Chapter Text
Jeno had been treading carefully around Jaemin ever since that night. (Not only because he cared about the boy, but also because he was worried Jaemin would ask him why he was out there in the first place).
He’d decided to drop the whole alien thing as well. Jaemin’s wellbeing was more important than whether or not he was an extraterrestrial being or not.
It didn’t even matter that he’s pretty sure he caught Jaemin resolidifying when he walked into the younger’s room one afternoon. One second, he looked oddly see through and the next he was Jaemin again.
But that was all water under a bridge. Whether or not Jaemin was an alien was of no concern to Jeno.
Really.
It’s why the next day when they have their Renjun club meeting (ahem, their “alien club meeting”), and Renjun reveals that the slime in their fridge had disappeared, and Chenle insists that he did not, in fact, eat it—Jeno only steals a glance at Jaemin because he is sitting right next to him, and not because it seems rather suspicious.
Especially since Jaemin had left their movie night for the second time later that evening to grab something from Renjun’s fridge. (He’d come back with a bottle of juice, but still, he could be placed at the scene of the crime).
Jaemin’s face is blank, almost—too blank, like he’s wearing a mask.
Hyuck rolls his eyes at Renjun’s sincere incredulity, “Your parents probably saw it and threw it away Injun. I know if I kept a ziplocked bag of green goop that told Chenle not to eat it, if I didn’t toss that shit out first, my mom definitely would have.”
Renjun glares at Donghyuck, “But don’t you think it’s odd that our one evidence of aliens suddenly goes missing?”
Yes, Renjun, it is suspicious… Jeno thinks, but doesn’t say. For some reason, if it was Jaemin’s doing, Jeno doesn’t want to rat his friend out. It’s almost like he’s come to terms with whatever secret Jaemin is keeping from them, and he’s prepared to cover for him.
“Well, the only person that went to the fridge that night was Jaemin.” Chenle supplies helpfully. 5 pairs of eyes turn towards the brown-haired boy. Jaemin blinks once.
“It was still there when I was there.” Jaemin defends easily, and Jeno has to applaud his excuse. Even if he did throw away the bag of goo, he’s technically not lying.
Everyone else quickly loses interest on the lead. Renjun has fingers on his chin, humming contemplatively like an old man figuring out his next moves in Go. Jeno thinks its endearing.
“Well, anyway, we’ve lost our only lead.” Renjun says with a pout. Jeno wants to go over and kiss it away. He must have been staring at Renjun a little too hard, for the boy catches his gaze and raises an eyebrow at him questioningly. Jeno clears his throat, shifting in his seat.
When he looks over at Jaemin, the boy is giving him a knowing grin, and Jeno’s not sure how to interpret that. Is it because he knows I know he’s responsible for the goop? Or is it because of Renjun…?
The three of them have been dancing around their affection for as long as Jeno has had eyes. (Okay, maybe not that long, but if he had met Renjun as a baby, he’s certain he’d still have fallen for the boy upon first sight.
The same goes for Jaemin. The first time Jeno set eyes on the boy back on the first day of high school, his breath had promptly been swept away. Granted, the second he laid eyes on Jaemin, Donghyuck had also succeeded in tackling him to the ground in gym, so the breath leaving his lungs might have been in part due to that, but still, the sentiment stands.
Jeno supposes they should probably talk about this (whatever this is) at some point, but just thinking about a confession has his heart racing over time and the palms of his hand growing clammy.
Jaemin slides over an unopen water bottle towards Jeno, who gratefully grabs it and takes a few big gulps.
Jaemin’s always been good like that, knowing exactly what they need. (If Jeno was still in his investigative “alien or not alien” mind, he’d think perhaps Jaemin had some sort of telepathy powers, but—he’ll let this one slide).
“Junnie,” Donghyuck starts, he’d walked over to where Renjun is standing to sling an arm around his shoulder, “Don’t you think we’ve exhausted all we can on this ‘UFO’ search?”
Renjun frowns at the younger’s use of finger air quotes.
“Why don’t we just admit we tried our best, but found no evidence, and move on?” Donghyuck suggests, looking at the audience for support.
Jisung nods his head eagerly, “Yes, I that’s a good idea, let’s go with that.”
