[ cнapтer ғoυr ➛ ѕтarт ]

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The following few days were uneventful.

Outside, the world was bright and full of joy. Sun beaming down on children as they squealed and laughed and played, adults and older kids smiling and chatting.

Inside the Na household, it was quiet and not nearly as lively as outside or as it had been when the Lees first arrived.

Jaemin and Jeno had not talked much in those days, except for the occasional greetings with words along the lines of "Fuck you", and rather spent their time mostly away from each other.

The brunette usually went out during the day to use the gym or hang out with his group of friends from school. Whenever he was out, he was having fun, laughing and smiling in the summer spirit, and it was a good distraction from the annoying teenage boy staying at his house.

While Jaemin was out in the world enjoying the sunshine, Jeno stayed indoors — he wouldn't even take a dip in the sparkling pool in the backyard or go on a short little walk around the neighborhood.

He liked the house, except for the fact that Jaemin lived there too. Its design, the modern and simplistic aesthetic, and the calming but still homely atmosphere it gave off were perfect to the raven-haired boy.

Jeno had gone through his closet and dresser, reorganizing the mess Jaemin created. The older didn't even care about the few wrinkles present, too silently angry at Jaemin for causing so much trouble. It had taken him a good hour before he found all his nice, formal wear under his bed. How did he not notice that Jaemin had been shoving his clothes in random areas while they were unpacking in his room?

The matter was no longer a concern for Jeno though when he decided to play a small prank on Jaemin. It was a basic one, but easy to do and wouldn't get him in huge amounts of trouble from his mother. 

Because the younger was out of the house so much, Jeno was able to steal random sauces or thick liquid substances from the kitchen. He would empty out Jaemin's toiletry bottles and replace them with what he had retrieved from the kitchen, disguising the scent and color so they were almost identical to the originals. 

The best part was that Jaemin hadn't even noticed yet, but probably because Jeno was slowly replacing shampoos and soaps and toothpaste, doing one per day rather than replacing all at once.

Besides pranking Jaemin, to pass time, Jeno would casually sneak into the younger's room when he wasn't there and log into his own Fortnite account — which had surprisingly not been noticed by the TV's owner yet, asJaemin hadn't played much Fortnite recently. Jeno would only use the TV during the day, never at night when Jaemin was there because he wanted to ignore the younger as much as possible.

Jeno would also play the guitar and improve on his fingerstyle, a skill difficult to perfect, or practice English. He had already learned the widely universal language back in Korea — he had top marks and perfect pronunciation in his class, but never having to actually speak it in real situations meant that he was little rough. And swearing while shooting rapid-fire insults at Jaemin in Korean made him temporarily forget the slang and swears in English.

To 'brush up on his English', he would first decide he was a little bored of Fortnite for the day, then retire to Netflix, watching shows spoken in English with only English subtitles. What a life hack.

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Eventually, as the days dragged on, Jeno became increasingly bored. It was nice having days to relax just for himself when no one was at the house — Jaemin was with his friends or at the gym, and Mrs. Na was showing Mrs. Lee all there was to see and buy and do in their city. But it got a little lonely, despite Jeno's frequent calls and texts to his friends back in Korea. The loneliness was not, however, something he wasn't used to.

Mrs. Na had noticed this, so while Jeno was taking a long ass shower, she barged into Jaemin's room. The caramel-haired looked up from his phone where he was texting his friends in their group chat. "Yeah?"

"You're taking Jeno out tomorrow," she stated bluntly.

Jaemin almost choked on his own saliva as his eyes bulged out of his head. He completely misinterpreted that sentence. "I'm sorry, what?!"

"Tomorrow," his mother explained, "you're going to take Jeno on a tour of the city, and introduce him to your friend group."

Jaemin sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a brief moment before they flew back open. "But why? Can't he do that himself? Tour the city alone and make his own friends?"

Mrs. Na's expression turned stern as she planted her fist on her hip. "No, Jaemin. You're showing him to the city and your friends, and that's that."

