A/N: Back @ it with Bunny & Jeno because I miss them. Sorry if you find this boring & long and expect *cold assassin Jaehyun* but meh. Friends to lovers trope, amirite. I have to get MBL out of my system before I write anything else so forgive me. 

I was hundred percent sure that Jung Jaehyun was trying to break me. I have never heard of anyone who wakes up at 4 am to run their morning rounds. I thought it was my alarm, rolling to the side and lifting it up to see that it was a call from NCT Center’s very own prince, Jaehyun’s husky voice indicating that he also just woke up.

“Awake?” he asked and I frowned, glancing at the time before bringing the phone to my ears. I mumbled something. “Good, let’s go for our morning run.”

I first thought that maybe there was a reason why he never kept a partner and I guessed this was it. I decided to follow through with it, freshening up and putting on my workout clothes when I exited the area to see Jaehyun in his hoodie.

He had his hands in his pockets, the male with his hair gelled back.

“You still look sleepy,” he told me and I nodded. I wasn’t very acquainted with him just yet and I eyed him warily, Jaehyun chuckling before he told me to loosen up.

“Sorry, just not used to this. I usually have a few training sessions with my partners before going out to morning runs with them.”

“Boring.” He shook his head. “Why do that when we can just jump straight to being friends?”

He had a point. As I entered the Arena of Kwangya, I saw how dark it was. I felt his hand on the small of my back and I jumped, Jaehyun mirroring my actions in surprise. We had to stretch and I found myself on the ground, feet against Jaehyun’s as we pulled on each other’s limbs.

Jaehyun was nice. Too nice. How could someone be so nice? He was definitely not like the men I had trained with back in America—he was attentive and asked questions. There were times I couldn’t help but feel like he had an ulterior motive.

Upon asking why he ran so early morning, he told me that the mage-players always come around 5 and they were always so loud. That and they also liked to put on the lights in the arena and he hated how bright it was.

The first time we ran into the arena, I noticed a shadow in front of us, Jaehyun grabbing my arm and pointing. Lee Jeno, he told me.

“Lee Jeno?” I asked, tilting my head at him.

“You must have heard of him. He’s an assassin player,” Jaehyun said. “He comes so early in the morning I wonder if he ever sleeps. Tough guy. Doesn’t talk much. I usually come and he’s always already here. I use him as my benchmark.”

Benchmark?

“Why?”

“He’s weirdly fast,” Jaehyun told me, shrugging. “And I always try to beat him and run in front of him but for some reason, he always takes another route.”

Mental note that Jaehyun was competitive over the littlest things.

“Well, what if he runs behind you and attacks you?” I asked mildly, considering the things I’ve heard about Lee Jeno. Jaehyun scowled at my words, telling me that it was possible. Jeno was always a mysterious character. “Do I have to do this with you every day?”

“I thought you said you could take it?” he asked and my shoulders slumped down.

“I can. I just am not a morning person. I take midnight runs.”

“I can always compromise.”

The following days of training were of Jaehyun slowly inching into my daily routine. By morning, he was already waiting for me near my dorm. Some days, it would be midnight runs if I told him I was too tired and didn’t want to wake up early.

Then it was the things he did without having me ask him for it. Showing up to class with my textbooks because he picked them up from the library for me. Handling the maintenance of my suit and so on and so forth.

“Hey, Nabi,” he greeted, reaching out to give me a high-five and falling into a seat beside me. He stuck to me like glue and I began to talk to him more than I was supposed to. “I had such a weird dream last night.”

“What was it about?” I asked, pulling on my training shoes. He leaned back against the benches of the changing room.

“I dreamt that my bedroom had no door,” he told me, frowning. I laughed at that, Jaehyun chuckling beside me. We began to configure our suits together, Haechan entering the arena and giving us a wave.

“Hey, Jeffrey!” Haechan called out and Jaehyun nodded at him. I raised an eyebrow.

“Jeffrey?” I asked, Jaehyun turning red. A nickname, he told me with his lips by my ear. “Hi, Haechan. You look happy.”

“Just got a new build for my Fanny last night,” he told me, sitting down. “They increased my life steal. Said I earned it. Will be trying it against Jeno today. Oi, Mark!”

Mark and Haechan were partners and I always saw them together. Like Jaehyun and I, they were inseparable. Mark gave me a polite bow and I waved a hand. He had a bruise on his head and I asked what happened, Mark telling me that he was tackled by Hendery the day before.

