started with a dare | NORENMIN

6 | TELLING (part 1)

"what do you need?" chenle asked, wanting to know the motive behind his friend's visit to his shared dorm room. the two boyfriends let their friend enter through the doors and into the closed space known as their dorm room.

"i want to talk to you about something," jeno said, catching the interest of the other two boys. jisung and chenle had their full attention on their brown haired friend, signalling him to continue, but the korean male just stood there and looked at the two for a few seconds before opening his mouth to say something more. "in private...?"

it came out as more of a question for a reason that jeno could only guess. he had wanted to talk to chenle about something that was only kept between the two of them, but since jisung was the room, that would've been impossible. sure, it wouldn't be a hindrance to jeno if the light haired male knew about what the two were going to talk about, but the brown haired male didn't know if he should tell jisung now or later.

a sigh was heard coming from the only chinese male in the room. chenle let go of jisung's arm, which he had been clinging onto the entire time since his friend's arrival, and made his way towards jeno, pulling him slightly towards the side to tell the brown haired male something while leaving jisung out. the light brown haired male didn't want to do this, but he didn't necessarily had a choice. he was leaving for china for majority of the summer, leading jeno to have no one to talk to.

the brown haired male, as majority of people could probably tell, was a closed off and secluded person, mainly keeping to himself and trying not to involve anyone else in his problems, similary to renjun, who make an effort to hide his emotions from others, and completely opposite of jaemin, who wore his heart on his sleeve and legitimately screamed out his problems to the world.

chenle was well aware of this fact, and jeno himself was as well, but that didn't change a single thing about his isolated personality. the brown haired male would love to be like jaemin and be open to everyone, but that wasn't necessarily the case. closed off personality, emotionally secluded, yet fears of being alone for the rest of his life. yup, sounds just like jeno.

"maybe you should tell jisung," chenle suggested, knowing exactly the reason why the brown haired male had dropped by for a visit. the chinese male was in no way complaining; if anything, he wanted jeno to have support and help from others, but with himself being physically unable to be by the boy's side, the only other option chenle could think of was to tell someone else that jeno trusted. "he can be there to help you during the time i'm away, since i won't be able to be here for you all the time."

the suggestion that chenle had engendered allowed for jeno to spend some time to think about his decision. by no means was it easy for him to decide on what to do, but the chinese male's reasoning was strangely cogent. it was true that the light brown haired male wouldn't be able to help jeno throughout most of the summer, if assistance was needed that is, which it was, and telling someone that jeno could trust was the second best idea that the two could establish at the moment.

however, it wasn't so much that jeno didn't trust jisung, but it was more that the brown haired male didn't want to involve another person into his business. he preferred to solve everything on his own or keep to himself rather than being out there, and that was one of the things that prevented the male from making the decision right away. its possible that his current situation would be bearable for two months without chenle's assistance, but that didn't seem to be the best idea at the moment.

after coming up with a list of all the possible benefits and consequences of telling jisung about what was on the brown haired male's mind, with majority of the list being benefits rather than consequences, jeno looked towards chenle and nodded his head slightly, silently agreeing to tell the boyfriend of the chinese male.

the silence that had flooded the room for approximately eight minutes now was flushed out when jeno broke the ice by speaking and directing his sentence towards the light blue haired male. "jisung... i have something to tell you..."

jeno's tone of voice make the tall boy be on edge, as well as confused and curious. it was unsettling, the way that the brown haired male was talking, like he had done something bad and was about to tell his parents about it, his voice dying down as if he was going to be kicked like a misbehaving puppy.

"okay...? what is it?"

jeno took a seat on one of the two beds that was present in the room. chenle and jisung followed the male and sat on the other bed across from him. the light blue haired male gave his boyfriend a look, telepathically asking him what was going on. chenle just shook his head and gestured towards jeno's direction to get the taller boy's attention on their friend, who had something really important to say.

"i... uh..." jeno couldn't form the words. he had no problem saying it when it came to chenle, maybe because of the circumstances that he was in during the time he told chenle, but the brown haired male was essentially telling jisung about what was on his mind against his own will. there wasn't a problem with jeno telling his friend about this, yet he couldn't find himself to do it.

the only chinese male in the room seemed to realize jeno's difficulty with speaking out what he was trying to say, so he spoke up before jeno could continue. "you don't have to tell him if you feel uncomfortable with it."

immediately shaking his head, jeno refused chenle's request and let out a sigh, a breath that he didn't know he was holding. out of all his friends, jeno was most comfortable with the two boys in front of him knowing about what was in his mind. sure, jaemin and renjun are his best friends, and the brown haired male trusts the two of them with his life, but he couldn't talk to them about a situation that involved them, could he?

"i... i... like someone..."