now, they lost him again. just great. jaemin was going to probably get home later than he wanted to. they no possible idea of where he could be in this huge mall, so most of the search was spent wandering around, hoping they'll see even a small glimpse of him.
jaemin felt the need to check is watch every now and then, warily seeing more and more time pass by. he could almost the incoming scolding from his half-brother and brother-in-law. he really wished renjun hadn't dragged him into this. they pretty ran around the whole second floor, but there was still no sign of jeno anywhere.
"maybe he's downstairs," renjun suggested and jaemin just nodded, hoping he was. "is there stairs anywhere that don't move?"
"what do you mean?" jaemin asked him, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion; he's never heard of moving stairs. but it then clicked in his head. "oh, you mean escalators. of course there's a staircase."
jaemin led this way this time, trying his best to remember where the staircase was. he hasn't been in the mall in ages, the last time being at least two years ago when he went with his group of friends. his family prefers go to outlets than the mall for whatever reason. weaving through the crowd and keeping his eyes peeled, he eventually found it.
"here it is, renjun," he turned around to see if renjun was still there, but he wasn't. worry overtook him — don't tell him he lost the angel somehow! but as soon as the feeling of worry came, it disappeared immediately when he saw the angel squeeze through the small space between two women and catch up to him.
"you run too fast," renjun panted, hunching over to place his hands on his knees as he caught his breath before looking up at jaemin. "i even considered teleporting to you, but i panicked because i couldn't see you anywhere to do that. i didn't know what i would do without you."
"oh, er — "
"i don't go to the human world as much as jeno does," renjun went on with a grateful smile before standing up straight. "so you're my helpful guide. anyways, where's the stairs?"
"here," jaemin pointed towards the staircase a a foot away, not sure how to respond to what he had said before. he guessed an awkward 'you're welcome' could've worked, but he was saved from forcing that out of his mouth. but there was a still a question he wanted to ask and he took the chance to when they started down the stairs.
"why did you drag me along on this? i didn't agree to this," jaemin said, glancing to his right as he waited for remjun's answer. but he was way at the beginning of the second half of the staircase instead of right beside him, gingerly placing a foot on the first step. jaemin fought back the urge to roll his eyes as he patiently waited at the bottom of the stairs.
after he determined they were safe enough, he walked faster than he was, but jaemin swore renjun just had an unlucky habit of falling almost all the time because when he reached the last few, he ended up tripping over his own feet and falling forward. thankfully, jaemin was able to catch the angel in his arms.
"thank you," renjun said softly, his eyes meeting jaemin's. for a few moments, he looked at them, completely transfixed by their sheer beauty, unable to hold back a, "woah, your eyes are really pretty."
jaemin just blushed. "i never hear that."
"oh, did i say that aloud? my bad," renjun freed himself from jaemin's grip, his ears having gone red. "a-anyways, we have a runaway demon to catch."
jaemin forced out a chuckle, though he didn't find those words funny whatsoever. "yeah, we do."
once again, their luck needed for finding him was wearing thin. there were probably even more stores they had to look through. after quickly entering and leaving three of them, they went for a fourth one: a really expensive looking one. as they walked in, jaemin thought with a pang of jealousy that he could probably never afford those clothes just by looking at the price tags.
"there he is," renjun suddenly said, pointing to someone checking out jackets. it was jeno for sure and he hadn't seen them first this time. the pair scrolled over just when the demon picked out one — a simple jean jacket — and held it up to his face to inspect it closer. as they neared, he then noticed them, giving the both of them a bright smile.
"i wanna try it on and see if it's fits," jeno told them cheerfully. "then i can drag to everyone i have something from the human world and not made back home. they're going to be so jealous."
"who? the guards of the palace?" renjun retorted with a snort, making jeno looked almost offended. "yeah, they're going to be so jealous of you."
"just because my dad homeschools me, doesn't mean i haven't got friends who go to school," jeno shot back. "anyways, i won't take long. i'll be in a changing room."
"jeno!" renjun snapped before jeno disappeared without a single noise. if anything, now the angel was fuming. "why is he like that?" he mumbled before grabbing onto jaemin's arm. "c'mom, i'm tired of walking."
"you can teleport, i'll walk — !" jaemin couldn't finish his sentence before renjun teleported himself. once again, he felt the unpleasant feeling of being forced through an awfully tight space as fast and very loud wind made his eyes repeatedly try to close shut from the force. but it was much shorter than last time and soon his feet were touching the floor of the same store, in front of the changing rooms jeno had mentioned.
renjun let go of his arm as soon as they reappeared, making jaemin stumble and nearly fall to the floor after not being able to properly balance himself. once he was able to, he saw the angel looking at the three closed doors, his eyes narrowed. it would be rather weird to barge into one of them at random, considering someone could be in them since they were all closed. plus, the doors are always locked from the inside...
a door opened. "hey jaemin, do i look good in this?"
jaemin looked in the direction of the last door, seeing jeno standing there with both hands on either side of the doorway. the jean jacket he was now wearing instead of his usual leather stood out greatly due it not being all black like his t-shirt and jeans and even boots. at least to jaemin, he did look really good. he never got a chance to admit that to the demon because renjun spoke first.
"if it makes you happy, jeno, you look great in anything you put on," he muttered before shaking his head. "but c'mon. let's just go home already before your dad kills us both."
