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jaemin tries cooking.
jaemin has no idea how or why he got feelings for zhong chenle, all he knows is that he's been in love with him for a long time. donghyuck says it’s probably been since they met but jaemin isn’t so sure.
when they first met, jaemin was a different person, he wasn’t open to talking to anybody besides donghyuck, jeno and his little cousin jisung. but when chenle and jisung became friends, chenle made it his mission to weasel his way into friendship with jaemin and it frustrated the slytherin to no fucking end.
unfortunately for jaemin, chenle succeeded in his mission and he found himself with a fond place for chenle in his heart.
and that grew.
and grew.
and suddenly jaemin was just aware of his… feelings. it makes him shudder. feelings are horrendous things to have and to have them for chenle of all people… he’s in love with the boy but he has to be the most oblivious person jaemin has ever met.
he can’t help but want to try, though.
for chenle.
“so, what are we doing in the kitchens?” donghyuck asks, watching in disbelief as jaemin collects several ingredients from the fridge.
jaemin places them on the counter, grimacing at the ingredients as though he regretted grabbing them. in the corner, jeno munches on some leftover desserts from dinner, “yeah, man, i love a trip to the kitchens as much as the next guy but this…”
“we’re going to bake chenle a cake.”
donghyuck groans, “this again? jaemin the guy is never going to catch on, you have to just tell him!”
“jisung got this recipe from yizhuo, said this is chenle’s favourite cake, and that he says the way to his butt is his stomach.. or something.”
“as anatomically correct as that is, i think you mean ‘the way to his heart is through his stomach’.”
“yeah, that.”
“so you’re hoping that…” jeno furrows his brows, talking through bites of chocolate eclair, “you’re gonna cook for him and he’ll fall in love with you and you won’t have to ask him out yourself?”
“yes.”
“why don’t you try, i don’t know, actually talking to him nicely , and making an effort to smile at him at the very least.” donghyuck asks with a raised eyebrow.
the slytherin raises his eyebrow right back. “pass me that spatula, donghyuck, or get out and leave me to it.”
–
it’s an odd sight for everyone involved. ice prince of slytherin, jaemin na, standing outside the hufflepuff common room with a boxed cake in his arms, nerves clear on his usually collected features. he’s only just stopped pacing and is seemingly steeling himself in preparation for… something.
it’s a few minutes before he catches the attention of a leaving first year hufflepuff, who stares up at him in barely concealed fear. “is chenle in there?”
“chenle zhong?”
jaemin gives a simple nod.
the first year nods back, “he’s on the sofas with jisung!” she squeaks out and jaemin sighs, slightly disappointed his cousin was with him.
“let me in so i can talk to him.” it’s less a request and more a demand and the hufflepuff, understandably, is terrified of the ice prince with the bad reputation, and complies immediately, tapping the barrels in the correct order to allow jaemin entrance.
jaemin pauses before he goes in, to offer an unexpected, “thank you.” in the shell shocked hufflepuff’s direction. once he enters the warm glow of the hufflepuff common room, it's not difficult to find chenle.
it’s like he radiates a glow of sunshine that leads jaemin towards him. donghyuck says he just has tunnel vision, but jaemin swears he can see light pouring from chenle’s skin, making him more beautiful than usual.
“oh hey, jaemin!” the hufflepuff greets, warm smile gracing his lips, “are you here to join us?”
jaemin finds himself unable to speak.
he shakes his head instead, ignoring jisung’s smug smirk behind him.
“oh?” chenle asks, slight disappointment lacing his voice, “then what are you doing here.”
“uh,” jaemin says eloquently, and shoves the cake box in chenle’s direction, “here.”
“what’s this?” chenle asks, mostly to himself as he opens the lid of the box. “is this? jaemin did you make this?”
jaemin nods once.
“oh this is great!” chenle says, “this is my favourite kind of cake, how did you know?”
jaemin clears his throat, “i, uh, asked yizhuo.”
