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Jaemin should really be studying. He has an quiz for his stupid finance class tomorrow, but instead of working on a practice exam, he’s in bed at four in the afternoon, scrolling through messages from friends he needs to respond to and messages from his study group he’s desperately trying to pretend he’s never seen when a notification pops up. Jaemin sighs before he swipes up to get to his group chat with Jeno and Donghyuck.
16:20 cute chocoball: hey im coming over tonight
16:21 ♡ acorn ♡: stay out of my house
16:21 cute chocoball: no
16:21 cute chocoball: its not even ur house its jaemins
16:22 cute chocoball: hey jaemin has jeno told u about [redacted]
16:22 ♡ acorn ♡: BITCH
16:22 ♡ acorn ♡: DONT U DARE I TOLD U THAT IN CONFIDENCE
16:22 cute chocoball: :)
16:22 ♡ acorn ♡: im going to kill u lol
16:22 cute chocoball: id like to see u try lol
wait if u tell me abt whatever [redacted] is u can come over hyuckie, Jaemin types, and as soon as he sends it, he sees little typing bubbles appear next to Jeno’s name.
16:23 ♡ acorn ♡: NA JAEMIN U FUCKING TRAITOR
16:23 cute chocoball: HEY
16:24 cute chocoball: NO CUSSING AROUND THE BABY
16:24 ♡ acorn ♡: WHO THE FUCKS THE BABY
16:25 cute chocoball: ME
Jaemin hears Jeno’s scream of disgust before he sees him throw the door open, before he feels him flop onto the bed, before he scents him and the honey that follows him around. Jeno squints down at Jaemin before squishing himself onto Jaemin’s arm and making himself comfortable with very little regard for personal space.
“What?” Jaemin grunts, shifting to accommodate the weight of Jeno’s body against his and holding his phone up above him so he can still see Donghyuck’s steady stream of texts.
“He’s coming over? And you’re letting him?” Jeno asks, his phone clutched tight in his hand. Jaemin can see the reflection of the screen flashing on Jeno’s glasses. “Why do you hate me? You know I’m going to have to be the sober one tonight.”
“I could never hate you, that’s impossible,” Jaemin says, scrolling down to Donghyuck’s latest should i bring pizza its gonna be a long ass night lol. “But I wanna know what he was talking about, so he’s coming over. Unless, of course, you want to fill me in.”
Jeno pointedly averts his eyes. “That’s on a strictly need-to-know basis, and you’re not on the list. It’s a very exclusive club, you know. Only two people in this entire world know what it is. Anyway,” Jeno says, putting his phone to the side and pillowing his head on Jaemin’s arm, and Jaemin knows the most obvious deflection ever when he sees it, “I haven’t had lunch yet.”
“What does that have to do with me? Your problem, not mine.”
“I’m so hungry. Jaemin, feed me.” Jeno presses closer, fingers skimming along the hem of Jaemin’s sweatpants. Jaemin thinks, distantly, like he’s watching this unfold from an outsider’s perspective, that Jeno’s infinitely more cunning than he thinks he is, than other people think he is. “I haven’t eaten in, like, fifty years. Once again, why do you hate me?”
“You’re not telling me what bracket redacted bracket is, so honestly, I don’t think you deserve my cooking. There’s ramyun in the pantry if you want to cook some.”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“Changed your mind yet?” Jeno’s fingers dip dangerously lower.
“Nope.”
Jaemin’s been staring at his phone, waiting for Donghyuck to reply with what pizza toppings to order, in a valiant effort to ignore Jeno. It doesn’t work.
Jeno winds his arms around Jaemin’s middle, throwing an ankle over Jaemin’s leg, and Jeno scoots so close to Jaemin that it’s almost like he’s trying to mold himself into Jaemin’s side.
“Jaemin, please, food, feed me,” Jeno whines, rubbing his head underneath Jaemin’s chin, and Jaemin wonders if this is divine retribution of some sort. If he could’ve avoided all of this if he hadn’t been this annoying to Jeno in the past. “Jaemin, feed me. Soy sauce rice with egg. Please.”
