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Jeno hates Mondays. He hates Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays because those are the days he has classes. Mondays spark a passionate, burning hatred in him because it starts off the hellish academic week that he hates so much.
This Monday feels particularly evil. Final exams are tomorrow and today is the last day to study. The exams are the final assignment for current classes, weighing heavily on grades and closing out the current course term. A two-week break will ensue after the final exams and then the next term of classes will start.
Fortunately, Jeno is a diligent student. He has managed to maintain A’s and B’s in every class, an impressive achievement for a college sophomore participating in honors classes. He can’t wait for the two-week break, relieved that he only has to make it through one more day of classes to get it.
His phone chimes from somewhere in the tangled blankets that cover him, forcing Jeno to fully sit up and ungracefully toss around on the twin-sized dorm bed until he finds the device. A glance across the room reveals an empty, untouched bed. The vacant bed means his roommate, Jaemin, spent the night elsewhere. This is common, his roommate is hardly ever at the dorm, leaving Jeno with a room mostly to himself with the exception of Jaemin stopping in to pick up or drop off his personal belongings.
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Jeno unlocks his phone and goes straight to his messages, opening Jaemin’s first.
Roomie (3 new messages):
‘staying at chenle’s again tonight’
‘did i leave my green hoodie on my bed?’
‘nvm i found it >:)’
Jeno snorts at the messages, closing his roommate’s contact to check his other messages. The class group chat he was added to by one of his lab partners shows sixteen unread messages. He glances at the time; 10:00am. The sight of those four digits makes Jeno straight up. The plan was to wake up at 9:00am and get a headstart on cram studying for finals before his afternoon classes steal half of the day away.
Now he has one less hour to study, great. Jeno ungracefully de-tangles himself from his blankets, stretching his arms out before bringing his phone down to scroll through the unread messages in the class group chat. The chat is filled with people sending pictures of their notes to compare. One message catches his attention:
Lab partner (1 new message):
‘I only have afternoon classes today so I'm going to spend the morning studying at the campus cafe. Having a study buddy would be cool if anyone wants to join me :)’
The message was sent by Mark, a classmate that Jeno knows vaguely from being paired together for projects from time to time. Only two people replied to the study proposal, both declining due to having morning classes. Since a morning cram session was already his plan, Jeno responds with, ‘My only classes today are in the afternoon too, so I can join you. Give me like fifteen minutes.’
His message is responded to with a gif of a clapping seal from Mark. The playful reply makes him snort. He needs to make himself presentable before leaving — presentable meaning: put on some pants. A pair of black sweatpants that may or may not belong to his roommate are picked to pair with the school mascot-branded hoodie he fell asleep in.
With his phone in hand and backpack slung over his shoulder, Jeno makes the ten minute walk to the campus cafe. Walking and texting is a bad habit, yes, but the way Jeno sees it, there are worse habits than speed-walking with his eyes glued to the screen of his phone. He receives a text and immediately clicks on the notification when he sees the contact name: ‘BOYFRIEND!!!’.
BOYFRIEND!!! (2 new messages):
‘Good morning’
‘Are you awake? I’m coming by your dorm to see you’
Jeno smiles at the messages and nearly trips over a crack in the sidewalk while typing a reply. ‘ Good morning <3 I just left the dorms. Headed to the cafe for a cram study session with a classmate.’
His boyfriend, Renjun, replies within seconds of Jeno hitting send on his message.
BOYFRIEND!!! (3 new messages):
‘I’ll meet you there, I need to talk to you.’
‘It won’t take long, I promise.I don’t want to interrupt your studying.’
‘Also, stop walking and texting.’
Jeno’s thumb halts in the middle of the reply he’d started typing out before the last message from Renjun pops up. It makes him huff defensively. Renjun never fails to recognize Jeno’s habits, even when he’s not present. Jeno wonders what his boyfriend wants to talk about at — he checks the time — 9:20am. Personally, his socializing ability doesn’t unlock until noon. But then again, Renjun is a morning person; Jeno is not.
He slips his phone into his pocket when he reaches the cafe doors. He’s greeted by the scent of overpriced, mediocre coffee and baked goods. The customers inside are exactly what he expected, a handful of fellow exhausted college students spending their morning with enough notes to make a novel laid in front of them.
“Jeno, Over here!”
At the call of his name, Jeno turns around and finds Mark waving him down from a booth near one of the cafe’s giant windows. He heads over and sets his backpack down, glancing at the array of neatly-written notes spread out in front of the other male. He envies the nice penmanship, wishing his hand-writing looked half as nice. He isn’t willing to sacrifice his free time to practice calligraphy, though, so he will just stick with his ‘easy enough to read’ writing.
“Hey, Mark.”
Jeno doesn’t know Mark very well. Aside from being assigned as partners for projects every now and then, the two of them have no interactions outside of class. To be fair, when Jeno is not suffering through lectures, he’s either glued to his boyfriend’s side or sleeping. He probably should socialize more, it’s embarrassing that he’s a year two in college and can count all the people he knows personally on one hand.
“I’m going to order a drink and something to eat, I’ll be right back.” Jeno turns to head for the ordering counter and nearly runs into the person that walked up right behind him. He’s prepared to apologize before realizing it’s Renjun.
“Junnie!” Jeno beams.
“Jeno~” Renjun smiles warmly back at him before leaning to the side to see who his study buddy is. “Hey, Mark!”
“Renjun, hi! Good morning,” Mark replies with a wave.
Jeno’s eyebrows raise in surprise.
“You know Mark?” he asks, curiously.
“Of course I do. Everyone knows Mark, he’s the friendliest social butterfly on campus.”
“Oh,” Jeno replies lamely. He would have probably known that detail if he ever stepped a foot outdoors outside of attending classes. His mind circles back to Renjun’s text and he perks up, “What did you want to talk about, Junnie?”
Renjun’s expression shifts into his ‘thinking’ look — eyebrows lowering and lips pursed while the cogs in his mind turn. Jeno waits, catching the way Renjun’s eyes dart towards Mark in hesitation before he replies.
“Let’s go to the bathroom. It’s a private conversation.” Renjun’s nods subtly towards Mark and Jeno gets the hint.
“Okay, sure, let’s go.” Jeno lets Renjun lead the way, pausing to ask Mark a favor before he follows. “Hey, Mark, do you mind placing my order for me while I step away real quick?”
“Of course, no problem. What did you want to order?”
Mark agrees easily and Jeno now understands why he is considered one of the friendliest people on campus.
“I want an iced cappuccino with double shots of espresso and whatever sandwich looks good.” Jeno reaches for his wallet, opening it to grab cash for his order, but Mark stands and waves a hand dismissively.
“You can go ahead, it looks like Renjun is waiting for you. Don’t worry, I’ll cover it.”
Jeno looks over his shoulder to glance in the direction of the bathroom door. Renjun stands by the door, waiting. He wants to tell Mark that it’s not necessary for him to pay, but when he turns back around, Mark is already in the short line at the counter.
