Enemies - Zhong Chenle

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The sun shone into the window of the girl's, hitting her face as she scrunched in discomfort. She let one of her arms drape over her eyes, blocking out the bright light.

A groan was heard from the other side of her bed and she jolted in surprise, eyes squinting at the figure beside her. She felt an arm secured over her waist and someone snuggled behind her, their breath hitting the back of her neck making her froze and shuddered a bit.

She turned her body, trying to figure out the person beside her since they had their face too close to her back for her to recognize.

"G'morning."

The familiar but deeper voice vibrated behind her in his groggily morning voice. Hearing that made Jaerin feel butterflies in her stomach, and she scolded herself for feeling like that.

"Morning," she answered, trying to remember how Chenle ended up on her bed sleeping soundly with her.

Flashback to last night

Jaerin was locked in a separate room from the rest of the kids. It was cold in there and she was shivering as she hugged herself, bringing her knee towards her chest. She felt terrified that no one was there with her and she didn't know what was waiting for her.

"Hmm, I see that you have been good today huh?"

Her mother grinned evilly at her, grabbing her arms and yanking her up. Jaerin wanted to scream at the pain of her arms being turned beyond its angle, but she couldn't, it would make her mother angrier and she would have to go through the whips and cuts.

"Hmm, very good, if you are muted, even better. I don't have such an ugly daughter to deal with."

She was degraded, and Jaerin knew that very well. A tear left her eyes as her mother let her arms free while she crashed onto the ground. She felt the bone in her leg cracked as the pain shot up her whole body. She bit her lips, suppressing a cry.

Her mother left her, alone and cold in the room without any sign of letting her back to find her brother for comfort.

Mother...food...

That was the last thing she thought as she reached out her hands, desperately trying to get hold of her mother who's back was turned towards her and her figure getting blurry.

Thud.

"Jaerin."

"Jaerin!"

"Jaerin!"

She jolted up from her dreams, tears brimming and her hands clutched onto the sheets. Chenle was looking at her in concern at the bedside.

Jaehyun hadn't returned home from his university project that he had to work with Taeyong and Johnny. He called the house, only to inform the friend group that he won't be coming back and ask if any of them that were still there could stay for the night to watch over Jaerin just in case.

The others had to return since their family would worry about them, but Chenle wasn't going back to his house anytime and Kun was out for his training before he became a proper physiologist. The boy agreed to stay to Jaehyun's delight, and was given permission to use the kitchen to serve himself some dinner.

Apparently Chenle stayed in the guest room and had heard whimpering from Jaerin's room since the walls weren't thick. He was a light sleeper and the sound disturbed his sleep. He slid into his slippers, knocking on the girl's door that was beside the guest room and poked his head in, only to meet with a sweating Jaerin tossing in her duvet. 

He tried waking her up from her nightmare, but she didn't budge and continued to whimper, hands clutching onto the fabric of her duvet. Jaerin's sweat had soaked half of her bedsheet and Chenle, now understanding she was going through something similar to her trauma, tried to shake her as he called her name.

Once she woke up, she was crying. The girl made small grabby hands towards him when her eyes landed on him and his heart melted, letting the girl hug him for solace.

He had comforted her and put her to sleep again. The firm grip on his hands was a huge problem for him to return back to his room to sleep and had accidentally made Jaerin woke up with frightened eyes after he tried to remove his hands from her hold. He gave in and tucked her, lying down beside her as they drifted into sleep without another nightmare for Jaerin.

Present time

Chenle snuggled closer to her, pulling her near to his chest with the arms around her waist and she could feel her cheeks heat up at the action.

"C-Chenle, it's Saturday. We have a sports day."

Jaerin reminded and was relieved that she woke up one and a half hours before the event started. However, she and Chenle both have to reach there one hour before to check on everything, so they only have half an hour to get ready.

Chenle hummed, burying his head behind her neck as she tensed a little, his breath hitting the sensitive skin. Jaerin relaxed once she felt that he didn't move further.

"Five more minutes."

"There's no five more minutes for both of you love birds. I have to leave at 8 and if you two are not down by that time I'm leaving the two of you to run to school."

Jaehyun's voice sounded on top of their heads and Jaerin flinched, glancing towards the door to see Jaehyun smirking down at them with his camera clicking. Chenle groaned, feeling a little pain on his forehead as the back of Jaerin's head had accidentally bumped into him.

"There's breakfast on the table, be fast, and no naughty naughty businesses. I don't want to hear things in the early morning."

With that, Jaehyun closed the door for their privacy and Jaerin threw her pillow towards the door, huffing as she heard Jaehyun's laugh from the outside. Her heartbeat raced and cheeks burned.

"I'll go back to the guest room to freshen up. See you in 10." Chenle already stood up, giving her a peck on her forehead and closed the door to her room. Jaerin let out a muffled scream into her pillow, flopping down onto the bed for a while before getting up to tidy herself.

I had a great day catching up with my friend today. We went out for a while and came back studying and chatting together. It's nice to catch up once in a while and we were actually childhood friends, so there's more to rant when we were together

Have a nice day, and I hope the classes ad my club activities will be smooth for me. I'm pretty sure the readers are still studying and I wish you all the best! 

I might be nagging but you won't regret if you put more effort into your studies for a good result. I'm actually glad I realized this during high school instead of later on and it helps me through my years of studying and getting a result I'm satisfied with