Chapter Text
2007
The 7 years old Jaemin and Jeno lived next to each other, but they never really knew each other. They were different from the other kids at their age, because they tended to stay inside their house, too busy with their own world until they've forgotten that there were a lot of things that they could do outside their house, just like kids of their age normally do. No, Jaemin actually has tried it before—playing outside the house with friends, but it didn't end well for him. That's why, he chose to stayed at home, all day.
But everything changed after Jaemin heard someone’s cries from the balcony across to his, and it actually waking up his curiosity. Who is that? Why is he crying so loudly like that? All those thoughts were running through his mind. He walked towards the edge of his balcony and trying to climb it up, but he ended up only stepping onto the small space on the lower part of his balcony, so that he hugged the upper part of it, looking at the balcony across him, looking for some particular figure.
“H-hey!” the young Jaemin shouted with a shaky voice despite the fear of height that started to swallow him up. But there’s still no response from the latter, so that he tried to shout at him again, and finally the top of the latter’s head came up to the surface and not too long after that, his face was clear to Jaemin’s vision.
Jaemin blinks his eyes for a second before he finally had the courage to open up his mouth again, “Why are you crying?” Jaemin asked with concern was drawn so well on his face, a small pout was formed on his lips. The boy was about to answer Jaemin’s question but he started to cry again and Jaemin started to panicking, “Oh my God! No, don’t cry! I’m sorry!” Jaemin begged as he leaned closer to his balcony, but soon he moved away from the balcony and starts running out from his bedroom.
He ran through the hallway of his house, hoped down on each stairs, and immediately stopping when his mother was looking at him with her hands on her waist, looking at him as she raised her brows, “What do I told to you for not running on the stairs, Na Jaemin?” she said as she approached the little boy, caressing his hair dearly, “You could fell, you know that, right?” she reminded him about it. “Mommy, I wanted to go to the house next door! Can I?” the little boy said as he intertwined his hands together in front of his chest, hoping that his mother will fall for his cuteness, and she did.
Well, she was actually being surprised by the fact that her son is finally willing to go play outside the house, “Really? What made you changed your mind about playing outside with friends?” she smiled so widely that it gives chill to Jaemin’s back, “I’m about to make a new friend now, Mommy…” the young Jaemin told his mother.
With a warm smile, his mother is now kneeling in front of him so that she can looking at her son closely, “Well, okay, my love. Just make sure that you’re not making any problems for the Lee, okay? You know that Mommy and Mrs. Lee are close friends, right, Nana?” she smiled as she pecked both of Jaemin’s cheeks when her son nodding his head in a cute way, “Off you go!” she chuckled as she watch her son running out from the house with a light blush on his cheeks. For the first time after that day he came home crying and dirt all over his clothes, he's finally showing his light again.
*****
Jaemin is now standing right in front of the Lee’s front gate, and he pressed the bell without any hesitate. And after waiting for a couple minutes, someone finally opened the gate—a middle-aged lady who likely to be his mother’s friend, so Jaemin smiled so widely to show her his politeness (because that what his mother always taught him, smile to older people, Nana!), “Good afternoon, ma’am! I’m Na Jaemin from next door! I-I was wondering if I can come in to play with your son, Ma’am?” Jaemin asked as politely as he could, and the elder couldn’t help but showed the little boy her beautiful eye-smile, “Oh my God, my friend raised her son really well!” she giggled, “Of course you can, baby! Come on in! But Jeno is still in his room right now, he’s still feeling so upset about his dad going work overseas,” she said as she led the little boy to come inside the house.
Once Jaemin was already standing right in front of Jeno’s room, Mrs. Lee opened the door slowly, peeking her head in just to see if her son is really in his room, “Jeno, sweetheart, Jaeminnie is here to play with you,” she said as Jaemin is waiting right behind her.
Mrs. Lee turned to Jaemin again, still with her warm smile, “He’s still at the balcony, Jaeminnie. You can talk to him if you still want to play with him,” Mrs. Lee said and Jaemin just nodded his head understandingly, “Thank you, Ma’am,” he bowed to her and she caressed his head before taking her leave from the scene.
Jaemin looked at the slightly opened door and took a deep breath before finally walking into the Jeno's room with an unusual feelings. He felt excited because he thought that he can finally get a new friend that he had always dreamt about, but he’s also afraid that if Jeno will just bullied him and pushed him away just like the other kids at his kindergarten did to him.
As he keep on walking into the room, his eyes were wandering around the room, judging on the decoration of the room which was having the same style as his, and when he finally get to the balcony, he saw Jeno still sitting down with his back on the wall of the balcony and hugging his knees tight, the crying show was still on. Jaemin approached him slowly, taking a step as lightly as he could, “Hi!,” he greeted the latter with an awkward grin though he knows that Jeno didn’t even looking at him, yet.
Another second passed, Jeno finally lifting up his face after releasing another hiccup, showing his damp cheeks and snorts that can be seen on his nostrils, “H-how did you get in here?” he asked with a shaky voice, finally realizing that he’s really a crying mess right now so that he wiped the tears on his cute face with the back of his palm and his sleeve.