‘Damn it. He really is friendly,’ Jeno thinks to himself before slipping his wallet back into his pocket and hurrying to meet Renjun.
Once the single-stall bathroom door shuts behind them, Renjun sighs. It’s one of his stressed sighs, heavy with emotion. The worried sigh makes emergency alarms go off in Jeno’s head. Something is wrong.
“What’s wrong, Junnie? Did something bad happen?”
Renjun looks down at his feet, then at the door behind him. His eyes travel everywhere except Jeno for a few seconds. The behavior is very out of character for Renjun. He only fails to make eye contact when he’s about to say something that he knows Jeno won’t like.
“Renjun.”
Renjun finally looks at him.
“Sorry, I was just trying to figure out how to phrase this…” he trails off with no elaboration on what ‘this’ is.
“You’re going to give yourself wrinkles if you keep making your thinking face, just say what it is and worry about details after.”
Renjun laughs at the wrinkle comment, but it’s not his usual laugh. It sounds strained and… sad?
“Okay, I can’t think of a way to phrase this lightly so I’m going to do like you said and just get it out of the way, then explain after I get past the difficult part.”
Jeno nods encouragingly, “The floor is yours.”
Renjun takes a deep breath.
“I think we should break up.”
The words are rushed out in an exhale, Renjun staring at him closely for a reaction. Jeno’s expression rests at neutral while his tired brain takes a second to catch up to the situation. When it finally clicks, Jeno’s expression drops. So does his heart.
“What? That’s not funny, Renjun.”
“Sadly, I’m not joking.” Renjun takes another deep breath before continuing. “You didn’t do anything wrong and this is not a decision I’m happy to make, but it would be for the best.”
It would be for the best… What does that even mean?
“I don’t understand. Why?”
“Do you remember the internship I told you about?”
Jeno has to think back a few months. He vaguely recalls Renjun mentioning something about an internship. He remembers now, It was the day Renjun got a new haircut and Jeno had been too distracted by the new look to retain half the things his boyfriend had said. Still, he remembers bits and pieces.
“The law internship in China that you were bummed about not qualifying for?”
Renjun nods.
“What about it?” Jeno is puzzled, failing to see what a rejected internship has to do with their relationship.
“Well, the reason I was rejected at first is because I was a first year in college at the time and didn’t have enough credits to qualify for it. But since I traveled here to study abroad, I got an extra boost for participating in the foreign exchange program.”
Jeno’s eyebrows are furrowed in confusion and his heart is in his stomach, but he nods for Renjun to continue so he can see where this is going.
“I have more than enough qualifying credits now since I’ve kept up with my grades and with the extra credit I got for being in the foreign exchange program, I surpass the requirements for the internship. All I need to do is pass the final exams tomorrow to close out my session here, and then I’m going back to China to finish the rest of my schooling and take the internship.”
Oh.
Oh— now Jeno gets it.
“What does that have to do with our relationship? Why do we need to break-up?”
Renjun gives him a sad smile.
“Jeno, when I went back home for winter break, you were devastated the entire time, even with me calling you almost daily. Finishing college will take me a little over two years and with the internship included, I won’t have time to call frequently. You and I both know that isn’t ideal since your love languages are physical touch and quality time.”
Renjun is right. Of course he’s right, they have been together for just over a year and in that time, Renjun has learned Jeno inside and out. Still, the truth is hard to swallow. It’s hard to swallow in general with the lump that has formed in his throat, choking back the urge to cry.
‘Please don’t go’ is what he wants to say.
Instead, Jeno asks, “When are you leaving?”
“The day after tomorrow. I need to take the final exams to finish out my current classes. The foreign exchange program will handle transferring my transcripts over. My parents already booked my plane ticket for Wednesday morning, so I’ll be going then.”
Renjun is going away in two days. Today is going to be taken up by reviewing for finals in class and studying as much as possible. Tomorrow will be taken up by the exams responsible for stealing every college student’s free time for today. And then Renjun will be on a plane bright and early the next day.
God, Jeno really hates Mondays.
This Monday goes on his mental record as not only the worst Monday ever, but also the worst day of his life overall. Previously, the ‘ worst day of his life’ slot was taken by the memory of breaking his toe playing soccer in high school and having to sit out the remaining games due to the injury. This is so much worse. Jeno would rather break another bone than have this conversation be real.
But it is real. He pinched himself to make sure. This conversation is real, painfully so. This is really happening — the day before final exams too.
Jeno is glad they’re in the bathroom because he feels like throwing up.
“Jeno?” Renjun calls him out of the dark sea he’d been drowning under in his mind. He looks concerned, probably because Jeno looks like he’s one wrong step away from passing out. He feels sick and the feeling only worsens when he meets Renjun’s eyes again.
“Talk to me Jeno… There was no gentle way to put this, but please believe me when I say I hate that I’m having to do this. I love you, and I always will, but things are bound to fall apart if we don’t separate now. I want you to be okay, I want us to be on good terms.”
Jeno exhales a shaky breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. He catches himself before he starts hyperventilating, trying to steady his breaths and fight back tears. He isn’t going to cry — not right here, not right now.
“Of course we can be on good terms,” Jeno’s voice strains between each word. “I’m happy for you, Junnie. I know you really wanted that internship and I’m glad you got it, I hope you will enjoy it. Just promise to text me about how the internship treats you, yeah?”
Jeno is using every fiber of his being to put on a strong front right now. He desperately wants to just slide down against the back of the bathroom door and cry until the small space fills with enough tears to drown himself in. But the genuine smile on Renjun’s face makes enduring the pain worth it.
“I will, I promise. Thanks, Jeno.” Renjun opens his arms and Jeno sinks into them, savoring the last bit of physical contact they may have. The temptation to cry into Renjun’s shirt is strong, but he grounds himself by focusing on the scent clinging to the fabric instead. Jeno is going to miss this… going to miss Renjun.
They part ways too soon, Renjun reminding Jeno that his study buddy is sitting alone, waiting for him. Renjun disappears as quickly as he had arrived and Jeno watches his retreating back until he’s out of the cafe.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Jeno sits down at the booth where Mark had been waiting for him. Jeno’s return makes Mark look up from where he’d been highlighting key terms on one of his many pages of notes.
“Welcome back. I got your coffee and picked a sandwich recommended by one of the baristas.” Mark is all smiles when he speaks.
Jeno can’t bring himself to return the smile. He doesn’t have it in him.
“Thanks.”
Jeno tucks the wrapped sandwich away into his backpack for later. His stomach is in knots. The idea of eating anything right now is unpleasant. He reaches for his coffee, sipping the iced cappuccino slowly. It tastes decent enough, at least he has that going for him.
“Ready to start studying?” Mark asks with that same bright smile.
‘There is nothing to be smiling about,’ he thinks to himself bitterly.
