When Jaemin cracked his eyes open that morning, he didn’t expect to be tied to a chair facing a pink wall. He strains his neck, because damn whoever tied him up was really good at knots, and takes in his surroundings. He grimaces when he realises that the whole room was goddamn pink.

Goddamn pink was an understatement, Jaemin thinks. The pink was so overwhelming he felt his nonexistent manliness draining out of his body just by the sitting in that room.

And just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, he looked down to see himself dressed in the most ridiculous and not to mention hideous pink jumpsuit.

Whoever changed him out of his pyjamas, he didn’t want to know.

Jaemin rolls his eyes however, because he knew why he was in that situation. And it was so blatantly obvious which idiots were behind it. Who else would have that disgusting picture of him sleeping?

But deep inside, he was thankful of course. His friends were complete airheads and annoying as but they were really thoughtful for doing these things. (Even though tying him to a chair in a pink room was the worst idea ever, honestly.)

Jaemin jumps and nearly screams when a familiar hand grabs him by the shoulder and spins him around. He jumps a little once more when he is greeted by six boys he knew all too well, popping pink confetti in his pretty face. 

“SURPRISE!!”

Jaemin simply threw his head back in laughter as his stupid friends sing him a birthday song in Korean, Mandarin and English, their voices breaking here and there from puberty. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. 

“I hate you guys.” He shakes his head, but the huge smile on his face never faltered in the slightest bit. “You’re all idiots.”

“Nah you totally love us, hyung.” Ren Jun retorts.

“Unfortunately.” Jaemin sighs and as if on cue, the six boys roll their eyes. “Now get me out of these ropes, please?”

“Nuh uh,” Chen Le replies with a playful grin. He mumbles out a mixture of broken Korean, fluent Mandarin and some English, the whole room comically whipping their heads towards Ren Jun who says that Jaemin is going to be sitting there till this is over and be forced to do everything we want.

Jaemin screams internally because what the he can’t even move his arms by a centimetre. What if his nose started to itch? Or worse, there was something on his face and he couldn’t wipe it off to make sure he actually looked good on his own birthday.

“Ya’ll are gonna get it from me after this.” Jaemin growls through gritted teeth, but his pretty face just made him look like an angry kitten. The boys just laugh.

“You gotta blow the candles first, hyung!” Renjun pushes through the small crowd with an unsurprisingly pink cake. Jaemin rolls his eyes but breaks into a large grin anyways.

He shuts his eyes and makes a wish. 

Opening his eyes, he is faced with six of the most idiotic grins plastered on faces he would never get sick of seeing. (Though he would never openly admit it to them.)

Blowing out the fifteen candles, Jaemin smiles widely. Even when he feels someone slap a handful of whipped cream on his cheeks, the smile never left his face, because all he ever needed in his life were these six dumb boys, no matter how annoying they were. (read: Lee Donghyuck).

And not to forget that one boy whom he can bravely call as someone special. 

-

Shuffling his hands through countless polaroids, Jaemin picks out his favourite ones. He sticks them onto the wall next to his bed and takes a good look. He rakes his eyes past his solo polaroid, pink cream smothered all over his face. 

He stops at the one in the centre, where the boys forced Jeno to kiss his cheek. He flushes once more remembering how pink they were afterwards. (He swore the pink in the room couldn’t beat the pink on their faces.)

Lastly, he lingers a little longer at their group selfie, faces all squashed up to fit into the small frame of the polaroid. He giggles at the amount of struggle they went through just to take a simple group photo.

He loves these boys so much, he could never imagine a life without them. So he grabs a sharpie and scribbles down the wish he made.

I wish we would always be like this.

-

Donghyuck stares at the clock ticking ever so slowly on the wall. Visibly bored, he rests his chin on his palm and looks around the ‘classroom’. (Though he couldn't exactly call it that because it was just a normal room that looks like a classroom, and there were literally only three people in there.)

He stops at Mark who is obediently writing down notes. He leans a little closer, somewhat admiring the concentration on his face - the little wrinkles formed between his eyebrows.

“Hey Marco.” He whispers in said boy’s ears, slightly blowing some warm air. Mark simply hums in response, eyes still glued to his notebook. Donghyuck pouts at the lack of response as usual.

“Wanna skip the rest of tutoring and head out?” He constantly pokes the boy’s cheeks, but Mark still doesn’t budge. “Helloooooo?”

“What for?” Mark mumbles as he scribbles down more math equations he probably won’t ever use in the future. “And how are we gonna even leave this room and not come back? We still have three hours till our next break.”

Donghyuck crooks an eyebrow and leans back in his chair with his arms crossed.

“We go to the bathroom, duh?”

“Please, what makes you think he’ll let us go together?” Mark scoffs, finally looking up from his damn book. He points at their math tutor, Mr. Cho, with his pen and as if on cue, the tutor turns around from the whiteboard and faces the two boys with a slight frown on his face.

Donghyuck quickly settles back at his desk and pretends to go back to “doing work”. He tears a small part of his notebook and scribbles something down. When he was sure that Mr. Cho wasn’t looking, he flings the crumpled paper at Mark’s desk.

