Lee Jeno had the brightest eye smile anyone had ever seen. As he walked in the hallways of Neo Zone University everyone could feel a smile of their own creeping on their face when he passed by in his own world, laughing along with something his friends said. Students could feel themselves longing to be apart of his world, a world where they could smile as easily as he did.
"I swear on my life he really tripped in front of Chenle." Mark cried as he wiped the tears leaking out of his eyes.
"Only Jisung." Jeno managed to stumble out as he leaned on Mark for support. It was hard not to be able to see when you smiled. "How did he even explain why he was outside his classroom?"
"You'll never get this, he told Chenle that he wanted to hang out!" The smaller Canadien boy exclaimed excitedly and Jeno felt his mouth dropped open.
"No way! Our Jisung?" Jeno could barely believe this. Jisung was so shy and he'd been crushing on Chenle for forever. Jeno felt a small pang in his heart at the idea. Mark was already dating Haechan from the radio broadcast and now Chenle and Jisung we're getting together? He hit himself internally for being jealous when Jisung was literally making his move on the boy he had been staring at since he had started university.
"Did you hear what Huang Renjun did over the weekend?" A whisper floated into his ear and Jeno stopped walking, curiosity taking over. Mark looked at him questioningly.
"Who's Huang Renjun?" He whispered to Mark and Mark thought for a second before snapping his fingers and pulling Jeno to the side, out of the way of passing students rushing to get to class.
"He's the kid from the art department! He's got tons of rumors surrounding him. Things like how he deals drugs and murders people!" Mark gossiped very seriously, adjusting the glasses on his face, and Jeno was kind of taken aback. Were these rumors really true?
For some odd reason, he didn't really think that this Renjun guy could be so bad. I mean, no guy who was in the art department of college could possibly murder someone. Well, he never knew what anyone was capable of. Something irked him about the boy's name and he wondered if he had heard it somewhere before. Possibly other rumors or maybe he had seen some work that the boy had done. He paused and he ghosted his fingers over his hip bone, something itching at the back of his head as he frowned, deep in thought about this mysterious art student.
"Dude what?" Mark's voice brought him back and he blinked looking at Mark's worried face. "Did you hurt your hip or something?" Jeno shook his head, confused as to why.
"No, why?"
"Well, you were kind of just touching it tenderly," Mark explained and then gasped loudly. Jeno jumped and looked around alarmed.
"What, what?" Jeno grabbed Mark's shoulders as he felt his anxiety spike at the older's alarm. Was Mark having a heart attack or something?
"Jeno I need you to tell me the truth," Mark asked seriously and Jeno was so confused at the older's words. Mark leaned closer and Jeno panicked. Was Mark about to kiss him? Mark had a boyfriend!
"Do you have a secret tattoo?"
Jeno paused.
"A WHAT," Jeno yelled incredulously, drawing the stares of a couple of straggling students. Mark shook his head as Jeno drew back with a look of embarrassment on his face. Was Mark insane? Jeno would never get a tattoo in his life.
"Don't act so shocked Jeno, I know you went to NCITY tattoo parlor and got a tattoo," Mark sighed in disappointment and Jeno sputters. "I can't believe you didn't tell me and Jisung about your rebellious behavior. We could have been there to support you! Did you get a mystery tattoo? Did someone dare you?"
"Mark I have no idea what you're talking about," Jeno said but stuttered a little. He felt kind of weird and overwhelmed by Mark's onslaught of questions. Should he have a tattoo? Why was Mark being so weird about this?
"Alright alright, I'm just saying. Seeing as how Renjun is the one giving tattoos and how you didn't seem too scared by the rumors I'd say you two knew each other or something." Mark was rambling at this point.
Jeno held his hand up, stopping Mark from continuing.
"Renjun works at the tattoo parlor?" Was the first thing Jeno asked and he felt kind of surprised at himself. He didn't know why this boy intrigued him so much. Maybe because he always wanted to give someone the benefit of the doubt, especially someone with such nasty rumors surrounding him.
"Don't pretend like you don't know him, I see your game Jeno and it's ugly," Mark stuck his tongue out and Jeno rolled his eyes.
