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“You’re falling asleep, you know.” Jeno chuckles, studying his boyfriend through his laptop monitor. Cute, sleepy Jun.
Renjun sits up straighter, blinking hard, and shakes his head. “No, I’m up.”
Jeno smiles, amused. “Barely. You can go to sleep, Junie. We have school tomorrow.”
“No,” Renjun insists. “I’m gonna be the first person to tell you ‘happy birthday’.” Jeno adores his boyfriend’s passion for small things like this. “We only have—“ Renjun looks to the side for a moment. “Four minutes left. I’m fine.”
Jeno gazes at Renjun’s image, barefaced, hair splayed over his forehead, glasses a bit skewed from leaning on his forearm, the low lighting surprisingly doing wonders for his skin tone.
“You are.”
Renjun had been looking at something out of the shot but now he startles, his gaze snapping back to his screen. He squints at Jeno. “Stop being cheesy.”
Jeno busts out laughing at 11:57PM.
When he settles down he says, “Sorry, I can’t help it. You deserve cheesy compliments.”
Renjun huffs.
Jeno smirks. “No blush?”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Jeno’s eyebrows pop up. Sleepy-Renjun is snappy. “I’m too tired to feel flattered. And I know I look like shit anyways.”
A little over six months into their relationship and Renjun’s gotten used to Jeno’s antics. Dammit. To be fair, he’s not just doing it for the sake of being sleazy and teasing Renjun. He genuinely wants the Chinese boy to know how much he loves him. But they haven’t swapped the L-word yet so he’s sticking to showering the other in compliments. It’s merely a bonus side effect that Renjun is prone to blushing and getting flustered every single time.
He tries again.
“You never look like shit, Junie. Honestly, even right now you look b — “
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Renjun yells, knowing exactly what he just interrupted. He’s brighter now that his sleepiness has been shaken off, cheeks going up in a smile. “You’re eighteen now. Finally caught up.”
Jeno glances at the digital clock in the corner of his laptop screen. 12:00AM April 23rd 2018. “Oh. Thanks — Hey, you’re only a month older than me!”
Renjun throws him a smug look. “Finally. Caught. Up.”
Jeno opens his mouth to argue but doesn’t get a chance.
“I’m going to sleep now. See you at school.” Renjun moves to hang up the call.
“Wait!” Dang, Sleepy-Renjun does not play around. “Sing me ‘happy birthday’?”
“Tomorrow. Bye. Happy birthday again. I was the first one to wish you, okay? I love you.” The screen goes black, plunging Jeno in darkness.
Wait.
“WHAT.”
Just then his phone pings and a message pops up.
Mark: happy bday bro!
Mark: am I first again?
Jeno’s still staring at his screen as it goes back to the Skype home page, illuminating once again. It takes about ten seconds before he combusts.
“OH MY GOD.” He shoves himself away from his desk and jumps up. “YO. WHAT- DID HE- DID I- WAIT. WHAT? DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?” He looks back at the laptop. “AND HE HUNG UP! RENJUN! BABE. THE FUCK? WHAT? I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO SAY IT BACK.”
He’s excited more than mad, though, so he does a little happy dance right there in the middle of his room, swooning. The fact that his parents are asleep is barely enough to keep him quiet.
His phone pings again.
Mark: are you actually sleeping???
Oh, he should check that. He reads all the messages in a second.
“NAH, DUDE, YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED,” Jeno replies aloud. But he takes another five minutes to continue his happy dance before he actually types out the same reply and hits send.
~|~|~
In the morning, Jeno’s alarm goes off and he’s totally unprepared.
He’d called Mark after replying to him (much to Sleepy-Mark’s dismay) to tell him what had happened. Most of it — 36 minutes — was Jeno being in shock and whisper-yelling about how he couldn’t believe the Chinese boy was the first to say it and how he didn’t even give him a chance to say it back. Mark had just hummed in response every couple of minutes. Jeno was wide awake though, so even after the call he stayed up for about an hour scrolling through tumblr and sighing in content.
He’d contemplated sending Renjun a message to tell him ‘I love you too’ but he’d decided he wanted to do it in person.
So Jeno only gets about five hours of sleep. When the annoying noise penetrates his conscience, his mind yells nooooooo.
His body doesn’t feel rested and ugh does he really have to be early today? He can probably snooze it and still be there on time. His hand reaches out for his phone but then —
OH.
The night before slams into his memory, along with a fluffy happy feeling in his chest.
He bolts out of bed.
~
Forty-five minutes later he’s pulling on his shoes and opening his front door.
