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JENO
Maybe Jeno is the mastermind to all of this, somehow. Even though it’s Donghyuck who’s currently orchestrating a “plan”, it’s still Jeno who gave him the push. And it wasn’t even intentional.
It’s more like a random comment that Jeno offhandedly says as he scrolls through Reddit, a habit that he seems to have whenever Donghyuck is around. Whether it’s an update if the mother in law was judged an asshole or not by the community, or if it’s a new post about a broken bone, or if another alien sighting is being investigated—he just reads them out loud and Donghyuck will listen while doing his own thing.
Well, at least that’s what Donghyuck usually does. Sometimes, if a topic is interesting enough for him, he’ll engage in a conversation about it, something Jeno happily indulges.
That’s why Jeno was surprised yesterday when he nonchalantly read a pseudo-article out loud.
“This one’s ridiculous,” he said while Donghyuck was playing with his hair. Jeno was seated on the floor while Donghyuck was on the couch, experimenting with Jeno’s hair to see if he could style it with several clips. “I don’t think this is true.”
“Really?” Donghyuck asked politely, but his focus was still on Jeno’s hair. “What does it say?”
“Just bullshit,” Jeno shrugged. “It said that Someone who likes you will automatically look at you when you laugh or find something funny. Do people actually believe this?”
Donghyuck’s only response was a “Hmm…”
Jeno didn’t mind it at first and continued to scroll through his Reddit feed. However, he paused as soon as he realized something.
“Why’d you stop playing with my hair?” Jeno asked before he turned to look up to his boyfriend.
What greeted him was the familiar expression of Donghyuck whenever he’s plotting something. Donghyuck looks down at him and flashes him an impish grin, and Jeno immediately knows that he’s up to no good (and that he will drag Jeno to whatever scheme he’s cooking up in his mind).
And that is how they ended up walking to Chenle’s house together with Renjun. Donghyuck purposely persuaded the guy to go with them so he can plant the bomb without Renjun knowing.
“Hey Junnie,” Donghyuck begins, swinging his arm around Renjun. “You know, I have a theory. Jeno knows it too but he doesn’t believe me.”
Jeno, who’s walking a few steps behind to give them space, only raises his eyebrows but doesn’t make any comment. Here it goes, he thinks.
“What theory?” Renjun asks.
Donghyuck pretends to whisper. “I think Jaemin has a crush on Jisung.”
Jeno rolls his eyes. Donghyuck has already relayed his entire plan to him last night, but seeing and hearing it in action feels ridiculous. The only person that Jaemin is crushing on is Renjun, and anybody with eyes can easily tell that.
Well, anybody but Renjun himself.
As expected, Renjun, the ever dense idiot he is, gasps in surprise. “Really?! Jaemin has a crush on our Jisungie?!”
“Yeah!” Donghyuck matches Renjun’s enthusiasm. “I keep catching him looking at Jisung!”
“Oh my god,” Renjun is obviously buying it and it makes Jeno want to light some mourning candles for Jaemin’s heart. “That would be so cute if it’s true! I was always wondering why Jaemin is turning down all the people who are showing interest in him. It must be because he likes Jisung!”
Idiot, Jeno cries in his mind. He’s head over heels for you.
“Maybe,” Donghyuck trails, playing along. Jeno sees him fish out his phone from his pocket and show it to Renjun. “Look at this Reddit post.”
“ Someone who likes you will automatically look at you when you laugh or find something funny,” Renjun reads out loud. “Hmm, I haven’t really been paying attention to who looks at who whenever we laugh. But if this is true, then we can catch Jaemin in action if one of us makes a joke.”
Donghyuck feigns amusement. “What are you suggesting?”
Renjun grins, and it reminds Jeno of the same smile Donghyuck flashed at him yesterday when he came up with the plan. “I suggest that later, we find a funny meme or shitpost or something and show it to the group. Knowing our sense of humor, we’ll probably laugh easily. Then we can look at Jaemin and see if he indeed looks at Jisung.”
“Oooooh!” Donghyuck squeals. “Very evil. I like it. I’m in!”