Jaemin was standing right in front of Jeno when he heard the silly question (that’s how he called it) came out from Jeno’s mouth, “Well, I have healthy legs, so, I walked from my house to get here. Easy, right?” he rolled his eyes at Jeno, and Jeno didn’t seem to like the rude answer from Jaemin so that he frowned at him, “If you coming here just to make fun of me, you better go now, or I’ll tell my mom about it!” he snapped at the younger boy and running towards his bed, decided to hide from the younger boy inside his undone blanket.
Jaemin snapped his head, following the direction where the older boy go just now, “I’m not! I-I just—I wanted to make friends—I want to be friend with you, okay? I want to be your friend, that’s all!” Jaemin started blubbering when he heard Jeno’s accusation on him and running towards the bed too. Making the older boy to be more upset than he already is, it’s not his intention at all—never.
He sat on the bed slowly as it made a squeak sound that shocked him a little, and then looking at the line of Jeno's small figure that was formed on the blanket, “So… I’ve heard about your dad, from your mom. Are you really that upset, Jeno?” the younger start asking when he finally sat on the bed comfortably. But Jeno was still keeping his mouth shut, and it stressed the hell out of Jaemin.
Being the patient one, he tried to make another conversation again with Jeno, “I was just like you too at first, you know. When my dad left to London for his work, I was so angry at him. I feel like I was being thrown away—I know it's exaggerating, but still, I was so upset at that time.” Jaemin said as he took a glance at the hiding boy, who’s starting to move inside the blanket, “But now, that I get used to it, I’m just fine with it. I was more like, I feel so grateful when dad finally came home safely. You can miss him more than you did now, you know,” he smiled to himself when he remembered about his dad.
After listening Jaemin’s story, Jeno finally decided to speak up, “So…” he cleared his not-so-dry-throat, “You think that I can be like you too?” the older said as he came out from his blanket, looking at Jaemin still with a frown and his pouty lips.
Jaemin on the other hand couldn’t help but smiling so widely when he sees Jeno finally speaking up to him. “Of course you can, Jeno!” he giggled as he scooted closer to the older boy, which made the older flustered by Jaemin’s sudden move, but just smile at him after it.
“Oh, right! I never introduce myself properly to you, silly me! I’m Jaemin, by the way! But since you’re my first friend, I give you the privilege to call me Nana!” Jaemin said with the excitement that was so clear in his eyes, offering his hand to the older boy. Jeno was looking at his eyes at first, then down to his hand, “And you already know my name, right?” he laughed as he welcomed the younger’s hand in his.
“Yes!” Jaemin let out his giggle, which Jeno found really cute and somehow, he wanted to hear it for a long time in his life. He believed that if his laughter was a song, then it's going to be his favorite song for his whole life time.
“Let’s be friend!”
*****
2021
A new fresh semester as a university student has begun. Jaemin and Jeno, along with their other best friends that they’ve known since the first semester in their middle school—Mark, Donghyuck and Hina, are now sitting inside the class waiting for their Professor to finally starting their class.
Jaemin, just like usual, sits next to Jeno in every classes, while Mark and Donghyuck is just another pair that are so inseparable, since both of them is a couple since their high school time. Little story, eventhough Mark is older by a year from them, but he entered the university at the same time as them since he goes back to his hometown in Canada for his family matters, and he also needs some healing time from breaking up with Donghyuck after his graduation ceremony—that’s a long story, really. But now that they’re together again, they became so inseparable just like the old times.
The boys are on their second period right now and their Professor, Mrs. Jung, was seemed like she was in her bad mood right now since she kept on sending her dead glare to every student that made a single noise, just a little single noise, and you’ll get kicked out from her class.
Jaemin is trying his best to keep his focus to the front of the class, but the sleeping Jeno really distracting him, so that he took a quick glance at him, “Jeno, can you please not sleeping in the class again? I don’t want to get into the same trouble like the other kid,” the younger boy yell-whispered at him as he keep on kicking the leg that belongs to the sleeping boy next to him while his eyes were fixed on their Professor.
But Jeno seems like he doesn’t want to be awaken yet so that he turned his face to the other side, not wanting for Jaemin to looking at him sleeping. Closing his eyes in frustration, Jaemin took a deep breath, “Jeno, if you’re not going to wake up now, I swear Mrs. Jung will come to our seat!” he yell-whispered to the older boy again.
“Jaemin, shut up. I couldn’t get any nice sleep last night, okay? You’re moving like everywhere last night. Your stinky foot even landed on my beautiful face,” Jeno said as keep his eyes closed, snuggling his cheek to his desk, while he didn’t realized that his words made him gained the unwanted attention from the class, including their Professor.
Jaemin snapped and ignoring the fact that they already got the unwanted attention, “It’s not stinky!” Jaemin unconsciously saying it a little bit louder than he should. With a loud sound, Mrs. Jung throws the book on her hand to her desk, “Mr. Na, Mr. Lee, get out from my class!” she said it firmly and it sent heat all over Jaemin’s body because of the embarrassment he felt right now, so that he got up from his seat almost immediately as he pulled Jeno with him to get up from their seat, “W-we’re sorry, Mrs. Jung,” Jaemin bowed to her, while the sleepy Jeno was just standing there next to him with eyes still closed, before finally walking out from the class with a quick move.
