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“Will you marry me?”
Jaemin says dumb shit a lot, so Jeno isn’t too fazed, but he does tear his eyes away from his phone, and stops drinking his strawberry milk mid-sip.
“Uh,” Jeno says eloquently. “Can I finish my milkshake first?”
Jaemin pouts, sinking his down onto the table before sadly picking up a fry and shoving it in his mouth. He looks extra cute, cardigan the same colour as Jeno’s strawberry milkshake.
“Not today.” Jaemin whines, like Jeno was even entertaining the idea. “I wanna make one of those lonely people pacts with you, you know.” And Jeno does know, because he kinda understands Jaemin’s language even when he doesn’t make sense.
He laughs, the straw of his milkshake remaining between his lips. “Lonely people pacts? You mean like, if you’re not married by the time you’re fifty…?”
“Kinda,” Jaemin perks up a little, head lifting back up before the next fry. “But I was thinking more like, I don’t know, twenty-five?”
Jeno sits up in his side of the booth, as Jaemin looks at him expectantly, head tilted like a puppy.
“Well,” he muses, reaching over to steal some fries. “I could be down for that.” He shoves the fries in his mouth. “What would our wedding be like, hm?”
They’re on a date, which is something that doesn’t get to happen all too often. Jaemin (as aforementioned) says stupid shit frequently, but it’s only days like today that Jeno is willing to entertain some of the silly ideas he comes up with.
Jaemin shrugs. “I’m a little hazy on the details. All I can see is you looking damn fine in a suit and tie.”
“Mm, and you in a giant puffy white dress.” Jeno nods, maintaining a straight face. In retaliation, Jaemin dips some fries into Jeno’s milkshake, making him cringe.
Jokes aside, the thought of marrying Jaemin isn’t unappealing. After all, they’ve known each other since “literal birth” (they haven’t, but Jaemin says that to everyone) and spend so much time together they’re practically married already. They share a room, they work together, they study together and they spend every waking moment together. What would change?
“Fuck you, just cos I’m prettier.” Jaemin mutters, though he doesn’t believe himself.
“Yes, you are,” Jeno agrees, eyes curling up into half moons underneath his black cap as he smiles. Jaemin hooks his fingers in the rings on Jeno's cap, tugging at it until it falls off Jeno's head completely. A quiet falls between them as they both think about it, Jaemin twiddling the rings on Jeno's cap. After a while, Jeno breaks the silence.
“You’d have to give Mark the rings, he’s the only person I’d trust.”
Jaemin’s eyes soften. “I want the hyungs to sing Timeless for our first dance.”
Jeno bites his lip. “Aw, can’t we have Chewing Gum?”
And they banter back and forth for the next twenty minutes about their wedding plans; from the flavour of the cake to the colour of the flowers to the venue to the music to the guestlist to the honeymoon.
("You know, you could probably come down the aisle on a hoverboard?"
"And why am I the one coming down the aisle?"
"Don't act like you don't love attention, Na.")
They realise if they want to catch the movie they’d planned to see, they need to leave, so they head to the theatre, and Jeno watches as Jaemin saunters off to buy snacks.
Jeno isn’t a sappy guy. He’s not even that gay, to be honest, just everything Na Jaemin does makes him want to peel his own face off with how cute he is. Jaemin is the only person on the entire planet that could make Jeno plan out his whole wedding in a McDonalds, and even though he entertained the idea as a joke, he thinks that now if he doesn’t get the huge, five tiered, baby pink, floral cake that Jaemin described, he’ll be disappointed.
(Okay, maybe Jeno is pretty gay after all.)
Jaemin returns with a bucket of popcorn bigger than his face, a huge drink of alarmingly artificial colour with two straws and something tucked under his arm.
“Hold this.” He says, thrusting them towards Jeno, who obliges.
They shuffle into the pretty empty theatre, to find despite their rush, there is still twenty minutes of advertising before the movie starts. Jeno can’t even remember the movie they’re supposed to be seeing. He doesn’t particularly like watching movies at the theatre at all, because you’re not supposed to talk, it’s too dark to properly admire Jaemin’s face and kissing him there is apparently not appropriate behaviour.
But before the movie starts is fair game, so Jaemin is noisily ripping open the packet of gummy sweets he’d had tucked away, and immediately begins rummaging through, picking out the cola bottles and putting them directly in his mouth.
“There’ll still be there in ten minutes, babe,” Jeno reminds him, but whenever Jeno adds ‘babe’ to the end of a sentence, Jaemin doesn’t hear any of the words said before it.
“I’m looking for- aha!” Jaemin grins triumphantly, holding up a fizzy gummy ring.
“Lee Jeno,” he says, suddenly solemn as he turns to face him square on. “I love, love, love you, with all my heart, cos I’ve known you since literal birth and you are an angel who takes me on dates to the movie theatre even though you don’t like it and you let me dip my French fries in your milkshake.”
He holds the gummy ring up, bowing his head.
“Will you marry me?”
Jeno smirks. “Anytime, Nana. Anytime.” And allows Jaemin to stretch the ring onto his finger.
Halfway through the movie, the ring is cutting off his circulation and Jaemin has his head rested on his shoulder.
“Oh, by the way. I don’t let you dip your French fries in my milkshake. You just – do that, you little shit.”
Jaemin tilts his head and grins so widely, Jeno knows he isn’t sorry one bit. He stretches one hand up to cup the side of Jeno’s face, and the other the yank him down by the collar of his shirt, brushing their lips together before resting them next to his ear.
“Wanna ditch?” He asks.
And Jeno’s nodding but Jaemin is up out of his seat already, intertwining their fingers as he pulls Jeno along behind him out of the theatre. It’s dark and Jeno can't see what's ahead of them, but it doesn’t matter because Jaemin’s holding his hand.
Things will always be okay, Jeno thinks, if Jaemin’s holding his hand.