“Yeah,” Jeno replies with a sigh, pulling his notebook from his bag.
The study session turns into more of a ‘Mark talking to himself while Jeno stares distantly at the ice melting in his coffee’ session.
The rest of the day goes similarly to the cafe session. Jeno spends his afternoon classes staring blankly at the printed-out review sheets his professors hand out. He doesn’t say anything to anyone.
When his last class lets out, Jeno heads straight for the dorms. He retained absolutely nothing in class, mind in a completely different place. He will have to rely on the diligent studying he did prior to this week to carry him through tomorrow’s exams because he will not be studying tonight. He has more important things to do.
Once he reaches his dorm room, he begins the ‘important things’ by face-planting into his bed, leaving his bag by the door. His shoes are still on, but Jeno doesn’t care. With his face buried into his pillow and his roommate gone as usual, Jeno finally lets out the sobs he’d managed to choke back all day.
His tears are never-ending. His pillow is soaked under his face and he just adds to it with more muffled cries. The sobs go from loud and muffled to silent. He cries himself to sleep.
When Jeno wakes up, it’s to the sound of his alarm going off for class. He doesn’t remember what time he fell asleep and therefore has no idea how long he slept for, but he doesn’t feel rested. He wants to turn back over and go to sleep, but that isn’t an option. It’s exam day.
Jeno looks at himself in the full-body mirror that Jaemin attached to their closet door on move-in day. Puffy, red-rimmed eyes and tear-stained cheeks stare back at him through the mirror’s reflection. He’s still in his clothes from yesterday.
He looks awful — and feels even more awful on the inside.
Jeno’s outfit for the day is half-assed: a pair of plaid pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt that could really use the attention of an iron. He skips his usual morning routine of checking and responding to messages, leaving his phone face down on his bed with a battery life of three percent. He feels low-battery too. Students aren’t allowed phones in the classroom on test days, so him leaving it behind makes no difference.
Call him bitter, but he doesn’t care to read his roommate’s random texts or the multiple messages from the group chat he has with his classmates. He doesn’t care about texts from anyone. He doesn’t care how he looks. And he hardly cares about this exam that he’d been stressing over for the past week.
Jeno does not care about anything right now.
He just wants to get the day over with so that he can climb back into bed and rot there for the full two week break that will begin once his last exam is turned in. He washes his face clean of the dried tear streaks that decorate his cheeks and leaves the dorm empty-handed. Exam days require bringing nothing but a pencil.
The final exams are a blur. There are questions he answers easily with remembered knowledge, and then there’s questions surrounding topics he was supposed to cram-study for yesterday. The latter questions leave him blind guessing. He makes an effort on some, others, he doesn’t even bother trying to figure out the correct answer to. The process goes like this for every class that follows.
When he hands in his last exam of the day, Jeno finds that he doesn’t care about what the results are. He’ll find out his scores sometime next week. Maybe he’ll care then, maybe not.
Jeno stays true to his plans, heading back to his dorm as soon as his last class’ professor dismisses everyone. He takes off his shoes at the door this time, crawling under the blankets to hide from the world. Forgetting his phone was on top of his blanket, he accidentally flings it off the bed and onto the floor in the process of making himself comfortable in his blanket cave.
The dorm floors are hard. If his phone landed screen-down, there’s a chance the screen cracked on impact. Jeno doesn’t check. He doesn’t care.
He leaves bed only to go to the bathroom when necessary. Besides that, he doesn’t move an inch — a heartbroken, bitter, unmoving creature beneath blankets. With his phone neglected and likely dead on the floor, Jeno has no way of knowing what time it is or what day of the week it is. With the curtains drawn shut and blankets over his head, there is no daytime, only darkness.
The depressing cycle continues for… however many hours or days it has been. Jeno doesn’t emerge from the dorm room at any point. He doesn’t step foot out of bed unless it’s for a bathroom break. There’s nowhere he wants to go and no one he wants to see.
Jeno’s solo pity party is interrupted one day(?) or night(?) he isn’t sure. He is pulled out of his brooding by a hand on his shoulder shaking him awake. He shifts under the blankets, not emerging.
“Jeno~” Jaemin’s voice calls out to him.
When Jeno doesn’t respond, Jaemin tries again.
“Come on roomie, wakey wakey.”
Jaemin continues shaking his shoulder. Jeno distantly wonders what his roommate is doing here. Sure, they share the small dorm room, but his roommate is gone more often than not.
“Alright, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you give me no choice.”
Jeno is not given a second to think about what those words mean, his blankets being yanked off of him in one swift motion. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jaemin proceeds to throw their curtains open, flooding the room with uncomfortable brightness that makes his eyes burn from being adjusted to pure darkness before his roommate disturbed him.
“What the hell, Jaem,” Jeno turns over to face the wall, tugging his pillow over his head. “What do you want?” The pillow muffles his words but Jaemin hears him just fine, yanking his pillow away just as cruelly as he’d done with Jeno’s precious blankets.
“Where is your phone? I have been texting you and you haven’t even opened the messages.”
Jeno drapes an arm over the edge of his bed to weakly gesture towards the floor.
“On the floor somewhere.”
“Why is it on the floor?” Jaemin turns to look around, locating the device a few centimeters away from Jeno’s bed. He tries powering it on to show Jeno the countless messages, but gets only a black screen. “It’s dead,” Jaemin adds, displeased.
“Is it broken?” Jeno recalls wondering which side his phone landed on when he accidentally sent it flying through the air.
“No, luckily. It landed on the back, you really need to get a case for this thing. These stickers on the back aren’t going to protect shit.”
“Mm,” Jeno grunts in reply.
At least his screen isn’t cracked. That’s one good thing.
“What time is it?” Jeno grumbles, patting around for his pillow before remembering Jaemin took it away.
“What time is it?” Jaemin parrots the question back to him, incredulous. “How about you ask what day it is, Jeno. You don’t even have to ask, I’ll tell you. It is one o’clock in the afternoon and it’s Saturday. ”
“Hmm… ‘kay.”
“Don’t you ‘kay’ me, no one has seen you in four fucking days, Jeno.”
“Who’s looking for me?”
Jaemin smacks him with the pillow he stole from him.
“Me and Chenle, obviously. Even your friend Mark asked about you when we bumped into him at the cafe. He said you weren’t active in some group chat and he wanted to know if you were alright.”
“Mark is not my friend,” Jeno bitterly spits out, earning another smack with the pillow.
“Well maybe he should be, he did ask about you, after all.”
Jeno grumbles.
Jaemin smacks him with the pillow again. And again. And again. It quickly turns into a one-sided pillow fight, Jaemin hitting him with the pillow until Jeno finally sits up.
“I’m going down to the administration office and asking to change rooms,” Jeno huffs.
Jaemin calls his bluff, tossing the pillow aside now that Jeno is up.
“Good. Do it. At least it will get you out of the room.”