“Great!” Renjun sounds so determined that Jeno has to stop himself from laughing. “I’ll now find a meme we can show them.”
“Sure, Junnie, you go do that,” Donghyuck chuckles. While Renjun is busy with his phone, Donghyuck looks back and winks at Jeno.
Jeno only sighs. He doesn’t know if his boyfriend’s plan will work, but he also wants Renjun to finally see Jaemin’s obvious affection.
Plus, he also wants Jaemin to do something about it. Even though Jaemin has his own weird way of attempting to cover his affection up, it still doesn’t make it any less obvious.
Jeno is just gonna have to trust Donghyuck.
RENJUN
Albeit not being the closest in the friend group, you can say that Renjun and Jaemin have a special understanding with each other. It mostly stems from the fact that they express their care for each other by… constant teasing and bickering. Somehow, that kind of relationship only works with them.
Which is why Renjun is delighted when Donghyuck shares his theory with him. An evil plan is already forming in his mind, something that includes holding Jaemin’s crush over his head and teasing him nonstop about it. Renjun likes having the last say whenever he and Jaemin engage in their bickering, and he thinks that this is the perfect weapon to ensure that Jaemin will be rendered speechless at the end of every relay.
To be honest, he thought the Reddit article was ridiculous at first. However, when he managed to find a pretty funny meme and showed it to Donghyuck, the guy bursted into laughter and immediately rushed to Jeno’s side to show it to him. Jeno also cracked up as soon as he saw it, subconsciously looking at Donghyuck who’s still laughing non stop.
Gross, Renjun thought affectionately as he watched the couple get lost in their own moment. Well, at least we know it works.
Their friend group decided to meet up at Chenle’s house to grab a few drinks in celebration of the end of midterm season. Renjun and Donghyuck agree to wait for the perfect timing to show the meme to everyone so they can catch Jaemin off guard.
“Lost already?” Mark laughs as he joins Renjun on the couch, the latter observing the rest of their friends continue their game of Monopoly.
Renjun rolls his eyes, grabbing a handful of chips from the bowl he’s holding. “They ganged up on me. And don’t you dare laugh, you didn’t even join!”
“Jisung and Jaemin were playing Game of the Generals in the dining room,” Mark says as he watches Donghyuck put another mini house on the board. “I was the arbiter.”
“Jisung and Jaemin, huh,” Renjun repeats, grinning slightly. “So, are they still in the dining room together?”
“Yeah, tidying everything up. Jisung’s supposed to do it all by himself since he lost, but Jaemin decided to help.”
“Interesting…” Renjun trails, still grinning.
Mark raises an eyebrow at him. “That’s just how Jaemin is, you know that.”
As if on cue, Jisung and Jaemin arrive in the living room together. Jisung rushes to Chenle’s side as he watches him bargain with Jeno for a land property while Jaemin smirks at Renjun and makes his way towards him.
“Right, I don’t wanna be in the middle of a couple’s argument,” Mark whistles as he stands up and goes to Jeno’s side. Before Renjun can even ponder on Mark’s words, Jaemin sits beside him.
“Hello loser,” Jaemin greets. “How long did you last in the game this time?”
Renjun glares at him. “Oh, shut up.”
Jaemin chuckles, lifting his hand to wipe a stray chip near Renjun’s lips. “What? Last time was ten minutes, am I right? World record.”
“You know they’re ganging up on me,” Renjun huffs, swatting his hand away. “I’m receiving unfair treatment!”
They fall into routine after that, riling up each other while sharing the bowl of chips Renjun has in his hands. It makes Renjun want to do the plan immediately so he can have something to lord over Jaemin.
Which is why the instant Donghyuck wins Monopoly and finally finishes the game, Renjun sends him a signal that he’s starting their plan. Donghyuck nods and pulls Jeno with him to one corner, pretending to busy themselves with Jeno’s phone when in reality, they’ll be filming the entire thing.
Renjun waits for the right timing before he casually interrupts the current conversation. “Hey guys,” he feigns a laugh, catching their attention. “Look at this meme I found.”
