chapter 4: cherry bomb feel it yum

as all fifteen entered the small ice cream shop, the owner's eyes lit up in delight. it was unclear whether or not it was because he loved customers, or the fact that he knew a lot people were going to buy ice cream at once. however, the group still settled down at the several tables scattered around the room. the members all split up, occupying around 8 or so tables. each table had their own group talking about their own thing, but there was one table of people who were more eager to eat the decadent frozen treats more than the rest.

the eight youngest members scurried to the assortment of flavors, pressing their faces on the cold glass that separated them from their bliss. renjun, who raised his head from the glass, peeked at naeun, who marveled at the flavors in front of her.

"naeun, what's your favorite flavor?" renjun questioned the girl to his right.

naeun, turned to her left, facing the boy next to her. "cookies and cream of course."

snorting in response, renjun immediately critiqued his friend's preferences. "that's unexpected, cookies and cream is such a boring flavor."

"NO IT ISN'T!!" mark yelled, obviously offended, "cookies and cream is the best flavor ever."

"what's your favorite flavor then, renjun?" naeun asked.

"cotton candy of course."

naeun giggled at the childish response as she walked to the lady at the register, obviously ready to get herself a cup of ice cream. after staring at through the glass for quite some time, she settled her indecisiveness. she made eye contact with the employee before starting to order her share of dessert. "can i have a small cherry garcia?" she asked the employee who nodded and started scooping the bright red ice cream into a cup. carefully taking the treat, she thanked the cashier and approached her bright haired friend.

"i thought your favorite flavor was cookies and cream." raising his eyebrows at the cup naeun held, renjun was obviously being judgmental.

"it is, but this flavor reminded me of your hair." she casually answered before talking to her other friends who still haven't decided what they wanted. on the other hand, she gave renjun a heart attack. if it was possible, his cheeks burned with the same red of his hair and apparently her ice cream. what kind of reason is that? renjun, told himself that he thought it was weird, but he secretly loved it. he could easily fool himself, but he could not fool jaehyun, who caught a sly smile creep up renjun's face.

"what a little punk." he mumbled barely audibly at the scene he witnessed before him.

his friend yuta, looked at him obviously confused. "did you say something?"

"nope."

—

the group of friends stayed in the ice cream shop for two hours until they decided to retire home. naeun, who picked up her stuff from the table, heard her older brother curse under his breath. 

"shit," jaehyun looked at his watch in frustration, " it's already 6. i'm sorry naeun, i know we were supposed to walk home together, but i promised lucas-"

"that you would do your project together." naeun interrupted as she nodded understandingly, "you need the grade anyway because you're dumb."

"you rascal." jaehyun said as he held naeun in her second choke hold of the day and probably the thirtieth of the week. he laughed sadistically as naeun struggled and the rest of the members could only look at the scene in pity. suddenly brought back to reality, jaehyun released naeun from her future demise. "why don't you hang out for the dreamies a bit before you go home?"

renjun immediately cringed upon hearing the word "dreamies." who even came up with the cringeworthy group name anyway? however, he shook off his displeasure before nodding slightly at jaehyun.

"oh, we'll take greeeaat care of her hyung." exclaimed chenle who ran off with naeun before she had the opportunity to even protest. jaehyun could only watch as his little sister was basically dragged across the pavement, and the other younger members calmly trailed behind, because chenle's spontaneous actions weren't anything new. however, renjun couldn't help but wonder if he could ever have a friendship with naeun as natural as hers with chenle.

interrupted by sudden screaming, renjun shook away his thoughts only to find chenle screaming in exaggerated excitement. nothing new. however, what was new was the karaoke bar they stood in front of.

"nice! ive been meaning to go here!" haechan wooed happily, but naeun gulped nervously instead.

"Is there something wrong naeun?" worriedly blinking, renjun waited for naeun's response, hoping she wasn't sick or uncomfortable. however, upon hearing her response he just smirked.

"i can't sing." naeun looked at the ground as she rotated her heel before looking up to see renjun stifling a small laugh.

"what did you say naeun?" the chinese boy teasingly questioned, despite knowing exactly what she said.

"i said i can't sing." naeun spoke, while mumbling the last few words.

"i caaant hear you!" (ay ay captain!! rrrrrggggg)

"I CAN'T SING" naeun yelled, earning some weird looks from not only renjun, but from the rest of the dream members.

"yah, jung naeun, it's okay. we're all bad at something." said jeno, hoping he was comforting his new friend but, haechan did not have the same mindset.

"except me, not only am i handsome, but i can dance, sing, and rap."