“Nevermind,” Jeno turns to lay back down, but Jaemin is quick to pull him back upright by the shoulder.
“You look terrible,” Jaemin points out, giving Jeno a once-over now that he can see him clearly.
“Thanks, I try.”
Jeno doesn’t know what he looks like right now. He hasn’t bothered with turning on lights to view himself in the mirror, but he’s sure he looks worse than he did four days ago.
“You clearly haven’t left this room at all,” Jaemin puts emphasis on ‘clearly’, regarding how Jeno couldn’t have possibly gone out in this state. “Have you eaten?”
Jeno has to think for a second. In his cycle of only getting up to use the bathroom, he completely factored out every other essential.
“I’m going to take that as a no. Come on, get up and get dressed. I’m taking you to get food and then you’re coming with me and Chenle.”
Jeno pulls back in protest when Jaemin attempts to drag him out of bed. He’s lucky Jeno feels too weak to put up a real fight or they would be here going back and forth all day.
“Go where?”
“Chenle rented a cabin for us to spend the rest of the break at. Come on, It will be fun.”
“Third-wheeling you and Chenle’s honeymoon getaway is not my idea of fun.”
Jaemin picks Jeno’s pillow back up and holds it up threateningly.
“I have a pillow and I’m not scared to use it. I refuse to leave you here to rot away in bed unattended. If I didn’t come to get you up today, I’m willing to bet you would have stayed like that for the full two week break.”
“That was kind of the point, yeah.”
Jaemin smacks him with the pillow again.
“I’m giving you two options. Either you come with me and Chenle to the cabin or I’m giving my room key to Mark and telling him to babysit you while we’re gone.”
Jeno glares at his evil (caring) roommate.
“Both of those options suck ass.”
“Either you pick one or I’m picking for you.”
“I don’t need to be babysat.”
“Says the person who has spent four days in bed disregarding necessities and getting no form of sunlight or social interaction.”
Jaemin has a point. But Jeno is stubborn.
“Ok, but why does Mark have to be the babysitter?” Jeno huffs.
“Again, he was the only person outside of me and Chenle who asked about you and therefore is probably the only other person you know since you don’t socialize. Also, he’s responsible and the only person I would trust to keep an eye on you. Plus, he’s nice, so I know he’ll say yes if it means he’s helping.”
Jeno purses his lips.
“Why are you huffing and making faces? Do you not like Mark?”
“I never said I don’t like him.”
“Okay, but you’re throwing a tantrum about him being part of the solution and earlier, you were quick to correct me when I called him your friend.”
“Because he is not my friend.”
“He should be. Mark is friends with pretty much everyone and he’s super fr-”
Jeno cuts him off.
“Super friendly, super smart, good at everything, yeah yeah, I get it.”
“I was just going to say friendly, everything else is your words, not mine.”
Jeno grumbles under his breath.
“So which one will it be? Are you coming to the cabin with us, or do I need to go find Mark and tell him he’s your new roommate until I get back?”
“Hey! That was not the deal, you said you would have him check on me, not move in while you’re gone.”
“Wrong, I said I would have him babysit you. You assumed I meant periodic check-ins. You can’t be trusted with check-ins, you’ll just go right back to moping in bed the moment he leaves.”
Jeno glares.
“Don’t look at me like that. Weren’t you just saying you want a new roommate? I’m giving you an option to have a new roomie in my absence.”
“You’re a pain in the ass.”
“Says you,” Jaemin retorts, thumb typing away at his phone screen while he lets Jeno throw a fit about his options.
“Still waiting for you to choose,” Jaemin says without looking up from his phone when Jeno remains silent.
“I’m not spending a week in a cabin with you and Chenle making kissy faces at each other and forcing me to go outdoors and do nature crap.”
“Alright then, have fun with your new roomie.”
Jaemin stops attempting to drag him out of bed, instead, walking to tidy up his own bed before sliding a few of his belongings into the pocket of his hoodie. Jeno finds the sudden forfeit suspicious, eyes narrowing at Jaemin.
“I didn’t pick that option.”
“I only gave you two options and you declined the cabin option like I knew you would, so that leaves you with the other option.”
“What do you mean ‘like I knew you would’? I could have said yes, you can’t just predict my answers.”
Jaemin turns to roll his eyes at him.
“I may be gone from the dorm a lot, but we are still roommates and I’m still the only person you see frequently, so I know you, Jeno. Also, you’re predictable.”
“Am not.”
“Then why did I give my key to Mark before I even came to get you out of bed?”
Jeno’s jaw drops.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Yes, I’m bluffing. That’s why I just finished texting him that I’m about to leave and told him to bring food along so you can eat a proper meal.”
“You didn’t— ”
“Guess you’ll see just how much I was bluffing when he shows up with his packed bag for the week and food for you.”
Jeno glares after Jaemin as his roommate heads for the door. He knows Jaemin isn’t bluffing. It was an unfair battle and Jeno intends to pout about it for as long as he can.
“I can feel you glaring at me,” Jaemin calls over his shoulder, pulling the door open. “Have fun, roomie, see you next week.”
Jaemin turns to give him a smug grin like the little shit he is. He may have won this time, but Jeno won’t be so predictable next time.
Jeno seizes Jaemin’s attention as an opportunity to flip him off on his way out. Jaemin reciprocates the action, flipping Jeno off in return before blowing a kiss and pulling the door shut behind him.
Jeno falls back against his bed and lets out a long, agonized groan. He has no idea which dorm Mark stays in which means he has no way of determining what time the other male will show up. Despite the ‘i don’t care’ attitude he’s had for the last few days, Jeno refuses to let Mark see him in this state. He won’t give Mr. Perfect the opportunity to see him in complete shambles.
He picks his phone up from where Jaemin placed it back on his bed, moving it to rest on his nightstand, hooking the charger up to it. He pads towards the bathroom with a slouch, snatching random clothes from the closet without much thought and heading to take a shower. He passes the full-body mirror on his way to the bathroom and cringes at his disheveled appearance. Jaemin was putting it lightly when he said Jeno looks terrible. He looks god-awful.
Jeno had been dreading having to do any activity that required him to leave bed, but once he steps into the shower, the feeling of hot water against his skin makes it seem more like a reward than a chore. The steaming water melts some of the tension in his muscles away. For the first time in days, he feels somewhat at peace. Now that he’s in the shower, he doesn’t want to get out.
Unsure of how long he spent in the shower, Jeno feels refreshed. With the scent of mint body wash on his skin and coconut shampoo in his hair, Jeno feels… ready to take a nap. He dresses in the random articles of clothing he grabbed — black basketball shorts and a tie-dye t-shirt that definitely isn’t his — before exiting the bathroom and planning to climb in bed for a nap. He pauses in his tracks, halting toweling his hair dry when he realizes he isn’t alone in the room anymore.
