fairytale hell asteroid | l.dh

eighteen.

Donghyuck was only a couple of pages into the fantasy novel when he felt his intelligence was challenged.

Foul words and somewhat intellectually critical questions were uttered softly as he flipped back and forth between pages. It was taking all of his willpower not to grab his phone and accidentally spoil himself as he searched for the meaning of all the made-up words he was seeing. He went ahead and turned the pages anyway, though. He figured it was too quick to judge.

The morning reading session was interrupted when the doorbell rang. He huffed out a sigh of relief at the reasonable distraction. Dropping the book on the couch, he jumped off the comfortable seat and headed to the door. He swung it open to reveal his friends: a frowning Jaemin and a clueless Jeno, who managed to hold Jaemin back when he pounced on the unassuming boy behind the door.

"You missed me that much, Jaemin?" Donghyuck joked with a smirk as he stepped aside to let them into his house.

Jaemin grumbled audibly. He kicked his shoes off, trashed them to the side to show his disapproval, and left Jeno to pick them up and line them neatly by the welcome mat. After straightening his posture, Jeno gave Donghyuck a brief greeting through a missed high-five. Then he left to follow Jaemin to the living room area.

Jaemin had already sunk himself into the couch. The rare sight of a novel sitting on the edge of the sofa piqued his curiosity, so he picked it up and began flipping through it. His brows raised when he saw the similar scribbled of your handwriting—he did not know whose writing it was, but coming from the fact that it was within Donghyuck's possession, he made an easy guess that it was yours. A teasing smile appeared on his face at the thought, and his previous aggression faded.

"Hey, I didn't know you read?" Jaemin announced the rhetorical question, slammed the book shut, and waved it about. His eyes glittered with joy when Donghyuck seemed visibly annoyed. He let it happen when the book got snatched out of his hand.

"It's never too late to start reading," Jeno chimed in from the side after settling on the ground just before the tea table. He placed his bag on his side and adjusted his torso so he could look at the book's title covered behind Donghyuck's protective arms.

"God, Jeno, you are so dense! That isn't what this is about!" Jaemin exclaimed through a crack of his voice. His limbs flailed dramatically before he pointed at Donghyuck, who sat away from him on the other end of the oversized couch and was holding onto the book you gave him. "The book has [Name]'s writing in it! It's an annotated book!"

Jeno let his jaw drop slightly when he whipped his head around to face Donghyuck. "You're reading because of them?"

"Like you said, it is never too late to start reading," Donghyuck replied.

"Then why did Jaemin react like that?" Jeno asked, nudging his head toward Jaemin's direction.

"Because it's an annotated book, Jeno. Pick up the pace, please!" Jaemin said with exhaustion. "This is why you've never gotten with anyone. It's because you're so dense!"

"I'm sorry. Since when are you a book connoisseur, Na Jaemin?" Donghyuck retorted. "How do you know what book annotating is? Besides, it doesn't mean anything. I just didn't want to get a new copy of the book when I can borrow a used one for free."

"Oh, okay. See–that's suspicious," Jeno said. "Unless your dad decided you are never getting the credit card back, I don't see why you wouldn't just buy a new copy."

Jaemin nodded eagerly at Jeno before his brows narrowed. He shifted his position on the couch a little, further dunking himself into its softness so he could relax completely with no weight supported. He tilted his head to glimpse at Donghyuck, but he was only able to see the bottom half of his body. "What's up with that, by the way? What happened yesterday?"