⊗ 23 ⊗

                                    

                                          



"jaemin, you haven't eaten anything in two days... please eat something now..."
"i'm not hungry..." the hybrid answered simply, keeping his arms crossed and his head hanging low as his friend worried about him. 
"you are going to be sick if you don't eat. it is not good for you."
"and what if i get sick?" jaemin huffed, his puffy red eyes meeting donghyuck's saddened ones. 
the human sighed, toying with the food in his plate as he avoided looking into jaemin's eyes. "renjun and jeno wouldn't want that. i can assure you."


as soon as those words left donghyuck's mouth, both mark and jaemin's hybrid ears shot up, the two of them looking up at donghyuck at the same time. 
mark's eyes were wide open, glancing successively at his friend and his boyfriend, not knowing what to do as he could sense jaemin getting a mix of madder and sadder with each second passing. 
"i-i... h-huh... b-bathroom!" he stuttered before jumping off his chair and morphing into a black cat to run away from this tricky conversation.
"renjun and jeno hate me now." jaemin muttered, giving a disgusted look at the food inside his plate.
"i'm sure they don't."
"i am the reason the broke up. and i lied to both of them." jaemin specified. "of course, they hate me now."
"feelings don't disappear like that, jaem." donghyuck assured. "and it doesn't change with a small lie."
jaemin snorted as tears welled up in his eyes once again. he was surprised his vision got blurry; because of how much had had cried over jeno, renjun, and all the mess he had created for the past two days, he thought his eyes wouldn't be able to produce any more tears.  
"a small lie?" jaemin frowned. "this was not a small lie. these were not small lies."
donghyuck sighed once again. "jaemin, you're underestimating the power of love..."


there was a small silence between the two boys as jaemin sulked on his seat, his bunny ears hanging by the sides of his head, conveying the boy's despair. 
"and let's pretend that these lies don't make them change their minds." jaemin stated after a while. "this would mean that i still have renjun, because he likes me, alright... but this would also mean that i lost jeno, because in his case, a lie would make him change his mind since he doesn't like me back."jaemin continued, speaking fast and distinctively. "and obviously, they wouldn't have each other anymore either. so, in the end, even if love overpasses my lies, things won't get better between the three of us."


donghyuck listened carefully to jaemin's words, waiting for a few seconds after his speech to answer. he knew things that jaemin wasn't aware of; he had jeno's version of the story. but let's be real, he couldn't explicitly voice the boy's feelings out, not after everything that had happened between the three of them. jaemin would need to discover about those on his own.


"i wouldn't be so sure about that, jaem." donghyuck explained. 
"and why?" the hybrid asked, gathering the tiniest bits of confidence that we left in him. 
"there is always a way to find a solution that benefits all..."








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chenle sighed loudly as he glanced at his chinese friend who was busying himself by making sure every single product in the aisle was perfectly aligned with the others.