parents | na jaemin

SIX

the next week came and went, much to ahyoung's annoyance, who was still dreading the dinner at the na family home. even when she tried to persuade her mother to let her skip so she could hang out with jeno for his birthday, her mother firmly said no, saying that the girl could just be with her best friend before or after the dinner. ahyoung told jeno this, who was sad but understanding of it all.

"i'm still really sorry nono," ahyoung said into her phone as she sat on her bed.

"it's okay," jeno reassured her. "i'll hang out with chenle tomorrow. it's fine."

"wow, replacing me?" ahyoung scoffed jokingly.

"think whatever you want," jeno retorted.

the girl laughed. "sure," she smiled into her phone. "my mom said she could drop me off at your house after the dinner though, so i can celebrate with you properly then."

"sounds good," jeno answered. "and if you think about it," he said mischievously. "this is your chance to see where jaemin lives. now you can plot your revenge for all the shit he's pulled."

ahyoung rolled her eyes. "as tempting as that is," she continued. "i have to be nice to him, remember?"

"right," jeno muttered. "did he even apologize for the stuff he did before? i'm still surprised he hasn't broken his promise."

"you and me both," she sighed. "he didn't apologize but--"

"but what?" jeno exclaimed indignantly. "that boy should apologize even if he stopped doing that to you that little--"

"calm down mom," ahyoung said mockingly, resulting in jeno to make an angry pouting noise on the other side of the line. "i mean, in all honesty, i agree that he should, but at this point, i'd rather just keep things the way it is. i'm not in pain for once in my life. i'd like it to stay that way."

"still," the boy grumbled. "na fucking jaemin really needs some help."

"amen," ahyoung agreed. "anyways, it's getting late. i need to sleep if i want to be able to fully function tomorrow."

"for school, the dinner, or your hangout with the most amazing person ever?" jeno asked, making ahyoung let out a snort.

"anything but the last one," she said teasingly.

jeno huffed. "fine then, don't hang out with me tomorrow. i see how it is."

"love you too nono," she grinned as she spoke. "see you tomorrow."

"sure sure min ahyoung," jeno said sarcastically. "goodnight youngie."

"goodnight nono."

~

the next morning, ahyoung woke up from her noisy alarm as she did every day. as she checked her phone for the time, she saw the date and smiled when she remembered her best friend's birthday. however, that expression quickly turned sour when she also remembered that she would be heading to na jaemin's house for dinner that night.

ahyoung's morning classes went by fairly smoothly, mostly because she slept through half of them. unfortunately, the only times she saw jeno were in pre-calculus and physics, but she couldn't say much to the birthday boy because they were seated apart from each other and she fell asleep. once the bell rang in her math class, she was awoken from her slumber and she grabbed her stuff to head to lunch.

since ahyoung and jeno were "cursed by the gods" as the latter liked to say, they had two different lunch periods, meaning ahyoung normally sat by herself or went to the dance room. however, today the dance room was reserved by someone else, so ahyoung went to her usual table in the corner of the cafeteria to sit by herself.