fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses ; nct jaeno

day 12 ;

Carrying a carefree smile with him, Jaemin skipped his way to school. After a day and a half, the storm had left their part of the country, leaving only moderate to light rains and gloomy skies, but that wasn't enough to bring the boy's bright mood down.

After his meeting with someone the day before then, he felt as if he was flying at the highest point of his life. It was strange; The two had know each other for so long, but that was the only time when he felt truly happy with him. Truth be told, that was the only time when he felt truly happy for his whole life.

Was it because they weren't as close as they were now before, or was it something else?

Walking in silence as he thought about this, Jaemin passed by the school playground on his way to his classroom, where he heard hushed voices, which caught his attention. He stopped on his tracks, turned to the playground, and spotted a pair of backpacks placed somewhere beside the slide. He recognized the first one even from afar, while he was not so sure about the second one.

With a confused look on his face, he took his phone out of his pocket and checked the time.

Classes are about to start. What is he doing there at this time?

A few moments later, he found himself hesitatingly approaching the playground while contemplating whether what he was doing was a good idea or not.

"Please listen to me, Jeno."

Jaemin stopped. Once he registered the familiarity of the voice that he heard, he hid behind the slide, then took a peek of what was happening on the other side of it.

"I know what I did was dumb," said a girl—Jeno's ex-girlfriend—while fidgeting with her fingers. "When I found out that I had hurt you really badly, I felt like I had hurt myself really badly, too."

Jaemin froze in the spot where he was standing, realizing whose conversation he was eavesdropping. He immediately felt guilt fill his stomach for doing so, but for some reason, it was as if his feet had sunken in the ground, because he couldn't move away.

"Jeno, I'm so sorry for breaking up with you. I was dumb. I didn't see how important you were to me until now, so... Give me another chance. Let's be together again."

With that, Jaemin felt as if a strong force shoved him away, leaving a lot of pain lingering on his chest. Turning around, he hastily walked away from the area.

With every step away from the playground came a question in his mind, clouding it until he felt as if he was going to be sick.

Give me another chance. Let's be together again.

What will he say?

What will he do?

What will happen to them?

What will happen to us?

Was there ever an us?

-

For the rest of the day, Jaemin was on the edge of losing control over himself. He failed a seatwork in Mathematics class, tripped and wounded himself in PE class, kept bumping into things and people, all because his mind was too occupied, much to his resentment.

A part of him had known that he was overthinking and overreacting, but all of his other parts had already been convinced that something was wrong.

Despite his absentmindedness, he still managed to be aware of you-know-who, as well as the others. He skipped both recess break and lunch break, and thought that he was smart by staying in a bathroom stall and silently scrolling through social media to keep him away from thinking about things, but truth be told, not even the slightest did it work.