"get me home first though," was all jaemin got to say before jeno laughed in response.
"renjun, my dear guardian angel, i must remind you that my dad loves me too much to do that," he said, his dark eyes still shining with amusement. "if you catch me, then we'll go home."
he closed the door behind him, which made renjun storm over to open it. but when he peered inside the changing room, it was completely empty. he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before he heard a cracking sound, revealing jeno right behind him, his hand on the door. he enabled the lock with a grin before closing it behind him. renjun just wanted to swear out of anger, which he did despite all he was taught growing up. "fuck you!"
"ah, that's not very clean, isn't it?" jeno said with a giggle, now standing beside jaemin. "always giving me weird looks when i curse but he does it himself."
he randomly grabbed jaemin's hand before he could retort and he knew what was coming immediately. once more, he felt like he wes being forced through a tube with the unbearable wind, before he felt ground again. they were in one of the other changing rooms, the door in front of them closed but not locked.
"i think he's still in there," jeno told jaemin an excited whisper before moving over to the small bench to stand on and peer over into the third changing stall. renjun had just opened the door before giving him a glare as he looked in his direction. "catch me if you can!" he beamed before disappearing back into the second one.
"he's still there?" jaemin asked curiously.
"he just got the door open," jeno retorted. "he's gonna open this one. i'll be back, so don't miss me for too long, pretty boy," he winked at him before disappearing into thin air, leaving jaemin alone to roll his eyes.
"as if i'll miss you," he mumbled just before the door open, revealing a very pissed off renjun — he clearly wasn't having fun.
"he was just here!" renjun said exasperatedly before closing the door, leaving jaemin alone again. as soon as the angel moved on, jeno returned, suddenly trapping jaemin between his arms after he accidentally stumbled forward. jaemin went red in the face from the closeness turning his head off to the side to avoid jeno's dark-eyed gaze that was not so subtly checking him out.
"how are you not also an angel?" jeno whispered before suddenly tensing up and backing away from the human when the door of the second stall opened once more. renjun looked triumphant this time, pointing a finger at jeno.
"ha! now we have to go home," he said. "i never want to play hide-and-seek with you ever again," he marched forward, taking the arms of jeno and a still red-faced jaemin in his grip before teleporting away. jaemin, for a few moments, thought renjun was going to take him back to the playground before going home with jeno. and now feeling grass underneath him made him think that, until he looked up from his old pair of trainers.
right in front of them was a long path leading to a whole bunch of steps that led to a huge, red palace resting upon a hill, looking regal as it shadowed the small buildings before it. jaemin immediately knew that this definitely wasn't home. it took renjun to look at jaemin to realise his mistake.
"oh my god, i just — fuck!" he said aloud before clasping a hand over his mouth after swearing for the second time that day. "i didn't mean to say that, i really didn't. anyways, i have to get you home — "
"why?" jeno asked with a pout. "i want to show jaemin around our home. i got to see his world, so it's only fair!"
"no, our dads will kill us if they found out we brought a human back here," renjun hissed before grabbing onto jaemin's arm again. "plus, he wants to go home. right, jaemin?"
"er — yeah, i really do," he admitted. jeno frowned but didn't say anything else. but before renjun could teleport again, someone came running towards them from one of the small, wooden buildings. like renjun's, his hair was light-coloured although not blond but instead a light brown, his entire outfit white. to add to it all, there was a yellow halo floating upon his head.
"you finally found jeno!" he said excitedly before noticing jaemin. "who's that?"
"hi hendery!" renjun said, forcing a smile onto his face while jeno kept his frown. "he's a new friend of ours."
"really?" the boy — hendery — said in surprise. "hi, new friend, i'm — "
"but he has to get home now, bye bye!" renjun cut him off before teleporting away just like that, leaving jeno and hendery behind.
~*~
"sorry about all that," renjun apologised as soon as they returned to the playground. jaemin had already been freed from his hand, happily giving the mulch underneath his feet a happy look. at those words, he looked at the angel again, giving him a smile to show that he didn't mind, though he did the entire time.
"it's fine," jaemin waved a hand. "thanks for getting me home."
"no problem, jaemin..." renjun dragged out his name as if he wasn't sure he was called that before earning a nod from the human, which just made him smile again. "well, i have to get back before jeno does something else stupid. maybe we'll meet again or something," he then went shy. "heh. bye, jaemin."
"bye," jaemin retorted before renjun was gone with that same loud cracking noise. he let out a sigh of relief before running home. when he abruptly burst inside the house, he got a weird look from everyone there for a few moments as he panted due to just running there a few seconds before.
"pardon my language, but cover shotaro's ears, sicheng," yuta told his husband. sicheng was sitting at the dinner table with their son, most likely helping him with homework before frowning and covering the youngest's ears. "thank you, honey. now jaemin," he looked at his half-brother. "where the fuck were you? you can't say with friends because one of them — i think it was mark or something — called asking where you were because they wanted to hang out."
"i..." jaemin desperately thought of a lie that would convince him. "...i went to the playground and fell asleep on the bench for an hour or so."
"is that so?" yuta narrowed his eyes. after a few moments, however, he relaxed, letting out a sigh. "i thought something worse happened to you when you didn't show up for lunch for about two hours or something. i bet you're hungry, sicheng made leftovers — "
jaemin let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. crisis averted successfully!
school starts wednesday wA