Boys & Flowers | Nomin

19

"You're joking, right?" Jeno questioned his father ridiculously from where he stood in the middle of the kitchen. His father had just came home and told him the news.  

"No, I am not." His father clarified. "I can't do anything about it, Jen. I tried but it's in your contract. If I wanted to cancel it,  i'd have to take it to court and Jen you know we don't have that kind of money." 

"But Dad," Jeno spoke with such conflict that his father could almost feel the turmoil in his own stomach. "I really like him."

"I know." The older sighed, letting his fingers comb back his hair tiredly. "But there's nothing I can do."

"I understand." Jeno replied, head low like a wilting flower. 

"I'm sorry, Jen." His father sympathised before disappearing down the hall to his own room. 

Jeno let his head rest in his hands for second. Ten and Taeyong had always warned him about keeping his relationships private. He now understood why. He sighed before rubbing his face tiredly and walking to his room. 

He fell back onto the bed waking Acorn from the rattle of the mattress. He crawled across to where Jeno laid with his arms sprawled and licked his forearm lightly. Jeno offered Acorn a small smile as he petted his ears. 

"I feel a bit like Romeo, Acorn." Jeno chuckled. "A knees-deep Montague condemned to a forbidden love for a Capulet. Star crossed lovers. The whole ordeal is a bit too Shakespearean for my liking."

He stared at Acorn as if he were going to somehow give him the answer to his dilemma. When the K9 remained silent with his soft eyes slowly falling back to asleep again, Jeno rolled onto his side with sigh. He reached for his phone on the bedside table, frowning when it vibrated in his hand. 

He looked at the caller ID with a smile. Jaemin was calling. 

"Hey." Jeno answered.

"Did you hear about the news, Jen?" Jaemin asked, his voice rattling. "We were caught and now SM-"

"Yeah, I heard." Jeno sighed sadly.

It was silent for moment, neither of them knowing what to say. Jeno stared at his ceiling. Thoughts running his mind rampant.

"I don't want to..." Jeno began.

"No, me neither." Jaemin sniffled. Jeno heard shuffling on the other line before Jaemin spoke again. "We can still be together. We just need to be smart about it. Jeno, I don't want to let you go."

"I don't want to let you go either but what are we going to do? How are we going to be smart about this, Jaem? Sneak behind our parents' backs?" Jeno remarked.

"Well, yeah." Jaemin answered. "It's summer break now anyways so we can see each other late at night or something. When our parents are asleep or out. I don't know. Just... please. We can make this work."

Jeno thought for a moment. It was a lot, a lot of sneaking around and keeping quiet but Jaemin was worth it. 

"Okay." Jeno replied. He could almost see Jaemin's smile on the other line. 

"You're still coming to the lake house, right?" Jaemin asked, his voice a lot brighter than before. The sniffles and the tears abandoned on his pillow.

"Yeah, I've nearly finished packing." Jeno smiled. Knowing that Jaemin was happy was all he needed to be happy himself. 

"The lake house is pretty remote too so we don't have to be careful there." Jaemin chirped.

"I can't wait." Jeno beamed. 

He heard shuffling for a moment before a blissful sigh broke the silence. "Me too." Jaemin bubbled. "See you on Sunday."

"See you." Jeno smiled. 

Jaemin hung up with a joy he didn't possess before the call. Everything was going to be fine. They were going to make it work.

_

"Okay, okay." Mark paced around his room. He shook his hands hoping that he'd also shake off his nerves in the process. It didn't. 

"Just call him, Mark. It's not that hard." He spoke to himself in almost a belittling tone. He's been trying to build up the confidence to call Haechan for nearly an hour now. He hasn't progressed much. 

Mark stopped his pacing and threw his hands dramatically in the air. "You know what? Never mind! I'll see him on Sunday anyways." He plonked down on the floor and huffed angrily at himself. 

He heard a soft knock on the door before his mother's head peaked into the room. "Hey, Sweetie. You okay?"

"He's trying to talk to the guy he likes." Johnny shouted down the hall. 

"Shut up, Johnny! Mind your own business!" Mark yelled back. 

"It's kinda hard when my room is right next to your's and you haven't stopped talking to yourself for an hour!" Johnny exclaimed in annoyance. 

"Boys, boys, calm down." Their mother hushed. She turned back to Mark with a soft smile. "Is that true?"

"Maybe." Mark frowned. 

His mother grinned proudly. "My Mark is such a romantic."

"Oh my gosh, Mum! Get out!" Mark ordered. 

"Okay, okay, I'm going." She laughed. Shutting the door and leaving Mark alone. 

Mark laid down on the floor and released an exhausted sigh. He jumped back in fright as his phone went off. He quickly stumbled to answer the loud device that had been waiting for him patiently on his bed for an hour. He fumbled the phone into his hands, not bothering to look at the ID and quickly answering in a distressed tone. 

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mark!" Haechan was on the other line. Mark began to immediately panic but he insisted to himself to remain calm. "Did you hear about the news? With Jaemin and Jeno?"

Mark frowned, all anxiety that had piled in his stomach now neglected. "No. What happened?"

"Well, their relationship has leaked into the media and SM found out and said they'll cover for them but they can't see each other anymore." Haechan huffed in aggravation.

"That doesn't make sense." Mark spoke as he tried connecting the dots and how one correlated with another. "Their relationship has nothing to do with modelling and nothing to do with them. They can't say if they can date or not."

"I know that's what I thought! But it turns out it does affect them actually and they do have the right to say if they can date or not because it's in their contracts. In fact, it's in every SM model's contract." Haechan told him. 

Mark was baffled. He just couldn't seem to wrap his head around why a company would need to include something like that in their contracts. Why they felt the need to control who and how their employees dated. To be frank, he felt like as employment, they had no right to control someone outside of work. It made no sense to him, almost felt illegal in his mind. 

"That has to be violating some type of human rights act." Mark protested, still mildly confused with the situation.

"You'd think so." Haechan chuckled helplessly before continuing, "But I'm pretty sure they're both still coming to the lake house."

"So they're going against their contracts?" Mark inquired.

"Guess so." Haechan said. "We'll see on Sunday."

"I guess we will." Mark answered. "And I guess I'll see you on Sunday too?"

"Duh." Haechan laughed. The older's cheeks lifted fondly at the sound. "See you then."

"Good night, Haechan-ah." Mark hummed with content. 

"Night, Mark." Haechan chorused before hanging up.