Everybody except for Donghyuck and Jeno rushed to see what was on Renjun’s phone. As Renjun expected, their sense of humor was really surface level because in just a matter of seconds, they were all laughing already.
Renjun immediately fixes his gaze on Jaemin, observing and waiting to catch him turn his head towards Jisung’s direction anytime soon. A part of him feels excited—even though he likes the thought of having the upper hand, he’s still happy to know that Jaemin isn’t as closed off when it comes to matters of the heart like Renjun initially thought.
Jaemin’s eyes are closed at first, clutching his stomach, and trying so hard to calm himself from laughing too hard. Renjun subconsciously smiles, anticipating. He watches as Jaemin’s breathing starts to even out and his eyes start to open slowly.
This is it.
However, instead of looking towards Jisung who’s directly beside him, Jaemin’s eyes meet Renjun’s instead.
Wait.
What?
Stunned silence. Everybody around them is laughing, the entire room is so loud with joy, and yet the two of them are enveloped in stunned silence.
Renjun catches Jaemin’s entire face flush and Jaemin quickly looks away, leaving Renjun bewildered.
Huh.
Huh.
That wasn’t part of the plan. Renjun did not think this through. Why is Jaemin blushing? And why does Renjun’s face feel hot all of a sudden?
“Hey, Junnie,” Mark snaps him out of his thoughts, still chuckling. “What are your cheeks so red for?”
Renjun carefully reaches for the said cheeks, still wrapped in that stunned silence he shared with Jaemin a while ago.
Huh.
JAEMIN
Truth be told, Jaemin doesn’t know how to show his affections towards Renjun properly. Jaemin is branded as the nice one in their friend group, so even if he’s extra nice towards Renjun, the other guy would just think of it as Jaemin being his normal self.
Maybe that is why he keeps engaging in these senseless bickering relays with Renjun. Of course he mostly does this because frustrated Renjun is a cute Renjun, but also because this allows him to catch Renjun off guard whenever he gives compliments, seeing that Renjun is used to constant annoying teasing from him.
Or maybe he’s just making up excuses to cover up the fact that he’s a coward. He could just be straightforward but no, Jaemin just has to channel his feelings in a weird way.
Perhaps the universe has had enough of that.
A couple of hours ago, while he and Chenle were preparing the drinks, Donghyuck waltzes towards them and leans by the counter.
“Hi Hyuck,” Jaemin greets him. “Do you need anything?”
“Drinks will be ready soon,” Chenle tells him.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not here for the drinks,” Donghyuck says before thrusting his phone towards Jaemin. “Read this.”
Seeing that he has no choice now that the phone is already in front of his face, Jaemin shrugs and reads what’s on the screen. It was a short post or article on Reddit.
Someone who likes you will automatically look at you when you laugh or find something funny, the post reads.
Well, that does absolutely nothing to Jaemin.
“Why are you showing me this?” Jaemin deadpans at Donghyuck.
“No reason,” Donghyuck giggles. “Just thought it’s interesting.”
And with that, Donghyuck retreats and goes over to where Jeno is, announcing that he wants to play Monopoly.
Jaemin hasn’t really thought of the post after that. It was pretty ridiculous, sounding like a 13 year old who’s convincing themselves that their crush likes them and interpreting every little thing in their favor.
(Of course, Jaemin would know that very well, considering his high school self was once convinced that he and Renjun were soulmates simply because they both had the same brand of pencil for their exams. Years later, he’s still in the friend zone so really, he’s grown past all of that.)
It isn’t until they’re in the middle of playing Game of the Generals that the Reddit post crosses Jaemin’s mind again. While he’s busy looking for Jisung’s generals, they hear an angry scream coming from the living room that sounds awfully like Renjun.
Jaemin laughs, already knowing what took place. “They probably ganged up on him again so he’s the first one bankrupt.”
“Really?” Mark chuckles, glancing to their direction to check. “Poor thing.”
After that, they hear a series of shouts coming from Donghyuck and Renjun, and occasionally they’ll hear Chenle’s laugh and Jeno trying to calm everyone down.
