... ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ʀᴏᴏᴍᴍᴀᴛᴇꜱ | ɴᴀ ᴊᴀᴇᴍɪɴ

| e l e v e n |

you almost turned around to leave when you saw jaemin in the kitchen, but your stomach begging for something to eat convinced you otherwise. for some reason when you reached up to grab the box of the heavenly cereal you ate every morning, your hand only came in contact with the naked and empty shelf. you knew for a fact you didn't eat the rest of it, and your head snapped towards the male who was standing against the wall and eating cereal from a bowl. you asked him through gritted teeth, "did you eat my cereal?"

"oh this?" he pulled out the empty cardboard box of your beloved cereal from the trashcan before dropping it into the trash again before looking at you with a shrug, "i ate the rest of it. if you want some you gotta go buy some."

you could've strangled that man then and there, but the motherfucker was probably into that so you held yourself back from doing so. you bit down on your tongue before you started a new argument, and jaemin tilted his head, definitely waiting for an outburst. when it never came, he lifted his shoulders into a shrug again before disappearing out of the kitchen.

it took you some seconds before you were ready to go on about your day, and you decided to ignore your stomach for now, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing you leave to get more cereal. instead you made your morning coffee. as it was getting ready you did a few breathing exercises, because you knew that jaemin would come running the second the coffee was done, and you weren't about to lash out at him - you really weren't in the mood to fight with him.

as you had predicted, jaemin was in the kitchen when you had poured your own cup of coffee, and as he reached to grab a mug, the pettiness hit you. staring him dead in the eye, you poured the rest of the coffee down the drain, and the utter exhaustion that took over his facial features made you feel pretty damn proud of yourself. maybe it was a waste to pour good coffee into the sink, but in that moment the feeling of victory was bigger.

"seriously?" you took a long sip of your coffee, swirling in around in your mouth - not the best idea as it burned the roof of your mouth, and despite the tears that formed at the sting, you think you did a pretty good job at hiding the fact you burned yourself. you swallowed the hot drink before letting out a big overdramatic sigh. jaemin did nothing but watch, and you blinked at him, your head tilting to the side, "oh, you wanted some? my bad. better make some on your own."

"petty ass." he spat, his teeth gritted and eyebrows furrowed. you gave him a smile, a fake one of course, "you mispronounced pretty, but thank you."

"want me to compliment you that bad?" your smile dropped, a scowl replacing it. he raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed over his chest, only making his question even more condescending than it was to begin with. this time it was your turn to hiss out a response, "rather want you to never talk to me again."

"oh my pleasure."

and he actually left you alone for a couple of hours - he didn't even leave his room in that time, and at one point you wondered if he had started peeing in a cup instead of going to the toilet to avoid seeing you. that thought had you shivering in disgust, jaemin was annoying, a prick, condescending and every other name you could think of, but he wasn't that disgusting. maybe he had died? hopefully, you had thought for a split second before shaking your head at yourself. your fight with the male was starting to really get to your head.

so you thanked god he had agreed to hang out.

"it feels like i just walked onto a battlefield. what the hell is going on between the two of you?" a small groan left you at jeno's words, and you let your body drop onto the couch. your former roommate took the seat beside you, you taking up half of the couch from the way you were dramatically laying on it. jeno urged you to answer his question with a flick to your forehead. you answered with a frown, rubbing the sore spot on your forehead, "his project partner accused me of shutslaming and badmouthing her when she was the one doing that to me."

"and he believed her, i'm guessing."

"yep."

"prick. wasn't always the brightest." you couldn't agree more with jeno, and you stood up, announcing you'd get him a drink, and jeno hummed out a word of gratitude. the kitchen reminded you of the fight earlier, and the words you said, looking back at them now, made your fingers curl. you had said a lot of things in fights with jaemin before, but what you had said today felt extra cringeworthy.

"was never the brightest." you said, and jeno grabbed the drink from you, taking a large gulp before saying some words he knew you wouldn't appreciate. he looked at you, before carefully saying, "but maybe you should apologize as well- don't look at me like that. i know you, and you probably didn't treat her the exact nicest either, because you have a tendency to snap back."

you glared at him when he said the first part, hell, you were still glaring at him. you took a large gulp of your juice, kinda wishing you had added a shot of vodka to deal with the stress you were feeling. maybe you could have been nicer, but with the way she had been acting towards you, you know you could have been a lot worse as well. you shook your head, "i wasn't even that bad, i held myself back. she was all like, oh jaemin love me, pick me, choose me. i wanted to poke my eyes out."

"maybe you're a bit dramatic, love. and jaemin is just being a fucking idiot." jeno said, careful to not pick a side in this war between the two of you.

"dude, are you on my side or jaemin's?"

"neither. i'm neutral. as long as he doesn't make you cry." jeno simply shrugged. his response made you scoff, "well, in war being neutral isn't always the best."

he let out a laugh, "didn't you fail history?"

"didn't you fail math?" came your response quickly. a bit too quick maybe, because you knew for a fact jeno didn't fail a single subject in high school. he smiled at you, "no, but nice try, love."

"i didn't fail by the way, i did quite well. just not the first year." you reminded him, and he nodded slowly, not quite believing you. his reaction only earned him a light slap to the chest from you, and he laughed yet again, a small apology leaving him. he didn't say anything else to that.

jeno looked at you, your eyes weren't as big and bright as they usually were when he was there. you looked tired. maybe it was from lack of sleep because of schoolwork, or maybe it was from fighting with jaemin, because the latter was utterly exhausting, even jeno knew so.

"if he makes you cry, tell me, i'll personally beat him up then." despite what he said earlier about being neutral, you had a feeling he was slightly more on your side.

it was nice. it was nice knowing someone had your back if jaemin went a step too far. a sigh escaped you and you rested your head on jeno's shoulder, "thank you jeno. anyways tell me about life, i really don't wanna talk anymore about jaemin right now, gives me a headache."

he nodded, and then he started speaking. he told you about his studies, about renjun and his new art projects, about the drama between these two girls in one of his classes where one had slept with others boyfriend, and about his annoying teacher that always made them read so and so many pages. he talked and you only responded a few times, to show him you were listening. at one point you wondered why jaemin hadn't noticed jeno was over, but it wasn't really your problem. if jeno had left when jeamin finally wanted to leave his room, it was entirely his own fault.

and funnily enough, it was what happened.

jaemin walked out of his room half an hour or so after jeno had left, after effectively having stayed in his room for half a day. without looking up from your book, you told him as he passed by you sitting on the couch, "jeno told me to tell you hi."

you didn't see it, but he stopped dead in tracks before turning around. he blinked at the you who was still reading without looking up, "jeno was here?"

"yeah for a little while." it left you as a mumble. jaemin took offense to that, he was quick to make it known, "what the fuck? jeno is my friend too, you could've at least told me he was over. i would've liked to say hi too."

his outburst surprised you a bit. you bookmarked your book before looking at him, almost feeling bad when you saw the expression on his face. maybe you should've just told him, but at the same time he could've just left his room instead of being a child and locking himself inside. you stood up to leave him in the living room, but not without replying, "oh, but you probably wouldn't even believe me if i told you."

jaemin rolled his eyes at you, opening his mouth to say something, but you had already disappeared into your own room.