"You're spending too much time with Donghyuck," Jeno scoffed.
"I am not!" Mark declares and pouted at the younger. "Anyways I have to get to class, I'll see you later. Go visit your secret boyfriend or something." Mark stuck his tongue out again and Jeno rolled his eyes, waving his hand in goodbye as Mark ran down the hallway, already late to class.
Jeno blew out a harsh puff of air and turned to leave. He had only walked with Mark to drop him off at class. The boy rarely knew his own schedule and depended on Jeno to get him to class on time when he had them. Fortunately, Jeno had a free day today and he felt like he might actually take Mark up on his words to visit the parlor. He didn't know if Renjun was going to be there but he might as well go and see if he could set an appointment to meet him.
"I could just pretend that I had second thoughts about the tattoo but didn't know what number to call so I had to come in person to cancel," Jeno mumbled, planning his plan as he walked out of the door, shivering at the cold beginning-of-fall air. This plan was perfect in Jeno's head, literally, nothing could go wrong.
In less than thirty seconds after he had been walking outside he was pushed to the ground, hitting the pavement hard, groaning as he rubbed the back of his head that had luckily hit the grass just to the outside of the sidewalk.
"Holy shit I am so so so sorry," a frantic voice stumbled and Jeno saw a face pop into view above him.
Holy shit this guy is beautiful Jeno felt his mouth go dry as he stared at the apologetic and worried face on the pink-haired boy above him. His face was so stunning, his brown eyes captivated Jeno and he hadn't even known he was staring until he saw a hand being waved in front of his face, bringing him back to focus.
"Oh my gosh did I kill you? Are you blind? Can you hear and see me?" The pink-haired boy shot question after question and Jeno sat up causing the other to move back out of his way.
"I'm fine, sorry I wasn't paying attention," Jeno mumbled, still rubbing the back of his head. He felt hands on the back of his head over his own and he stilled in shock.
"Are you okay, is it bleeding?" The boy asked his face extremely too close for Jeno's comfort. Jeno cleared his throat and the boy looked down at his most likely red face before moving back, apologizing again. Jeno had never been that close to a guy before, why was he so flustered? He wasn't into guys like that, but, he wasn't exactly into girls like that either. Let's just say this was a delicate time for Jeno's sexuality.
"I'm so sorry, I'm running late for this meeting at the tattoo parlor downtown and I wasn't watching where I was going," the boy explained and Jeno took notice of the scattered drawings. He felt himself immediately lunge for them and start to gather them up.
"Hurry up! It's windy and we don't want them blowing away," he urgently motioned for the stranger to pick up the papers too and the other's eyes widened when he heard Jeno's words. The two were soon standing after scrambling after the papers that had started to blow away and Jeno handed over his stack of collected drawings to the artist.
"Thank you so much..." the pink-haired boy trailed off and Jeno looked at him blankly before nodded in realization, almost hitting himself in the forehead.
"Jeno. Lee Jeno." He shook the boy's outstretched hand and felt a little uncomfortable at the foreign feeling in his chest and stomach. Maybe this guy was bad news for him.
"Na Jaemin!" The other exclaimed brightly and Jeno couldn't help but let out a small smile at his excitement. Maybe this guy was good news for him.
"Wait," Jeno started as the boy moved to start walking away, "did you say you were going to the tattoo parlor?" At Jaemin's nod, he moved to walk with the boy and Jaemin questioningly looked at him.
"I was planning on going there anyway," Jeno explained and Jaemin nodded, smiling devilishly as they started to walk towards the parlor.
"Were you thinking of getting a tattoo?" The boy prompted teasingly and Jeno felt himself panic. Of course he wasn't thinking of getting a tattoo, but what else could he say? That he was going to the parlor to try and meet one of the employees that he's literally never seen and could possibly be a drug dealer.
"Uh, y-yeah," Jeno said and felt a weird sensation twist in his gut. He felt like he should turn and run away from the boy and the tattoo parlor but another part of him told him that this was right and he should just see how this turned out.
"You know, you should get the mystery tattoo."
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Fin.