6
you're still like a puppy.
☆*:.｡.☆彡.｡.:*☆

lunch.

lunch was donghyuck and companies favorite time of day (as donghyuck likes to call it). for it was a time they could all (with the exception of jeno and jaemin) talk about the drama that had been going on within their group of friends.

lucas never showed up to them though cause he was always too busy talking to yangyang and that other new kid kunhang (or hendery?? they don't know what his name really is).

there was another one, but none of them knew his name.

but they have seen him hanging out with jaemin for the past few days lately. hence, the main topic of their conversation was,

"operation separate na jaemin and that chinese kid we don't know, start!" chenle exclaims as he takes a swig of his sweet tea.

that was just how their lunch started.

the cafeteria was filled with students of all kinds. engineering majors, music majors, medical majors, business majors.

a variety of conversations spark among them. ones that have to do with classes and assignments, maybe for jobs they would get in the future after college.

the atmosphere was light, though the lights were dim. the weather outside was chilly, but it was warm within.

walls were painted beige and the chairs were spruce with round tables to compliment the scene. in truth, their university was much prettier than others. small bonsais in the middle of each table, cute spherical lights hung around the top of the walls.

what was supposed to be a cafeteria seemed more like a café. no one complained though. the art majors were the ones who put the work, effort, and funds into upgrading the area. including renjun who was an interior design major.

but what would be good for discussing assignments and bullshit professors turned into more of a 'cheesy romance novel' one for mark, renjun, donghyuck, chenle, and jisung who were all more focused on their best friends dying love lives than the essays piling up one by one in their planners.

"we don't even know his name." jisung makes a sound similar to one of a motor boat before popping a french fry into chenle's mouth. "how're we supposed to.. oh i don't know, sabotage him if we don't know his name???"

renjun taps his fingers on the table, his fingernails causing an annoying noise to be made. "isn't he friends with yangyang?" he asks, mark shakes his head.

"no. i've never seen them together." mark replies as he throws his head back only for a cherry tomato to be placed inside his mouth by none other than the cherry head himself who called for a meeting.

donghyuck then pops a cherry tomato into his mouth as he ponders on it, "well," he starts once he swallows ignoring the way renjun's fingernails were still making that aggravating noise, "we could do this two," he holds up his pointer and middle fingers, "ways."

"oh no." jisung exasperates, "whatever it is, we don't want it."

to which donghyuck shakes his head, "it's nothing TOO bad."

"emphasis on too." chenle adds while he opens his mouth for jisung to put another fry in.

renjun fights the urge to make fun of jisung when he complies with a love struck smile on his face all while chenle grins at him cutely in return.

"okay but listen to me first," donghyuck requests before shooting renjun a look of annoyance. "and jun, for the love of god, can you stop that?!"

the said boy looks over at him with a raised eyebrow, "stop what?"

"THAT!" he points at his fingers that are tapping on the table and renjun simply snorts. "have i been bothering you with this?"

the red head nods as he gives mark another one of his cherry tomatoes, "yes. very. now stop it so i can explain my plan!"

renjun just stares at him before a smirk comes upon his face, his fingers continuing to tap on the table, "too bad, bitch."

donghyuck scowls at him, moving to hit him upside the head before mark stops him by intertwining their fingers together and giving his hand a squeeze while he nonchalantly takes a bite out of his salad with the other.

this effectively causes donghyuck to blush and renjun to snicker at him. he stops the movement with his hands all in all though.

"anyway." donghyuck clears his throat while snapping his neck to glare at mark who smiled at him with a cherry tomato in between his teeth. "quit being so cute god dammit." he mutters before sighing, "two things."

"one, we ask nana for his name or two, we spy on him on their next study date."

"i'm sorry, study date???????" renjun questions with a frown on his face, "jaemin is going on study dates with this kid?"

"yeah, i guess.? and? what does it matter to you?" jisung asks in return while renjun reaches over to steal one of chenle's chicken nuggets, "it just doen't settle right with me."

he ignores the way chenle glares at him and continues after eating the piece of chicken, "knowing jeno is still hung up on jaemin and vise versa, it's just weird."

"wouldn't it be better if they moved on and found better people though?" mark suggests after having his mouth shut since the beginning of the hour.

chenle shakes his head, "not when they haven't had proper closure it's not." he says picking up a chicken nugget and placing it in jisung's mouth. "if jaemin and jeno really want to move on, they have to get explanations from one another."

"but with how hard headed jaemin is being over this, he won't give in no matter how many times jeno asks." jisung adds.

"which is why him going out with that chinese kid can make this worse than better. with unresolved issues and unexplained problems... this could turn out to be more of a disaster than a benefit."

everyone stares at the two youngest at their table with bewildered looks on their faces. it was weird enough to hear this from them when usually it was mark or renjun saying the smart shit.

