Taeil does not get jealous of a 16-year-old.

Not even when said 16-year-old is clinging onto the object of his affection and ruin his plan of pursuing the status he's been longing for with Jung Jaehyun, which by now he can only establish with his right hand.

“You might wanna keep your thoughts to yourself, hyung,” Donghyuk says from the other end of the couch.

Taeil responds by rolling his eyes at the younger. “You're saying that like you're the purest person on earth.”

“I'm not,” Donghyuk replies and as if to prove his point, he reaches out to slap the joystick off of Taeil's hands before shooting a goal against an unmoving goalkeeper. The speaker blares out a celebratory jingle as the TV screen announces the winning of player 1. “But I would love to not have the image of my favorite hyung on a date with his hand in my mind.”

That earns him a whack on the head by a pillow. Taeil wishes it was a shoe instead.

“I hope you weren't referring to me though when you said 16-year-old. I mean, I know people get jealous of me a lot because, well, I'm ing amazing-”

This time Taeil throws him the controller, which the spawn of Satan manages to dodge, before leaving to his room.

- - -

Dance practice is maybe the only time Taeil can safely have Jaehyun to himself although he has to make sure to shoot deadly glares to Taeyong who seems to be way too touchy with Jaehyun (with everyone actually) when it comes to directing the choreography. But Jaehyun always ends up drenched in sweat and needing to lie down during breaks and while Taeil is in favor of the sight (because imagine the numerous cause- or maybe a particular one- for Jaehyun to pant relentlessly like that), he would prefer to respect Jaehyun’s space and give him the moment to relieve his muscles and catch his breath.

But then NCT Dream’s promotion is coming and they have to take turns using the practice room with the younger unit and sweet, ambitious and highly driven Lee Jeno and Park Jisung choose to arrive early and watch their hyungs practice before their own schedule starts, instead of using their time to chill down after coming back from school. And the ever so friendly Jaehyun-hyung never forgets to greet them and keep them company until the rest of their team are gathered for their dance practice session.

Taeil doesn’t mind- he really doesn’t, because one of the many traits of Jaehyun’s that Taeil loves is his thoughtfulness; always making sure that other people are taken care of, always so open to questions and favors, always outgoing and reliable and understanding that Taeil sometimes wonders if Jaehyun ever got tired from putting others before himself.

(His question has been answered with the several nights in which Jaehyun lets himself into his room to ask him to sing.)

(The first night, when he turned around to ask what for the younger has splayed himself on the lower bunk, eyes closed and not budging even when Sicheng told him to lie down properly.)

But he can’t help the growing uneasiness that sends his heart clenching in discomfort when Jaehyun stays a little bit too long in the practice room to talk to Jeno, or when they share an inside joke that only the two of them can decipher, or when Jeno asks Jaehyun to cook him lunch for school (and Jaehyun does, and adds a small jar of pudding for dessert). He knows the two were quite close- in fact; Jaehyun is close with everyone, courtesy of his amiability- before whole gang of 13 boys split into their designated units.

Taeil assures himself that they’re just catching up like the good friends they are, and it’s rather rare to see Jaehyun looking younger than usual; he looks exactly his age when conversing with Jeno, instead of two or three years older. There is still a bit of that mature charisma (but that’s because Jaehyun is actually older than Jeno), yet Taeil can sense the fresh, childish nature from Jaehyun that has never been shown during unit U and 127 activities because while he’s categorized as one of the youngest, Jaehyun is the more experienced member who is put with quite a high expectation on his shoulders.

“Taeil-hyung?” Sicheng asks from the bottom bunk.

“Yes?”

“Are you… maybe…” Sicheng’s voice trails off as he searches for the word- Taeil imagines his roommate is clamping his chin with his thumb and index finger, and smiles to himself upon the fact that they’re closer now that Taeil can even tell Sicheng’s smallest quirks. “Uh… jídù?”

“You mean jiltu?”

“Ah, yes yes, that.”

“Mm… Well I’m not especially jealous—”

“But you are?”

