Birds of a Feather | '00 Liners

Chapter Six

When the sun bid its farewell beyond the horizon, spilling violets and fire across the sky, Jeno heard Jaemin call quits to his own trip. It wasn't like Jeno was complaining, the grains of sand lining his gums driving him to near-insanity by that point. 

"Wait, hold on," Donghyuck said. "Jaemin, you brought your camera, right?"

Jaemin nodded, slung his backpack around, and riffled through the pockets. His hand emerged with a high-end digital camera, the strap flapping restlessly in the sea-breeze. 

"Are you finally willing to take that cheesy group photo?" Jaemin teased with a wide grin overtaking his tanned face.

Donghyuck shrugged nonchalantly, lips tugged down in a contemplative pout. But his eyes glimmered in the sunset with wild mischief. 

"Maybe," he said as he took the offered camera from Jaemin's hand. "Maybe not." 

He raised the camera at a high angle with the lens pointed toward himself and snapped a selfie with an easy-going peace sign.

"I'm not processing that for you," Jaemin said.

Donghyuck gasped, scandalized, "You don't want to print out my handsome face and put it up on your bedroom wall to see every single night before you go to bed and every single morning when you wake up?"

"That would be easier to do if it were on the ceiling," Jeno said.

Donghyuck turned toward Jeno with an unimpressed frown. 

"Sounds an awful lot like you're volunteering yourself, no-jam."

Jeno conceded with a mock surrender of his hands.

Eventually, they did take a cheesy commemorative photo with the sunset and the sea as their background. Jaemin promised Jeno and Donghyuck that he would print it out and give them both a copy after school tomorrow. Donghyuck seemed pleased and was more than ready to escape the evening chill that struck through his soaked clothes. Jeno had "I told you so" on the tip of his tongue, but with the newfound knowledge of Donghyuck's traumatized skin seeped into his mind, he decided to keep his silence.

They bid each other farewell and went their separate ways for the evening, tomorrow's events weighing heavy on their sun-soaked minds.