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Dating Jeno and Renjun and Donghyuck is pretty much the same as being best friends with them, except now there’s the lovely addition of kissing. To be completely honest, he’s kissed all of them before they were dating, kisses on the cheek and forehead and hand if he’s feeling funny, but kissing them on the lips is new and exciting and each experience doing so is to be highly cherished.
They contemplated acting like they were two couples instead of the four of them all together, but Jaemin knows that he probably couldn’t just ignore two of them, and the others feel the same way, so they don’t try. There are some dirty looks sent their way, especially in places they frequent and when they’re out as a group of three or four, but it’s entirely worth it, Jaemin thinks.
Renjun introduces Jeno and Jaemin to his mentor and his mentor’s boyfriends, since Donghyuck already knows them, and the three of them are always ready to fight for the younger four if they’re in the same place and one of them gets so much as a disappointed look. The sentiment is easily returned.
They become regulars at Zhong Floral to the excitement of and eternal teasing from Chenle and Jisung. Those two never let them pick roses unless they’re very special, strangely-colored roses. The orange variety becomes Jaemin’s favorite.
Donghyuck’s parents find out in a facetime call. Jeno carelessly smooches Donghyuck on the mouth, and then Jaemin does it afterward to be funny and make the bright red blush on DOnghyuck’s face bloom brighter, and then Ten asks if Renjun’s next. Renjun walks into the dorm just to hear that, and Jaemin pantomimes what he has to do, and Renjun, too exhausted to care, does so. Jeno apologizes profusely to Donghyuck the whole time, and Johnny is laughing loud enough to be heard clearly through the phone speakers.
Renjun’s parents are just as easy to tell. His mom has them all over for dinner a few weeks after they start college and seems to already know as they’re walking in, but she lets them wait to tell her until dessert. Renjun’s dad is mildly shocked but fine with it.
Jeno’s parents are a little less open to the idea. They have the boys over in a similar fashion to Renjun’s, and at the end of the night Jeno reluctantly tells them that he’s now dating these three boys. His dad gives them a confused grin and tells them it’s a funny joke, and when they insist it’s not, he laughs at them more, Jeno’s mom joining in. They don’t laugh along, and Mr. and Mrs. Lee’s laughter dies out. They share a glance, and burst into cheerful, willfully ignorant good-byes, eager for the night to end.
They take a bus home and huddle into one seat, Jeno too shocked to react. They make it up to their dorm and into bed before Jeno starts to sniffle, and the Jaemin gets him down into Donghyuck’s bunk, so they all can cuddle him.
His parents call the next day to apologize, and they still don’t totally get it, but they realize that they’ve hurt Jeno, so they’re trying to.
They put off telling Jaemin’s parents. Mrs. Na has barely gotten over Jaemin being bi in the last three years since he told her, and he’s never even tried to tell his dad. The two didn’t approve of Donghyuck in Johnny and Ten’s care, a fact they never bother to hide, and it’s uncomfortable for Donghyuck every time they sleep over at Jaemin’s house.
For Thanksgiving, they all spend the traditional meal with their families and it comes to a head. Jaemin’s dad passes him the mashed potatoes and asks him, “Gonna sign up for a new room next semester?”
Jaeminn furrows his brow at his dad and looks at his mother to see if she has an explanation. She laughs at him and says, “We just think, your friends are acting a little too friendly with each other. You don’t want to share a room with,” she pauses, purses her lips, “people like that, right?”
Jaemin is probably the most affectionate out of any of them, and his parents are so blind that he wants to laugh at them if only to avoid the subject they’re hinting at.
He opts for the oblivious look. “Of course I’m not switching, we’ve been waiting to be room mates since we decided to go to the same school!”
His mom looks upset. His dad looks like Jaemin’s acting preposterous. “They’re gonna try to make you gay, boy.” Jaemin panics.
“Good thing I’m already bi, right?”
It’s not the right thing to say. His dad gets a stern, confused look on his face, and his mom glares at him, but he can’t quit while he’s ahead. “You know, I’ve been getting pretty friendly with them, too,” he sees his dad’s face get red, “all PG, don’t worry. We just kiss each other,” his dad is about to burst like a tea kettle ready to screech, “on the lips sometimes.”
He walks to Renjun’s house, route memorized after years of walking him home.
Renjun’s mom opens the door, smiling, and he smiles back at her with shiny eyes and a wobbly lip. She pulls him in and yells for Renjun to, “Call your boyfriends, tell them we’re hosting their families if they’ll bring food and that Jaemin needs the three of you!”
He stumbles over to Renjun who’s run downstairs, and buries his head into his shoulder, body shaking.
The others’ families all come over, and after a short cuddle session in Renjun’s room, they finish dinner. The others’ parents fuss over him throughout the meal, piling his plate with more food and patting his head and calling him, “such a polite young boy,” when he thanks them over and over again.
The four of them sleep in Renjun’s room. His queen bed fits all of them a lot more comfortably than any of their twin mattresses in the dorm and is much softer than the floor.