Taeil clears his throat. Sicheng is getting better with his Korean that, although he’s happy that Sicheng is capable in exchanging the venting of thoughts now, Taeil misses the times when he’d reply with, “I’m going to sleep,” when Taeil asks if he’s eaten yet.

“Can you switch off the lights please?” Taeil says after awhile, trying to drop the topic.

“My stomach is full.”

“What?”

“Dinner was delicious.”

Taeil’s brow furrowed and he peeks into Sicheng’s bunk to find the younger is smiling at him innocently.

“The lights?” Taeil tries again, pointing at the switch next to the door.

But Sicheng just blinks and tilts his head, even after Taeil gives him a frown upon his fake act.

(Taeil cancelled his thoughts of missing the old roommate conversations.)

“Suit yourself,” the older says, throwing his head back to the pillow and pulling the blanket up to his head to cover his vision.

“Good night, Taeil-hyung.”

It only takes three minutes until Taeil climbs down the ladder and walks over to the door to switch the lights off. He doesn’t forget to kick Sicheng’s by the leg as he crawls back up to his bed.

- - -

Jeno is wearing Jaehyun’s shirt.

Jeno is wearing Jaehyun’s shirt and sleeping in Jaehyun’s bed.

Jeno is wearing Jaehyun’s shirt and sleeping in Jaehyun’s bed with Jaehyun.

“Holy !” Taeil slaps his mouth shut as if he’s the one who just cursed out loud, not Mark, who is now jumping off his bed in panic and running over to Jeno to shake him awake. “Dude, wake up! We’re late!”

Jeno almost slides off the bed but Jaehyun immediately wakes and pulls him by the shoulder to prevent the fall. Beneath his chest, Taeil’s heart is clenching and unclenching non-stop.

As Jeno gets to his feet and collects his books and pencil case from the desk (Taeil hopes they really were just studying last night, nothing more), Taeil examines the t-shirt that Jeno is wearing; no doubt it’s Jaehyun’s, considering the shoulder lines are way too big for it to be Jeno’s or Mark’s and too clean for it to be Yuta’s.

“Good morning,” Jeno greets him with a hurried bow as he walks pass Taeil, out the door and runs to his room to get ready for school.

“Get up,” Taeil tells Jaehyun, surprising himself with how stern his voice he sounds. He leans back against the doorframe and folds his arms over his chest, eyes looking everywhere but Jaehyun. “Help me out with breakfast.”

Turning around, he tries to ignore the sound of Jaehyun stretching his limbs on the bed. He tells himself there’s no time to bask in the beauty that is Jung Jaehyun’s flexed muscles.

Not when he can’t bask himself in the arms of Jung Jaehyun like Jeno did.

- - -

It’s only expected of Jeno to choose Jaehyun as the hyung he wants to teach how to use the hoverboard to. And Taeil, despite the misfortune, is glad that Donghyuk chooses him because then he wouldn’t have to hide, wouldn’t have to mask his expression into that sort of caring and tactful hyung because 1) Donghyuk is a little who doesn’t deserve any of Taeil’s loving attention; 2) the sight of Jaehyun and Jeno standing so close to each other and holding hands to help the older balance himself sends a huge bitter blow to his gut and makes him sick with jealousy- there, he said it.

“How’s your progress so far?” Donghyuk asks him as he moves to his side and starts explaining the choreography. “Have you dumped your current limb-friend yet?”

Taeil doesn’t even have the energy to jab Donghyuk on the neck.

“When does he ever look that lively and free with us?” Taeil sighs, eyes never leaving Jaehyun. Before he realizes it, his hoverboard is bringing him to the couple and Jaehyun is looking back at him because he just bumped into Jeno.

“Please don’t bother Jeno,” Jaehyun says with a smile, dragging Jeno away from him to practice at a different spot.

Donghyuk walks over to him then, eyes wide and mouth agape upon the scene.

“Hyung. I know your thirst for Jaehyun-hyung is unquenchable. But there are cameras. And minors.”

“Shut up. I wasn’t even thinking of doing anything to him.”

“How was I supposed to know that when you’re practically ogling at him? I thought you were going to lunge at him and take him on the spot, what with using the hoverboard and all. I should’ve warned you that that is not what hoverboards are used for.”