“Oh my god,” Jaemin says, and when Jeno angles his head forward to try to kiss Jaemin in protest, he flattens a hand against Jeno’s mouth to stop him in his tracks. “Okay, fine, whatever, get off already and I’ll make you ramyun or whatever. Just—”
Jaemin doesn’t manage to get his next words out. It’s all just a garbled mess of sounds, half-formed syllables that die out in his throat when Jeno’s tongue presses, hot and wet, against Jaemin’s fingers. Jaemin watches, transfixed, as Jeno takes his middle finger into his mouth, watches as Jeno’s lips close around the tip, and it’s all he can do to hold tight onto his phone to keep it from falling on his face.
“Jeno,” Jaemin chokes out, and his phone tumbles onto the bed when he turns to hold Jeno closer and push him away at the same time. He doesn’t quite know what he’s doing, either. Stop. The food. You’re hungry. I’ll feed you. Don’t stop. Jeno.
Jeno smiles, razor-sharp in his victory, and—
“Hey assholes! Open up!” A voice that sounds suspiciously like Donghyuck’s yells out, followed by three loud bangs on the door, and Jeno accidentally bites down on Jaemin’s finger so hard that he doesn’t know if it’ll still be attached when Jeno lets go. “I brought pizza!”
“Jaemin oh my god I’m so sorry,” Jeno says in a single breath, pulling off of Jaemin’s finger with a wet pop, and Jaemin stares at the ring of tooth marks around his finger. It doesn’t hurt yet, which can only mean one of two things: it wasn’t as bad as Jaemin thought it was, or Jeno just destroyed all of the nerve endings in his finger. Jeno’s off of him in a flash, throwing the bedroom door open and bounding to the front door with loud steps. “Lee Donghyuck, I’m going to murder you!”
Jaemin’s left there, alone on his bed, and he stares at his finger again. A row of indents stares back at him. You should’ve just made him his damn rice, it seems to be telling him, accusation in every individual divot. Then you wouldn’t be suffering like this anymore.
“I know,” Jaemin says to no one in particular, before he picks himself off of the bed to see what kind of insanity Donghyuck’s brought with him today.
His phone, abandoned on the pillow next to where his head had been, buzzes again with a reminder for unread notifications.
16:29 cute chocoball: hEY UGLIES OPEN UP IM ALMOST THERE
16:31 cute chocoball: YALL BETTER NOT BE DOING ANYTHING I WOULDNT SWEAR TO GOD
That was a few weeks ago, back when Donghyuck was still having Help I Spilled Coffee on the Hot Intern problems, back when he had enough time to come over to their apartment and drink all of their alcohol, back when Donghyuck wasn’t attached at the hip to some Yonsei student. Not that Jaemin’s biased or anything, but Korea University is just better. Just saying. Anyway.
It’s been a year since Jaemin and Jeno moved in together and just over half a year since they started dating, and honestly, Jeno’s freeloading tendencies have only gotten worse over time. Jaemin isn’t sure why he expected anything less. He doesn’t mind, though, not at all. Jeno won’t ask him to buy things he needs, like textbooks or clothes or anything like that, but Jaemin likes cooking for him, likes knowing that he’s doing something nice for the person he’s with.
“I’m a trust fund baby, you can trust me,” Jaemin whispered against Jeno’s neck once, biting lightly at the exposed skin of Jeno’s throat and pressing him back further into the sheets.
Jeno whined at him before a realization sparked behind his eyes and he pushed Jaemin back, staring accusingly up at him. “Dude, you totally stole that from Hamilton.” He let his hands fall over his eyes. “And now you’ve ruined the moment. This shameless plagiarism, I can’t believe it. Damn you.”
“Sorry, I did,” Jaemin said, not apologetic at all because he was the one who got them tickets to see it abroad in the summer, and he lifted Jeno’s hands off so he could press a kiss to the tip of Jeno’s nose. “But you and I both know it’s true.”
That only goes so far, though. Jeno’s latest fixation, one that Jaemin can’t quite buy for him and one that Jeno can’t quite seem to charm his way into getting, is one that Jaemin should’ve seen coming from five thousand kilometers away.
“Cats,” Jeno whines over breakfast, fingers scrabbling at the table, and Jaemin rolls his eyes, taking another sip of his third cup of coffee instead of bothering with a response. Jeno’s already dressed for class, his backpack sitting against the wall, and he looks up at Jaemin to whine, mournfully and with feeling, “Cats.”
“I told you already, our place is too small for a cat,” Jaemin says for what must be the twentieth time this week. He’s lost track by now. “Or cats. And you’re allergic, just in case you forgot.”