“Jaehyun, did Johnny tell you where he was going last night?” Dana’s voice rang out. People were beginning to arrive and the female stomped over with her training shoes, her lips pursed. Jaehyun raised two hands and I felt him scoot closer to me, leaning towards me as if he was trying to hide from her.

“No?” he said, Dana squinting at him before pointing at him. "Your ears are red, Jeffrey. Where did Johnny go last night?" I watched as Jaehyun covered his ears and that was when I learned that he couldn’t lie for .

It was the little things he slowly did, resting his head on my shoulder in between breaks. What irked me was that he did it so naturally and that other people didn’t seem to point it out. No weird stares, no asking what was going on. Maybe it was normal.

I remember when both Hansol and I began to get close. We had faced rumors until we came out to confirm our relationship. I watched Dana try to tackle Chenle, both of them bickering as she bounced on top of him.

“Dana’s been getting a hold of Natalia these days,” Jaehyun said from my lap and I looked down, seeing that he was watching both of them. “She’s improving quite fast.”

“That’s Oh Dana for you,” Yuta said from the top bench of the viewing room. “She took it to heart when they said she’s not going to amount to anything.”

The one person I never saw in the arena with the rest of us was Lee Jeno. I would see him in his only lane, practicing basic skills and movements. Every time someone approached him, he’d stop and stare at them.

On this particular day, our schedule was jam-packed with sessions. First, we had a fan-call event. Players were treated like celebrities and that morning; I woke up just to enter one of the classrooms. Jaehyun was already there, his earphones plugged in.

“Morning,” he greeted, reaching towards me to squeeze my chin. I swatted his hand away. He knew I wasn’t a morning person and I was slowly showing it. “Jeez.”

I blinked two times, trying to look awake when the fan-call went through and I smiled, waving at the fan. Beside me, I could hear Jaehyun do the same thing.

“Hello,” I greeted, the female letting out a high-pitched scream before waving at the camera. I smiled.

Fan events were always eventful and it wasn’t long until she asked me about Hansol and whether if I was still with him. I raised my eyebrow, not knowing what to say to that when the sound of wheels could be heard and Jaehyun popped his head into the frame of my camera and waved.

Another shriek.

“Jung Jaehyun? Is that Jung Jaehyun?”

I turned and frowned at him, trying to get him out of the frame but Jaehyun’s chair bumped against mine and he gave the fans a thumbs up. He reached for my earphones and inserted one into his ear.

“Where are you from?” Jaehyun asked, taking over my fan event casually, a hand going to rest on my shoulders as he leaned forward to squint at the username. “bunbun_7? You’re a fan of Bunny, aren’t you?”

“Peru! Yes, but I didn’t win her slot,” she said, forgetting all about the Hansol question when she tilted her head at the camera. “How are you two together?”

“Nabi and I are partners,” he said, smiling at the camera. I saw his dimples on the screen and nodded in cue, Jaehyun’s hand squeezing my shoulder as if to say to relax. Her jaw dropped before she asked if we were playing any games next.

“Arena of Kiken, I believe,” Jaehyun said. “In Japan. I hope you support us.”

“Of course! Oh no, I can’t believe that five minutes is almost over,” she whined, her lips going into a pout.

“You can always buy our merch and then request another fan event,” Jaehyun joked and she nodded happily, telling us she’d do just that. Once the call ended, Jaehyun pulled the earphone out.

“Man, you got the nice fan. I had to listen to a fan ask me the same question over and over again.”

“What was that?”

“Would you rather five Johnny’s or a five-year-old Johnny?” He made a face. “I just give them a different answer every time. They will never know what I prefer. Are you ready for the game this afternoon? We have character training.”

The whole gist of character training was a player’s ability to be versatile. Kyungsoo had come up with the training session in order to allow NCT Center players to find characters they could excel in. I had never done anything like this before—The East Coast Center just let us focus on the characters we played.

“You will be given a character you have never played before,” Headmaster Kyungsoo said and I chewed on my bottom lip. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I was. “Each team will have five people. Chosen by random. This will not be a normal training session. The team who gets more gold by killing the monsters within fifteen minutes will win.”

A nod.

“The first round of players.” Kyungsoo pressed on a button, the names changing with speed when the first five came up on the screen with the character they were supposed to play.

Team A-1

Bunny began to wail, dragging her cheeks down. “I don’t want to play assassin!” she had exclaimed. I saw Mark lean forward to ask Hendery what Balmond’s skills were. We were starting from zero.

“Team A-2 will be against Team A-1,” Headmaster Kyungsoo said and I my lips when the names came up on screen.