“Oh my god you twerp, shut up and teach me the choreography already.”

He is able to focus on the dance at least; Donghyuk is unexpectedly a quite decent teacher that Taeil manages to master the moves in less than 10 minutes. But as they are told to perform what they’ve been taught and Jaehyun automatically lines up next to him like he ing belongs there, he finds himself restraining his expression to surface and puts on a camera-default facade instead- unfortunately Jaehyun is not one to be fooled.

You okay? Jaehyun mouths, after Taeil finishes showing the camera how to execute the choreography in a cute manner.

Taeil just nods and proceeds with another dance trial together, not sparing a chance for Jaehyun to question him further.

He almost loses his cool though, when they are all finished with the broadcast and walk out of the practice room on hoverboards, hand-in-hand with their respective partners. Jeno is clinging onto Jaehyun who has his arms around Jeno to hold him in place on the hoverboard with him. The image of Jeno wrapped in Jaehyun’s arms in Jaehyun’s bed that one morning flashes back in his mind and he clenches his jaw.

“Seriously hyung, my arms are going to fall off if you’re gripping that hard,” Donghyuk tells him as he steers Taeil out the room. “I suggest you tell Jaehyun-hyung about your feelings. I can’t keep being the victim of your brutality whenever Jeno and Jaehyun-hyung are interacting.”

“Believe me, I want to.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“Well who would guarantee that that’ll change everything? He always lets everyone cling onto him anyway. It’s his way of ‘providing support’.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“It is. I’ve been observing.”

“But you never complained until Jeno.”

“I- what?”

“Just saying. You’ve been okay all this time with Taeyong-hyung, Doyoung-hyung, Mark-hyung. You’ve never been jealous until Jeno’s in the picture. What did Jeno do to deserve all the hate?”

“I don’t hate him.”

“Yeah. You can tell me that when you stop giving him those glares.”

“I don’t hate Jeno. He’s a sweet kid.”

“But you hate the fact that he’s making you feel jealous?”

Taeil arches one brow at Donghyuk. When did this little become so smart? Or is Taeil getting too obvious?

“I’m right,” Donghyuk answers for him, adding a wiggle of his eyebrows before pushing Taeil off and steals the hoverboard from him.

Taeil falls face first, but he decides it doesn’t hurt as much as when he catches Jaehyun nuzzling at Jeno’s hair a few steps away.

He cringes at himself; has he always been this melancholic? Or is he just falling deeper in love with Jaehyun?

He cringes harder.

- - -

After contemplating for a while on his bed, Taeil decides Donghyuk was indeed right. Perhaps telling Jaehyun how he feels and the fact that he’s jealous does nothing to solve his problem, but at least it’s out of his system. And maybe by then he can focus on moving on instead; he knew since long that his original plan of pursuing Jaehyun wouldn’t succeed anyway.

But he still needs some support and someone to tell him that they’ll help him get back on his feet post-confession. So when he hears the door to his shared bedroom being creaked open and closed, indicating Sicheng's return, he wastes no time in blurting out his thoughts to SIcheng in hopes of the encouragement he needs.

“I’m going to confess to Jaehyun tomorrow,” he says, eyes fixated at the ceiling as if he’s afraid of seeing Sicheng’s reaction.

There is a slight pause before he hears the sound of footsteps approaching the lower bunk and the creaking noise of the mattress. He imagines Sicheng is leaning back on his arms, waiting for Taeil to continue.

“I realized I’ve become so pathetic lately. I have not even the slightest rights to be jealous of Jeno just because he can get so close to Jaehyun like it’s that natural.”

Taeil feels his eyes are starting to sting so he draws his forearms to cover his eyes. Gosh, he’s been trying to fix his image ever since he was seen crying in one of their shows because of- because of Jung Jaehyun, but here he is now; crying for the same reason. At least Sicheng is the only one witnessing now.

“But I really can’t help it. How am I supposed to feel when meanwhile, I had to muster up my courage and put a lot of effort only to stop being so awkward around Jaehyun? God, it’s ridiculous, I know. But I like him so much that it becomes difficult for me to control my feelings, you know? And the worse thing is that I can’t do anything about it.”