“You’re lactose intolerant, but does that ever stop you?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It’s literally the exact same thing!” Jeno huffs, pursing his lips. “You always get the shits whenever you get your fucking taro smoothies, and here you are, trying to tell me a cat’s a bad idea?”
“Oh my god, diarrhea is one thing, but literally almost dying is another,” Jaemin hisses, because of course this is his life. Of course he’s arguing with his boyfriend about the relative dangers of spending fifteen minutes on the toilet versus going into anaphylactic shock. Of course.
“I can’t believe you actually hate me,” Jeno sniffs.
“I just want you alive, babe, you won’t be cute when you’re dead.”
Jeno just rolls his eyes before he pushes his chair out and reaches out to grab his bag. Jaemin stops him before he leaves, a hand on his wrist, and Jeno stops. “What do you want?”
“You’re forgetting something, aren’t you?” Jaemin puckers up, watching as Jeno makes a face of disgust. “If you roll your eyes again, your face is going to freeze that way.”
Jeno leans forward obligingly, pecking Jaemin lightly before he heads out, and Jaemin can’t help the words that he shouts out at Jeno as he closes the door behind him.
“Bye, darling! See you at home later!”
Back then, Jaemin knew all along that veterinary clubs didn’t have petting zoos. That much was obvious. He wasn’t an idiot or anything. He’d only gone to that first meeting because he saw Jeno in the crowded student center one Wednesday afternoon and thought he was cute and proceeded to ask all of his friends if they knew who the kid with the handsome face and pretty fingers and cute mole underneath his eye was.
“Stop being creepy, you’re staring. Like in the intense way you always do.” Chaewon said, and she took a bite out of her wrap as she looked over in the same direction Jaemin was staring at. “Actually, yeah. I do know him. That’s Lee Jeno.”
“Do you even know anything about him? Anything that actually matters?”
“I think he’s in the vet med track? Hyunjin’s in it, too, she told me about him because she said he was like a guy version of her.” Chaewon tapped her chin with a manicured finger. “I think there’s some club meeting or whatever tonight if you want to go stalk him some more.”
Jaemin paused and looked down at the suit he wore to the interview he just got out of. Well, it was better to be overdressed than underdressed, wasn’t it? He forced Chaewon to text Hyunjin and ask her about the meeting time and location (“It’s for a friend, he’s interested,” Chaewon typed as Jaemin leaned over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t typing anything too incriminating), and at seven sharp, he opened the door with as much swagger he could muster and sauntered in.
Jeno was cute enough and funny enough and tolerated all of Jaemin’s questions about the difference between an intramuscular and an intravenous injection with a seemingly endless amount of patience, and by the time finals rolled around, Jaemin realized that he’d been spending more time with Jeno than with any of his other friends, that it was Jeno who was always running around in his mind even when he didn’t want him to. He even found himself changing up his own study habits to study with Jeno, which he never did, not even for his best friends.
He found out Jeno was having a hard time with his roommates, and he wanted to move out, too, so Jaemin did the only thing he could think of, the only rational thing he could come up with— he asked his parents to buy him an apartment.
“Are you really sure?” Jeno asked for the millionth time, kicking his feet lightly against Jaemin’s as they grabbed lunch in the student center between classes, and Jaemin had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.
“Yes, I’m sure.” And just to make his point extra clear, he reached over for Jeno’s hand and stared deeply into his eyes, trying his best to convey you can have everything you want from me, if only you’ll ask for it, until Jeno laughed, a nervous and high sound, and pulled his hand back. Jaemin felt his heart crumble into tiny pieces.
Back then, it was hard to keep his hands to himself, to keep his eyes from wandering, to remind himself that Jeno wasn’t his. He spent close to a semester wondering if it would be too hard on him to keep staying with Jeno when he didn’t even know if Jeno liked him back, if he was just that friendly to everyone. He even considered the coward’s route by running away from his problems and trying to date someone, anyone, who would make his feelings go away. But now that Jeno is his, well.
Jaemin’s the one who gets to wake up with a Jeno-shaped lump next to him, and even if it took a while for them to get to this point, they’re together now, and that’s all that matters.
Well, it’s almost all that matters.
Jaemin comes back from econ with a pounding headache, and as soon as he steps through the door of his apartment, he beelines straight for the old futon in the corner and flops down on it and closes his eyes. When he wakes up, there’s a heavy weight on his chest, one that he’s almost tempted to fling off of him before he realizes it smells suspiciously good. Jaemin shifts, and the weight on his chest moves, too, settling on his stomach instead.
