Neighbors|| JaeSung

C.1

the sound of posters being pulled down and a rubber ball being bounced off the ceiling filled jaemin and jinhyuk's shared room. jinhyuk glanced at his older cousin's side of the room, his heart sinking at how empty it looked.

in comparison to his own side of the room, jaemin's half was always full of life, with fairy lights and cloud stickers decorating the wall or the little floating lanterns he hung every spring, the splashes of glitter and Glow Stick ooze on his cork board were especially interesting on nights that sleep wanted to dance away from the two, always finding comfort in the way the glow in the dark fluid made the bioluminescent glitter look even more pretty.

now though, jinhyuk's room was more decorated than jaemin's, decorations being the random sticky notes he puts in places he won't even remember and the random articles of clothing that hang on the desk under his bed

the bouncing of jinhyuk's ball was cut abruptly when one throw with a bit too much force sent the ball boomeranging into the boy's face. jinhyuk groaned, his hand cupping over his nose as he put his head down over the rail of his bunk bed.

jaemin looked over, scrunching up his nose in disgust at the sight of the crimson red fluid dripping from the boy's nose. "ew, you're cleaning that up when you're done." jinhyuk snorted, but regretted it as a bit of blood made it into his mouth, sending him into a fit of coughing. jaemin handed him some water, putting tape on his last box.

"at least i get my room to myself again." jinhyuk commented,

"don't have any girls over while i'm gone, i don't want to find semen in my bed when i stop by for visits."

"oh please, your blacklight can't detect sperm."

"that red sock on your desk could use a nice wash, you know." jinhyuk turned beet red. "and same with your winter uniform. not for the same reason though, the blazer just smells like sweaty teenager. not something women like too much!" jinhyuk threw his ball at jaemin to get him to shut up, but he missed, much to jaemin's enjoyment.

as jaemin continued to howl in laughter his grandmother knocked on the door, poking her head in. "minnie dear, your brothers are here for you."

jaemin waved goodbye to his cousin and kissed his grandma on the cheek, "bye-bye now! stay safe!" he carried his box to the car where his brothers sat, screaming along to a random IDKHBTFM song.

"not sure what i walked in to, but play some MCR." jungwoo scoffed, "uncultured." johnny ignored him, instead turning on a Glass Animals song jaemin remembers having a breakdown with it playing in the background*.

(*true story i had a literal meltdown while Pork Soda by G.A. was blaring through my headphones. ah, highschool. i dont miss it one bit.)

"how about psylla?" does that satiate your weird love of casual death?" jaemin clasped his hands together, grinning wickedly, "this pleases me." jungwoo snickered, turning up the volume a bit.

it was a two hour drive to jaemin's university, a two hour drive filled with the brothers' high pitched singing and chaotic tendencies, and a two hour drive until jaemin got to meet his roommates in person.

jaemin had been talking to his soon-to-be roommates since he signed up for on-campus classes, the councilor gave them each other's district emails and the four of them hit it off almost instantly aside from some hiccups on renjun and donghyuck's ends, but now they're practically married so it's fine.

johnny pulled up to jaemin's dormitory, helping him carry his things in. jungwoo helped carry his tech bag because "he's too pretty for heavy lifting," his words, not ours.

jaemin knocked on the door and no less than three seconds after he heard two sets of footsteps shuffling towards the door. he heard their random little argument as they debated over who should get the door.

"i should get it, he talked to me first!" obviously donghyuck

"no, i should! he likes me more!" undoubtably jeno but don't tell him jaemin's favorite is actually renjun

"move aside peasants, i got this" after what seemed like an eternity the door was opened, revealing the smiling face of renjun and the irritated frowns of donghyuck and jeno.

there was a rope tied around the duo's waists, keeping them bound together. jaemin wasn't too confused, he learned early on that renjun takes pride in his knotting skills.

"welcome to Casa Dream!" renjun greeted, "you're shorter than i expected." jaemin blurted out. renjun groaned, " three for three. yay me!.."

jaemin giggled, stepping into the small space. johnny and jungwoo followed behind him, "you'll be on the bottom left bunk, under donghyuck." jaemin's brothers saw this as a cue to drop his belongings and go.

jaemin waved goodbye and flopped down onto his bed, gazing over at the bed on the other side of the room in confusion.

why was there a gray cat lounging on Renjun's pillow?

jaemin got up and closed the window, thinking it was probably just a stray that wandered in, but wasn't going to kick the kitten out. instead, he called his roommate in to question him.

"what's with the cat? I thought jeno was allergic to them." renjun nodded, "he is, but we have a soft spot for this one, he's a little stiff if you try and pick him up, but he's a sweetie when he wants to be."

said cat poked his head out from under the pillow, casting it's soft coppery eyes at the newcomer. jaemin was a goner. renjun snorted at the realization, leaving jaemin to unpack. "we call him jwi because he's just a long, squishy mouse, but that's not his real name. enjoy your new best friend."

jwi inched away from jaemin as he drew closer, narrowing his eyes at the hand aiming for his head. that being said, the distrust soon turned to pleasure as jaemin found the perfect scratching spot behind jwi's ears. jwi purred into the hand that scratched his head and wasn't too irritated by the second hand that creeped up to stroke his chin.

"shouldn't you be unpacking?" donghyuck questioned, jwi bounded over to him, bumping his head against donghyuck's arm as if asking for something. "not now! im trying to scold the youngest!" jwi hissed lightly,going back to jaemin's side.

"seems you've befriended this thing. good luck, he doesn't like attention too much." jwi hopped onto jaemin's lap, his purr only adding more purpose to the coo that escaped the boy's lips. "my jwijwi loves the attention i give him! doesn't he?" the cat looked at jaemin as if the older had gone insane, but jaemin showed no signs of quitting.

"oh, he's just the sweetest boy! have you ever seen anything as precious as him?" donghyuck sighed, "i'm shocked he stayed that long. he's a keeper, i guess."

donghyuck reopened the window for jwi to access whenever he was ready to flee once more, which only took about twenty minutes.

"where'd jwi even come from?" donghyuck shrugged, "he just comes by whenever he feels like it. thinks he owns the place."

"understandable, we stan a bossy kitty."

~

yes, I, a 21 year old have procrastinated more times than i can count on rewriting this monstrosity, but I will have it done by the end of April so I can continue the new storyline.

thank you for your patience, loves!