“But—” Renjun protests, to which Donghyuck places a finger against Renjun’s lips to shush him. Jeno grips the water bottle in his hand making a disruptive crinkling noise. If anyone’s finger should be that close to Renjun’s lips, it should be his. (Or maybe Jaemin’s, he supposes he could be alright with that).
They all look in Jeno’s direction, but Jeno just sinks back into his chair, the epitome of indifference. Jaemin however, eyes him curiously, knowingly, and Jeno refuses to give him any reaction.
“Look, ge, I think their right.” Chenle says with a sigh, “We tried, right? But in the end, we still have no aliens. This case is as cold as Mark Lee’s.”
And funny Chenle should mention that, since this isn’t the first time Jeno had heard that name in the past 24 hours. Jeno sneaks a glance over at Jaemin, who is absently playing with a pencil on the table, twirling it around his fingers at lighting speed.
If Jeno didn’t know any better, he’d think the pencil is simply flying through Jaemin’s fingers, but that’s impossible (isn’t it?).
Renjun lets out a long sigh, raking a hand through his long locks. It’s grown quite a bit over the month. To the point one of their teachers had scolded Renjun to get it cut, but Renjun’s always marched to his own beat.
“Fine, we can stop the investigation here.” Renjun says, to which Donghyuck and Jisung cheer. Jeno sits up a little straighter in his chair, he wasn’t expecting the older to give in so easily.
“Junnie—” Jeno calls out, but his voice isn’t heard over Hyuck and Jisung’s celebration of cutting the investigation short. It’s Jaemin that turns to Jeno and places his hand over Jeno’s.
“Let’s just support his decision. We can cheer him up about it later.” Jaemin proposes, and Jeno has to say that does sound rather appealing. Especially if it’s just the two of them cheering Renjun up.
He can’t remember the last time the three of them had hung out on their own. What, with Renjun obsessing over the UFO sighting, and Jeno busy in his investigation towards Jaemin.
A threesome outing would be nice.
Jeno smiles back at Jaemin, his eyes squeezing into crescents, “Sure, Nana, that sounds nice.”
They take Renjun out for ice cream, the elder’s favorite dessert.
“I just—it feels like we’d gotten so far,” Renjun laments to the two as they sit at a table outside the ice cream parlor. Its rather busy at the place, especially at this time of year. Ice cream is the best way to ring in the almost summer season.
“We had a lot of weird things happen, and they can’t all be circumstantial,” Renjun goes on, stopping only to chew thoughtfully on his ice cream. Pudding flavored, Jeno remembers.
“You did well, Injunnie. You gave it your best shot.” Jaemin affirms, giving Renjun a blinding smile that the older softens to immediately. He gives Jaemin a smile back, and Jeno melts at the sight of his two crushes being cute with each other.
“Perhaps,” Renjun says, looking down at his ice cream, “But it doesn’t feel like it…”
“Think of it this way, the next time any sign of aliens come around, you’ll be extra ready.” Jeno says, and Renjun snorts in amusement. One of Jeno’s favorite sounds.
“Sure, I’ll be standing by with a zip lock at the ready to collect their mysterious goo.” Renjun holds out his ice cream spoon, the ice cream dripping off the spoon onto the metal table.
“Maybe Chenle should have tasted it. Who knows? What if it tastes like ice cream?” Renjun and Jeno laugh at that, and Jaemin gives a weird half chortle.
“If alien goo tastes like ice cream, then they’re in the wrong business, my friends.”
It’s a school night, so they can’t have a sleep over like they might have to try and cheer Renjun up. Jeno’s pretty sure the last time they had such an emergency Norenmin meeting, it was when Renjun’s cat had died, and that had been three years ago.
Jeno was pretty sure he remembered Jaemin mentioning something about the impermanence of life on earth. He’d thought it was a rather strange thing to say, but fitting, given the circumstances.
Come to think of it, later that night, Renjun had shaken Jeno awake, wide eyed in the night as he chattered half excited half horrified, claiming that he’d seen his dead cat walking through his house.
Jeno had stared at him equally wide eyes, hair askew from his sleep. When he’d turned to Jaemin for backup, Jaemin had looked rather composed, his eyes almost gleaming in the moonlight.
Jeno had held Renjun in his arms when the younger started crying. They chalked up seeing his dead cat as a symptom of loss. The mind missing him so much it brought his cat back to life, figuratively.