“Chenle’s so annoying,” Jisung laughs fondly. “Jeno hyung’s trying to get them to behave but he’ll rile Renjun hyung up again and they’re back to square one.”
Jaemin curiously looks at Jisung who’s still laughing at the situation and catches the guy staring at Chenle. He thinks about the post that Donghyuck made him read a while ago, and even though he initially deemed it ridiculous, seeing Jisung laughing at Chenle right now while looking at him like he’s spewing sunshine everywhere makes Jaemin think that maybe there is some truth to it.
Jaemin tries to bring it up when he helps Jisung tidy up their board game, and he only got a flustered Jisung as an answer. That tells a lot already.
It isn’t too long after that that the post comes across his mind again. It happens while they are in the middle of discussing which soju flavor to open next, when Renjun interrupts them all to show a meme he found somewhere.
Jaemin finds himself doubling up in laughter the instant he sees it. It’s not really hard to make him laugh, plus it goes by a subconscious extension that he automatically finds something funny if Renjun finds it funny.
Speaking of Renjun, after calming himself down, Jaemin looks at Renjun to see if the other guy is indeed finding it just as funny.
What he’s met with is a fond smile and a pair of eyes looking directly right back at him.
Jaemin freezes, all the laughter in his body dissipating into something that makes his insides scream.
He’s looking at me.
Jaemin looks away, afraid that his blushing face will already give away what his stunned expression conveyed.
The post resurfaces in his mind.
Someone who likes you will automatically look at you when you laugh or find something funny.
Someone who likes you.
Likes you.
Jaemin has sworn off all ridiculous posts like this, that’s true, but a small part of him that always held on to them starts to wedge its way out of the corner Jaemin shoved it in.
Someone who likes you will automatically look at you.
And Renjun was looking at him.
There’s no way that Renjun likes me, Jaemin tells himself. Renjun is an open book. And frankly, unlike Renjun, Jaemin is not dense and he picks up on things easily. He would know. It’s just a coincidence. That stupid post doesn’t mean anything.
And yet, while nursing a blush that won’t seem to go away, that small part of him is hoping that he’s wrong.
DONGHYUCK
Witnessing the scene unfolding in front of him makes Donghyuck want to give himself a gold medal. Maybe things will kick start for the better after this. Jaemin is going nowhere with his weird I-will-constantly-tease-Renjun-to-mask-my-obvious-affection thing going on, and Renjun is far too oblivious for… anything.
He doesn’t even bother going through with the video. The main purpose of this plan is to set Renjun and Jaemin up in this situation, something akin to bonking their heads together. Besides, Renjun looks like he’s gonna be preoccupied with his own thoughts to even remember about his and Donghyuck’s “supposed plan”.
“Well, I’m amazing,” Donghyuck grins as he swings his arm around Jeno. “I told you, my plan will work.”
Jeno doesn’t respond to that. Donghyuck frowns and turns to look at him.
“Did you not see what I saw?” Donghyuck asks again.
“Oh, I saw it,” Jeno replies ominously. Donghyuck realizes he’s holding his phone. “I got it all on film.”
“You did? I told you, you didn’t have to,” Donghyuck chuckles. “Renjun wouldn’t even remember it anyway. He’ll be too busy contemplating his feelings.”
Jeno lifts his phone so that Donghyuck can also see his screen. “Here, watch it.”
There really is no point since Donghyuck’s plan has already worked, but he clicks the play button on the video anyway. He might as well rewatch what happened.
As expected, Renjun is staring directly at Jaemin, and after a few seconds, Jaemin looks at Renjun as well. Donghyuck grins at what seems to be a cathartic eye contact for the both of them. From beside Jaemin, Donghyuck also catches Chenle and Jisung laughing together as they point at the meme in Renjun’s phone. And then—
“Oh,” Donghyuck says as soon as he sees it. He wasn’t expecting that.
Jeno taps his shoulder solemnly. “Yeah…”
Someone who likes you will automatically look at you when you laugh or find something funny.
Well, that was easily proven when Jaemin automatically looked at Renjun while laughing. The thing is, he wasn’t the only one.
As seen in the video, Mark automatically looked at Renjun too.