[ tangled ] nomin

moana

Lo and behold, they did not get fired. Jaemin was put on bathroom duty for a week because it was his second incident (Anthony being the first), which was worse than losing his job, and Jeno got a warning. Mrs. Sweda couldn't afford to fire them, not with the Princess parade only weeks away and nobody else willing to play Rapunzel. Jaemin didn't blame them; the wig was fucking heavy and Jeno was a nuisance. 

Well, that wasn't entirely true. The wig was heavy, yes, but any of the princesses would kill for a chance to be Jeno's companion. Jaemin was told by multiple people how lucky he was to be working with somebody so handsome and kind. The best he could do was nod and shut his mouth because if he spoke, he would not have very Disney things to say. 

The truth was that it hurt his feelings, and Jaemin hated admitting that it got under his skin. Why was he lucky to work with Jeno? Why wasn't Jeno lucky to work with him? It was an insult to his acting and his personality, and Jaemin didn't take it well. Jeno smiled at him in the mornings, brought him a Starbucks drink on occasion, and never, ever gave Jaemin a reason to hate him, not anymore. But Jaemin couldn't help it. It felt like his entire life was snatched from underneath him, and now he was free-falling, clawing at the air because nobody would help him. 

By Jeno's third week of work, Jaemin really hated him. It was the sort of bitter hatred he hadn't felt since high school, and it both scared and confused him. He was less than a week away from being nineteen, and he was jealous because of what some snobby Disney princesses said. Pathetic. To make matters worse, they had begun practice for the Princess Parade, so Jaemin was constantly surrounded by the girls and Jeno. 

"Jaemin, wrong hand, doll," the instructor reminded him, watching them through the floor-to-wall mirrors with an Arizona tea in his hand. Jaemin nodded, but his heart wasn't into it, and it didn't take a professional dance teacher to see that. 

The song ended with Ariel's impressive high note, and the instructor called for a break. Jaemin practically ran for his bookbag, chugging his lemon water and checking the notifications on his phone. A few from Tinder, one from a Grindr boy Jaemin swore he blocked, and a text message from Mark. Poor Mark. Jaemin hadn't spoken to him since school ended almost three months ago, attempting to cut off everybody from high school and disappear, but Mark still sent him a message every day. Jaemin opened it without reading to clear the notification and blocked the Tinder boy, right as Jeno sat on the floor next to him. 

"Ew, he's ugly," he commented, reaching over to swipe no on the 23-year-old from Tallahassee. 

"You're ugly," Jaemin bit back, and Jeno laughed. Fucking Jeno Lee. He knew he wasn't ugly. Belatedly, Jaemin realized that with Jeno sitting next to him swiping no on all the guys from Tinder, he wasn't upset anymore. It annoyed him. Even when Jeno wasn't trying he made people happy, and Jaemin could feel the girls staring at them with envy. 

While Jeno was distracted hyper-analyzing Daniel Bailey's boring profile, Jaemin subtly scooted away so they were no longer touching. A few girls stopped looking, and Jaemin relaxed. Despite being an actor, he hated unnecessary attention.

"Hey, wait, come back," Jeno frowned when he noticed Jaemin's absence by his side. He hooked an arm around Jaemin's waist and easily tugged him closer, securing his hand on Jaemin's thigh so he couldn't escape. For some reason, Jeno's veiny hand gripping his thigh and rejecting boys on Jaemin's behalf made him 1000x hotter, and Jaemin had to stop himself from drooling. 

Wait, what, drooling? No, no, no, Jaemin refused to find Jeno hot. Sure, he had a beautiful set of tanned abs that Jaemin wanted to lick and his jawline was deadly, but no. And maybe, just maybe, Jaemin found his smile pretty, and the ways his eyes curved into cute little crescents when he laughed at Jaemin's blunt humor. 

"Jaemin?"

"Jeno! Do you want to come to eat lunch with us?" 

Jaemin was almost grateful for Ariel's intrusion because he was seconds away from kissing Jeno's pouty lips. 

Jeno glanced at Jaemin and back at Ariel, tightening his hold on Jaemin's thigh. He was so, so fucked. The skin beneath Jeno's fingertips was turning white from his grip, and Jaemin was sure there would be a handprint later. It made him unbelievably flustered. Ariel didn't seem to get the message, batting her lashes at Jeno. 

"No, thank you," Jeno said politely, tacking on one of his dazzling smiles that made Ariel swoon. Truthfully, Jaemin hadn't bothered to learn the other princesses' names after they talked shit about him the first time, but he knew their co-workers well. Eric (coincidentally named Eric) was watching Ariel try and fail to flirt with Jeno, laughing quietly into his hand.  Jaemin rolled his eyes and Eric snorted, drawing the attention of the room. 

Naveen, aka Miles, was dating Tiana, who was one of the only princesses Jaemin could stand being in the same room with. Mulan was always kind to him, too, but the rest of them had a mean streak. It was like Mean Girls but Disney princesses, and Jaemin was Janis. He didn't hate being the supposed lesbian, goth, sarcastic bitch with a gay best friend, but he hated the way they talked about his acting. 

Ariel could call him ugly, Cinderella could say her slurs, Aurora could be jealous, but when they dared to speak on his acting as Rapunzel, Jaemin lost his shit. He snapped on the girls once or twice, successfully scaring them into quieting their gossiping. But with Jeno around, Jaemin heard it again, the whispers behind palms and obvious text messages on their phones. 

"Jaemin made me laugh, sorry," Eric said, giving Jaemin a look bordering flirty that Jeno definitely saw, and bit into his sandwhich. Ariel took a deep breath and mouthed something to Eric that Jaemin didn't catch. 

"Jaemin and I are eating together, sorry," Jeno finally said, waving Ariel away to continue scrolling through Jaemin's phone. Jaemin watched Jeno's nimble fingers navigate through his apps: Snapchat, where he found an embarrassing photo of Jaemin wearing his mom's lingerie and laughed for a solid five minutes, Instagram, Grindr, and eventually, his camera roll.

Now, Jaemin, above all things, was still a teenage boy, but even he was surprised at the number of dick pics saved in his camera roll. That was fine. Jeno could see those, but when he clicked on Jaemin's secret folder, he panicked, snatching the phone back. 

"Oh, now I definitely have to see it," Jeno grinned, tickling Jaemin's side with the hand that was on his thigh. Jaemin laughed so hard his phone went flying and tears sprung from his eyes, giving Jeno the opportunity to reclaim the phone and open the folder. "Oh." Jeno swallowed, and Jaemin watched his adam's apple bob. God, he would absolutely ravish him given the chance. 

"Jeno Lee is speechless because of me," Jaemin gasped. "I must have saved a country in my past life."

"Jaemin..." Jeno trailed off, staring at the endless photos of Jaemin. Well, mainly Jaemin's body, but still.

He gently grabbed Jaemin's throat, leaning forward close enough that his breath tickled the shell of Jaemin's ear. "You've always made me speechless," he whispered, pulling away with a smile. "Hell, if you saved a country to make me speechless, I must have saved the universe to be able to meet you." 

"Gross." 

"Sure, now put my number in your phone so I can add to your collection," Jeno winked teasingly, and Jaemin slapped his arm, blushing madly. 

"I don't want to see your ugly dick, Jeno," he said, but he added Jeno as a contact anyway. And if he put a heart after Jeno's name, that was his business. And if they talked the entire night on the phone, nobody but them had to know.

And if at 11:08 p.m. on a Thursday night, Jaemin realized he was slowly falling for his archenemy, well, he would never admit it. 

[ does anyone remember what color I said their hair was btw?]