Donghyuck has never been so amused in the past fifteen years. Much less from a stuttering boy with weirdly shaped eyebrows. He first thought that Mark Lee was going to be a cocky little nerd who would keep to himself, but when Donghyuck caught him staring, his reaction was rather fascinating.

For some reason it made Donghyuck feel a little bubbly inside, and all he wanted to do was laugh. The older boy would blush till the tips of his ears, mouth gaping like a fish as he looked around like a lost child. 

Donghyuck found it quite endearing, and he couldn’t help but want to constantly so he could always get that reaction from him.

Before he knew it, Donghyuck was hooked. And all he wanted to do was to see Mark Lee in all his embarrassed glory.

-

Settling himself down on the bed next to his cousin, Donghyuck observes Jeno who is seated with his legs crossed, picking at his fingers. He smiles and pokes the boy at his forehead.

“So how do you feel about this place so far?” It’s only been over a week since the two settled in the orphanage. Donghyuck was already beginning to love it, he wished he could say the same for his cousin though. Knowing that Jeno was an introvert who would take a while getting comfortable in new places, he just hoped the boy was coping well.

“It’s alright, I guess. Everyone’s been really nice and welcoming.” Jeno smiles at his cousin, his eyes curved into familiar crescents. Donghyuck laughs and ruffles the boy’s hair.

“By everyone you mean the pretty boy right?” Donghyuck teases. He laughs even harder when he sees a tinge of pink dusting Jeno’s cheeks.

“It’s nothing! Jaemin is really nice. and he’s been helping me a lot.”

“Eyy, but I didn’t even say his name~” Jeno turns an even deeper shade of red, biting at his lips to keep himself from smiling like an idiot. Embarrassed, he shoves his cousin in the shoulder and he falls off the bed laughing. 

However Donghyuck grabs him by his shirt and drags him down onto the floor with him. He pokes him in his sides, and soon enough Jeno joins his cousin on the floor in fits of giggles.

Their jaws hurt from all that laughing, but the two cousins simply lay there, observing the glow in the dark stickers on the sky blue ceiling. It’s been quite a while since the two have had a genuine laugh. They’re so young, yet they found it a little hard to enjoy life ever since the accident.

Donghyuck glances at his cousin from the corner of his eye and smiles. ‘I really hope you’re happy Jeno-yah.’

-

You could say that their lives were perfect. They weren’t filthy rich but they lived comfortably enough to afford simple luxuries. Their parents were always busy, but they never fail to find the time to spend with their children, and that particular weekend, the two families were off to Busan for a short trip.

All buckled up in their SUV, Jeno and his parents drive off to pick up the other Lee's. Jeno couldn’t stop his smile from reaching his ears. He fidgets in his seat as they pull up to the front porch of his cousin’s home. The boy was visibly excited to spend the weekend with his only cousin and his family. 

They were impeccably close, almost glued at the hip. Of course it was only normal of them to be so - they were each other’s only family. Other than their own parents of course.

Jeno couldn’t imagine a life without his cousin. Donghyuck can be mean and snarky, yes, but he was mostly so to protect him from the bullies in school.

The two families were just driving up the highway, the boys enthusiastically discussing with their parents about their upcoming performance for the school’s festival.

The mothers chuckle in the backseat as they watch their sons bicker over who should get which singing parts, while the two dads in the front converse about “manlier” things like baseball and barbecue.

“You can play your guitar too, Jeno-yah.” His mother suggests as she smoothens out her son’s shirt lovingly. “Maybe add a little of those dance moves you’ve been practicing in your room.”

“Pfft, Jeno you’ve been dancing?” Donghyuck snickers. He’s never pegged his cousin to be the dancing type. He always kept to himself and read books all day.

“Yes, and he seems to be quite good at it too.” Jeno’s mother brags, ignoring Jeno’s complaints of his mom ‘exposing him’.

Donghyuck cups his hands to his mouth and tries not to laugh when he imagines his cousin in a baggy sweatpants and snapback, or worse - a pink tutu. “Are you sure he’s good, auntie?”

