(pink chats for for jeno, blue for seri, based on which color of the wall they’re sat on. fair warning, this is unedited aksjdj)

*insert teaser clips here*

jeno sits on the pink wall side this time and sighs, putting on the airpods “i really hope this isn’t a prank again”

interview jeno: zhong chenle if you come out again… i think i may develop trust issues

seri walks in, hopping slightly into her seat, airpods already on and a grin on her face

interview seri: i’m excited. i really want to grow as a person through experiences with and experiencing more people

they scan the codes to enter the chat

moeongmeong: hi

nyangi: hi! how are you today?

m: i’m okay, just a little skeptical because my friend pranked me last time i was here

n: really? what happened?

m: he pretended to be on the show with me, but he knew who i was and wasn’t wearing airpods

seri laughs

interview jeno: i’m still upset

seri: this person seems to be innocent if they fell for that

n: how old are you? you seem young

jeno snickered “should i say how old i am? should i be nice or not?… i’ll be nice”

seri stared at her phone "this person isn't answering... oh, wait"

m: i’m a millenium kid

seri’s eyes widened “this person’s older than me?”

n: you’re older than me!

n: only by one year though

jeno straightened in his seat “oh? oh no, now i feel like i have to lead the conversation… unless this is chenle again”

seri is thinking “i know a few people born in 2000… soobin oppa? did he follow me here?”

m: yah

n: what?

m: i swear if this is you from last time again

seri laughed out loud at that. “they must let their younger friends pull pranks on them, huh?”

jeno gave his phone a skeptical look "zhong chenle... this is ridiculous, am i actually being pranked by chenle again?”

n: you seem like a nice person to let someone younger than you mess with you

n: your younger friends must find it funny

n: my younger friends become babies when they’re with me

"it isn't chenle," jeno tilted his head with a curious smile, "it feels almost like this person is in an idol group, too"

m: are you perhaps an idol?

m: is that why you’re nyangi? your fans say you look like a cat?

seri looked to her right curiously “how did he figure that out so fast? or was that a lucky guess?”

jeno laughed at the momentary lack of answer, "i must be right"

interview seri: i deducted they must be an idol too. by that logic, they’re an idol who’s known to look like a puppy, right?

n: ooooh, you’re right

n: you must be an idol too, meongmeong

jeno laughed

m: right!

m: good

m: so you like music?

n: i do!

n: i’ve been doing music even before my i entered my company

jeno looked up for a while “they’re an idol…”

interview jeno: they must be someone who debuted after me, right? the only person i can think if younger than me who debuted before me is bts miya”

seri looked at naver for idols who look like puppies born in 2000, then a familiar face popped up

she snorts and shakes her head

interview seri: if this is kim seungmin, i'm walking out. he's gonna start nagging me again. that was my first thought

n: *one image attachment* (a picture of seungmin)

n: it’s you, isn’t it?

m: ???

jeno had to put his phone down for a bit while laughing

m: did you search naver?

n: i did!

m: no

m: wait

m: we shouldn’t play like that

seri was just laughing “cute! there’s no way this is seungmin! they do seem a little bit familiar though”

n: okay okay

n: i got it

n: HAHAHAHA

n: but are you a girl or a boy?

m: do you want to guess?

m: i can put my hand over the corner

seri looked at the staff “are we allowed to do that? yeah? okay”

n: go, i won’t look

jeno got up, putting his hand over the edge of the corner

seri got up as well, looking away and reaching her hand out, jumping slightly when she found jeno’s hand

jeno’s jaw dropped in shock while he let go, “it’s really not chenle, it’s a girl”

“boy hands,” seri nodded to herself, laughing

n: so you’re a millenium boy?

n: you’re an oppa, then

m: you’re a girl

m: your nails felt long, by the way

m: i have a friend that likes doing nails, i can recommend you to her

interview jeno: her nails did poke me, and they felt long and textured

interview seri: i did my nails last night! it's like a hobby, but i didn't think he'd notice them

n: *one image attached* (a picture of her nails)

n: pretty, right?