"He's independent and possibly friendly," Jaemin argued. "He could do it himself, he doesn't need me." Under his breath, he muttered, "And I definitely don't want him."

"Remember when we first arrived here during summer holidays?" his mother inquired, taking a different approach to convincing her son and ignoring the last thing he said. "You knew no one, and you didn't know the city at all. I was busy at work, and you spent your days alone here, sulking because you didn't have any friends and you felt lost as soon as you stepped outside the house."

The brunette understood where his mother was going with this, but didn't want to hear it. He rolled his eyes as he finished the story, "Then I found a friend who showed me everything and I lived happily ever after, yay."

His mother smiled and nodded, glad that her son understood her simple analogy, but she frowned when her son continued talking. "But that was different, mom! I was, like, three!"

"Don't be dramatic, Jaemin," his mother snorted. "You understand my point: Jeno needs a guide and a friend, just like you needed one. His friend and guide will be you, just like yours was Renjun."

"Fine," Jaemin groaned, ignoring the small flutter he felt in his chest at the name of the first friend he made here in America. "But there's no way in hell I'm introducing him to my friends."

"Language," his mother warned sternly. "And why not? Renjun did just that for you."

"But I'm not Renjun," was Jaemin's exasperated reply. "This — Jeno — is the kid who I've hated for my whole life. I am not introducing him to my friends because then the only place of freedom and peace I'll have will be the gym." He took a breath before continuing, "I am not sacrificing my happiness with my friends so that ass-- I mean, jerk, can be feeling not forever alone anymore."

"Your friend group is five people, excluding you," his mother reminded calmly. "He won't have to be right with you the whole time. And maybe through your friend group, he can meet and associate with others so you'll no longer have to worry."

Jaemin stared blankly, not bothering to waste any more breath arguing than he already had. He didn't want Jeno to become a part of his friend group — that asshole needed to stay the hell away. His primary concern was that Jeno was exactly the type of person his friends would accept with open arms. He swears heavily, plays Fortnite, is educated on memes, and is a living meme himself. And his visuals — Jaemin was afraid that the boy he was slightly crushing on might begin to like Jeno.

"I don't care what you say, but you will allow Jeno to meet your friends." With that, his mother left the room and Jaemin rolled his eyes again.

He knew this was non-negotiable, and he had to do it all tomorrow or his mother would disown his poor ass.

Scoffing, he quickly texted to his group chat that he'd be bringing a friend along tomorrow and that they were all to tour the city together, no complaints or rejections allowed, then waited until he heard the bathroom door open.

Once it had, he bolted out of his room and stopped himself right before he could crash into his half-naked victim.

"Why the fuck are you here?" Jeno asked, his face a deadpan as water droplets from his hair fell and traveled in thin streams down his body.

"Tomorrow, you're coming with me," Jaemin demanded.

"You're horny." Jeno turned on his heel, walking to his room.

Jaemin slapped him, the sound resonating in the upstairs hall. Thank Jesus their mothers were downstairs and wouldn't come running, ready to beat their asses.

"Shut up. I'm touring you around the city and you're gonna meet my friends."

The raven-haired picked up a shirt and sweatpants from his bed and threw them on as he replied, "Ew, no. Why would I want to do that? And with you?"

Jaemin scoffed. "My mom's forcing me, so be ready because we're leaving at 9."

"At night?"

"No, dumbass. We're not going fucking clubbing," Jaemin said, rolling his eyes as a small frown appeared on his face.

By this time, Jeno had put on a shirt so Jaemin no longer could view his toned torso, causing the older to smirk. "Why are you frowning? Sad that you can't check me out anymore?"

Jaemin scoffed, his expression turning to a while scowl. "There's nothing to check out."

The other boy just laughed. "Yeah, there is. There's more on me than there ever could be on you."

"You're forgetting my twelve-inch dick."

"Jaemin's dick? Sorry, never heard of her."

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[ cнapтer ғoυr ➛ end ]