It came as a shock to pretty much the entire school when Haeun made her way over to the table in the cafeteria where her ex-boyfriend and his friends sat every day. It came as a shock to the seven friends as well, who all exchanged glances amongst themselves when they noticed that instead of making her way around them as Haeun had been doing lately, the girl was walking right in their direction.
There was another girl walking with her. It looked more like she was being reluctantly dragged along by Haeun, since she was lagging a few steps behind and looked nowhere near as confident as the other girl, but she didn't try to escape the cafeteria either.
The two girls were holding hands as they walked, Jisung noticed.
The brunette girl stopped at their table. She was smiling, so Jisung had hope that whatever she was going to say, it wasn't going to be anything bad that may bring more drama to their already busy lives. Especially since the entire school seemed to have gone silent to listen to Haeun and Chenle interact for what they believed to be the first time since the breakup.
"Chenle, hi," Haeun said.
It was such a simple sentence, but it made Jisung's heart twist with the memories of all previous times he had heard the girl say those very words in that very same voice, but those times had all had much different outcomes since they had been a couple at the time.
"Hey," Chenle replied. He didn't seem very bothered by her at all, which Jisung was proud of him for. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I actually wanted to thank you," She said, twisting a lock of brown hair and tucking it behind her ear, suddenly shy as she looked down at her hand.
It was the hand that was intertwined with the other, still nameless, girl with long black hair.
"What for?" Chenle asked, "I didn't do anything. At least not that I know of."
"No, you did," Haeun said with a giggle, "You let me go, and you weren't mad at me. You told me it was okay and you gave me the courage I needed. So I just wanted to introduce you to Chaeyeon. She's my girlfriend."
Haeun said the last sentence more quietly, like saying it too loud would shatter the dream world she had created around herself, and Jisung honestly related to Haeun more at that moment than he ever wanted to admit.
He knew the feeling of having something that seemed too perfect to be true, it was the feeling he got whenever he was lucky enough to be with Chenle, whether they were alone or accompanied by their other friends. It was the feeling he got whenever Chenle initiated any form of physical contact; hugged him, touched his shoulder in passing, played with his hair.
"I'm happy for you," Chenle told her, sounding a hundred percent honest with his words.
"Thank you," Haeun replied, "And thank you again for being so understanding. You helped me with this, so if you ever need my help with anything I'm here. You still have my number, text me later when you want, so that I can repay you for this."
Chenle leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. There was a playful, almost teasing look in his eyes as he looked up at Haeun, but this time, rather than the cause being romantic feelings between the two, it was clear that the teasing came only from a feeling of friendship.
"And why would I need your help?" Chenle asked her.
"Well, I got a girlfriend, so now it's your turn."
Chaeyeon whispered something into Haeun's ear and the other girl turned to smile sweetly at her girlfriend. It was a sickly sweet moment, but Jisung found that he didn't mind the couple, it was a thousand times better than watching Haeun and Chenle flirt.
"I have to go," Haeun said, "Bye Chenle!"
The moment Haeun took her first step away from their table to walk out of the cafeteria with Chaeyeon, the noises of the cafeteria returned as quickly as it had stopped. Suddenly, conversations were starting up again, though this time with the words 'Chenle', 'Haeun', and even 'Chaeyeon' mixed in with the rest.
"What was that all about?" Jeno asked Chenle.
"Yeah, what did Haeun mean by 'it's your turn'?" Mark piped in.
Jisung turned his attention away from his two friends who had just spoken and over to Chenle, as did the rest of the table. They all seemed to be feeling the same curiosity that was making Jisung's mind buzz, wondering what exactly Haeun had meant, and why there seemed to be something between the two of them that only they knew, while Chenle's very own best friends were being kept completely unaware.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Chenle asked defensively, which did take away from the effect of confusion that he was trying to play. It was clear from his reaction alone that there was something he was trying to hide.
"Lele~," Jaemin said in a singsong voice, "I think I understand what Haeun was saying, and I know for a fact that you do too. If you need me to say it for you, I'll do it."
If Jaemin was expecting any kind of reaction from the younger male, he received none.
