"So you got the jacket ruined?" Jaemin rolls his eyes at what Donghyuck said, clearly misinterpreting the whole story.

"I didn't ruin it, get your shit right, will you?"

"Hey man, based on what you told me, you basically ruined it." Donghyuck holds his hands up in defense, biting back a smirk to tease his friend.

He knows Jaemin is slightly bothered and embarrassed by the recent incident, which also kind of confuses him; usually Jaemin would brush it off as it was nothing. Especially when this person is no one but a complete stranger to them.

At least... He hopes so. For the sake of Jaemin's sanity who looks like he just lost Renjun's notes for their major subject.

By the amount of students in this school, who knows, Renjun's friend could be someone they've hung out with before, or even classmates within their junior high years, or another friend of a friend.

Gosh, all these possibilities ache Donghyuck's head, and they just finished another short quiz from their General Mathematics.

"I did not ruin it." A frustrated huff escapes Jaemin's lips, eyebrows knitted together. "I just simply made a mistake by leaving a scent of your vape juice– hey did you drop a bit of it when you were refilling it?"

Donghyuck could only shrug his shoulders, he wasn't the one who borrowed a stranger's jacket because of his stupid decisions of being reckless in a strict public school.

Not his problem.

"Why couldn't Renjun just spray it with his cologne or something?" Groaning in annoyance, as if on cue, Renjun walks to their table with his food.

"Why couldn't I what?"

"Nothing." Jaemin was quick to shut down the topic, he wasn't in the mood to talk about it with Renjun, it felt weird and gave him this funny feeling in his stomach.... Like he was sick or something.

He doesn't want to let out his delicious lunch that he had elsewhere, and as much as he wants to lay down, he can't miss their next subject. They have a performance task in their major subject that's worth 100 points if they don't make any mistakes.

And Jaemin loves doing those performance task activities, it gives them a shock... Quite literally.

Renjun sits down, giving him an odd look. They haven't really talked about the jacket incident this morning, they were too caught up with other school works so it just simply slipped their minds.

"Hey, I'm thinking of going to the arcade after school, you guys in?" Donghyuck asks, shamelessly taking a sip of Renjun's drink, earning a glare from the latter.

"Are you paying?" Jaemin jokes, to which Donghyuck snorts at.

But before he could even reply to him, another presence joins them. Someone clears their throat behind Renjun, tapping the latter's shoulder gently.

Donghyuck and Jaemin couldn't help but stare at the person.

Their friend then turns his head to see who it was, "oh hey, Jen. Do you wanna join us?" He was quick to offer Jeno the vacant seat with a hand gesturing to it.

They were sitting by the stage again, occupying one of the concrete tables that were painted neatly like a tree stump. The tall trees surrounding them, giving them a nice shade from the heat at this lunch hour.

Jeno shakes his head, "uh, no– I just ate, it's okay." He awkwardly replies, Renjun hums at him.

"So what brings you here?"

Jeno gets a glimpse of Renjun's friend, Donghyuck, snatching what seems to be the older boy's drink and takes a long sip of it while eyeing Jeno's figure.

He clears his throat again, "I just came by to tell you I'll be heading off early later, I have somewhere to go to."

Scratching his nape, he adds, "I was going to send you a message, but my classmate was borrowing my phone and right now, it's charging."

He softly laughs at himself, Renjun nods at his words while smiling, "okay, I guess we'll see each other by dinner?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Jeno nods in agreement, he couldn't help but feel a certain pair of eyes staring intently at him. He doesn't dare to look up.

He's aware of Renjun's two friends at the table, but he doesn't want to meet that certain pair of eyes that make him shift on the spot.

Gosh, I feel so exposed– why are they acting like I just did something awful?

"I think that's about it... Bye, Junnie." He quickly bids farewell, waving at Renjun as he turns to walk away.

Renjun waves back, before returning to finish his lunch. Looking up, he raised a brow at his two friends. "What?"

"Who was that?"

"Are you guys dating?"

"What the hell?" Renjun utters, taken aback by Donghyuck's words.

The tanned male just blinks at him.

Oh he's not fucking around then.

"Answer me, dude."

Renjun clicks his tongue, "we're definitely not dating."

"Then why did you say you guys will meet for dinner?" Renjun couldn't help but snicker at their confusion.

Come to think of it, from their perspective, it does look like Renjun and Jeno have something going on when they hear their conversation just a minute ago. It's easily misinterpreted.

"Do you guys have a date or something?"

"Hey man, Jeno's attractive and all, but he's not my type." Renjun says, rolling his eyes. "And I said that because–" he hesitates to continue, wondering if it's okay to just blurt it out.

Donghyuck was staring at him, while Jaemin–

"Because what?" He's impatient.

Huffing, Renjun continues with, "doesn't matter, I don't think it's my place to tell." He then gives them a weird look, "wait– why are you guys so invested in him all of a sudden?"

"Because he's hot!" Jaemin doesn't know what came over him, but he kicks Donghyuck's shin from under the table. "Ow!"

"Why haven't I seen him before? Is he new?" His genuine questions make Renjun chortle, almost choking on his food.

When Renjun meets his eyes and sees the glint of curiosity hidden in them, he coughs.

Oh– he's not fucking around either.

"You're kidding, right?" Jaemin just shakes his head. He's deadass serious this time. "Him? New?" another breathy laugh escapes his lips.

"He's been here since 7th grade, are you guys for real?" He couldn't believe his friends right now.

How can they not at least familiarize Jeno's identity? Surely they could've crossed paths at one point throughout their years in this school.

"Yeah? Well who is he then? And since when were you guys friends?" Donghyuck then frowns at him, "I thought we were your only friends."

Renjun scrunches his nose and lightly flicks his forehead, "Hyuck, seriously? Don't make it sound like I'm a loser."

Rubbing his forehead, the tanned male continues to frown. Renjun sighs in defeat, his friends are being all nosy of his "sudden" friendship with Jeno, it's creeping him out.

"He's Lee Jeno, a HUMSS student. We weren't friends until last year, both of us were class presidents and we met at the first meeting for every class president in the school for an event. He's pretty smart, he gave out the ideas of fun booths for the teachers day special last year."

"He wasn't really talkative when we sat down together, until one of his friends urged him to speak up. We became friends when we were decorating the stage for that event the next day, stayed up all night and went home together."

"That's all I can remember for now, I guess it just happened." Renjun shrugs his shoulders, finishing up his story.

Jaemin and Donghyuck share a look before exclaiming in sync, "why haven't you introduced him to us?!"

"Because...." Renjun trails off, "just cause. You guys are gonna be the death of him."

"Woah there, that's not true."

Ignoring Donghyuck's pout, Renjun then adds on, "Jeno grew up in a conservative family, he has great morals... Unlike you idiots."

He suddenly turns to Jaemin and locks eyes with him, the latter gulps before Renjun blurts out, "oh right, he's the owner of the jacket."

Right then and there, Jaemin has a weird feeling in his stomach. He can't pinpoint what it exactly was; nervous, shock, guilt or perhaps... Excitement?

He doesn't know yet, but that boy intrigues him a bit. Though, he does feel embarrassed now knowing who he owes someone to because of his little mishap.

Or it was Donghyuck's little mishap?

So all he could say to not look like a total loser to them was, "did you tell him he smells nice?"

"No, and I never will."

"Thank goodness."

✮

Author's Note:

Yeyyy JaemJen's first encounter omg ^^

I'll be trying my best to do slowburn, in the past I feel like I failed miserably because of y'know what...

But I'm excited to try it again :D