Heyyy, so this chapter is going back to the current time of the storyline
Please upvote and comment if you like the story :)
"Jeno, I knew there was a lot of talk about it but do you really think Mark likes Seulgi, should I give up my crush? Am I getting too obsessed?", Haechan fiddles with his fingers whilst nervously looking down at his hands.
Jeno senses the nervousness from his best friends so he picked up and gently clasped Haechan's hands between his. "Hae, don't be silly of course you're not being too obsessed, it normally to get this excited when you have a crush, I'd be the same if I liked someone", Jeno smiled reassuringly. "I can't tell you if he liked her or not because I have no clue but I promise I'll try and hint at it as much as I can to get an answer from him"
Haechan smiled at his and Jeno's hands looked up to smile at him. "Thank you Jeno"
Jeno felt the sincerity despite it being a short sentence and leant over from his drivers seat to give his best friend a quick hug.
"Bye Jeno", Haechan called out from front door and giving Jeno a wave after getting out of the car.
"Bye Hae", Jeno waved back waiting for Haechan to enter his house safely before pulling out of his driveway and driving towards his own house.
It was the Saturday before the last week of school in December and Christmas was approaching which all the boys were excited for as usual as they usually always have a meet up at Jeno's house for a little get together before Christmas. They usually celebrate the weekend after the break up from school. The boys were cool with Mark being invited this year so Jeno invited the elder too.
"Hey Mark", Jeno greets as he walks into work. He clocks in and changes into his uniform in the staff toilets.
"Hey Jen, how've you been? How's school?", Mark asks once Jeno comes back out to the front.
"It's been okay actually, Jisung has his Christmas dance performance next week, it's after school on Wednesday 17th, you should come along", Jeno suggested as he started sorting out the shelves with the cat baskets and cages.
"Hmm I'm not doing anything so I guess I could do", Mark replies with a smile.
"Top stuff, I'll let you know what time it, I'll come meet you at the gates after class you can go in with me", Jeno tells Mark as he walks back towards him.
"Yeah I'd appreciate that man", Mark nods in agreement.
Just then the manager of the store walks out from the back staff room to check on the boys.
"Hey boys are you both doing okay? If it's not too busy is it okay for me to leave the shop to you two as my husband is cooking me dinner for once", the elder lady chuckled.
"Hello Mrs Park, it's not busy at all, Jeno and I will manage just fine, go and enjoy your meal", Mark laughed with the old woman and Jeno told her to enjoy her evening before she smiled at the boys before leaving the shop.
The shop wasn't too busy this weekend as there was a few people coming in and out to look at the cats but only one customer bought one and a cage to take the cat home in.
After Jeno left the cat room after feeding them, he came back out to the front to find Mark who was logging the progress of the day onto the computer.
"Hey Mark also, if you're not doing anything, me and the boys usually have a gathering at mine before Christmas if you wanna join?", Jeno asked as he walked over to Mark to look at the stats for the day so far.
Mark finished saving the spreadsheet data before looking back to Jeno, "oh yeah sure, I think I'm working next week though so I wouldn't be able to come until after 5, although ig it's not till 6 because Mrs Park is closing the shop earlier next weekend"
"Yeah that's no problem", he replied. "The boys usually turn up whenever they please but I do give them a 4pm deadline, well I say for them but that's mainly just for Chenle because that boy has terrible time management", Jeno laughed.
Mark laughed along too, he looked back to the monitor screen to finish sending the document to their manager before asking, "so which of your friends will be there?"
"Oh just the usual guys, Chenle, Jaemin, Jisung and Haechannie, no one different", Jeno responded and Mark looked back to Jeno after hearing Haechan's name.
"What time does he- they normally get there? I don't want to make hi-them wait too long haha", Mark nervously chuckled hoping Jeno didn't catch his slip up. (Also I know grammatically it's "do they" not "does they" 😂)
"Oh Haechan's always the first to get there, he lives closest to me and he just likes to take advantage of my fridge", Jeno chuckled. "Jaemin and Jisung usually arrive after midday around 1 or 2 depending if Jaemin goes over to Jisung's first, if he's already with him, he's in no rush to get here if Jisung doesn't come over without him. You know about Chenle, he'll either get there at 3 or dead on 4"
"So don't worry about keeping them waiting", Jeno continued. "They asked me to invite you so if I tell them you're working, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to wait for you, except for Haechan, he can get really impatient if waiting means compromising when he can eat"
"Oh okay haha, I'll arrive as soon as I can after I finish then", Mark replied fully looking and nodding at Jeno after closing the files on the screen as he's finished sending the day's report to their manager now.
