rent me || nomin au

10

Jeno arrived early, at around 9:50am. Jungwoo had come over at 8am to help with Jeno's outfit. Jeno usually never put much thought into what he wore but for some reason he felt the need to look better today. Jungwoo suggested he wore something that would catch Jaemin's attention, but Jeno kept refusing and Jungwoo ended up giving up and let Jeno choose a white tee and light blue jeans. Jungwoo disapproved of the simplicity but didn't do anything about it.

So Jeno sat there with nothing to do, wondering if he dressed fine. Was he underdressed? Should he have put on a jacket? A chain necklace? Perhaps he shouldn't have come so early because it caused him to overthink. He was also getting stares from some of the baristas since he just sat there without ordering. After 10 minutes of silent thinking, a Starbucks employee approached Jeno.

"Excuse me, are you going to order anything?" Jeno looked up to see a brown haired boy around his age staring at him and tapping impatiently at the back of his hand. His eyes fell on the employees name tag, which read 'Donghyuck'.

"You've been sitting here for at least ten minutes," the boy repeated. "Are you going to order or not?" Jeno was taken slightly aback by this boy's attitude. What was with the sass?

Jeno checked the time, which read 10:03am. Jaemin was late. Would he have to move because he wasn't ordering? "I'm sorry. I'm waiting for someone," he explained.

The boy's expression brightened immediately, cracking a smile. "Oh, that's fine! We were just checking, since you didn't appear to be doing anything." He paused for a moment then leaned in, covering one side of his mouth. "To be honest I couldn't care less, but my manager was telling me to go yell at the boy sitting idle near the window." Donghyuck chuckled. "Anyway, I hope your friend comes soon. Have a nice day!"

The boy sauntered away, leaving Jeno slightly dazed by the sudden change in mood. What a weird guy, Jeno thought. At least he was kind of nice.

There was a sudden movement to the left outside the window that caught Jeno's eye. He saw a blur of honey brown hair, which must be Jaemin. Jeno watched as Jaemin exited a slick black car and was joined by a red haired man in a bomber jacket. He had an intimidating look and was leaning a little too closely to Jaemin. Jeno wondered who he was; he could see them talking and Jaemin looked slightly distressed from his presence.

Jeno was about to get up to defend Jaemin and tell the red haired man to piss off, assuming it was someone trying to harass Jaemin or something when the door chimed and they walked in.

"You only said you were going to drop me off. You never said you would come out of the car with me," Jaemin muttered to red hair. "You aren't mom, no need to be so embarrassing..." Jeno could hear bits of their conversation and he realized the guy was probably close with Jaemin.

"Why can't I? Besides, I want to meet this Jeno dude. From the way you described him he seems like an interesting guy. Just because I'm slightly older doesn't mean I can't socialize with you guys."

Interesting guy? Jeno didn't know if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult. Why did he know about him? What relationship did Jaemin have with the older man? He didn't have time to analyze them thoroughly though because Jaemin quickly spotted Jeno and started walking to where he was sitting.

"You talk as if you were born in the stone age. You're basically a grandpa, you might even slip out the word 'youngster' if you aren't careful." Red hair was about to throw back a retort but Jaemin signaled that the conversation was over as they neared Jeno. "Hey Jeno!" He waved and flashed that pretty smile of his. He turned back to red hair. "Hyung, this is Jeno. Jeno, this is my older brother Taeyong."

Taeyong, right. The dude Jaemin got the peach looking plushie for. Jeno's gaze switched back and forth between Jaemin and Taeyong's faces, trying to find a resemblance. They didn't look at all similar besides the fact that they were both attractive as fu-

Jeno smiled and waved back, dismissing his observations. "Oh, hi. I didn't know you were Taeyong, nice to meet you." Jeno cringed inwardly at his sudden awkwardness. He was usually a lot smoother and better with words, what happened to him?

"It's nice to meet you too! And I didn't know you were Jeno," Taeyong laughed. "I was wondering who you were, I saw you staring in our direction." They all stared at each other for a while, the awkwardness growing each second.

"Okay!" Jaemin cut the conversation. "Now that you've met Jeno, I'll see you at home!" Jaemin made shooing gestures at Taeyong as if he was a bird, signaling that it was time for him to leave.

Taeyong pretended to be offended by Jaemin's sudden outburst. "Alright, fine," he scoffed. "I'll leave you here then. Take care of yourself! You have the money right? Have fun, and try not to buy too much coffee alright? Sometimes I worry ab—"

"Yes, I got it." Jaemin rolled his eyes. "Bye hyung!" He waved enthusiastically and they both watched Taeyong exit the building and enter his car.

"So," Jeno turned around awkwardly and cleared his throat. " To be honest I didn't know that was your brother," Jeno said, explaining why he was looking even though Jaemin didn't ask. "He looked so intimidating, seriously I thought someone was trying to harass you or something."

Jaemin burst out laughing, grabbing onto the table for support. "Yeah, he actually gets that a lot. He has a cold and intimidating appearance on the outside but once you get to know him you realize he's actually super soft. As much as I clown him for treating me like his kid I appreciate how much he cares for me and we get along pretty well."

Jeno nodded, glad that Jaemin had a nice brother. "That's good to know, that you two get along." Jeno couldn't really relate because he was an only child but he wanted to keep the conversation going somehow.

Jeno was thinking of a way to respond in more detail when thankfully Jaemin changed the topic, gesturing to the menu board. "Sorry this is kind of irrelevant but can we get coffee? I havent had much yet and I feel like if I close my eyes for too long I'll accidentally fall asleep."

"Yeah sure," Jeno stood up, and they went over to the counter.