Assuming that Dumb and Dumber would've learned their lesson, it should've surprised Jaemin a lot more when he saw the both of them acting even WORSE than they did before yesterday. And yet, it seemed like they didn't. Now before anyone assumes that their behavior got worse in a sense of, they were acting more like assholes towards everyone who dares looking at Jaemin, let me tell you; apparently, there's something even worse.
For example them hating each other.
When Jaemin shouted at them and told them to stop this kindergarten thing, he wanted them to understand that they were a group of now 23 people who had to perform and live together. That it was pretty shitty to act like that because they thought they liked him in any way shouldn't be something you'd have to explain to them.
Everyone thought that their silence meant they were thinking about what they did. Turns out they just seemed to ignore each other, because - for whatever reason - they suddenly started to hate each other more than anyone else around them.
And let me tell you, Jeno and Renjun hating each other was way worse than the two of them just hating everyone else. They were basically having a war - and this time, it wasn't about Jaemin.
Or at least, so it seemed.
Jaemin admitted to himself that he probably had one cup of coffee too much that day because he had closed no eye at all the following night. So what did a sleep deprived Na Jaemin do when a fighting Dumb and Dumber were getting on everyone's nerves to somehow het through the day without murdering someone?
Correct; he drinks coffee.
It happened three days after the incident in the practice room and two nights of Jaemin not sleeping enough that Taeyong - with his unusual, rarely used authority - came up to him with a concerned look on his face and said, "You need to stop drinking coffee."
A nightmare for Na Jaemin.
It wasn't really like he purposefully tried acting like a difficult toddler. The situation changed and that was the problem. He didn't drink so much coffee because he simply enjoyed it - but because he literally couldn't get through his schedule without it.
But, alias, Taeyong instructed anyone to follow these two rules from now on:
- keep the coffee away from Jaemin, and;
- also keep Renjun and Jeno away from him to avoid any more possible ‚coffee-triggers'.
And yes, that's a thing now; coffee-trigger. Everyone tried to actively keep Jaemin's stress level as low as possible to avoid his craving for coffee.
They kept doing that for like a week and then decided that his sleep schedule was healthy enough to allow him one normal latte macchiato a day. Which didn't even count as a coffee in Jaemin's opinion but he wasn't going to complain, too afraid of Doyoung's glare when he noticed the Rapper's dissatisfied face.
Now what no one and not even Jaemin himself expected was what happened approximately twelve days later. Jeno and Renjun had stopped cursing and almost attacking each other and for now resigned to simple glares and mumbled profanities. For some reason, Jisung - who was on ‚Guarding-Jaemin-Duty', as they had called it - went to the toilet for only five minutes during their short break and came back to Jaemin, Jeno and Renjun awfully fighting over...a bottle of water.
Which turned out to be Donghyuck's in the end.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that Jaemin had only tried to message his manager that he'd need some money for a short trip to the store so he could buy himself a new pair of socks when Jeno and Renjun had suddenly started fighting again. And unfortunately, he got pulled into the fight by sighing and doing the dumbest mistake he had ever done; saying something.
"You could both stop talking, for once, instead of wanting the other to shut up", is what he had said.
And when they had both answered him with, "Shut up", it just escalated for no reason.
Needless to say, Doyoung was mad at them and Taeyong constantly stared at them with his practiced kicked puppy pout, the one mothers did whenever they witnessed their children doing something stupid.
After that, the mood was even worse and while the others tried to make it bearable, it didn't really help.
Jaemin - at the very least - didn't promote with Renjun and Jeno for now. Xiaojun and Shotaro turned out to be funny companions and Jaemin got used to the both of them pretty quickly (they had yet to add Sungchan and Shotaro to the chat, Doyoung had already complained about that).
Taeyong had meanwhile allowed Jaemin to get back to one espresso a day (like every other normal human being would consume, to be honest).
And that was when the next problem started.
Jaemin was obviously mad at Jeno and Renjun. He wasn't sure why exactly but he just knew that he was. Maybe because they both acted ridiculously childish, maybe because he was stressed or because they claimed him like some toy that you could buy in a store. He had plenty of reasons to be mad at them and he was.