After about another half an hour of few customers coming in and out to look at their pet equipment and pet food, Jeno locked the front door and flipped their "open" to "closed" sign before hovering around the front of the shop whilst Mark cashed up for the day and put their cash-flow into the safe in staff room office for the manager to collect the next day. Neither Jeno or Mark were working the next day so they don't know which employees were gonna be in to let them know where they put it, so the safe is usually the easiest place.
"Hey Mark, come and help me fill up the cat bowls and clean some of the rabbit's cages", Jeno called out to Mark after he left the office. Jeno was holding the door open to the cat room for Mark to follow behind.
They walked over to the cats to fill up their bowls, an echoing of meows brought a smile to both of their faces and they petted a few of them before moving onto cleaning out the rabbits cages, Jeno and Mark cleaned the cages together as they found it quicker than doing them individually. Mark would pick up the old hay that was spread around the cages and put them into a bin bag whilst Jeno would go around and spreading new hay around the cages.
As they got to their 5 th and last cage (there was 2/3 rabbits per cage), Jeno saw a rabbit that looked familiar that made him laugh. Mark looked up from the bag he stuffed hay into and gave Jeno a puzzled look.
"Look at these white rabbit and brown rabbits", Jeno said pointing to a small white rabbit occasionally bumping and bouncing up and down next to a more chilled slightly bigger light brown rabbit minding its own business munching on a carrot, "that's literally Jaemin and Jisung". Mark smiled fondly at the rabbits whilst looking at a darker brown haired rabbit that hopped past them happily by itself, "and that me, I'm always third wheeling them"
Mark laughed whilst leaning down to pet the darker brown rabbit and Jeno did the same but for the other two rabbits that all leaned into their touch.
"That rabbit would be me too if I was to hang around them all the time too", Mark laughed.
"Do you tend to third wheel any of your own friends Mark?", Jeno asked, this was his first stage of his plan trying to find out who Mark liked. Chenle called this "operation find out who Mark likes", "how creative", Jeno had told him sarcastically.
"Not so much my mates but I have third wheeled my older brother and his boyfriend a lot, we used to hang out loads... before they moved away", Mark replied whilst still stroking the rabbit behind its ears. "What about you Jeno?"
"Oh Jaemin and Jisung are the only ones in a relationship so a lot of the time the rest of us are always third wheeling, so it's not just me haha", Jeno responded. "I'm not really a relationship person. It's not really been a priority for me", Jeno shrugged and Mark knew what he meant, he knew trying to maintain a relationship with his parents was more important.
"I'm the same Jeno, I've not been in many relationships, I just don't really think about it. Like if I across a girl or uh a boy I like them maybe I'll try talking to them to get to know them but it's rare I come across a girl I like genuinely, usually they just liked me because I was a popular senior when we were in school last year", Mark put the rabbit down and looked up at Jeno briefly before tying up the bag the had put on the floor with the old hay in.
"So... do you like anyone at the moment?", Jeno asked, this boy thought he was being slick but Mark laughing in response proves him otherwise but he didn't mind Jeno's curiosity.
"Nah I've not met anyone in college I have any interest in, everyone's kinda the same", He shrugged whilst making his way out of the cage.
"What about from school?", Jeno pushed, hoping to get more out of the conversation.
"Oh lol no, all the girls in school last year were so stuck up and bitchy", Mark replied.
"Well the boys would be happy to know this", Jeno thought to himself with a small smile.
"Have you finished with this cage?", Mark called with his back still to Jeno. "Oh yeah I'm done", Jeno petted the white and brown rabbit one last time before leaving the cage and locking it back up.
The boys left the room after insuring all the cages were cleaned and the pets were fed before leaving the store and Mark locking up, it was around 6PM now.
"Wow it already looks really dark", Mark looked at the sky and his surroundings as they noticed it looked really dark for 6pm, Winter did mean darker days after all.
"Yeah a bit chilly too", Jeno briefly shivered before zipping up his coat. "Oh I'll text you about Jisung's dance performance on Wednesday and see you then!", Jeno waved at Mark as they both made their way towards their cars.
"Oh yeah, thanks man, I look forwards to it, See you Wednesday!", Mark called back from his car before both boys began to drive home.
A/n- I WAS MEANT TO POST THIS AROUND THE ACTUAL TIME OF CHRISTMAS BUT I FORGOT, SOZZLES GUYS
Anyways, another update for you guys on this story! I will get around to updating my other ones at some point but I'm really enjoying this story again at the moment and after seeing so many Noren moments recently, it made me more motivated to write this story a bit more.
Again idk when the next chapter is but I hope you'll wait for it 🫶, if you read to end of this chapter, thank you so much!
Hope you lovely people have a happy new year and may it bring you great health and happiness ⭐️
Until next time,
~ Glittersparklerenjun :)