the kiss. that was the only thing in jeno's mind over the entirety of the weekend, and it was stressing him out. never before had he thought about something for an extensive amount of time, and when he would, it was usually about a math question on a test or homework assignment.
the feeling of jaemin's lips on his were still fresh. the feeling he got when he kissed his best friend was still there. the moment itself was still visible in jeno's mind to the smallest detail, and it made him frustrated.
"argh!" the said male ruffled his hair, letting out a frustrated groan. "stupid kiss... stupid dare..." jeno muttered, getting up from his bed on monday morning. he didn't like how it was the start of a new day and wished he could just lay in his bed all day. sure, it was summer, but he had promised to go out with chenle today to help him buy a couple things for his family that he is visiting over the break.
it already bothered jeno enough that he had spent all weekend inside his dorm room, doing nothing but thinking about the kiss with jaemin, which he didn't really want to think about. what more if he had to go out and be with the exact person he was thinking about all weekend? sure, the two shared a room, along with renjun since the three of them are roommates, but jaemin hadn't entered their dorm room all weekend, and this caused jeno to be worried sick until chenle called jeno and told him that the other brown haired male was staying with him and jisung.
it was relieving enough to know that the other was somewhere safe, but that meant that jeno had to share a room with renjun all week, and he was on pins and needles the entire time because he didn't know what the shorter male would think of about his two best friends kissing, especially when he liked one of them.
it wasn't supposed to be a big deal, but why is jeno overreacting this way? it was just a kiss, a simple connection of two lips that meant nothing to each other, so why was he being so dramatic about the entire issue, thinking about it all weekend? maybe because the other brown haired male was also making it a big deal, but that didn't give jeno the excuse to act the same way. the tall male himself was usually calm about a wide variety of situations, but turns out, dealing with his first kiss that was taken by his best friend from a dare was not within those wide variety of situations.
sighing, jeno just grabbed his phone and room keys and left the dorm room, deciding that he needs to get out of the dorm room before he begins to think about the kiss all over again and the feelings that he felt when he kissed the other brown haired male. despite knowing that the korean male was going to be seeing jaemin today, he was also the one who agreed to go with chenle and the others to find gifts for the chinese male's parents when he visits them in china over the summer, and the brown haired male knew that if he backed out, questions that he would prefer not to answer would arise from his friends.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"awww. you basically just became my boyfriend right before school ended and now you're leaving me with these idiots?" jisung whined to his boyfriend while clinging onto his arm, causing chenle to chuckle and ruffle the light blue haired male's hair. the idiots that the tall baby was talking about was none other than their group of friends, specifically the youngest of them all.
"hey! we're not idiots!" donghyuck retorted after hearing the light blue haired male complain about them. looking around him, he decided to change his answer to tease his friends. "at least i'm not. i don't know about them."
receiving a hit up in the head from mark, donghyuck rubbed his head and shut his mouth before the canadian male would do more than hit him, like strangle him to death. jeno just shook his head at his friends, an uninterested look present on his face as he walked with his arms crossed and looking around the store. he was slightly behind donghyuck and mark, who were following closely behind chenle and jisung, and the two closest friends to the brown haired male were walking behind him, talking to themselves.
jeno regretted coming out with his friends. he believed that coming out with them would stop him from thinking about the kiss, but his current situation, walking alone in a mall with the person he likes and the person his crush likes, both persons being right behind him, it only caused him to think about it more. in order to distract himself, the brown haired male retreated to looking around the store that the seven of them just entered, trying to put his mind on other things, but that didn't help at all as he saw a bunch of couples walking around in the store. not to mention that each of his friends also seemed as if they were on a date with each other, making jeno feel like the ultimate third wheel.
"why don't i just take myself out of the picture?" jeno muttered to himself, still following behind his friends further into the store.
at one point, renjun and jaemin were able to make their way past the lonely brown haired male, causing him to now be in the very back of his friends. the group of seven ended up splitting upon entering the store that chenle decided to go to, and they all did whatever they felt like doing. mark and donghyuck went to look at keychains, possibly wanting to get a pair for themselves just like yuta and sicheng did back in middle school to represent their friendship. chenle and jisung went over to the back of the store to see if there were any gifts that they found suitable for chenle's family. jaemin and renjun ran off somewhere, most likely to fool around or put on some random fashion show with clothes that they most likely aren't even going to buy, as they always do whenever the two of them and jeno would go shopping together.
and that all left the brown haired male, standing alone in the middle of the store and wondering what happened to the once loud atmosphere around him, suddenly turning as silent as an empty room despite it being the mall, where there were lots of people and tons of chattering.
jeno decided to take this to his advantage and spent time to walk around the store, looking at random items for sale without having any thought in buying them. the brown haired male wanted to allow himself to calm his brain down and enjoy the little time that he has alone as of the moment. he wanted to take advantage of this situation.
but maybe jeno doesn't want to be alone. maybe jeno wants to be included with his group of friends, whether it may be with the canadian male and the honey skinned boy, whether it may be with the two youngest members of their friend group, or even if it was with his two best friends. the brown haired male wanted to be with them, not alone.
but what choice does he have? whenever it's just the seven of them, he always felt left out anyway as if he didn't matter. he loves his friends, a lot. but sometimes, jeno wishes if they would ask to include him with their pair, or bring him into the conversation by simply mentioning his name, rather than leaving him alone with his own thoughts.
because as much as jeno loved the benefits that came with being alone, he hated being alone, hated being left out, and that hasn't changed since the beginning.