But that didn't mean that he didn't miss their friendship.
Jeno has always been one if his closest friends in the group, maybe next to the other Dreamies or even ahead of that. They just clicked differently, it wasn't the same as with for example Mark - who was like an older brother - or Jisung - whom he treated like his child just to annoy him. Jeno was a friend like he rarely had them in school; a best friend, he'd dare to say.
Renjun was less on that level and still, really dear to him. He pretty much grew up with Renjun during a phase in his life where friends were most important; teen age. He shared a dorm with him, they walked to school together, ate lunch and let each other drink from their water bottle when one of them already drank all of it during dance practice. Renjun was a friend like Donghyuck, like Chenle and Johnny, like every member in their chaotic family called NCT.
He missed their friendship, their late-night-talks, their bickering and movie nights. He missed waking up to a sleepy Jeno or getting scolded by Renjun when he was getting on his nerves a little bit too much. He missed cuddling with them, he missed doing the things with them he was doing with everyone else just like he always did.
Jaemin was now stressed because of something else and that something was guilt. He felt guilty because he somehow felt like he couldn't really blame them like that. He felt rude, he felt too strict, too...unforgiving. And yet, he was still mad and disappointed and just really bothered by the fact that the two of them still didn't apologize - to no one.
Stress resulted to thinking which resulted to not sleeping which resulted to; sleep deprivation. Again.
Which was the current problem itself; Jaemin needed coffee, desperately, or he'd seriously fall asleep just by blinking. But Taeyong was watching him like a hawk (which was funny, considering Sicheng called himself a hawk in their chatroom).
And so, Jaemin didn't buy himself a few pairs of new socks with the money his manager offered him - he used it for coffee. But not any coffee, no; Biohazard Ground Coffee.
The strongest coffee known on planet earth.
If a few shots of that thing wouldn't keep him awake, Jaemin didn't know either.
Taeyong looked really confused when Jaemin got himself a big cup instead of the small espresso one he usually picked out of their kitchen to make himself a drink in the morning. He seemed satisfied when Jaemin simply smiled at him and told his leader that he'd try to drink normal coffee for once.
He didn't tell him that the coffee wasn't normal though. Or that he didn't put any almond milk inside the mixture (he couldn't eat dairy products you know). Or that he even added three sugar cubes just because he felt like it.
The coffee was bitter - even with the sugar cubes. It smelled as strong as it tasted and Jaemin felt significantly better as soon as he was done with his cup.
But oh boy, he should've done some research before purchasing a coffee like that.
Everything was perfectly fine the first few hours; Jaemin went to his vocal lessons, he had a meeting with a manager and got a few hours of free time in which he helped Jisung with his English homework (because he had learned it a lot in that one show you know). At around eleven thirty, he started having a headache and therefore had problems concentrating. He tried to listen to Donghyuck when the boy told a story about how Mark made Jungwoo kiss the floor just by sneezing but couldn't recall the actual story to save his life.
After Lunch, it got even worse. He had gotten medicine for the headache from his concerned manager right before his schedule continued, agreeing to the lecture that he should go back to the dorms if it wouldn't get better.
Now, the headache was gone forty minutes into the dance practice the Dreamies had scheduled for this afternoon.
But it did get worse, just in a different way. Jaemin wasn't tired anymore, no; quite the opposite, actually. He was so hyperactive and jittery that the dance instructor literally stared at him, turned off the music and walked out with a tired, "You're dismissed for today".
"Jaemin-ie...are you alright?", Mark asked him and Jaemin immediately nodded with a bright and joyful smile on his face, "Of course, Mark! I've not felt this good in weeks! We should get some milkshake!"
Jisung frowned, "You're lactose intolerant, Hyung."
Jaemin's brain unfortunately wasn't working as fast as his body right now, because he simply hugged Jisung and nuzzled his cheeks into the other's before the Maknae (or he himself, for that matter) could even stop him from doing so, "It's fine Jisung-ie! I won't die because of one milkshake!"
