NCT Oneshots {ot23} | open

Cold: Jaehyun + Jaemin

▹prompt: cold
▹word count: 3332
▹genre: angst, hurt/comfort
▹warnings: seasonal depression, disordered eating, sucky mental health

ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹❀◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ

Jaehyun sees him everyday.

A solitary boy. Thin, with scruffy hair and oversized hoodies, forever sat on his own. The last time Jaehyun saw him with anyone else was at the beginning of the term, in September when the boy first started college. Yet as the months passed, his smile deteriorated along with his friends, leaving him slouched at the table in the far corner of the library, textbook closed. Everyone ignores him. The shadows of winter have claimed him.

Jaehyun doesn't know his name. He's never spoken to him. Nor does he know anyone who has spoken to him.

He jokes that perhaps the boy is spy, that he's only pretending to sleep or daydream when he's really observing his target. Perhaps the sunken eye bags are makeup and the unbrushed hair is a ploy to stop people from approaching him. But something doesn't sit right for Jaehyun.

No one lives a lonely life at college. He should he going to parties and getting drunk, he should be going on road trips at the weekend with his friends. He should have friends.

"Why does he sit there alone all day?" Jaehyun whispers to Jungwoo, his own friend, attached at the hip since they were just six.

"I don't know. I'm sure he's fine." Jungwoo replies.

"Look at him, Woo." Jaehyun pokes his friend's cheek to get him to look at the boy on the adjacent table, the bookshelf on political science concealing have his sunken face. "He looks sad. Should I talk to him?"

"If you want." Jungwoo shrugs. Jaehyun folds his arms across his chest.

"I feel bad."

"Then talk to him." Jungwoo says. "I would."

"Why don't you, then?"

"No, I have to study. You can do it, it was your idea." Jungwoo nudges the elder's shoulder. Jaehyun frowns and bites his lower lip, hesitant to make the move although curious with the want to cheer up the mysterious boy. "Why are you nervous? You're not asking him out, just saying hello."

"But what if he's really weird?"

"All the students here are weird." Jungwoo says. "Go."

"Fine."

A few other students turn to look at him when Jaehyun stands. A popular member of the basketball team talking to the lonely boy is unheard of, but he doesn't care that gossip will spread like wildfire by the evening. He reaches the next desk, and the boy doesn't move. His lidded eyes almost droop shut, and his cracked lips flake from the need for hydration. A full cup of coffee sits on the table, untouched for hours.

"Um, hi?" Jaehyun tries. No response. "Excuse me?" He waves his hand in front of the younger's face.

The boy jolts, and the elder jumps back, heart thumping in his throat with the realisation he's approached without planning what he's supposed to even say.

"Hello." Jaehyun says, less hesitant now that he knows the other is at least conscious. The boy nods his head as a greeting, a weak gesture, scarcely visible. "May I sit down?" Jaehyun pulls a chair out when he gets silence in return. "What's your name?"

The boy's lips move, but Jaehyun doesn't hear even the faintest breath. He leans closer.

"What?"

"Jaemin."