But now, Jeno remembers the slight twitch of the frog leg during their dissection lab, and under new alien light, Jeno wonders if Jaemin had anything to do with Renjun’s dead cat reappearing after all.
It’s a school night, but nonetheless, Jaemin and Jeno are keeping Renjun company until one of their parents calls to tell them to come home.
The three of them are huddled together on Renjun’s full sized bed, watching an anime on Renjun’s computer, when a strange flash of light shines outside of Renjun’s window.
They’re silent for a while, though Jeno knows they’re all looking over in that direction, before Renjun asks, “Did you all see that?”
Jeno nods, sliding out of Renjun’s bed to pad over to the window to squint outside. Nothing really looks out of the ordinary. There’s that big three still in the front yard, and the streetlamp across the street, though now flickering, and there’s a strange, blob creature making it’s way across Renjun’s lawn.
Wait.
Jeno’s eyes widen at the sight, mouth dropping open as he points empathically at the creature he can see with his own eyes, sliding across the grass.
“A—al—alie—!”
Jaemin’s at his side in a heartbeat, almost shoving Jeno out of the way. He’s gripping the windowsill so hard Jeno swears he hears the wood splinter. Jaemin’s leaning so close to the window he can’t even see the younger’s face.
“Fuck, shit,” Jaemin curses, and then Renjun is trying to squeeze in between them to see.
“What? What is it??” He asks.
“You guys, stay here.” Jaemin says absently before rushing out the door.
“W-wait! Jaemin!” Renjun calls after the boy, but Jaemin’s already slammed the bedroom door behind him.
When Jeno hurries after the boy, he finds that the door won’t budge.
“What the heck?” He shakes the door handle harder, but it doesn’t do anything.
“Holy shit—” Renjun breathes from his position looking out the window. There’s an odd, blue light reflecting off the glass, and Jeno quickly joins Renjun at the window to see what’s happening.
He can see Jaemin striding across the grass confidently, quickly, like a man on a mission, an alien on a mission. Jeno’s surer of it now than he’d ever been before.
The blob creature raises a blob-ish hand at Jaemin, almost like in a wave, but Jaemin tackles the creature and they both go rolling across the grass. Renjun lets out a strangled noise, and Jeno can only gape at the sight as the two grapple on Renjun’s side lawn.
“We have to get down there! We have to help him!” Renjun cries.
“Yeah, but the door is locked!” Jeno cries back.
Renjun strides over to the door, and gives it a firm kick, and the door slams open. Jeno can only stare at the older in shocked awe. Renjun whips back to look at Jeno, blowing a stand of hair out of his face.
“Come on!”
The two race down the stairs and out to the side lawn where Jaemin now has the upper hand. Or, he had the upper hand for a split second, but the blob creature seems to do what blob creatures do best, and liquifies to slip through Jaemin’s hold.
It resolidifies into a different form this time, looking a lot less blob-ish, and a lot more human like.
“Oh, humans!” The once blob creature says. Renjun and Jeno gape at the alien, for that’s all it could be. And Jaemin lets out a groan of dismay from his spot in the grass.
“Calm down, Nana, I have studied enough for this moment.” The alien says, raising its hand that’s still half blob in greeting. A bit of green goop slops down the side of his now forming human arm. Jeno and Renjun watch the goop’s trajectory as it falls to the ground with a slosh.
“Greeting earthlings! It is a pleasure to make your humble acquaintance!”
Is what Jeno expects the alien to say, but instead the words that come out of the creature’s mouth are, “Yoo, what is up my dudes? My name is Johnny. It’s sick to meet you.”
Renjun and Jeno gape at him even longer.
Jaemin sighs, standing up from the grass to stand offensively at the alien’s (apparently named Johnny) side.
“Stars, you’ve really been spending too much time with Mark.” Jaemin sighs, and Jeno finally shakes out of his stupor to stare at him instead.
“Wait, Mark Lee? The student who went missing, Mark Lee?” Renjun asks.
“Unfortunately,” Jaemin admits, face scrunched up in a wince.
“You know where he is?” Jeno asks, eyes wide.
“He’s with us!” Johnny says rather happily. He gets a sudden dopey look on his face, “We had a bit of a mix-up some years ago, but that’s all gasses through the nebula now! We’ve never had a human around before, but if all humans are like Mark, then earth must be a fantastic place!”
Renjun is still gaping at the alien. Jeno’s not sure Renjun's blinked once since they got out here.
