Smile ✦ Nomin

二

"Hi," Jaemin said, flashing his signature smile. Jeno's breath hitched and caught in his throat. "I'm Jaemin," he said cheerfully, "And you must be Jeno, Renjun's friend."

"Um-" Jeno choked out.

Jaemin's smile widened. "Renjun said you were a little nervous about meeting new people, but it's okay! I'm nice and I'll try my best to make you feel comfortable. I'm sure we'll be friends in no time."

"Renjun really wanted us to meet," He added as he walked over to the edge of the building and sat down cross-legged. Jeno slowly spun around, still speechless, and stared at Jaemin, eyes wide. Jaemin laughed again and patted the place beside him, gesturing for Jeno to sit down. It took a moment for Jeno to realize what was happening, but when he did, he hurriedly sat down and crossed his legs as well.

Jaemin turned to Jeno and give him the warmest smile Jeno had ever seen. He just about melted at the sight of it, and he couldn't believe that Jaemin was looking at him, that the smile he gave was directed at him. Jeno quickly looked down at his hands in his lap and took deep breaths, attempting to calm his racing heart.

Jaemin noticed and immediately became worried, placing his hand on Jeno's back and voicing his concern. "Are you okay, Jeno? It's okay, just take deep breaths." Jaemin started rubbing Jeno's back in an attempt to soothe him. When Jeno felt that hand on his back, he figured it would get worse. But, to his surprise, Jaemin's hand rubbing circles on his back calmed him considerably.

"T-thanks," Jeno stuttered.

"No problem," Jaemin said, and gave Jeno's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he retracted his hand. Jeno felt the warmth leave his back... and it left him a little sad.

After a while of sitting around with Jaemin and listening to him talk, Jeno realized something: Renjun and Jisung set him up. They set up a meeting between him and Jaemin and convinced him to show up. They figured out an easy way to put Jeno and Jaemin in close proximity. Jeno huffed loudly and shook his head. "Those turds," he thought. Jaemin gave him a confused look and Jeno blushed, realizing that he must've looked crazy. Jeno just looked away and fiddled with his fingers.

Jaemin couldn't believe how cute Jeno was. Jeno was as sweet as sugar and Jaemin loved it.

Eventually, Jaemin made the first move. "It's getting late," he said. "We should probably head home." He sighed and stood up.

Jeno nodded, even though he was sad that they had to end their little hang out. Jaemin offered his hand and Jeno blushed, but took it. Jaemin jumped off the fire exit, but stumbled when his feet hit the ground a little too hard.

Jeno swiftly moved behind him and steadied him before he could fall.

"Thanks," Jaemin said with a sigh of relief. He turned around, "I don't live far, just down on Knotton Street."

"I do, too," Jeno said, surprised.

"Really?" Jaemin smiled, "That's so cool."

Jeno smiled back, then said something that shocked himself: "I'll walk you home then."

Jaemin's smile widened, and he nodded.

Jeno and Jaemin stopped at Jaemin's front door, Jaemin turned to the black haired boy and smiled. "Thank you for walking me home, Jeno."

"It was nothing," Jeno whispered with a small smile, and looked at his shoes, which had suddenly become extremely interesting. The pink haired boy reached out and pulled Jeno into a quick hug before he waved and skipped into his house.

Jeno stood still for a moment before a blush spread across his cheeks and his lips pulled into a full smile.

Jeno entered his classroom and sat down at his seat to wait for his two turd best friends. He pulled out his sketchbook again and continued working on his drawing of Jaemin. When he thought of the day before, he smiled. Jeno decided to add a bit of color to his sketch, so he pulled out his colored pencils, but he never had the chance to start coloring before Renjun and Jisung burst through the door with smug smiles on their faces. Jeno looked up from his work and immediately gave them a playful scowl, "You idiots!" he yelled. "You set me up!"

The two other boys laughed. "Yeah, but the smile on your face says we did good!" Renjun smirked like he didn't have a care in the world.

Jisung chuckled. "Admit it hyung, we're the best."

"Ok, Ok I admit it, you guys didn't do too bad," Jeno agreed, "but I was barely able to speak the whole time."

"That's ok, Jaemin said he'd like for us to start hanging out with his group," Renjun announced.

"Aaaand-" he teased, "He told me that you, walked him home!"

"Oooooh, you never told me that, hyung," Jisung laughed and joined the teasing.

Jeno blushed. "Yeah, what about it?"

Renjun and Jisung just raised their hands in defeat.

At lunch the three friends joined Jaemin and his friends at their table after being waved over. Renjun and Jisung made sure that Jeno sat next to Jaemin. This proved to be an easy task, as Jaemin had saved Jeno a seat next to him.

"These are my friends," Jaemin gestured around the table. "Renjun, you know everyone, right?"

"Right," Renjun replied.

"Okay everyone, introduce yourselves."

A black-haired boy raised his hand slightly. "I'm Mark," he said, then let his arm drape over the shoulders of the boy next to him.

Said boy looked up from his food and spoke, "I'm Donghyuck. Mark's boyfriend." He smiled and went back to eating.

The green- haired boy across from Mark greeted the newcomers before he introduced himself.

"I'm Chenle," he said energetically. "I'm Chinese."

Jisung smiled at the group. "I'm Jisung, Park Jisung," he stated.

Everyone looked at Jeno. Everyone except Donghyuck of course, who was still scarfing his food like he hadn't eaten in days.

"Oh," Jeno exclaimed quietly, "I'm Jeno." Everyone smiled at him in welcome and continued eating.

Close to the end of the lunch period, Jaemin turned to Jeno and explained to him: "Mark is actually turning nineteen next year. The reason he's still in school is because he missed last year because of family business. Also, Chenle is one year younger than us."

"Oh," Jeno acknowledged.

"Also they're not usually this calm, but I told them you were a bit nervous so I think they're trying not to scare you."

Jeno laughed, which caused everyone to look at them. Renjun and Jisung smiled knowingly, while the others looked like they wanted to be let in on to the joke. "All I said was that you guys aren't usually this calm!" Jaemin declared.

Jeno flopped down on his bed with a huge smile on his face. His day had been great. Jaemin was the sweetest person he had ever met, and he regretted not pushing past his nerves and becoming friends with him earlier. But most importantly, Jeno was grateful to his two best friends for setting him up, as crazy as that sounds. Jeno was the happiest he had ever been, and he couldn't wait to get to know his crush better.

There is currently a Thunder storm going on outside my house right now. The rain is coming down so hard it's like a monsoon and the thunder sounds like someone is hitting one of those huge ass base drums right next to my ear. I'm not being sarcastic at all when I say I LOVE thunder storms. I honestly don't know why but I do. Also,

HAPPY TAEYONG DAY!!!🎉🎉🎉

Happy birthday to NCT's wonderful leader.

~Xixi