Beautiful // Nomin

~37~

"Hi, could I get you guys' order?"

Jaemin smiled pleasantly to the customers seated around a table looking at menus. They asked him for recommendations and he offered some. He explained what were in the dishes that had confusing names.

He'd been working as a waiter for this fine restaurant for about a week now, and he was good at it. His physical appearance was of the utmost attractiveness, wearing that black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and black pants that fitted him well. His pretty smile was a cherry on top for customers, especially for teen girls.

He'd also dyed his hair a dark brown color, thinking that pink wouldn't be good for a worker at a semi-fancy restaurant like this. It would stand out too much, and besides, the manager would probably have made him dye it a normal color anyways. Washing away the pink from his hair made Jaemin feel like he was washing his old self away, something he'd dreamed of for forever. He was normal now, and he intended to stay that way. It felt clean and refreshing.

In short, Na Jaemin was more beautiful than ever.

It also made big news at the school. People didn't want to admit to themselves now that dirty Na Jaemin was truly handsome and beautiful with that new dark brown hair. Guys didn't want to admit that they were jealous; girls didn't want to admit that he looked boyfriend material. But it was only the truth.

And the truth made Jung Kiara even more furious.

She clung to Jeno even more now, and her prejudice about Jaemin couldn't make her like him any more even with that new look. She knew that Jaemin's newfound handsomeness would only make Jeno fall for him even more and it made her want to cry.

It wasn't only Jeno, but also her closest friends started fawning over Jaemin like he was some cheesy dude who played the guitar on school campus during lunch break. He wasn't; he didn't even talk to anybody really, but he was in everyone's minds.

"Kiaraaa did you see Jaemin Na? Like WHEN THE HELL did he get so cute?!" Park Jinae squealed to her friend during study hall at the library.

Kiara responded angrily, to Jinae's surprise, by standing up from the table and banging her palms on the surface. "You too, Jinae?! Seriously?!"

"What do you mean?" Jinae pouted. "I mean you can't deny it. Jaemin looks so different now, he's so dreamy..."

"Girl." Kiara frowned. "That's Na Jaemin you're talking about."

"I know," Jinae combatted. "You'd think he was amazing too if you were single, but you aren't."

"Glad I'm not," Kiara said fiercely. "And I can't believe you're doting all over Jaemin like that when you know how he's trying to destroy my relationship with Jeno."

Jinae defended, "He hasn't been hanging out with Jeno at all for the past week, you've been. I think he got a new job so he doesn't see Jeno outside of school hours now."

"Good," Kiara gritted her teeth.

"Bestie, you should put on a nicer face or you'll start to be like Regina from Mean Girls," Jinae warned.

"You wouldn't compare me to her."

Jinae just laughed. "Well whatever. All I know is that you're literally disagreeing with all the girls in the school, whether they have boyfriends or not. Jaemin is cute and you can't persuade me otherwise."

Unbeknownst to Kiara, at the very moment she was having this conversation with Jinae in the library, Jeno and Jaemin were talking to each other side by side as they headed off of the track field from PE to hit the showers.

"Hey, that brown is really really nice on you, Jaemin," Jeno complimented sincerely.

Jaemin laughed. "You've said that quite a few times now, haven't you?"

"Maybe," Jeno replied shyly. "I mean every time I look at you, you know, that's the first thing I think, it looks so handsome."

Jaemin felt a little shy himself at his crush's nonstop complimenting, but he laughed it off. He raised an eyebrow at Jeno and teasingly asked, "Wanna shower together?"

Jeno shrugged, "Sure."

Wait-

-what?

Wait, what??

"Jeno-yah—" Jaemin looked at his friend weirdly.

"What?" Jeno asked innocently.

"You being for real?"

"Oh, you were just joking? My bad, I didn't catch that," Jeno said quickly.

"Wait, so if I wasn't joking, then you'd actually want to?" Jaemin questioned.

Damn.

Damn the way Jeno smirked when Jaemin said that.

"I mean we're both guys, right?" the older boy said in a low voice that made Jaemin shiver.

"Whoa, Jeno-yah," was all he could respond.

"So what're you up for? You're the one who asked the question," Jeno teased.

"I can't," Jaemin replied, embarrassed.

"Why not?" Jeno said almost immediately, that smirk on his face playing with Jaemin's mind.

"Because..." Jaemin fiddled with the towel draped across his shoulder.

"Because what?" Jeno said, expecting.

Jaemin suddenly gave a small laugh and leaned close to Jeno's ear, whispering seductively, "Because if we do, then I won't be able to control myself."

Then don't—

Jeno knew better than to answer that way. "Valid point," he sighed louder, breaking the tension between the two. Besides, they'd gather unwanted attention too soon if they kept acting like this.

Jaemin smiled sweetly to him before they parted ways to go to their own shower stalls. But his mind was anything but calm, sweet smiles. His mind was a wreck. What was Jeno on today?! Jaemin seriously hadn't been able to tell if the other boy was joking or not.

Whatever it was, that sexy smirk Jeno had flashed was the complete opposite of that innocent, embarrassed smile Jaemin had witnessed the first time Jeno'd accidentally opened Jaemin's shower and seen him naked.

That accidental meeting had led to their friendship now. And the friendship was getting kind of close, kind of "weird" to be called "just a friendship," despite the more incessant prodding of Jeno's girlfriend these days.

It felt so wrong, but at the same time, felt so right. How could life make Jaemin fall so hard for a person that it wouldn't let him end up with? If Jaemin loved Jeno so much, like he'd loved no one else, then they had to be fate, right? Leaving Jaemin empty-handed at this point would be wretched, evilly biased, cruel.

But life has a reputation of being cruel.