no regrets 。taekai 。

vii

"come on, the photographer says it's our turn." yixing patted jongin's thigh and used it as a support to get himself up from the chair he was previously sitting on.

they were currently doing a photoshoot for a local magazine and jongin wanted nothing more than to go back to bed that morining. he'd been training extensively these past few days since he'd been slacking off and meeting taemin to have fun.

it was his first friend in the industry who didn't stop talking to him as soon as their comeback ended, but since their comeback was scheduled in a few days, jongin wasn't sure if this was going to last.

jongin was just finished with his single and group photos he appeared in when he heard his phone buzz slightly on his back pocket and he couldn't be happier to use the caller as an excuse to get the hell away from the bellowing from the photographer and the staff's constant shuffling.

。。。

"well, you came fast." taemin chuckled from the park bench he was sitting on, "it wasn't that urgent, you know?"

rolling his eyes, jongin took his time to approach the black haired one who was sprawled on the wooden bench with a drink on his left hand.

"what are you drinking?" jongin slowly sat down next to him, leaning back to get comfortable.

"it's a caramel macchiato with strawberry extract." taemin took another sip and then slowly inched the cup towards jongin, "want a sip?"

even though jongin tried to politely decline, taemin's stubbornness overruled any defiance jongin had in him after a tiring day of posing and caking his face with makeup.

"what the hell... this is suprisingly good for some odd reason." jongin furrowed his eyebrows as taemin let out a small chuckle and once again took a sip of his strangely amazing drink.

"so," taemin started, slightly clearing his throat and twisting his body to face jongin while playing with the cup he was formerly drinking from, "i know we just met a couple of weeks ago, but i was wondering..."

"oh boy. here it comes." jongin joked, just enjoying the imperceptible breeze that caressed his skin and the older boy's company which jongin was learning to itch for.

"you know taehee, right? my little sister, you met her a few days ago." taemin scratched the back of his neck in a suspicious manner that made the younger quirk his eyebrows.

"yeah, also noticed you're crazy protective over her." jongin said and taemin let out a little noise of agreement.

"my parents are going down to busan today for my aunt's wedding and they're probably going to be there for a week to catch up with my family but im going over to japan to perform with the rest of my group and i have no one else to..." taemin finally took a breath.

"i know it sounds ridiculous, we just met but i really have no one else to leave her with and i know she's 16 but i still can't trust her and i don't even know if i can trust you because, again, we just met and-"

jongin started laughing which made taemin abruptly stop mid-sentence and furrow his brows with a small pout forming on his lips.

"hey!" the older kicked jongin's leg which made the other shriek and taemin cross his arms over his chest, "i'm serious."

"okay! okay, i understand. don't worry i won't do anything to her if that's what you're thinking, i'm not into gir- underaged girls, geez. who do you think i am." jongin pulled out his phone from his pocket and started scrolling through his phone, "junmyeon's traveling tomorrow to jeju for his grandma's birthday and jongdae's too busy promoting his solo album so he'll only come back to the dorm to sleep and he'll be gone in the morning. my schedule's practically empty, i only have solo shoots with lay hyung tomorrow and then i'm done for the rest of the day."

taemin smiled and whispered a little 'yes' to himself before rapidly standing up and basically yanked jongin out of the bench, dragging him along further into the park to a more busy area with lots of food stalls. taemin slid up his black mask up his nose and covering his mouth so jongin took it as a sign to follow suit.

taemin followed in a bee line to a specific stalls who sold sweet pancakes and immediately bought four of them and shoved two of them towards jongin.

"there. that's my payment for taking taehee in for a couple of days. don't argue i'm broke." taemin gave jongin a little smile and started walking ahead.

jongin looked down at the sweet pancake that was half inside a small paper wrapper and smiled.

he looked back up and saw the black haired boy already meters ahead, waving to get jongin's attention.

"c'mon!" the older shouted and broke out a large smile which made his eyes form into two little crescents in the distance.

jongin took a bite of his sweet pancake and complied, slightly jogging to catch up to taemin.