"What are you doing here?" Jeno furrows his eyebrows at the pink haired boy, "are you waiting for the others or something?"

Proceeding with his assumption, he then glances over his shoulder for a second. "If so, you'll have to wait a bit more."

"Hyuck is at detention, Yangyang is talking to one of his teachers and Mark i–"

"I'm not here for them." The elder boy cuts him off from his rambling.

Growing confused, he tilts his head to the side, oblivious to what the other boy had meant. "Huh? Do you perhaps know a few people here other than us?"

His words elicits a laugh out of Jaemin's lips, the pink haired boy shaking his head as he reaches out to ruffle Jeno's hair.

"I'm here for you, darling."

"Huh?" Jeno blushes madly, eyes wide staring at the elder boy. "Don't you have work to do?" Flashing him a look as if Jaemin is being stupid right now.

Jaemin does nothing but snicker in response, "Jaehyun hyung gave me a day off, said someone new is working today so..." Trailing off, he shrugs his shoulders in nonchalance.

Jeno eyes him weirdly but flinches when Jaemin takes him by the hand. "Come on, let's go."

"What? To where?!" Jeno panics as he was already being pulled along with a grinning Jaemin.

The pink haired boy shrugs his shoulders once again, "anywhere!" Tugging Jeno more closer to him.

When the ravenette boy abruptly stops on his tracks, resulting Jaemin to be pulled back from the action. He flashes him a hesitant look as he glances back at the school gates.

"But... Shouldn't we wait for the others?"

"Why would we wait for them? Did you guys promised a meetup or something?" Jaemin genuinely asks in confusion.

Jeno shakes his head a little, "I just thought... Nevermind." Quickly brushing the thought off, he suddenly starts walking again and this time, was the one pulling Jaemin along with him.

The elder boy raises a brow at him and fastens his pace to match Jeno's steps, "what were you going to say?"

"Nothin'."

"Come on, what if it's actually a problem? You can't keep bottling things u–"

"They will tease me if they find out we have been hanging out." Jeno cuts him off in a mutter.

It takes a second for Jaemin to realize before he snickers at the younger boy, hearing him huff loudly in response. "Not funny." He grumbles as he squeezes Jaemin's hand in his.

The pink haired boy remains unfazed and teasingly lilts, "so cute. My Jeno is shy~"

Hearing his words as it processes in his mind, Jeno snaps his head to look at Jaemin as he stops walking. "Y-your Jeno?" He parrots in a stuttering manner.

Jaemin grins charmingly at him, "you said you would give me a chance."

"I meant to help me and get closer to me. Personally." Jeno states in a small and panicked squeak.

"I don't see any difference with me courting you." Jaemin mischievously points out.

And oddly enough, it leaves Jeno speechless. Which he wouldn't have thought it could happen as he swears, old him would've told Jaemin off.

But then again, this is the new him. He needs to... “Let Loose”, as what Mark would say.

So all he could do was glare weakly at the grinning boy before he was pulled along again to who-knows-where.

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"You mean... This is supposed to be really sweet?" Jeno asks pointing to one of the candies in front of him on the table.

Jaemin nods as he drinks his bottle of water, "for me at least. It's like– I don't know how to describe it, but it's almost like the same feeling when eating a sour candy."

"You know I will get diabetes from eating these, right?" Jeno flatly points out as he gives Jaemin a look.

The tattoo artist hums, "if you eat too much. Yeah, you will. So... I guess just don't do that on a daily basis and remember to drink water."

"Gee, thanks." Jeno rolls his eyes as he quietly picks on one of the candies, not noticing the grin on Jaemin's face.

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"I'm starting to regret this." Jaemin mumbles, loud enough for Jeno to hear who's walking beside him.

The ravenette boy was munching on some gummy candies, all in different colors and shapes; bears, whales, sharks, worms, burgers– etcetera.

Turns out, Jeno had chosen his favorite candy at the moment. Gummies.

Jaemin insisted to pay for Jeno's small bag of candy, but then he's starting to feel suspicious of the younger boy.

"You better not be addicted to this– I actually don't want you to get diabetes." To which Jeno giggled in response.

"I'll try."

Jaemin rolls his eyes with a silly smile on his face when he hears Jeno's teasing tone.

He catches the younger boy by surprise when he drapes an arm around his shoulders and pulls him closer.

"What if I told you this would be our first date?"

"That would be horrible!" Jeno shrieks in panic, staring at Jaemin bewildered. "It's so unplanned! And you didn't even ask me!"

"So I do have a chance!" Jaemin says triumphantly before getting slightly shoved on the side.

"I didn't say– ugh." Jeno grumbles as he chews aggressively on his candy.

Jaemin coos when he sees the younger boy's cheeks being stuffed as he chews away. "Chipmunk, sounds like a new nickname."

"What? That's an awful nickname–"

"Acorn! That's it!" Jaemin exclaims before pinching Jeno's puffed out cheek with his free hand, "my little acorn."

"Jaemin!" Jeno whines with his cheeks stuffed.

"Okay, I get it. You're still shy," Jaemin waves him off nonchalantly. "Now let me take you home, we can hangout again tomorrow or something."

Suddenly, it dawns on Jeno that their day is over. Rather quickly than expected, or he just wasn't paying attention to the time.

Regardless, something in him churns disgustingly when he realizes they have to part ways now.

I don't want Jaemin to leave... Not yet, at least.

So without further thinking, his words were faster than his mind as he blurts out. "Come over to my house for dinner."

Jaemin raises a brow at him as they pause on their way just by the pedestrian lane. "You sure?"

His charming smile returns on his face when he gets a frantic nod from Jeno. "All right then, acorn."

"JAEMIN!" The tattoo artist cackles mischievously at the whines from Jeno, the latter blushing madly as he weakly bumps his hip against Jaemin's.

𑁍

Ngl "Acorn" originally wasn't going to be used in this story– but then I kind of rushed this so I forgot what I was actually planning on to do 🤡

Regardless, "Acorn" is super cute, one of my favorites nicknames of Jeno❣️

I also didn't want it to be forgotten anyway so I brought it up again hehe :)