three is the perfect number || jaenoren (norenmin)

sept

Jaemin was late for work. He had stayed up way past midnight, having just found Jeno's Instagram and scrolling through the shitposts, entranced. Jeno probably didnt know it, but everu word that he punched into his phone was dry comedy gold. Occasionally there had been a selfie, and Jaemin either rushed passed them or lingered with his finger hovering over the like button for far too long. He had only stopped when he realised he was getting so delirious with sleep that he was going to end up accidentally liking one of them. This was enough to scare him into sleeping.

Of course, this meant that he hadn't set his reminders and alarms for the day. Hence, his panic. 

Jaemin grabbed his keys and pulled on his jacket in a frenzy, yelling at his brother Taeyong to please come down to lock the door. 

"Do it yourself, you twat! I'm talking to someone!" he shouted back, even though he was right upstairs. 

Jaemin opened the door noisily, "I'm late, do me a favour for once. Your boyfriend can wait."  

"Jaehyun's not my boyf—" Jaemin slammed the door with a satisfied smile as he heard his brother groan in frustration.

≠

Today was an especially busy day at the restaurant for some reason, and even though he had only been working for twenty minutes, Renjun's feet were already starting to ache from the combination of the uncomfortable yet compulsory shoes and having to carry a few more dishes in general due to Jaemin's unfortunate absence. 

It was lashing rain outside, and Renjun's hair had been plastered to his forehead when he had arrived, but that had long since evaporated. He kept threading his fingers through it whenever he had time, hands skimming across the top of his head in an effort to fix whatever mess was probably going on there, but it seemed hopeless. It would all be for nought if Jaemin didn't arrive soon, anyway. Renjun really hoped he would get his cute butt down there and make his job that bit more bearable. 

However, he felt himself sigh in relief when Jaemin came sprinting into the place, running into the staffroom and sprinting back out half a second later. He looked pretty dishevelled, and he pulled it off unfairly well. He proceeded to be scolded by the restaurant manager for the extra work he'd caused the other four waiters, and then told to go fix himself up before being sent out with the dishes. Renjun smiled sympathetically as Jaemin mouthed sorry over and over again. Renjun ran off with some fancy looking noodles before he could say anything else. 

That night did not go well for anyone. Renjun tried to tell Jaemin that it's okay and it wasn't that bad without him here to help, but the boy still fretted meaninglessly. Customers just kept streaming in nonstop, Renjun was mostly confused about why there were so many more than last week, there were even a few waiting in cars outside. 

Dean said something about "Fucking couples," but then he had grabbed two plates of fried rice and gone to table 3 before Renjun could even frown at the language. 

"You do know why it's so crowded though, don't you?" popped in Jaemin, a bottle of water in his hand. Renjun frowned and shook his head, confused. Jaemin rolled his eyes slowly, disbelievingly, and Renjun frowned grumpily at him. 

"Just tell me what it is before the boss comes and ends both of us," he hissed. Jaemin brought his arm down in a wide arc, gesturing to the countless couples lined up outside the door, 

"It's Valentine's Day!"

"What?" Renjun looked around in confusion, finally noticing that the tables were set out almost completely in twos today, and the amount of couples that were hanging around, either drinking champagne and gazing dreamily at each other or arguing under their breaths. But it did smell of flowers, and it reeked of love.

Renjun did actually consider himself a bit of a romantic, but this? Now that Jaemin had alerted him of the fact that it was Valentine's Day, he noticed everyone here was on a date. Of course. Usually, he didn't pay attention to who the customers were and what they were doing, but why was everyone eating and wearing pink stuff everywhere? 

He passed by Jaemin in the kitchens, who nudged him and whispered, "Take a shot every time you see hets doing het stuff." He seemed equally as amused by the terrible displays of affection.

Renjun snorted, then covered his mouth before replying with, "I guess we know what all that vodka was for now." 

Jaemin leaned closer and said, "I'll bet you we'll be able to find at least 100 couples doing that by the end of tonight. Maybe even that number only kissing."

 It took Renjun a few seconds to respond as nearly all of his attention was on how Jaemin's face was a few inches from his. "Not a hundred. There aren't that many. Maybe, like, fifty. Give or take."

"Bet." Jaemin was having fun now, and Renjun was a bit scared.

"Not if it's serious." 

"Alright then, listen. We both go and count how many people we see kissing and if it's closer to one-hundred than to fifty, you buy me whatever I want from anywhere, and vice aversa. I won't count the same couple twice within an hour."

Renjun felt slightly giddy, for some reason. He stuck his hand out, and Jaemin shook it. "Let the Hunger Games begin. "

"And may the hets be ever in your favour."

Whenever they passed one another in the hall or the kitchen, they called out the number of people they had caught: two, six, ten, eighteen and so on. It did cross Renjun's mind multiple times to just lie, but the ethics of that were just whack. He just kept willing people to keep themselves to themselves, though no one heard his silent plea. 

Of course, they were counting individual people, but Renjun officially had no idea whether that would even matter. Thirty-six, forty-two, so on, so forth. They just couldn't stop. Jaemin was sounding smugger every time he called out his numbers, which were just about the same as Renjun's so he couldn't even be called out for cheating. And they had twenty minutes left, too. Goodbye, money, thought Renjun sadly. He should have known that at least one-hundred people would kiss in a large, successful restaurant on Valentine's Day. 

=

"I won, and we know it already," sang Jaemin as they gathered their things in the little storage room. 

Renjun stuck his tongue out childishly and shrugged his coat onto his shoulders. "Don't be headassy about it. I'm taking this like a man."

Jaemin opened the door, waiting for Renjun to leave, "Yeah, sure. I want cake and coffee, and lots of it." Renjun nodded sourly, only receiving a very cheeky grin from Jaemin. He couldn't even stay angry because Jaemin was so cute. He took a deep breath and grinned ear to ear, because honestly? He had every reason to be happy. 

"Can't wait."

***

oh ship