snowflake [2]; nomin

purple-day

―°❆ chapter one ༺°―

Stirring around the different colored berries, he watches as the mixture becomes dark purple when the blue and the red find their way across each other. He has always been astonished by the way two colors can create a new one, how not two of the colors he has mixed throughout the years are identical.

Six years from now, would he have thought he would be sitting outside in his very own garden, making homemade purple paint out of berries? Probably not. Seventeen years from now, he wouldn't have thought the world was going to go under because of toxic snow either, would he? That's the thing, you never know what's going to happen in the future, just like he never knows the exact shade of purple he'll achieve.

A voice beams from behind him. "Nana!"

Jaemin turns his head around, shocked as a sudden pressure appears on his lips. His eyes open wide as he stares right into Jeno's sly ones, the older giving him a quick peck.

"Jeno! Stop doing that!" he whines, pushing Jeno away as a pink tint bloom on his cheeks. The older sits down next to Jaemin on the grass with a satisfied smirk, his gaze switching onto the purple mixture in Jaemin's bowl.

"It's purple-day, today?" Jeno asks. "I forgot."

Jaemin shakes his head and gets up on his feet, taking the bowl with him as he walks towards their house. "Then it's good I remembered," the young boy snickers, his brown curls bouncing away from his face. Jeno watches him lovingly for a while before catching up to Jaemin and hugging him from behind.

"You aren't mad, are you?" he asks.

Jaemin smiles. "No, Jeno," he sings and pinches Jeno in the side causing the said to flinch and let go of him.

When they ran away six years ago, they hid the first few days in random abandoned houses, scavenging in all the supplies they found on their way. A week or so of house jumping, they settled with a house that had a big garden full of crops. The entire area was completely abandoned, not even a single sign of raiders or anything, so Jaemin knew they would be safe and hidden there for a long time.

And he was right because they are still living peacefully in that said house, having not encountered a single human being other than a few bypassing raiders in nearly six years.

They have and are still finding new ways to safe proof the house, just in case. All windows and holes are blocked off by planks and metal, making it almost impossible to break in even with force, therefore making the inside as dark as it can get. So the two boys have filled the rooms with candles that they found in the basement.

They guess the former owner of the house was a candle-maker since there are enough homemade candles in the basement to light every inch of a city.

Jaemin and Jeno enter the house through their secret entrance to the basement behind a stack of furniture by a long and rusty metal pipe that stretches up into the house, originating from the ground. Jaemin opens the hatch to the house and enters first, helping Jeno down and closing after.

"It's dark," Jeno mumbles. "Do you have matches on you?" he questions Jaemin and takes the younger's hand into his, afraid the younger might vanish into the darkness of the room.

Jaemin clenches Jeno's hand. "Yes, hold this," he says and gives the bowl with the purple mixture to Jeno, letting go of Jeno's hand for a moment, to find the matches in his pocket. Jeno feels scared not having any physical human contact, so he gently grabs the hem of Jaemin's shirt to at least know the younger won't vanish.

Jaemin pulls a match out and fiddles with it a little before flicking it against the box, creating a tiny light in the big dark room. The light is enough for Jeno to see Jaemin's features and get lost in his eyes. He lets go of Jaemin's shirt and watches as Jaemin walks further into the room, the little light from the match following him.

He starts lighting up the candles, one by one, the room becomes brighter. First the candles on the old table, then the candles on the wooden locks and lastly the candles on the floor and the ones hanging from the roof.

As Jaemin finishes lighting up the last candles, Jeno walks around the room. "We need to switch out the candles down here soon," he whispers. "They're about to die out."

Jaemin turns is head towards Jeno. "They'll last another week, we only go down here on purple-day anyway," he says.

Purple day. A day the two have made up that falls once a week. A way to count the time that has passed.

Jeno dips his hand into the bowl so his palm becomes covered in the homemade purple paint. He passes the bowl to Jaemin who does the same, covering the palm of his hand with the purple mashed out berries. The two walk over to the end of the room and press their hands on the wall, leaving two purple handprints.

Jeno takes a step back and admires the wall that is covered in a dozen purple handprints at this point, all forming the big treetop to the trunk they have drawn onto the wall. Each hand symbols one leaf of the tree, and every second leaf symbols the number of weeks they've lived in the house.

"It's our 302nd purple day, today," Jaemin pauses, "604 handprints..."

Jeno keeps his gaze on the purple tree. "We have been here for 302 weeks?"

"Yes," Jaemin whispers.

"Don't you think," Jeno breathes turning to Jaemin. "Don't you think it's time to go back? I miss them, Jaemin."

"If we go back Jeno, they'll kill me."

Jeno shakes his head. "We don't know that! The snow vanished last year and they don't need you for anything anymore. Please, Jaemin," Jeno begs and takes Jaemin's hands into his. "Please. Maybe they won't-"

"Stop!" Jaemin yells and shakes his hands out of Jeno's hold. "I'm s-scared okay?" he stutters faintly. "I'm scared."

Jeno's mouth falls, seeing as Jaemin's ever so tall and confident posture shrinks and crumbles, his eyes glistening orange colors as the cause of the candles reflecting themselves in his tears. Jeno pulls him closer, embracing him just the way he knows Jaemin likes it.

"It's okay," he soothes. "We'll stay here."

. * :. ❆

it's a little emotional writing on this storyline again ngl

i actually didn't think i was gonna continue this
i could've left you with the original ending, you know

yet here we are!