Stars | Norenmin

stars

The chances of meeting Huang Renjun and Na Jaemin were like the chances of a star being born, Jeno thought. Though not rare - conditions had to be just right, as Renjun had put it, plus the whole process took forever in Jaemin's opinion. For a celestial body though, Jeno personally thought the process was quite efficient.

In our own galaxy, seven stars are born in year. 150 billion stars are born in the known universe, and beyond that who knows.
The stars are so far out of reach, our nearest one no one dare look too close.

Cruel, Jeno thinks, how the stars are so beautiful and yet so far out of his grasp. How hard he'd have to try just to come close. The conditions were right somewhere else. The chances were in their favour, not his.

People for centuries have put their faith and fate in the stars. Created the idea of Gods who ruled over them with the night - Asteria, Nut, Aurvandil* - all to show their devotion. Placing trust in their ways and alignments, so much so that the manipulated language to please them - consider, meaning "with the stars", desire, meaning "from the stars". They placed faith that the stars would be with them and guide them to where they belong.

No matter how fond of the stars he was, though, no matter his desires, the stars were never with Jeno. The chances were right somewhere else. The stars were in their favour, not his.

So as he paced beside the two most unreachable people in his mind, he thought about what Renjun had said. That the stars were there for us to see, not touch, that they were beautiful on their own and they didn't need to be held. An Angel somewhere made them so we could explore and admire, like a painting that he didn't have to pay to see in some museum. It was free right in front of him. If we were to touch them, it'd ruin them. The value they held was nothing more than beauty.

That takes him to now, in a narrow hallway, listening to the way Renjun speaks, the life in his voice and the light in his eyes as he shows them both photos from the JWST shining through.
"God, I wish I could work for them," the older boy sighed almost dreamily to himself, "waiting for this KARI intern acceptance is ridiculous."
"I'm sure they'll take you, my love," Jaemin smiled and Jeno almost runs into someone as he malfunctions for a moment.
"They better," Renjun scoffed, Jaemin laughing in response, bringing Renjun's hand to his lips and pressing a soft kiss into his skin.

Far away. It was just to look.

Jeno averted his eyes, changing the topic. "Are you guys doing anything for the break?"
Renjun and Jaemin darted their heads over, Renjun's jaw hanging slightly. "You forgot?"
"Forgot what?"
"The mountain trip."
Shit. He did forget about that. He forgot to deny the trip.

It's not that he didn't like the mountains. Every single star that Renjun knew about knew he wanted to go so badly.

Just not badly enough to want to third wheel the two people he had loved for almost half a decade now.

Renjun had mentioned it to him, Jaemin following it up in their photography class when Jeno had mentioned stargazing as something he had been wanting to do. Renjun spoke so sweetly of the stars, who wouldn't want to go just to get a glimpse of how beautiful the world must look through Renjun's eyes?

But the problem was that it was just them. Jeno. Jaemin. Renjun. And he didn't really feel the need to make his single ass feel even more single around their high school's golden couple.

For a sliver of this tiny look, he didn't want to deal with two days of dealing with a whole lot of that. Who knew what he might see.

"Ah, I can't," he put on a fake sad sigh, though only somewhat fake if he thought about it. "I gotta help my family with some stuff."
Renjun frowned as Jaemin huffed. "Oh come on Nono," the younger whined, "is it that urgent? It's only a weekend."
"Yeah," Renjun added, "it'll just be a fun little get away. There's so much light pollution in Seoul, this is a chance to see the constellations in full."
Jaemin slid to his other side, sandwiching Jeno in the middle of them. "I can talk to your mom if you want, she loves me anyway."