The Leafs | EN NoMin [EDITING]

VI.

It's been a week since Jaemin last saw Jeno around, having been missing the way the hockey player would annoy the living hell out of him with just as much as his presence. Every encounter had Jaemin thinking about how happy he'd felt with the other kid around, his heart would swell with ease and excitement and his head would go blank; void of negative feelings and intrusive thoughts. And he missed it.

But Jeno wasn't around now.

The young arts student took it as far as coming around the classroom the lyricists used for their studies in hopes of meeting the boy there. They wouldn't need to talk, Jaemin would've been happy just to see him even if for a mere second, yet again, there were no signs of the slightly taller kid, not a single trace of him. It hurt him; Jaemin could feel his heart crack a tiny bit there and then. The ravenette was nowhere to be found, and Jaemin truly had no idea if he'd had anything to do with it, or if it was just a bad coincidence.

"Hey, you seem worried, is everything okay?" A young kid approached the pinkenette with a tiny smile and a glint in his eyes that Jaemin couldn't quite name. Jaemin recognized him; of course he did. It's Renjun, one of Jeno's closest friends; the kid that always sits in the furthest corner of their theater practices, the kid that plays the flute. Renjun was a good person, Jaemin knew from other people who had managed to befriend the quiet boy. He was a quiet person with not too many friends in his close circle, having been mostly buried in his books and studies; it was quite a wonder to Jaemin as to how him and Jeno, out of all the people, were friends.

"Yeah, I'm just looking for Jeno, I haven't seen him around for almost a week now, is he okay?" Jaemin asked, voice kept low as to not disturb the other kids scattered about in the room that were still working on their sheet music. Renjun nodded, and in a sense, it had calmed Jaemin's beating heart a tad bit, yet it still kept him worried.

"He's fine, just excused from school for a while. There's an important match coming up that he needs to win," Renjun offers an answer that has Jaemin nodding in response, now much more comfortable upon finding out that Jeno, in fact, was all okay and not secretly injured somewhere. With that, the pinkenette thanked the shorter boy and excused himself, deciding to finally go and show up in the teacher's office.

When the boy was out of sight, Renjun messaged his friend before finding a spot back at the table in the classroom. Aside of the other students, the room was empty and unusually silent, untidy and full of crumpled papers and unwritten notes. It forced Renjun to think, when he'd opened his laptop to write down his notes while waiting for his friend's reply. Often times, he recalled Jaemin being surrounded by people like Donghyuck or Chenle, the human equivalent of a dolphin but lately, he'd found the boy wandering about by himself, with only his headphones up and a bundle of books in his arms. He understood, Renjun himself had hated to be approached by people and kept to himself, but in Jaemin's case, he found it unusual and worrying. One thing that had crossed the young music student's mind was that maybe, these two had something going on between then, but then again, Jeno couldn't quite keep a secret, so something as serious as dating would've reached Renjun in no time for sure. Especially with Donghyuck being the talkative, eavesdropping annoying brat. It wasn't necessarily anything bad, Renjun loved him like his own brother, but sometimes, it would get annoying.

After getting a response from Jeno asking of Renjun to keep a close watch over the arts major, the young music student hummed to himself and packed his belongings. He'd love to start today still, however Jaemin must've already gone home by now.

It's a surprise then, when the brunette finds him strolling down a long hallway in search of an exit from the music building. Renjun swiftly catches up to him and greets him again with a much brighter smile, holding his two notebooks close to his chest as he talks.

"Jaemin, What about I take you out to grab a cup of coffee and then we could go to the library together?" Renjun prompts when they exit the building, side by side. It's a minute of silence between them, before they reach the main gate and Jaemin sighs silently. It's not of annoyance, but exhaustion, Renjun can tell, and his eyes soften when he finally stopswalking alongside the taller and looks up to him.

"I'm sorry Renjun, as good as it sounds, I need to sort a couple of things out at home," Jaemin said, his voice monotonous, flat and lacking enthusiasm. Renjun didn't like that at all, but what was there to do, other than offer a gentle smile and a nod. Jaemin is an adult, a man of his own will and Renjun wasn't there to force him into stuff he didn't like or agree upon.

"Well, maybe next time, then," Renjun grinned, then bid his goodbye to the pinkenette. The two boys then went their separate ways after that, leaving the campus with a gentle wave of a hand and a promise to grab a coffee some other time in the near future.

Maybe, Jaemin will get to rest now.

.

hi