Hello Sketchbook | Norenmin✔

a year later, 5/20

"I got the paint buckets, Nono!" Jaemin wobbled on his two feet, walking over to where Jeno was standing. He had the handles of a giant paint bucket filled almost entirely with olive colored paint in his hands, each hand struggling to carry the bucket it was holding.

Jeno quickly approached his boyfriend, taking one of the paint buckets from him. "Let me help you with that, babe."

The two of them stepped up to the wall in front of them. They'd decided on painting this one first, the biggest wall inside the cafe that was right behind the counter.

Everything around them looked different, stripped down and rearranged halfway, because they were not quite done with their renovation yet. In some time Jeno's father was handing down the business to be primarily in his son's hands, so Jeno found it appropriate to redecorate the cafe to his liking.

With the help of the amazing Na Jaemin, of course.

"Do you have the painting supplies?" Jaemin looked up at his boyfriend after placing the bucket of paint on the floor next to him carefully.

Jeno shook his head. "The last time I saw them was with Injun," he answered, "Can you go up and ask him where he put them?"

Jaemin turned around to start walking, but then faced Jeno again. "But he's in the middle of filming right now," he tilted his head, silently asking what he should do.

Shrugging it off, Jeno wiped some paint that had gotten on his hands on his blue jean overalls. They were already gathering a collection of paint and dust stains, but nevertheless Jeno himself looked flawless.

"He likes it when we jump into his videos. If he complains just say we really need the paint right now."

Jaemin smiled, "Alright, baby." He leaned forward and pecked Jeno on the lips before waving and skipping off. "I'll be back!"

Jeno chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully for nobody to see as he watched his love run off to his other love.

Quickly, one stair after another, Jaemin made his way up to the second floor of the building where the apartment they lived in together was located. After a couple months of dating, Renjun and Jeno offered to let Jaemin move in with them. It didn't make such a difference in their lives since Jaemin was already over at the cafe every free moment he had, but it was a nice change for all of them.

Jaemin opened the door and walked in, greeted with an empty living room and a delicious smell flowing through the air and probably through the open windows. He walked into the kitchen and smiled when he saw Renjun sat a table with a camera in front of him, a plate full of different colored macarons sitting in view of it.

"And now it's time to taste them!" Renjun announced to the future viewers. Recently he had started a youtube channel that showcased his cooking and baking, and was gaining followers pretty quickly as he introduced new challenges and recipes to his viewers.

"Can I steal you for a second, babe?" Jaemin interrupted, leaning against the doorway.

Renjun's eyes lit up when he saw his boyfriend. "Only if you help me taste test some of my experimental macarons for the new menu," he smirked.

"Alright," Jaemin laughed, walking over and pulling up a chair to sit close to Renjun at the table. "What you got for me?"

Renjun spoke up to the camera again, waving his hands around to express himself as he ranted on and on in the lovable way he does. "Here is one of my beautiful boyfriends, Minnie! He's going to be helping with today's taste test! Yay!"

"Is there a coffee one?" Jaemin asked, scanning the perfectly organized rows of macarons in front of them.

"Right here," Renjun picked up a light brown macaron and held it up to Jaemin's lips. "Ahhhh," he watched as Jaemin opened his mouth and took the macaron into his mouth, chewing on it.

"Mmmm!" Jaemin refrained from speaking until he finished swallowing it. "It tastes exactly like a cappuccino. How?" he looked to the side at his boyfriend in amazement.

"Magic!!" Renjun threw up some jazz hands in the direction of the camera.

"I rate that a 10/10, very good baked thing. Now, where are the painting supplies, Injunnie?" Jaemin questioned while he let Renjun wipe some crumbs off of his lips.

Renjun giggled, "I put them in front of the hallway closet. I'll come down in a bit to help, love. See you later!"

Soon Jaemin was back downstairs, carrying more supplies that actually allowed them to start their paint job on the interior. "Babe! I got everything!" he shouted across the room as he walked over to Jeno.

Jeno watched and waited until Jaemin placed down all of the supplies on a nearby counter that was yet to be moved to speak. "Guess what, Min?"

"Hm?" Jaemin arched his eyebrow, wondering what Jeno was going to tell him.

"So the company that you asked to present your first official pieces just contacted back while you were up with Injun..." Jeno dragged out his sentence to create suspense.

At this point Jaemin was already on his toes, grabbing Jeno's hand and shaking it in anticipation. "What did they say? What did they say?"

Jeno broke out into the grin he was trying to keep hidden away. "They want to hire you for a gig. A local fashion show for underground designers. They want you to stop by their office as soon as you can."

For a couple moments after Jeno had stopped speaking Jaemin stood there in shock, processing the news in his head before it finally clicked.

"Oh my gosh!" Jaemin jumped up and down in excitement, still hanging on to Jeno. "That is the best news that you have ever told me! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, when should I go!?"

"I think I can manage starting the painting on my own, and Injun is coming down soon to help. You can go now if you're excited, babe," Jeno smiled, admiring the happiness on Jaemin's face.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Jaemin exclaimed, squealing as he already made his way out of the cafe. Nobody could stop him from walking faster than usual along the sidewalks, heading towards the place that he would make his beginnings at.

It had been about a month after he graduated, and all hope was beginning to fall out of Jaemin's heart for a while until he found a possible way to start off his career. Finding out that his small chances of actually getting contacted back were transformed into reality made him the happiest.

Yes. He was definitely the happiest he'd ever been before in life. Before all of this, before he met the two men at the cafe that ended up being way mare than just that, he had felt hopeless and lonely.

Now, he felt happy every day. Sure, he had some bad days, but because of his passion, and seeing the smiles of Renjun and Jeno whenever he wanted, he felt like he was at home at last.

There was no longer any need for writing in the sketchbook anymore, because he learned how to share how he felt and work on it in real life with others. It was all behind him now, but there were happier and better beginnings coming up.

•

Thank you, sketchbook, for everything you've put up and helped me with.

I guess it's goodbye, sketchbook.

-N.J.M.

•

| THE END|

a/n

Thank you for reading Hello Sketchbook!

I've never think that I would get to the end of this book, or reach such amazing milestones and gain a couple readers. Thank you so much for almost 900 reads!

I'm grateful for each and every one of you that chose to read my book. I'm working on new ones at the moment so stay tuned!

There might be special chapters in the future if I feel like blessing y'all randomly or we hit another milestone.

Thank you all again for supporting me and I'll see y'all in future books!

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