“Um, is that human alright?” Johnny asks, face scrunching in concern, “He looks like a statue. Is that a thing humans can do?”
“Junnie?” Jaemin calls out timidly, like he’s afraid of startling the older. Renjun blinks once, and then starts to shake his head.
“Whoa, did one of you slip something into my brownie? It was Donghyuck, wasn’t it,” Renjun stumbles a little as he turns towards them. Jeno reaches out to steady him.
“Erm, you didn’t eat a brownie, Junnie?” Jeno clarifies. And Renjun blinks again, before giggling.
“Well, I must have been slipped something, because it seems like we’re talking to an alien right now. A blob creature. Out on my lawn.”
“That’s because you are!” Johnny says happily. Jeno’s starting to believe this alien only has one emotion, and that’s enthusiasm.
“Quit it,” Jaemin grumbles, punching Johnny’s arm, to which the arm just forms around Jaemin’s fist like memory foam. Jeno and Renjun stare at it, Johnny looking none the wiser as he smiles down at them.
Renjun starts to hysterically laugh.
“I think he’s broken.” Johnny points out. “We’ve broken him.”
“Renjun,” Jeno says, firmly gripping Renjun’s arms in his hands and shaking the boy. “Renjun, you’re not tripping. This is real.” Jeno says. He looks over at Jaemin for help, the boy gnawing on his bottom lip.
Jaemin steps over to Renjun, placing a hand on his cheek. Renjun’s laughs die down then, looking up at Jaemin with eyes that Jeno could certainly whittle the days away staring into.
“It’s real?” Renjun asks. They all nod, “He’s an alien?” Renjun asks, looking at Johnny. They all nod. “And you—?”
“I’m kind of one too.” Jaemin says, raising a hand guiltily.
“I knew it!” Jeno shouts. And perhaps now was not the best time for that. Renjun looks at him incredulously while Jaemin’s shoulders raise to his ears in a shrug.
“Erm, is this a bad time? I’m starting to think this is a bad time.” Johnny says, sounding unsure for the first time since they’d met him.
“There’s never a right time to meet an alien, Johnny.” Jaemin sighs, his hand sliding down Renjun’s arm.
“I’m sorry you guys had to find out this way, but to be completely honest—I was kind of hoping you’d figure it out.”
“W-what?” Jeno asks, efficiently flabbergasted.
Jaemin gives him a look, “Yeah, I knew you were onto me, so—I tried to make it easy.”
“You wanted me to find out?” Jeno asks.
Jaemin shrugs again, “I mean, I wasn’t going to tell you, but if you happened to figure it out on your own, then—”
“You’re an alien,” Renjun says, cutting Jaemin off. “You’re an alien.”
“He’s not just an alien, he’s also an intergalactic hun—!” Johnny cuts off to a squeak when Jaemin turns around to glare menacingly at him.
“Johnny, I think you should go.” Jaemin says between gritted teeth. At some point, Renjun had moved closer to Jeno, and now the boy is practically pressed into Jeno’s side, his hand clasp firmly around Jeno’s.
For Jaemin’s sake, Jeno hates to think that after all this, Renjun might be scared.
“Alright, alright, fine.” Johnny recedes. He thumps his chest twice and throws Jeno and Renjun a peace sign in goodbye. “It was nice meeting you, dawgs.”
Jeno lets out a noise of confusion and watches as Johnny morphs back into a blob creature and slides back down Renjun’s lawn. A beam of light shoots down before he can make the sidewalk and suddenly, the alien is gone.
It’s all too silent in the moments that pass.
Jaemin has yet to turn back around to face the two boys, and Jeno can see his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.
“Um, Jaemin?” Jeno calls out, hesitantly. Jaemin takes a breath and then turns to face them. He still looks like him, but now he’s got these swirling marks across his face, like face paint but their glowing. Pinks and greens and blues that adorn him in an otherworldly beauty.
And lastly, almost trademark, at this point, his eyes are reflecting in the night.
Jeno’s not as shocked at the sight as he once might have been, but he hears Renjun suck in a gasp beside him, before promptly dropping at his side.
“Renjun!” The boys cry out, catching him before he can fall completely to the ground.
Jaemin’s an alien, Mark Lee is alive, and Renjun has fainted.
Jeno’s not sure if they’ve finally answered their questions, or only made more.