home, jaemin

chapter sixty-two

"you ready to go?" jeno asked, knocking on jaemin's bedroom door.

jaemin shuffled inside the room, the door opening. jeno looked at his outfit, a smile finding its way to his face seeing his friend dressed up nicely.

"not gonna be as much fun as i imagined but what can you do?" jaemin smiled sadly, joining jeno on the way back downstairs to the others.

"i hope you know we're all here for you. although she may be evil, i can almost guarantee that she's gonna hang out with her own snarky friends anyways," jeno tried to assure him.

jaemin lightly laughed, thanking jeno as they finally got into the living room.

"aw," nayeon cooed, looking around the room. "my babies have all dressed up once again," she smiled, looking at each of the boys wearing button-ups and slacks.

"aren't four of us older than you?" donghyuck asked, putting his phone into his pocket.

"you sure don't act like it. now let's get this show on the road," she clapped, beginning the way outside.

this dance was not causal yet not completely formal either. no one wanted to wear a plain hoodie and jeans but you also didn't have to wear their respective nation traditional wear. it was more so business casual.

each of the boys were wearing practically the same outfits, black slacks with button-ups that changed color according to who you were looking at.

mark had a maroon color on, renjun had orange, jeno had green after giving yellow to donghyuck upon his request. jaemin sported a blue button-up while chenle had dark purple. jisung had a light pink-colored button-up. they looked somewhat like a rainbow.

mark, donghyuck, and jisung had their hair gelled back while the other four boys kept their hair down natural, agreeing that it would be too much work to put the substance in.

nayeon had gotten a dress that matched jeno's green shirt. they were both more of an emerald green color that complimented both of their skin tones. her dress came down just past her knee caps and a black ribbon was pulled into a bow to accentuated her small waist.

her hair was left down, blown outward to show off her facial structure. she had light makeup on, going for a more neutral-colored look.

"time for our first dance, lads." donghyuck said enthusiastically, pushing everyone out the door behind him.

none of them were nearly as hyped up for the dance as they would have been with jiyoung's presence. as every day furthered without her, the group could see jaemin growing more and more weak.

maybe not with extreme physical weakness but they could see the way his eyes didn't sparkle with the same light they saw when he was with jiyoung.

slowly, they were turning back to the emotionless ones that he had before they met the girl. and it worried them. tremendously.

every year the school would rent out a building for the students to use for the dances. this year it was a very classy building that reminded everyone of princess stories.

there were two floors, the top one having railing that people could watch the first floor over. the building was a beautiful neutral beige color that made it have more of a castle feeling with eye-catching carvings that decorated the walls and railing.

jiyoung would have loved this place.

jaemin was upset he couldn't accompany jiyoung to her first dance after moving here but he had to attend because of soojin. if he refused, she threatened to hurt jiyoung.

there was no way of telling whether or not she was lying but he didn't want to push his limits so he decided against rebelling.

the night continued as more students and school staff showed up in their own hand picked outfits. music eventually began playing as the dance formally begun.

like jeno had thought, soojin spent most of her time with her own group of fake friends. they stayed close to one another, picking on any student they thought didn't look as nice of them. which had practically been everyone.

but this didn't mean she stayed away the entire night. when it was time for the final slow dance, she had marched over to jaemin and made him take her to dance.

everyone pitied jaemin.

especially jiyoung.

she watched from the second floor as jaemin took soojin to the dance floor. soojin positioned her hands on jaemin and slowly they started dancing.

she watched how jaemin's face showed almost no sign of any emotion. it was just blank. he wasn't even looking at soojin. instead he looked over the top of her head, his feet moving by themselves.

his eyes that she once stared into for comfort and happiness were now empty and cold. his smile that once radiated enough warmth and purity to light up an entire village was now stoic, nothing radiating from it.

it was like he had a mask on. a mask that covered his once purified and loving face.