“will you stay to eat some with us, jaemin?” jisung asks, with a cheeky smile on his face as jaemin grimaces at the strawberry frosting, thinking back to the amount of milk the recipe called for.
chenle’s face lights up, “oh yes, jaemin please have a slice with us.”
“you want me to?”
“well, yeah, there’s too much for just me and jisung.”
jaemin’s face drops into his usual resting bitch face and shakes his head. “no, you enjoy it chenle.”
maybe next time.
–
jaemin gets defensive.
chenle has always attracted attention, whether good or bad, everyone has an opinion on the fifth year hufflepuff that seemingly has ice prince jaemin wrapped around his fingers. unfortunately for jaemin, most of those opinions are on the negative side.
“he’s annoying, sure,” jaemin overhears a ravenclaw boy say on the way to history of magic, “but he can’t be worse than chenle zhong. ” jaemin stops short to listen in.
the gryffindor girl he’s talking to snickers, “god no, nobody’s as annoying as that little freak.”
“he needs to be committed, actually, straight to azkaban for being an annoyance to society.”
“or better yet, he gets the dementor’s kiss.”
jaemin has heard enough. he walks into view of his two peers, smirking as the smiles are wiped from their smug faces. “i couldn’t help but overhear your lovely conversation.” he takes a few heavy steps towards the two, who step back in fear. “you wouldn’t happen to have a problem with my friend, would you?”
the ravenclaw shakes his head rapidly. “n-no, jaemin, we were just-”
“just talking shit about him?” jaemin finishes for them, face still void of emotion, as usual. “haven’t i warned you all about this?”
“yes…”
“and what did i say?”
the couple daren’t say a word.
jaemin reaches into his robes, pulling out his wand slowly as he speaks, “i believe i said you would be on the receiving end of a hex if i heard you say a single word against chenle, isn’t that right?”
the gryffindor opens her mouth, to plead for forgiveness or to deny his words, jaemin wouldn’t know, because he’s quick to hit her with a bat bogey hex. screams burst from the girl’s lips as bogey bats fly out of her nose. the ravenclaw starts to run but jaemin’s quick to hit him with a body-bind hex, rendering him unable to escape.
he raises his arm to send another hex his way when he’s stopped by a voice he truly didn’t want to hear.
“JAEMIN!” chenle’s voice echoes through the halls as a hand comes to grip his raised wrist. “what do you think you’re doing?”
“chenle…” jaemin groans, trying to release his hand, “come on, i’m almost done.”
“ no jaemin,” chenle scolds, “you promised.”
jaemin sighs, lowers his hand slowly, chenle’s hand still firmly gripping his wrist. he allows himself to be pulled away from his ‘victims’, chenle leading him down a few halls away from the blame for their unfortunate hexes.
“now,” chenle says, once they’re finally far enough that he feels that he can let go of jaemin’s arm without him trying to hex anybody else. “are you going to tell me what that was about?”
and, like always, jaemin can’t bring himself to say what actually happened. doesn’t want to hurt chenle’s already fragile feelings. so instead he says, “dunno, they just had it coming.”
chenle doesn’t talk to him for a couple days and jaemin can’t help but feel guilty.
–
jaemin plans a (study)date
jaemin hates every single decision he made that led him to this moment.
at this moment, he can’t fathom how or why , but he’s gotten himself appointed as chenle and, unfortunately, jisung’s charms tutor.
jaemin had always excelled at charms. you don’t become well known and feared for your ferocious bat-bogey hex because you’re shit at it. believe him. therefore, it was only natural for jisung to come to his older cousin for help when he and his best friend found out they were likely to fail their class.
between wanting to get closer to chenle and donghyuck threatening him to help his boyfriend (curse donghyuck for dating his stupid cousin) jaemin really did have no choice but to accept.
currently, jisung is smirking at him from across the room as he tries to show them how the spells are supposed to be done.