"Go ahead then," Chenle replied and shrugged noncommittally, "I'm just as curious as the rest of you here, so please, enlighten us. Tell us your brilliant discovery."
"You like someone."
The reactions around the lunch table were instantaneous.
Chenle blushed a bright red, flushing more than during any of the embarrassing moments that Jisung had experienced by the older's side, and there had certainly been a lot of those. He looked more nervous than he had ever been when his relationship with Haeun had been new and blooming. It basically confirmed Jaemin's words without Chenle having to give any kind of verbal confirmation or denial.
Jisung, who had been taking a sip of his water, was so shocked by Jaemin's unexpected words and the confidence with which he had spoken them, that he almost spat his drink out all over the table. He didn't, thank every god ever for that, but rather he started choking and coughing.
Renjun and Donghyck had identical expressions of amusement. It was obvious that they were enjoying seeing Chenle's blushing, nervous mess of a reaction, and perhaps they also enjoyed watching Jisung painfully try to regain control of his lungs.
Jeno was looking at Jaemin lovingly as always, but with some exasperation behind his gaze as well. Jisung knew immediately that Jaemin would only notice the exasperation rather than noticing the obvious hearts in Jeno's eyes. That was if he even bothered to tear his gaze away from Chenle.
Mark, as was typical of him, was dying of laughter. He was clapping his hands together, his eyes turning to little crescents. He even fell back onto Donghyuck, who was thankfully sitting beside him and knew from experience how to catch Mark to prevent him from falling.
"I don't," Chenle protested.
"Your face says otherwise," Donghyuck teased, his mischievous side coming out, "There is someone, and I'm going to figure out who's the lucky girl."
"I swear I don't have a crush on a girl," Chenle repeated, but as expected, a grand total of one person was listening to him, and that person was Jisung.
"Wow, and so soon after you broke up with Haeun," Jaemin said, a hand dramatically pressed to his heart, "That's pretty cruel of you Chenle. You should at least cry over your lost love."
Jisung felt his heart sinking. His stomach was in knots, and he was finding it increasingly more difficult to keep his breathing under control.
There were bits and pieces of the conversation that he could make out, but most words were going in one ear and out the other, without Jisung's brain actually being able to turn the words over in his head and make sense of what he was hearing.
He felt tears brimming in his eyes, already threatening to fall, and he stood up, pushing his chair back so fast that it tipped over dangerously, nearly toppling sideways.
"I have to go," He said, "There's something I forgot to do. Don't follow me."
Jisung ran out of the cafeteria, through the school halls that were nearly vacant, save for a handful of couples making out and a group of three bullies shoving a younger boy against the wall.
He finally made it to the boy's bathroom, and the moment he was certain that he was alone, he allowed himself to break down completely, the unshed tears that he had kept to himself for so long running down his face. They were cascading over his cheeks like salty waterfalls, and his sobs were so loud, echoing in the silent bathroom, that he had to press his hand, covered by the thick material of his hoodie, to his mouth to stifle the noise.
He didn't know how much longer he could continue to live that way.
Every time Chenle got out of a relationship, another came, and all Jisung was able to do was sit around and listen as he raved about his newest crush or girlfriend, unable to do anything but keep his feelings inside, letting the pain silently consume him.
He was done with feeling that way.
- 🐥 & 🐬 -
"Come on Chenle, you can trust us."
"I'm serious, I don't have a crush on any girl!"
"But you're blushing, you have to be thinking about someone."
"He's right, you definitely have someone in mind."
"Wait a minute, everyone shut the fuck up-."
"What?"
"You don't have a crush on a girl, but you do have a crush on someone. Is it a boy?"
"Oh, do we know him?"
"I bet we know him."
"Is that why you don't want to tell us who it is?"
"For the last time, I don't have a crush!"
- 🐥 & 🐬 -
𝑊𝑜𝑤 𝑠𝑜 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒, ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑖𝑡-
𝐼 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝐼 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦, 𝐼'𝑚 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑤.
𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑠𝑜 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒.
𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑤𝑎𝑦, 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑢𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒.
𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑧𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑐 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛?
𝐼'𝑚 𝑡𝑎𝑢𝑟𝑢𝑠 𝑖𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠.