Mid Summer

eight,

"Jeno?"

Jeno smiles sheepishly, toeing off his shoes and bowing to the two people who are staring at him with surprised eyes.

"Hi. Is Jaemin upstairs?" He asks, shaking the bag of blueberry medicine. "I bought him medicine."

Jaemin's mom smiles softly.

"We already picked some up, but more is always good to have. He's resting upstairs Jeno."

Jeno bites the inside of his cheek to keep from his expression going sour, regretting how he didn't get back to Jaemin earlier.

"Thank you," he mumbles, bowing curtly before stumbling up the stairs, quietly walking into Jaemin's slightly ajar door. Once he's inside, he closes the door fully.

From what Jeno can see, Jaemin is sleeping on his side with the blankets up to his ears.

He looks cute, like sushi wrapped up in seaweed, tight and protected.

The stupid thought makes Jeno smile.

"Are you staring at me?" Jaemin asks in a hoarse voice, ripping Jeno out of his thoughts.

The elder makes a noise of surprise.

"You're awake?" Jeno asks instead, disregarding what Jaemin asked.

Jaemin doesn't move.

"You're late." He accuses, keeping his voice low, and even if Jaemin doesn't accuse him harshly, Jeno still feels his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach.

"I'm sorry," Jeno sighs, going to take a seat next to Jaemin, who looks adorably upset, lips jutting out and everything.

"What took you—" Jaemin starts, looking at the clock on his bedside table. "An hour and a half?"

Jeno doesn't know what to say, doesn't know what will save his ass form Jaemin beating it to a pulp.

He licks his lips nervously before deciding to fuck it and says the first thing that was on his mind.

"I went to the store across town," he blurts out, watching how Jaemin furrows his eyebrows.

"What?" The younger asks. "Why would you do that?"

Jeno shrugs, hating himself for spewing the next lie that presents itself on the tip of his tongue.

"Wanted to take a walk."

Jaemin hums, basically ignoring Jeno and the elder doesn't know what to do anymore.

Jaemin surely couldn't have known that he was lying, right? He'd have to be some next level intellectual to decipher that.

Not that Jaemin wasn't smart. But he wasn't a detective either.

"Nana~" Jeno now whines, stomping his foot childishly and Jaemin has to remind himself who's the younger one in their relationship. "Don't ignore me." Jaemin doesn't even need to look at his boyfriend to know he's pouting.

The younger sighs, turning around slowly in his bed, keeping the blankets around him.

"Don't ditch me again," he mumbles sleepily, and if the words didn't punch Jeno's heart, he'd be thinking about how cute Jaemin looks. "Hurts."

Jeno frowns, in a soft way because everything Jeno Lee does is soft, before nodding solemnly and crawling into bed next to Jaemin.

"Sorry Nana," Jeno apologizes. "I don't wanna hurt you."

Jaemin hums, he doesn't want to speak. Instead, he turns around so that he's snuggling his face into Jeno's chest.

"I love you Nono," he mumbles tiredly, and Jeno fondly pets his hair, letting him sleep peacefully. He was sick after all, he deserves to rest.

"I love you too."

"Donghyuck!" Mark yells exasperatedly. The younger was walking way too fast for Mark, he couldn't keep up and Donghyuck wouldn't answer him either.

He seemed fine when they were with Jeno, and by fine Mark means he didn't seem as pissed off.

He only let his annoyance show when Jeno said that he had someone at home and ran out of the convenience store with blueberry medicine.

Donghyuck immediately left to wait outside the store after storming off, and Mark was left to hurriedly pay for their food and catch up to him.

Mark hails another cab and they rode to the hotel in silence, a completely contrast to when they were riding to the store.

Donghyuck is silent and staring at the floor while Mark is checking into the hotel, and he all but runs to their room once he gets the floor number and keycard.

"Hyuck!" He yells again, going to grab Donghyuck wrist. "Donghyuck."

"What?" He mumbles, turning to Mark, but not looking at him. He'd rather look at the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Donghyuck spits, hating himself for feeling so sour and so moody at the moment.

Mark just wanted to be a good boyfriend and take him out for his birthday.

Donghyuck is the problem.

"Donghyuck—"

Mark isn't mad at Donghyuck. Mark isn't annoyed at him either. He just wants to know why he's upset. If Mark hated anything, it was seeing Donghyuck upset.

All he ever wants is to see Donghyuck smiling if he's being honest, but sometimes Donghyuck is upset and he wants to know how to fix it.

"He's so pretty hyung!" Donghyuck finally says, his voice embarrassingly cracking at the end of his sentence. "Did you not see him Mark? He's beautiful!"

Mark's mind goes back to think about Lee Jeno, since that's obviously who Donghyuck was talking about, and he can't deny that he is really handsome.

But Donghyuck shouldn't feel insecure about that.

Jeno was beautiful in his own way, and Donghyuck was beautiful in his own way.

Mark thinks they're both exceptionally pretty, both in their different and unique ways.

"So are you," the elder says, walking closer to Donghyuck again. "You're so pretty Hyuck."

"Mark, you—"

Donghyuck cuts himself off, not knowing if what he was going to say would hurt his boyfriend or not.

Mark you're gonna realize how much better he is than I am.

From what Donghyuck's seen in the brief ten minutes they were together in the convenience store, Lee Jeno is so charming.

His natural beauty was intimidating, along with how he looked so effortlessly stunning in his simple hoodie and track pants.

Jeno also seemed like such a good man, he was there to pick up medicine, and didn't he say he had someone at home?

"I'm not." Mark's voice says, causing Donghyuck to snap out of his thoughts.

Donghyuck didn't say anything, didn't have to say anything, for Mark to understand what was going through his head.

Donghyuck felt insecure. Like his relationship with Mark was really on the rocks after meeting with Jeno in person.

And maybe it was.

But they couldn't let it be on the rocks. They won't let it sink.

"I'm not. And if I do, you can kill me. Because I don't deserve to live if that means hurting you."