Team A-2

“Woah, woah. You’re going to let Park Nabi ride my motorcycle?” Yuta asked, standing up. “Absolutely not—”

“Sit down,” Kyungsoo said to Yuta and he huffed, sitting down on the seat, his tongue poking out the side of his cheek.

“It’s a double Balmond,” I said to Jaehyun, turning to see him pale. “What’s wrong?”

“I got Fanny, Nabi. Do I look like I know how to zipline across the map?” he asked, rubbing his face. It seemed like everyone was stressed and they all have reason to be. Na Jaemin, however, was staring at the screen with a look of distraught on his face.

Helcurt’s character practically walked on four legs. Throughout my training with Ten who was a Helcurt player, he was flexible enough to pounce on fours whenever he needed to be. My limbs, Na Jaemin could be heard whimpering. What’s going to happen to my limbs?

“You have ten minutes to practice the character given to you. Remember, only focus on increasing gold by killing the monsters,” Kyungsoo said and we all nodded.

Bunny, who was initially wailing, was telling us that ‘she gots this!’ She beamed. She had taken over Jeno’s character, the female trying to deploy the blades that would circle around her. She gave me a peace sign.

Nakamoto Yuta tried to teach me how to mount the motorcycle, the male beside me as I tried to balance it. I already knew how to skateboard so it was easy for me as I swung my leg over the motorcycle.

Dana, who got Popol and Kupa, was getting into a heated discussion with the Kupa. My younger brother had given her Smiley, the little Kupa slobbering over her and Jisung was trying to teach her. The Kupa would attack if it was out of the leash so she had to keep it controlled.

“Attack when I tell you to attack, you mongrel!” she hissed at Smiley, Jisung saying “No! Don’t speak to Smiley like that!”.

Jaemin, who was on our team, was doing it his way. He was crawling on the ground, trying to replicate Ten’s body posture when he played Helcurt before giving up halfway. The bell rang and the players who weren’t playing exited the arena, Kyungsoo telling us that it was time.

“Stay in the bushes and don’t come out,” I heard Jeno tell Bunny who shook her head at him.

“Game is starting in five seconds. All your skills are complete.” Kyungsoo’s voice echoed from the viewing room.

The moment the green light lit up, the game started. We had to focus on the monsters and I did what I had to do—as a tank, I had to shadow Jaehyun. Jaehyun pulled me to one of the monsters, beginning to kill it as I tanked for him when the bushes rustled.

“Haiya!” Bunny screamed, tackling him onto the ground. Jaehyun yelped, Bunny’s pigtails swinging back and forth as she tried to steal the monster to increase the gold but I stepped in, pushing her away as Jaehyun tried to finish the monster off. “Oh no, I’m going to die. Jeno, Jeno, Jeno!”

The female squealed when the I began to deploy vengeance, a passive to return the same amount of damage back to her. The sound of running could be heard as Bunny found herself stunned.

“I stunned her. Finish her off,” I told Jaehyun who got the first hit of gold, the male going to finish Bunny off who was screaming on top of her lungs when Jeno appeared. With one shove, I watched as Jaehyun found himself flying as Jeno stood his guard.

“,” Jaehyun cursed. “What’s Jeno playing again?”

“Tigreal!” I called out, Jaehyun struggling to get up as I threw another stun, trying to keep Bunny in place. Jeno had little to no damage, but he was able to protect Bunny, stepping in front of me to protect her.

“Keep her there—”

“Get out of here,” Jeno hissed at Bunny who was finally on her feet as she sped away. I gave Jeno a look, the male not bothering to fight me since he wasn’t a damage dealer.

While I was leaving, I heard a yell from Jaemin.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Na Jaemin had no idea how to play Helcurt. He was often good in teams but as a single-player? Not so. He was on all fours, trying to fight off a Haechan that was aiming for him. Haechan was playing his main character and Jaemin felt the control people deploy the cold air.

“Where are you?” Nabi asked in his ear and Jaemin just decided to make a run for it. “Jaehyun handle the monsters.”

“Doing just that. I think Hendery has been juggling. They are ahead in gold.”

“Noona!” Jaemin gasped, calling for Nabi when he heard the sound of the motorcycle. “Nabi Noona! Bottom lane!”

He rushed into the bush, hoping for Haechan to miss him but it did not help—Haechan’s eye settling onto the bush where he was at when Jaemin pressed on his ultimate.

Right then and there, Team A-1’s glasses out and they were robbed of their sight, Jaemin running out to safety as Nabi approached him with her motorcycle. Haechan, flailing around without knowing what was happening, felt the motorcycle stop a panel away. With a stun, Nabi yelled out to Jaemin to not run away.

