fourteen days and twenty-eight kisses ; nct jaeno

day 2 ;

As he was walking his way out of the school to go home, Jaemin stopped in his tracks at the sight of students crowding around the school billboard, giving him the idea that the school faculty had posted something so interesting that it caught everyone's attention.

Jaemin was in the middle of contemplating whether he should bother going through the crowd to see what's up or not when another student had stood beside him. His attention shifted from the school billboard to the student, who was actually Jeno.

"Hey," Jaemin stuttered out of awkwardness as the dare came back in his mind.

"Hey," Jeno responded in the same manner, making Jaemin wonder if he was feeling the same way toward the dare that their friends had handed over to them a few days ago.

"Uh," Jaemin blurted out, attempting to make the atmosphere between them become lighter. "Do you know what's going on over there?"

"Sort of," Jeno answered, turning to jaemin. "There's going to be an event in a few weeks from now."

"What kind?"

"What do you think?"

Jaemin squinted his eyes at Jeno, trying to figure out whether his sentence was sarcastic or not, but then he thought about the events that were about to occur.

"For Valentine's day?" Jaemin guessed, which Jeno nodded at.

Jaemin uttered a short bitter laugh. "What's so special about that? It's not like any of the students care about those type of events in this school, much less the single ones, which is like...ninety nine point ninety nine percent of the school's population."

"When they told me that you were bitter about being single, I thought Jisung was joking," Jeno joked, smirking. "I guess not."

"I'm not bitter," Jaemin argued as he turned and tried to walk away.

"Sure," Jeno said, rolling his eyes as he followed Jaemin. "Anyway, the others are getting hyped over the Valentine's day event because of the Music project."

"What music project?" Jaemin asked as he turned to him, obviously confused and curious.

"Didn't Ma'am tell you about that Music project?" Jeno knitted his eyebrows together, also confused. "Oh, your Music is scheduled tomorrow, not today."

"Students in our level will have to pick a partner and a performance to do," Jeno started to explain as he opened the school doors for both boys to come out of. "Your partner could be from the other section, and your performance could be singing, dancing, or acting, as long as it's appropriate for the event and for our age. The pair with the best performance will be picked to play at the event."

"Oh, cool," Jaemin muttered, not sure whether he was interested or not. "I was not informed about this."

"Well, now you are," Jeno pointed out.

"Will you go?" Jaemin suddenly asked Jeno, who seemed to be taken aback by the question.

"Of course I am," Jeno answered matter-of-factly. "Technicaly, we all need to. This is our Music exam, you know."

"Really?!" Jaemin exclaimed, surprised. "I have to take this seriously, then."

Jeno just hummed as a response.

After a while of silent walking under the slowly darkening sky, Jaemin broke the awkward silence by asking another question "Do you already have a partner for this project?"

Jaemin turned to Jeno and saw how his eyes flickered with sadness a moment before he shook his head and shone a small sheepish smile.

"Oh," Jaemin muttered, nodding.

"What? Were you supposed to ask me to be your partner?" Jeno joked.

"Yoy don't know that," Jaemin protested, rolling his eyes, which made Jeno laugh.

A while later, as they arrived in front of Jaemin's house, Jaemin turned to Jeno and shone a smile at him. "Thanks for walking with me home, even if I didn't ask for it."

"You, you did." Jeno smirked, shrugging. "I saw that thirsty look in your eyes that said Oh, my god. Jeno is so good-looking. I want him to walk with me home."

"Leave," Jaemin demanded as a response, trying to shove the smirking Jeno away.

As Jeno was about to do what Jaemin "wanted" him to do, the dare crawled in his thoughts, making Jaemin call for his name. "Wait! Jeno!"

When Jeno turned to him with a raised eyebrow, Jaemin covered his mouth, feeling his face turn hot with embarrassment. With this gesture, Jeno's face was drained with color as well as he must have got what Jaemin wanted to say.

After a while of looking at each other under the awkward atmosphere, Jaemin shook his head and started. "I-It's okay. You don't have to do it."

As he was too busy with trying to convince the other boy that it was alright, Jaemin didn't notice that Jeno was actually already approaching him to the point where their faces were only centimeters apart.

"It's alright," Jeno whispered in his ear in a shaky tone.

With that, a pair of lips were lightly pressed against Jaemin's cheek.

Jaemin looked at jeno, stunned. The former then realized that the latter was still standing around because he was waiting for his share to be given, so Jaemin heaved a sigh and leaned in, kissing Jeno's cheek in the same manner.

"Ew," Jeno said in a jokingly manner, laying a few fingers on the cheek Jaemin kissed. "You kiss horribly."

Feeling the flustered feelings flush out of his body with his statement, Jaemin rolled his eyes and turned away, walking to the door and leaving Jeno.