Jaemin asks, without opening his eyes, “What do you want?”
There’s no response. Instead, what he gets is a mouth that presses wetly against his neck, sucking and kissing down from his chin. Jaemin groans, and when he finally looks up, Jeno’s staring at him with an inscrutable expression on his face. Jaemin reaches up to bury his fingers into Jeno’s hair, and Jeno dips his head back down, nipping lightly at the places he’s just mouthed over.
“What’s wrong with you today?” Jaemin asks, and Jeno still doesn’t respond. “Cat got your tongue?”
He gets a harder bite at his neck this time, and Jeno only pulls away so he can scowl down at Jaemin. “You should be nicer to me,” Jeno sniffs, and Jaemin reaches around so he can slip his hands under Jeno’s shirt, thumbing at the curve of his waist.
“I’m always this nice to you.”
Jeno scowls again, the corners of his mouth turned prettily downwards, before he leans in to kiss Jaemin. Jeno’s greedy today, licking into Jaemin’s mouth and sucking at Jaemin’s lower lip, and Jaemin lets him take what he wants. It’s been a while since he had Jeno all to himself, with all of their classes and schedules and how tired they both are when they get home, so he’s going to enjoy this while he can.
He palms Jeno’s ass, the denim rough against his fingers, and Jeno moans into his mouth, the rocking of his hips stuttering. Jaemin can’t help the way he laughs at that, can’t help the way his hips buck up against Jeno’s, can’t help the way he pulls back and lets Jeno tuck his face into Jaemin’s neck so he can whisper, filthy and low, into Jeno’s ear, “Tell me how you want me, baby.”
And Jeno sucks a bruise into Jaemin’s neck in lieu of an actual response and he grinds back onto Jaemin’s hips and wraps himself so close to Jaemin that it feels like they’ll never be apart again. “Like this,” Jeno murmurs, licking down Jaemin’s neck and Jaemin wonders, idly, if Jeno can tell how fast his heart is beating. How much he wants Jeno right now. Jeno smiles down at him, wicked. “Let me take care of you tonight.”
“Fuck, Jeno,” Jaemin pants as Jeno pushes the hem of Jaemin’s shirt up his stomach, trails his fingers up Jaemin’s chest. He scoots backward to sit on Jaemin’s thighs, and Jaemin lets out a long groan. He’s teasing, goddammit, and they both know it.
“That’s kinda the point here,” Jeno says, voice muffled as he dips down to kiss a lazy trail of butterflies up Jaemin’s chest. His fingers skim, feather-light, over Jaemin’s sides, and he mouths at Jaemin’s collarbone. “You have to be smart, Jaemin. Come on. You’re so dumb sometimes.”
Jaemin knocks his head against the futon. “Jeno, could you, like, shut up? For once? Please?”
“Don’t wanna.” Jeno pushes Jaemin to sit up so he can take his shirt off, and his eyes rake hungrily over Jaemin’s skin. He presses his palm against Jaemin’s chest, his fingers lingering over Jaemin’s heartbeat. “Just look at you.”
Jaemin doesn’t even need to look to know what Jeno’s seeing. There are bite marks and bruises scattered all over Jaemin’s skin, courtesy of Jeno’s mouth and his inability to stop himself from putting it everywhere he can. His head is pounding, the ache from before back with a vengeance, and there’s only really one thing he wants to be doing right now. He leans forward, and Jeno settles obligingly into his lap, his hands looping around Jaemin’s neck and playing with his hair.
“I was good, wasn’t I?” Jeno asks, the picture of innocence, all wide eyes and a rosy mouth and pink dusted over his cheeks, and he smiles, so coy, so alluring, and Jaemin burns.
“Yeah,” Jaemin breathes out against Jeno’s lips, kissing him messy and open-mouthed, and some of Jeno’s drool gets onto Jaemin’s chin, but whatever. “You’re the best. The best I’ve ever had.”
“Mm, I know. But you know what?” Jeno says, and he rolls off of Jaemin and pushes him back down on the futon. He hops off, dusting his clothes off and fixing Jaemin with a flat glare. “You haven’t been very good lately, Jaemin.”
Jaemin stares up at Jeno and his fists planted firmly on his hips, and he scrambles to sit up again. “Uh, what? No, I’ve been very good. I’m always very good. Lee Jeno. Get back here.”
