rent me || nomin au

12

It was a bold move, yes. Jeno's heart was racing as he said the words. He didn't want to get ahead of himself, but from what he noticed it seemed like they might be feeling the same things but he wanted to make sure. He was worried that since now that there wasn't any reason for the two to meet up again, Jeno might never see Jaemin in the future. Now after seeing Jaemin's reaction he was relieved, maybe there was hope for their relationship.

Another awkward silence followed, and Jeno cleared his throat anxiously. "So," he said slowly. "Now what, after you've technically paid me back?"

"I don't know, maybe I'll go home then?" Was Jeno implying he should leave already? Jaemin didn't want to go so soon; he wasn't even finished his coffee. He was slightly hurt by Jeno's bluntness but what was he expecting?

"I'll- oh shit," Jaemin slapped a hand on his forehead. "I didn't tell Taeyong I needed to be picked up and he's out right now. And maybe I forgot to charge my phone last night and it's on the verge of dying." In times like these Jaemin really cursed himself for being unable to think things through.

Jeno gave up on being subtle at this point so he decided to stop being a coward and asked Jaemin directly. "Well, are you busy today? If you don't have any plans, we could go somewhere instead, if you want." Jaemin had nowhere to go, and Jeno wanted to spend more time with him. It was perfect, a win-win situation. (ha winwin... im deleting myself lol bye)

Jaemin thought for a moment, then smiled. "Yeah sure! What do you have in mind?" Before Jeno could speak, Jaemin started listing potential places to go. "We could go somewhere fun! Like an amusement park or something. And we can get cotton candy. Or if that's too spontaneous we could always just go for a walk in a nearby park. I don't know actually, I'm so indecisive," Jaemin's eyes sparkled as he spoke, excited about the afternoon's plans.

By now Jeno was accustomed to Jaemin's bursts of rambling, and honestly found it cute. Everything about him was admirable, from the way he would attentively listen when someone else was talking with his head tilted to the side, the way leaned forward when he spoke, the way his eyes widened when he talked about something he was interested in, and of course his contagious grin that he would show so often. Jeno couldn't help but smile at the brown-haired boy who he had quickly developed feelings for. He had seen some pretty attractive people in his life, but this boy was effortlessly beautiful, and he wondered if Jaemin knew.

Jeno snapped out of his thoughts. "How about let's go to the park then? We can get some ice cream and just talk and get to know each other better."

"Sounds good." Jaemin clapped his hands together. "I actually know an ice cream place that's close by the park, we could go there!"

They got up from their seats and headed towards the exit. Donghyuck waved a little too excitedly at the two, and Jaemin decided to ignore the eyebrow wiggles he was getting from the employee. He smiled politely and waved back, hoping they would meet again. Donghyuck seemed like a nice guy, they would make pretty good friends.

Outside, Jeno spotted Jungwoo in his car. Strange, because he didn't notice him there earlier. Jungwoo noticed them approaching him and rolled down his car window. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Jeno asked.

"Jeno! You took longer than expected. I know you said to drop you off but you never specified when you wanted to go home, so I stayed. Also hello! You must be Jaemin, I'm Jungwoo. Jeno's friend." Jungwoo flashed a sincere smile, and Jaemin found himself liking this friend of Jeno's right away. He just radiated a pure and angel-like energy, it made Jaemin soft.

"You stayed?" Jeno was genuinely surprised by his friend's act of consideration. "Thanks so much hyung, I didn't expect you to do that." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shifted his feet. "So, Jaemin and I were planning on going to the park and getting ice cream..."

Jungwoo's eyes lit up. "That sounds so sweet! Do you guys need a drive? Since I'm here anyway, there's no point in you to walk, right?" He smiled shyly and gestured to the backseat of his car. Jeno was again surprised at how nonchalantly Jungwoo reacted, if it were any of his other friends he would've been roasted to hell and back.

"Thank you Jungwoo!" Jaemin exclaimed as he got in the car. "I know we just met but I'm literally about to bust all my uwus for you, you're so cute and kind, my heart hurts." He put both hands on his chest for effect and pretended to tear up.

"Wait! You know uwu?" Jungwoo pulled the car out of the lot. "I can't believe you know what uwu is. None of my dumbass friends-" he nodded at Jeno "-know what it means. Oh my god I love you already. Can I adopt you? Is that legal?"

They both laughed, and Jeno watched their interactions. They talked about other stan twitter language for a bit then started talking about plushies, and about that Ryan character again. Both Jaemin and Jungwoo had similar personalities, so it was easy for them to get along. Although Jungwoo was more on the shy side, he opened up to Jaemin pretty easily and Jeno almost felt like a third wheel. But Jeno didn't want to stop them for no reason. They looked happy to be talking about the things they liked, so he just sat in silence, watching as a friendship between the two formed.

~~~~~

A/N:

firstlyyy ik i went full out jungwoo appreciation here LOL i just love him so much ok, he's so caring and sweet towards the other members and my soft nct hours have been especially long these days. anyway basically jungwoo is the pure one in the friend group while the other crackass friends (johnny/jaehyun/lucas) are there for humour heheh i love them a lot toooo thats just the role they play in this au

idk why im rambling so much oml now onto the actual authors note:

firstly btw i published an nct oneshot collection for my lil spontaneous ideas and random stories. if yall havent read it yet u should !! there's only one so far (luwoo) but its already highkey better than this mess hehe

im sorry i havent updated in so long! i kinda lost motivation for writing this bc i started an angsty renmin au yikes i rlly gotta stop getting new ideas and first finish the ones i start.... maybe ill finish this au soonish because i feel like its just dragging out to be unnecessarily long, although the main point of this au was to be soft lol there wasnt really a solid storyline in the first place

idk if ill ever pubish my renmin au, maybe i will if im bored but chances are that the story will get to a point and then ill just lose motivation like this one... but ive recently been more in the mood to write angst which is another reason why i havent written this one. updates might come suuper super slow now bc like i said i just havent been in the mood for fluff lately.

thanks to everyone whose read this tho?! i think the reads have doubled since the last time i updated which is like wOw thank u aLL uwu