He didn’t hear Mark come in, probably because he was busy remembering how good showers feel, but there he is, sitting on the edge of Jaemin’s bed.
“Jeno, hey! How are you feeling? I haven’t seen you since Tuesday.” Mark smiles at him. Like always.
“Yeah, no one has.” Jeno resumes scrubbing the towel through his damp hair, sitting down on the edge of his bed and dropping the towel to drape over the back of his neck. So much for that nap, he thinks to himself.
“Right, sorry,” Mark fidgets with his hands before remembering the takeout bag he brought along. “Oh! This is for you.”
Mark stands to his feet, clearing the short distance between Jeno and Jaemin’s beds with a few steps before holding the bag out to him. Jeno looks at the bag and then up at Mark. When he sees Mark is smiling again, he casts his gaze back down to the bag before taking it.
“Jaemin said you like burgers so that’s what I got. There’s a burger, a chicken sandwich, and fries in the bag.” Mark turns to grab a bottled drink from where it had been sitting on Jaemin’s bed beside the food bag, holding it out to Jeno. “And a cold sprite to wash it down.”
Jeno takes it with a mumbled, “Thanks.”
“No problem. Food is fuel, you have to keep your energy up.”
Mark’s words are spoken in a lighthearted tone, but it still irks Jeno for some reason.
“What are you, my mother?”
“Sorry,” Mark gives a little bow of apology before hurrying back to sit at the edge of Jaemin’s bed, looking down at his hands where they lay clasped in his lap.
Jeno almost feels bad when Mark goes quiet, just staring at his interlocked fingers. Almost. He contemplates apologizing for his snarkiness, but he can’t do that without explaining that it’s just because he’s moody right now.
He decides to disregard it instead, opening up the bag of food and scooting up further on his bed so that he can eat comfortably. By the time Jeno finishes both the burger and chicken sandwich, Mark still has not budged. He starts on the fries, stealing glances at Mark to see if he moves at all.
It’s not until Jeno is halfway through his fries that Mark finally moves again, scooting himself up on Jaemin’s bed until his back is pressed against the wall. Jeno continues to steal glances at him while eating the fries, watching as Mark pulls a laptop and a glasses case from his bag. He didn’t know Mark wore glasses.
He can’t help but peek over again, curious at what Mark looks like in glasses. The glasses have a black wire frame with rounded rims and a golden bridge above the nose. Jeno scoffs and almost chokes on a fry as a result. Wearing glasses is supposed to make you look nerdy, the fact that Mark still looks… decent in glasses makes Jeno’s blood boil. ‘ He just has to be good at everything, huh?’ Jeno fumes to himself silently.
With Mark quietly doing whatever the hell he’s doing on his laptop, Jeno decides to busy himself with his phone, swiping the screen to life now that the device is charged enough to turn on. Jaemin wasn’t exaggerating when he said he sent a lot of messages. Even Chenle messaged him. He scrolls through all the alerts in his phone’s notification center.
Roomie
(72 unread messages)
Jaem’s bf or wtv
(5 unread messages)
Lab partner
(17 unread messages)
BOYFRIEND!!!
(6 unread messages)
Seeing Renjun’s contact name makes Jeno’s heart twist painfully. The peace he got from his shower leaves his body all at once now that he’s been reminded of why he isolated himself in his bed to begin with. Well, the brief peace was nice while it lasted. With a heavy heart, Jeno opens his boyf-... his ex-boyfriend’ s contact, updating the name from ‘BOYFRIEND!!!’ to ‘Renjun’.
He distracts himself by reading through all the missed messages, starting with Renjun’s since his contact is already open. The messages are mostly pictures and updates from the airport, the last message sent being from two days ago: a selfie of him holding up a peace sign with his family sitting at a round table around him in what looks like a restaurant. The photo makes him crack a bittersweet smile. Renjun looks happy and as much as the separation pains him, he’s glad to see Renjun back with his family looking cheerful.
He moves onto the other messages to stop himself from staring at the photo for too long. Jaemin’s messages start out light, then become concerned before shifting to threats of fighting Jeno when they see each other again. Jaemin delivered on that promise by smacking him repeatedly with a pillow earlier. If Jeno had read his messages, maybe he would have been prepared.
Chenle’s messages are general check-ins followed by a blurry photo of what appears to be… a bug on the sidewalk(?) Jeno has no idea what he’s looking at, but he reacts to the photo with a heart anyway. It’s the thought that counts, right?
He ends with Mark’s messages. The texts start as cheery greetings before turning to worried check-ins. All the messages that follow are motivational quotes and cute cat memes. Forgetting that the sender of these messages is sitting right across from him, Jeno reacts to all the cat memes with hearts, not realizing his error until he hears Mark’s phone go *ding* back to back.
Jeno watches Mark pick up his phone and sees the way his eyebrows raise in question before he looks up and catches Jeno’s gaze.
“I was catching up on messages and kind of forgot you were in the room. My bad.”
Mark replies how he always does — with a smile.
“It’s okay, I’m glad you liked the cat memes. I’ll send more in the future, I have a lot.”
Jeno stares blankly at him. He doesn’t understand how one person can smile so much all the time. He doesn’t understand how someone can excel in every category imaginable. He doesn’t understand Mark.
Mark turns his attention back to his laptop when he realizes Jeno doesn’t have a response. Jeno goes to unlock his phone again, thumb halting over the screen. His lockscreen stares back at him: a photo of Renjun, the photo Jeno took that day he got a new haircut. It takes him back to the conversation in the cafe bathroom and that choked-up feeling returns.
He hurries to remove the photo in his settings, fumbling to remember how to replace a wallpaper. The phone screen becomes blurred and he curses the tears that threaten to escape. Successfully, he removes the photo and replaces it with a temporary placeholder for now. The blurry bug(?) thing Chenle sent him is his lockscreen for now, until he feels like being bothered with finding a new one.
He forces himself to breathe slowly, cutting his phone off and putting it back on the nightstand facing down. Maybe he should have gone with Jaemin and Chenle to the cabin, just so could throw his phone into the lake and never look back. It may be dramatic. Drastic, even. But it would solve his biggest problem right now.
Jeno’s eyes are stinging from his stubborn refusal to let the tears fall. This two week break was supposed to be for him to do nothing but wallow in his misery and cry himself to sleep only to wake up the next day and repeat the process all over again. He can’t do that anymore, not with Mark sitting a few paces away from him. He is not going to cry.
‘Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry’, he chants the two same words over and over again in his head, but it seems to be having the opposite effect seeing as he wants to cry even more now. Jeno makes a blind grab for his pillow, pulling it over his face and holding it there.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t—
“Jeno?” Mark’s voice is soft when he calls out to him. “Are you okay?”
That does it.
The moment the question is asked, the dam behind Jeno’s eyes breaks and he’s sobbing under his pillow. ‘ What part of don’t cry did my brain not understand?’ Jeno scolds his brain in the midst of sobbing his heart out. The fact that Mark is present and attentive to his actions only makes him cry harder.
