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Jaemin reached across the table once more to readjust the iPad, chewing on his lower lip as he angled it in a way that caught both him and his meal on the screen. He nodded once to his manager and leaned back, relaxing and letting a smirk appear on his face as the woman pressed start.
Jaemin’s eyes flickered back and forth on the screen as the numbers in the corner began building and comments greeting him began rolling up from the bottom of the screen.
After a few seconds allowing people to join the live he leaned forward with a huge grin; “Hellooooo, czennie babies! I thought we’d do a mukbang today. Is that okay with everyone? I hope so, because I’m doing it anyway.” He watched the comments continue to roll in, most much too fast for him to read properly but he was able to catch a few. “No, I’m all alone today. The members are all eating without me after the concert. I just wanted to eat with you all~!”
He began to set out his tableware in front of him, reading comments as they appeared on screen. “Babies, I’m having kimchi jjigae today. I bet Jeno will be jealous, so let’s hope he isn’t watching this, hm?”
–
“Are you feeling little, Jen?”
Jeno’s head snapped up at the question, finding a couple sets of eyes staring at him. He must have zoned out mid-conversation and his fingers had somehow found their way to his mouth. He spit them out and wiped them surreptitiously on his pant leg. “Eh? Nuh uh…”
Mark smiled fondly. “Oh, birthday boyyyy,” he cooed, reaching across the table to pinch Jeno’s cheek. The boy whined and squirmed away. “You worked hard today, I bet you want to relax, hm? Should we go watch a movie with Renjunnie?”
Jeno pondered the question, glancing around the room. Haechan had decided to eat alone and Jisung had retired early so only Chenle, Renjun, and Mark remained, the former two engrossed in their own conversation at the end of the table. He was, now that he thought about it, feeling little; He always felt a little out of it after a concert, exhaustion catching up to him and leaving him pliant and soft and… well, little most of the time.
But right now he really just wanted Jaemin. But he remembered the managers telling them all that Jaemin was doing a solo livestream in his hotel room, so he couldn’t bother him right now. Jeno pouted at the memory.
“No,” he finally responded, a few minutes after Mark had asked the question. Mark didn’t mind - little Jeno took more time to do a lot of things. “Tired, Markie- hyung .”
“Alright. Take one more bite of your food and we’ll go back to the room, okay bud?” Mark responded, nudging Jeno’s hardly touched plate forward. Jeno complied, obediently taking one more bite of his samgyeopsal before standing. He shyly bid goodnight to Renjun and Chenle as Mark took his hand and led him out of the hotel room and down the hall to his own.
Jeno made a noise of confusion at being brought to Mark and Haechan’s room and the older laughed softly. “Jaem is doing a live right now, remember? You can rest in my bed for now.”
Jeno pouted but complied, letting himself be led into the room. At the sight of Haechan lounging across one of the beds his sulk morphed into a smile and he threw himself onto the bed next to him, cuddling into his side.
“Oh!” Haechan gasped at the sudden armful of Jeno he received, winding his arms around the boy and hugging him tightly. Jeno was not very big on skinship a lot of the time, squirming his way out of hugs or playfully slapping Haechan when he tried to get too close. Nono , however, was the complete opposite. Little Jeno often was the one to initiate any type of skinship, tucking himself close to his members sides or plopping himself onto the lap of whoever happened to be sitting down, holding onto everybody’s hands like he would get lost if he didn’t and even pressing kisses to their cheeks if he was feeling confident enough to.
“I’m going to go back and finish dinner, Nono, I’ll see you later. Be good for Haechannie, okay?” Mark leaned down to kiss the top of Jeno’s head, ruffling his hair as he left the room. Jeno just hummed in reply, cuddling against Haechan’s chest.
“Someone is just soooo tired,” Haechan teased him, fingers trailing circles across Jeno’s back. “I bet you’re too tired to watch Jaemin’s live with me, hm?”
Jeno’s head perked up at that, causing Haechan to stifle a laugh. “Watch Nana?”
“Mhm,” Haechan agreed, pulling his phone from his back pocket and angling the screen so Jeno could also see as he unlocked it and opened Weverse. “I was going to watch Jaeminnie’s livestream, but if our Nono- aegi is too sleepy, we can just-”
“No, wanna watch!” Jeno protested, reaching grabby hands towards the phone. Haechan held it just out of reach with a laugh.
