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A small sound was heard as the door closed behind him. Both boys looked over to the origin of the sound, shrugging it off and continuing their search.

Jaemin was the first to stand up, stretching his body as he did so.

"I don't think it's here" he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

Jeno sighed, standing up and moving closer to Jaemin, shoving him slightly away by pushing his chest.

"I told you!"

Jaemin laughed at Jeno's annoyance. He grabbed the back of Jeno's shoulders and began to guide him to the exit.

"Let's look somewhere else then"

Jeno nodded as he crossed his arms. Jaemin reached out to the door handle and pulled it down. Nothing happened. He tried again, pulling it down, pushing the door away from him and afterward pulling it close to him. Nothing happened. He looked back to Jeno.

"I can't open it"

Jeno uncrossed his arms and tried to open the door too. It wouldn't budge. He tried again but became impatient after four tries. He began shaking the door almost violently for a few seconds before releasing his grip on the handle.

"It's locked" he confronted Jaemin.

"It can't be"

-"It is"

"No no, let me try again"

Jeno moved aside giving Jaemin the chance to try again, even though he knew that nothing would have changed since their first try five minutes earlier.

"What do we do?" Jaemin seemed to be the most panicked one.

-"I don't know" Jeno shrugged his shoulders, faking his calmness.

"There must be something we can do"

                "Do you think there's a key here somewhere?"

-"We can try looking"

Jaemin nodded and was fast gone. He seemed desperate to get out.

 "Be careful, don't get yourself hurt"

-"Yeah yeah…" Jaemin waved his hands at Jeno, shrugging off the slight concern in Jeno's voice.

           "I can't see anything"

               "Ahhhh this is so frustrating"

"It's going to be okay" Jeno walked over to Jaemin, focusing on him as he confidently walked into the corner of the counter. He flinched and let out a cry of pain as he rubbed the sore spot underneath his ribs.

"And you said I had to be careful"

-"Shut up"

Jeno halted over to Jaemin, still holding onto his side. The pain was stinging like small stabs. He tried his best to shrug it off but the pain managed to peek through. Jaemin's expression quickly changed to worry. Soon after, he was standing next to Jeno with a hand placed above Jeno's hand. Jaemin's hand laid pressure on the spot causing Jeno to wince in pain.

"Ah, sorry" Jaemin quickly removed his hand.

-"I'm okay, just keep looking"

"Are you sure?"

Jeno nodded at Jaemin, but the other boy didn't move. Jaemin stood still, his face expressing clear worry.

"Sit down" Jaemin pointed to the floor, commanding Jeno to move closer to it.

-"Why?"

"Just do it"

Jeno crouched down, placing himself with the palms of his hands planted behind him as two poles keeping his upper body away from the ground. His legs were crossed comfortably. He sat there and waited. Jaemin crouched down too, next to Jeno. He carefully gripped the hem of Jeno's shirt, on the side where the pain was coming from. Jeno looked down at Jaemin's hand.

"What are you doing?"

Jaemin didn't answer but began to lift Jeno's shirt slightly, exposing a bit of skin a bit at a time. Jeno gulped but stayed still.

The shirt was folded to expose the side of Jeno's upper body but just till under his chest. Underneath Jeno's rib was a forming bruise. It was still light in color, but it was easy to tell how it would end up evolving. Jeno looked down, not expecting to see what he saw.

"How did that even happen?" he mumbled to himself.

-"Does it hurt?" Jaemin didn't move his attention off the bruise as Jeno nodded slowly.

Jaemin moved his arm and gave the bruise small pokes. Jeno flinched for every poke.

"Stop it, it hurts"

Jaemin immediately stopped his action.

"Don't move, just relax here"

              "I'll continue looking for the key, we need to get someone to look at that"

-"It's not that serious, you don' have to-"

"Now, where is that key?"

Jaemin completely ignored Jeno as he continued his search for the key. Jeno sat on the floor, his side hurting but also tingling.

-----

"How long have we been here?"

Jeno had moved so that his back was resting on the wall next to the door. Jaemin sat down next to him.

"I'm not sure, to be honest"

They both sighed.

"You still haven't found a key?"

Jaemin shook his head and let out another sigh.

"It's impossible"

-"We can still hope"

"Let me be pessimistic for once"

Jeno chuckled at Jaemin and soon both boys were surrounded by clouds of laughter, camouflaging for the worry they both had of being stuck inside the room.

"No, but seriously"

           "They'll find us eventually"

                           "It's going to be fine" Jeno looked at Jaemin with a hopeful sparkle in his eyes.

Jaemin nodded and sank further back to the wall.

"Remember when people were talking about you?" Jeno shifted his attention to Jaemin, Jaemin looked back at him and nodded again.

"Do you know why they did that?"

Jaemin shook his head.

"It's not even that serious" Jeno chuckled at the thought of the ridiculous reason behind all the small talk.

"Why did they do it?" Jaemin sat up and crossed his arms around his knees, shifting closer to Jeno, showing interest in the topic.

"Try smiling"

-"Why?"

"Just do it"

Jaemin smiled at Jeno and without noticing, Jeno smiled back, not being able to resist. He shook his body and returned his focus to their conversation. He pointed at Jaemin's exposed teeth.

"That's why"

-"Huh?"

             "What do you mean?"

"It was because of that smile of yours" Jeno barely whispered. A feeling of being nervous crawling under his skin. But Jaemin seemed to have heard him loud and clear.

"Why would they be talking about that?"

Jeno was starting to regret even bringing up the topic. He had not thought it all through. He had to explain himself in some way or another but he did not know how.

"For reasons"

-"Which reasons?"

Jeno sent Jaemin a glare, which the other boy didn't seem to notice.

"Just reasons"

Jaemin had a look of mischievousness painted on his face.

"But which reasons?"

Jeno was done with Jaemin at this point, but Jaemin proceeded to grin.

"Come on"

            "You said that it wasn't even that serious" he nudged at Jeno.

-"They're just irrelevant reasons" Jeno continued on trying to shrug it off, hoping for Jaemin to surrender. He didn't.

"Tell me the reasons"

             "Pretty please"

Jaemin remembered to extend the last vocal, adding to his sound of desperateness.  

"Ugh"

            "Why are you like this"

Jaemin smiled at the word 'reason' not being used in the last sentence. Jeno took a deep breath as he looked at the anticipation blinding him from Jaemin's side.

"It's cute"

        "I guess" Jeno's words were barely hearable.

-"Could you repeat?"

"No"

I hate exams so much, thanks bye

-A