"i— okay. makes sense, i can't argue." mark breathes out while he takes another bite of donghyuck's salad. "but what will spying on jaemin and this boy do us??"

"okay one, we'll get his name." donghyuck places one of his legs over one of mark's, "and two... i haven't gotten that far yet, but it'll come to me."

mark frowns, "hyuck, if you're gonna plan something, at least have it sorted out."

"markie baby, i'll think of something to do with this information." the red head kisses his nose, "you're just gonna have to let me sit it out and think about it because my head is all over the place."

jisung groans, "why can't we just ask jaemin for his name?? it is not that big of a deal."

"that's too easy." donghyuck turns over to look at jisung, "we have to be more... teenage like? i swear to god since we started university we've been nothing but a group of hags."

"jeno and jaemin too." chenle chimes in, "jaemin is too busy with school and you know what? now that i think of it? jeno has been hanging out with jang yeeun, that music major, as well."

"speaking of which.."

all 5 heads turn towards the entrance where none other than lee jeno dressed down in a striped dress shirt tucked into a pair of dark denim skinny jeans with a leather jacket to top it all off while yeeun was in a blue and yellow striped sweatshirt and a white skirt.

"ooohhhhh boy, they look good together." donghyuck comments and mark shoves a forkful of lettuce in his mouth. "this is operation get nana and jen to talk, not find jeno cute with a girl we don't know."

"jeno the het." jisung throws a hand over his mouth, "why's he always getting caught up with girls?"

chenle hums before focusing back on his food, "first it's minseo, then it's yeeun. man's a PLAYER."

"we don't know the full story about minseo, we can't make any assumptions." renjun takes yet another chicken nugget off of chenle's tray and chenle frowns. "hyung, i will never understand why you don't just buy your own food."

"chenle, sweetie, i want you to imagine being an interior design major in college, no job, no source of income." the mocha hair dyed boy sends a sickeningly sweet smile towards chenle who pushes his tray towards him more.

"you're lucky i love you."

"when we were in middle school it was a girl named kwon eunbin." jisung says while pulling chenle's tray back, "renjun hyung, i'll gladly buy you something if it means you stop eating my boyfriend's lunch."

"jisung you're just as, if not, even more broke than renjun." donghyuck snorts while mark continues shoving forkfuls of lettuce into donghyuck's mouth. "wouldn't want to waste the ten thousand won you spent on this stupid salad, honey."

and donghyuck would've choked if it wasn't for renjun who hit his back.

"you ate that salad too, shut the fuck up mark." renjun rolls his eyes.

"hey jun?"

all heads turn towards renjun, but their eyes are focused behind them to see no one other than lee jeno handing what seemed like a sandwich and sweet tea to renjun with a timid smile on his face.

"i get lunch is almost over, and you probably hate me to the bone, but i noticed you were the only one who wasn't eating and... i felt the need to get you something." jeno explains and renjun frowns.

"jeno you didn't have to—"

"this is also a thanks for taking care of jaemin that one night..." he adds.

jeno ends up placing the items on the table after renjun doesn't take them and walks away after waving to the rest of his friends. or 'former' friends to his understanding.

everyone looks at the food and drink jeno gave renjun and frown all together.

"i miss him." mark mumbles while rubbing a hand over his face, "he's always been generous."

"we'll have to talk to him properly eventually, but can we like, do my plan?" donghyuck asks, "it'll be entertaining, it'll let us let loose for a while, and! it could be useful information in the future?"

"or we could just spy on the chinese kid, he seems sus." jisung suggests, "it doesn't matter what he and jaemin do, what matter are his motives. he seems extra sus."

"that'll just seen like we're stalking him." renjun raises an eyebrow towards jisung.

the silver head shrugs, "who cares, it's odd to me that out of all the chinese students at this university he could've talked to, he talked to a korean who has no knowledge on mandarin whatsoever. it's weird, don't you think?"

"then we'll just stalk china boy." mark says. "they usually meet at the library near five? we'll meet at four thirty." donghyuck adds. "sound good?"

everyone nods, reluctantly, while renjun huffs before opening the sandwich jeno had gotten him, "damn he just had to get me a kani."

"but you love kani—"

"exactly." renjun takes a swift sniff at the sandwich before sinking his teeth into and almost moaning when the flavor hits his taste buds.

"hyung that's gross, shut up." chenle groans before looking down at his watch. "oh shit, it's two thirteen, i have a class in a couple minutes." he announces before standing up and stretching. jisung standing up with him.

"we'll be leaving now hmm?" chenle waves to the boys along with jisung and they both walk away with chenle's tray in jisung's hold to take care of on their way out.

"wait it's WHAT?!" donghyuck shoots up from his position on mark and his chair and checks the time on his phone, "FUCK FUCK FUCK I'M LATE."

