Birds of a Feather | '00 Liners

Chapter Four

Jeno hadn't been expecting anything from Renjun's solo intervention. Renjun decided to give it one last shot by himself before calling it quits, following suit to Jeno's and Jaemin's early surrender. They, as in Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin, had been stopping by Donghyuck's house every day for an entire week to try and coax him back into society.

As expected, there was little they could actually do to make their wish come true. What could a few teenaged boys say to another teenaged boy to make him feel better about his recent heartbreak? His current, ongoing agony of losing his beloved wings? Nothing, obviously. They'd never experienced such all-consuming love before, and they've never gone through pain quite like the decomposition of a body part.

So, imagine Jeno's and Jaemin's surprise when Donghyuck called them up one day, out of the blue, and said that he wanted to hang out again.

"What do you think Renjun did?" Jaemin whispered as they walked over to their meet-up place.

Jeno shrugged and kept up his pace, eager to get out of the humid summer air. 

"Dunno," he said simply. "Guess we'll find out when we meet up with him and Donghyuck."

As they rounded the corner, dampness gathered in every nook and cranny of their bodies, they spotted Donghyuck's inconspicuous form leaned against the movie theater's wall with his gaze trained to the phone clasped in his hands. Jeno quickened his pace and stood within a hair's breadth of the toes of Donghyuck's sneakers.

"So, you finally decided to show up," Donghyuck said without looking up from his screen. He turned away from Jeno and walked toward the theater's doors. "C'mon, the movie started five minutes ago."

Jeno, mildly perplexed by Donghyuck's aloof behavior, shared a quizzical glance with Jaemin before following after Donghyuck.

The theater was blessedly cool inside, and Jeno stood in blissed relief for a moment before moving away from the doorway to let Jaemin in. Donghyuck had already purchased their tickets and was walking toward the concession stand. Jeno rushed after him, Jaemin's rapid-paced footsteps falling in behind him.

"You guys want popcorn?" Donghyuck asked, already shelling out a few bills to pay for his bag of candy.

"And some coke," Jeno confirmed.

Donghyuck placed the order and looked toward Jaemin with a raised brow.

"Water's fine," Jaemin said.

Purchases gathered in their arms, theater directed to them, they filed in through the closed door of their assigned theater. Jeno nabbed the popcorn from Donghyuck so that he could shine the trash bin's light onto their tickets, searching for their seat numbers.

"We should be somewhere in the bottom row," Donghyuck said. 

He turned toward Jeno and took back the popcorn. 

"Who wants the middle?"

"I'll take it," Jaemin said.

They set off, advertisements and commercials blaring their call through the theater's speakers. Jeno took the lead, Donghyuck having claimed the seat closest to the stairs. He pardoned himself through the few people who sat before their seats and slid-dropped into his chair with an "oof."

"What movie are we watching again?" he heard Jaemin whisper to Donghyuck.

"You'll find out," he heard Donghyuck whisper back.

Elusiveness from Donghyuck always spelled trouble, but Jeno was too engrossed in the commercial of a future animated film and his coke to really put any thought into it.

It wasn't until they were half-way through Frozen II's ending credits when Jeno realized Renjun never showed up.