Monopoly | Norenmin

a drink with broken ice

"Hi, love!" Jaemin yelled out across the cafe, waving animatedly at Renjun who was already seething at the sight of him. The younger male happily skipped up to their table only to take in Renjun's expression, his face falling as Renjun's eyes burned into him as they had a long time ago. It was about damn time they ended this.

Jaemin furrowed his brows, slowly approaching the table and sliding into the seat opposite Renjun. "Hi?"
"We need to stop, Jaemin," Renjun said bluntly. He didn't want to beat around the bush, they were here for a reason.
Jaemin sighed, resting his arms on the table as he rubbed  the bridge of his nose, "this again?"
"Jaemin!" Renjun hit his fist against the table, "he's hurt! We can't do this."
Jaemin sat up, staring intently into Renjun's eyes but he refused to falter. Not again. "But you-"
"I don't care," Renjun huffed, clenching his fists, "I can live with that. He can't." He took Jaemin's hands into his own, trying to calm himself down as heart tried to race itself out in a mess of rage. "Jeno was crying over you, don't you love him?"
"Of course I love him, that's why we're doing this," Jaemin gripped Renjun's hands, trying to soothe them both.

Renjun quickly ripped his hands away from Jaemin's, feeling like he was probably going to be put under another curse by him. "Then since it's not fucking working, stop." He was almost out of his seat, balancing his weight on his arms just to glare at Jaemin. Just to let him know they were done. "Stop avoiding him. Stop pretending to be busy all the damn time. Stop fucking talking about me."
"But I want to talk about you," Jaemin responded immediately, freezing Renjun's brain in its path. He furrowed his brows at him as Jaemin's face went blank, his eyes wide.
"...what the fuck are you talking about?" Renjun huffed, his face knotted up in rage and confusion as he slumped back in his seat.
Jaemin huffed, waving his hands around dismissively before sighing deeply. He placed his hands down calmly on the table. "It doesn't matter. We have to do this."

Renjun took a deep breath, folding his arms in front of his chest. For someone who used to dote over Jeno to no end, Jaemin had a funny way of showing that he loved him. Maybe Jaemin really didn't love Jeno at all. Or maybe he got tired of him. Renjun didn't know now why he wanted to fight so hard for a piece of shit like him.
He glared down at Jaemin, the boy looking down at the table, hunched over. "Do you really want to see him hurt?"
Instead of what Renjun thought would be a long rant about how much Jaemin hated Jeno, he watched him break before his eyes. He sat up as a single tear fell on to the table. He could almost feel the silence of the café, only the ring of the bell signalling that someone had walked in. Jaemin took a shaky breath looking up at Renjun with as much determination he could give with glassy eyes. "He has to love you, Renjun."
"Jaem-"
Jaemin shook his head, rubbing his eyes before looking at him. "Jeno will get over this," his voice shook, "he'll love you, not me."

"What?"

Both boy's froze in their seats, the person's voice echoing down the hollow walls of their heads. Renjun slowly looked up to him, his face pale with realisation.

"Jeno-"

"Huh?" Jeno's eyes darted to Renjun, the smaller boy sinking into his seat a little at the fire in his face. Jeno started to laugh to himself, looking back and forth between Renjun and Jaemin, his eyes welling, "what the fuck did you just say?"
Jaemin started slowly standing up, shaking his head and reaching out for him, "No, I didn't-"
Jeno simply pushed his hands away, looking back at Renjun who was trying to bury himself into the seat. "You weren't trying to help me, were you?"
"No, he was, he did try," Jaemin tried to rationalise, attempting to shield Renjun as best he could. "He tried to stop it so many times, I just..."
Jeno took a step away from Jaemin, looking back at Renjun, the ice shattering in his chest.

"Jeno-"
"No, shut the fuck up," Jeno snapped, Jaemin pulling away quickly. He took a deep breath, his fists balled up at his side as if holding back from lashing out. Renjun wished he didn't. He had already broken enough, Jeno deserved to break something back. "You were supposed to be my friend, Renjun." He gasped quite shakily, "Do you think I can't make decisions for myself? Did you ever think that maybe I knew I was happy with Jaemin? Did you even think about my feelings as something other than a thing to manipulate?!" Jeno slammed the table, staring down Renjun as the worthless piece of shit he felt like. "I asked you to help me and you just fucking helped yourself. Am I nothing but a fucking toy to you?! You were supposed to be my friend, not the cause of my damn problem!"

"Stop yelling at him, he did nothing wrong!" Jaemin grabbed Jeno's arm, pulling him forcefully away from Renjun and shoving his chest. "Don't take it out on him, it was my fault."
"Oh trust me, I fucking got that," Jeno sneered at him, pulling Jaemin by the collar. "If you weren't fucking happy with me then you should've just left."
Jaemin simply let himself be held there, finding it pointless to move. "I was happy."
"Clearly you fucking weren't. You wouldn't pull shit like this if you were," Jeno bit back.
Renjun could see him clenching and unclenching his fist, debating on whether or not he should just punch Jaemin square in the face. He knew he wouldn't do it though.

Jeno burned his eyes through Jaemin's skull for a moment, Jaemin just letting himself be limp, probably realising Jeno was right. Jeno sighed, releasing him shakily and just letting his tears run down freely. It was his weakness, Renjun knew this. He couldn't hurt him nor Jaemin intentionally. No matter how mentally battered and bruised Jeno was because of them, he could never hurt them. Renjun wished he could say the same thing about himself.

Jeno simply inhaled, slow and stuttered as he cried. The café was dead silent, no one moved a muscle as Jeno recollected himself and his smashed up heart. Renjun was somewhat grateful for the audience they had. The world could know just what he had done, which is all he had wanted them to know. That he was a bad friend, a bad person in general. Selfish and stepped on the ones he loved. He did love them, friend and otherwise, but he didn't show it well did he? He just crushed them all under his weight. The world knew he hated Na Jaemin, just like he had always wanted. He was miserable and dead and the world could see it, just as he wanted.

Everything he ever wanted condensed in a small café. How selfish of him.

Jeno swallowed, opening up his deadened eyes and looking back at Renjun one last time. He bit the inside of his lip, clicking his jaw before looking up ahead of him. "You could've just told me. Unlike you, I would've helped."
Renjun casted his eyes to the table.

Jeno looked to Jaemin, giving him a once over before scoffing. "And if you didn't want to be with me, you could've just broken up with me. It would've hurt less if that's what you were going for."
Jaemin simply nodded, looking down.

Renjun let himself look up, watching Jeno nod to himself before he simply walked out the door, dragging both Jaemin and his hearts out with him. It's what he deserved though. 

Jaemin simply slumped back on the counter, shutting his eyes as his world fell apart around him. He slid down on the floor and buried himself into a heap, occasionally choking on a faint sob.

The café began to move around them again, as if nothing happened. People simply avoided the two as best they could. Renjun wished he could do the damn same. He'd really broken everything.