dicey ↬ nomin

Ch.21

"They're so lovable," Donghyuck smiled sweetly and gestured to Jaemin and Jeno, who were practicing for the sports event in the gym. There was a free class for them as one of their teachers were absent, leaving the class bored and listless. Their substitute teacher decided to bring them to the gym and let them practice for an hour. Of course, some of the students had partners in different classes, so they were allowed to practice for any of the individual competitions such as the relay or the sprint.

Jeno was being drowned in his hoodie which was a few sizes too big; a hand-me-down from an older past child at the children's home. He was trying to stretch his limbs before practicing, but Jaemin was getting very annoying about helping him stretch.

"Look at them," Donghyuck observed again, really having no place to do so as he couldn't even correctly observe the heart eyes thrown at him by the boy he loved. "They're so squishy and cute."

"I SWEAR TO GOD, JAEMIN! TOUCH ME AGAIN AND YOUR THROAT SHALL BE SLIT!"

"Yes," Mark squeaked. "Very squishy and cute." He gazed longingly at Donghyuck and sighed, bending down to tie their legs together for the three-legged race practice. "Can you come closer? It needs to be tight enough that it won't fall down."

Hyuck hummed and stepped closer, balancing by putting his hands on Mark's back as the said boy bent down to tie the material. "Aww, Jeno's letting him help now," he cooed and watched as Jeno sat on the floor, reaching to touch his toes to stretch. Jaemin sat down behind him very intimately and gently pushed him towards his feet.

"Oh no, Hyuck, Jeno isn't letting him do anything." He stood up and they put an arm over each other's shoulders to steady them and prevent them from toppling. Donghyuck frowned and squinted his eyes at the two boys across the hall still sitting on the floor.

As if on cue, a loud yell could be heard. "YOU WANT TO DIE?!" And Jeno leaned back until he was basically lying on Jaemin between the younger's legs. He rolled over so that he was sitting on top of the poor guy and made haste to raise his fist, wanting to hit his annoying Tweedle Dum. Mark made a beeline for them, the tie around his leg unravelling and he held Jeno's hand, quietly whispering words of wisdom to him until the anger died in his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief and of exhaustion from his sprint. He rested his hands by his side after making sure that Jeno's fist wouldn't launch itself like a rocket again.

Jaemin was smiling slyly, sitting up with Jeno still in his lap. "You're so kawaii."

"What does that even mean?" Jeno sighed and held the side of his head to accentuate the clear headache he had received from the younger boy. In truth, he was feeling really awkward inside from the close proximity when Jaemin insisted on helping him stretch. The way Jaemin appeared behind him, all warm and nice-smelling, getting close enough that he could define the heart beat of the other boy. He also reddened at the thought of when Jaemin leaned over him to push him forward, the chest against his back and the way he whispered some really weird stuff in his ear just to annoy him for an explosive reaction. "I hope you got the reaction you wanted," he grumbled finally and stood up. He glowered down at Jaemin. The tingly sparks that he felt when they touched disappeared as he moved away.

"I most certainly did." The look on his face nearly made Jeno lose his cool again, but he refrained, eyebrow twitching in annoyance. Jaemin looked up at his partner and just stared at him, a moment of silence between them as Jeno gave him a confused look in return, unsure of why they were staring in the first place. Then Jaemin wiggled his eyebrows mockingly. He was also reflecting on the unexpected sparks that accompanied their contact.

"Stop doing that! Just because you know my secret doesn't mean you can use it as leverage!" He was referring to his residence at the orphanage, now aware that Mark knew too since Donghyuck told him yesterday that he had come clean. Jeno turned sourly to Mark and pointed down at Jaemin. "Your friend is harassing me."

Mark was so confused. He was looking from Jeno to Jaemin, and then from Jaemin to Jeno. There was clearly something going on between the two. Jaemin didn't just rile people up for no reason....Scratch that - he did. It just confused him because it was as though he was getting a kick out of annoying Jeno in particular. Maybe Renjun's joke about his friend having a crush wasn't just a joke. He scratched the back of his neck and looked over at Donghyuck, who had just appeared after following him on his sprint to save Jaemin from a fist.

"Can I help you stretch still?" Jaemin asked innocently and looked at Jeno with puppy eyes. His pink hair was slightly damp from having run a few laps for his own warm-up. It made Jeno scowl and look away.

"You're sweaty and you keep saying weird stuff."

"Define 'weird'," he challenged and propped himself up with his hands. Mark and Donghyuck took that as their cue to leave, not really wanting to know what the conversation would end like. They stepped away awkwardly and Donghyuck took Mark's hand naturally and led him over to the side of the basketball court. From there, they finally began to practice for the sports festival.

Jeno looked Jaemin dead in the eye and folded his arms to cover up his chest. Jaemin had made a strange comment about his figure being nice so he felt violated by the boy's eyes. "It's weird to call your enemy 'hot'."

"But we're not enemies," Jaemin corrected him and stood up. "We're frenemies. It's completely different. We're like...friendly enemies!"

"Oh wow, because I didn't already know what the word 'frenemy' meant." Honestly, Jeno didn't know why he got so riled up by the boy, because he could contain his actions when anyone else said anything to him. It was just Jaemin. Now, he did know that he was the only one who could make Jaemin angry, but he had recently discovered that it worked both ways. It unnerved him, considering he didn't often completely lose control of his irritation with Jaewoo - who regularly hit Jeno - but he lost it over Jaemin - an annoying glory hound.

Jaemin looked at Jeno's confused face and smiled faintly, asking a question he had been thinking about asking for a while. "Who was that girl you were with the other day? With Chenle."

Jeno raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side. "You mean Chaeyou-" he paused and unfolded his arms to rest them on his hips. "Huh, jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous when you aren't even attracted to girls?" Jaemin was just joking to cover up the fact that Jeno's question actually rang a bell with him. He laughed lightly and pushed the jealous thought out of his mind, but froze when he noticed the ghostly pale complexion consuming the boy's face. He looked like he had swallowed a fly... Jaemin's smile disappeared, but then reappeared slowly, spreading across his face until all Jeno could see were white teeth. "You like boys?"

Jeno looked nervously around and cleared his throat a bit too haughtily to not have hurt his vocal cords. His eyes flicked from the floor to the wall to Jaemin. "Nope." His hands felt clammy. He rubbed them hastily against the sides of his legs.

Jaemin leaned against the wall for support as his smile started to hurt his cheeks from the intensity. He just stayed silent and looked at the flustered boy who was eagerly stretching his hamstrings and trying to balance on one leg for a quads stretch. He didn't know why it surprised him so much, but it probably linked in with the fact that Jeno was popular with the girls. "You're so kawaii."

"I told you - I don't know what that means," Jeno sighed and pushed Jaemin away as the pink haired boy leaned in a bit too close for comfort. Jaemin himself didn't think he liked boys, but that didn't mean he couldn't support a frenemy seeking solidarity.

"It means you're so cute," he whispered in Jeno's ear, missing the flush that ran across the older boy's face and the heart beat that rattled in his chest at a pace faster than deemed normal.