“you know,” jisung says, after a few quiet minutes between the three of them. “i’m gonna go to the bathroom. maybe you could help chenle with his grip while i’m gone, so i don't miss much, you know?”
so that’s what jaemin does.
he delicately repositions chenle’s grip on his wand. they’re so close jaemin feels like he can see his own breath fan across chenle’s cheek. he’s never felt this nervous before, the nerves making his hands shake as he focuses on chenle’s fingers, trying not to think about how right they feel against his own, how much he wants to hold chenle’s hand.
“just like that,” jaemin murmurs when his form is better, “this will make your spell casting so much easier.”
chenle looks back at him and their lips almost brush as he says, “so i can just- try it again like this?”
not trusting his own voice, jaemin simply nods, regrettably moving his hand away from chenle’s.
chenle, regrettably, moves away and tries a simple wingardium leviosa on the chair in front of him, squealing lightly as it starts to move a lot smoother than before.
“there you go,” jaemin murmurs and chenle looks back at him with the widest grin that absolutely melts jaemin’s icy heart. “that’s perfect.”
chenle looks at him, wide sparkling eyes and pouty lips. “thank you so much jaemin, i’ve never done a spell that accurately before! i’m always so good at the writing stuff, but the practical application…”
jaemin shrugs, “we all have our weaknesses.”
“apart from you, it seems.” chenle says, and jaemin offers a weak smile. “you’re always perfect.”
little does chenle know he is jaemin’s weakness.
–
jaemin has a (not so) cunning plan.
“so, we’re all going to hogsmeade in a big group, right?” chenle asks, wide eyes staring at their newly formed group of friends. donghyuck sneaks a look at jaemin from where he’s tucked into jisung’s side and jeno outright stares at him.
jisung, terrible cousin that he is, doesn’t think about jaemin’s plans to ask chenle to hogsmeade alone for even a second. “of course, chenle,” he says, ever eager to appease his best friend, “we’ll all go together right guys ?”
mark and renjun are quick to comply, with donghyuck following suit after a stern glare from his boyfriend. jaemin tries to stare jeno down but ultimately the gryffindor caves in to the pressure and agrees as well.
jaemin huffs when chenle looks at him, “fine, we all go together.”
and chenle’s grinning ear to ear, so jaemin can’t even bring himself to be angry.
–
so the plan is simple. get everybody else to back out of the plans, so he can spend time with chenle alone and, maybe, turn it into a date.
he starts off easy.
jeno, despite being a gryffindor, had always had a soft, borderline cowardly disposition and had always been easy for jaemin to manipulate.
did he say manipulate? he meant persuade, of course.
“jeno, come on,” jaemin complains to him not even three minutes after they all agree to go together, “you don't even like big groups, or going to hogsmeade, or doing something that isn't quidditch training.”
jeno’s eyebrows furrow, “we do need to get more practice in for the match next week.”
jaemin lets his face relax into an easy smile. “see? it would be a waste of time for you to go to hogsmeade when you could be a good captain and schedule a practice! take one for the team, man.”
“but chenle wanted us all together…”
“chenle will understand.”
and chenle does understand when jeno later approaches him to apologise for pulling him and mark out of their little group date, wide-eyed and pouty. chenle smiles easily, pats his shoulder and assures him, they’ll miss them but it’s fine.
with mark and jeno out of the picture, renjun is quick to follow suit. perfectly happy when he was spending the day with his boyfriend and his bestfriends, renjun was more than happy to join in.
but with the additional quidditch practice taking away both his boyfriend and his best friend (who jaemin was pretty sure was also infatuated with the smaller boy), renjun quickly lost interest, especially when it became clear he would be stuck between a nauseatingly happy couple - donghyuck and jisung - and whatever the hell jaemin and chenle had going on.
needless to say, jaemin didn’t even need to convince renjun to drop out of hanging out. renjun suddenly has to help his friend yangyang with his history of magic essay (jaemin is pretty sure that doesn’t exist, but he conveniently ‘forgets’ to rat renjun out to a, regrettably, disappointed chenle).