“Hey, Jeno! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEST FRIEND!”
Jaemin is closing his own door behind him, dressed in his stiff school uniform with a big grin plastered on his face.
Jeno smiles back. He’ll allow Jaemin’s incessant yelling today. “Thanks, Nana!”
“Are you doing anything later?” Jaemin asks as he skips down his pathway to his mother’s car.
Jeno shrugs. “I don’t know. I might go out with Renjun.” Renjun. The name makes his eyes shrink as his smile expands. He feels like he’s fallen in love all over again.
“Ooooh. Hot date, huh? You’re both leeeeegaaaaaalllllll,” Jaemin sings, a teasing smirk on his face.
Right. He’s eighteen. Damn. He’d been so caught up with the L-word reveal he’d forgotten about that. Oh. Jeno’s cheeks get hot.
“Get your mind out of the gutter and go to school!” Jeno yells across the street at a laughing Jaemin. The younger boy shoots finger guns at him before ducking into his mother’s car.
Gosh, Jeno hopes she didn’t hear any of that conversation.
He turns back around to lock his door while his obnoxious neighbour drives off to his own school further in the suburbs.
Jeno wonders how Jaemin’s gonna be a legal adult in a few months. Weird. He hasn’t even digested that he himself is an adult yet.
He turns back around to begin his usual walk to school when he spots a figure walking up his short street. A figure he’d recognize from miles away.
He’s confused but he’s smiling anyway (Renjun’s effect), slowly making his way down his driveway to meet the boy he’s hopelessly in love with. His heart skips a beat when he realizes it’s time for him to say the L-word back but he’s honestly not nervous about it. He just hopes it comes out as sweet as he’d imagined it.
When they lock eyes, a faint smile creeps up Renjun’s face in response to Jeno’s megawatt one and Jeno notices a single blue flower clutched in his hand. For him? Cue the swooning. But he also notices that Renjun’s got his shoulders hunched in that way that Jeno knows means he’s nervous or doesn’t want attention on him. Like when the teacher is looking to ask a question in biology class. So when Renjun looks down at the ground, Jeno doesn’t take offense.
He walks towards his Junie until they’re a foot away from each other and they both stop, gazes locking onto each other’s.
Renjun exhales and holds the flower out in front of him. “Happy birthday. I came to walk with you to school.” Jeno’s heart swells at the gesture. Renjun doesn’t usually do this because his house is a bit further than his and he’d have to wake up early to meet Jeno in time.
Jeno steps forward to shorten the gap between them and take the pretty flower. He’s smiling uncontrollably. This is, like, the best day of his life.
“Thank you. Again.” He leans down, forcing his grin away so he can give his boyfriend a proper kiss.
He hasn’t done that in over a day and he definitely misses it. Renjun’s hands rest lightly on his waist and Jeno uses his free hand to caress the other boy’s cheek.
Oh, he’s elated. Oh, he’s in love.
Right.
He pulls away a mere inch to look into Renjun’s beautiful dark eyes.
“I love you, too.”
Renjun gasps and Jeno sees the red rise on his cheekbones. Blush. Bonus.
~|~|~
Jeno honestly has a great day. He’d thought going to school on his birthday would’ve sucked but, despite a couple of his classes, he spends every moment with Renjun and his friends.
They all make an effort to be nice to him for the day, even Jisung and Donghyuck which only happens this one day every year. He still gets birthday slaps though, but Mark buys him lunch after so he’s okay with it. People he doesn’t regularly talk to are pleasant to him too, telling him ‘Happy birthday’ whenever they overhear someone saying it. His home room sings it for him too and Jeno is glowing all day from the love.
After school, Jeno finds Renjun waiting outside his class.
Honestly, his cheeks are gonna be hurting tonight after all this smiling.
When he’s close enough, he curves his arm around Renjun’s waist and they begin walking to the school’s exit.
“So, do you have anything planned this afternoon?” Renjun asks.
Jeno shakes his head and leans it against Renjun’s, just because he’s feeling clingy. “Well, I was hoping I’d get to spend it with you.”
Renjun grins. “Great, you won’t interrupt my plans with you.”
“You have plans with me that I didn’t even know about?”
“That’s the point.”
Jeno chuckles. “Are we going somewhere?”
“Obviously, we’re not staying here. You’ll see.”
Renjun pulls out of his embrace when they get out onto the street, clasping his hand instead to lead him to a café a few streets away from their usual ice cream spot.
Jeno has never been there before and it seems to be new, everything shining without the dullness of use. It has a cosy atmosphere with comfortable chairs and a warm colour scheme.