"...I think you need to go home...", Mark said with a serious undertone and while every single braincell in Jaemin's head screamed YES, his coffee intoxicated body simple decided to act childish and slump onto the floor as if his bones were made of jelly, a pout forming on his lips as he answered a whiny, "Nooo~...!"
Now all of that wasn't really unusual behavior for Jaemin when he was in a good mood. What actually made all of them finally convinced that something was wrong with him was when Jaemin, out of nowhere, went to hug Jeno's shoulders from behind and uttering the absolutely drunkest, "I love you~" all of them had ever heard. Because while it wasn't unusual of him to say so to his fellow bandmates, it definitely was unusual when he was literally having a war with Renjun and Jeno.
It was when he started smooching the latter's cheeks that Mark finally decided to call Taeyong, adding a really quiet, "The manager definitely should not know about this".
And wow, getting Jaemin home was one hell of a tour.
Mark had to ask Baekhyun to drive them to their dorms so their manager wouldn't notice that their dearest Jaemin had some situation and, well, having Baekhyun and Chanyeol (who was with them for some reason?) ask what's wrong with Jaemin was the weirdest thing ever, considering Chanyeol literally tripped over nothing while they vent to grab one of the big vans to fit all of them inside the car.
Once they got home, Jeno literally had to carry Jaemin upstairs because he claimed „A fairy made his muscles jelly" (literally what he said) and wouldn't let go of him for even just a second.
Jaemin was mostly unaware of that, though he was screaming at his conscious self to stop being like that; but, alias, his subconsciousness wasn't available right now.
Doyoung's face when they stumbled inside with a loud Jaemin and panicking Jisung was almost priceless (Jisung was crying over how his Hyung was going to die, which immediately made Jungwoo and Yangyang panic with him, to which Kun had to calm both of them down because Taeyong was trying not to hyperventilate himself). The Vocalist stared at them, his gaze wandering from Mark to Jaemin and back, look changing from bored, to confused, to angry and finally; concerned on all existing levels.
He stood up from the large couch and ordered Jisung to „Shut the hell up because Jaemin won't die".
Jaemin distinctly heard Doyoung say something to him but his ears were feeling like his head was underwater and he was now slowly overcome with something similar to exhaustion. His tiredness immediately disappeared though as soon as he felt someone trying to get his arms away from the death grip he has on Jeno, voice pitching impossibly high for his normal pitch and eyebrows furrowed when he whined pitifully, "No~...! I don't want to leave!"
Doyoung sighed (or so, Jaemin assumed?) and let go of Jaemin, instead trying to figure out the situation, "Did you drink something, Nana?"
Jaemin aggressively shook his head, "Of course not, we are not allowed to do that during schedules - I drank coffee today!"
Taeil suddenly appeared from the kitchen with a suspiciously unknown box of coffee, nose scrunched up at the scent that flew around it even when it's closed, "I guess our dearest Jaemin drank a little bit too much of this..."
Johnny walked over and examined the box, eyebrows going up immediately, "Did he drink a whole cup of that this morning?! That's Biohazard Ground Coffee!"
"And?", Lucas asked confused, to which Johnny sighed, "It's literally the strongest coffee existing. Like it's so strong, I'd doubt Jaemin would've normally even drank that."
Jaemin snapped his head up, legs tightening around Jeno's waist as he leaned over the latter to look at Johnny through (admittedly) hazy eyesight, "That's why I put three sugar cubes in it as well!"
It was silent for a few seconds, the information seemingly sinking in as Jaemin started playing around with Jeno's hair, happily humming a song.
He was totally unaware of the things going on around him.
That is, until Jeno tried seating him on the couch so „Doyoung could take care of it".
Jaemin tightened his hold on Jeno again and simply refused to let go, whining and almost throwing a tantrum because of it.
Which triggered something that came with the jittery feeling of drinking too much coffee; anxiety.
All if his worries and thoughts from the last couple of days suddenly all came crushing down on him as Doyoung tried to make Jaemin let go of poor Jeno (the boy almost choked-). He really, for real this time, tried to stop his body from acting like this, his subconsciousness screaming at his brain to just freaking get some sleep already. But unfortunately, Jaemin had way too much coffee with too much sugar and not enough sleep, thoughts running around in his head and mouth releasing the only thing that actually seemed to be registered in his brain right now; a sob.
