next door || nct. chensung

[ 20 ]

[ chenle pov ]

even though jisung's words still remained fresh in my mind, i couldn't help thinking about ge and mr yuta, again. i didn't expect any of this, but i definitely wanted ge to be happy. he was nothing close to happy. especially after that conversation we had together, he seemed more miserable.

i was walking down the stairs to art class, holding up the large a3 sized file and paper, with my file, pencil case and art materials stacked on top. the thought of having too see mr yuta really triggers a lot of feelings in me. after hearing from ge, i was mad, frustrated and a lot more negative feelings. i took each step slowly, mind not in place. i walked down, one step, two steps and another step. but at the last few steps of the last flight of stairs, i missed a step, and fell, face sided with the cold cemented floor and body parallel on the ground.

"chenle! are you alright? i better go call mr yuta." jeno, who rushes down first, left towards the art room on the right left to call the teacher i dreaded to see.

"oh god, does it hurt?" mr yuta came as renjun and jaemin helped me up to sit on the ground. he examined the bruise on my knee and arms and the scrape on my face. my left wrist hurt, but i tried to hold it in. "you better go to the hospital. the rest of you go to the art room first, i'll get a relief teacher and bring chenle to the hospital." mr yuta instructed, as he helped me up. "you sit here first, i'll go to the staff room." he grabbed a chair from the art room and put it down for me to sit on. i did, and waited for his return from the staff room.

♣️

he called a taxi for us to go to the hospital in.

"mr choi helped to call your guardian, he'll be at the hospital," he said. at first, i was fine with it. after realising my guardian was ge, his ex, i wasn't.

"um... he... he's busy! back-to-back meetings, you know all those office stuff," i tried.

"he said he'd be there though," he said again. i looked down, frustrated, and said, "oh, is that so? haha...ha..."

the ride on the way to the hospital was awkward. i couldn't decipher if it was good or bad.

we reached the hospital after awhile, and registered for a checkup. i got checked, he checked my heartbeat, if i had a fever, and my height and weight. he put me in a hospital ward first, and said that i had a wrist sprain on my left arm. i did not feel anything though, but he's the doctor, not me.

"钟辰乐，你还好吗？你怎么跌倒的？会很严重吗？我担心- (zhong chenle, are you okay? how did you fall? is it very serious? i was so worried-)" ge started, but paused after seeing the person at the end of the bed.

"si... sicheng-ssi?" mr yuta questioned. i immediately looked down, trying not to facepalm.

"yuta..." he looked up at the taller man. they both made eye contact, for a very long time. you couldn't tell if they had blinked or not.

"er... ge, i just fell down the stairs. they said i sprained a wrist though. i think we can go home soon. did your boss say anything?" i said, trying to break the tension.

"huh? oh y-yeah. he was fine with it after i explained. i'll go do the necessary, you stay here alright. call me if you need anything." he took one last glance at mr yuta and left. mr yuta followed after him after awhile. and i let him.

♣️

[ 3rd person pov ]

as sicheng stood at the counter waiting for the nurse to get the documents, yuta stepped forward a little by little and walked to sicheng's side.

"how have you been doing?" yuta asked. he still cared for sicheng, he really did. but to him, it just seemed so wrong for a teacher to be in a gay relationship.

"how have i been doing? do you actually have the audacity to ask me that fucking question? how did you think i've been doing after you left me to go be a fucking teacher? you knew how much i loved you, you still did what you did," sicheng said, you could not see it but he was fuming with anger. he crossed his arms, as if daring yuta to talk back.

"sicheng, you knew how much i wanted to teach art. art was my passion," yuta tried to reason with sicheng. sicheng was about to continue the conversation they should've had ages ago, until the nurse arrived with a clipboard and some forms for sicheng, "mr dong sicheng? this is for patient zhong chenle, please fill in the part for guardians and i'll issue some painkillers and you guys can leave."

yuta watched as sicheng filled in the forms. sicheng's knuckles were white from holding the pen too tightly. yuta noticed, and tried to put a hand on sicheng's shoulder. but sicheng dodged it.

"don't, please," he looked up at yuta and back down at the forms. he finished it quickly, and after taking the painkillers for zhong chenle, he held chenle's hand and left. and as for yuta, he could only hopelessly stare at their backs, as he thought, "i'm sorry sicheng, i'm going to make it up to you. i promise."

but the many promises yuta had made,

"i'll always be here for you"

"i'll never leave you"

"i'll do anything for you"

weren't they already broken?

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oof this chapter was near 1k words. tysm for the votes and the reads♥️