“Maybe this wouldn’t be happening if you actually, I don’t know, weren’t being a cat hater. You dog person.” Jeno preens, like he thinks he’s made the best insult of all time, and Jaemin resists the urge to bash his head against the wall. Because of course this is about the cat thing. Of course.
“Samoyeds are the cutest fucking animals on the entire planet, Jeno, your stupid cats could never—”
“You asshole, I have needs,” Jeno hisses at him. “Why don’t you be a good alpha and take care of your omega? Also, I cannot believe you just insulted cats like that when your dumbass dogs with literally no—”
Jaemin ignores the way his pulse jumps when he hears Jeno refer to himself as Jaemin’s omega, because it’s definitely pleasing to hear, and he’s about five seconds away from grabbing Jeno and pulling him back down on the bed with him and taking care of Jeno’s needs himself. But Jeno just insulted his favorite animals in the world. And they’re apparently in the middle of an argument that Jaemin has no idea how he found himself in the middle of to begin with. So that’s cool.
“Look, we can compromise,” Jaemin says, because he’s a reasonable person with reasonable ideas. At least one of them has to be reasonable sometimes. “How about you wear those cat ears you have when we’re at home and you pretend to be your own cat? Sound good with you?”
Jeno makes a noise, and Jaemin frowns. “Also, you’re not being very nice right now either. I take it back. You’re not the best boy, or even a mildly good boy. You’re literally the worst boy ever.”
“Am not, I’m still the best boy,” Jeno sneers. “You’re the one who wouldn’t touch me for a month when I stole and hid your French press.”
“It’s my baby!” It’s true. Jeno hid his French press and all of his grounds in the name of weaning Jaemin off of what Jeno called his unhealthy addiction to coffee, so in exchange, Jaemin didn’t let Jeno come anywhere near him for a month in the name of weaning Jeno off of his unhealthy addiction to Jaemin. It was only fair. “You touched my actual baby!”
“Coffee makes you taste so bad!” Jeno’s voice goes high and his face only gets more flushed when he’s upset. It is, if Jaemin’s being completely honest, really hot. “And you’re being mean!”
“Coffee makes you taste so bad, and you’re being mean!” Jaemin parrots, his voice pitched to near-supersonic levels in an attempt to mock Jeno for being a baby about this situation, and it works. Jeno’s eyes narrow and he presses his lips into a thin line and he huffs, stomping into the bedroom and slamming the door behind him. The ensuing silence is resounding.
Jaemin sighs, and he stares down at the tent in his jeans. “Now what the fuck am I supposed to do?”
Jeno’s a lump in the bed, a bundle of blankets just playing with his phone and very clearly doing his best to burrow into the wall, when Jaemin comes in, freshly showered and clean. And he’s also not horny anymore, which means he’s ready for a Proper Adult Conversation.
“Jeno.”
The blanket lump stops moving. “What.”
Jaemin gingerly sits down on the bed, far away enough that Jeno probably can’t reach over to claw his eyeballs out, but close enough that he can put a soothing hand on what he thinks is Jeno’s head. He pats it.
“That’s my ass,” comes out muffled, and Jaemin stares at his hand. He keeps it there until a hand pops out of the blankets (oh, so Jeno really was upside down) and wrenches it away. Jeno pops up not long after he’s removed Jaemin’s hand from his ass, blinking owlishly at Jaemin with mussed hair, and dammit, Jaemin’s starting to feel the now-familiar surge of affection that always accompanies every waking moment spent with Jeno. “What?”
“We have to talk,” Jaemin starts in the Nice Teacher voice he used with the kids at the orphanage he volunteered at in high school.
“About what?” Jeno narrows his eyes at him. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”
Jaemin sighs before he turns the Nice Teacher voice on again. He’s been told it’s particularly calming, and he’s never felt luckier than sometimes, Jeno acts like a child who’s been denied treats. Except Jeno’s twenty and the only thing he’s been denied is—
“Cats.”
Jeno visibly perks up. “Why are we talking about cats?”
“For one, why you’re so obsessed with them.” Jaemin raises a hand just as Jeno opens his mouth, clearly about to respond with his catch-all response for why haven’t you agreed with me that dogs are superior to cats yet. “And before you say because you think their eyes and ears and tails are cute, you could always go back to your parents’ house and see your cats.”
