= The Man In the Mirror = {[Nomin]}

• Chapter 17 •

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Jeno awoke with a start from a bad dream he must've been having. His heart was still racing as false adrenaline flowed through his veins. And as much as it scared him, the dream immediately disappeared from his mind as soon as it came.

Dark eyes that were now blown open stared at the pillows as Jeno tried to recoup his memories together. He also felt a weirdly warm sensation from behind him, also feeling a weight tangled with his legs, but his mind was too groggy to focus on that. Memories of last night slowly came back, and so did the panic that came with it.

The dark haired tried rolling over onto his back, but was stopped by a small groaning noise that crept from behind his ear. This made him freeze dead in his tracks, feeling the weight on his legs move slightly as something around his torso pulled him tighter.

The realization slowly crept upon Jeno as he felt his cheeks becoming hotter. He remembers finding Nana last night in a frightened matter, and remembers nothing else except for hugging the life out of him. Guess he never let go, huh.

He slowly tried to turn himself, making him in a really uncomfortable position as he managed to look at the younger's face. But he almost wished he hadn't, finding out soon after how close he actually was. His honey hair was messy and all over the place, and his eyelashes rested so gently over the black mask he continued to wear.

Jeno swore Nana looked like a prince sometimes.

And that damn mask. Jeno wanted to remove it for the sake of his safety, but also had a slight... other motivation for it. Why was the mask so important anyways?

Jeno studies Nana's face closely as a hand slowly reached upwards, carefully grazing the edge of the mask as to not wake him up.

But the odds were against the black haired once he tried pulling on it, watching Nana's eyes slowly flutter open and tiredly look at Jeno. The dark haired immediately pulled his hand away and diverted his gaze back to the younger's eyes.

"Jeno..?" Nana said tiredly, but not tired enough to not notice how close their faces were. "What are you doing?"

The older swallowed his spit and just continued to stare. Nana kept his gaze on his dark orbs, but that slowly went away as his eyes traveled somewhere lower on his face; somewhere that made Jeno stutter upon realization.

"U-uh! Good morning," Jeno said hastily and finally snapped Nana out of his daze, the younger now pulling back and giving the older some room to breathe.

"Morning!" the honey haired smiled awkwardly with a weird chuckle, feeling pink rush to his cheeks.

They both kicked the pillows that surrounded them and crawled out from under the bed, finally being out in the open and not in a crowded space. Jeno took a deep breath in through his nostrils and stretched his arms, feeling a bit stiff but replenished from the good night's sleep. Even if he was woken up from a nightmare.