Spawn ✦ Nomin

10

Jaemin glances around the nearly empty street. The only people out and about are two little boys tossing a blue ball back and forth, giggling at whichever one drops it. Jaemin distinctly hears both boys cease their laughter as he starts walking up to Jeno's house. He turns back to get a glimpse of them. The boys stare with wide eyes at Jaemin as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff.

And perhaps he was, in a way.

Jaemin faces forward once again, attempting to ignore the squeamish feeling in his stomach at the idea of people watching and judging him. He simply keeps telling himself to carry on with his head low.

Before Jaemin even ascends the porch steps, the front door swings open, revealing a smirking Jeno looking particularly casual with a simple black hoodie and black skinny jeans. His hair is disheveled and his eyes are a bit squinted and droopy, almost as if he'd just woken up from sleeping.

But it's only five.

The sun just started going down not that long ago.

"You're oddly punctual," Jeno chuckles lightly as he rubs his eyes. Even his voice is quiet and raspy.

"Did you just wake up?" Jaemin inquires with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm kind of a night owl, so I tend to sleep the day away and do all my work at night," he explains, "Come in, the sun is hurting my eyes."

Jeno shuffles to the side, allowing Jaemin leeway to enter inside. Jaemin hastily goes up the porch steps and jogs inside, allowing Jeno to shut the door behind him.

"Just set your shoes over there," Jeno instructs as he points beside the door. Jaemin complies and swiftly kicks off his sneakers and slides them neatly in place with his feet.

"You know where my room is," Jeno states as he finishes up.

"Y-your room?" Jaemin inquires. He had presumed they would hang out in the living room, and remembering the events of the last time he went in there made him a bit uneasy.

"That's what I said," Jeno responds firmly as he prods his index finger into Jaemin's shoulder blade.

Jaemin mumbles out a weak 'okay' before making his way towards the staircase on the other side of the hall.

Going up the stairs at a casual pace with Jeno behind him brings an odd feeling to Jaemin. He remembers running for his life the last time, and he can't shake the memory of how utterly terrifying it was. To feel more comfortable this time around was a sort of conflicting experience.

"Excuse the mess in my room. My cats knocked a lot of stuff over and made a huge mess the other night," Jeno explains as they approach the door.

Jaemin hesitantly turns the handle and opens it to reveal Jeno's mess of a bedroom. A stark contrast from his previously tidy room. Clothes and random items are scattered all over the off-white carpeted floor. Jaemin finds he has to navigate through the mess just to avoid stepping on anything. He even passes by a part of the wall which was clearly smashed in by some sort of object. The cats clearly weren't the culprit of the mess, but Jaemin didn't have the guts to bring it up.

Instead, Jaemin stands beside Jeno's bed awkwardly and waits for Jeno to give him some type of instruction on where to go or where to sit.

"You can sit on my bed. Don't act so awkward," Jeno says as he starts scooping things up into his arms and moving them to the corner of his room beside his closet, putting it in a crude pile.

Jaemin hesitantly crawls onto Jeno's bed and sits with his legs crisscrossed. He watches Jeno gather a few more things and place them in the pile before wandering over to his bed as well. The way Jeno shuffles his feet on the ground and scrunches his face up before letting it fall makes Jaemin smile. It was oddly...cute in a way.