"honey, can you stop cussing so much?" mark whines as he too gets up with donghyuck's trash, "it's not very charming to listen to."

"do you think i care if it's charming or not?! if you're not going to break up with me for it, that's all that matters to me." donghyuck pulls the hem of mark's shirt and plants a messy, wet kiss on his lips before running off to his class.

he leaves mark star struck and love struck at the same time, his cheeks bright red and his fingers tracing his lips. renjun looks up at him with a roll of his eyes, "you act like he's never kissed you before."

"ahh... it's just.. hyuck's never kissed me in public before." he bites back a smile, "he doesn't like to. i don't know why."

"maybe he's just uncomfortable with all the pairs of eyes that could be looking at him." renjun suggests. "there are a truckload of homophobic people here, mark. this isn't canada."

mark purses his lips, "point. if only we were in canada."

"you can go back if you want."

"fuck off."

-🏹-

the wind blows and the trees sway, the sun shimmers and the water glistens. while the leaves begin to fall off the trees branches, the ground begins to fill up with an assortment of colors.

the weather is cool, but jeno's heart is warm.

when he gets back from his last class of the day that night, he goes back to their dorm only to see jaemin passed out on his bed with papers scattered across it.

he can't help but to take a peek, but what he sees are chinese characters he can't understand. jeno frowns, jaemin really was spending a lot of time with that mocha boy to be able to write that perfectly in a language he can barely say hi in.

jeno can't help but to take a picture of what was on the papers and translate them using google translate,

you're so cute.

"oh." jeno feels a pang inside his heart before he slips his phone back into his pocket. "how.. ironic, nana."

"can i just.. do you know how hard this is for me?" jeno breathes out shakily while he begins to sort jaemin's papers, "having to be in the same room as you every day but never being able to hold you or kiss you, to only ever have you talk to me when you're intoxicated?"

he places the papers onto jaemin's desk on top of his closed laptop. "and seeing you with.. xiao dejun? it.. it hurts. a hell of a lot, but as long as you're happy, i guess it's okay."

jeno then resorts to plugging jaemin's phone into his charger so he doesn't panic over it being dead the next morning. he doesn't bother looking at his lock screen. probably just a picture of him and dejun.

"i never fell out of love with you the time i was gone you know." he whispers while taking his blanket off of his bed and unfolding it, putting it over jaemin who immediately cuddled it. "i longed for you every day, i can't even begin to tell you how much i cried and begged for my parents to let me be with you."

jeno pushes back some of jaemin's hair to get a good look at his face. when he sees jaemin's soft facial features, he takes in the shakiest breath of his life. "i missed you so much, too much. words can't explain how much i did. i felt like a fourth grader with a boyfriend scribbling their name with mine into a notebook."

"but i guess none of that really matters anymore, right?" jeno feels his eyes stinging, jaemin only snores as a response. "it's no use if you're not gonna listen to me. if you're with dejun, what difference will it make if i try to tell you what happened? you won't care once you move on."

"i hope one day though, when we're married to other people, when we have kids and get jobs, that we can finally get rid of our dirty laundry." the blonde places his hand on jaemin's cheek and bites his bottom lip when he leans into his touch. "my god, you're still like a puppy."

jeno lets a couple tears escape his eyes when he blinks for a moment. he leaves his hand to longer there for a moment longer before he moves it away. "i don't lie a lot, nana. i never like to, especially to you." he admits.

"if you and dejun are in fact together, i can't tell you i'm happy for you cause that'd be a lie. i can't be. not when i need you to be mine again so desperately to end the suffering i've been put through since we broke up." jeno breaks down after he says that sentence and he's on the floor next to jaemin's bed, his hands on his face, and his eyes producing nonstop tears.

"you're the only one i ever needed. and i'm such a fool for letting myself be toyed the way i did." he cries silently into his hands.

"you're the only one i ever wanted, na jaemin."

okay fulfilled your wishes are you happy now

my back hurts and i'm tired i've been writing this for 4 hours straight and it's not even good idk where i was going with it but you know what it's been 2 months since i updated this idec where it goes as long as it's out.

where was this chapter going cause idek

yeeun is jeno's best friend, not a potential love interest. don't get it twisted.

anyway have you listened to jopping yet

mark lee best boy ugh

how long am i going to be able to drag this book out i swear to god i started this is march and it's already october what the fuck

i guess i can write more. i just procrastinate with this book tbh, i'm not all that busy. just lazy. i'm sorry.

here is dumb pic of me to make up for the 2 months i was gone mwah

oh and

it's almost spooky season petition for mark and jaemin to match costumes again please this was so cute i think i lost it looking at these pictures

markmin ftw i miss them so expect yes or yes to be out within the next week or so

anticipate the next update

mwah love u charrot sana all