Touch || Lee Jeno

twenty-nine.

A person's lungs weren't supposed to feel this way, right?

The torrid heat of the afternoon baked the bench beneath Ru into a sizzling piece of wood, but it wasn't half as maddening as the tightness in her chest. Her lungs were radiating inside out, it was like the sunny heat was coming from within her.

If she didn't know any better, she'd be convinced she was having a heat stroke, or maybe even a heart attack. However, the text she received this morning from her soulmate was a pretty good indication of why her lungs— more specifically her soul mark— was acting this way.

She opened their chat, re-reading their domestic conversation mindlessly.

Hey

I'm skipping school today, the agency
wants me over to take care of some
legal documents

Everything alright?

Yeah, don't worry about it

Okay then :)

See you soon?

Mhm

:D

"Hey, did you wait long?"

Ru diverted her attention to the source of the voice, her smile forming at the boy who walked over in her direction, a bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, Jaem." Ru stood up, meeting him in the middle.

"Where's, uh—" she cleared her throat, blinking at the empty space behind him— "where's Renjun?"

Jaemin pulled the strap of his backpack closer to him. "He left earlier with Hyuck."

"Ah." Ru nodded awkwardly.

God, what does she say now? Her insides twisted with cringe, completely aware that she was still nodding even through the silence.

"Shall we, then?" Jaemin gestured.

"Yeah—" Ru agreed, scrunching her nose at how quickly she blurted it— "let's go."

The two walked through the sea of students, using the wild chatter of teenagers, perhaps, as an excuse not to talk too much. Even though she knew Renjun left already, she couldn't help but search the crowd around her, just hoping she'd get a glimpse of that boy.

She wasn't proud of how distant she became with the rest of the boys after that night at the mall, especially Renjun. It wasn't like Jeno forbade her from talking to him or anything, but the fact that her soulmate was in such a resentful mood towards Renjun didn't make it easy for her to reach out to him.

So many questions, so many things to say, but all she could ever muster up and say to him— through text, no less— were things like schoolwork or whatever. She also knew that the things she wanted to ask him, she couldn't do through text, that would be too insensitive, wouldn't it—

"You want ice cream?"

Ru snapped out of her thoughts, looking up at the smiling boy beside her.

"I kinda want ice cream," he shrugged.

There was something about the way he shrugged, with that little smirk tugging up his cheeks— she felt her shoulders loosen, a relieved smile spreading across her face. She missed this.

"Ice cream sounds good—" she felt her breath hitch as an unexpected pang of heat spread across her chest; it took her a great deal of strength to resist the urge to roll her eyes at her soulmate.