oneshots • nctdream x aespa

when the snow stops pt.1 🐰⭐️

There's maybe nothing he loves more than the snow. Jaemin watches it fall around them onto the already-white ground, twisting a little in the swing he sits in. It's night time, the perfect time to be outside. Everything is illuminated by the reflection of the moon, full and bright in the sky. Jaemin kicks at the fluff beneath his feet and smiles.

"Hey, Jaemin. Are you listening?" Minjeong looks at him with furrowed brows, her glasses shining with specks of snowflakes.

"No," Jaemin answers truthfully. "What were you saying?"

Minjeong heaves out a breathy sigh and pushes off the ground to swing, her breath leaving a cloud in the air. "You never listen to me."

"Hey, this is only the fifth time today." Jaemin starts swinging too, a grin forming on his face. "Anyway, what is it?"

"Nevermind."
"Come on, tell me."
"I changed my mind."
"Okay then." Jaemin shrugs.

It's hard to love your best friend.

Jaemin decides this the moment he realizes he likes Minjeong, one winter night not unlike that calm one years ago. He's known Minjeong for forever, or for what seems like forever, and maybe that was what made it dangerous. The familiarity. The comfort. The ability Minjeong had to always know what to say or how to make him feel better, even when he thinks it's impossible.

They sit on the swings in their favorite park, Jaemin and Minjeong, she in a new jacket with a new scarf, gifts she'd gotten for entering the sixth grade. Minjeong is quiet while Jaemin mourns his breakup.

"I don't get it. Why would she break up with me like that?"

It isn't snowing. But the ground is covered in the white from earlier, and Jaemin takes the liberty to kick at it like he always does, sending snow flying in front of him. Eventually his foot meets dirt, and he gives up and starts swinging. Minjeong watches him and, once she kicks off the ground, says, "Maybe she just wasn't meant for you."

And somehow just that alone is enough to comfort him, and he agrees. Minjeong always knows what to say, and Jaemin sees her brown eyes watching his, and he realizes that maybe he likes Minjeong a little.
A little in a way that he shouldn't. She's his best friend. He just broke up with his girlfriend.

Jaemin looks away.

"Are you okay?" Minjeong for some reason feels compelled to ask.

"No."

They stay in comfortable silence after that.

***

Jaemin doesn't talk to Minjeong a lot these days.

He's busy, what with his new friends and the fact that he's a high schooler while Minjeong is still stuck in eighth grade. Being a freshman in high school is daunting, but Jaemin thinks he's managing well. He thinks maybe there's a girl who's crushing on him in his Geometry class, but he isn't sure. He should ask Minjeong as she always has a knack for knowing these kinds of things.

Winter break comes and they meet in the park again, and Jaemin tells her, "I think this girl likes me."

"Okay. What am I supposed to do about that?"

Jaemin feels like imagining things. He wonders why does Minjeong sound defensive. He doesn't know why, but suddenly he doesn't want to talk about the girl anymore. "Nevermind. Do you like anyone?"

"Why?" Minjeong shoots back. "Do you?"

"I asked first."

"But I matter more."

Well. Jaemin can't argue with that, so he relents. "I think I like someone."

Minjeong's lips were turned in a soft smile with Jaemin's silent agreement of his importance, but now they're a straight line. "Really?" Jaemin can't tell if she's interested, or neutral. "Who is it?"

"Maybe the girl that likes me," He says, and it's not entirely a lie, he thinks. She is cute. But she wasn't the first person to pop into his head.

Minjeong nods and fixes her scarf to cover his mouth. Her voice is muffled when she says, "Mhm that's good. It's probably mutual."

"Yeah." Jaemin doesn't know why he feels disappointed. Or of course he knows. But he doesn't feel like admitting it to himself, so he doesn't.

It isn't until later that he realizes Minjeong never answered the question herself.