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after catching jaemin outside, they brought the male inside the classroom with them. the youngest kept asking if he was intruding on anything and kept on overthinking the situation.
"it's okay, we don't mind you staying. besides, we would rather you stay than leaving." renjun rested a comforting hand on jaemin's tensed up shoulders once the male pulled out his own stool to sit on as well.
"i guess staying wouldn't hurt." jaemin finally decided, placing down the materials he was holding onto an empty desk near him.
once renjun got back into his painting groove, jeno asked for jaemin's hand.
"why?"
"just give me your hand. i want to draw something on them." jeno held out his own hand, waiting for the younger oblige to his command.
jaemin just did what was told and set his hand on jeno's. he let the latter get to work while he stared at renjun painting. the latter looked ethereal, even under the artificial light, renjun's beauty wasn't flawed.
he watched him work each brush stroke into the painting, his brows creased and eyes concentrated. jaemin's own eyes then trailed down to renjun's lips.
that time at the ramen shop replayed in his head again. the amount of times that that time crossed his mind was uncanny. jaemin thought he was going crazy thinking back to how renjun stared him straight in the eye like that.
meanwhile, while jeno was painting on the younger's hand, he got a glimpse of what was under his shirt sleeve. at first, he only saw what seemed like cuts in the process of healing on his skin, then it was the yellowish tone that gave away the fact that there were bruises.
jeno knew that jaemin was going to tell him soon about this, but seeing it now made him really wonder what happened to the male. unconsciously, he had stopped painting and slightly pulled up jaemin's sleeve to get a better look.
he got up to about jaemin's mid-forearm before he decided that he would stop. these looked familiar to him, but he didn't know why or how. jeno tried to think, going through his memories to see why these looked so familiar to him.
then, it hit him like a hard slap to the face.
-🌙-
"nana what's that on your arm?" the little boy asked, pointing at his friend's arm, which had protruding red marks on them.
"huh? oh, i accidentally fell off the bed last night." jaemin answered, lying through a sheepish smile.
"really?! be careful next time nana. i don't want you to get hurt okay?" jeno patted jaemin's head with his small hand, a concerned look on his face.
"alright nono."
-🌙-
there were many more incidents like that when they were young, and for every time jeno asked, jaemin answered with a lie. back then, jeno was too naive to see through jaemin's lies. he'd just be concerned and told the boy to be more careful next time, to what ever the excuse may be that time.
now, he was older and understood more. these weren't and couldn't be caused by all of those lies jaemin told. it had to be something else.
but for now, jeno won't pry. rather than pulling down jaemin's sleeve to cover the scars, jeno took the paintbrush in his hand and dipped it in some green paint. he saw how jaemin was to distracted by renjun's painting, and so he proceeded to paint on green stems peaking out of the scars. it gave the effect of it growing out of jaemin's scars.
with a couple more swirls with the addition of leaves, he cleaned off his brush in the cup of water before dipping it into a variety of colors. he painted on flowers on the stems.
while renjun was changing out his colors, he saw jeno concentrated on drawing on jaemin's arm. since they weren't that far from each other, he saw the flowers jeno was painting onto the younger's scarred skin.
renjun's heart softened at the sight of jeno trying to make jaemin's scars pretty. he guessed it was what jaemin was trying to hide from them, and now those cuts he presumed must've healed up.
jaemin saw renjun suddenly switch his gaze to his arm that jeno was painting on, 'wait...mY ARM??'
his head whipped to his arm all panicked and scared but that all disappeared and was replaced by shock. with the scars that had formed, jaemin didn't think he could ever show his arms again.
but here jeno was, swiping the brush gently on his skin to create pretty patterns out of his scars.
his heart started to do that thing again when renjun all of a sudden took ahold of his other arm. he rolled up the sleeves a bit until he saw the scars, and that was when he started to paint on them too. only thing is that he drew constellations and stars rather than flowers.
while renjun was painting, he slowly started to hum a soft tune that was music to both jaemin's and jeno's ears. for the rest of the time, jaemin sat there just watching the two paint on his arms.
there was no mistake when jaemin felt like he was the most luckiest boy in the whole universe.
"you know, you don't have to be ashamed of these nana." renjun spoke softly, eyes still trained on jaemin's arm.
"b-but...aren't they ugly? i'm sure no one wants to see these. then the rumors that could go around--"
jeno shushed jaemin before he took his turn to speak, "rumors will remain rumors and who cares if people sees these? your scars doesn't make you any less beautiful than you already are. anyone who can't see that shouldn't even be allowed to look at you."
renjun put on his finishing touches before plopping his brush into the cup filled with water. he then walked in front of jaemin, pushing up the younger's chin with his finger to face him.
"look here buttercup, whether you know it or not, me and jeno will never abandon you or not accept you because of things like these. so, you can always come to us when you feel like no one will listen to you, alright?" renjun opted to cup the younger's face, his thumbs running over jaemin's smooth skin.
"a-alright." jaemin didn't know what was happening.
why wasn't jeno glaring at him? why was renjun so close to his face like this?
oh gosh, he felt like he was about to explode at the close proximity between him and renjun.
"you still owe us a kiss you know?" jeno brought up suddenly, almost making jaemin fall off of his chair.
"w-what?! k-kiss? "
renjun chuckled, "i think this is the only time i've seen jaemin so panicked."
"i'm not panicked. i'm the confident gay na fucking jaemin. pfft, panicked. and why are y'all asking for a kiss from me? why not each other? like aren't y'all dating?" jaemin blurted, avoiding eye contact and making it quite obvious that he was nervous.
not to mention the fact that his cheeks were rosy red.
