Beautiful // Nomin

~56~

On Saturday, Jeno took his boyfriend out to the state fair that was open this month. Jaemin was all jumpy and jittery, since he hadn't been to any fairs or amusement parks since he was ten. 

The air was cool and breezy, and the couple spotted a lot of other classmates walking around at the fair grounds, but that didn't stop them from holding hands and such. The whole school now knew about the NoMin-Kiara episode, and they no longer bullied the two although they still kept their distances. 

"Jaemin-ssi, what do you wanna do?" Jeno asked as the two swung their arms back and forth as they walked. 

"Hmm..." Jaemin looked around with a concentrated frown and squinted his eyes. Then he smiled as he spotted and pointed to the drop tower, which didn't have too many people in the line at this time. "That one!" 

Jeno's eyes followed his boyfriend's finger and he gulped upon seeing it. Truth was, Jeno was not an amusement parks/ rides/ rollercoasters type of guy, but Jaemin loved them, which was why he always risked his mental health and went on these dates. 

"I'll sit here and wait for you," Jeno said after a moment, and began to sat down but Jaemin yanked him back up. 

"What! You're not coming with me?" Jaemin asked. 

"I...just ate," Jeno partially lied. He had eaten a few crackers before coming here. 

"Come onnn. I don't want to go in the line by myself," Jaemin pouted. 

"I'm sitting right here. You can see me," Jeno tried to protest. 

Jaemin sighed. "Fine. But you have to go with me on the other ones." 

"Okay okay," Jeno agreed reluctantly and shooed Jaemin towards the line. 

Jaemin skipped over to the line and looked back at Jeno, a bright smile on his face. The older smiled back and took out his phone to take pictures of his boyfriend. Jaemin posed extra despite the people around looking at him. 

Jeno filmed the ride, Jaemin screaming happily as it dropped down. Jeno laughed at the sight and got up to meet Jaemin at the exit gate, when he heard someone call his name. "If it isn't Jeno Lee!" 

Jeno turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw Son Youngjae walking towards him. "Oh hey, Youngjae." 

"Come on, cuh. Call me Eric, since we play games together," Jeno's energetic classmate demanded. 

"Okay, Eric," Jeno said. 

"Who'd you come with?" Eric asked, looking around. 

"Jaemin," Jeno said, pointing to the boy who was now walking in their direction. 

Jaemin put on a suspicious face upon seeing Eric talking to Jeno, since he hadn't quite forgotten about Eric reading his poem to the entire class. "Hi Youngjae." Jaemin slung his arm over Jeno's shoulder and leaned his head on him. 

Eric clapped. "NoMin is my favorite ship," he announced, and Jeno laughed. 

They exchanged a few words before going on their ways. "Baby, Youngjae's the one who told me that you wrote a poem for me, so I knew that you liked me," Jeno informed the still skeptical Nana. 

"Really?" the latter said. "I thought I stopped the note from getting to you-" 

"What note?" Jeno asked. 

"Hm? Oh, nothing then. Nevermind," Jaemin shook his head, not wanting to get into the embarrassing details of that school day. 

Jaemin dragged Jeno onto many other rides, and the blue-haired boy was glad he hadn't really eaten a meal or anything before coming here. Because he felt sick. 

"Uhhh Jeno-yah? Should we take a break?" Jaemin observed his boyfriend's face after riding the Zipper. 

"Yeah sounds good," Jeno barely got out as he plopped himself onto a nearby bench and put his head in his hands. 

"I'll go buy some food. What do you want to eat?" 

"Nothing really right now," Jeno groaned at even the thought of food, let alone fair food. 

"Okay. Imma go buy a cheesecake or something," Jaemin informed. 

Jeno just nodded, and Jaemin left to go buy some chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick. 

He was in line waiting when he felt someone "tap" more like "hit" his shoulder. He turned around and immediately felt a dread in his heart upon seeing Jung Kiara with her other friends standing behind him in line. "Hi Kiara," he still greeted politely, and gave her boyfriend a nod in acknowledgement since Jaemin didn't really know his name. 

"Hi," Kiara said curtly. "Where's Jeno?" 

"Uhh...sitting somewhere," Jaemin answered, not wanting to expose where the boy was, for no particular reason. 

Kiara took one step toward him and dropped her voice. "I still can't believe you snatched him from me right in front of my eyes," she almost whispered. "We were perfect, and he loved me..." 

"I know. Sorry," Jaemin answered, actually feeling quite a bit bad for her. "Maybe he'd like you again if you weren't so mean." He shrugged. 

"Well, I have to be mean!" Kiara argued. 

"Hell why?" Jaemin choked. "You think he'd like you when you're so mean?" 

Kiara frowned. "If I don't act like that, then he'll think I don't care about him breaking up with me." 

"Well, it's really the opposite. You're just fueling him to hate you more by being like that. You know, he might feel more regretful if you were actually sad about it. Not coming around and completely switching your personality, plus getting a new boyfriend to taunt him. Revenge isn't gonna work on him, you know," Jaemin quickly explained. 

Kiara folded her arms. "Well why are you telling me all this when you're the one who made this mess? I don't trust you, Na Jaemin." 

"Aren't you guys getting married?" Jaemin dropped casually. 

"We-" Kiara's eyes darted, triggered. "Not at this point, we aren't!" 

"I thought it was arranged," Jaemin continued. 

"That pabo tells you everything, doesn't he," Kiara huffed. "But yeah, you're right..." 

"Then you'd better start loving each other again." 

Kiara side-eyed him before answering, "I've always been loving him. But he doesn't love me, so what's the use? Also weird to say coming from you, who's dating him right now. If you really wanted to help me, you'd break up with him." 

"We're breaking up in a few days," the boy said quietly. "He's yours at the end of the year and forever after that. I mean, unless you two don't cooperate on your own in the future." 

"Wait- So you two aren't planning to stay together?" Kiara asked, mystified. 

Jaemin shook his head no. "We aren't. After that senior party on Tuesday, we're deleting all our contacts with each other and I won't talk to him again." 

"Y-you're kidding," the girl was genuinely shocked. 

"I'm not," Jaemin insisted. "So you better get you're act back up and get on his good side, cause there's not much time left. I support you two, Kiara." 

Kiara searched the boy's eyes for even a little hint of deception or taunting. But they were completely genuine, completely pure. She gave him a bewildered look. "Okay," she finally whispered. "Th-thanks? Thanks Jaemin." She looked down before adding, "A-and sorry for whatever I said about you that w-wasn't true!" she shook her head before quickly turning back toward her friends. 

The bittersweet smile was drawn onto Nana's face once again as he watched her go. 

"It's okay."