Jesus Christ this boy doesn’t know when to stop. Mark scowls in his mind, opening up the crumpled paper ball and reading it.

 

I have an idea.

I don’t wanna know ._.

Aw, come on bub give me a chance ;)

Ugh you’re insufferable. What is it?

Just watch, and wait for my cue <3

 

Mark raises a brow as he reads the last message. He turns towards the younger boy to see him smirking, a bag of white powder in his hands. Mark’s eyes widen.

“How in the hell do you have that?!”

“Shhh,” Donghyuck shushes him, pressing a finger to his lips as if to accentuate his point. “I have my ways.”

Mark watches Donghyuck slowly get up from his seat and tip toe towards the door. He motions him to follow, so Mark quickly shoves his things under the desk and slides out of his seat quietly.

“On the count of three, we run out, kay bub?”

“Wait wha-“

“One… Two…” Donghyuck cuts him off. And on the count of three, Donghyuck flings the bag of powder at Mr. Cho’s feet like a grenade. The bag bursts and immediately, white powder fills the entire room. The boys hear their tutor gasping in shock but they don’t care.

Mark froze at the sight of it, slightly shocked as well. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and grabs him by the arm, pulling him out of the classroom. Mr. Cho calls out for them but they ignore him and continue running down the hallway, hand clasped tightly together.

Dashing past numerous care takers who look at them weirdly (they don’t do anything to stop them because, kids) Mark and Donghyuck somehow made it through the front door. They continue to skip a few blocks down for good measure.

Catching their breaths at the traffic light, their cheeks flush when they realise their fingers were still tightly interlaced. Quickly pulling his hand away, Mark looks around the neighbourhood.

He never really went out much ever since he met the other four boys. Even if he did, he only hung out at the shopping streets just five minutes away. He was never exactly comfortable with going too far out, away from the orphanage.

Poor kid wasn’t that fond of the outside world.

“So where are we headed?” Mark questions the younger when they cross the road towards a street he’s never been to.

“Just follow me, bub. You’ll find out when we get there. It’s a pretty long walk though.”

Mark huffs, blowing his bangs out of his face, and grudgingly trails behind the younger.

-

Mark was about to whine regarding the ache in his feet (because what the hell they’ve been walking for almost half and hour already) when Donghyuck turns right through an alley. At the end, he sees a field-like clearing. There were huge tents and it was bustling with people, almost like a carnival. Mark gapes as he scans the numerous stalls.

“This is the Gajok State Fair.” Donghyuck explains as they walk through rows of stalls offering scrumptious food, mini games, activities and the like. “Jeno and I always came here with our parents every month. It’s like our family hangout tradition.”

Mark could almost hear the sadness in the younger boy’s tone, but decides against mentioning anything. He just nods as he looks around the place, seeing different people of different ages enjoy the company of their loved ones.

“But we’re not here to buy anything of course, we’re broke kids.” Donghyuck suddenly jokes as if he wasn’t reminiscing bittersweet memories just moments ago. “Come on slowpoke, we’re almost there.”

The two boys weave their way through the crowd and somehow or rather, they end up in a park by a small lake. Mark follows Donghyuck further down the park, the number of people surrounding them decreasing by the minute. He stops when they’re pretty far away from civilisation and there’s a little dock by the lake.

They plant their butts down at the edge of the dock, feet dangling just centimetres above the murky water. Silence lingers between them for a few minutes before Mark speaks up.

“Why’d you take me here, or rather, out in general?”

“You seemed pretty spaced out these days, that’s so unlike you.” Donghyuck starts. “You haven’t made a single prank in a week!”

“You don’t even know what’s like me, we’ve only known each other over a month.” Mark grumbles under his breath, but Donghyuck hears him anyways.

“Then help me know you, Marco.”

Mark wants to laugh because Donghyuck actually being serious with him was extremely strange to see. But he sees that the younger boy wasn’t kidding so he takes a deep breath and let’s it all out.

He didn’t expect to do it, much less to the annoying brat Lee Donghyuck, but he tells him everything that has been bothering him for days.

“… It’s just, ever since Jaemin’s birthday, I realise how quickly we’re all getting older. And sooner or later, we’re all going to leave the orphanage and go our separate ways, and I’m just scared, man.” Mark rambles. “What’s worse is I’ll be the first to leave and I don’t know what I’m going to do then.”

The older boy buries his face in his palms in despair, feeling his whole body shake in fear of what’s to come of the future. It’s the first time he’s voiced out about something like that to anyone, and he was quite surprised because the last person he thought he would tell was Donghyuck.

The latter has never seen the former look so scared and broken. Rubbing the older’s back in attempt to comfort him, Donghyuck couldn’t help but relate to that feeling. He never really made any conscious thoughts about the future, always deciding to just live in the present.

“Hey don’t get so worked up over it now, bub. You still got time.” Donghyuck says softly, hoping his words would at least cheer the older boy up because he wouldn’t know how to deal with an over emotional boy. “A year and a half is more than enough to think about what you wanna do later on. For now just live in the moment, man.”

