meaningless [i love yous] [COMPLETED]

u

"would you like to tell me why you two are fighting?" jaemin asked, looking at a very upset jisung who was slamming the keys of the keyboard as he played a game. "no?"

"no," jisung muttered, angrily staring at the screen. internally, jaemin was thankful that chenle had a different house because they only had to deal with one very angry baby at a time.

and their promotions ended today, meaning that they were spending more time apart, but they had to prepare for NCT 2020.

and having the iconic duo fighting over something wasn't helping. the performance had been unbearably awkward, even after being stuck in rush hour traffic. usually after that chenle and jisung were feeding off each other's energy and prattling their ears off.

but instead jisung had been angry, chenle had been cold, and everyone else had been confused. except for mark, he was still irritable from the headache.

now that they were alone, jaemin wanted to know.

instead of saying anything, jisung threw a wadded up paper at jaemin with pen scribbles on it. jaemin opened it to see some weird drawing of a star and a abnormal octagon and lines, but he also saw the heart with a c + d in it.

"chenle and dick?" jaemin asked, seriously confused.

"chick and dolphin!" jisung groaned, slamming his head into the keyboard and the sound of his character dying echoed in the room. "not chenle and dick!"

"oh - oh!" jaemin said, looking at jisung with wide eyes. "like, a crush?"

okay, jaemin had said no help. he said it, but if jisung was sad then his jisungie was sad and no one made jisungie sad.

also jisung had promised him coffee. jisung was too sad to move for coffee now.

"i don't know."

"you don't?"

"well, i mean, i've always been focused on performing. so when i was in school, i didn't focus on girls or crushes, i got in and i got out to come back and train. so no, i don't know what a crush feels like."

jisung's voice was frail, almost scared, like jaemin would laugh at him. jisung felt his cheeks heating as jaemin was silent, feeling embarrassed. here he was, nineteen years old, and having no idea what a crush felt like. he tried to think of things that could be crush-like, but he had no bias for that.

"does that mean what you and chenle do is meaningless?" jaemin said, and it felt like a spear to jisung's heart.

"m-meaningless?" jisung asked, biting his bottom lip. "what do you mean?"

"well," jaemin began, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the curtain fluttering in the wind. they'd left the window open by accident, but neither boy really cared. jisung was too concentrated on jaemin, and jaemin was trying not to hurt the young boy.

"you can just tell me," jisung said, moving so that he wasn't in the desk chair anymore, but instead on jaemin's bottom bunk clutching a fox stuffed animal jaemin had.

"alright," jaemin said, biting his lip.

"alright," jisung replied nervously.

"from another point of view, you and chenle seem to be dating. or at the very least, very much in love with each other. you two go out of your way for each other, cuddle much more than any of us, gotten jealous, hug, smile more around each other, celebrate together, and so much more. you two wander by yourselves all the time, you pay for him and he pays for you. you argue over who does what. chenle only holds your hand when he's scared. you always search for chenle first in a crowd."

jaemin could see jisung absorbing the information, but kept going. "you two might not think so, but i'm sure you both get bubbles in your chest and butterflies and fireworks. you both blush so easily around each other it's almost criminal. whenever he wants to cook, chenle makes sure that you will like it. whenever you're buying something, you always buy something for chenle too. after a long day, you go straight to chenle for cuddles. chenle, even though he had a whole house, stayed over and slept with you in the living room."

"chenle is the only one who can calm you down, and you're the only one who can calm chenle down. with all of this jisung, those are all gestures that scream that you've fallen in love. the times you've held his cheek or pinched his neck, the butterflies and the blush, the amount of time you dote on him with, jisung, either you're leading this boy on or you're in love. this isn't a crush jisung, this is way past that."

jaemin took a deep breath and looked at the younger boy, smiling. "am i right?"

jisung looked like he was on the verge of tears and passing out, and jaemin went to go sit next to him. "here. tell me about chenle."

"tell you?" jisung asked, and jaemin nodded.

"tell me about chenle."

❦