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Jeno wakes up to crashing coming from the kitchen. A loud thump and a few groans follow, causing Jeno to rush downstairs. "Mom!? Are you ok!?" He pauses in the kitchen doorway, slightly panting. Lying there on the floor was his mother. Her clothes were disheveled and her makeup was smeared everywhere. Her hair was tangled around it's hairband and her shoes were thrown around the room. Jeno cautiously enters the room. "Mom?" A groan comes from his mother who stays on the floor.

"Mom..." Jeno sighs and crouches down, resting his hand on his mother's hair. "You're such a mess...really..." Jeno shakes his head and stands, making sure to drag his mom up with him. And as he does every night, he makes sure she changes clothes and washes her face before putting her to bed.

He steps away from the door after closing it. He stays there for a moment, in the hallway. Why did it have to be him? Why was it his mom that had to get fucked up? Why him? Jeno begins to shake as tears stream down his face. He hated himself for acting so weak but he couldn't help it...if he could run away he would, but some part of him still loved his mom, even if she never really loved him anymore. It had been getting worse the past year, she became less of her sober, sweet self and she was drunk and a mess almost every day of the week. Jeno wasn't sure if she even went to work anymore. He had begun taking in the bills and taking his mom's card to pay for them. Jeno crouches down on the floor in front of his mother's room, silently crying his heart out. He hated this house, but he couldn't leave it. Where would he go? What would he do? What would his mother do? So Jeno stays. He stays and takes care of his mom and himself.

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"Ok everyone, I know it's been a few weeks since you've finished your project, but they're finally all graded so I'm handing back the graphs and other papers. Meet up with your partner to discuss and then we can move on to the next unit!" Mrs. Min says happily, walking around the room with a stack of papers in her arms. The students sigh in relief, most had been worried about their grades and the suspense only worsened it.

Jaemin stands and makes his way over towards Jeno, who clearly wasn't gonna move. Now that Jaemin looks back, Jeno's been sorta off for the past few months or so. Ever since the Taeil incident, Jeno seemed really down and just, well, off. Jaemin just shakes the thoughts out of his head before sitting down next to the boy. Mrs. Min hands them their papers and the two sigh in relief. They got a 90% in total.

"Thank god. Taeyong would have lectured me about scatter plots if we had bombed this." Jaemin laughs to himself. Jeno glances at him before looking down at his paper. He puts his hand on the desk and looks at the dark patch on his knuckles. He sighs and just continues to stare at the mark on his hand.

Jaemin notices the silence and looks to Jeno to find him looking at his mark. Jaemin raises an eyebrow curiously but says nothing. Jeno can feel his soulmate staring at him and turns his head, eyes meeting with those of Jaemin. The two just stare at each other for a few minutes. The rest of the class bustles around them but the two boys just sit there, looking at each other as if the meaning of life lay in each other's features.

"-Ok so onto our next unit! You all can go back to your seats and we can begin." Mrs. Min snaps Jaemin and Jeno out of their daze. Jaemin's eyes widen and his cheeks reden before he stands heads back towards his seat.

'What was that?' Jeno raises an eyebrow and continues to look at Jaemin, even when the younger went back to paying attention to class. Jeno felt heat rise to his cheeks, but he told himself the room was just cold. Nothing else. The fact that Jaemin seemed kinda pretty now was not part of it. Nope, not at all.

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Mybackbroke:
I really hate it hyukie >:(

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