“Kill him, Jaemin!” she said, Haechan’s body frozen on the spot from the impact of the motorcycle.

“I heard that Park Nabi,” Yuta said into the earpiece. “Good job!”

Jaemin took her advice, pouncing in and tackling Haechan onto the ground. Being a mage, he wasn’t meant to take damage, Haechan trying to get away but Jaemin depleted him of his health. Haechan’s health bar went down to red until the shifting of the panels began to move.

“I died,” Haechan announced, “See you in a few minutes!”

The panels opened and he dropped down and was transported to recall. Nabi reached up and high-fived Jaemin. On the middle lane, Yuta and Mark were going head-to-head. Both playing the same character, they were trying to slay each other with their axes, the panels of the arena making it easy for them to spin back and forth.

“Hyung, I’m tired,” Mark said and Yuta nodded. He had no idea what he was doing, both of them trying to deal damage but to no avail.

Jaehyun had decided he wasn’t going to fly through the arena on the zipline because one, he was scared of heights. Two, he had no idea how to. So he focused on slaying the monsters when he realized that Bunny and Hendery were doing their best on the other team. Jeno was babysitting them, their temporary tank standing on duty.

Jaehyun waited in the bush, peeking out when he decided to steal the monsters. Before Bunny’s final blow, he rushed towards her and jumped in—the gold of his team went up and Bunny gasped in betrayal.

“Oppa, why!” she wailed, Jeno’s ears perking up when he heard the sound of his teammate.

“What happened?” Jeno asked and Jaehyun disappeared.

“He stole the monster I was killing. Let me regen, I’ll be back.” Bunny hopped into a bush, regening so she could regain her full health when something attacked her, the female letting out a screech. “SMILEY!”

Dana was nearby, the female looking for the opportunity to attack the other team. Seeing Bunny’s health turn orange and Jaehyun telling her to finish her off, the female used her ultimate—the Kupa pouncing forward and indenting its teeth into Bunny’s suit.

Sure enough, her health bar went to red and she threw her hands in the air.

“I died,” she told her teammates. “Jeno, what were you doing?”

“I was shadowing Hendery,” Jeno said. Jeno thought that he could not do two things at once. It was impossible.

Team A-2 was leading with skills, Nabi and Jaehyun were happy about it but they were behind with gold. Nakamoto Yuta was not helpful, the male deciding that he was just fine in distracting Mark so he wouldn’t contribute to the team and Mark taking the bait.

“I’m back,” Haechan said as Bunny hummed. She too, was back and had bought more items. “We’re leading with gold. It’s fine, we can do this.”

Nabi’s team was waiting for Haechan and Bunny to be back, Nabi telling everyone that Bunny was an easy target. She was fast and she could tackle people, but she did not know how to use her skills so her opponent could get the full damage.

They began to target Bunny, Nabi calling Jaehyun. He was a few bushes away from her so he got on her motorcycle, feeling his suit lockdown on the seat as she began to drive it around the arena to look out for Bunny.

“Bunny’s at the bottom lane,” Dana said, telling them to take a U-turn. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Five minutes left,” Kyungsoo’s voice rang out.

Bunny had no idea what was coming for her, the female focusing on the monster and slaying it with her sword while conversing with it. The monsters did not feel anything since they wore suits and she wasn’t actually ramming her sword through the creatures.

“So, what did ya eat today?” she asked, her sword moving back and forth as the monster’s health went down. “Oh, fried fillet. I like fried filleeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttt!”

She gasped, Nabi’s motorcycle coming straight for her. Bunny let out a yell, Dana emerging from the bushes to help her teammates get rid of Kim Bunny. Jeno came rushing forward when he stopped. If he helped her, he’d die so he simply stood there and watched as the female was outnumbered, her death count increasing to two as the panels took her away back to base and Jaehyun took the monster she was killing.

“Three minutes left,” Kyungsoo’s voice said. “Team A-1 is leading in gold.”

While everyone was trying to get as much gold for their team by slaying monsters, Na Jaemin was doing what he did best.

He was trying to kill Fred for extra money. Fred the Lord.

Na Jaemin huffed and puffed, climbing the Lord with his hands as Fred moved. He had his eyes closed, swinging back and forth when he felt a player on him.

“Hey, Fred. It’s me!”

“Who?” Fred thundered, Jaemin shushing him before he began to attack Fred from the top. He winced, seeing how fast his health went down.

“Is Na Jaemin attacking the lord?” Nabi’s voice rang out, Jaemin telling her that he was. “What? Why?”

