Monopoly | Norenmin

Provider

"Dude, I spent like a good hour yesterday killing mosquitoes."
Renjun furrowed his brows, skipping a little to keep up with Jeno's bounce. "What?"
Jeno turned himself slightly as the passion in his voice grew. The psycho. "No cause these tiny fuckers have been ruining my life. The fucking buzz buzz thing stopped working in my house and all I keep hearing is mosquito ASMR."
Renjun snorted slightly, "The buzz buzz thing."
"I forgot what they're called, not gonna lie," Jeno chuckled, his eyes turning to crescents.
Renjun smiled fondly at him, "why, it's the buzz buzz thing of course."
Jeno laughed brightly, lightly hitting Renjun's arm.

Renjun assumed things were back to normal with him and Jaemin, and to be completely true to himself, he did have to thank Jaemin for bringing the kick back in Jeno's step. Though Renjun didn't spend less time with him as he had previously. Jaemin just took up a little bit more of the spare time Jeno had. And Jeno had quite a bit of spare time considering he was barely passing his classes and refusing to study.

"We should buy ice cream," Jeno declared, placing his hands on his hips as he stood proudly for no good reason.
Renjun internally groaned, flashbacks of his demonic cousin getting blasted through his head with emphasis on the word "chocolate". He feared he'd never be able to see the flavour again. Goodbye all the good ice cream parlours in Seoul. "Can we not? Is that okay?"
Jeno pouted for a bit and Renjun almost immediately swapped his answer when Jeno's expression completely flipped not even seconds later. "Mkay, but can I ask why?" He paused in his steps, gesturing to his face as he mirrored Renjun's disgusted expression, "you look like you just saw someone throw up in front of you."
Renjun scrunched his face further, "Ew. No. Jeno. Why."
"What?" Jeno shrugged, "It's the same face I make when my cats throw up."
Renjun pursed his lips together for a moment, "have you ever thrown up because of your cats?"
"...Junnie, you know that's not how my allergy works."
"Well I'm not your doctor so how am I supposed to know?"

Jeno groaned dramatically, stopping them both in their track once again so Jeno could be moody and drop his head on Renjun's shoulder. "Just tell me why?"
"..."
"And don't start singing Backstreet Boys songs, I swear."
Renjun burst into chuckles, flicking Jeno's side, "No, no, I just took Lele and Sung out for ice cream yesterday and my brat ass cousin is so fuckin loud, dude."
Jeno stood up straight, glaring at the smaller boy, "Um excuse you, that is my son."
Renjun chuckled to himself as Jeno agreed with his disgusted expression, the two deciding on finding some cheap street food wherever was closest to them. The vendors near the uni were typically quite bad in retrospect, but they were cheap and even if they got food poisoning, they had the day off tomorrow. Donghyuck had talked about opening up a page about the food but Renjun didn't really want any hand in it in fear of getting beaten by one of the vendors.

As they waited for their small portions of food, Renjun turned to Jeno, something clicking in his mind. "You know, Mark works at the café nearby?"
"Really? Which one?" Jeno swung back and forth on his feet.
Renjun pointed past Jeno in an arbitrary direction, "you know the one that sells Jaemin's death drink?"
"Death drink," Jeno repeated, breaking into a short laugh, Renjun's lips turning upwards unconsciously. Damn Lee Jeno and his hypnotic smile. "Have you tried it?"
"Oh, never again," Renjun shook his head, stepping forward as he heard his and Jeno's order. He stepped forward and took the containers, smiling politely and thanking the lady for the food. He handed Jeno his food before continuing to complain. "I know I've joked about eating the souls of the dead, but after that experience I could never."
"It literally tastes like burnt rubber," Jeno nodded, agreeing with Renjun's words, though who wouldn't.

"Exactly," Renjun clapped his palm before taking a bite of his food as they moved away from the cart. "You'd think this bitch would like sweet things considering his personality."
Jeno grinned, "I mean, he does, he eats raw sugar cubes." He chuckled, silently taking Renjun's hand into his own, squeezing it slightly.
Renjun rolled his eyes to mask his growing smile, "Of course he does. What is he? A horse?" His eyes darted down to their hands, doing a mental cheer. Oh, the life he would have if he could just live in the feeling of holding Jeno's hand.
The younger boy chuckled, Renjun turning to see Jeno's eyes shining brighter than he had ever seen them. Brighter than when he was with Jaemin nor him individually, at least typically. Renjun almost jumped to the moon being the first one to appreciate it, a double whammy.

"What?" he asked, laughing slightly through his words, desperately concealing his joy.
Jeno shook his head as explained, "No, no, you're just," he grinned even brighter, "you're talking about Jaemin like he's your friend."
Renjun blinked, "weren't you upset about this about a few days ago?"
Jeno shook his head once again engulfing the elder in a hug. "It's different this time, dude." He moved away from him slightly, holding his shoulders, "besides, it was a bit of stretch."
With a heavy eye roll, Renjun scoffed, "Yeah, I'm sorry I still don't really like Jaemin."
"I know," Jeno continued smiling even after those words left Renjun's mouth. "But it's dislike now, not hate." He pat Renjun's shoulder once, "I'm proud of you."

Renjun frowned slightly to himself. It still had to do with Jaemin in the end, didn't it. But it was progress in some sort of way, Jeno didn't get so upset. Renjun would just accept the small defeat. Besides, he'll have a better prize later on though.

Yet the more he thought, the more he broke through walls he didn't know he had.

Jaemin brought colour to Jeno's life. Renjun couldn't deny that even if he tried. As much as he wanted to be that colour, he was just a sketch, a draft, and Jeno had found that the perfect drawing was Jaemin. Renjun understood why he did, and of course resented him for it, but, more or less, he envied it. He envied Jaemin, not just for being with Jeno, but for being the person he wanted to be. It didn't help that Jaemin's classes were similar to his, and that they were in the same school, same circle. Part of him was also afraid he'd lose Donghyuck to him. That he'd just take him and Jeno and Mark and everyone away from him.

It was Renjun's turn to freeze in his tracks, Jeno not comprehending his movements for a moment as he kept walking forward.

Renjun hated losing to Jaemin.

Renjun hated him.

He gulped, eyes flickering up to the clueless boy staring back at him in curiosity. Jeno cocked his head at him, making Renjun cast his eyes down to the floor.
Something was wrong.

"I don't like Jaemin." he stated in a tone harsher than he had intended.
Jeno blinked at him for a second. "...well damn who would've guessed that."
Renjun looked up to see Jeno roll his eyes at him. "But you're getting closer though, right?"
With dazed blinks, Renjun just awkwardly shrugged, "I don't know."

Jeno walked up to him, placing his hands on his shoulders. "Jun, what's wrong?"
Renjun bit his lip, taking a deep inhale. "I don't want to lose to Jaemin."
"Lose what?" Jeno furrowed his brows at him, "what's there to lose?"
"I-I- I don't know? Everything?"
"To Jaemin?"
Jeno stepped closer to him, trying to read his friend's whirling brain through his shaded eyes. Renjun wasn't sure if even he could see through the blinds.

"Jeno! Renjun!" Renjun's head darted to the sound of his name, Jaemin smiling and waving at him. And never had Renjun been so conflicted in his life about whether he should just punch Jaemin in the face as he screamed his heart out at him, or if he should run into Jaemin's arms and cry about what he didn't have.