Veil || Lee Donghyuck

Chapter 29: Be There For You

"How were we the last ones to know?"

"Can you believe this?"

"Dani, I thought we were cooler than that!"

"Dani, you hurt us."

The 6 seniors met up before school that Monday morning at the bike racks. Baek Dani knew she was going to get an earful the moment she rode in on her bike and saw her friends waiting for her.

She had run away all the way home when Jeno and Jaemin caught her with Yangyang, but it didn't stop her phone from blowing up. Once she messaged the two that the rest of their friends knew about it, it only fueled their wronged feelings about this. Their group chat was a mess for the rest of the weekend.

"Her and Yangyang decided to keep it a secret for the most part," Geurim tried to smooth over the situation. She hooked her arms with her boyfriend and the Taekwondo star. "Don't be too hard on her."

"No wonder you two hang out a lot nowadays," Jaemin huffed with his arms crossed over his chest. "When you said you got something else to do after school, it's to go off with him, isn't it?"

"What is this, a drama?" Dani mumbled out, already feeling exhausted. It felt like her ears were bleeding by how the two boys were yapping away at the unfairness of it all. She whipped her head towards her fellow art buddy and gave a small glare. "It's your fault."

"Me?" Renjun uttered in confusion.

"If you two haven't made up this ruse, Jeno and Jaemin wouldn't have caught me in the most awkward way!"

"Okay, well, I assumed you would rather have someone you're dating to do date stuff with, you know."

Jeno interjected, "Yeah, imagine my shock seeing our Dani suddenly walking into our neighborhood, hand in hand with him!"

"You two were holding hands?!" Guerim burst out a little too loud.

Dani launched forward and clasped her hand over her lips. She could hear the boys chuckling behind her. "Guys, please, can we please stop with the teasing," she whined. "Can't we shift the focus on Donghyuck? He just had his first date ever."

"Now, why did you have to say it like that?" The very boy grumbled, giving her the stink eye.

"True! Our Donghyuck is all grown up," Jaemin cooed, reaching over and pinching his cheek. Donghyuck was quick to swat his hand away. "How was it?"

"It turned out better than I was expecting! I learned a lot about noona and it seemed like she had a good time," he said with a bright grin. "I'm even going to go meet her after school!"

"Ohh, look at you, Hyuck," Renjun nodded along, impressed. "Seems promising."

"Right? I'm on cloud nine! I can't believe she's interested in me too." Donghyuck looked between Renjun and Dani, but mostly at the girl. "I hope it wasn't too much of a drag, even though we separated halfway through the date."

Right, she shouldn't be too hard on him. Thinking back on it, Dani wasn't sure why she was so pressed over things. Of course she should be happy Donghyuck and Sua got together, and it seemed that their relationship was progressing smoothly. She was just being dumb for blowing things out of proportion.

She reached over and patted his shoulder. "It was fun, Hyuck. Don't sweat it." The tan-skinned boy let out a sigh of relief at her words.

The group of six started moving into the school together. Donghyuck and Dani lagged behind the others, as they all started talking about something else. Dani stuffed her hands into her skirt pockets as she thought of something to calm more of Donghyuck's mind that she wasn't mad at him.