home, jaemin

chapter fourteen

"thanks for picking me up."

jiyoung smiled, getting into jisung's car.

"no problem," the younger boy shook his head as he backed out of the driveway.

the car ride to chenle's house was quiet as music played through the aux cord connected to jisung's phone. both of them hummed, comfortable with each other's presence.

finally arriving to the mansion, they got out and went inside- meeting up with the other five of their friends, jaemin, and soojin.

"dude, this house is so big." jiyoung huffed, following jisung down the second set of stairs into a lower basement.

he laughed, barely breaking a sweat after having come down the sets of stairs so many times to play games with chenle and the others.

"what's up, kids!" donghyuck greeted the two enthusiastically, his eyes focused in on the large screen tv sitting against one of the walls.

"why do you have so many steps?" jiyoung asked, out of breath as she sat between chenle and nayeon.

"maybe get some exercise in and you wouldn't be so out of shape." soojin laughed obnoxiously, tightening her grip on jaemins arm.

he looked at her with disinterest but didn't move her arm, instead letting it stay there as he scrolled on his phone.

"i'm sorry, if you're going to be mean to my friend in my house, you can leave." chenle spoke up, still keeping his eyes on the screen as he carefully built his new house.

"you're just gonna let him talk to me like that?" jiyoung heard soojin mutter to jaemin, the sound of her hand smacking his head barely being audible.

"don't talk to her like that," jaemin spoke through gritted teeth.

"you can leave with your abusive girlfriend if you'd like. honestly, i couldn't care less anymore." chenle squinted at both of them, his patience running thin after losing the game before to donghyuck and then having one of his other friends being taunted by the only person in his house he didn't like. 

he stood up abruptly and left the room to go upstairs, at the same time leaving all of his friends stunned at his behavior.

they hadn't ever seen the cheerful boy in such a manner. usually, he was one of the calmest and most laid back of the group- only having moments like these once every few months or even once a year.

jaemin scoffed as if he didn't care about his friend's words but jiyoung could have sworn she saw a sheen layer of tears covering his eyes, trying to escape.

she pushed it away when she saw jaemin lifting his head which had almost resulted in the two meeting eyes for a second.

"i'm hungry, can we order some food?"

everyone turned to look in the direction of mark, their eyes all looking at him like he was somehow crazy.

"didn't you just have some of their leftover pizza?" renjun asked from beside him.

marks face threatened to heat up at the sudden amount of attention he was getting, "i mean yeah but i'm a growing boy! tell me at least one of you isn't hungry as well."

they look around at each other and mutually agree. they were all growing kids, of course, they'd be a bit hungry every few hours or so.

they managed to agree on getting food but couldn't bring themselves to agree as a whole on what they wanted. so in the end, they almost each got something different.

"you not ordering anything?" jeno asked, looking over at jaemin.

he shook his head, "didn't bring my wallet."

everyone turned to look at soojin, expecting her to get up and say she'd pay for him but all she did was look around at everyone else with a judgmental look on her face.

she scoffed, "i'm not his babysitter, there's no need for me to pay for him."

and with that, she stood up impatiently, most likely leaving to go get whatever it was she ordered.

everyone looked around at each other, not sure what exactly to say until jiyoung spoke up. "i can pay for you," she tried to reason.

jaemins head lifted as his eyes pierced her own fake ones, "i don't need your money or your pity. i'm grown enough to get my own food."

his feet hit the ground loudly as he carried himself up the stairs and out of the house to his car. none of them actually knew where he was going.

"he's so mean to you, for literally no reason." jisung pouted, uncomfortable with the energy the couple had created in the room.

everyone shifted with him, not enjoying any more of it than jisung had.

"i know, right," jiyoung muttered to herself, keeping her head down as she scrolled through her phone to keep her eyes from tearing up.

at that moment, she felt weak. very weak.

she had never cried in front of anyone and didn't plan to anytime soon.

it wasn't like she had anyone to cry to before but now that she actually did, she still wouldn't take up the chance.

everyone turned to her with pity, not enjoying the way the blond boy addressed her.

my life's at a rock bottom cliff
i'm walking in a dark tunnel
cruel and fearful days
i'm enduring through alone
i hold out my hand
but no is there to take it

━ hellevator, stray kids