There is a hand touching his shoulder, massaging it gently in hopes to be a soothing gesture and Taeil takes a deep breath. He feels as if he’s back to being an emo teenager- the things Jung Jaehyun does to him.

“So I’m going to let him know how I feel tomorrow. Just to get it out of my head. It’s not like he likes me back anyway so might as well get it over with and move on.”

Sicheng is still saying nothing and Taeil feels sorry- poor boy might be overwhelmed by his emotional outburst and doesn’t understand most of what he just said, but still manages to spare a kind gesture to cheer Taeil up.

The hand on his shoulder slides off and returns a few seconds later with a tissue. Taeil pulls his arms away from his face to take the tissue and as he turns his head to say thank you, he pauses.

“Hi.”

Never in his life has he ever felt his face heating up so fast.

“Jaehyun,” Taeil says, pushing himself up to lean on his elbows.

Jaehyun is staring back at him- into him between the railings of his bunk and Taeil wants to bury himself alive.

“Where is Sicheng?”

“He told me he and I should switch beds tonight. When I asked him why he just shoved me out of my room.”

Taeil frowns. Sicheng must’ve seen him struggling to contain his emotion during the broadcast earlier.

“You like me, Taeil-hyung?”

Taeil chooses to respond with excessive blinking of his eyes.

Jaehyun laughs and Taeil’s heart swells at the sight of his dimples. “This somehow reminds me of the message relay occasion—“

“Don’t remind me of that please, I was, and still am, truly embarrassed. Forget that ever happened,” Taeil interjects, holding out his hand to Jaehyun to tell him to stop but the younger takes it through the bar. His heart leaps in his chest.

“Ouch,” Jaehyun says jokingly. “Are you disregarding my feelings then?”

“Ha-ha very funny. I said drop it.”

“Why does it feel like I’m the one rejected when you’re the one who just confessed? Should I move on now that it’s over?”

“You kids are getting better in teasing your hyungs, don’t make me tell the manager about this.”

“Hyung.”

Jaehyun is staring at him again and Taeil hates the way he tries to read him through his piercing gaze.

“Do you know why I ask you to sing for me?”

Taeil blinks, not sure if the question is rhetoric until Jaehyun raises his eyebrows at him. “Because you like my voice?” Taeil wants to punch himself on the face for sounding so arrogant.

“Hmm, that’s not wrong. But do you know what else I like?”

Taeil doesn’t say, but it’s because he really doesn’t know the answer this time.

“Or, whom?”

Oh.

Oh.

Jaehyun must’ve seen the red flush intensifying on his face because he’s squeezing Taeil’s hand in his in amusement and his smile is stretched wider that it reaches his eyes. “Can you come down so I can kiss you?”

Taeil really doesn’t want to because he’s embarrassed himself enough for one night. But it seems like his body has a mind of its own and decides to refuse listening to him. It’s okay, he thinks, he’s been ‘betrayed’ plenty of times by his dongsaengs (mostly Donghyuk) that he’s not surprised if his own body would eventually go against him too. Besides, the idea of having Jaehyun’s lips on his, how full that would make his heart feel, and how close that would be in reaching that desirable achievement of his pitiful longing, is an enough reason for him to push himself up and climbs off his bed.

There are hands resting on his waist and turning him around, as Taeil is midway down the ladder. Following that is a pair of impatient lips crushing against his, engulfing his shriek, and a pair of shoulder on which he places his hands to regain his balance as he sits on the wooden block.

“Aaah,” Jaehyun sighs, burying his face in Taeil’s chest as he nuzzles against his collarbone. “I can’t believe you got jealous of a 16-year-old.”

Taeil’s heart is threatening to burst out of his ribcage at the closeness because wow, Jaehyun is here, enveloping him in his arms. But that doesn’t stop him from flicking the younger’s forehead.

Taeil thinks he should thank Donghyuk for this. And Sicheng for letting them have the room to themselves.

And Jeno for making him come clean about his feelings.