with that, jaemin is left with his two biggest obstacles. he’s almost certain that since starting to date donghyuck at the beginning of the year, jisung had become even more of a gremlin than he was before, suddenly completely hellbent on making jaemin’s life goddamn miserable.
and, well, donghyuck was always a pro at getting a rise out of jaemin. there wasn’t really any further explanation needed.
if jaemin was going to get his hogsmeade date with chenle, he would need to carefully execute his plans. make sure jisung and donghyuck feel like they decided to ditch them all on their own.
it starts with a little help from his fellow slytherin, shuhua. as one of the only girls in his year not afraid to talk to him, jaemin has been grateful to know shuhua. he would even go as far to call her one of his closest friends.
see, shuhua is also close to donghyuck and, with a bit of coaxing, jaemin convinces her to tell donghyuck about her new favourite place to take her latest girlfriend during hogsmeade trips. “i’m telling you hyuck.” shuhua tells him when the three of them are sitting in jaemin’s bed gossiping, two days before hogsmeade weekend, “heejin took me there last trip and it was perfect .”
“i don’t know…” donghyuck says, from where he’s lying on his face, “if you two know about it, surely other people do too.”
shuhua shakes her head conspiratorially, “nope. that’s the beauty of it.”
“doesn’t sound believable to me.” jaemin says, if only to throw donghyuck off. “forget for a second that you’re suggesting donghyuck take jisung to a haunted shed to make out in. “you’re also telling us you just happened to come across a secret pathway to it in the whomping willow of all places.”
donghyuck nods, “yeah! What, you just saw the tree wave around and try to kill anyone that goes near it and you thought ‘hey, there’s somewhere i simply must go!’?”
“no,” shuhua rolls her eyes. “yves told heejin about the tree entrance before she graduated, it’s, like, a well unknown fact.”
“that literally makes no sense.”
“what do you mean it doesn’t make sense?”
“how can it be fucking well unknown?”
“oh, you know what i mean donghyuck.”
jaemin sits back, small smirk playing on his lips as he watches the seed take root in donghyuck’s brain while shuhua explains that heejin used an immobilising spell on the tree while everyone was at hogsmeade to be able to gain access to the famously haunted shrieking shack.
he pretends not to hear when donghyuck mentions the tree entrance to jisung.
he definitely doesn’t smirk when the idea of exploring it peaks jisung’s interest.
—
okay, okay. so maybe jaemin didn’t think this through, like, at all.
because now he had chenle alone, but the boy was a little downcast that his friends were all too busy and jaemin was just - well - absolutely horrendous at even attempting to give the boy comfort.
“wow,” was all chenle could say when jisung briefly stopped by to let him know that he and haechan had ‘an investigation to do’ and thus, could not join them in hogsmeade. “i can’t believe we’ve gotten to the point in their relationship that jisung is actively choosing his boyfriend over me.”
jaemin can kind of sense that chenle’s just about near tears so, from where he’s leaning against the wall a little way away he speaks up, “hey, come on, jisung wouldn’t do that.”
“he literally just did.”
yeah, jaemin is really bad at this comforting stuff. “it’s a one time thing, i’m sure,” he tries again and he holds back a smile of his own when chenle offers him one. “you still have me here, okay?” jaemin tries his best to sound enthusiastic, “we can still go together, right?”
“i’d like that.” chenle says, and jaemin gestures for chenle to walk, following him two steps behind like always.
the walk down to hogsmeade is nice. chenle, in typical chenle fashion, chatters away, mostly in complaint of his best friend’s new relationship, while oblivious to jaemin scowling and threatening to raise his wand to anybody who dares to even glance at chenle funny.
despite being on the lookout though, jaemin listens to chenle whole-heartedly, and whilst he might not be the best conversationalist - simply offering simple grunts or muted yesses to whatever chenle had to say - jaemin made sure he listened thoroughly, as he always does. content to know everything on chenle’s mind.
