fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses ; nct jaeno

day 0 ;

I love you.

I love you, too.

"Turn the television off."

Jisung turned to Jaemin and smiled at his sudden command. "Why? It's a cute show."

"It's a disgusting show!" Jaemin protested, snatching the television remote from Jisung's hand and changing the channel.

"You think of it that way because you're bitter about still being single," Jisung said in a sing-song tone.

"I'm not," Jaemin denied under his breath, pressing the buttons with utter force out of hidden frustration. "It's nothing to be bitter about."

"Yes, it is. You're being bitter about it right now."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"I'm—"

"Sorry for being so late!" Out of the sudden, Mark bursted in the room with Donghyuck, followed by Renjun and Chenle, who were pulling Jeno in with them.

"Honestly, we could have been here thirty minutes ago, but..." Mark couldn't continue his sentence due to the heavy panting that he was producing, as if all of his energy was worn out.

"What happened?" Jisung asked with worry as he turned to the newly-arrived and tired boys.

"We had to handle a few errands," Renjun answered in an exhausted tone.

"Like?'"

"Holding Donghyuck hyung back before he could beat up Jeno hyung's girlfriend." Chenle answered with the same tone, sending Jaemin and Jisung signals that it was a tough task to accomplish.

"Ex-girlfriend," Donghyuck corrected Chenle, hissing and twisting his face with disgust towards the mention of Jeno's former partner.

"That's enough, Donghyuck," Mark sternly said, laying a hand on Donghyuck's shoulder as an attempt to calm him down.

"I'm alright," Jeno butted in between his hiccups as he rubbed his reddish eyes.

"You're not!" Renjun protested, slapping Jeno's hand away from his eyes. "Have you seen yourself?!"

"That's not how you comfort someone stuck in a situation like this, Hyung," Chenle told Renjun in a hushed tone.

Even when the living room was filled with loud  bickering between the boys, Jaemin felt like the whole world went silent as he observed Jeno.

Before, the latter had something that never failed to make anyone's day brighter and better: his signature eye smile that could light a whole country.

There was never a day where it didn't show, but ever since they were together, it became shinier, especially when her name rolled off his tongue while sharing stories about how he spent his time with her.

Now, it was absent and was replaced by nothing but utter melancholy, which not only made Jaemin worry to no end, but also fill his mind with endless questions.

Love was supposed to heal you, not break you, right?

If it could, then did it hurt that much?

If it did, then should he stop thinking about finding for something that was only going to hurt him further?

Maybe I should, Jaemin thought to himself.

Suddenly, Jaemin shook his head, urging those types of thoughts to stop coming in his head.

One of his best friends were suffering from a huge heartbreak. His non-existent heartbreak shouldn't matter to him nor to anyone else.

It never will, anyway.

Jaemin had to help Jeno.

Jaemin was reeled back to reality when Mark had stood up from the couch and shouted in a loud volume. "Shut up! Shut up. Everyone, listen to me. We came here to my house because we were going to have a good time after a whole week of being stuck in the hell hole that we call school, so instead of fighting over this, why don't we do something else?"

"I agree with Mark hyung's idea," Donghyuck agreed, standing up alongside Mark.

"You agree with every single one of Mark hyung's ideas," Jisung pointed out in a deadpan tone.

"Listen here, you little shit—"

Jaemin's lips curved into a small smirk as he watched Mark hold Donghyuck back from hitting Jisung, who was laughing his lungs out.

"Seriously, seriously, seriously," Renjun butted in, standing up as well. "Mark hyung's still right. Let's forget about what happened for a while and have some fun. No girls, no boys, no school. Just us."

Jaemin saw how Renjun looked at them then discreetly nodded at Jeno, who was looking at the floor like it was the most interesting thing he had seen the whole time he was alive.

"I'll take everyone's answers as an agreeing statement to what Renjun just said," Mark said with a smile as he walked to his back and took out his water bottle. "Now, how about a round of Spin and Dare?"

With that, everyone made their way to the floor and took the places they usually took when playing Spin and Dare—a game where the players will spin the bottle and whoever lands on both ends of the bottle will have to do a dare the rest of the players will decide on for them.

Playing games like these were usually really fun, because it's either you watch someone feel embarrassed or you are the one feeling embarrassed, but as much as the dares were really intense, Jaemin couldn't enjoy the game to the fullest for his attention couldn't stop shifting from the players to Jeno, who seemed to not enjoy the game as well.

Jaemin frowned at the sight and thought about how he could help him out. His mind was so occupied by his thoughts about wondering what's occupying Jeno's mind that he didn't notice how the bottle landed on both of them.

Both boys only noticed this when Jisung suddenly stood up from where he was sitting and pulled the other players out of the circle, as if trying to tell them something that the two shouldn't hear.

They looked at each other, melancholiac expressions changing into confused ones, then turned to the others as they sat back down with strange smiles on their faces.

"Thanks to Jisung," Chenle started. "we have decided on your dare."

"It's going to be a little more complicated than the usual dares that we have been using against everyone," Renjun continued.

"Are you two willing to agree to do this dare?" Jisung said as he laid his hands on each of their shoulders.

"They can't say no because of the punishment for denial," Donghyuck said as he smirked and shrugged. "They'll have to."

Jaemin and Jeno looked at each other again—this time, with worry—then turned back to the others befote nodding and waiting for the words of the dare to leave Jisung's mouth.

"Fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses."

Jaemin had to help Jeno, but he didn't think that he'll be helping him in this way.