“Alright, alright.” He clicked on the frozen image of Jaemin and propped the phone up against his legs as the video began playing. Jeno beamed as a pixelated Jaemin appeared on screen, a bowl of kimchi jjigae displayed in front of him. “Ooh, a mukbang. Nana talks too much for a mukbang, don’t you think? He’s hardly eaten anything.” Jeno giggled softly and settled back against Haechan’s chest to watch his caregiver chat to their fans.
After a few minutes Jeno was becoming restless. He truly hadn’t eaten much back in Renjun’s hotel room, too distracted by his headspace and the lack of Jaemin at his side, and watching said boy eat on the screen in Haechan’s hand had his stomach growling loudly. Jeno blushed fiercely and Haechan giggled, cuddling the boy tight to his chest.
“Did you even eat anything?” He teased, rubbing at Jeno’s tummy. Jeno shook his head shyly. “Go get some more food. Nana will still be here when you get back. You worked hard today, you need to eat to grow up big and strong, hm?”
Jeno’s blush only deepened at the childish talk, quickly leaving the warmth of Haechan’s arms in his shyness. He really was hungry, now that he was forced to confront the thought, and he left the hotel room quickly. Once in the hallway, though, he paused. Renjun’s room was two doors down, where Mark and Chenle were still there eating with him. But his samgyeopsal was probably cold by now, or packed away in the fridge. Jaemin and Jeno’s room, however, was directly across the hall, and Jeno knew from watching the livestream that his kimchi jjigae was still warm and there was definitely enough for him.
Haechan had told him to go eat something. He just hadn’t told him where.
Jeno reached for the keycard in his back pocket, sliding it into the slot and watching as the light flashed green. He could deal with the wrath of their managers later. He wanted Jaemin, and he wanted kimchi jjigae . He pushed the door open.
-
(Haechan kept the livestream playing after Jeno left, too entertained by his friend’s interactions with their fans to turn it off.
Jaemin was mid story, wildly waving his chopsticks in the air when the telltale sound of a hotel room door opening and slamming shut interrupted him, followed by a quiet but still audible, “Nana?”
Haechan sat up in bed, eyes wide. “Oh, shit.”)
-
Jeno carefully avoided the intense glare of Jaemin’s manager behind the table, pretending not to see her gesturing for Jeno to leave the room. He was already here, had already made his presence known, the damage had already been done. He just wanted Jaemin.
Jaemin grinned at him from his place at the table, gesturing for Jeno to come closer, the opposite of his manager. “Ah, Jeno’s here! Jeno came to visit me! One moment, everyone~”
The boy quickly stood and rounded the corner, ignoring the hushed protests of his manager as he grasped Jeno’s face in his hands, squishing his cheeks together as he looked into his eyes. Jeno stared back, melting into his caregivers’ touch. “Ah…” he nodded solemnly, eyes taking on the soft look it always did when Jeno was little. Jaemin always knew when Jeno was little. “Be good, okay?” He whispered, taking Jeno’s hand and leading him towards the table and sitting him down in the chair Jaemin had previously been occupying.
Jeno blinked in surprise and his head turned to face the camera, wide eyes watching his reflection. He was on the livestream now. He watched through the screen as Jaemin pulled up a second chair next to him at the table, watched as comments about him began to flood the screen. He felt frozen, too small to know how to act, all idol training thrown out of the window. He was just hungry, had just wanted to be with Jaemin. He hadn’t anticipated joining in on the livestream, not when he felt like this.
“Jeno just missed me sooo much, czennies, he couldn’t help but come join me. Isn’t that so sweet of him?” Jaemin laughed, and Jeno turned his wide-eyed stare away from the iPad screen to meet Jaemin’s gaze. Jaemin had a way of calming Jeno with just a look, and Jeno felt his nerves deflate as their eyes met.
“No…” Jeno shook his head, clearing his throat when he realized his voice came out a bit higher pitched than he wanted. “No. I was hungry…”
Jaemin whined, pushing the bowl closer to Jeno. “Fine! You eat then. I’ll chat with our lovely fans, hm?” Jeno had difficulty detecting sarcasm when he regressed but he knew Jaemin incredibly well, so even when small he could tell the younger wasn’t truly annoyed with him. He hummed happily and took Jaemin’s abandoned chopsticks and spoon, helping himself to his caregiver’s meal.