“I’m sure I dance better than you, you big dumb!” Jeno smacks his cousin’s head and soon enough the two boys are having one of their little playful fights again, the adults just watching in amusement.

Donghyuck was about to ask if they could have ice cream, when he felt it. The sudden jerk in the SUV and the warm arms of his mother enveloping him. He watches as his aunt does the same to Jeno as shards of glass fly behind her. He squeezes his eyes shut as he tries to drown out the screams. He wasn’t religious but he prayed in his mind that it was all just a bad dream.

It all happened so fast, and before he knew it, he was half laying on the ground, his mother's arms still around him, lifeless. He tries to get up to find his father but his body was hurting so bad that all he could do was stay down. He turns his head and sees Jeno in the same position as he is, just inches away from his scratched up arms. Despite the ringing in his ears, Donghyuck could tell that his cousin was crying as he tried to wake his own mother up. He’s never heard him sob so painfully before.

And for the first time in years, Donghyuck closes his eyes and allowed the tears to fall freely.

-

“What cha doing over there, Lil Marco?” Donghyuck peeks over the older boy’s shoulder, attempting to find out what he’s been so engrossed in writing for the past few minutes.

“Stop calling me that, I’m older than you!” Mark exclaims as he tries to block out the annoying brat from looking at his ‘work’. “And it’s hyung to you, brat.”

“Okay, hyung~” Donghyuck coos. “What are you working on?”

Mark buries his face deeper into his desk in attempt to hide the blush forming at his cheeks. The way Donghyuck called him hyung just made him feel so strange. Donghyuck sees this and merely chuckles.

The two were in the daycare, surrounded by little kids half their age, after being asked to help out with the crafts. Clearly they weren’t helping much by sitting in a corner and bickering.

Persistent, Donghyuck taps Mark on the shoulder and as expected, the boy looks the other way. He quickly grabs his paper from the desk before the older turns back around.

“Hey! Give that back!” Mark shouts a little when sees the paper in Donghyuck’s hands. He tries to snatch it back but the latter was quick. He steps onto the little chair and avoids Mark’s waving arms as he tries to read his illegible handwriting.

“Jaeminnie’s birthday mission, ooh what is this?” Before he could continue reading, the paper was snatched out of his hands. He glances down at Mark as he hastily folds the paper and stuffs it into his back pocket.

“It’s nothing. None of your business, actually.”

“Aw come on it’s not nothing!” Donghyuck hops down from the chair in front of Mark. His face only centimetres from the older’s. Startled by the sudden closeness, Mark takes a step back, mouth gaping like a Magikarp. “It’s Jaemin’s birthday coming up, we should plan the party together.”

“It’s not exactly a party!” Mark hisses, shuffling his feet backwards because why in the world is he getting closer to me?!

“Then what is it?” Donghyuck presses on as he steps closer to Mark, slightly smirking when the boy turns red as he backs up towards the wall.

“I-It’s … Uh… It’s,” Marks is stuttering and reacting the way the younger wants him to. He steps up close enough so that Mark is literally glued to the blue wall behind him, eyes almost bulging out of its sockets as they watch the boy get closer and closer.

‘Holy does he not understand the concept of personal space?! Oh but his eyes are so pretty and his skin is so - What the hell, Mark there are children present!’ He mentally smacks himself in the face trying to get rid of those thoughts. 

He’s is also too distracted to feel a hand slipping into his back pocket, pulling out the messily folded paper from earlier.

“Aha!” Mark is broken out of his trance and blinks twice to see his little plan grasped in the hands of the younger. He huffs and blows a strand of hair out of his face trying to calm himself down. He gives up on trying to snatch the paper back from Donghyuck.

“So you’re doing a big birthday prank eh?” Donghyuck nods as he continues reading, fairly surprised that the older wasn’t trying to yank the paper out of his hands. He sees him nod from the corner of his eye as if to agree with what he just said. “Well since it’s in two days and we obviously don’t have a lot of time, let’s get started right now!”

“Wha-“ Mark is interrupted by a warm hand curled around his wrist, pulling him towards the door. He smiles apologetically when he makes eye contact with Henry on his way out. The caretaker just smiles and goes back to cutting out shapes on coloured paper.