“Don’t you want one?”
Jaemin snorts. “I have one. It’s an outdoors cat. It sleeps in my bed and eats my food and goes outside whenever it wants to. By the way, if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m talking about you. I mean, I guess outdoors cats fuck other outdoors cats, but I guess you can’t be a hundred percent the same as a cat.”
Jeno makes a face at him. “Fine, whatever. It’s stupid.” He opens his mouth again, then closes it again. “Yeah, no, it’s really stupid. Like, really, really stupid.”
Jaemin normally wouldn’t press because when Jeno says something’s stupid, it probably means something exceedingly brainless, like the time he refused to tell Jaemin he broke his arm because he fell into a ditch while trying to pet a stray cat. And Jeno even added two “really”s this time. But he’s blushing, the tips of his ears just a little red, and Jaemin’s just a little intrigued.
“You should tell me,” Jaemin purrs, dropping the act and leaning in to put a hand on Jeno’s thigh, rubbing a thumb against the inseam of Jeno’s sweatpants. Jeno keeps his gaze on Jaemin’s the entire time, and Jaemin takes the opportunity to smile, baring just a hint of his teeth, and Jeno looks away, his head whipping to the side so fast Jaemin’s surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “Jeno, tell me.”
“I don’t want to.”
Jaemin scoots forward, settling into a comfortable position about three breaths away from Jeno. He tilts his head to the side, and Jeno avoids his gaze again. He thinks, idly, that he feels like they’ve been in this position before, with Jeno pressed against the wall and Jaemin crowding him in. “I’ll leave if you tell me.”
“You won’t.” And Jaemin quirks an eyebrow, of course I will, and Jeno turns to quickly look at him before he mutters, under his breath, “You definitely won’t.”
Now he’s extremely intrigued. There aren’t a lot of things Jeno wants from him nowadays, but he still has his bartering chips. “Jeno, I’ll make you breakfast for a week if you tell me. And I’ll even do the dishes.”
“Breakfast for a week and dish duty and five pairs of socks,” Jeno rebuts. “No, seven. For the entire week.”
“Fine. Shake.” Jaemin holds out his hand, and Jeno rolls his eyes as he takes it. Jaemin doesn’t let go, instead keeping his grip on Jeno’s hands as tight as he can without hurting him. “Now tell me.”
Jeno sighs, his gaze dipping down to their joined hands. “Remember when you had your internship during the winter holidays?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Jaemin interned at some consulting firms over the break to try to prove himself as more than just a pretty face with a trust fund, and Jeno insisted on staying at their place instead of going back home for the holidays.
“I was lonely, okay? And I thought having a cat would make it a little less lonely whenever we’re not both home.” Jeno looks up. “I mean, we’re both taking so many classes now. Our schedules are all over the place, I barely get to see you, and when I do, you’re busy. Or when you have free time, I’m busy. Sure, I could bring Bongsik down, but she’ll get so stressed in a new place and she’s already old. That’s it, I guess.”
Jaemin tries. He really, really tries to hold it in, but he can’t help the grin that blossoms across his face. “Our Jeno,” Jaemin coos, and his hands come up to cup Jeno’s face. He squishes Jeno’s cheeks, and Jeno purses his lips. “Who would’ve thought that you could be this cute?”
“Shut up, asshole,” Jeno says, smacking a hand away. “I’m serious. Like, we barely get any time with each other anymore.”
“I know,” Jaemin says, soft, He can’t say it doesn’t bother him too, not when the only time they have with each other are their rushed mornings and stolen kisses right before bed. “Tell you what, let’s go on a date tomorrow night. We haven’t done that in a while. And then we can walk around a little, pretend to be one of those disgusting couples that you love to hate so much, and after, let’s light one of those candles my mom gave me and then—”
“Gross,” Jeno mumbles. “Let’s just go. Shut up already, you’re so gross sometimes.”
Jeno plants a kiss on the tip of Jaemin’s nose, and Jaemin laughs at that. He’s too cute for his own good sometimes. Jaemin tips Jeno’s chin forward, kissing the corner of his mouth and biting lightly at his lip before he moves downward, peppering Jeno’s neck with kisses the way Jeno had done to him just earlier. He inhales the scent of honey with every move he makes, and it’s making him lightheaded. The blankets are wrapped around Jeno’s waist and legs, and Jaemin shoves them aside so he can tug Jeno into his lap, so he can press the length of his chest against Jeno’s.