Jeno ate in near silence, content to listen along to and giggle at Jaemin’s stories and comments during the livestream. This is what he had needed after today’s concert - to just be in Jaemin’s presence, thighs pressed together under the table and shoulders brushing as Jeno brought spoonfuls of jjigae to his mouth or as Jaemin gestured wildly with his words.
As Jeno neared the end of his - well, of Jaemin’s - meal he felt his eyelids drooping, movements getting slower and sloppier. He struggled to pick up his last piece of kimchi with his chopsticks and he made a noise of frustration as his cheeks flushed bright red. He moved to the spoon instead, piling it high and bringing it to his mouth, smearing his cheeks and upper lip as he did so.
Jaemin had glanced over during Jeno’s struggle, watching with a fond smile as the boy made a mess of himself. He forgot about the camera in front of him, or his manager that was on the verge of having a heart attack behind the iPad, and grabbed Jeno’s face to turn it towards him.
“So messy…” Jaemin tsked, picking up a napkin and wiping at Jeno’s face. The little squirmed in his grip, whining all the while until Jaemin deemed him clean enough and let him go. “There. All done?”
Jeno glanced down at the bowl and then back up at Jaemin with a nod, smiling softly. “All done. T’ank you.”
Jaemin flinched a bit at Jeno’s childish tone, suddenly remembering that they were being livestreamed to thousands of people right now. He cooed and ruffled Jeno’s hair a bit roughly. “Aw, Jeno- yah , acting all cute because I let you eat all my food. Aegyo won’t get you out of this, you owe me next time, hm? Czennies will hold you to it!”
Jeno just blinked in response, eyes glazed over with exhaustion and the feeling of being small. He was little and tired and in his caregiver’s presence and couldn’t be bothered to care about anything he definitely should be caring about at this moment. “‘Kay, Nana.”
Jaemin could tell Jeno was feeling smaller by the second, no longer able to hold his little side back any more than he had been and decided to spare his manager the torment of dealing with the two of them any longer. “Someone’s about to fall asleep, so I’ll end the live here, my babies. Thank you for eating with me! Say goodbye, Jen!”
Jeno turned towards the iPad once more, leaning to the side and resting his head on Jaemin’s shoulder. “Buh-bye,” Jeno waved with his fingers to the screen, giggling softly at his reflection imitating him. He watched the wave of comments roll across the screen, mind too fuzzy to register them as actual words as Jaemin bid his goodbyes quickly and finally ended the live.
Once the screen turned black Jaemin’s manager was quick to remove the iPad from the table as if the two were planning on starting it up once more. She stayed eerily silent as she cleaned up Jaemin’s dishes and the latter sent her an apologetic smile as she left the room, giving him a look that let him know that they would be discussing this later.
Jaemin couldn’t find it in him to really care, though. Not with Jeno falling asleep on his shoulder, warm breaths puffing against his collarbone. He could deal with it tomorrow. Tonight, he had a little boy to put to bed.
-
(Haechan lived for gossip. And after the PR nightmare that was Jaemin and then Jaemin-and-Jeno’s livestream, he couldn’t help but search to see what people were saying.
@nomin : what. the. fuck. was. that.
@jen0423 : jeno looked so tired :( sm has been overworking them all so much, i hope they get to rest well before the next concert date
@kh1000000 : that was weird right guys???? am i the only one that found that like really weird and tense????? GUYS??????
@sungfeed : it was jaemin’s mukbang but i think jeno ate the entire thing LMFAOOOO
@mark_ren : did jeno seem drunk to yall
@sunnyhyuck : and when i said jeno was baby you all laughed… WHO’S LAUGHING NOW
@jaemiebear : jaemin is so soft with jeno 🥺🥺🥺 hes going to be such a good dad one day
“Oh, you have no idea,” Haechan snorted at the last tweet, taking a screenshot and sending it to Jaemin with the text ‘ BEST DAD AWARD!’ .
Jaemin replied with a photo of a sleeping Jeno at his side, followed by a middle finger emoji and the text ‘Don’t talk to me or my child ever again.’ )