shot clock || na jaemin (the court series #1)

quarter one: minute six

this was not how jaemin envisioned his saturday night to go. by this time, jisoo would already be passed out on his bed, clothes strewn messily around the room, with a certain glow on her skin. but instead, here he is, standing outside the door of his best friend's apartment building with a cake, three batteries, and sixteen thousand won in cash. 

unless serena was planning on doing a satanic ritual to get jeno to speak to their mother, jaemin had no clue what exactly to do with any of these. he hears the pounding of feet on the floor and serena behind the glass. 

maybe's the moonlight on her skin, or the fact that jaemin's seeing her in something other than athletic wear for the first time, but serena's got a certain air of mystery and charm shrouding her tonight.

or it could be the fact that she had asked him to bring three batteries and a cake for the same purpose. yeah, that was pretty mysterious.

"this way," serena says breathlessly, taking the batteries from jaemin's outstretched hand. they walk in silence, a slightly awkward silence, before jaemin speaks.

"thank you, by the way." serena looks at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"for what? you were the one who brought the cake," she says, opening up the cardboard box. it's a cute little chocolate cake with the words 'you suck as much as i do' written on top in buttercream. that had been an interesting conversation to have with the baker.

"you know, about thursday's game." serena almost pauses while walking for a moment but regains her momentum quickly, long legs keeping in stride with jaemin.

"oh. you do realize it's kind of part of the job description of a team manager to make the team better right?" jaemin looks at her with the slightest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, threatening to let out the inner laughter bubbling up in his chest.

"yeah, i know. i just...didn't realize that you'd be able to help us do...whatever it was that happened thursday. we've never played like that before."

"oh."

it's soft, simple, but it encompasses all the little nuances that neither of them can really seem to find the words for. jaemin's good with words. he knows what to say for pretty much any situation. how to get a girl to dump him (even though he's actually the one dumping her), how to get jeno to calm down, or how to break up another dolphin debate (that one was a little bit more questionable). 

but what do you say to a girl you just can't figure out? every time jaemin thinks he's got serena pinned down, she does something to completely throw him off.

a narcissistic bitch who demolishes people with little mercy on the court? not just. a team manager with a stern face and a soft heart? not completely. a sister with temperamental issues trying to singlehandedly fix her family? a little bit of that too.

she was strange. fantastical. like she was teetering on the edge of a sword, threatening to fall on either side at any given moment but finding comfort in the danger. she was an enigma.

"why isn't your last name lee like coach lee or jeno?" jaemin's expecting to be met with silence or a snarky response with a detailed description of what jaemin could shove up his, uh, gastrointestinal tract. 

he doesn't expect the sigh or the sagging shoulders. serena's tall, with long legs and her head held high at all time, ponytail dancing behind her. but now she looks small. young. with her hair falling over her face and a glum look on her face. she looks vulnerable.

"if you're going to help me get jeno to talk to my mom, there's a couple things you should know," serena says, tugging her bottom lip between her teeth. they approach a park overlooking a lake and serena sits down on the bench nearest to the entrance of the park, patting the spot next to her for jaemin to sit down on. she speaks with her eyes fixed firmly on the duck casually swimming through the lake, with not a single care in the world.

"when i was six and jeno was seven, our parents got divorced. it was really ugly. my mom and my dad were fighting pretty much all the time. my dad had caught my mom cheating on him with some guy one night and the fight had really escalated."

"my mom had fallen in love with the guy while she was still married to my dad, which was really shitty of her, but she'd tried to end things when she finally realized what she was doing. she was too late. the night that my dad caught her and her lover, she found out she was pregnant. with the other guy's child."

"that was it. they got a divorce. jeno and i were supposed to stay with my dad but by the time the entire divorce process was over and my mother was getting ready to move to america, she had already had the baby."

serena's finally meet jaemin's and when he sees the tears swimming in her eyes, he's hit with the realization once more that she was just a child. she was a child trying to do whatever she thought was right. jaemin gives her a moment to collect herself, and serena takes a deep breath before she continues.

"the moment i saw the baby, i couldn't let go of him. he was the most adorable little baby i had ever seen in my life, jaemin. he cried in everyone's arms; in jeno's, in his father's, in my mom's. everyone except mine. when the nurse put him in my arms, he stopped crying! he started giggling! and oh, i was only six years old, but i knew that i loved my baby brother."

jaemin could start to put the pieces of the puzzle from there. serena left for america and jeno stayed in korea, creating a rift between the two of them. growing up on opposite ends of the world couldn't have helped, which landed them in this situation.

"so how'd you guys make up? i mean it was like you guys were at each other throats one day and then buddy buddy the next day," jaemin asks. serena wipes the tears that had escaped her eyes beyond her best efforts and just shakes her head, standing up from her spot on the bench. the numbers on her phone indicated it was 10:39. thirty nine minutes over her curfew. her mother was going to skin her alive. 

"i've given you enough of my secrets for today, na. let's go." jaemin continues to sit on the park bench overlooking the lake and a single word that had haunted him on the english test yesterday crosses his mind: sonder.

"are you coming or not? the cream on the cake is going to melt, you idiot."

+++

a/n: sonder - the realization that everyone in the world lives their own complex and self-centric lives. 

why did serena open up to jaemin so easily? what kind of person is she really? and why the hell is it buttercream frosting on the cake???

all questions to be answered :) let me know what you guys think!