“Come on, we can go get the other boys to help too!” Donghyuck tugs on Mark’s arm, dragging him across the hallway.

“Wait what do you mean we?”

Donghyuck stops in his tracks and whips his head around. He gives Mark a look. “We’re friends aren’t we?”

Mark doesn’t answer him. 

“And friends help each other out, no?”

Mark blinks confusedly. He stares at Donghyuck, wide-eyed and slowly nods. The boy breaks into a smile and grabs him by the arm again. 

“Great! Then let’s get started!”

Mark lets himself be dragged by the boy he likes to call an insufferable brat. He smiles a little to himself.

Friends eh? Maybe Donghyuck can’t be that bad.

-

Mark was wrong when he said that Donghyuck wasn’t that bad. It was quite the opposite. He really was that bad.

By bad he didn’t mean that he was terrible at doing things. Oh no, he was doing fine at following instructions. But that insufferable brat boy was just so goddamn annoying it frustrated him.

And by annoying, he meant that he just could not stop poking fun at him. Even when there were literally four other boys that he could disturb with his unnecessary jokes, Donghyuck still chose to tickle at Mark’s chin as if he was a dog.

(If Jaemin was there, he wouldn’t hear the end of his teasing. But then again even if the pretty boy was there, he’d be too busy doing the same thing to Jeno. Psh.)

The others simply watch in amusement as the two boys bicker like a married couple. They’ve never seen Mark get so riled up to that extent, yet they did nothing to stop it. Besides, you have to admit, seeing someone be able to get such reactions out of the eldest was pretty interesting.

“Uhm, so why do we have so much pink stuff?” Jeno awkwardly asks, staring at the different shades of pink thingamajigs set in front of him. There were pink balloons, pink pillows, pink streamers, and anything else pink that you could name. There was even a huge tin of bright pink paint.

“Jaemin must really like pink huh?”

The boys chuckle at Jeno’s naiveness and shake their heads.

“Actually, it’s quite the opposite.” Jisung explains. “He absolutely loathes the colour. Says it offends his ‘manliness’.”

“Tsk, what manliness?” Chen Le rolls his eyes as he huffs, Ren Jun effectively translating what the boy said. “He’s the girliest one out of all of us here.”

Mark nods in agreement, ignoring Ren Jun’s Oh I see you’re finally done flirting. “One time a bee flew into our room, and Jesus I have never heard such a high pitched scream. I almost went deaf.”

“You sure you weren’t the scared one, bub?” Mark just ignored Donghyuck’s teasing, clearly too tired of the boy’s . Donghyuck pouts at his lack of response. 

“Aw come on, Marco, smile for me”. He digs his index fingers on the corners of Mark’s lips and pulls them up into a rather forced smile. Mark reddens at the contact but he quickly swats the boy’s hands away and turns to his friends.

Picking up as much pink as he could with his little arms, Mark motions to the rest. The others quickly follow like the obedient children that they are, also grabbing as many things as they could.

“Come on guys, let’s go set up!” Mark skips out the door and makes his way down the hall towards a room that the rest have never really seen before. Nonetheless, they trail behind him excitedly, hoping that Jaemin wouldn’t be done with his piano practice so soon.

-

Standing in the centre of the room, Jeno takes a good look at their hard work put into the pinkest room he has ever seen. He gapes a little, impressed at how they were able to pull it off in such a short time.

The walls were covered in bright pink paint, a massive pink fabric backdrop hung from a pole on one of the walls. Pasted on it was a relatively huge picture of Jaemin sleeping with his mouth hung open. Jeno sees a bit of drool on the corner of his lips and giggles. Cute, he thinks.

The rest of the room was simply very straight forward - it was a pink fantasy. Or rather hell for the upcoming birthday boy. Pink balloons covered almost seventy percent of the floor, save for the chair in front of the picture and the pillows thrown in the corner. A little pink table was set up as well for the cake and other sweets, but boy the room was so pink it could be a Victoria Secret store.

Though it was somewhat a prank, Jeno couldn’t help but feel a little impressed and touched by how thoughtful they were at going to such an extent to celebrate Jaemin’s birthday.