“i’ve really been meaning to thank you, you know?” chenle says as they near the small village. “for the charms help, i mean. your instruction has really worked wonders on my charms, i think you saved my life.”
jaemin simply shrugs, “i mostly just pointed you in the right direction, the rest was all you. you’re already a pretty fantastic wizard.”
“you think so?”
jaemin hides his face as he replies, “i know so,” hiding the blush he knows is about to form on his cheeks.
“still,” chenle says, “let me thank you?”
“chenle…”
“i’ll buy you a butterbeer!” the younger offers, “let me do that and i won’t thank you for this ever again, okay?”
jaemin sighs, nodding his head when he feels chenle staring at him wide eyed, a pout adorning his lips. “one butterbeer.” jaemin allows, “but let's stop at honeydukes first, get those sugar quills you said you would get for mark.”
“yeah,” chenle smiles, wide and sincere, “let’s do that.”
the day goes smoother than jaemin could ever ask for, really. they stop by honeydukes and pick up the sugar quills for mark, along with some fizzing whizzbees for jeno, bertie botts beans for renjun and some licorice snaps for donghyuck and jisung. chenle picked up a few sweets of his own and, as he went to pay, jaemin took care of it for him.
chenle wasn’t too pleased and insisted on buying him a second butterbeer to make up for it. needless to say, by the time they headed back up to the castle, jaemin was pretty confident this was, for all intents and purposes, a date. he just needed to… ask chenle if he felt the same way.
“i had fun today, jaemin,” chenle says lightly, smile fixed on his face as he spoke, “thank you for spending time with me, even when everyone else bailed… i’m sure you had something better to do.”
they’ve reached the castle doors now, walking through the grand entrance and towards the dungeons, where they would split off to go to their respective common rooms.
jaemin shakes his head, fixing his gaze straight ahead of them, refusing to allow himself to look in chenle’s direction. “i didn't have anything better to do.”
he knows as soon as he says it that it was probably the wrong choice of words. chenle visibly deflates when jaemin speaks, jaemin can see it from the corner of his eyes.
once again, jaemin finds himself a disappointment to chenle, and he also finds himself wondering if will ever be good enough for this kind, sweet, boy.
“i’m sorry you couldn't find anything better, then.” chenle mutters
jaemin sighs, “that's not what i meant chenle… i… had fun too.”
“it’s okay, jaemin!” chenle says, smile not quite reaching his eyes. “i get it.”
“no, chenle, i-”
he didn’t even get a chance to ask chenle if this was a date, tell chenle how he feels, because chenle was already gone.
—
“you’re an absolute idiot.” jisung scolds him as soon as he’s back from his date with donghyuck.
“i know.”
jaemin was in the slytherin common room, nobody else around save for jisung and donghyuck, who had literally just walked in. as soon as jisung saw him he knew something had happened and had diligently sighed as he pulled donghyuck over to the couch to ask exactly what had transpired.
“you really said- jaemin! that was one of the worst ways you could have phrased that.”
“i know.”
“chenle already thinks nobody likes him, that must have really hurt him.”
“i know.”
“good.” jisung says, finally acknowledging that jaemin was even replying to him. “now, im gonna go check on chenle and you and donghyuck are going to figure out how you’re going to make this up to him!”
“me?” donghyuck complains, “baby, jaemin‘s hopeless, its like expecting me to fight an invisible moose.”
jisung rolls his eyes, “better get your boxing gloves on then, love.” he says, placing a kiss on donghyuck’s cheek and promptly leaving the common room, ignoring donghyuck’s whining behind him.
“god jaemin,” donghyuck complains, “get yourself in the dog house, sure, but why’d you have to take me down with you?”