Jeno is thankful that he has a pillow covering his face. Mark can’t see his face and he can’t see Mark. Maybe things would have been fine — assuming crying for hours non-stop is considered ‘fine’ — if Mark would have stayed seated across the room. But no, because he is Mark, of course he rises to his feet and strides over to crouch at Jeno’s bedside.
“Holding a pillow over your face while you’re already struggling to breathe isn’t a good idea. It’s going to make it harder for you to breathe.”
‘Smart ass,’ Jeno manages to retort in the back of his mind despite his emotional crumbling.
“Here, let me have it.” Mark gently tugs the pillow from Jeno’s grasp.
Jeno’s hands shoot up to take the pillow’s place, covering his face as he continues to cry. Willing himself to stop crying only makes the tears fall quicker. He wishes his bed would swallow him up.
“Here, can you sit up? Breathe with me, okay?” Mark guides him up into a sitting position, taking a seat at the edge of Jeno’s bed to rub his back. “Breathe in. I’ll count to three, and then exhale. Do you think you can do that?”
Jeno’s emotions are all over the place. With his face still hidden behind his hands, Jeno nods.
“Breathe in,” Mark prompts, waiting for Jeno to comply before continuing. “One, two, three. Breathe out.”
Jeno exhales shakily, but it’s still an exhale regardless.
“Good job. Again, breathe in-” Mark doesn’t get to finish his breathing guide, cut off by Jeno’s actions.
Jeno doesn’t know what possesses him, maybe Mark’s kindness, maybe a demon, he doesn’t know. All he knows is that his hands fall from his face before he surges forward to hug Mark. The gesture catches Mark off guard, but he doesn’t hesitate to welcome the crying boy into his arms, rubbing slow circles onto his back while Jeno sobs into his shoulder.
Mark gives him a minute before starting the breathing exercise up again to help Jeno breathe in between sobs. “Breathe in,” With Jeno in his arms, Mark can feel the rise and fall of his back as he breathes, making it much easier to guide him. “One, two, three, and breathe out.
Jeno breathes in tandem with Mark’s words, receiving comforting praise every time he manages to follow along. He loses track of how many times Mark counts him in and out of breathing. The tears haven’t stopped, but his sobs have reduced to sniffles and he is no longer hyperventilating.
“Damn you and your stupid kindness and your stupid patience and your stupid cute glasses,” Jeno hiccups into Mark’s shoulder. He feels that same shoulder begin to shake from Mark’s laugh following his comment.
“I would be hurt that you called my glasses stupid, but at least you called them cute in the same sentence.”
Mark’s reply only further proves Jeno’s point. Jeno sniffles, unable to resist the small smile that creeps onto his lips, hidden by his face being buried into Mark’s shirt. Even after the sniffles begin to die down, Mark continues to rub his back in slow, soothing circles.
Jeno feels himself relax under Mark’s touch. Simple physical gestures like this never fail to make him feel a little better regardless of the situation. He relaxes a little too much, becoming aware of this when he wakes up two hours later. When he fell asleep? Jeno has no idea, but he knows who to blame.
He looks across the room to Jaemin’s bed, prepared to fuss at Mark for putting him to sleep. The bed is empty with the exception of Mark’s packed bag sitting on top of the blanket. If not for the bag sitting there, Jeno would have thought Mark had enough of his moodiness and went back to his own dorm.
Before Jeno’s mind can imagine the worst possible scenarios, the room door eases open, Mark entering quietly. They make eye contact and Jeno knows it’s coming, that damn smile.
“Jeno! You’re awake. Did you have a nice nap?”
Jeno’s thoughts of fussing go out the window when he sees the pizza box in Mark’s arms.
“I did, actually,” it’s true, for the first time in four days, Jeno slept soundly. The nap was so nice that he didn’t even know he fell asleep until he woke up. “You brought pizza?”
Mark nods, holding up the box with that same smile that never seems to leave his face.
“Yes, I got pizza! It’s dinner time now, so I figured I would go grab something to eat while you were napping.” Mark looks around for a place to set the pizza, “Where do you usually set up to eat?”
Jeno pats his bed. “Right here, the best spot in the house.”
Mark laughs and the sound makes a smile tug at his lips. Jeno realizes this is the same thing that happened earlier, damn it, Mark is contagious.
“What toppings did you get?” Jeno asks curiously, peering into the box when Mark opens it.
“Pepperoni pizza with extra pepperoni and cheese-stuffed crust.”
Jeno has to stop himself from drooling, the pizza looks amazing and smells even better. There’s an odd swoop in his stomach — not hunger, not discomfort, and not a bad feeling. He can’t pinpoint the feeling, but it’s something familiar, he just doesn’t know what it is. He can worry about that after pizza, though.
“It smells so good,” Jeno watches as Mark pulls two tall cans of sprite from the bag, handing one to Jeno and setting the other one down beside himself. The can is cold when it touches his palms. His stomach does another swoop.
“I didn’t know if you were the type to enjoy dipping sauces or if you just like to eat the pizza straight-up. I didn’t want to wake you up to ask, so I just got a mix of all the good ones to be safe.”
Mark lays out an array of dipping sauces including marinara, garlic sauce, and ranch accompanied by packets of crushed red pepper and parmesan cheese.
“I like all of the above, so you did great.” Mark smiles brighter than any light he’s ever seen.
“I got a big pizza so we can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.”
‘So thoughtful,’ Jeno thinks to himself.
Another stomach swoop. He mutes the feeling by cracking open his can of sprite and taking a very generous chug.
At some point during the start of their dinner, Mark gets up to grab his laptop from his bag, spurred by Jeno mentioning that he’s had the strongest urge to re-watch ‘the lion king’ recently. Their dinner carries on from there, the two stretched out on Jeno’s bed watching the lion king play on Mark’s laptop while eating their pizza.
Since Jeno had a nap already — and spent four days sleeping on and off — he doesn’t feel tired. Mark, on the other hand, was undoubtedly exhausted from his day and with the addition of his stomach being full of pizza, he dozes off on the last quarter of ‘the lion king’. Jeno doesn’t realize Mark is asleep until his remarks don’t receive their usual cheerful responses. He looks down to find Mark fast asleep on the outer edge of his bed, head resting on a bent arm.
Jeno notices he still has his glasses on and reaches to carefully remove them so that they don’t end up broken. He sets the glasses down on his nightstand and settles back against his pillows to watch the rest of the movie. He turns on ‘finding nemo’ next, feeling sated from a satisfying dinner and comfort movies that he hasn’t seen in a while. He finds himself dozing off toward the middle of the movie, listening to the movie audio from the laptop as he falls easily into sleep.
When Jeno wakes up the next morning, he notices Mark is gone from his bed. He doesn’t know when Mark left the spot next to him and finds himself missing his presence beside him. He glances at Jaemin’s bed next; no Mark.
