Birds of a Feather | '00 Liners

Chapter Ten

If he were to be technical, Jaemin first fell in love with Jeno back in middle school. His sprouting back then had been excruciating and so severe he had to take a leave of absence from school for the rest of the week. Of course, when he got back, Jaemin said that his back had been acting up again. Such an easy excuse that distant classmates had been relieved of and closer friends had been sympathetic about.

When his wings outgrew his uniform's jacket, he decided to order in a wing binder. Something that health advisors often warned against using. But Jaemin was desperate to keep his filthy little secret on lockdown because Jeno had been recently making eyes at the new transfer student, Renjun, and he really didn't want to open that can of teenage drama.

Jaemin was an affectionate guy. So, when Renjun eventually joined their little social duo, new sprouts tore a hole in Jaemin's back. 

Jaemin hated his wings for a long, long time afterward. He saw them as ugly, obnoxious reminders for his ugly, obnoxious love. He tried on multiple occasions to tear them out but lost the will, the drive soon after. Simply pulling out a feather was agonizing in every sense of the way. How excruciating would it be to tear bone from muscle? To dig into his own skin to rid himself of the accursed sprouts rooted into his back?

When Donghyuck made his return from Jeju, Jaemin realized falling in love with his friends wasn't so bad. Because, see, Donghyuck was also an affectionate guy. So Jaemin indulged in himself and took whatever caress, mindless petting, patting, and wonderfully long hug he could get. 

His self-loathing crept back in when Mark entered the picture. But he would never forgive himself if he let the love he felt for Donghyuck suffer like Renjun's and Jeno's had. So he ordered the final wing binder and ignored the odd deformities in his joints, brushed off the blotches of white in his midnight wings.