Renjun sits him down at a table to the back, not very visible from the front, and goes to order for them, insisting that he knows what Jeno would like.
Jeno feels spoilt. Not that he’s complaining.
Renjun comes back five minutes later balancing a tray with a mug and a tall fat glass filled with a brown gooey liquid — chocolate! — and a small round chocolate cake.
Ooooh, Jeno’s eating good today.
Jeno sits forward eagerly as Renjun sets down the tray. “Is that mine?” He points at the glass.
“Yes.”
Jeno whoops and drags to glass closer to him.
“See, I know you’re a chocolate-head.”
Jeno can’t even take offense because it’s true.
He takes a sip and chocolate-milky-goodness explodes in his mouth. His eyes widen, “Whoooaaaaa!”
Renjun laughs at him, taking up his own mug. He watches as Jeno goes back in, inhaling half of the drink before he says, “There’s cake too, you know.”
Jeno forces himself to stop drinking. Okay, maybe he should balance it out. With more sugar, but whatever.
Renjun slides a fork over to him, picking up one for himself.
“Wait, you said you’d sing me ‘Happy Birthday’,” Jeno grins. He’d take any chance to hear his boyfriend’s beautiful voice.
Renjun pauses. “Oh right.” He glances about the café. “Now?”
“Yes, we’re about to cut the cake. We can pretend there’s eighteen candles on it.”
Renjun concedes, chuckling at Jeno. “Alright.”
So he sings the whole birthday song, not too loud for the other patrons to notice, and Jeno gazes on in adoration, clapping at the end too. “It really is a happy birthday.”
Renjun beams back at him as Jeno gleefully digs into the chocolate cake.
“Do you want your present now?”
Jeno swallows hard, eyebrows rising. “You got me a present?”
Renjun makes a ‘duh’ face. “Of course I got you a present.”
Jeno really hadn’t put much thought into getting presents. He was content enough as it was.
“But – the flower – and the cake – “
Renjun waves him off. “I could do that any other day” He reaches down to open his bag. “Well, technically I didn’t get you a present.” He pulls out something rectangular covered in pretty pastel wrapping paper. “I sort of made it.”
He holds it out on his palms for Jeno, pink appearing on his cheeks.
Jeno wonders what present is blush-worthy.
He takes it gently, giving Renjun a suspicious look just for fun. He begins tearing off the paper, seeing a dark blue leather cover. A book? He tears off the whole front. Definitely a book. But Jeno doesn’t really re – He flips it open. A sketchbook!
Jeno glances at Renjun, trying to make sense of the sketch of a pair of converse on the first page. Renjun just looks tense. There’s a date at the bottom. 170915.
He turns the page. There’s a side profile. His side profile. 170926.
Then a drawing of a boy in mid-air, basketball suspended just a bit away from his hand. 170928.
His draw drops.
“Is this – ?”
Curiosity propels him to turn the page again. It’s him again. Eating ice cream, eyes curved in crescents as he grins. 170929.
“Yes, it’s you.”
He flips through the book and sees that it’s almost full, barely five pages left. The last sketch is him in a computer screen, looking drowsy and smiling subtly. 180422.
“This was yesterday.” He gapes at the book, looking at a few more. All are of him doing random things, unaware that he’s someone’s subject. Eating, talking, sleeping in class, playing basketball, looking at his phone. He turns back to the first one. “This was the beginning of the school year.”
Renjun nods, looking sheepish.
“And this is that time you and Donghyuck watched Mark and I play basketball a day that you didn’t have choir... and this is the first time we had ice cream together.” He chuckles. “When they ditched us.”
Renjun nods again.
Jeno’s jaw drops again. “You’ve liked me since then?” You’ve liked me since I’ve liked you?
Renjun ducks his head. “Well, I guess. It started as a crush then.”
Jeno is so so in love with this boy.
Just to check, he flips to the sketches in October. 171011.
It’s him looking totally disoriented, staring at the ceiling.
He laughs as he remembers that moment when he felt like the world had imploded. “This is the one you got for the day we confessed?” He thinks that’s hilarious.
Renjun smiles and turns the page. “There’s two.”
The second one for that date is of Jeno grinning impossibly big, probably like how he is now, looking straight out of the page. He was looking into Renjun’s eyes, he knows. There’s a little heart next to the date in the corner.
He just has to get up then and he leans all the way over the table to give Renjun a kiss, hoping he can express how much he feels for him in the gesture.
He pulls away, “I love you.”
He gets an impossibly big grin in return. “I love you too.”