Jeno wonders if he left to get food again, but then the bathroom door opens and ah- there he is. To say Mark is glowing would be an extreme understatement. Between his bright smile and freshly-washed face, he’s giving the morning sun a run for its money.
“Good morning!” Mark chirps, cheerful as always. “I was going to go make pancakes after I finished washing up. Since you’re awake, do you want to tag along?”
“Pancakes?” Jeno rubs at his eyes. Yeah, he’s still not a morning person, but he’s experiencing one of his rare moments of waking up feeling refreshed and at peace rather than enraged at the world. It’s a nice feeling. “How are you gonna make pancakes? In the microwave?”
Mark laughs and even Jeno’s morning grogginess can’t stop him from cracking a smile at the sound.
“Of course not. I have a two-burner hot plate in my room for cooking. As enjoyable as instant ramen and takeout is, nothing beats a hot, home-cooked meal for me.”
Jeno doesn’t know why he and Jaemin haven’t thought of getting a hot plate for their dorm, but he adds it to his mental notes.
“I’ll tag along, yeah. I’m already awake, so why not?” Also, he’s curious to see what Mark’s dorm space looks like. He wonders what kind of roommate Mark has, though, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference since Mark gets along with everyone.
When they make it to Mark's dorm room, Jeno learns three things. One, Mark’s dorm is located on the floor directly above him and Jaemin’s dorm. Two, Mark has a single dorm meaning no roommate — for that reason, his room is smaller than the dorms that hold two occupants, but is the perfect amount of space for one person. Three, Mark has an eye for decorating. If it wasn’t already a well-known fact that Mark just so happens to be perfect at everything, Jeno would not believe that the other male decorated the room himself.
“Your room is so… wow, ” Jeno awes as he looks around the space. Mark’s mattress is a full size, so bigger than a twin bed, but smaller than a queen size. There’s a nice rug on the hard floors, the dorm-provided desk is placed in the corner, a small tv is mounted to the wall, and a creative ‘kitchen’ area has been set up by placing two shelves beside each other: one of the shelf’s cubbies are used as a pantry, the other used for dishes, the top of one of the shelves holds a microwave and the top of the other holds the double burner hot plate Mark mentioned. A mini fridge is strategically placed beside the shelves.
“I suppose that’s what happens when you watch too many interior design and home renovation tv shows,” Mark laughs, occupying himself with prepping for breakfast while Jeno looks around.
“I can’t believe you let Jaemin talk you into staying in our room while he’s gone. Your bed is bigger and your room is beautiful, I would never leave my dorm if it looked like this.” Jeno already doesn’t leave his dorm room, but his point is, if he had Mark’s room he would somehow leave his room less often than he already does.
“Jaemin didn’t have to talk me into anything, I’m always happy to help out a friend.”
Jeno isn’t surprised that Mark is friends with Jaemin. Mark is friends with everyone, Jeno has heard this a couple of times, but now he fully understands the truth of those words. Mark really is the college campus golden boy that everyone is friends with.
“You really are too nice, have I mentioned that?”
Mark turns to him and smiles, multi-tasking by responding while busy mixing pancake batter in a bowl. “Ah… yes, you have. Damn me and my stupid kindness, stupid patience, and stupid cute glasses.”
Jeno snorts and sits down at the end of Mark’s bed.
“Exactly.”
Mark happens to be wearing the aforementioned stupid cute glasses and Jeno finds himself staring at Mark’s side profile while he cooks. The sight is oddly domestic, reminding Jeno of a scene that would be clipped from a romance drama. ‘Damn him,’ Jeno thinks.
It comes as no surprise that the pancakes are delicious, served with a warm syrup drizzle and topped with fruit. This is the most proper breakfast Jeno has had since leaving home and living on-campus. Similarly to the previous night’s dinner, they watch a movie — on Mark’s tv rather than a laptop — while eating. They spend the rest of the day in Mark’s room rather than Jeno’s dorm.
When lunch time comes around, they go back down to the floor Jeno’s room is on to grab the leftover pizza stored in the fridge, taking it back up to Mark’s room where their sixth movie of the day is paused in wait for them. The two talk about the movie on-screen and discuss dinner plans, Mark asking if Jeno wants to order-in or go to the grocery store to buy ingredients for a home-cooked meal.
“A homemade meal sounds promising, but I don’t feel like making a store run today, so let’s save that for tomorrow and order-in tonight.”
Mark agrees easily and surrenders when Jeno states that he’s going to cover the expenses of whatever they order tonight since Mark did it last time.
They end up deciding on Thai food for delivery. Jeno has lost track of how many movies they’ve watched, but he’s certain that they have watched half the Disney catalog by now. Jeno learns that Mark is one of those people who can not stay up later than 10pm, though that shouldn’t have been a surprise considering people who are early birds tend to go to bed at a decent hour.
“I’m getting sleepy. I didn’t mean to fall asleep without warning last night, so I’m giving you a heads up this time,” Mark laughs, an airy, sleepy little sound while rubbing his eyes.
“It’s okay, go to sleep if you’re tired,” Jeno encourages.
There’s a pause before Mark asks, “Should we go back to your dorm?”
Jeno’s mind goes back to the previous night where Mark fell asleep on his bed unintentionally. He realizes that Mark is probably worried about making him uncomfortable by sharing a bed, likely proposing returning to Jeno’s dorm where there are two beds instead of one for that reason. Jeno didn’t mind Mark falling asleep next to him, though, and was even a little disappointed to find him gone the next morning.
Jeno tells himself that it’s just because he is a person who thrives on physical proximity. He never has been a fan of sleeping by himself, so it makes sense that he enjoys having Mark next to him, right?
“I like your room better, we can stay here.”
Mark gives him a sleepy smile that makes his stomach do yet another swoop that he chooses to blame on being extremely full from their dinner.
“Alright, goodnight then, Jeno.” Mark takes his glasses off, rubbing at his eyes again before laying back down.
“Goodnight, Mark.”
Mark falls asleep faster than anyone Jeno knows, passed out the moment his eyes close. ‘ Probably because he is such a hard worker,’ Jeno thinks. It makes sense considering Mark puts maximum effort into academics and manages to have a high social battery that never seems to deplete on top of that.
At some point, the movie ended up watching Jeno rather than the other way around, his attention on Mark’s sleeping form. Mark looks peaceful when he sleeps, black hair fanned out against his pillow and an arm under his head. Cute.
Similarly to the previous days he’s spent with Mark, Jeno wakes up unable to recall when he fell asleep. Jeno is awake in his head, but his eyes are not ready to open. He finds himself too comfortable, cuddled up against a warmth that he can’t help but snuggle further into.
His eyes fly open suddenly at the realization that he is cuddling in his sleep because he fell asleep in Mark’s bed which means…
Jeno’s eyes gaze down first, being met with the white fabric of a t-shirt. His face is pressed into said shirt, a steady rise and fall motion able to be felt under his cheek. That’s when he realizes his head is on Mark’s chest.
