powerless - nct, norenmin

⊗ 10 ⊗

"he still doesn't like me..."

"we have to be patient, but he's warming up to you, and this is a good thing!" jeno replied, patting the rabbit hybrid's head as jaemin looked utterly sad at the thought of renjun still holding a grudge against him.

"no... he still hates me."

jeno's head shot up to look at the boy when he heard him sniffling. immediately, a wave of panic hit jeno as he realised the rabbit hybrid was crying.

"h-hey, jaemin, don't cry..." jeno said, scooting closer to the boy and gently wrapping his muscular arms around him.

as soon as he was caged in jeno's embrace, jaemin allowed himself to lean against the boy's muscular body, letting his tears soak the soft material of jeno's shirt.

"why are you crying?" jeno asked, slowly rubbing jaemin's back to help him calm down.

"i-i... i feel like he'll never like me..." jaemin admitted, stopping in the middle of his sentence to sniffle.

"of course, he will like you, nana..." jeno whispered in the boy's ear. "he's already starting to interact more with you, which means that he likes you more than he did. and things will keep evolving."

"n-no..." jaemin muttered. "he still hates me..."

still sniffling, jaemin's hands found the fabric of jeno's shirt, tugging on it as he cried some more in jeno's comforting embrace.

as much as jeno tried to make him believe that renjun was warming up to him, jaemin couldn't believe that. he understood why jeno could think that way, because it was true that renjun did lots of efforts in front of jeno to make the rabbit feel like he belonged in their family. renjun accepted to cuddle both jeno and the rabbit, he had even petted him in front of jeno a few times, and he had stopped calling him 'it' and used the right pronoun.

in appearance, renjun's behaviour was perfect, and for the sake of his boyfriend, he had overcome his hatred towards the rabbit to the point he now accepted him and even started liking it.

but this was far from being the real truth, the truth that jeno wasn't aware of, but the truth that jaemin was painfully confronted to.

jaemin remembered them all. the dozens of monologues that renjun had murmured into nana's bunny ears in secret for the past month, behind jeno's back. all those times he had repeated how much he hated him and how he would never change his mind about him; those times he had assured that he knew something was wrong with him and that he would discover what it was; and those times he had promised that he wouldn't hesitate telling everything to jeno and making him hate nana as well...

jaemin couldn't get those conversations out of his mind, and it hurt so bad knowing that one of his owners was doing everything to make his disappear from their lives. and god, how much he wanted jeno to realise how bad renjun was to him, but how could he? renjun was too good at hiding things... and jeno was so in love with renjun that jaemin could never tell him all the mean things renjun had whispered to him. he wouldn't want jeno and renjun to argue because of him.

so, considering all of that, the best solution for jaemin was to stay silent and trust jeno. maybe one day, renjun will really warm up to him, and he'll finally be accepted.

and in the meantime, he'll just enjoy the feeling of being held against jeno's muscular chest as the older boy comforts him so well.

"i'm sorry that you still feel like he doesn't like you..." jeno spoke slowly, caressing the top of jaemin's head and his bunny ears. "i'm so sorry that you don't feel as loved as you should be feeling... i'll try harder, i promise." he continued.