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

quarter four: minute five

"you know, every time i feel like we cannot possibly get any stupider, we do," renjun says, shivering through his thin jacket. clearly, none of them had bothered remembering that they were coming to chicago, which automatically entailed of ungodly weather conditions and bipolar temperatures. sooyoung shrugs from her sooyoung-jisoo burrito combination. 

"i told jisoo and jisoo told you guys," shaun says from the right side of them, holding onto jaemin's hand. shaun was an abnormally tall kid (it must run in the family, jaemin thinks), which meant that at the age of eleven, he already came up to jaemin's chin, which the older of the pair didn't quite know how to feel about. 

"that i did," jisoo says, echoing jaemin from twenty minutes ago. jaemin blushes, turning away from his girlfriend (?) and her best friend, to accidentally make eye contact with her baby brother.

"you're not going to live this down for the next week, you know that right?" shaun asks him very matter-of-factly. jaemin sighs, hanging his head down.

"yeah. i had a feeling," he concludes, just as mr. park (james) pulls up with a van that looks very similar to their - 

"is that the fucking funeral van?" haechan says with a dumbfounded look on his face, finger pointed straight at the van. james grins from the driver's seat, patting the passenger seat with a coy smile.

"eh, the american equivalent of it anyway. daddy calls it the party van," sooyoung says with a shrug, opening the sliding door. before she can even open her mouth, shaun has already called for shotgun, darting into the passenger seat and closing the door behind him with a sound of finality. 

"this is not a party van," renjun says, clambering in after chenle and jisung. the van was split into two single seats and three rows of two-seater areas, of which chenle and jisung had already taken up one of the two-seater areas. sooyoung's eyes widen in panic when she realizes that renjun had already taken one of the single-seaters, slightly subduing when jisoo and jeno take the second two-seater. haechan has one leg in van when he looks back at her with a startlingly evil smile, taking the last single-seater.

a chorus of oohs echo through the van, james doing nothing to stop them, instead joining them with an extremely proud expression. he hits the horn twice, telling them that they were letting all the cold air in, and to just get in already. jeno falters for a moment before chorusing with the rest of them when he sees the wonderful blush on his sister's face, jisoo laying her head on his shoulder.

"i hate you," sooyoung whispers hotly, no real malice in her voice, in haechan's general direction. 

"what? you don't wanna sit with your boyfriend?" chenle asks from the frontmost seat, being taken down by jisung (who clamps a large hand over his best friend's mouth quickly) as soon as the words leave his mouth. sooyoung gives him a sheepish look of thanks while jaemin gives chenle gives him a thumbs up from behind sooyoung, somehow confident even though it looked as if his ears were on fire. 

"you wanna sit by the window or should i honey?" jaemin asks from right behind her, sooyoung suddenly aware of their proximity. she doesn't respond, sitting in the window seat, and patting the seat next to her for jaemin. as if he had a choice.

"stop calling me honey!" she hisses, eyes darting around to see if anyone was listening. they were. every single one of those traitorous bastards were. jaemin studies her for a moment, trying to see if she was being serious or not, seemingly finding the answer hidden in the depths of her eyes filled with mirth.

"only until i can call you my wife - honey," jaemin adds on, a lopsided smirk growing on his face - as if it was always meant to be there. 

"not happening na! not until she's fifty!" jeno exclaims from in front of them, jisoo hushing him loudly.