m: woah

m: they’re my favorite color

n: oh?

n: blue is my favorite color too!

jeno smiled at his phone “good, there’s common ground”

seri tilted her head, "i wonder what else we have in common"

m: do you want to exchange song recommendations?

n: sure!

seri looks at the screen, tilting her head with a smile “what is this? he sent me one of the somgs on my play list”

the song jeno sent is my favorite part by mac miller and ariana grande

jeno laughed “yah, i have this song in my playlist!”

the song seri sent is ... smile by juice wrld and the weeknd

m: lol we must have similar taste

n: i think so…

m: the song i sent…

m: was it already in your playlist, too?

n: yeah!

n: i think we’ll get along well

n: want to go out to eat after this?

jeno’s eyes widened as he read this, and he burst out laughing “what is this?”

meanwhile seri tilted her head a little “is that too straight forward? i hope not”

jeno was looking off camera towards the staff “yes? you’re telling me to say yes?”

m: will you treat?

n: since you’re the oppa…

n: shouldn’t you treat?

jeno gave an incredulous look

seri was laughing her ass off while typing

n: kidding! i offered, so i’ll pay

m: we’ll see after the reveal

m: let’s send our home screens!

seri takes one look at jeno’s black home screen and laughs

jeno pulls a face at seri’s homescreen. it’s pure white

n: we match well

m: your home screen is so bright

m: kinda like your personality

jeno cringed as soon as he sent that

seri straightened “oh?”

n: was that flirting?

n: because i can up my flirting game

m: no!

m: i wasn’t flirting!

jeno drapes himself over his chair “oh no, this person must think i’m weird!”

n: it’s okay! my friends have a habit of flirting all the time, so i’m used to it

n: let’s send baby pictures!

seri sends hers first, and jeno looks at it closely “i don’t think i can guess who this is… she looks familiar”

before jeno could send his, the chat disconnected

the two now stood on opposite ends as the staff counted down

they both looked around the corner

seri burst into laughter, turning and heading back to her chair while jeno stood there with an amused shock expression

“yah!” he called to her, “what are you doing? you’re so straightforward!”

seri was still laughing on her chair, “oppa it was you! then whoever pranked you must have been either chenle or another 00 liner!”

jeno looked down “you’re right, it was chenle”

interview jeno: i guess i shouldn’t be surprised. the way of messaging felt familiar… yah, you shouldn’t search for people in stuff like this”

jeno looked at her weirdly while pulling her to stand from the chair, “you don’t listen to juice wrld?”

“you introduced him to me,” she shrugged, “and i kinda just started”

jeno smiled at that

interview seri: i’m happy it was jeno oppa! now i guess why he just let his member prank him like that without holding a grudge or getting angry

int jeno: we found out we had a lot in common in chat, but these are things we already knew in real life

she leaned against the wall while jeno looked at her, arms crossed

“so we’re eating out today?” “yeah, i’ll pay” “oppa, i said i’ll pay!” “how can i let you pay when you paid last time?”

interview seri: it was a good conversation, honestly. it didn’t feel forced, and it wasn’t too deep or too shallow, but this oppa held my hand…”

jeno in the background of int seri: to my defence, chenle did it to me first

interview seri: oh, oppa you’ve gotten bolder because you would have never done that when we first met

jeno got up from the chair and stood next to int seri, placing an arm around her shoulders “okay, thank you for this opportunity, even if i already knew the person, it was a fun experience, bye!”

seri just looked at him and laughed while he was waving. he looked at her and gestured to the camera “say bye, seri-yah”

“bye” she’s laughing while the screen fades to blank screen

you hear them talking with their icons popping up to show who was speaking

“you know, i was going to call you after to recommend this person to you for nails” “really?” “hannah says you do her nails really well” “that’s sweet of you to think of me, oppa… can i do your nails?” “with the extensions?” “if you want? i can do plain ones or nail art on your natural nails, too!” “okay”

you can hear the sound of seri clapping while jeno chuckles

-end-

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“Kitty, calm down.”

