Hello Sketchbook | Norenmin✔

2/14 Part I

It was finally the day of the festival, and if Jaemin had to be honest, he was feeling quite happy today.

Every other year before this, he had stayed home or went to school on this day, watching as the world around him shared its love. Every year in high school, he would watch as students younger and older than him all arrived to school with a plethora of gifts and plans to express their affection. Sitting alone, he would see the signature senior couple that everyone knew would either break up after graduation or continue as high school sweethearts throughout their life exchange gigantic teddy bears and roses to each other. A couple pairs of freshman, new to everything about teen life, confess to each other and start their first ever experiences.

Jeffrey slips a confession letter into River's locker, and then walks away, too scared to face them. Youngjin brings chocolates for his long-time boyfriend, Farhad, who coincidentally brings a matching gift, and they laugh at their so-called telepathy. Seito asks Shanta to be her girlfriend, and even though they both haven't ever dated a girl before, they decide to try it out. Praveen wraps his arm around his girlfriend Archana, hiding the daisy he was clutching in his other hand behind his back, so when she wasn't looking he was able to slip it into her beautiful long black hair that flowed to her waist.

Jaemin? Well, he'd always been among those who sat back and munched on the couple Hershey kisses that only their nicest teacher would give out for the occasion, since others were too serious for this gushy holiday. He always felt left out, and even if he hung out his friends he would only be third wheeling with either one or all of the couples in his friend group. Not once did he feel important or joyful on this specific day of the year

This year was different. Having to be at the event to help the others before it even started, he had to already be at the Coff-Lee booth at seven in the morning. Since he had to wake up quite early to be on time, he decided to go to sleep earlier the previous day. It was relaxing, drinking some tea instead of alcohol for a change, washing his face and brushing his teeth, not having to worry about finishing a last-minute assignment as he slipped under his covers and whispered "good night" to nobody but himself.

When he woke up that morning, Jaemin felt surprisingly refreshed as he rose up out of bed, and had the will to stand up and take a shower at the early hour of 05:30 in the morning. He had gone to sleep at 22:00 last night, compared to his usual of midnight or morning sleep times, and somehow he was able to smile that morning, even while staring into his mug of plain black instant coffee.

And so he dressed himself in a stylish but simple beige and white outfit that would match the final apron design he and the Noren couple had decided on. It was a cute simple white apron, with a small red ribbon sewed around the perimeter that doesn't reach the ends of the fabric by a mere centimeter or two. Little loved-themed embroideries were sewn in random places on the item, each individual apron, of which there were about seven for the small crew of workers, decorated with a unique set of embroideries that Jaemin had done by hand. It was all topped of by a large pocket that hugged the bottom part of the apron.

Now, Jaemin was walking through the rows and rows of booths at this festival with ten minutes to spare. He clutched the cross-body purse that was swung over his left shoulder with his right hand, actually smiling as he watched everyone get ready for the festivities among the rising sun that cast beautiful colors across the entire city.

"Minnie!" Jaemin heard the ever-familiar of one of the men he was fond of call out to him from behind. He hadn't noticed that he passed the Coff-Lee booth until he turned around and saw Renjun standing under the aesthetically-pleasing sign that spelled out the cafe's name in a handwritten-like font, waving to him. He waved back, smiling as he walked over to Renjun, who was already dressed in the event apron and had a small name tag with his own name clipped onto the chest area of it.