His eyes widen before slowly moving up to glance at Mark. Thankfully, he is spared the awkwardness of making immediate eye contact. Mark is awake because he’s always up early, laying with one arm under his head, his free hand holding his phone up in front of his face, thumb lazily swiping at the screen.
Mark looks down when he feels Jeno move, meeting his eyes. Jeno freezes, resembling a deer in headlights. It’s too early for his brain-to-mouth filter to form any words for this situation. He can’t think of a casual way to say ‘s orry, I forgot I’m a cuddle-sleeper, I didn’t mean to wake up wrapped around you like a vine with my head on your chest, oopsie.’
“Good morning,” Mark smiles down at him.
Jeno is taken aback by the casualty of Mark’s tone, not finding any sign of discomfort or awkwardness in his expression. He’s surprised that Mark doesn’t seem to mind. Sure, he’s known for being friendly, but Jeno is pretty sure that Mark letting him drool on his shirt while sleeping on his chest crosses into a new territory. Still, if Mark doesn’t mind it, then Jeno sees no need to embarrass himself by addressing it.
“Good morning,” Jeno yawns.
And it is a good morning. The good morning turns into a good day overall just like every day he’s spent with Mark this week. Jeno loses track of the days that go by, but it’s different than how time flew while he was sulking alone, the days are enjoyable and leave Jeno feeling at peace.
They end up spending the remaining days of their break in Mark’s room, only returning to Jeno’s room for Jeno to shower and change clothes. They develop a comfortable routine: Jeno wakes up snuggled up to Mark every morning, they have breakfast, lunch, dinner together whether it be cooked in the room or ordered-in, and they watch movies until they fall asleep.
There’s a development in their movie-watching, changed from watching movies side-by-side to cuddling while watching them. They fall asleep in their cuddling positions and wake up wrapped around each other. Neither of them address the actions, choosing to simply enjoy it without a need for discussion.
Jeno doesn’t realize their two-week break has reached an end until he’s woken up one night by Jaemin calling his phone back-to-back. Jeno grumpily answers the phone, not enthused about being woken up.
“It’s seven in the morning, Jaemin,” Jeno grumbles into the phone. “Why are you blowing up my phone?”
“I wouldn’t have had to call you a hundred times if you would have answered the door. Wake your ass up and let me in. If everyone in this hall can hear me banging on the door, I know you can too.”
Oh shit. Since Jeno had been staying in Mark’s room, he completely forgot about his own and therefore also forgot about his returning roommate.
“I didn’t realize a week was up already, shit, hang on I’ll come let you in. I’m not in the room, that’s why you’re getting no response to your knocking.”
Jeno sits up, regretfully leaving Mark’s warmth. Damn Jaemin.
“I know you’re not a morning person and you sound like I just woke you up. If you’re not in the room, then where are you?”
Considering Jeno teases Jaemin about Chenle to no end, he knows Jaemin will be all too happy to return the favor if he says that he’s in Mark’s room and has been there for days. Jeno would never be able to live it down.
“Mind your business, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Jeno hangs up before Jaemin can protest. Mark looks up at him curiously.
“Jaemin’s back, I have to let him into our room.”
“Oh yeah, I need to return his room key to him.”
Mark accompanies him in going one floor down to return to his dorm. Jaemin is leaning against the door, standing upright when he spots the two approaching. Jaemin’s expression turns smug when he sees Mark tagging along with Jeno.
Jeno sighs to himself. He’s never going to hear the end of it.
“Good morning, Jaemin. How was your trip?” Mark greets Jaemin while Jeno busies himself with unlocking the door.
“Hey, Mark! The trip was great, I wasn’t ready to leave, but classes are starting back up tomorrow so, here I am.”
Jeno gets the door open and they all pile inside, flipping the lights on to illuminate the neglected room.
“Here’s your key, you’re going to need this now that you’re back,” Mark returns Jaemin’s room key to him. Jeno mentally facepalms, realizing that he could have just brought the key down for Jaemin to let himself in. This is what happens when Jeno is forced to function in the morning.
“So~” Jaemin starts.
Jeno already knows what’s coming.
“Did you two enjoy the break? I see Mark managed to get you out of the room for once,” Jaemin looks too smug for Jeno’s liking. Little shit. “Thanks for looking after my roomie, by the way, you’re a godsend, Mark.”
“I enjoyed the break a lot and am thankful for the recharge it gave me, I feel like classes will be less stressful since we got two weeks to rest.” Mark smiles warmly, “And no need to thank me, I’m glad I could help.”
Jaemin looks to Jeno for an answer next. He receives a middle finger in reply.
“I’ll take that as confirmation that you had a decent week,” Jaemin teases before flopping down on his bed. “So, what are you two planning on getting into today?”
Jaemin knows Jeno has no plans. Outside of class sessions, Jeno rarely goes out. If his attendance isn’t mandatory for an event, there is a ninety-nine percent chance he isn’t showing up.
“I have a club meeting in half an hour so I’m about to get ready to head there. Other than that, I will probably spend the day prepping for classes to start back up tomorrow. You know, organization and planning stuff,” Mark answers.
Jeno deflates a little at the idea of Mark having to go to a club meeting, but he’ll never admit to that out loud.
“I wish I was that studious. I lost motivation, so I’m dreading classes resuming tomorrow,” Jeno admits.
While spending the two-week break with Mark was the most enjoyable time Jeno has had in a while, he is unsure of whether or not those interactions will continue now that the break is over. Before the break, he and Mark never hung out — a fault of his own — and while he had no problem with that at the time, the idea makes him sad now.
“If you want, I can help you out. If you want to join me, I can show you how I organize for classes and we can be study buddies when assignments and exams start rolling in.”
Jeno envied Mark’s diligence and general perfection before — and still kind of does — but he believes that if anyone can help him regain motivation, it’s Mark.
“That sounds great, I would love that,” Jeno responds truthfully.
“Great, I’ll see you later then?”
Jeno nods. “I’ll see you later.”
Mark smiles and says goodbyes to both Jeno and Jaemin before excusing himself to attend his club meeting. The moment the door shuts behind him, Jaemin starts what Jeno knows is just the beginning of his teasing.
“Mark is not my friend,” Jaemin says in a mocking tone, referencing the defensive words Jeno spoke only a week ago.
“Don’t start,” Jeno grumbles, climbing into his own bed.
It’s too late, though. Jaemin is just getting started. Jeno drowns him out by putting his pillow over his head.
Jeno retracts his former statement. Mark is something more than a friend; he’s a swooping feeling in his stomach, a great cuddle buddy, and the reason Jeno is able to honestly say he’s okay after everything that has happened.
Damn Mark. Jeno smiles under his pillow. Damn him and his stupid kindness, stupid patience, and stupid cute glasses.