“So what’s the plan?” He asks. The six boys huddle in a circle as Mark explains the whole sequence, the young ones nodding at almost every word.

“Jaemin’s gonna hate it so much that he’ll love it.” Chen Le croaks out in broken Korean, but everyone still understood and agreed nonetheless.

-

The night before his own birthday, Jaemin couldn’t sleep. It was twenty minutes to midnight and he was still wide awake. Usually he’d be knocked out the moment his head hits his pillows but he’s been rolling around for about an hour.

No, it wasn’t because his birthday was in twenty minutes. Definitely not. He couldn’t sleep because of his stupid thoughts. Memories that shouldn’t be bugging his mind, especially since it’s been years.

Frustrated, he rips off his blanket and sits up. Looking around the room, he pouts when he sees that everyone was dead asleep. (Mark and Donghyuck were laying so damn close to each other that Jaemin couldn’t help but take a picture for future blackmail.)

Looking down from his top bunk, he looks at his eye candy sleeping so peacefully on the bottom bunk. He doesn’t want to wake the boy up but he was just so desperate to do something to distract his mind.

“Psst, Jeno.” Jaemin whispers loud enough for the boy to hear, but soft enough to not waken the others. “Hey wake up.”

Jeno shifts in his sleep but doesn’t awaken. Impatient, Jaemin flings one of his small Rilakkuma plushies at Jeno’s chest, avoiding his very nice face.

Jeno jerks at the sudden feeling and cracks his eyes open. Squinting, he his head up to see Jaemin waving cutely down at him from the top bunk.

“What was that for?” He asks sleepily, rubbing his eyes to get his vision to focus.

“I can’t sleep. Wanna head to the roof with me?” Jaemin tried keeping it hush as he climbed down from his top bunk. Jeno really wanted to go back to sleep but he nods in agreement anyways.

Jaemin grabs two jackets from the rack as Jeno puts on his shoes. Jaemin does the same and the pair throw on their jackets, slipping out the door on their tip toes.

Jeno brings an extra blanket just in case.

-

Settling themselves down on the concrete ground, the two boys hug their knees as the cold wind blew. Shivering a little, Jaemin sneakily took the chance to huddle a little closer by Jeno’s side. Jeno didn’t give it much thought, though. He just continued eyeing the gloomy, starless sky.

“So…” Jaemin broke the awkward silence. “My birthday is tomorrow.”

Jeno shifts his head to face Jaemin and fakes a slightly shocked face, pretending as though he didn’t know about the latter’s special day. He flashes a little smile that sent butterflies to Jaemin’s stomach before glancing at his wrist watch.

“Which is in about fifteen minutes?” Jaemin nods excitedly, slightly flushing from the closeness. “Looks like I’ll be the first to wish you then!”

Jaemin smiles. As much as he first found Jeno extremely physically attractive, he felt comfort in his presence. Different from the comfort he feels with the rest of the boys. Call it cheesy but he feels as though he’s known Jeno for years - like a soulmate.

So when Jeno asks him why he was tossing and turning, unable to sleep that night, Jaemin tells him everything. The story of how his mother died giving birth to him. How his father blamed him for everything and treated him like . And last but not least, how he was kicked out of his own home on his twelfth birthday for coming out to his father.

Jeno was pretty much shocked at how much the younger had to go through at that age. Jaemin was always so bubbly and loud that anyone would immediately think that he was a happy-go-lucky kid.

Glancing down at the sleeping boy on his shoulder, Jeno smiles for the millionth time that night. It was already three minutes past midnight, so he wraps the blanket around him a little tighter and cranes his head to place a short kiss on his forehead.

“Happy birthday, Jaemin-ah.”

 

-

Dat JaeNo tho :') Anyways, I'm really sorry I updated a week late! I didn't expect to be so busy with work and trainings uhuhu :( Please accept chapter four coming up in an hour or two as an apology hehe

ALSO 123 SUBSCRIBERS?????? ASDFGHJKL THANK YOU GUYS YA'LL ARE AMAZING ♡♡♡ I feel extremely touched reading all your comments and seeing how much you guys enjoy the fic so far! Hope yall love this chap too hehe