Golden ◂ NCT Jaemin

31 ◂ Lies

◂ 31 ▸

Jaemin was in the kitchen, putting his coffee cup into the dishwasher. He was lost in thoughts, focused on something else. He didn't hear the steps approaching him until a voice popped the room's silence. 

"Hey kiddo," Taeyong said. He sounded happy so even before having turned around, Jaemin already knew that he could expect to see the older one's endearing smile. 

And it came as expected. 

"Hello parental figure," Jaemin retorted quickly.

"Did you sleep well?" 

"Yeah." 

"Good."

"Yep." 

It followed an awkward, yet only short silence.

Taeyong took a deep breath, pushed his shoulders back and turned on his heel.
"We need to talk."

"Figured," Jaemin muttered before he quietly followed Taeyong to his room. 

It was by far the largest of all the bedrooms in the house which was mainly because it also served as an office at times. Still, Taeyong went ahead and customised the room as much as he wanted - there were little drawings on the walls, stickers here and there, collectables and the like where he felt like the room was still a little empty-looking.  

Taeyong sat down on his desk chair, quickly motioning Jaemin to sit down on the one opposite it. After allowing Jaemin to take a breath and get comfortable, he began talking. 

"I'll make it quick," was the first thing he said. "Winwin is one bad day away from beating your ass." 

Not sure how to react Jaemin pressed his lips together tightly, pulling the corners of his lips back as he grimaced. 

"Okay..." he then replied quietly. 

"But don't worry, I took care of it," Taeyong reassured quickly. 

"I don't even know what's going on," Jaemin said. "But you already handled it?" 

It was a cue to be a little more thorough with his explanation - which was exactly what Taeyong then did. 

"Winwin got quite angry because he thinks you gave Jie a hard time. He said he wanted to talk to you about it but I convinced him to talk to Jie first," he cleared up quickly. 

Nodding, Jaemin was slowly catching up with what was going on. 

"Then why did you want to talk to me?" 

"So that you wouldn't accidentally meet Winwin. He should be here by now," Taeyong explained. "You see, I didn't feel like telling him that you threatened to expose her past if she didn't do as you said because, as the leader of you chaotic bunch, I feel like I should remain unbiased and open-minded whenever possible." 

His sentence was lengthy and yet and he spoke it quickly, making it sound like it was no big deal. Just something that could easily be said. Despite his casualness, Jaemin only heard about half of what he said. 

He swallowed hard, tried to seem unimpressed when he asked.
"You know about that?" 

"I overheard your conversation in the treatment room back then," he said.

Jaemin was visibly uncomfortable as he shifted nervously his seat. 

"Oh." 

Ignoring his reaction and the tension it was creating, Taeyong continued talking. Unbothered and swift and in a friendly tone.