"You didn't have to come over and accompany me last night, Sungie." Jeno lightly chuckles and tugs on his backpack straps over his shoulders.

The tall boy beside him rolls his eyes in return, "and have you cry yourself to sleep because of what Jaemin hyung did? No way."

"Besides," he takes a long step by stretching his leg out there more to be slightly ahead of Jeno now. "Who misses out a movie night with you?"

"Jaemin..." Jeno mutters a little hesitantly.

But of course, Jisung heard him despite the loud honks and engines of vehicles passing by them. "Right, sucks for him. He missed out."

"I'm sure he's happier with Xiaojun hyung on their late night walk..." Jeno mumbles aloud, looking down on his feet and kicking the tiny pebbles he sees.

Jisung clicks his tongue and shakes his head in disapproval, "trust me, once he realizes things. It clicks to him that he has a special person right with him since long ago."

"And he missed out on a lot of opportunities, so he will probably have to make it up to you." He adds with a little wink in a teasing manner.

He hopes he can brighten up Jeno's mood, but at the same time knock some senses into him that he's not in the blame for his current situation with Jaemin.

Because honestly, Jisung's so close to landing a punch on Jaemin's charming face and tell him to go get his boy of his dreams.

A sigh escapes Jeno's parted lips, shrugging his shoulders in response. "I don't know..." He trails off, a little doubtful now.

Last night, he was still acting and thinking too naive and optimistic. Believing every affectionate word Jaemin spat out whilst he's with someone else.

Because he doesn't care, Jeno's his best friend. He thinks Jeno will not mind and brush it all off.

But in reality, he doesn't know Jeno does mind because he has feelings for him, and of course, from what he heard last night; it made his mood go down.

Hence now, Jeno feels low of energy and he's not his usual optimistic self, doubting Jaemin's intentions for the first time since they've met.

Jisung even had some trouble persuading the elder boy to go to school and not miss anything possibly important.

Although, he didn't mention Jeno's sudden change of mood is caused by none other than Jaemin.

They both silently agreed to not really talk about it too much, preferred to think and say Jeno's mood change was from nothing but sleep deprived itself due to last night's movie night.

Sighing quietly, Jisung drapes an arm around Jeno's shoulders and guides their way to school.

Like how Jaemin would usually do.

But Jaemin is not here today.

Jeno doesn't know if he got ditched again or Jaemin is simply but would be surprisingly late to pick him up at his house.

He really hopes for the latter.

❈

"How was your movie night?" Jisung almost wants to scream, although the topic really doesn't have to do anything with him, he's cringing.

Second hand embarrassment sucks.

Apparently, because he was busy, he forgot to tell the others how it went.

To which the conversation would be including to warn them ahead of time.

He senses Jeno tensing up beside Chenle who was oblivious, curiosity is getting to him– well, everyone else on the table actually.

He glances at Jaemin who scratches his nape sheepishly, but before he could utter a word, Jisung beats him to it.

He's not letting Jaemin sugar coat his way through this, because he was kind of there this time.

For once, Jeno has a backup. So he doesn't really need to do the talking alone anymore.

I know what you're thinking, for others it wouldn't be a big deal.

So Jisung shouldn't be joining in on this situation, but what else can he do?

Let Jaemin continue his way of being oblivious to his best friend's romantic feelings whilst he's flirting with other people, leading Jeno to be hurt each time?

No, he can't have that. And he's sure the others would do the same thing as him too if they knew.

"It was postponed." He speaks up, gaining everyone's attention on him.

"Wait– you were there?" Mark looks at him confused, eyebrows knitted together. "Why? And how even?"

"I'm getting there." Jisung rolls his eyes at him, having Mark to chuckle awkwardly in return.

"Apparently Jaemin hyung was busy on a late night walk with Xiaojun hyung, Jeno was about to clean everything up but I called."

"Also, I know for sure Jaemin hyung was out because I saw him." The mentioned boy widens his eyes at Jisung.

"Why were you–"

"Doesn't matter, I saw you and Xiaojun hyung at the park, then I remembered you were supposed to be with Jeno hyung, it didn't take long to put the pieces together."

Jisung sneaks a glance at Jeno who looks away from Jaemin's apologetic yet also heavy gaze on him, seems like he's tired of it now. Tired of him.

"I called Jeno hyung and insisted I'd come over, watched movies with him and stayed the night so he wouldn't feel so bummed out anymore because of what Jaemin hyung did."

"Listen, I totally and honestly understand how Jeno feels," Jaemin spoke up this time, getting everyone's attention as well but the looks he's getting aren't so nice and welcoming.

"I know I shouldn't have done that–"

"But you did," Donghyuck doesn't fail to put on a sassy attitude. Crossing his arms as he glares at the raven haired boy beside him.

"Why did you?" Chenle asks in a monotone, face flat.

"I swear I didn't mean to, I low-key wasn't thinking about it after school because I was busy–"

"So you forgot?" Renjun pinches the bridge of his nose. "Busy with Xiaojun, we know." Muttering about at the end.

"I was going to make up for it!" Jaemin defends himself.

"You always do that, you always say you're going to make it up to Jeno but you still do it anyway afterwards!" Mark states a little too aggressively.

Just as Donghyuck was going to back him up, Jeno quietly stands up and clears his throat. "I have somewhere to be, see you guys around."

And in a blink of an eye, he's gone.

Jaemin gulps when he sees Mark scowling at him, "we need to talk."

Donghyuck nods and pats Jaemin's back heavily, making the boy grunt in response. "Don't worry, we're not going to knock you out or anything." He calmly reassures.

"Yeah! We're just going to do that by words. You know? Knock some senses in to you?" Chenle sarcastically says yet ends up laughing in amusement.