“Jaemin,” Jeno whines, and he buries his fingers into Jaemin’s hair. “Don’t be mean.”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about earlier.” Jaemin sucks a bruise into the junction of Jeno’s neck and shoulder, a mirror image of the one on his own. He rocks back on his heels to inspect his work before adding another one right next to it. “I don’t know if you deserve it.’
Jeno narrows his eyes at him. “Fine, then tell me what I deserve then,” Jeno spits out, and then his eyes go dark and he wraps his legs around Jaemin’s waist and hooks his ankles together behind Jaemin’s back and he leans down and whispers into Jaemin’s ear, low, “alpha.”
A switch flicks on in Jaemin’s brain, and he tosses Jeno back onto the bed before Jaemin crawls over him. “You shouldn’t have said that,” Jaemin says, and Jeno only stares up at him, challenging, just a hint of a smirk on his lips, like he’s daring Jaemin to back off, to head back to the futon with his tail between his legs. So of course, Jaemin has to stay with him, to kiss the smirk off of his lips, to show him what he’s had coming for him for a while.
Maybe Jeno was right, after all. Jaemin couldn’t ever stay away, not from Jeno.
It’s on a rainy night when Jaemin passes by a convenience store on his way home. That’s not unusual; there are tons of convenience stores scattered throughout Seoul, and the density of convenience stores and cafes next to school is probably higher than the density of actual students. What is unusual is that not every convenience store has a large cardboard box in front of it. A large cardboard box that seems to be— mewling?
Jaemin takes a look inside, and his heart sinks. There are maybe two soaked cats inside, he can’t tell for sure, and Jaemin wrestles with the problem for about half a second before he’s scooping them up into his arms and tucking them into his coat. They’re freezing, their tiny bodies wracked with shivers, and Jaemin thanks Past Jaemin for deciding to wear a padded jacket today to school. He hurries home as fast as he can, ignoring the strange stares from passersby, and with his other arm occupied with keeping the cats safe and sound, somehow manages to get the door open with only one hand available to rummage through his backpack for his keys.
This is the scene Jeno comes home to a few hours later: Jaemin on the ground, his chin propped up on his hands, with a large bundle of towels in front of him. The towels are making noises and moving every so often, and when Jaemin looks up, Jeno’s still standing there at the door, practically frozen.
“What’s up?” Jaemin asks breezily, grinning at Jeno, and Jeno’s mouth looks like a fish’s out of water. “Close your mouth, you’ll get flies.”
Jeno’s jaws snap shut. “What is that?”
“Oh, these?” Jaemin lifts up the edge of a towel to reveal the two cats tucked inside for warmth, and Jeno screams, dropping everything to kneel at the other side of the towel bundle. “For the record, I didn’t steal them.”
“Where’d you get them?” Jeno asks, wonder in his voice, and he stares down at the cats. “They’re so small. It’s not even kitten season.”
“Found them outside in a box. It was raining before,” Jaemin says, matter-of-fact, and Jeno’s face darkens. “It’s okay, I took them home and dried them off. I looked up what to do and got them warmed up, but I was just waiting until my favorite future veterinarian came home. You think we should go to a real vet?”
“Probably.” Jeno keeps staring at the cats, and Jaemin’s pretty sure he’s only been half-listening to what Jaemin’s been saying. “We should go as soon as we can, so can you drive? I’ll carry them.”
Jaemin fishes for his keys, and he watches as Jeno scoops up the cats, towels and all, and tucks them inside his coat, his entire stomach swelling up, before he runs to grab some allergy meds. He chuckles at that, and, yeah, Jeno really isn’t paying any attention to him at all. He’d usually respond with some snappy retort like you don’t want me when I’m dead, but all of his attention is on the cats now.
“Come on, let’s go,” Jaemin says, holding open the door for Jeno, and he shuffles out. There’s an underground parking garage under the apartment building, and he leads the way, staring at Jeno, who’s actually starting to sniffle a little. Jeno doesn’t let go of the cats, even when they’re inside the car, and Jaemin makes sure to turn the heat up so that they’re warm.
And once they’re on the way, Jeno mumbles something under his breath.
“What was that? Sorry, didn’t catch it.” Which is, of course, a lie. Jaemin heard it loud and clear.
Jeno flushes, looking over at Jaemin for the first time in a while. “Nothing! Shut up!”