s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [nine]

Sinking down in a booth at Lenticular that night, you rubbed a hand over your face. Renjun had taken the containers at the host stand and was dropping them off with Johnny in the kitchen while he grabbed your drinks as well. Lenticular was fairly busy, most of the tables being taken up. You were glad to see that they were able to keep quite a few of the customers from their initial re-opening night.

You continued musing over your paper of incantations as Taeyong happily sipped on the juice that Renjun had just brought out for him. They all seemed so simple, banishing one Wraith, banishing multiple Wraiths, sending flying notes, enchanting talismans—you had no clue what those even were—and a small guide of breathing techniques to control your powers. According to Jungwoo, the key to do anything more difficult than those was in focusing and channeling your energy. But you didn't feel any energy within you. At least nothing more special than usual. Even when you had banished the Wraith earlier, nothing felt... different about you.

"Y/N?" A familiar voice calling your name out made you whip your head around in surprise.

It was Na Jaemin, his face immediately perking up when he saw that it was you. He came rushing over to your table, "Hey, Y/N! I wasn't sure if that was you, but it is!"

Quickly folding the incantation paper back up, you set it aside with your phone to greet your friend, "Hey, Jaemin." Looking around, you couldn't spot Jeno or any other familiar figures. "Here by yourself?"

"Oh, yeah, Johnny says I'm his most frequent regular," he admitted, seeming somewhat sheepish but also somewhat flattered as he scratched at his neck.

"You want to eat with us?" You offered, having no good reason to deny your own self-proclaimed best friend from joining you and Taeyong.

"Sure!" He scooted in beside you, eyes locked on Taeyong.

Oh, other than that. He had no clue who Taeyong was, and you weren't about to admit who he actually was. Too much of an unnecessary headache. Realizing you had to come up with a realistic fib in that split second, you cleared your throat to buy yourself some time, taking a nice long sip of your water.

"Uh, Jaemin, this is Taeyong. He's... Yuta's friend from out of town. Yuta's got something tonight, so I offered to take him to dinner and show him the great food that Lenticular has to offer," you quickly rambled on as soon as you'd settled on a lie. "Taeyong, this is my friend Na Jaemin."

Taeyong flashed you an incredulous look—he was clearly not enthused about being known as Yuta's friend—but washed it away to throw Jaemin a rather tense smile.

"Hello, Jaemin," the Nekomata nodded to him politely through gritted teeth, presumably remembering all the times that he'd been harassed by your friend while in his cat form.

"Nice to meet you, Taeyong," Jaemin smiled at the man brightly. "How are you liking our little city so far?"

His nose twitched, "It's fine."

While they made small talk, you quickly grabbed your phone and angled yourself so Jaemin couldn't possibly see your screen while you fervently texted Yuta.

[you: if jaemin asks for some reason, taeyong is your friend from out of town who's visiting you]

The next time Renjun came to your table, he'd apparently noticed Jaemin's presence and told Johnny, because he came back with three entrees.

"Oh joy, our favorite regular..." Renjun drawled, looking down at Jaemin with distaste.

"Hi, Renjun!" Jaemin greeted him brightly nevertheless. "How'd you do on that landscape assignment?"