started with a dare | NORENMIN

4 | THINKING

"thanks for helping me bring the bags back to my room," chenle thanked jisung and jaemin, who helped the chinese male carry the handful of bags filled with gifts for the light brown haired male's strangely large family.

"i mean, we're staying here, too, so it's not a big deal," jaemin said, putting the bags down by chenle's desk and taking a seat on the floor mattress that had been set up by the roommates themselves.

something about what the brown haired boy said caught the attention of jisung and chenle, who paused their process of looking through the bags to make sure they didn't forget anything. turning their heads towards jaemin, jisung was about to say something, but the chinese male beat him to it.

"jaemin..." chenle started, not really sure how he can phrase what he wanted to say without sounding rude or annoyed. "um... how long are you exactly planning to stay here?"

that question caught jaemin off guard. although the said male was expecting the question to be asked in one way or another, he didn't expect it to be at this moment. the brown haired male sighed before turning around and facing the two boyfriends.

"i don't know... i don't think i can face jeno after what happened on friday..." the brown haired male said before turning back around to face the wall.

of course. jaemin was also thinking about the kiss that he shared with his best friend. not to mention that jeno is his crush as well, which makes it twice as worse. the brown haired male didn't think he could face jeno, which is why he asked the two youngest boys if he could crash at their place for a little bit, not really specifying exactly how long he planned to stay there.

yes, maybe jaemin was overreacting the slightest bit. but how does one face the person that they lost their first kiss to? and to a dare that the other person seemed to go against? the brown haired male didn't know if he could even manage to bring up a conversation about what had happened, so running away seemed to be the next best option for him.

chenle and jisung weren't complaining, so don't take their question the wrong way. because of the vague answer given by their brown haired friend, they only wanted a clarification. although they might not be showing it in their actions or their facial expressions, they were concerned for their friend.

"so... you're avoiding him?" the light blue haired male asked, deciding to invite himself into the conversation between jaemin and chenle that wasn't necessarily private. the two roommates stood by the side of their friend's mattress and looked at the back of the sitting male, exchanging a knowing look before continuing to wait for the latter's answer.

after a small nod came from the brown haired male, chenle and jisung groaned. just when they thought that they could rest from all the drama that occurred in their friend group, more had to form, and this seemed to be taking a similar path to sicheng and yuta's problem from the previous year.

the light brown and light blue haired boys were frustrated, yes, but only because their friends seemed to favor running away from their problems rather than facing it. the two were unable to forget how jaehyun had literally locked himself inside of his dorm room after hurting taeyong and how sicheng avoided yuta in order to prevent a certain topic from arising between the two. although, jisung would admit that he was also guilty of the same thing, since he had ditched his friends at the new years eve festival because he suddenly found himself unable to confess to his current boyfriend, but that was besides the point.

"jaemin," the chinese male said, causing the said male to turn around and look at his two friends. "avoiding him isn't going to take you anywhere. you know that."

"you're pulling a sicheng hyung," jisung added, wanting to give his friend a reference to what he was doing. sure, maybe the reference to one of their friends was a bit too strong. but the light blue haired male only meant well and wanted to help his friend solve his problem before it blew out of proportion, just like it had with yuta and sicheng, and similarly with taeyong and jaehyun.