s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [twenty-one]

Arriving at Lenticular Café just a short walk later, you were surprised to find that it was entirely devoid of patrons. Did they lose all their business momentum in such a short time? Before you could comment on it, you saw a bunch of colorful streamers strung around haphazardly and a big array of foods already laid out at one of the central tables.

Jeno was sound asleep in one of the booths, and you had barely registered that before Johnny, Jaemin, and Renjun all came out of the back with more plates of food.

"Wow, a feast," you breathed out in awe.

Jaemin piped up to explain as he set his bowl of dip down, "I called ahead to let them know that we were coming, because we were going to have a lot of people, and Johnny suggested closing the restaurant early and making it a little party with all of us."

"Six isn't that many, Jaemin," you pointed out as he came to give you a hug in greeting.

He retorted simply, "Well, too late now."

"Not only a feast but also," Johnny announced, leading you all to watch as he moved towards an outlet, plugging something in. Suddenly, a half-globe of lights that you hadn't noticed before lit up and began gently spinning, rainbow dots following its path all around the room. "A lightshow!"

There was a resounding chorus of wows and appreciation at the extra effort before the chef clapped his hands together to tell everyone to dig in.

You'd sent your blanket warning of your normal human date and normal human friend that would be coming to all the Ayakashi present, so you just hoped they all remembered for the whole night. But you pushed away your worries and let yourself get lost in the moment, talking and laughing and eating with all your friends, together in one wonderful place and time.

At one point, in a reverie where there were several different conversations happening, and Taeyong happened to be alone by the drinks table, Jaehyun dismissed himself from you and approached him. You watched out of the corner of your eye with bated breath. Hopefully he kept the apology short and sweet and didn't mention or insinuate anything about Taeyong and Yuta being together. Taeyong nodded, seeming fine and relaxed, then the two of them burst out laughing and you fully relaxed. Jaemin dragged Renjun over to them by the shoulder of his thick hoodie, and you were surprised that the Satori didn't do much more than roll his eyes. The hoodie probably shielded him from the discomfort of reading Jaemin's thoughts. The four of them got to talking, Jaehyun soon taking Jaemin aside from them.

A hand on your head distracted you from that interaction as you looked up at the owner of it, Johnny, who was smiling down at you fondly.

"Having a good time tonight, little lady?"

"Yeah, this was really nice of you to do," you looked over the scene once more: Jaemin and Jaehyun chatting in the corner, Jeno sleeping in a booth with his half-eaten food on a plate in front of him, Taeyong and Yuta in the seat across from him, their back and forth of bickering and teasing evident, and Renjun watching on with both disdain and interest. The messily hung streamers only added to the charm, especially with the rainbow lights dancing around the surfaces. 

Renjun'seyes briefly caught yours, and you watched with interest as he gingerly pulledon Jeno's hood to expose the back of his neck to you. Your eyes widened whenyou saw the same black lotus blossom on his skin.

"Glad you're having fun."

"Jeno's one of my True Ayakashi too?" You nodded towards the booth.

"Appears so," Johnny confirmed as the Satori let go of Jeno's hood.

"So who decorated? You or Renjun?"

"Renjun."

"Figures."

"He likes to pretend that he doesn't care."

You saw the mentioned boy snicker when Taeyong whined at something Yuta had said, clearly enjoying the Nekomata's suffering.

"So was there any particular reason you decided to host a little party for us?"

"It's Friday and we're all friends, isn't that good enough?"

"I suppose so."

"People don't have parties and celebrate enough anymore for my liking."

"I'll go to any party you invite me to, Johnny."

"Thanks, little lady."

You leaned towards him and lowered your voice, "Can I tell you something? And you won't tell anyone else."

"Of course, yeah," Johnny's brows knit in concern.

"I accidentally made Jaehyun think that Yuta and Taeyong are secretly dating."

He let out a loud laugh that he covered with an even louder cough, making a few others give him strange looks before returning to their own conversations. Johnny silently wheezed for a moment, and you shushed him between giggles.

"Shh, Johnny, it's not, shh—" giggle "—shh, it's not that—" giggle "—not that funny."

"Oh my god Y/N, how did you even do that?"

"Jaehyun was asking questions and I answered them vaguely and allowed him to draw his own conclusions."

"I'm guessing they don't know about this."

"Considering that my eyes haven't been scratched out? No, they don't."

"Thank you for telling me the funniest thing I've heard in decades, Y/N," Johnny patted your shoulder as he caught his breath again. The two of you watched the aforementioned Ayakashi for a moment, Yuta with an arm around Taeyong's shoulders making a kissy face at him while the Nekomata recoiled away, features twisted up in disgust, but he made no real effort to leave the booth, despite being at the open end.

"They do kind of look like a couple, don't they?"

"Taeyong would scratch all 100 of your eyes out if he heard you say that," you warned him, to which the Domeki snickered.

At the sight of Jaehyun walking over, you halted the conversation and greeted him with a bright smile, "Jae!"

"Hey, Y/N," he rested an arm around your shoulders to peck your temple. "Thanks for hosting this by the way, Johnny."

"Of course, I love being a host," the owner replied sincerely.

"So what were you and Jaemin talking about over there?" You elbowed his side teasingly. "We all know that 2Jae only means trouble."

"You."

"All bad things, I assume."

"From Jaemin, of course. I, on the other hand, would never."

"Oh, sure," you snorted back.