Jeno fiddled and fidgeted as he waited outside Renjun's house, excited to spend the night there. They had Friday off because of the bank holidays tomorrow, so Renjun had suggested that Jeno come over to spend the night at his house, and so Jeno had thought well fuck, who am I to refuse?
Jeno already had a set of pyjamas and a toothbrush at Renjun's house, so he was empty-handed standing before the door. He noticed the flowers coming into bloom next to the doorstep and leaned in to look at them up close, forgetting that he had a rather pesky pollen allergy.
Renjun opened the door to find Jeno a sneezing mess. Jeno jumped, shoving his hands into his pockets and sniffing once, blinking so hard that tears threatened to fall every time he opened his eyes. Renjun's familiar, slim figure was silhouetted in the doorway and the warm orange light of the hallway outlined him, making his darkness stand out against the throwaway grey and blue of the rest of the night. Jeno felt like he was at the doorway to heaven and an angel had come to kick him out. Renjun was indecent for always looking like a miraculous annular eclipse.
Renjun tapped his chin, "Did you by any chance stick your nose in my mother's hyacinths?" Jeno swallowed a sneeze and shook his head defiantly. Renjun chuckled and motioned for Jeno to come inside, letting it go for now. The door shut behind him, and Jeno stood in the hallway for a few seconds before he meekly asked, "Do you still have those hay fever pills?" Renjun snorted unbecomingly and led Jeno to the bathroom, opening the medicine cabinet and tossing him the box.
Jeno swallowed them dry (Renjun noticeably gagged) and they went to the kitchen, where Jeno's now slightly unblocked nose detected his favourite meal. "Do I smell... sweet and sour pork?"
Mrs Huang must have heard him. "You know it, dear!" Jeno pumped his fist, and Renjun laughed at him. Jeno bounced over to where Mrs Huang was stirring something in a pot on the stove.
"Good evening, Mrs Huang!" chirped Jeno, and she laughed at his enthusiasm.
"Hello, Jeno. How are you doing?" Jeno then assured her of his complete and absolute physical and mental wellbeing, because she would keep pressing him otherwise.
"Well, dinner will be ready in around ten minutes, so you can go up and attempt to wake up Renjun's father," she tapped the spoon on the side of the pot and turned with a hand on her hip and her lips pulled up in a good-natured smile.
Jeno swallowed; He did not like waking up Renjun's father. Once, while trying to wake Mr Huang from one of his naps, the man had sleep-punched him in the nose, which had resulted in a nosebleed. Mr Huang had slept right through the commotion that had followed.
Renjun rolled his eyes and took Jeno's hand, pulling him up the stairs towards his parents' room. Jeno used the hand that wasn't being tugged by Renjun to push his glasses back into place, as he screwed up his face and practised acting totally unaffected by the fact that his best friend was holding his hand. This kind of stuff should have been normal, and yet he could never get used to it. He'd put his arm around Renjun all the time, but holding hands always made his heart freeze in his chest.
Renjun stopped in front of his father's door, but Jeno walked right into it, distracted. He cried out in surprise. Renjun giggled in his bubbly way and Jeno furrowed his eyebrows, cursing him for being so effortlessly lovable.
"I guess we don't have to knock, then. Your head so kindly did it for us." Jeno rubbed his forehead, grumbling. Renjun pushed the door open had found his father sitting up drearily. Renjun asked him something in Chinese, to which Jeno looked at him in confusion. Renjun must have realised it and turned to smile sweetly at Jeno, "I'm dissing you in Chinese, don't worry."
"What was that sound just now?" Mr Huang blinked at the two blurry figures at the door.
Renjun pointed at Jeno, "He walked into the door."
Mr Huang nodded, disappointed but not surprised, and stood up. "I suppose dinner's nearly ready?" he said in Korean, for Jeno's sake. Renjun nodded. "Right then, tell your mother I'll be down in five."