"yeah, but you can't keep your trap shut." mark remarked.

although it wasn't their intention, the dialogue between the group help loosen naeun up, helping her muster up a small smile. it only took renjun to notice it first, but the rest of the dreamies noticed her smile as well. it was sure contagious, because the boys couldn't help but break into huge grins as well.

before entering the building, mark looked at her, inaudibly asking her if she was sure she wanted to enter, naeun smiled once again, reassuring the elder that she was fine. she was determined to get out her comfort zone, not because renjun, but because she realized she really liked having friends. she was willing to get out of it because she was comfortable with the seven boys and she wanted to create memories with them, and she could only thank renjun for this realization.

however, renjun never felt further away from her. only being able to watch her interact with the others in unique ways from a distance. chenle could easily initiate skinship with her, haechan can roast with her, and mark can communicate with her without even opening his mouth. renjun was bummed that he was stuck with a few short and awkward exchanges with her and nothing else, even though naeun herself, considered him closer to her than anyone else. renjun, oblivious as always, frowned upon the thought of the distance between them, but his friends' sudden cheering caught his attention.

renjun looked at the karaoke room in shock. despite the fact that he was walking the entire time, he never noticed he was actually moving, especially moving towards the karaoke room. as the group entered, a couple of them plopped on the seats in the back while haechan and chenle hurriedly approached the microphone. renjun slowly trailed behind and joined everyone sitting down, watching chenle and haechan sing together.

at first, naeun happily clapped along the song the two sang, but she soon became directly involved as well. she clumsily sang in the microphone, letting her voice crack and go off pitch more than just a couple times, but she didn't care.

she didn't care if her voice sounded bad, she didn't care if she looked unflattering, and she didn't care if she looked stupid, she was too immersed in the fun that she was experiencing to even think about it. naeun was on cloud nine, and renjun couldn't be happier upon the sight. watching her dance and laugh was the best sight for a friend to watch, a friend that didn't want anything more than her happiness. it was truly touching for him to witness.

after a dozen songs or so, the clock read eight pm, and the boys decided it was time to go home. partially because the boys were tired from playing all day, and partially because they were afraid to even imagine jaehyun's rage if they were to bring his precious little sister home too late. either way, all the boys escorted naeun home.

before naeun could put her key into the lock, one of the boys yelped, grabbing her attention.

"uH naeun!" haechan spoke, "how about we add you to our group chat?"

naeun slightly tilted her head in confusion until another boy yelped out.

"yeah that's a great idea! give me your info and ill add you right now." jaemin beamed. naeun gave them the information needed as they were in the process of adding her. "done!" the bright boy announced after pressing a couple a buttons.

"alright then, i'm going inside now. thank you for hanging out with me today."

"it's nothing to thank us for, we enjoy your company as well." mark responded. she looked at renjun, who hasn't said anything yet, but she could tell that he was happy. or at least she wanted to believe he was, but she tried not to over think anything. naeun smiled as she waved goodbye to the boys, before entering her home and locking the door behind her. after putting her keys down, she was met by her older brother standing in the foyer.

"soooo naeun, how was it?" he questioned his sister who was cheekily grinning.

"tolerable."

"you look a little too happy for it to be just tolerable." jaehyun saw right through his sister who still had that stupid smile on her face. naeun immediately averted her eyes, knowing she was caught. until, she was startled by the sound of r2d2 screaming. taking out her phone, she noticed she  constantly got new messages, and after each one, r2d2 let another another shrill. jaehyun raised his eyebrows at naeun who was checking her phone. "what kind of fucking notification alert was that?" however, naeun was too occupied to even pay attention to her brother.

while reading her messages, she did a half assed job responding to jaehyun, who crossed his arms, waiting for a response. "yeah, that would be great; thank you. ill be in my room, okay?" she responded as she walked away, not even glancing her brother's way.

"i didn't even ask anything like th- the disrespect i get from you. first, you don't eat the toast i make you, and then you ignore me!" jaehyun complained, despite the fact that she couldn't hear him through her bedroom door.

sighing, he looked in the direction of naeun's door. "my baby sister finally started to make some friends," he smiled tenderly at her bedroom door, "im still not letting some little punk one up me though."

—

jaemingotjams: naeun welcome to our cult.

jisungarden: 0.0 hyung that's kind of scary sounding.

dropthat: u big baby

singsangsung: haechan, don't call jisung a baby!

dropthat: ???? where's the lie though???

jenosy: i think we're blowing naeun' phone up.

moominprince: i think you're right

dolphinchenle: jeno hyung, what does your un mean?

jenosy: stop being nosy.

dolphinchenle: ?????

jaemingotjams: your un is literally jenosy, you can't talk.

jenosy changed username to "jaenoisdead"

jaenoisdead: okay bitch.

jaemingotjams: ive never felt so attacked??

notnaeun: what the hell....

moonminprince: hi naeun! did we blow up your phone?

notnaeun: yeah.

moonminprince: oh.

dropthat: naeun, i get the feeling you're bad at texting.

notnaeun: what makes you say that?

dropthat: ....nevermind

notnaeun: okay.

singsandsung: ......

dolphinchenle: yeah noona, you kinda suck

notnaeun: rude.

notnaeun: oh i gotta go, jaehyun is trying to poison me with dinner.

notnaeun: sorry, i don't usually text others, i think ill adapt eventually. night

moominprince: night.
seen by notnaeun at 8:32pm

jisungarden: lmao you got seenzoned by noona.

moonminprince: i thought you were the only nice one???

• • •

a/n
at first i didn't want to include texts, however i realized that naeun and i are close in age and i communicate with my friends mostly through texts. so i thought, naeun is a teenager, makes sense for her to communicate through a phone, prob more realistic thinking about this day and age.

i know i took forever updating,, im sorry. my draft was in my computer and i didn't have stable wifi for a long time. however, i hope you like it nonetheless.
(๑╹ω╹๑ ) thanks for reading and supporting this story.