Word Count: 1105

In which Jeno is a speedster who is somehow always late for his dates, while Jaemin is a telepath who just wants to find love.

-

“I heard you were late for that date Donghyuck set you up on, again.” Mark reprimands his best friend, who was unsurprisingly shifting from game to game in the arcade within seconds.

Mark rolls his eyes at Jeno’s lack of response before disappearing into thin air, black dust replacing his former position, before appearing again next to his best friend with a few tokens in his palm. He inserts two of them into the slot and picks up the blue gun, staring at their reflections on the black screen.

“You know, for someone who runs at the speed of light, your lack of punctuality intrigues me.”

Jeno gives the older a little smile and shrugs before turning his attention back to the screen, effectively shooting all the virtual zombies dead before Mark could even pull the trigger on his gun. He ignores the groans and complains of you’re such a cheater and swiftly steals the remaining tokens from his pockets before moving to another game.

“You’re setting me up on another date aren’t cha?” Jeno asks with a click of his tongue, hands almost disappearing with how fast he was manoeuvring the game handles, eyes not even leaving the screen. “Why do you guys keep insisting on me getting a boyfriend? I’m totally fine being single.”

“Don’t lie to yourself, man.” Mark gives up on trying to join his best friend at the games, choosing to lean on the machine next to the latter instead. “I’ve seen the way you look at those cute couples in school and even those animes that you watch. So full of longing and want.”

What do you know what I want, Jeno whispers under his breath but Mark hears him anyways. The older sighs before grasping the boy’s shoulder, squeezing it with encouragement.

“Just go on this last one okay?” Mark pleads. “He’s an old friend of Hyuck’s and he’s really nice, I’m 100% sure you’ll like him.”

“That’s what you say every time, hyung.” Jeno complains, bending over to insert more tokens into the machine. “But they all turn out to be weird or cocky with their powers.”

Mark ignores him and stuffs a piece of paper scribbled with the time place and place of the blind date into the pocket of his flannel. “If this one doesn’t work out, I promise I’ll try to stop setting you up on these dates, okay?”

Jeno turns to look at his best friend with a raised brow, however his hands were still working on the machine. “Really? You promise?”

“Yeah yeah. Just please be on time, for once.”

-

Jaemin slides into the booth towards the back of the café, mind buzzing with numerous thoughts - mostly not his. He tries to drown them out by concentrating on his unsweetened iced tea, face contorting into a grimace when he tastes the bitterness.

He glances at the ugly clock on the wall and huffs, tapping his feet on the floor impatiently. Where is he?

He whips out his phone and sends a text, smiling when he gets a reply almost immediately.

(Hyuck I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes and he still isn’t here.)

(Aish, that guy has a reputation for being late. Just wait a little longer, Nana.)

(Ugh, fine. He better be worth it.)

Jaemin looks around the cafe, eyes wandering towards the random customers who seemed so calm on the outside, yet their thoughts were actually in a frenzy. He winces and shakes his head, not wanting to know what that sleazy guy with his girlfriend three tables away was thinking.

He is about to go back to sipping his bitter tea when he feels a gust of wind past his face, and suddenly there’s a very handsome boy sitting across him.

“Uh? Hi?” Jaemin starts, too shocked by what just happened to read the stranger’s mind.

“You’re Na Jaemin right? Donghyuck’s friend.” Jaemin nods slowly. Was this guy who he thinks he was? “I’m Jeno, your uh… Date.”

“Oh, you’re late.”

“Yeah sorry about that I -“

“You were watching Naruto and lost track of time, it’s okay I guess.” Jaemin cuts him off. He widens his eyes once he realised he’s read his mind without his permission. “ sorry, I didn’t mean to read your mind without asking.”

“It’s fine,” Jeno smiles, eyes forming two crescent moons. Jaemin almost melts at the sight. Almost. “A telepath eh? That’s pretty cool.”

He ignores the pretty boy’s protest of It’s not as cool as it seems, and suddenly shifts next to him in less than a second. “Say, if I change my thoughts fast enough, would you still be able to read them?”

“U-uhm, not really? W-why?” Jaemin stutters, taken aback by how close Jeno was to his face. Not that he was complaining, honestly.

“Cause I don’t think you’d want to know what’s been going through my mind since I saw you.” Jeno smirks at the way Jaemin tries to inch away from him, tinge of pink dusting his cheeks. “Unless you do?”

Jaemin gulps and attempts to filter out Jeno’s thoughts, but the boy really was thinking too fast for him to catch on. Jeno merely laughs at the younger’s confused expression, shifting himself back into the seat opposite him, sparing him from further embarrassment.

The speedster slows down his thoughts, egging the telepath on once more with a slight tilt of his head and a little smile gracing his lips.

You’re beautiful.

Jaemin’s cheeks glow an even deeper shade of red, before muttering a soft thank you. He looks up at Jeno from under his thick lashes and returns his smile with a shy one of his own.

Jesus Na Jaemin stop it, you’re being such a sissy, he curses himself. He realises that he accidentally said it out loud when Jeno suddenly laughs, mouth hung open and eyes crinkling into those annoying crescent moons once more.

The telepath couldn’t take the atmosphere and simply joins him in fits of laughter, the pair not caring about how ridiculous they probably looked to others. Soon enough, the two found themselves completely immersed into hearty conversations regarding anything and everything, Jeno throwing in a random compliment or two about the pretty boy. The staff nearly had to chase them out of the café when it was closing time and the pair barely moved.

(If Mark was there, he wouldn’t hear the end of him constantly annoying him with how right he was about this date.)

-

“Hey Jeno, don’t you ever get tired of running so fast?”

“Tired of running through your mind? Never.”

-

I'm such a Jaeno trash lmao. I may or may not continue this au keke. Hope yall enjoyed this!

xx