NCT Imagines (Requests closed)

Green ribbon (Jaemin)

Ara looked up and saw a brown-haired boy pulling out a chair and sitting down in front of her at the empty table she was accustomed to. "Hey, I'm Jaemin," he said with a broad grin. "We have geography class together," he tried to make her remember who he was, but Ara didn't need that reminder. Everyone knew who Jaemin was, one of the most popular guys at school.

Ara took a bite of her sandwich and chewed slowly, completely ignoring him. "You must know that we're having a 'mental health awareness week' at school, it actually started on Monday." Ara did know, she had seen posters about taking care of one's mental health all over school. They all sported advices, like opening up to people, asking for help and taking a break. Ara had mentally rolled her eyes at all of them.

"So, would you like to be a part of it?" Asked Jaemin. He took out a roll of green ribbon and said, "you only have to wear this ribbon to-"

"No thanks, I'll pass. I don't see how wearing a green ribbon would make everyone aware about their mental health." Jaemin opened his mouth to reply, surely to enlighten her on how it did make a difference, but the bell rang and Ara got up and headed to her much-hated geography class.

"Ara," she heard someone call behind her. She turned around to see Lily holding a box in her hands, "can you help me with-"

"No," Ara stated briskly and went to her seat. She heard Lily mutter something along the lines of 'mean' but it didn't matter to Ara. The students entered and started filling the class. The ever-bubbly boy, Jaemin, sat down in the seat next to her and despite of her rudeness before, he gave her a small smile. What's his problem? She thought to herself.

"All right students," the teacher said at the end of the class. "Note down your homework for the weekend." Her announcement was followed by groans from the pupils. She wrote down the assignment on the board and said, "this is to be done in pairs. Your partner is the one sitting next to you." This, too, was followed by groans.

Just as the class started to pack up, Jaemin turned to face Ara. "Hey," he started warily, "We have an assignment to do..."

"And?" She asked. Jaemin struggled to find words under her unfaltering gaze.

"Er- we need to do it together. So will it be my place or yours?"

"Yours," said Ara.

"Alright." The grin was back on Jaemin's face. He wrote down his address on a paper and handed it to her. "Five o'clock today?" Ara gave him a curt nod and stood up to go to the library where she could be alone.

Ara was sitting in the local park when her phone read 4:45 PM. She still couldn't believe she had agreed to go to Jaemin's house instead of calling him at the library. Why hadn't the idea come to her before? She read the address and made her way to his house, which was fairly close. Jaemin was sitting on the doorstep reading the geography book when she reached there. He smiled as he looked up at her. "Hi," he greeted cheerfully. Ara acknowledged him with a nod, under normal circumstances she would've ignored him but his cheeriness seemed to be rubbing off on her.

They sat in his room, where they discussed their task and started working right away. Jaemin tried to make conversation with Ara, but soon gave up because of the lack of response. Jaemin's mother came into the room when they were halfway done with their work. "Snacks, kids," she smiled at them.

"Thanks, mom," said Jaemin, taking the tray from her. "Here, have some." He offered the tray to Ara, from which she reluctantly took a cookie on his insistence.

After working for a bit, Jaemin tried to talk to Ara again, "can I ask you something, Ara?" He continued without waiting for a response, "why are you so... distant from everyone?" Ara stopped writing and looked up at him, her expression giving nothing away. Jaemin awkwardly cleared his throat, "I meant... you never talk to anyone, and push them away. From what I've heard, you were a different person before. Did... did something happen?" The look on his face showed that he knew he'd gone too far.

Ara got up abruptly and slung her bag over her shoulder, "I'm going home, I trust you can finish the work yourself." She said angrily and moved towards the door, her head spinning from Jaemin's words.

"No, wait. I didn't mean-" but she was already out of earshot. She walked out of the front door, her eyes grew moist from an uninvited memory. She started to cross the road, without bothering to check for moving vehicles. Then, on her left flashed a blinding light. She knew she should get out of the way but her feet refused to obey. But before the light grew too close someone pushed her and fell on top of her. The car sped by her and was followed by sirens from a police car, the latter seemed to be chasing the driver.

"You okay?" Jaemin asked. Ara could no longer hold her tears, she started to cry hysterically. Jaemin was so shocked from seeing this side of her that he could not form any words.

"My parents," she said between sobs, "they died in a car crash. Before you saved me, I thought that I would too." Jaemin's eyes widened and he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry on his shoulder, while uttering soothing words. He helped her up when she had calmed down.

"Let me take that," he took her bag from her, and for once, she didn't offer any resistance. They walked in silence until Ara said, "can I ask you something, Jaemin?"

"Sure."

"Why were you so nice to me when I completely ignored you and was mean to you?"

Jaemin looked down at the green ribbon tied around his wrist and said, "well, I need to take care of my mental health so I might as well share my feelings. You see, last year during summer break I was walking down the street when I saw you at the local park. You were playing with a little boy, helping him climb up the slide and laughing with him. Do you remember?"

"Yeah. He's my little cousin," said Ara, remembering the little ball of energy that could make her smile.

"I was thoroughly shocked seeing you like that, because I'd never seen you smile. And I thought your smile was beautiful. I wanted to go and talk to you but then you left with your cousin.

"Summer break ended and I saw you at school with that indifferent expression again, and I knew for sure that something had happened to you in the past that made you want to be distant from everyone. And before I knew it, I wanted to be your friend and get to know you." Silence followed Jaemin's words and stretched until they reached her house.

"Thank you Jaemin, for everything," said Ara, truly grateful.

"Not at all," Jaemin smiled. "See you at school on Monday?" He asked. Ara smiled and nodded. "Let's go together," he added hastily. "I go from this route, anyway. But you don't have to if-"

"Sounds like a plan." She said, making Jaemin smile. He took out a strip of green ribbon from his pocket and tied it around her wrist before waving her goodbye. Ara watched him go until he was out of sight, then went inside.

Even though Ara didn't like Mondays, for once she was glad when it came. Just like he had promised, Jaemin drove to her house in the morning to pick her up for school. They were turning heads when they walked to class together, considering that no one was expecting the most cold girl to befriend the most bubbly/popular guy.

"Ara," Jaemin said to make Ara stop as she was getting out of his car. A month had passed since they had started going to school and coming back together.

"Yeah?"

"I...er... I was wondering if you'd like to go out on a date with me?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure, when?"

"Tonight, at seven," he said with a grin.

xxx

Thank you @khai_fify04 for requesting this. I hope you liked it:)
Also, take care of your mental health, yeorobun!

A/N: Thank you so much my lovely readers for taking out time to read this book. This book reached 3k+ reads and I'm truly ecstatic. I never expected so many people to actually read it, since I was only writing it for the sake of writing.

Thanks for all the love everyone!:)