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Why Jaemin had agreed to go laser tagging with his friends, he doesn’t know. They all had crammed into Mark’s car, everyone sitting on someone’s lap beside the drivers.
He had been squished underneath Jeno, and he swears he felt his ribs crack when Mark had slammed on the brakes and his elbow went straight into his side.
But when they arrive and you wave from the entrance, he remembers why he had said yes.
They all know he has a crush on you, and they had only mentioned you when he had said no to come. He had agreed quicker than he had meant to.
As he exits the car, he clears his throat and unrumples his shirt. Just when he could finally breathe again without having Jeno’s butt smashing his lungs, he walks over to you and he feels his breath catch in his throat when you smile at him.
“Hey,” you say, and he returns as he throws an arm over your shoulder and pulls you inside.
“I can’t believe I’m going to play laser tag.” Jaemin groans dramatically above you.
“Be quiet, Jaemin. I can tell you’re excited”
He laughs.
”Okay, okay. I am, but only because you're here..”
When you turn to him with a surprised look, he sputters to come up with something else to cover his slip up when Chenle slides over to his rescue with a cheerful, “You guys ready?”
A light blush decorating his cheeks.
Jaemin quickly follows Chenle into a dark room filled with vests and a woman behind the controls. He ignores the wink Mark sends his way and detaches himself from your side, instead of focusing on the employee as she holds up a microphone.
“There are two teams: red and blue,” she begins as the lights on the vests come to life. They all dive for the different colors, and Jaemin becomes bitter when he realizes that you’re team red while he’s team blue. He had wanted to be on your side so you could hang out rather than running from each other.
He reluctantly puts on the vest, tugging angrily at one of the straps when it doesn’t tighten and the gun, that was once held by him, drops to the ground.
“I guess we’re on separate sides,” you say, picking up the weapon and handing it to him. Jaemin doesn’t have a chance to thank you as you head over to Renjun to do the same, and he feels his eyebrow twitch when Renjun ruffles your hair.
“Good luck, and please, don’t break any of our equipment,” the woman finishes, and the door slides open to a space darker than the one they’re in.
And then all hell breaks loose. Jaemin was pushed and dragged forward by the group as they raced inside, and Donghyuck grabs his arm and pulls him through the darkness.
The only things he’s able to make out are outlines of the walls and flashes of red and blue as they race around, trying not to get shot. He almost wishes he hadn’t come after all; he’s not even on the same side as you, and he can barely see three feet in front of him.
Donghyuck and Jaemin find a corner where they stay put until Donghyuck finishes planning his next movement.
“I’m going to rack up some points, want to come?” Donghyuck whispers and Jaemin leans back against a black neon painted board in defeat.
“I’m good,” “Go shoot Jeno for me though, he almost killed me on the ride here.”
Donghyuck disappears without another word, and Jaemin cranes his neck around for anywhere to wait until this is over.
He’d go search for you, but he knows that you’re somewhere in here with Renjun. He tries to convince himself he isn’t jealous as he finds a place to hide behind a wall in the corner, and groans when he realizes he left his phone in the car. He had been too distracted by you to notice that it fell under the seat.
“Jaemin?”
He whips his head up to find Mark peeking at him through an opening in the wall, and from what he can tell, he’s on the opposite side. Jaemin puts his hands up and sighs.
“Just shoot me. Put me out of my misery”
“What? But I thought you wanted to come.”
“I did. I just…”
Mark’s smirk is illuminated by the red lights on his vest.
“Oh, I get it. You’re over here pouting because Y/n isn’t with you.”
“I’m not pouting!” Jaemin huffs, fully knowing that he is pouting as he crosses his arms.
“But it’s because of Y/n, right?”
Jaemin doesn’t bother denying it as he rests his head back onto the wall. “Does everyone know how I feel about her?”
“Yeah?” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“Great. Y/n knows now”
Mark shrugged “You should ask her”
“Are you crazy? She’d-“
“Hey Mark, Have you seen Jaemin?”
At the sound of your muffled voice, Jaemin straightens up. Mark winks at him before turning to you and murmuring something he can’t hear, and then he’s gone and you slide behind the wall and join him on the floor.
“Why are you over here acting like a big loner?”
“I am not acting like a big loner,” he lies, “Shouldn’t you get back to your teammate and guard your flag or something?”
“Actually, I’d rather hang out behind a wall with you.”
Jaemin rolls his eyes to mask how fast his heart is beating because of what you said. He thinks you’re just joking, and that he shouldn’t take you too seriously, but when he glances at you, and the way your lip curves in a smile, he doesn’t realize he’s leaning forward to kiss you until he accidentally pulls the trigger on the gun he had been clutching for dear life. You gasp as your vest lights up, and Jaemin could faint because of the incredulous look you’re giving him.
“I-I didn’t mean it,” he panics as you squint, and a second later, you shoot him back.
“That’s for shooting me,” you say, grabbing the straps on his vest and tugging him closer. The blasting music drowns out the voice in his mind screaming at him when you kiss him.
“Oh my gosh”
You pull away from Jaemin, his eyes fluttering open a moment later to find Donghyuck grossly staring down at him.
“I found them! Jeno, you owe me ten bucks!” Chenle laughs his hardest laugh.