Jeno and Renjun went back down and helped set up for dinner, and as they were about to sit down, Mr Huang came into the dining room yawning. Mrs Huang hit the back of his head jokingly, "How much sleep do you need?"
"Sorry, dear. It's just so hard being this productive." That earned him another hit on the head.
=
After a delicious and filling dinner, Jeno and Renjun sat talking in Renjun's room.
Renjun was lying face down on his bed, while Jeno half watched him, half scrolled through Instagram.
"Jeno," came a muffled call, which Jeno pretended to ignore.
"Jeno, I feel like you're annoyed with me sometimes, y'know." Jeno could barely understand Renjun at this point, but he put down his phone and listened to Renjun's philosophising. "Because sometimes you look at me like that one emoji with really big sad eyes that's about to cry. Or, like, Moomin when Snufkin isn't in the valley."
Jeno reddened but grinned, finding Renjun's metaphor amusing. "Aren't Moomin and Snufkin a thing now? It's canon."
Renjun laughed, then sat up to poke Jeno. "Then that makes me Snufkin."
Jeno heart was reacting ridiculously. They were talking about Moomin. "Moomin and Snufkin have been best friends since forever, though."
Renjun stood up, stretching. "Who says you can't date your best friend?"
Jeno was speechless. Renjun wobbled across the room to grab some water, then spun on his heels, almost dropping the glass. "You wanna go watch something? And eat my dad's secret nachos?"
Jeno gladly accepted the subject change, his heart cartwheeling around his whole body. "Your dad has secret nachos?"
They received permission to use the living room to watch anything they wanted until 1 AM. Jeno suspected they'd be there until a long time afterwards, though.
≠
Around an hour and a half later, Jeno was sniffling ceaselessly, his head resting on Renjun's lap, while Renjun patted his shoulder sympathetically and popped two pieces of popcorn into his mouth. Jeno had basically deflated like a helium balloon since the start of the movie. "Why's it so sad?" he slurred, "I's not even meant to be sad. It's — it's Disney."
Renjun shrugged and paused the movie, so he wouldn't miss anything, "I don't know, you tell me. It's literally just Monster's University. Plus, we've watched this movie multiple times and you have complained about it's heart-breakingness every time."
Jeno punched his arm, "You're just mean! This movie should be rated 27+. It puts you through the motions. It's a rollercoaster."
Renjun looked down at him bemusedly. "It's not my fault the only fictional characters I can get attached to all live in Moominvalley."
Jeno was about to argue, Renjun could feel it, so he just threw some popcorn in Jeno's face and waited for him to get distracted by the screen again. Renjun continued to periodically throw popcorn in the general direction of Jeno's face, grinning to himself every time he heard the tell-tale munch of a lucky throw.
As the movie ended, Renjun heard Jeno's phone buzz with a notification. Before he turned to see if it was a text from the other's mother or anything, he dropped a piece of popcorn into Jeno's mouth, watching amusedly as he chewed it forlornly and swallowed it, looking absolutely exhausted, even though it was only midnight. This was why Renjun got so annoyed when Jeno said he was a loser, or that he hadnt changed looks-wise since he was eleven. When would he realise that he was...
Renjun pinked slightly, the places where Jeno was touching his skin searing for a moment. No, no, no, bad friend.
He twisted, focusing on finding Jeno's phone and checking the notification for him, trying not to disturb Jeno, who was nodding off by the second.
—
Gmail:
Basketball Coach, Bae Daeshim: If you have received this email, congratulations! You have been accepted... read more
—
Renjun's eyebrows flew up to his hairline and he looked across at Jeno, then at the credits rolling out on the television. Jeno was breathing softly in tandem with the music. Renjun looked back at the dimming screen of the phone, sure of what the email was about. He grinned hard, and as much as he wanted to let Jeno know of the good news, it could very well wait until the morning. He leaned back, plucked Jeno's glasses off his face and threw a blanket over both of them, his heart aching with pride, and something else.
Something more.
***
i love this chapter man its so domestic and cute