IN A HEARTBEAT ⋮ nomin

𝟮𝟱: forbidden photos

Jeno comes to the dorm earlier than Jaemin because of their different schedules. He feels lonely being there alone but decides to use the time for studying. Because when he's with Jaemin, he's studying the human's facial features, his eyes, mouth... And all of this isn't related to architecture at all!

The half-demon drops his bag on his bed and takes out his notebook. He does a few sketches of his new project but realizes that he needs a ruler for a risky one. Looking around, Jeno swears that he saw the ruler somewhere in the room. Yet he can't see it.

He has to stand up and look at every drawer only to find it inside one the closest to Jaemin's bed. Jeno is happy for finding what he looked for, but he finds even more.

The drawer belongs to Jaemin, therefore Jeno shouldn't be surprised for discovering photos. The problem is that Jeno sees himself in them. There are five polaroid photos of him sleeping in his bed. All of them look weird as Jeno's silhouette is blurry and distorted no matter how close the camera was brought. It still looks like his soul is trying to escape his body but in polaroid pictures, it looks even scarier.

It's like Jeno's skin is burning, fading away.

The half-demon places the pictures back into their place and tries to calm himself down by thinking that Jaemin didn't take it seriously. Please, let the human think that the lightning was bad or that it's the camera there to blame.

Jeno wants to laugh at such hopes. Of course, Jaemin will look for such explanations. He's a med student. There's no way he's going to think that his boyfriend is a vampire or even worse, catch up that Jeno is a half-demon.

He goes back to his bed to continue sketching, though he's still nervous. He doesn't know if he should think of those photos as cute or a piece of terrifying evidence that Jaemin is suspicious of him.

➷

It's spring.

The cherry blossom time means that everyone takes photos under these threes.

Jeno gets such a request too. Jaemin wants to take a selfie with his boyfriend.

"I'll pass," Jeno says, chuckling.

"Pleaaaaase."

"Beg me everything you want, but that's the only thing I can't do for you. Sorry."

Jaemin gets moody. Jeno finds it cute, but later on, he realizes that his boyfriend is upset. He doesn't want to hold hands and doesn't even let Jeno hug him. They return home without saying a word to each other, which makes Jeno sad too.

Seeing that Jaemin is going towards his bed makes Jeno think of what he should do to make his love happy again. He just can't imagine sleeping without Jaemin at night...

"Jeno?"

The half-demon gets excited, hearing Jaemin saying the first word after an hour. Like a puppy, he turns to his boyfriend with a wide smile and even stands up. His smile disappears, however, when he sees that Jaemin has taken a photo of him just now.

With his phone.

Jeno knows what Jaemin is seeing when the boyfriend furrows his eyebrows, staring at his phone screen. Therefore, he attempts to throw excuses.

"I'm bad with expressions. I'm not photogenic... You know it."

"Hey."

Jaemin looks up at him. Jeno feels uneasy, but he tries to act natural.

"What?"

"Who are you?"

Jeno frowns and then gives Jaemin an awkward laugh.

"Who am I? I'm Jeno, obviously."

"No, you're not my Jeno. You're a phony."

"Jaemin, what the hell?"

Jeno takes a step closer to his boyfriend, but Jaemin steps back as he shoves the phone into the boy's face.

"Try again! My Jeno doesn't have red eyes. His eyes are dark brown."

"My eyes are dark brown! Look!"

"No!" Jaemin looks away. "You can't fool me. No matter which camera I use, you always look weird. You may think that you're smart, but nowadays phone works the same as a mirror."

"What?" Jeno laughs. "What are you talking about?"

He asks questions, but he knows what Jaemin is thinking. He has seen demons two times.

"Who are you and why did you possess my boyfriend?"

Jeno stays silent. He doesn't know what to say.

"I can see you in the photos!" Jaemin goes on. "You're always around Jeno's body, which makes me question if I ever dated Jeno, or was it always you?"

Jaemin's voice quivers, betraying that he's getting emotional. Jeno follows after his boyfriend and gets sensitive as well. Though, his brain is doing its best to get him out of such a situation.

"Jaemin," he starts. "I don't know how should I tell you this..."

"The tattoo," Jaemin speaks coldly without even looking at Jeno. "Is that your symbol? Did you mark Jeno?"

"It is a symbol of a demon, you're right."

"I knew it," Jaemin laughs. He throws his phone on his bed and dives his fingers into his hair. "Are you an incubus or succubus?" he asks by throwing a glance at Jeno and looking away right after. "I googled the heck out of you and I'm mad! You don't–"

"It's a symbol of Asmodeus," Jeno says, ignoring his boyfriend for a second. "My father."