shot clock || na jaemin (the court series #1)

quarter three: minute five

when they get back home, all of the boys are tired, dreamies and 127 alike after a long day at work. the 127s had had a special event at the café today, which meant that they were booked from morning to afternoon, catering to a birthday party full of influencers. which meant rude people, overworked part-timers, and way too much cleaning up at the end. the dreamies weren't much better off, having experienced their first day of work, and being thoroughly drained by the end of it.

minhyung had sulked all the way home, but after finding out that the yonsei scouts had been to their game and had been expressing their interest in jaemin and jeno, he had no choice but reluctantly forgive them (not that there was anything to be forgiven in the first place), not being able to stay mad at them for too long anyway.

"and that one girl who came late? god she was so rude. apparently, because she has a hundred thousand followers on instagram, someone died and made her the owner of nct 127 or something," yuta says furiously from his room, changing his clothes in a very passionate manner.

"yuta! that was my favorite pair of sweatpants, you asshole," jungwoo whines, coming out of the room to show the poor victim of yuta's anger. the sweatpants were ripped clean down the middle at the crotch and renjun visibly gulps.

by the time the rest of the boys have taken a shower and settled in front of the television, it's already six o'clock, the effects of having not eaten anything for seven hours finally starting to take a toll on them. they flip to a random action movie that dongyoung had grudgingly bought on the requests of the dreamies, not wanting to be the first one to initiate the process of cooking dinner - an inevitably long, and very messy process.

thankfully, they don't go hungry for too long, with the girls coming home just around the time taeyong and dongyoung had broken into a fist fight sequence, reenacting the scenes that were showing on the television.

jeno gets up to greet jisoo, only to collapse into her arms and protest about his state of hunger. 

"jeno, darling, you know i can't help you fix the issue if you latch onto me like a leech, right?" jisoo says exasperatedly, handing off the groceries to sooyoung and yasmine, who help the other girls form an assembly line and get all the groceries into the apartment and properly washed. jisung offers his services, but the moment he tries to wash the zucchini for the jjajjangmyeon with soap, he's promptly kicked out of the kitchen.

and from there, the hustle and bustle begin. since both yasmine, who is muslim, and sooyoung don't eat pork, the two of them begin on a vegan jjajjangmyeon, substituting the meat for mushrooms and fried tofu. 

the other girls (now energized by a full day of well-deserved pampering as a way to cheer sooyoung up again), work on the jjajjangmyeon with meat in a separate pot. soon enough, by the time the hero saves the heroine from imminent danger for the second time (there are seven total times), wonderful smells start wafting from the kitchen into the living room, where fourteen boys were eagerly waiting.

by the time the heroine is saved for the fourth time, jeno decides he's going to try and speed up the process, gathering jisoo into his arms and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. he waltzes her around the kitchen, searching for spices (the chili powder was on the third shelf) and other vegetables (potato was in the shelf which was second from the left). gradually, the other girls start slowly but surely evacuating the kitchen, busying themselves with either cooking somewhere they wouldn't bother the couple or bothering their own boyfriends for the sake of feeling less single. 

neither of them realize, so immersed in their own little world that they don't even catch onto the fact that they are alone in the kitchen, dancing and giggling about things that no one besides them could quite understand. 

"they look good together, don't they?" jaemin says softly, wrapping his arms around sooyoung so that he was hugging her from behind. sooyoung smiles, her eyes following her brother and his girlfriend around the kitchen.

"they look happy. she makes him happy. and he makes her happy. do you remember how they were before they started dating?" sooyoung says, leaning back against jaemin's chest. his heart flutters at the movement, looking down at the girl in his arms. she's tall enough so that her head conveniently can rest backwards on his shoulder, swaying back and forth. she looks beautiful from this angle. from any angle. 

"yeah." he doesn't elaborate. he doesn't need to. they changed each others' lives for the better. jeno, the man who was always so sullen and was so focused on achieving success, he forgot how to appreciate the simpler things in life. jisoo, the girl who was bitter and used distractions to forget all the pain and the hurt. they found each other and grew. together. 

"you know, they're younger than us, and have been dating for much less time than us but i still want what they have," yasmine says, watching jaemin and sooyoung watch jeno and jisoo. johnny chuckles a tired little chuckle, pressing a kiss to the temple of his girlfriend. 

"you're not the only one," he says simply. "you are not the only one."

sooyoung doesn't get any nightmares that night. 

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a/n: just a little filler chapter because my brain is just not capable of writing a real, full chapter right now. as always, have a great day and i love you so much!