“Gyu, I’m literally everyone’s hoobae here, and I’ve never been on ISAC before!”

Seri paced the waiting room while on the phone with Beomgyu. For the first time in a long time, she was nervous. She was going on broadcast without any of her members and with a dozen sunbaes. Her usually extroverted self was worried she would mess up and offend someone somehow.

“Stick with Hyunjin hyung,” Beomgyu told her. “You guys filmed a segment together already, right?”

“Yes, but we’re kinda awkward, and he isn’t here yet,” Seri pouted. “Why couldn’t they send Yoonmi here with me?”

Beomgyu laughed, “You know that the Bangtan sunbaes aren’t allowed on ISAC. Hey, I have to go, alright? I have extra lessons today.”

Seri hummed in response. “I’ll see you at home. Prepare the comfort food for when I perpetually embarrass myself.”

Beomgyu just laughed through the phone.

“Enjoy yourself.”

She sighed while putting her phone down. It was only then that she realized someone had walked into the waiting room in the middle of her phone call with Beomgyu. She immediately bowed in greeting.

“Hello, Jeno sunbaenim,” she bowed. “Sorry about that. I was on the phone with my group mate.”

“TXT’s Seri, right?” he bowed back and asked her. He smiled when she nodded. “It’s fine. Are you nervous?”

She watched him while he took a seat on the chair with his name on it.

“A little bit,” she admitted. “It’s my first time on a variety show without my members.”

“You’ll be fine,” he reassured her.

She noticed the way his fingers went to absentmindedly adjust the cuffs of his sleeves. A somewhat awkward silence filled the room while they stayed facing each other yet avoiding eye contact. Well, he was avoiding eye contact.

“Forgive me for this, sunbaenim,” she laughed a little, “but you aren’t used to meeting new people, are you?”

“Is it that obvious?” he chuckled. “Sorry, I really am bad with new people. Oh, you’re close to Hannah, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’d like to think so.”

“Well, don’t worry,” he told her. “I’ve got your back. Hannah would kill me if I let one of her friends have a hard time.”

“Are you saying if unnie and I weren’t friends that you wouldn’t do so?”

Jeno’s flustered face as he stuttered out an explanation made her laugh. He also seemed to loosen up a little bit, which she was pretty proud she got him to do.

“I’m kidding,” she shook her head, “I get it.”

“Oh, thank god,” Jeno sighed in relief before giving her a slightly accusing look, “You scared me!”

“It’s a habit,” she shrugged, “I do this to my members a lot, and they’ve grown pretty used to it. Sorry you had to fall victim to my antics, sunbaenim.”

“It’s fine,” he laughed. “It reminds me of my members. If you want to, by the way, you can drop the sunbae-hoobae thing with me.”

She smiled at him, “Does this mean we’re friends now.”

“Any close friend of Hannah is a friend of mine.”

She cheered a little bit in excitement of making a new friend before sitting on the makeup table in his corner of the room. She immediately went into a little storytelling session about how she had been meaning to send a care package to his group but couldn’t because Hannah kept insisting not to do so. She noticed Jeno seemed like the type to not talk much at first, so she took over that roll while he nodded along in interest at what she was saying.

Five minutes later, the JYP kids came in. After the basic greetings, Hyunjin turned to her.

“Seri! Have you been here long?” he asked her. “Are you hungry?”

“Not really, and no, I had breakfast,” she listed off, “but thanks for asking. Why, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Hyunjin sighed and pulled out his phone, showing her his messages with Seungmin.

“For people who bicker all the time, he sure does care about you,” he pointed to one message in particular saying to watch over her.