Hatred: Nomin

Dont say a word: 15

It was far too humid to be running, and it was parching the back of Jaemin's throat. In spite of this, it didn't make him feel tired or sluggish as the sun beat down, the ends of his vision wavering in the distance. He felt energised, buzzing like a live wire.

Jeno was laughing, far ahead of Jaemin; he'd realised he'd gotten too much of a lead and stopped for a breather, bent with his hands on his knees, panting as Jaemin caught up to him and grabbed his shoulders.

In the moment Jaemin's first instinct was to pull Jeno into a headlock the way he'd seen renjun do to Jisung. But as he'd caught up to Jeno after not accurately estimating his speed, he'd suddenly lost the nerve and the flash of anger, and so instead jokingingly shook Jeno's shoulders accompanied by a string of complaints.

Jeno was expecting a headlock, since donghyuck had done so to him many times over, but was pleasantly surprised when Jaemin didn't in fact try to strangle him, however the shaking was not doing him any favours.

"Ahhh stop, my head is still sore from last night."

Jaemin stopped but the curl of his lips remained. "Take that back right this second."

"Nope."

Jaemin sent him daggers and Jeno rolled his eyes. "Fine! I'm sorry I said you were stupid and that it's a shame since you look so pretty today, but that means I take back saying you looked nice aswell."

Jaemin clicked his tongue and continued on walking at a more sustainable pace. "Whatever you say sweetheart."

"I told you to stop doing that."

"I only do it because you react the way you do."

Jeno shoved his shoulder. "You should really be nicer to me, or next time we need to hop over my back garden fence I won't give you a knee up and I'll sit back and watch you struggle."

"You're evil Lee Jeno, truly."

"So," Jeno said shielding his eyes from the sun and squinting to see the road signs in an attempt to place his location. "How much further is it till we get to Renjuns?"

Jaemin averted his eyes, dropping them to the ground and losing focus, and Jeno felt like he'd done something wrong.

There was a slight tremor in his voice when he next spoke. "Not far."

"Are you okay?"

Jaemin seemed to have very quickly zoned out and was no longer listening to Jeno, who placed a hand gently on his forearm.

"Hmm? Sorry."

"It's alright, I was just asking if you're good."

"Oh."

He wrung his fingers as his pace slowed, eyes moving faster. Jeno arched an eyebrow at him urging him to go on.

"Right..." he shook his head. "Yes. I mean no, but not much can be done. This is where I saw them last. If they see me with you Jeno, I'm done for."

"Hey," Jeno stopped then, turning Jaemin to look at him, prompting him to lift his head with a finger under his chin. "I'm not letting anything happen to you. Renjun has a back garden, we've been creeping around in back alleys and quiet streets for a while now; there's no way they could know where you are."

His frown deepened. "I just don't understand. None of it makes sense. My whole life has just... been flipped. I'm running and I don't even know why or who from."

Jeno ran his tongue over his teeth in thought. It was true; there really was no logical explanation for anything that was happening. Nothing about the situation was right. The only good thing to come of it was that Jaemin and Jeno had made up, to some extent at least. And if that's the only good thing Jeno can bring to mind it will be the thing he uses. Jeno's never been all too good at knowing how to comfort people when they are sad, he normally just starts laughing awkwardly and leaves the job to someone more qualified, like donghyuck or Chenle or probably any random stranger you could pull off the street. Jeno was just awful at comforting people and he'd just accepted that; but now, suddenly one of the most prominent people in Jaemin's life, he found himself time and time again pushing past his limit and his comfort zone.