Work Text:
it’s three winters later when they meet again.
jaemin’s feet slow to a stop, hand clenching tighter around his cup of hot coffee, as he stares at the man stood a few meters away.
jaemin’s breath comes out in white puffs in the cold winter air, and memories from three years ago come surging forward, rolling out in front of his eyes like an old vintage camcorder film.
he still looks the same, perfectly trimmed eyebrows framing those almond eyes of his, the familiar tall slope of his nose and his thin pink lips. if jaemin tried, he could almost still remember the soft press of them on his, the gentle way they molded against his lips when they kissed the hundreds and thousands of times seared into his memory.
he still looks the same, but it’s all familiar features on a grown face, the chiseled jawline and sharp cheekbones of the man standing in front of him not quite matching up with the boy in his memories, all soft edges and round cheeks.
jaemin doesn’t know this renjun, this version of huang renjun who stands tall on his feet, hair artfully styled and swept away from his forehead, eyes steady and oh-so-indifferent as he stares back at jaemin, void of the soft gentleness and warmth in his memories.
then jaemin’s sent tumbling through his memories and straight to the ending, hurtling in fast forward to the last time he’d seen renjun before now, remembering the harsh words thrown at him and the eyes that had looked back at him with so much fatigue.
the wounds from that day had long scabbed over, in the years they were apart (in the years when they were both too prideful to reach out and try to make amends). but scabbed wounds still hurt, when phantom pain comes in the form of prickling itches while the skin beneath slowly heals, as if saying i’m here, i’m here mockingly.
it's that stinging itch which makes jaemin harden, his eyes closing off into the same coolness to match renjun’s gaze.
a few more moments pass, then jaemin’s phone rings, because reality can only go forgotten for so long.
he averts his eyes momentarily to glance at the name across the screen, finger swiping to receive the call.
“yeah, jeno-ah.”
just like that, the spell breaks.
his feet shuffle to move forward, and in his periphery, he sees renjun do the same, closing the distance between them until they’re just an arm’s distance away.
in the dramas past-renjun had so loved, this was the moment when the protagonist reaches out to catch the arm of the other, willing them to stay with pleading eyes before the ending credits roll.
but this is real life, so jaemin continues walking, until the distance between them closes, and widens once again as they walk past and away from each other, two planets in opposite orbits.