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The first time Jaemin said it, Chenle thought he was hearing things.
He was lying in bed, the comfy blankets and pillows feeling so warm and soft this morning that he was ready to skip his morning classes. His door creaked open and a soft voice spoke.
"Chenle?" A gentle voice called.
"Hm?" He hummed, but didn't lift his head.
He heard a chuckle and the voice got closer.
"You're gonna be late if you don't get up now."
"Don't care," he mumbled and snuggled up in his blankets more. He’s too warm and cozy. He can miss a day.
There was a pause before he heard, "Baby, you have that presentation today. You can't skip it."
At those words, his eyes shot open. Not because of the reminder of that important presentation that's worth a big chunk of his grade. No, it was what he said before that.
Did Jaemin just call him baby?
Chenle sat up and looked at Jaemin, but the older boy had already turned around and started to leave. The only thing Chenle can do is watch him, stunned. Maybe he misheard him? It usually takes him a solid 30 minutes to fully wake himself up and have human conversations with people so maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him.
And then it happened again.
The next time he said it, Chenle was positive he wasn't hearing things. He wasn't half asleep so his brain couldn't have possibly imagined Jaemin saying that. Plus if it did, that opened a whole door of more questions Chenle doesn't feel like answering right now.
"Chenle, can you hand me my phone? It's right next to you," Jaemin casually asks.
Chenle grabs his phone from beside him and sets it into Jaemins awaiting palm.
Jaemin smiles at him.
"Thanks, baby."
Chenle simply blinked at him as he watched him go down the hall to his room, humming lightly.
What the hell is going on?
Luckily, he's not the only one who finds this strange.
This time everyone's squeezed in their tiny living room for movie night. Jaemin happens to be beside him, but he's more interested in his phone than the movie itself. Chenle doesn't blame him since the movie is boring as hell. Despite it being so boring, it's still a horror movie and as bad as it is, it still manages to scare some of them. Chenle? No, it would take a lot more than a shitty movie where you can see the mic on the screen half the time. But what does scare him is Jeno's loud scream as a jump scare pops up on the screen and Chenle had the unfortunate luck of sitting beside him therefore Jeno's earth shattering scream was directly by his ear.
He jumps immediately and ends up clutching onto Jaemin's arm, sending a glare Jeno’s way. Before he realizes what he's doing, Jaemin looks down at him and smiles.
"You scared, baby?"
All the noise in the room stops as everyone turns their head to look at Jaemin. Renjun's the first to speak.
"Jaemin, what did you just say?"
Jaemin gives them all an innocent look. "I was just asking if he was scared."
Donghyuck narrows his eyes, "No, after that."
But Jaemin had already drowned them out, going back to browsing on his phone. Everyone eventually lets it go, going back to the movie, reluctantly of course. They’re not the only ones dying to figure out why Jaemin has suddenly started calling Chenle “baby.” Chenle stares at the boy as everyone goes back to what they were doing. He narrows his eyes when he sees a tiny smirk appear on the boy's face.
Ever since that incident, Chenle feels like Jaemin has upped his game and is saying it at every chance he gets now.
For example
"Morning baby," Jaemin says as he enters the kitchen.
And
"Hey, baby, what time is it?" Jaemin asks as he's scrambling to get ready for class.
He's also started saying it more in front of their friends who question him every time it happens, but Jaemin is always so damn vague about it. Sometimes he’ll act like he didn’t hear them or bullshit his way around it. It happens so much that everyone just accepted it. Well, except for Chenle.
At first, Chenle was too shocked to react, only stare at Jaemin with confusion, but now that simple word has Chenle blushing and stuttering every time and the worst part is Jaemin has the audacity to smirk. The worst of it happened last night when Jaemin had burst open his door and asked, “Where’s my baby at?”
Two can play that game
It's early in the morning and Chenle hears Jaemin’s door open and footsteps starting to head towards the kitchen. As soon as he sees Chenle, he smiles and opens his mouth, but Chenle beats him to it.
"Morning, baby," Chenle says with a smirk, enjoying Jaemins shocked expression and slightly red cheeks.
So begins this back and forth game where they try to out fluster each other. Sometimes it ends with one person successfully flustering the other and walking away in victory. Most of the time they end up both flustered.
Their friends were used to Jaemin now, but once Chenle started saying it back is when they got fed up.
"Baby, can you pass me the popcorn?" Jaemin blinks innocently at Chenle.
"Sure thing, baby," Chenle sends that same innocent look back, but in the form of a smile.
“Babe,” Jaemin smirks, leaning closer so he can wipe at the corner of Chenle’s mouth., “You got something right there.”
Chenle pouts, “Thank baby, I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Jeno cracks first.
"Ok, what the fuck is going on?" Jeno stands up and looks at the two like they've grown two heads. "Are you guys dating?"
They both ignore the boy, eyes still locked on each other in a heated staring contest.
“Yeah babe,” Chenle says first, leaning closer towards the boy. “What is going on, are we dating?”
“Guys,” Donghyuck says in disgust as he watches Jaemin leaning even closer to the younger boy. “Stop being gross.”
They ignore him too.
“Is this your way of saying you want to date me?” Jaemin challenges.
Chenle leans the rest of the way until they’re face to face. “Should I be asking you that? You’re the one that started this.”
Jaemin studies his face, his eyes drop to his lips then back up to his eyes. “Started what?”
Chenle scoffs, his breath hitting the older boy's mouth and making him drop his gaze once again. “You know what Jaemin.”
At this point the other boys have started to file out of the room, leaving whatever weird tension that’s between the other two for them to figure out by themselves. “God I’m gonna suffocate in here,” Donghyuck whines, shoving Jeno the rest of the way out of the room.
Something seems to snap in Jaemin the moment the door shuts and Chenle finds himself laying flat on the couch, Jaemin hovering above him. Certainly not the result he was expecting. He’s not complaining.
“Are you going to answer the question?” Chenle asks, breathless. The way Jaemin is looking at him is making his cheeks heat up
“I could,” Jaemin licks his lips, Chenle watches the motion, “Or we could do something else.”
Barely a second passes before Chenle is pulling him down and crashing their lips together. Jaemin easily accepts it, deepening the kiss as soon as he gets the chance.
Now that Chenle thinks about it, he’s surprised it took this long for them to crack.
Then the door opens, but neither boy's part, Jaemin just continues to devour him.
It takes about 5 seconds for the person to notice them, they hear a scream that sounds awfully like Jisung’s voice, and then the door slams shut again.
Jaemin pulls back with a smirk, “I think we scarred him.”
“Talk later, more kissing,” Chenle mutters.
Jaemin can’t argue with that.