—
jaemin gets the boy
jaemin doesn’t see chenle for a while after that. that's fine, he figures, chenle needs some space and he’s happy to give it to him.
it may seem silly to most, but jaemin feels like a failure. he feels like no matter how perfect people seem to think he is, he’ll always be lacking, because he just simply - can't talk to chenle the way he would like to.
he wants so badly to just be able to say ‘zhong chenle, i think you're the most incredible, beautiful boy, i’ve ever met and i think i might be in love with you.’ but he just can’t. he thinks sometimes he might be able to, but then chenle looks at him and it all just - leaves his body. any confidence he may have had? gone.
he’s pathetic.
despite everything, though, jaemin’s been looking out for chenle, as usual. encouraging jisung to take care of him, cursing anybody who dared to speak bad about him. it’s like he could show anybody but chenle how much he cares.
it’s fitting, then, how chenle finally comes to know of jaemin’s feelings.
he hears the taunting before he sees the group. they’re jeering, laughing at somebody harmless. somebody who is telling them to stop. but they don’t listen. they continue what sounds like a particularly nasty verbal attack on a harmless victim.
jaemin hates people like that.
he also hates the feeling in the pit of his stomach. the terrible sense that the poor boy under attack sounds a lot like chenle
he turns the corner slowly, careful not to alert anybody to his presence, and the scene he is greeted with makes his heart drop.
chenle is backed against the wall, wand seemingly kicked out of his hand, on the floor a few feet away. three gryffindors and a slytherin have him cornered, sneering at chenle.
“you think you’re so special, don’t you, zhong?”
“no, i-”
“weird little zhong, off in his own little world, happy to have ice cold na wrapped around his finger.”
“do you think he makes you invincible?”
“i don’t know what you’re talking about, please, just leave me alone?”
the desperation in chenle’s voice kicks jaemin into action.
“oi!” jaemin shouts, voice steady and calm as he straightens his back, looks dead ahead, straight at the supposed ringleader of the four boys. “what do you think you’re doing?” he asks, voice eerily calm, carrying through the air as five pairs of eyes snap to him.
the gryffindor looks defeated, “nothing, na, we weren’t doing anything.”
“really?” jaemin asks, “you weren’t bothering chenle?”
“n-no?” says the slytherin, jaemin now recognises him as one of his roommates, who had tried to ask him out some time earlier in the year. “we were just talking…”
“chenle?” jaemin says, not daring to let his eyes travel to the younger boy, “is that true?”
there’s a pause, chenle weighing his options before he says, “no, they were threatening me…”
jaemin raises his eyebrows, “really?”
“yes.”
jaemin takes a few steps forward, the bullies stepping away every time he got closer, jaemin would’ve smirked at the fear gracing their faces were he not so determined to hurt them for even thinking to lay a hand on chenle.
when the bullies realise as much, they turn and scramble away, unable to keep their ‘bad boy personas’ in the presence of, well, jaemin na. they have almost rounded the corner, when the ringleader turns and shouts, “you won’t always be there to protect your little boyfriend, na.”
jaemin clicks his tongue as he watches them leave, “i’ll have to report them to mark, how bothersome.”
“jaemin…”
jaemin’s head whips round, his eyes meeting chenle’s wide ones. he’s almost forgotten he was there. it’s then that he realises. fuck. he’s just exposed himself, he’d just shown chenle what he’s been doing for him behind the scenes the whole time he’s known him. he can see it, as he scans chenle’s face. can see the realisation dawn on chenle’s features.
all the times chenle has caught jaemin fighting but jaemin refused to tell him why. the reason some kids have been scared to be partnered with him in class. why the people who pick on him never do it when jaemin’s around.
jaemin can see it and it scares the shit out of him, so he does the only thing he can think to do.
he turns around and leaves chenle there without another word.
—
chenle sits on the floor for a moment. tries to process what, exactly, had just happened.
he thinks back over his friendship with jaemin, thinks over every detail. realises the times jaemin felt cold and uncaring were actually the complete opposite.
jaemin cares about him.
way more than chenle could have ever imagined.
that is everything chenle needs to stand on shaking legs, take a deep breath, and run after jaemin.
he lets his legs carry him down the familiar route to the place he knew jaemin would go.
he catches up to him, though, in the middle of the entrance to the castle.
