read this when you're lonely • lee jeno

21.

"you're what?!" jaemin exclaims with a voice crack, gripping his hair in disbelief at jeno's words. "I said I'm living with eunha temporarily. are you deaf?" jeno repeats nonchalantly while taking a bite out of his apple. "yeah yeah I fucking heard you. I'm just- in massive shock." jaemin places a hand on his chest where his heart laid, feeling it beat rapidly. "is this what mother's feel like when their son announces their marriage?" he questions, looking up at the ceiling as if he'd find an answer there.

jeno sends jaemin a 'what the fuck' look before shoving the apple into jaemin's mouth. "eat this. you talk too much." the latter takes the apple into his hand and starts munching. "so where do you sleep?"

"in her bed"

jaemin chokes on the apple and jeno has to pat jaemin on the back just so his best friend doesn't die. chunks of apple fly from jaemin's mouth and jeno gave a grimace of disgust. "in her bed?!" jaemin exclaims once the apple chunks are free from his throat and jeno is quick to slap a hand over jaemin's mouth with a threatening glare. "bitch shut up before there's rumors about me having a one night stand-"

the latter mumbles something under jenos hand making jeno move his hand away. "what?"
"I said- did you not have a one night stand?"

"no????? we just slept in the same bed with a pillow wall- although... it fell apart in the morning because somehow some ended up on the floor and eunha was hugging onto most of them"
jeno lets out a soft lighthearted huff and looks up at the sky dreamily as he recalls the sight he saw first thing in the morning. a sight that gave him a great mood boost for the day.

---

jeno's eyes open slowly, body naturally waking up at this specific time like he always does. the unfamiliar room was something he still had to get used to. turning to the side, he tries to peek over eunha to take a look at the clock that sat on her bedside table, but the sight of her sleeping facing him, was enough to distract him. he gets comfortable on his side, eye glancing down to see one of eunha's leg thrown over their pillow wall comfortably while she held yet another pillow hostage in her embrace.
mouth parted open slightly, she quietly breathed through her mouth with her left cheek squished against her pillow.
to jeno, she looked like a soft marshmallow and he wished he had the right to pull her into a hug with her comfortably resting in his chest just like a few days before.
but they were just friends. he had no right to do that without her permission.
then again, they were also friends, who kissed before.

---

"fucking whipped I tell you"

jeno sighs. "I acknowledge that pretty well." jaemin cackles and playfully nudges jeno on his side repeatedly while the latter had his head hung low shyly.

"look look look. she's there" jaemin mutters a while later whilst pointing at a certain table, hitting jeno on the shoulder making him look up at the direction jaemin pointed at.
from afar was the table filled with three boys and two girls. the two girls had their arms interlocked together and along with the other two boys, the four of them stared at the very familiar third boy's artwork in awe.
"since when was renjun friends with them" jeno says, voice dropping a few octaves lower making jaemin glance at him with furrowed brows."are you jealous or something? your voice just dropped all of a sudden"

jeno doesn't reply but instead continues to glare at that specific table. "why is he there?"

"god damn jeno. renjun probably just got tired of hyuck's shit. chill-" jaemin glances between renjun and jeno, lowkey worried that the muscular doberman might charge at the petite Chinese boy and rip him to shreds.

---

"holy fucking shit dude your art is amazing-" jinsoo exclaims, throwing his head back. "that looks so realistic it feels like you used those picsart sketch filters or something"
renjun laughs. "thank you thank you"

"show me more show me more" minjeong excitedly jumps in her seat while holding onto eunha's arm making renjun blush. "okay okay" he complies, flipping the page showing a sketch of a somebody's side profile. whoever it was had a hand on their cheek, not quite paying attention to something in front of them.
"wait a minute-" hyuntae gets out of his seat to look closer. "is that-"
"jeno?" eunha finishes his sentence and hyuntae snaps his finger repeatedly, glancing at her for a moment before looking back at the sketch. "yeah, jeno"
renjun nods with a smile, looking back at his own drawing. "I was bored in class and you know, jeno has a really good side profile so I just... drew him. really nice ain't it?"

"it feels like I'm looking at the real person-" jinsoo mutters. "you should definitely become an artist. I bet you'd get paid thousands for your art"

shy, renjun closes the book and rubs his nape. "I've been considering that actually... just need to ask my parents"

minjeong crosses her arms. "if they don't say yes I'm gonna be so pissed- they'd lose big time by pushing aside their son's impressive ability."

renjun lets out a chuckle. "I'm glad you guys are really supportive. hopefully my parents are the same. especially my dad"

jinsoo stands up and gives renjun a thumbs up. "I know we kinda only met today but, you have my full support" hyuntae stands up too, giving a thumbs up as well. "me too" minjeong stands up next. "me three" finally, eunha stands up as well" me four"
the four best friends break into smiles when they see renjun covering his face, highly flustered. they exchange soft laughs and sit back down.

"hey renjun"

said male clears his throat, moving his hands away from his face. "yes eunha?"

"can I... see that sketch again?"

renjun tilts his head. "which one?"
eunha leans in to whisper. "the sketch of jeno" she pulls away with a shy smile.

his mouth parts open slightly and sends a teasing grin. "of course" he says in English, opening his sketch book again and flipping it to page that had the sketch of jeno then passing it to the girl. "thanks" she mumbles. renjun mutters a soft "no problem" and joins hyuntae and jinsoo's conversation.

eunha looks at the sketch of jeno secretly under the table, admiring each perfectly drawn detail of him.
has he always been this handsome? she wonders, unconsciously cracking a smile at the drawing. renjun managed to capture the emotion so perfectly in the drawing. even if it was just jeno's side profile, it was easy to tell that jeno looked really bored in the picture, judging by the way his eyes were droopy and tired along with how he held his pen between his index and middle finger, showing how he was probably twirling the pen in real life.

"hey" minjeong sends a slight nudge to eunha's side, making the girl jolt slightly, quickly putting the sketch book aside and making eye contact with the girl beside her. "yeah?"

minjeong sends her a weird smile while wiggling her eyebrows. "staring at the sketch of jeno huh?"

"ah, who am I to deny it anyways" eunha answers, bringing the sketch book back to her lap and admiring the drawing once again. her fingers trailing over the sketch book slightly.
"do you like him?" minjeong leans in to whisper.

eunha doesn't say anything at first, eyes still glued to the sketch. then, with a deep sigh, she looks at minjeong. "yeah... a lot"

progress :)

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