“We need the money,” Yuta said. “But I can’t leave. Mark has no idea I’m just trying to keep him in one place.”

“I’m going to help him. Hendery is jungling. He might be able to steal the Lord from Jaemin.” Jaehyun began to head towards the Lord to help Jaemin, Jaemin holding onto Fred with his legs dangling off the edge.

“If someone tickles me with their passive, I’m dying,” Jaemin whispered, falling back down to avoid being smacked by Fred the Lord. “Finish him off, the clock is ticking.”

The clock was now on two minutes, Jaemin recalling back to base as Nabi appeared to tank for Jaehyun. Dana appeared, helping her teammates.

On the top lane, Team A-1 Haechan was yelling at Hendery to go check the Lord. “I feel something.”

Hendery knew that something was up, but as he made his final blow on a monster, he felt the panel open up and he felt suction on the ground. As the monster disappeared, Hendery felt his body get pulled forward, the male gasping.

“Oh no! Oh no! The arena just swallowed me!” he yelled, Haechan rushing to him.

“Oh my god, Hendery!” Kim Bunny gasped, her hands going to his feet to pull him out but Hendery winced.

“I think I sprained my ankle,” Hendery said, hanging upside down.

Meanwhile, Nabi’s team had killed Fred, their gold doubling just in time as the clock went back down to 00:00.

“We won,” Jaehyun said to Nabi, the female looking down at her health just as Yuta stopped spinning with Mark.

But even as they won, Kyungsoo seemed pissed. Something was up with the Arena of Kwangya, he said. Why was it that Hendery got in after the monster?

Kyungsoo thought to himself that this was the second time this happened and he had a bad feeling about it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There was a punishment for the losing team and that was they had to dress up in their PR photos. We also had to refine our ending fairies—a pose that we made whenever we killed someone and as cameras focused on us.

The moment I walked into the classroom, I saw Hendery standing in a Rapunzel costume, his long braided wigged hair pulled to the front.

“Is your ankle fine?” I asked, Hendery nodding. “You look dashing, by the way.”

“Of course, Noona,” he said before he winked. “Noona, what’s your ending pose?”

“Uh, it’s a butterfly.” I lifted my hands to show him how it looked like. I fluttered my fingers. “What is yours?”

“I’m only Epic II so I haven’t played in a full-blown arena yet so I don’t have an ending pose just yet. Any suggestions?” he asked and I shook my head when he snapped his fingers like he just got a revelation. “How about this?”

He began to dance, a hand over his head and I blinked.

Hendery and his spinny spinny

“You want to do that?” I asked, Hendery spinning in front of me. He stopped and nodded when I realized that Lucas had walked in as an Elsa. “What is going on?”

“I lost the round that I played. I played against Chenle and Jisung,” Lucas told me and I couldn’t stop myself from staring at his chest before dragging my eyes away. Our evaluator came and told us to finalize our ending poses, a few people going out to the PR room to take a few photos.

“What’s your pose again, Noona?” Hendery asked, the male finally settling for a one arm flex to the camera. I agreed on that because it was simple. I showed them my butterfly, Ten nodding.

“That’s like Winwin’s ending pose, but his palms face outward. W for Winwin.” Ten pointed at Yangyang. “That’s Yangyang, he’s our youngest. Show Nabi your ending pose.”

Yangyang made his fingers into a gun and lifted them up to his lips, blowing the end.

“That’s cute,” I said, a voice scoffing. Oh Dana appeared, her lips painted red. “What’s yours?”

“I curtsey,” she said, lowering one of her knees to bow to the camera. “Johnny used to bow to the camera so as his counterpart, I’m doing it the same. Except, more like a lady.”

The door opened and I saw a very very blue Jeno walk in looking like he was done with everyone.

“Oh lord, what did Jaemin do to Jeno?”

[Jeno the Smurf]

Jeno stood in the middle with a red hat. He grunted. “I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was already blue.”

“I did it,” Jaemin said deadpan. “But he looks good, no?”

As I sat down, I realized that all their ending poses were different. Jeno would salute to the camera every time he scored a skill. Haechan would make fake binoculars because ‘All eyes on me! I’m Lee Haechan!’. Jaehyun would pound his chest two times and give out a peace sign. Jaemin would make a big heart because he loved his fans.

Bunny was Bunny, so she would make bunny ears with her fingers and a small mini-heart. Taeyong would lift his sword in the air. Chenle would tip his hat since his hat was part of his Harley costume.

Renjun would just stare into the camera and his fans would just stare back. Renjun’s fans were a different breed.

“What about Jisung?” I asked, Dana lifting up a hand to cover ha