rent me || nomin au

2

Jeno stood, watching a crowd of girls slowly form around him and the other males at the "Rent a Boyfriend" station. He had come with his friends, Lucas, Jungwoo, Johnny and Jaehyun to make some money because he was hella broke and he was told he was handsome. Hearing the description, it seemed easy enough: $20 an hour to flirt with some random girl. It didn't sound too bad, so Jeno had come to give it a shot.

That afternoon, he had seen many girls approach him and the others, seeing some guys taken away while others, like him, remained standing waiting for someone to rent them. Jeno was getting impatient; they had stood for what felt like hours and he wasn't getting anywhere. He even dressed in what Jungwoo called the "soft boyfriend" look to come off as cuddly and approachable: a grey hoodie and dark blue ripped jeans. His raven black hair was parted in the middle, slightly messy from being out all afternoon.

"Dude, why am I not getting any attention?" Jeno stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned in Johnny's direction. "We've been standing all afternoon and I don't think anyone has even looked my way."

"Patience, my dude," Jaehyun cut in. "We get the struggle because this is your first day but sometimes it just does take a while."

"Patience, my ass," Jeno huffed. "You got rented twice already," he pointed out. "Everyone loves you." He scanned the group of girls again, hoping to make eye contact with someone who will rent him, but to no luck.

After a few more minutes, his eyes drifted to the Kakao Friends store that was packed with people. Jeno shook his head a bit, thinking it was kind of funny that a store selling stuffed cartoon animals would get so many customers. Whatever floats their boat, I guess. His eyes fell on one of the cashiers, who had pretty features and long hair tied up in a ponytail. She was pretty decent looking, he thought.

His gaze shifted to the customer she was handling, a boy around his age with honey brown hair and big eyes. Jeno watched as he struggled with some coins and picked up all the stuffed toys off the counter that he had bought. He wondered why the boy didn't get a bag; he had at least four in hand and he was definitely struggling. It looked as if they were about to burst out of his arms at any moment. Jeno watched the guy come out of the store, almost tripping from the sea of people. He then sat down at a bench, putting down his multiple stuffies and wiping his brow. The boy glanced at his phone for a moment and let out an exasperated sigh, probably from all the things he was carrying. Perhaps they were for his girlfriend. Why else would a teenage boy willingly purchase those dumb cartoon characters?

"Hey guys, I'll be back," Lucas yelled. Jeno turned his head to see his friend getting pulled away by a short girl with curly blond hair. "Don't miss me too much," he called one more time, and then he was gone. Lucas was the loud one in the group, and now that he had been rented too there was a moment of silence that followed with the lack of his presence.

"Jaehyun? What the hell?" Jeno demanded. "I'm the only one who hasn't gotten rented. We've been here for two hours, Jae. Two. Hours. You told me I'd get plenty of people with my good looks."

"Stop being so annoying, dude. Trust me, you're pretty damn attractive but not with that shit attitude," Jaehyun shot back. "Have patience. I'm sure someone will pick you soon. "

As if on cue, Jeno spotted the brown haired boy again, but strangely enough he had picked up his things and was headed in the direction of the "Rent a Boyfriend" sign. Jeno's brows furrowed in confusion as he watched the boy give an extra long stare at the sign and look over the crowd of boys that were standing. Surely he doesn't want to work too? Not with all those stuffed animals for his girlfriend...

"Hello?" Jeno's head snapped forward and came eye to eye with the boy. Great. Out of all the people he could have approached, the dude decided to come to Jeno. Surely there were more experienced people here, and Jeno was definitely not one of them. What was he at the Rent-a-Boyfriend for anyway?

"How does this renting thing work?" The boy's head tilted to the side, and one of his honey locks fell in front of his eyes.

"Uh, so," Jeno shot a panicked look at his friends but none were paying attention. "I think you just stand here, wait for a girl to rent you, and you get paid $20 an hour. Did you want to work here? I could ask someone if you wanted to join but it might be kind of hard because of all the toys you're holdin-"

"So like, borrowing people?" The boy's eyes lit up in interest. "Can I rent you then? You seem nice."

Jeno was dumbfounded. Was this a joke? A guy? Renting him? Did the dude lose a bet or something? The boy was obviously alone though, so maybe his friends weren't behind it. He also didn't seem embarrassed about the idea of hanging around a fake boyfriend. What was his deal then? Jeno's eyes darted once again to his friends but they were still paying no attention to him. Of course, the one time Jeno actually needed them they happened to be preoccupied.

Jeno's eyes met again with the boy, who was watching him expectantly. "You see, I was hoping for a girl...maybe...?" His voice trailed off and the boy continued.

"So? Who says boys can't be with boys? Besides, I'm not interested in you, I just need someone to help hold my things. See, I went to the Kakao store and bought all these plushies but then when I asked for a bag they told me they were out. I said it was fine just to be polite because there were so many people waiting to pay behind me and I didn't want to slow down the line but I have so many plushies and these are too big to carry on my own and I don't want to to risk dropping them and getting them dirty so I was hoping you could help me?"

Jeno blinked, struggled to keep up with the boy's sudden ramble but it dawned on Jeno that he was being serious about renting him. Holy shit. Jeno felt slightly relieved that he wasn't looking for a boyfriend, but still the idea of going out with another boy unnerved him. After contemplating for a bit on what to do, he decided to take the offer. It wasn't a bad idea since he was doing nothing anyway, and Jeno figured hold stuffies for a little while would be pretty easy. Plus he could actually make some money.

"Ummm alright then, let's go."

~~~~~

A/N:

i actually have like the first 10 chapters written already so i'll probably update kind of quickly whenever i have time,, after that updates are probably gonna be slow LOL sorry

**ik this au doesn't have a cover yet... i'm working on it dw**