“JAEMIN NA!” he yells, voice echoing off the walls and catching the attention of several students, including jaemin, who freezes in a place, but doesn’t turn to look at him as chenle carries himself closer. “don’t you dare be such a coward, and turn around right now !”
he can see jaemin fold into himself, closing off his body as he turns to face chenle. he’s never seen such emotions on the older boy’s usually calm and bored looking face. jaemin’s eyes are darting around, nervously trying to look anywhere but at chenle. his shoulders are hunched, like he’s trying to shrink his neck back into his body in embarrassment and he’s wringing his hands, not even stopping with chenle fixes him with a glare.
“you scared off those boys.” chenle states, watching jaemin carefully as he does so.
jaemin sighs, nods his head once, “yeah, i guess.”
chenle raises his brow, “it’s not the first time either, you’ve been looking after me for a while.”
jaemin finally lets their eyes meet and chenle realises the older is actually close to tears. he’s never seen jaemin cry before. “yes.”
“why?”
jaemin sighs again, “because.”
“please say it,” chenle urges, “please say it’s what i think it is.”
“chenle…”
“tell me you love me.” chenle demands, and jaemin’s eyes widen in surprise. “tell me, jaemin. what are you so afraid of?”
jaemin laughs, but there’s no humour in it. “you won’t feel the same way.” he finally admits his fear to himself. The one thing that’s been holding him back. “how could you? You’re the loveliest boy i’ve ever met. you… you deserve better than someone like me. i can’t… i wouldn’t make you happy.”
“jaemin…”
“you deserve someone who makes you smile,” jaemin admits, “someone who’s not going to make you upset because he uses the wrong words or has fights in the halls…”
“but you do that for me.”
“yeah, but that doesn’t make me a good person. that doesn’t mean i deserve you.”
chenle frowns, gathers the front of jaemin’s robes pulling him closer, making it so jaemin can’t avoid his eyes, even if he wanted to. “ i get to decide who deserves me, jaemin. not anybody else, me.”
“but-”
“no, i don’t care.” chenle interrupts whatever pitiful thing jaemin was about to say. “i decide. and if i have to pick, it will always be you.”
jaemin’s mouth falls open in disbelief, eyes blinking almost comically in disbelief as he processes the gravity of chenle’s words.
“you make me happy, jaemin.” chenle says, “you spend time with me when nobody else does. you make me laugh. i see the way you care for your friends and for your cousin. hell, you even baked me a cake?”
jaemin chuckles, “yeah, a diabolical strawberry cake.”
“even better,” chenle says, kissing his teeth impatiently, “you baked me a cake even though you hated it. better yet, it means you take care of me, in more ways than one. maybe that’s why it was completely impossible for me not to fall in love with you right back.”
“you- you love me?”
“of course, you idiot.” chenle says, “there's not many people i would let spend a whole day with me, you know.”
“that was supposed to be a date…”
“of course it was.” chenle chuckles. “if i were stuck with anyone else i wouldn’t have entertained even going.”
they are so close, chenle still holding a tight grip on jaemin’s robes. they’re staring at each other with wide eyes. jaemin is unable to believe that chenle is even right there in front of him.
he becomes vaguely aware of the fact they’ve amassed an audience when he hears a voice, that sounds suspiciously like donghyuck, call out, “will you just kiss already?”
chenle raises his eyebrows. “will we?” he asks, letting jaemin have the last move. in a way, letting jaemin have his moment.
jaemin leans forward, closes the space between them and presses his lips to chenle’s in a shy kiss.
it’s short and sweet, jaemin slightly embarrassed by the prying eyes to give chenle anything more than a quick peck.
but it’s enough.
when jaemin pulls away, chenle is grinning back at him, eyes brighter than jaemin had ever seen them and it fills jaemin with a warmth that spreads through his entire body.
“you wanna get out of here?” he asks, gesturing with his head to the audience of people watching them and chenle laughs, loud and strong.
“yeah, lets go.”
they walk through the hall, towards the dungeons. they’ve walked this path together a fair few times before. but this time, their hands are linked.