PAPER CUTS .. ljn（✓）

→ three

"son of a—"

"watch your goddamn mouth!"

jeno swallowed his curse and instead winced as he rubbed his elbow. "is it possible to hate someone i've never met?"

"i hate bill nye..." the teammates (excluding sungchan, who had to leave for class) all turned their attention towards mark, who was too busy mindlessly picking at his skate strings to even notice. when he finally did, he looked up at the boys with large, innocent eyes. "what?"

haechan exhaled and rubbed the eldest's head. "oh, mark. sometimes i wonder how you've managed to survive this long in life."

jeno shook his head at the boys and continued rubbing his elbow. "i'm sure she's sorry. don't stress too much." yangyang, one of the younger members on the team, offered as he gave the blue-haired boy a pat on the shoulder.

haechan tipped his head back towards the two. "yeah! and i'm sure she has to go through all your feet and ankle pain, too."

jeno ran his hand over his nape, suddenly remembering how his soulmate probably wasn't used to the skate pain jeno got from playing hockey.

he shrugged. "whatever. she's given me enough paper cuts to make up for it."

── 🩹 ──

"sejinnie!" hyerim called as she tossed her bag on the ground and kicked off her shoes. the pitter-patter of feet was heard after her calls, and the brunette looked up to see her little brother running her way.

"rinnie!" he cried through his giggles before jumping into his sister's arms.

yes, she was aware that he called her rin instead of rim, but that was because the little boy often complained that there weren't enough matching letters in their names.

hyerim gave sejin one last squeeze before carefully dropping him back on his own two feet. as she did so, the boy caught a glimpse of her extra bandaged hand and gasped. "rin!"

he quickly grabbed her hand to examine the new marks. "does it hurt a lot?" the girl's eyes sparkled when sejin placed a little kiss on her bandaids. "why aren't you careful?"

the brunette giggled before ruffling the boy's already messy hair with her free hand. "i am! when are you gonna start treating me like your older sister?"

"when you stop acting like my little sister." his retaliation was so quick it took hyerim a second to understand. by the time she did, sejin was already running away screaming in laughter.

before the girl had the chance to chase after him, her phone dinged.

a smile dusted over the girl's face when she saw the message, and she hurriedly sent back a thumbs-up emoji to show that she understood.

"shin sejin, your girlfriend's coming over~" the elder teased, earning a very loud scream from somewhere in the living room.

"she's not my girlfriend!" the little boy screeched as he ran back towards his sister. he began pushing and pulling her legs, which only made hyerim giggle in confusion. "what on earth are you doing?"

"kicking you out! i wanna play with gaon without you."

the brunette faked a deep pout and pretended to cry. "y-you guys don't think i'm fun anymore?" sejin huffed a loud sigh and rolled his eyes. "rinnie, you're old and boring."

the girl gripped her chest in dramatized offense. "wow. you hurt me, sejin!" her brother giggled and decided to instead try chasing the girl out of the room since he wasn't getting anywhere with the pulling.

"play video games with felix!" sejin offered, and hyerim began thinking it over. honestly, that's probably what she'd end up doing anyway.

the doorbell rang and the little boy shrieked with joy. the elder ran forward, beating him to the door and opening it wide only to be greeted by not ms. lee.

"hi hyerim!" gaon giggled, and hyerim knelt down to pinch the girl's cheeks. "come on in, gaonnie." not needing to be told again, the little lee jumped into the house and followed sejin to the playroom.

once the two were gone, hyerim faced forward with her arms folded over her chest. "i thought ms. lee was supposed to drop her off?"

jeno rubbed his nape before looking away. "yeah, mom got caught in traffic and asked me to take her instead." the wavy-haired girl nodded, waiting for him to say what he clearly had on his mind.

"listen, about earlier..." he paused and glanced up at the girl in the doorway. "i'm sorry. for bumping into you, that is."

hyerim brushed a strand of hair over her shoulder and tilted her head. "well, i appreciate it. and i'm sorry, too. for not watching where i was going." the bright blue-haired boy scoffed her apology off and ruffled his hair.

"i guess that's settled. i have practice until 7, so should i pick her up then?" hyerim shrugged. "i can always drop her off, you know."

"last time i saw you drive, you ran over my mom's rose garden."

the girl pursed her lips, pretending as if she had no idea what he was talking about. "hmm, must have been someone else. nice try, though." the boy chuckled shortly and shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket.

"i should get going. again, sorry about lunch."

hyerim waved him off, head falling lightly on the doorframe. "it's fine. settled, remember?" jeno flashed a little grin and the brunette returned the look. "now, get out of here before you're late for practice."

eyes widened momentarily, jeno pulled a hand from his pocket for a quick wave. "shit, right. uh, thanks for watching gaon."

"it's no problem."

hyerim watched as the blue-haired boy smiled once more before turning and quickly jumping into his car. she closed the door before he drove off and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in.

that was definitely the longest and most casual conversation she'd ever had with lee jeno, and for some reason it made her hands feel tingly.

shrugging, hyerim glanced into the playroom to find sejin and gaon happily constructing paper houses for their popsicle stick people. the elder smiled to herself and decided to leave them be and instead ask the new four horsemen group chat to play games with her.

so they're cool now 👀

how long do you think it'll take them to notice? 💀💀