✓ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄, chensung.

twelve.

as the young chinese male sat behind the counter, he had already made up his mind that jisung wouldn't show up today either. thinking about this made him feel a bit sad, causing him to let out a sigh and rest his head in the palm of his hand.

chenle obviously wanted jisung to come, even if it was a bit awkward between them; chenle feels very grateful to simply be in jisung's presence. he really missed jisung; even if he couldn't really understand what he was feeling, he knew that he at least missed the younger although it had only been a short while since he last saw him.

chenle already had an idea about why jisung hadn't shown up the night before. he remembers seeing the cuts on jisung's arms, and how the younger looked so panicked and scared.

chenle sighed, his head falling out of his palm, hitting the counter softly. his arms were now sprawled on the counter, chenle's head now laying on his forearm. he looked out the window, feeling as bored as ever. pulling up the sleeve of his sweatshirt, chenle looked at the time on his watch. it was already 5:34 am, and there was still no sight of jisung. chenle could you shake the samll feeling of nervousness in his chest; jisung not coming would only make in worse.

by the time there was half an hour left to chenle's shift, the door opened and the bell rung. the young male got up from his resting position to look at the store entrance.

chenle looked up, and saw an exhausted looking jisung. he was panting, hands rested on his knees and his head looking down as he took deep breaths.

"hey, jisung...you alright?" the older carefully asked, walking over to the panting boy.

feeling chenle walking up to him, jisung quickly got up, and looked down at the floor again. "yeah, i just thought i missed your shift..." the younger said quietly, playing with his hoodie sleeves.

"ah, don't worry about it, i still have about thirty minutes until my shift ends !" chenle stated with a smile, feeling the nervous feeling slowly fade away.

jisung seemed to be looking everywhere but chenle since he entered the store. that didn't bother the older male at all, since jisung didn't often make eye contact with him. if he did, it wouldn't be for long. "to be honest, i was pretty sure you weren't going to come tonight," chenle said, in a quiet tone, different from his usual happy voice.

jisung finally looked up at chenle, quietly announcing the words : "hyuck forced me to."

"hyuck...?" chenle asks, wondering who he was referring to.

"oh, sorry. donghyuck, he's my friend," jisung said quickly and anxiously. chenle nodded, walking back to the counter. the younger followed him, and the two started talking; it was mostly chenle who was keeping the conversation going, since jisung was still pretty shy. the boy would look at the ground for most of the time, still fiddling with his sleeves, but that wouldn't bother chenle. he didn't need jisung to look at him, talking to him was already enough.

"i was meaning to ask," chenle began, "could i have your number?" he shyly asked, fiddling with his sleeves as well. for one of the first times, if not the first time, chenle was looking away from jisung, feeling a bit shy too and not able to make eye contact.

when hearing the older boy say those words, jisung looked a bit shocked, not expecting him to say that. he didn't often get asked that question, and jisung honestly thought that in his life, only donghyuck and chenle were the ones to ask him. "y—yeah, sure you can," he answered, still not completely processing what had just happened.

chenle smiled softly, and the two boys exchanged numbers. in the back of his mind, chenle hoped he could finally see jisung's smile, and that his texts would be the cause of it.

A/N: Thank you so much for 700+ reads! I'm very happy!

EDITED ;
12.04.20