It’s been like 30 minutes after their embarrassing incident recently in the class, and now they‘re sitting on the stairs that wasn’t too far from their class as Jaemin was still regretting his stupid behavior before, but he also couldn’t help to not to be upset with Jeno and blamed it on him. “This is all your fault, Lee Jeno!” the younger said as he landed a punch on the left arm of the sleeping Jeno beside him.
Feeling the pain slowly came to the spot where Jaemin hit him earlier, Jeno groaned at the younger boy, “How could it be my fault, Nana? All I did was just sleeping until now, okay?” he said when his eyes were finally fully opened and stood up from where he were sitting just now, stretching up his back and turned to face Jaemin again, still with his knitted brows, “Let’s just get some food from the canteen, okay? I’m hungry,” he said as he offered his hand to Jaemin, but the latter just turned his face away from him, “I don’t need it,” he said, still feeling upset with the older boy.
Seeing Jaemin being sulky like this is just really cute for Jeno, so that he decided to tease him a bit by moving his face closer to younger boy, “So, what do you need now? A kiss?” he said jokingly and it succeed on making the latter’s cheeks turned into the same color as a fresh tomato. “It’s not like that, you idiot!” Jaemin shoved him away a little bit harsher than he should and getting up from the stairs.
They keep on bickering with each other that they didn’t realize that someone was standing right behind them. That person cleared his throat to get the boys attention which actually worked, “Well, well, who is this?” he said from their back.
Jaemin immediately turned his body and the moment he locked his eyes with that person, smiling widely at him, “Jaehyun hyung!” Jaemin greeted him, and his smile getting even wider when the Jaehyun boy starts ruffling his hair, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you two supposed to be in class right now?” he asked as he took a step closer to both Jaemin and Jeno.
Jaemin’s expression then suddenly changed and looking at Jeno with a frown, “Well, because of this idiot right here, Mrs. Jung got really mad at us and throwing us out from the class, hyung,” Jaemin said with his pout. “Oh my God, Nana!” the older laughed, “You better apologize to her after the class!” Jaehyun said as he gave the younger boy a pat on his shoulder, “Oh, by the way, I gotta go now. Johnny is waiting for me already! Talk to you later, I guess?” Jaehyun said with his sweet smile as always and Jaemin nodded in excitement. Jaehyun was smiling at the sleepy Jeno too, “Hang in there, bro,” he chuckled before finally walking away from both the younger boy.
“Isn’t he the sweetest, Jeno?”
“Aren’t you the craziest about your crush on him, Nana?” Jeno snorted at him.
“It can’t be helped, okay? He’s always been so sweet and kind to me. How can I not fall for him?”
Jeno shrugged his shoulder at Jaemin, “You’re just stupid, Na Jaemin. Let’s go now, I’m hungry.”
*****
They were all now gathering at Mark and Donghyuck’s apartment, just like how they always do since their high school time. They were cooking (mostly were done by Jaemin, Donghyuck and Hina), watching some movies for 4-5 hours straight until they got tired or got bored with the movies. And finally, they ended up having a sleepover there.
Just like today, they’re having another sleepover. While Hina is already sleeping in the guest room, the boys are sleeping in the living room, just everywhere where their bodies finally giving up and lying down just anywhere they like.
Mark and Donghyuck already sleeping on the couch with Donghyuck in Mark’s embrace, while Jaemin and Jeno are still playing some games on their phone while they're laying on the couch across the occupied one, with legs tangled with each other and Jaemin’s back flat to Jeno’s chest.
The room is now filled only with the sound of their games and the only light that illuminate the room is coming from their phones. “So, Jeno, about the party that Hina told us about before, will you come?” Jaemin finally breaking the silence between the two of them with eyes are still fixed on his game.
Jeno shrugged his shoulder, “Well, I don’t know, Nana. I don’t feel like partying lately—no, I’ve never liked going to a party, okay? Why did you ask by the way?” Jeno asked as he finally closed his game and put his phone back to the small table next to their couch, moving his gaze to the younger boy.
Jeno swear to himself that eventhough the room is dark right now, but he can see that Jaemin is blushing thanks to his phone screen's light. Though he wasn’t so sure what the reason is, but he just smiled looking at the younger’s cute face, “You're also not a party person, Nana. Did you decide to like party now?” Jeno said as he caressed Jaemin’s sideburn as his other free hand were placed on top of Jaemin’s chest, he could slightly feel Jaemin’s heartbeat under his touch.
Jaemin adjusted his position so that now he's facing Jeno, “U-uhm, promise me that you won’t laugh at me if I told you my reason, okay?” Jaemin said with his sheepish smile, looking at the older boy still with his not-so-visible- blushing cheeks. Jeno just nodded, understanding the younger's request, “You can tell me about it, Nana,” he smiled, running his fingers through Jaemin soft locks.
Jaemin bit his lower lips for a millisecond and damn that was cute, before finally giving Jeno his sheepish smile again,
“He’s gonna be there too, Jeno.” He said.
Oh shit.