreadable expression.

"what were you doing sleeping in the closet?" jaemin asked, "actually you know what? don't answer that. i don't want to know." he grumbled as he took out an orange and yellow sweatshirt.

"wait jaemin," jeno called out as the younger began to walk away, jaemin turned around irritatedly. "what?"

"do you remember any of what you said last night? anything at all?"

"no. the fuck, i talked to you last night? what did i tell you?" jaemin asked in what seemed like a frightened tone. "was it personal? please don't tell me it was personal."

"that's something for me to keep to myself." jeno muttered as he rubbed the morning out of his eyes.

jaemin glared at him, "i'm never talking to you again. ever. and i mean it."

jeno scoffed, "yeah right, if i would've known getting you drunk would get you to talk to me, i would've done it a long time ago."

"fuck you, lee."

"sorry, i don't bottom, na."

jaemin shot a glare at jeno and gave him a hard kick in the shin before slipping his sweatshirt over his head and putting on and walking out the door once he had grabbed his bag, slamming it in the process.

jeno didn't even bother to move out of his spot on the floor once jaemin was put of sight.

so jaemin can explain how he feels and what has happened to him, but he can't?

jeno thinks getting his ex boyfriend to listen to him would be like trying to win the superbowl.

difficult, but not impossible.

that, and maybe his friends too considering the fact renjun made him sit in the closet all night until he fell asleep.

jeno groaned in frustration before slamming his hand on the carpet.

this is gonna be a lot harder than he thought.

the, 'SAKITAAANNN' part of this is an inside joke my friends and i have btw lol i just thought it was funny.

until the next chapter!!! i'm trying to make these longer and more detailed lol.

also, please check out react if you'd like!

i love you guys <333

edit:

it's 2024 now.

kris wu is getting exo-cuted as we speak

the joke was funny 5 years ago, but for my sake and everyone elses, i am editing that out

i'm sorry if that made any of u uncomfortable </3 i really haven't read this in full for years so i completely forgot ab that

any other mentions of kris will be dealt w as soon as i see them.

really didnt know who else to put there but imma put tao (i love him)

toodles