"does this look better?" Jeno quirked his eyebrows holding two hangers in each hand showing off the two clothes he could possibly wear.

He earned a meow in response as the feline swayed her tail and tilts her head looking at the brunet boy who was only wearing a plain white shirt and jeans.

"Yeah, too dark," he said agreeing with his pet cat even though there was an obvious language barrier between them.

He continues to rummage through his small closet before groaning in frustration, "I don't know what to wear, Bongsik! What do I choose?" He said desperately.

Picking another random shirt and decides to put it on, he glances at the mirror and turns to his pet cat seeing said feline didn't even look at him, too busy licking her paws clean.

"Ugh, too boring and plain," Jeno grumbled from Bongsik's reaction before finally deciding to just deal with the last random shirt he can get his hands on and pairs it with a simple white jacket.

He scans himself on the mirror with a small smile, "this will sort of do," he shrugged and continues to get ready for Mark's birthday party.

After finally finishing up, he grabs his stuff along with the small gift for his best friend (to which he hopes Mark will like it) and heads out his small apartment locking the door.

He knocks lightly on one of the doors nearby and smiles seeing a familiar face, "Ten hyung! Hi!" He greets.

Ten was someone that was the closest to being a family figure for Jeno, he's nice, he's funny and he listens well on the boy. He takes care of him well and often gives in on the younger's small favors.

"Oh good evening Jeno-yah, what can I help you with?" The elder smiles back carrying one of his pet cats, Leon, in his arms ignoring the shrill meow behind him.

Not having enough time since Jeno was the type to be a worrywart sometimes, he immediately gets in to it as he also ignored Bella chasing Louis in the background.

"Can you watch Bongsik for me again please? I'm going to Mark hyung's party and I don't want anything to happen to Bongsik while I'm gone for the night." He asked kindly.

Ten hummed approvingly, "you know you don't have to ask me on these type of things Jen." He chuckled resulting the brunet to blush shyly.

"But don't fret, I'll take care of your Bongsik. Go have fun!" He encouraged with a wide smile towards the younger.

Jeno beams happily and gave a quick thankful hug to Ten before saying his farewell as he dashes off towards the small elevator.

Ten already has a spare key to Jeno's apartment, likewise with the latter who keeps it with him at all times (Mark wouldn't shut up about his lectures to him when he almost lost his key.)

☺︎︎

"Well you're definitely dressed up," Haechan compliments hugging the brunet who had just arrived at the packed and noisy household of Mark Lee.

"Of course I am! I wanna make a good impression to him too," Jeno whispered the last part shyly as if he's sharing a (not so) secret.

His words made Haechan chuckle, no he's not drunk yet. Tipsy? A little bit, but that's because he lost a bet with Lucas in one of the shittiest games just a second early in the occasion.

"Now hold my hand and don't wonder off, Lucas even invited some fucking weirdos that hang out outside at school or something," The tanned male said already gripping on to Jeno's hand.

The brunet laughed but obeyed anyway, he lets himself get dragged towards where the birthday celebrant is located at, who beams when he saw his best friend.

"Jeno!" Mark cheered hugging the boy as tightly as he could like they haven't seen each other yesterday. Well, sort of, Jeno dashed home and left Mark for his basketball practice which sucked.

"Happy birthday Markue!" Jeno greeted with a small peck to his best friend's cheek who didn't even shy away from the affectionate contact, since he's used to their bond by now.

"Here's your gift!"

"Jeno," Mark gasps looking inside the small bag that his best friend had given him for his special day. "You didn't have to!" He whined smacking the younger's arm lightly.

"Well I wanted to! Just accept it dummy," Jeno giggled. "It's original, the design is from me. So you better like it because I stood at the printing place for three hours." He pouts.

Mark laughed and ruffled his hair, "of course I love your gift, cutie. Thank you, really." He smiled as Jeno grins happily.

"Why don't we go have fun?" Haechan said draping his arms around the two boys as he stood between them with a sloppy grin.

"I actually wanna find my soulmate," Jeno pouts as the other two boys sighed at him with a small smile.

"Of course you'll meet him soon, Jen. But as of now, do you wanna go to the dance floor? Or we can join and watch Lucas cheat in beerpong." Mark snorts.

The younger chuckled lightly before waving his hand lazily, "it's okay, we can go watch Lucas instead. Not really in the mood to dance right now," he shrugged as Mark cheered at his answer.

The three heads towards the side of the room as they already spotted Lucas moving the plastic cups around clearly cheating.

"I think you should be disqualified for that," Haechan sneered sipping on his cup from who knows where he got it from. Probably snatched it on a nearby table, not caring if other people had their saliva on it.

Lucas starts bickering with Haechan who keeps on teasing him about his "lack of skills" on games while the elder protested with, "I'm a basketball player, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Few minutes in, Mark sighed seeing his cup empty. "I'll be back in a second, I need more fruit punch." He said excusing himself.

Jeno halts him by grabbing his shoulder and pushing him back down to the couch they were sitting on, "I'll go get some for you, I'm kind of hungry anyway." He shrugged.

"Oh well, I can come with you," Mark said as he tries to stand back up.

The younger shook his head, "it's fine, I'll be quick. It's not like I'll ditch you again," he rolled his eyes while Mark only huffed at him.

The brunet heads over to the kitchen with a struggle, thanks to the sweaty, built, and joined bodies shoving him around like he was a pinball.

He finally arrives and grabs Mark's requested and needed alcohol (the fruit punch was basically inhaled by someone), then quickly snatches a bag of chips for himself as he turned around without paying attention.

Jeno widens his eyes when he realized what he has done, it was obviously an accident, He's not an asshole like Haechan is to Mark at times.

Looking up, he gulps, the dude is glaring holes at him like he had just broke something. He could practically see smoke coming out of the dude's ears as his jacket was now wet with alcohol.

"I'm so sor–"

*thwacked*

The last thing Jeno saw, was the guy's angry face and the huge balled up fist hit his left eye before blacking out.

"My dear soulmate, please help me."