your words my lies | noren

s i x t e e n

Saturday hit Jeno like a punch to the gut more than anything else. He had woken up at noon, gotten out of bed an hour later and realized he had five hours until he was supposed to be at the movie theatre meeting up with his friends.

He wasn't worried about going to the movies. It was just his friends, they had been many times before. What he was worried about was Renjun. How his friends would be disappointed if he didn't come, and how Renjun would act around his friends if he did.

It was a stupid thing to worry about.

Both Donghyuck and Jaemin were already inside when he got to the cinema, talking amongst themselves and eyes brightening when they saw Jeno walking towards them.

"Jeno!"

He waved.

"There aren't any actual good movies. We picked the one that looked the best," Donghyuck said enthusiastically. "Do you know if Renjun..."

Jeno hesitated, then shook his head. "I'm not sure if he's coming," Jeno said. Seeing Donghyuck's face fall, he couldn't help but try to cover it up somehow. "You know what, you guys go in first. Find seats for four of us and I'll wait here to see if he comes. I have to buy popcorn anyway..."

"Okay! Thanks Jeno, we'll meet you inside," Donghyuck exclaimed, then proceeded to bounce down the hall towards their theatre, Jaemin dragging himself along but keeping a smile on his face nonetheless.

Jeno heaved a heavy sigh. At this point, he was just pushing off the disappointment that he was dreading from his friends, maybe hoping to have some time to mentally prepare for it when it came.

He checked his phone as he waited in line for snacks. The movie started in approximately five minutes, but judging by the long line he was currently standing in, it'd take him longer than that to get his snacks. It'd be alright, the ads would probably go on for at least ten minutes.

Jeno ordered a large popcorn— for the fact that Donghyuck and Jaemin would surely finish their own and steal his— along with a medium iced lemonade.

It was just as he was about to leave with his snacks that he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Jeno whipped around to find Renjun standing behind him, clad head to toe in a sparkly-ish black outfit. Same bomber jacket from the first day of school, black skinny jeans ripped at the knees, and a silver star necklace that perfectly matched his hair.

"Woah."

Renjun gave him a slightly curious tilt of his head, which only managed to successfully pull Jeno in more.

"You actually came?" Jeno asked, confirming as if he wasn't sure if Renjun was actually in front of him.

Renjun nodded. "Are we going or not? And where are your friends?"

"They're already inside," Jeno answered. "But don't you need a ticket? And snacks?"

Renjun shook his head. "I can get in without a ticket," he shrugged as if it was something he did on a daily basis. "Snacks..."

Renjun took a piece of popcorn and popped it into his mouth. His face twisted with disgust and he pushed the popcorn away from him. "That's terrible. It's so salty," he said judgingly, face still scrunched up.

"I haven't even put any extra butter on it!" he said in mock disbelief.

Renjun, still looking as though he was recovering from the 'saltiness', eyed the drink in Jeno's hand. "What's that?"

"Lemonade?"

"You have no taste in snacks," Renjun muttered, before walking over to where the snacks were displayed in the front lobby.

"What? No, I have great taste in snacks," Jeno said defensively. "You can try some of the lemonade it's really good," he offered.

Renjun, still looking over his choices, shook his head. "Lemons are like poison to us."

"Oh."

Jeno watched as Renjun eventually picked up a bag of packaged caramel popcorn and a bag of fruit gummies. He couldn't help but silently glare at the packaged popcorn. Not Renjun, just the popcorn. They were at the movies- no one would dare to get packaged popcorn when you could get fresh movie popcorn so easily.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Jeno panicked when he realized Renjun wasn't beside him anymore. The fairy had already walked off, snacks in hand, and already halfway down the hallway.

Jeno cursed under his breath as he ran to catch up to him. "Aren't you gonna pay?"

"I don't have to," Renjun shrugged.

"Yeah you do," Jeno said. "Come on, I'll pay for you this time," he offered, holding out a hand for Renjun to pass him the snacks.

"Are you kidding? I'm not trusting you with these!"

Jeno couldn't help but smile slightly as he kept his hand outstretched. Renjun, still reluctant, eventually gave up and handed them over. Once he did, Jeno motioned for Renjun to go to the theatre and find his friends first. "You go, I'll bring these."

He ended up buying Renjun a fruit smoothie too because no one should go an entire movie without something to drink. Holding all of Renjun's snacks in one arm and his in the other, Jeno walked towards the worker scanning tickets at the entrance of the theatre, only to find him dazed out and staring off into the far distance.

No doubt was this Renjun's doing. Jeno placed his ticket on the stand for the worker to hopefully see when he woke up from his trance and then slipped inside the theatre.

Donghyuck and Jaemin had found seats at the direct center of the furthest row. Quietly, he made his way up the steps, careful not to disturb anyone else watching the movie, which seemed to be around ten minutes in. Surprisingly, Renjun looked quite invested in it, just as much as his other two friends.

Jeno passed him all of the snacks, to which Renjun took graciously, though his eyes never left the screen.

The fairy was sitting a seat away from Donghyuck, naturally leading Jeno to sit in between them so as to not make things too awkward.

The entire duration of the movie consisted of Renjun happily munching on his caramel popcorn and Jeno being distracted by the fact that Renjun's hand was right next to his, though Jeno wasn't sure whether it was because it would be so easy to just grab it and link their hands together, or if he was scared of getting electrocuted by Renjun's fairy magic.

It wasn't like Jeno actually cared about the movie they were watching. It ended shortly after with Jeno not having a single clue what had happened throughout.

When he looked towards Renjun on one side of him, the fairy had his eyes closed in a peaceful sleep. Jeno tried whispering his name to wake him up, but to no avail, he could only resort to shaking him and hoping he could endure the pain of the shock.

Two things were strange. The first was that when Jeno touched Renjun's arm, there was no shock nor any pain, as if the fairy had been drained of energy... or power. The second, no matter how hard Jeno tried to shake him, Renjun wouldn't budge.

He wasn't waking and Jeno had a sinking feeling that something was definitely wrong.

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i miss going to the movie theatres so much

and movie popcorn i miss that too