unwavering love

1 ; encounter

How jeno and jaemin came to be friends wasn't anything out of the ordinary, or special.

Okay, well maybe it was a bit wacko, but it was simply that the younger one had moved into jeno's neighbourhood that the two got to know each other through their parents.

"Go talk to him darling ! I'm sure that Mrs Na's son would be more than happy to play with you," Mrs Lee smiled as she ushered her son into the room where the other boy was sitting, playing with his toys. "You two have fun while I help Mrs Na with preparing lunch, alright?" Mrs Lee then rushed over to the kitchen before her son could open his mouth to protest.

Jeno chewed on his fingernails as he eyed Mrs Na’s son apprehensively. “I..I’m not sure about this...what if he finds me annoying ?”

He decided to just sit down where he was standing and pulled out a raisin cookie his mother gave him earlier. He didn’t eat lunch, since his mom didn’t have time to cook, so he was pretty hungry. He couldn’t wait until lunch was prepared, so he had no choice but to eat the cookie.

As he tore the wrapper off the cookie and placed the cookie to his mouth, he heard a faint voice mumbling something along the lines of “ew” or “gross”.

Huh? Was he “ew-ing” me? Jeno felt hurt, but it wasn’t nice to assume things especially when he barely knew the other. But still, it was hurtful.

As if the other boy read his mind, he got up and sat down right next to Jeno, who was on the verge of tears. “Geez, if I had chosen to wait any longer for you to come talk to me I would’ve started growing white hairs.”

Jeno was baffled. White hairs? The boy next to him looked like he just turned 5, what did he mean he would grow white hairs? That was absurd.

Confused, he turned to the boy beside him and asked, “But you look like your 5! How is it possible for you to grow white hai-'' he was quickly shut up by the other, whose expression looked like a mix between annoyance and amusement.

“Ugh, you really can’t take a joke, can you?” The younger stated the obvious. Yes, indeed Jeno couldn’t take a joke. It wasn’t his fault though, he wasn’t used to talking to someone as peculiar as Jaemin. Before Jeno could respond, the boy spoke again. “Anyways, my name is Na Jaemin,” he paused for a moment, facing the other and glaring at him. “and I'm 6, NOT 5!” he huffed out, crossing his arms.

“Oh, sorry.” Jeno mumbled, head down as tears began to gather in his eyes. He didn’t like it when people raised their voice at him. “Whatever, I didn’t care that much anyways. By the way, are you going to eat that cookie? You’ve been holding onto it for a really long time now, and the raisins are starting to fall off.” Jaemin pointed to the raisin cookie in Jeno’s hands and grimaced.

“Nope, I suddenly don’t feel like eating it now.” he took a look at the raisin cookie in his hand again and decided that maybe he could wait for lunch after all.

“Huh, I see…”

“...You’re pretty weird.” Jaemin blurted out, with no hesitation.
Eh? Him? Weird? No! He wasn’t weird! Jaemin was just being mean now.

“I am not weird!”

“You are!”

“Am not!”

“Am too!”

“I don’t like you, you’re a meanie!” Jeno stuck out his tongue at Jaemin before throwing his cookie at him.

“I am not a meanie! You are!” Jaemin’s voice cracked, as hot tears started to spill down his cheeks. He threw back the now raisinless cookie to Jeno, and wailed.