dysthymia | zhong chenle

삼십이

❝ our time is like a rain shower and the sun crossing over ❞

¤━━━¤

passing the front entrance of the base, chenle kept his head down, hair messy as the nest like strands lay stranded. he grabbed the male, and pulled him aside to his newly built office.

thank god that hyejin and jisung had worked really hard on restoring the base, and everything seemed to begin to work out.

the chestnut coloured haired boy glanced at chenle, eyes etched with the tiniest hint of shock as they disappeared behind the shadowed corner

"what?" winwin asked, sensing the atmosphere, his voice lowering.

"if we somehow don't close the case, will you guys leave us for TOP?" his voice weighed down with sincerity and heaviness. though he never looked up at winwin, he just kept his eyes down.

"we agreed to leave by two months" winwin furrowed his eyebrows "what are you trying to get at?"

"what if, just what if we exceed those two months, and...somehow couldn't close the case. will you guys abandon us like what you did three years ago?" this time, he did flash his eyes up, and it almost had a threatening aura behind it.

"chenle what are you trying to do" the elder let out an anxious breath, glancing around to check if other nct members had entered the room or not

"will you?"

winwin pursed his lips

"if hyejin doesn't want to, i won't either"

chenle put his hands in his pocket, nodding slowly "ok"

he attempted to walk away, but was caught by winwin's grip "think about the people around you before doing anything stupid"

he scoffed "the irony in that sentence"

"chenle"

"you should've said that to yourself, 3 years ago"

¤━━━¤

"when's the courting?" chenle asked as he arrived at a table packed with pieces of paper and folders, jungwoo and taeil buried underneath it all. they had decided that they were going to take a bargain with the amount of evidence they have, and lock him up once and for all.

this time, they were going to make sure both cube and starship gets abolished

"next monday" taeil murmured, grabbing a sheet from across the table

"next monday..." he flashed his eyes up to them

that means hyejin's going to be leaving next monday

"do you want me to take care of the evidence material box? it's unsafe having it laying around it without someone looking over it"

"yeah sure" jungwoo nodded, pulling a plastic box from underneath him to pass to chenle "don't lose it. if we do, we're really done for."

"noted" he grabbed the box, and stood up.

his heart thrashed against his chest, two sides of him debating on whether this was going to be a good idea. there was this burning wick inside him, flaring around and setting a timer in him. he needed to choose between his heart and his head.

he clutched the box, inhaling a sharp breath in.

it was the same question: do you do what's right, or what you want.

pushing over the door to his office, he let out a defeated sigh, throwing himself on the bed as he continued to contemplate with himself. it was so stupid, so stupid to think like this.

but don't people say love drives you mad?

he clawed at his hair, the strands stringing past his fingers in rough strands of black.

"chenle you fucking psychopath" he muttered to himself, leaning over the bed to rest his elbows on his knees, leaving the evidence box on his bed

the door creaked open and soft steps made their presence noticeable. he didn't bother to look up; he knew who it was. the blanket beside him dipped down and a hand went to rustle with his hair, fixing its distorted form.

"hyejin" his voice was blank as he looked up, grabbing the evidence box behind her and quickly shoving it onto the ground.

"hm?" hyejin knew why chenle was acting up, well some of it. she was to leave NCT by next week, and the atmosphere was heavy around the base when she had broken the news to the rest of the members.

"do you have to leave?" he knew the answer was yes

"you know i have to" she sighed

"and if the case doesn't pass, what happens?"

she retracted her hand, fiddling with her own fingers "i made a deal with winwin. we'll stay until you guys close it and i'm planning to do just that. but...you guys have to understand we do have a contract with TOP as well"

"yeah, i know"

"even if i do leave, that doesn't mean i've left you" she let out a light chuckle, chenle returning one. the atmosphere lightened a bit, but those chuckles still stunk of misery.

he flickered his eyes briefly at her, chewing on his lips. she connected her gaze a second after, scooting herself further away from him as she noticed the glint in his eyes.

"don't look at me like that" she looked his face up down, a tiny smile breaking out on chenles face.

"like what?" he pulled himself closer, in which hyejin immediately stood up and shook a warning finger at him "yah"

he rose an eyebrow, grasping her wrist to pull her closer to him.

"no ones here"

"literally everyone's moved back to the base" she threatened, attempting to move away.

"one kiss" he put a finger up "just one"

"zhong chenle the room next to yours is literally jisung's don't even try"

he didn't care. pulling her towards the bed, he hovered over her with a sick smirk plastered across his fingers. she pursed her lips, avoiding his intimidating gaze.

"just one" she whispered, putting up a finger to divide chenle and her's face. wrapping his hand over her finger, he brought it down so that his hands weighed over his, restricting her.

shamelessly flickering his eyes to her lips, there was little hesitation as he leant down, scraping his nose against her cheek. expectedly, she had fluttered her eyes shut too. he lowered his head down at a pace so slow hyejin was now getting frustrated.

"you're so annoying" she muttered, leaning her head up as an attempt to close the distance. instead, chenle lifted up a corner of his mouth and distanced them, placing a short kiss on her forehead.

eyes widening, she watched as chenle got off her and ran a hand through his hair, smile wide with playfulness.

"just one" he shrugged, and grabbed the handle to leave the room

"you motherfucker" she took off her slipper, and catapulted it at chenle "rot in hell bitchass"

and the door closed

¤━━━¤

short chapter ~