𝑔𝑜𝓃𝓃𝒶 / 𝕓𝕦𝕣𝕟 *

seeing maxwell at work, and having to pretend to tend to drinks when the other boy was always such a tempting distraction, was already almost more than jae could handle. and he’d always known that he would have to see him outside of work eventually, but he had never expected to have seen him in the state he was in currently - or to have to be the one to stop him from stealing one of the animals from the petting zoo. “ hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one trying to steal a goat at the moment, am I? ” he argued, when maxwell responded to his pleas to ‘please, put the goat back' with nothing more than an offended scowl. “ he is a goat, maxwell, they don’t typically have tags. ” he made his argument barely above a whisper, worried that someone working the attraction would finally notice the other boy’s actions if they didn’t keep their volume down. “ and he may be very cute, and the name trashboy may be oddly endearing, but - ” suddenly worried that he was beginning to give into maxwell’s crazy scheme the longer he talked about the goat in the other boy’s arms, he sighed in defeat. “ think of trashboy’s parents, hm? I’m sure they’d miss him a whole lot if you took him away now. not to mention all of the goat friends he’s probably made throughout the night. ” it was a cheap shot, to play on the emotional connection to the animal’s family, but he had to do something to get him to put him back. “ you can have me instead, if you put trashboy back. I have no tags, and you tell me I’m cute most of the time when we’re working. c’mon, please? ”

admittedly, jae hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going. there was so much happening at the festival around him that he found it difficult to focus on what was actually in front of him. he’d had his eyes on some sort of face painting stand off to his left whenever he’d felt himself run directly into the person in front of him. he stumbled backward after the fact, managing to catch himself before he actually fell. “ oh - sorry, I wasn’t - ” finding the figure in front of him alarmingly familiar, he cut his apology off early in favor of confirming his suspicions. “ taemin? ” he checked, smile growing when he realized that he was right. “ I didn’t expect to see you here tonight. ” he admitted, moving around him to stand beside him instead as he let his gaze focus on the hand reading booth that had captured his attention. he shrugged. “ I don’t know. I’ve never really looked into it much myself, but there must be something to it if people trust it that much. ” he reasoned, grin growing only a moment later as an idea occurred to him. “ there’s only one way to find out, y’know. ” bracing himself for the reaction that was almost sure to come, he turned to him. “ wanna’ do it together? you never know, you could really discover something about yourself. ”

jae is surprised to hear someone speak from beside him, and he half expects it to be yet another person attempting ( and, most likely, succeeding ) to scare him with an unwelcome jump scare. instead, however, he’s met with the sight of someone looking perhaps as out of place as he felt and his lips ease up into a smile almost immediately. “ y’know, there’s people around here paying good money for face painting that isn’t nearly as good as what you’ve already got there. ” he notes, playfully, as his eyes follow the lines of color dashed across the other’s skin. and it’s only once he’s finished mapping out the details of the designs that he lets himself speak up once more, only slightly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten the chance to hear the story behind the colors before they get washed away. “ if you’re still interested in getting rid of your artwork, however, I think there’s a sink somewhere over by the food stands? ” he offers, trying to mentally recall what he'd seen throughout the night. however, as the topic shifts to the other’s concern for the petting zoo animals, he forfeits his attempts at remembering what he’d seen and furrows his brows instead. jae wasn’t usually one for confrontation, far from it, but his compassion for animals made this situation a little different. “ actually, I think you’re right. the animals already have to deal with enough when they’re a part of events like this, I’m sure; they don’t need to deal with kids trying to get rowdy with them on top of it all. ” he agrees easily. “ I haven’t actually been to the petting zoo yet, though. if you don’t mind showing me the way, I’d be happy to check up on them and make sure they’re all as comfortable as they can be while you go and uh - wash off your creations? ”

jae never really cared for halloween much. he didn’t mind it, exactly, but it definitely wasn’t one of his favorite holidays. he just didn’t understand the appeal of willingly partaking in events that people knew were only going to scare them in the end. however, despite his lack of enthusiasm for the holiday, he’d been unable to avoid the event around town centered entirely around it. no matter where he went, it was all that anyone was talking about, and his own curiosity wouldn’t allow him to simply stay away from something that was destined to be the talk of the town for at least the next week. however, now that he was here, he was sort of wondering if staying at home would’ve been a better option after all. he’d spent most of his night people watching and, while he usually enjoyed it, it didn’t exactly seem festive. his last hope for the entire thing seemed to be finding the food stands and praying that what they had to offer was halloween-y enough to justify his decision to leave his apartment for the night. and, fortunately, they didn’t let him down. he only had to let his eyes linger on the food stands in front of them for a few moments before he finally registered just who was standing behind the counter of one of them. “ avery? ” he double-checked once he got closer, his grin growing when he realized that it genuinely was him. “ you didn’t tell me you were working tonight ! ” he accused, playfully, once he was close enough for the other boy to be able to comfortably hear him. “ I can’t believe you would've let me miss out on this ! ” one of his hands gestured vaguely toward avery’s entire costume as way of explanation, his gaze trailing across him to take in each detail before finally flickering back up to his own gaze. “ you make a wonderful kitten. ” he complimented with a small smirk, letting himself lean onto the counter between them as he tilted his head slightly to the side. “ although, you don’t look like a very happy one at the moment. tough night? ”