winter flower ; zhong chenle

four

the eight friends, minus jeno, all arrived at jaemin's house, where they were greeted with a cat.

"oh my god! jaemin you have a cat!" areum squealed, running to pet it.

"yeah. her name is winter. she seems to like you." jaemin smiled, watching as his cat snuggled up to the girl who jaemin was falling more and more in love with everyday.

chenle watched the two in awe. he always thought areum was cute, but the sight of her happily petting a cat who was warming up to her, that was adorable to chenle. he had almost forgotten about the girl chunhua, who he is still "talking to".

to areum, her feelings for chenle were getting weaker and she had new feelings rising for jaemin. donghyuck could see this but waited for jaemin to tell him himself.

jaemin looked at donghyuck and contemplated.
"should i ask hyuck for permission to ask areum to the dance? would he be okay with it?" he was snapped out of his thoughts by donghyuck, "jaemin ssi. can we talk alone?"
jaemin nodded and took the boy outside where nobody could hear them.

"i know you like areum."

jaemin froze. he was terrified to say the least. but he didn't want to show it.

"it's okay. i trust you with her feelings. if you want, you can ask her to the dance." donghyuck looked at jaemin who was still frozen but soon smiled, "thanks, hyuck. i promise i'll treat her nicely."

donghyuck nodded, "you better."

he did, in fact, trust jaemin. he just needed jaemin to keep his promise. the two made their way back into the house where chenle, jisung, and yangyang were playing video games and renjun and areum were drawing together. jaemin decided that moment wasn't the best moment to ask her do he waited until she got bored. which wasn't a long time.

areum got bored after donghyuck and renjun started talking about their choir class so she went to sit beside jaemin. "hi jaeminie."

jaemin felt a smile creep into his face as he looked at the girl, "hey. do you wanna see something cool?" he asked, getting a happy areum, vigorously nodding her head. jaemin laughed and grabbed her hand, leading her to the garden he had outside.

areum thought the flowers were so pretty. she'd always had a fascination with flowers. they were all beautiful and interesting. her favorite flowers were the winter flowers. specifically the evening primrose; her favorite flower of them all.

"they're beautiful, jaemin." areum smiled, gesturing the flowers and jaemin chuckled, "yeah. but not as beautiful as you." areum blushed and continued to look at the flowers.

"h-hey areum."

"yeah?"

"i have a question."

areum turned to jaemin, giving him all of her attention, "shoot." jaemin fiddled with his fingers a little bit. he was nervous. yes, the na jaemin was nervous to ask someone out. he regained his confidence after remembering his conversation with donghyuck and the promise he made,

"it's okay. i trust you with her feelings. if you want, you can ask her to the dance." donghyuck looked at jaemin who was still frozen but soon smiled, "thanks, hyuck. i promise i'll treat her nicely."

donghyuck nodded, "you better."

jaemin smiled at areum and confidently asked,

"will you go to
the dance with me?"

"yes."