Mark sniffs before managing to squeeze out a slight laugh at Donghyuck’s attempt to lighten the mood with his fake American accent.

“Please don’t ever speak like that again, it’s gross.”

“Shut up, you’re just jealous cause I’m swaggier than you~” Donghyuck coos, pinching the older boy’s cheeks.

“Ugh,” Mark groans and slaps Donghyuck’s hands away from his precious cheeks. “The only good thing about leaving the orphanage first is that I don’t need to deal with you any longer.”

“Hey come on now, Marco. Can't we talk about more fun things?” Donghyuck pouts. “We’re here to relax, not stress out over the future kay!”

“Oh sure thing,” Mark retorts sarcastically, rolling his eyes in the process. “Let’s start with why on earth you still insist on sleeping on my bed when you have your own?!”

“Eyy you like it, don’t deny it!” Donghyuck teases ignoring Mark’s constant complains, the slight pink tinge on his cheeks giving way. “Yours is way more comfortable and way bigger than my pathetic excuse of a bed. Why do you get such special treatment, anyway?”

“What special treatment, you idiot.” Mark lightly flicks him in the forehead. (Was this payback for the first time they met?) “I’ve been at the orphanage for over eight years already, our room used to be my room first. Besides, Henry always manages to get me what I want, somehow.”

Donghyuck laughs, and Mark watches how his eyes crinkle into pretty half moons. “Yeah that hyung isn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box, is he?”

“But he has a good heart. He’s like a brother to me.” Mark smiles, remembering all the good memories he’s had with the caretaker.

Soon enough, the two boys continue blabbing about anything and everything about their lives. They grow closer and learn more about each other as the sun goes down. The evening wind rustling the leaves of the trees as they witness a beautiful bond begin to blossom.

-

It’s been almost six months ever since Donghyuck and Jeno came in, and you could say that the friendship between the seven boys were unbreakable.

They’ve been very good boys of course, helping to run errands, punctually attending tutoring and of course creating some havoc once in a while.

(By havoc meaning Mark attempting to make breakfast one day, and effectively waking up the whole house with the smell of burning eggs.)

Nothing much has changed - other than Mark and Donghyuck suddenly becoming the best of friends ever since they came back from the lake that day. It became sort of their hangout spot now, and they never fail to drop by the dock or the fair every time either of them was feeling low. 

When the new year came round and Mark was feeling anxious about the future again, Donghyuck immediately dragged him out of the orphanage for a distraction again. The older felt eternally grateful for that.

They may be on better terms now, but Donghyuck still never failed to annoy the crap out of him, always managing to rile him up and effectively get the best of reactions. (aka a blushing and stuttering Mark Lee.)

Of course, who could forget Jaemin and Jeno being all obvious and disgusting. The boys wanted to gag every time the two are shamelessly flirting and smiling like idiots around each other.

(One time Chen Le caught the two fast asleep on the rooftop before dinner, limbs all tangled up. The Chinese boy snapped a quick picture before waking them up with a splash of nice cold water.)

As disgusting as they were however, Donghyuck was genuinely happy at how much brighter his cousin smiles when he is around the pretty boy. Jeno of course repays his cousin with more teasing every time he catches him returning to the orphanage in the late evenings with a certain Mark Lee.

Donghyuck would always laugh it off and say that they’re just close friends who help each other out.

Things were almost perfect, the boys were happy,  and laughter constantly filled the walls of NCT Children’s Society. Until one February afternoon, that a knock came at the front door while the boys were messing around in the play room. Standing by the hallway near the entrance, the boys watch as Heechul greets a young couple.

Mark’s eyes widen as he realises the situation. He turns towards Jaemin who shares the same expression. There hasn’t been a single adoption offer in months, he thought they were all too late in their teens to be adopted by now. 

Donghyuck and Jeno just look at each other in confusion.

“What’s going on, guys?” The tanner boy asks, eyeing the three adults who were making their way towards them. The boys who knew what was about to happen space out a little, clearly not expecting something like that to be happening so suddenly.

“Hey boys!” Heechul begins. His eyes travel towards Jeno, and Jaemin visibly pales, shakily whispering a small no under his breath.

“Jeno, dear, can you please come with me to my office?”

 

-

Oh noooo Jenoooooo :( The first part was kinda Jaemin centric oops I got carried away. I NEED MORE JAENO IN MY LIFE JFC.

Ok anyways so the story was - I was going to post this chapter this morning when I woke up because I fell asleep finishing up the chapter last night lmao. But when I was proof reading it this morning I deleted a whole chunk of the chapter because I was not satisfied with my writing so of course I had to re write like over a thousand words again soooooooo heh. But on a side note, I LOVE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS YOU'RE ALL SO CUTE IM CRYIN. MUCH LOVE YALL. I HOPE U GUYS ARE ENJOYING IT SO FAR. THE OF THE STORY IS COMING SOON ONO.

XOXO