Doyoung's absolutely baffled expression would've been a lot more funnier if Jaemin wouldn't be the reason for it. He started sobbing, tears collecting in his eyes as his grip on Jeno's shirt got tighter and his lips started shaking because he tried to stop the hiccups to escape.
Spoiler; it didn't work.
He sobbed again and uttered a pitiful, "I-...I am so sorry Nono...I didn't want to snap at you and I didn't want to be so mean but you and Renjun are so annoying-..." - he had to take a breather, sob interrupting his speech before he was able to continue - "...l-like, the two of you are acting like total idiots and I just can't believe how idiotic you are and I'm so stressed because I'm mad at you but I miss you so much!"
Jeno, seemingly too dumbfounded to actually answer anything, frowned and that was literally enough for Jaemin to just randomly transform his sobs into a really childlike crying.
Meanwhile, Taeil crouched down next to Jaemin and gently patted his head, "Nana, how about this; you'll let Doyoung take care of you and I will slap Jeno and Renjun for making you this stressed so they'll finally get their shit together and you can be friends again - how does that sound?"
Jaemin's subconsciousness groaned at the childish way Taeil spoke to him but his tired, crying excuse of a human being couldn't have needed anything else than that. He looked up through teary eyes, staring at Doyoung's outstretched hand when he smiled and said, "Exactly", and then, finally, letting go of Jeno's shirt. He actually wanted to grab Doyoung's hand but the adrenaline of crying and panicking faded within an instant and instead, he missed his hand and dropped forward, exhaustion taking over his body as he fell into a deep sleep.
Needless to say, that was all way less dramatic than it sounded out of Jaemin's POV. But I don't think I have to explain how utterly fucked Renjun and Jeno were when Taeil turned around to look at them with a devilish expression, calm smile dropping the very second he heard Doyoung closing the door to Jaemin's room upstairs.
Jeno and Renjun were literally shaking when Taeil finally said, "Sit the fuck down, we'll talk."
That being said, only Taeil talked though...
———
Demon: you guys enjoyed the special chapter last time like daaamnnn
Demon: soooo many were asking me to write a continuation and well
Demon: i heard your prays
Demon: don't worry, Jaemin is fine-
Jaemin: have you seen mark?
Demon: Mark?? no? why-...wait
Demon: shouldn't you like
Demon: sleep or smth
Jaemin: TAT
Jaemin: mark promised to bring me some water and now he's gone ;-;
Demon: i-
Demon: Nana dearest he NEEDS to go in order to GET YOU water
Jaemin: HE NEEDS TO GO?! TAT
Jaemin: MARK LEE DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT YOU HAVEN'T CONFESSED TO DONGHYUCK YET T^T
Demon: wha-
Doyoung: where is mark that fucker
Doyoung: Na Jaemin get back to bed this instant or i swear, if we'll be reborn in the harry potter universe, i'll jinx you
Demon: what kind of threat is that-
Jaemin: ;-;
Doyoung: *drags Jaemin out of the writing room*
Doyoung: taeil will get my head if he notices i let you wake up and get out of bed in that state
Jaemin: ;-; you can't go like mark either, is taeil the reaper? ;(
Demon: ...
Doyoung: ...we will talk about this, Demon-ssi
Demon: yes sir
Doyoung: ...
Doyoung: *closes the door and gets Jaemin back to bed*
Demon: my life is in danger
Mark: Doyoung just spilled the water glass for Jaemin all into my face wtf
Mark: tf did i do
Demon: ;( we're victims marku
Mark: ;( indeed
Mark: will Jaemin ever get over this embarrassment
Demon: are Jeno and Renjun still alive or did Taeil skin them
Mark: and what about taeyong and jaehyun, are they ever getting a happy end?
Demon: will sicheng accept yuta's apology and finally get over the fact that he's a simp for sasuke?
Demon: stay tuned on NCT Chatroom to find out!