"Why did you lie to me?"
"What do you mean?" Jisung asked Felix as they were sitting in class next to each other after lunch.
Felix pointed at his hand before continuing, "you said you had a project to work on but I saw Minho walk you to class and you couldn't have been working on a project if he was drawing on your hand."
Jisung looked at his hand before pulling his hoodie sleeve down to cover it as his face heated up.
"Do you have a crush on him?!"
"Felix shut up!"
"Answer the question!" Felix replied, not caring about the people staring at them.
"I don't. He just saw me walk outside and followed me to check up on me and we talked and made up I guess but I don't like him like that."
"Then why are you blushing?"
"Because you're embarrassing."
"Sure," Felix replied and rolled his eyes, reaching over to grab Jisung's hand, making Jisung nervous as Felix pulled down his sleeve but stopped it at his wrist and examined the drawings.
"Aww. So are you two okay again?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"You aren't gonna stop hanging out with me now because you guys made up though, right?"
Jisung tilted his head, looking up at Felix who seemed to legitimately concerned and Jisung shook his head no.
"Why would I stop hanging out with you just because I made up with Minho? Can't people have more than one friend?"
"Yeah...of course people can" Felix mumbled before pulling Jisung's sleeve back down and letting Jisung pull his hand away from him.
"Are you okay?" Jisung asked, noticing how Felix was sort of zoning out.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine" Felix awkwardly laughed, "sorry."
"It's okay?" Jisung responded, not knowing why Felix's behavior suddenly seemed so strange.
~~~~~~~~
"Hey," Minho greeted as he sat down next to Jisung in their art class, seeming to snap Jisung out of thinking about something.
"Hi," Jisung replied.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing, Felix was just acting a little weird earlier and I don't know why." Jisung responded then shook his head, "I'm sure it's nothing though. Felix would probably tell me if something was wrong."
"Sounds familiar" Minho mumbled to himself, quiet enough so that Jisung wouldn't hear him since he didn't want to hurt Jisung's feelings or anything but he could relate.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing," Minho replied and reached for Jisung's hand, pulled his sleeve down to his wrist, and enlaced their fingers.
Jisung wouldn't admit it out loud but he missed holding Minho's hand. It was comforting, despite the fact that Minho's hands were for some reason always freezing cold. It made him feel calm even if there was nothing bothering him in the first place.
Jisung looked down at their hands and smiled at how perfectly their hands seemed to fit together and at all the cute drawings Minho made on his hand.
He felt like he may have forgiven Minho too quickly, especially considering that Minho broke his trust by doing what he did a month ago but he couldn't deny that he missed him. Which was terrifying if he thought too much into it but he decided not to...for now.
Minho felt his stomach growl, he had skipped lunch since he followed Jisung outside and it wasn't helping that Jisung smelt like blood himself still.
Despite not wanting to he let go of the younger's hand, not because he felt like he was going to do anything stupid but he just wanted to take that extra precaution.
He noticed Jisung's small frown when he moved his hand away, immediately feeling guilty but it was for his own good. After his conversation with his mom, even though he knew he would never hurt the younger, he wanted to take some extra precautions.
Jisung frowned once again when Minho quickly said bye to him and left as soon as the bell rang signaling that their class was over. Then he remembered how Minho used to do that quite often when they had first met as well.
is he hiding something from me...?
Jisung quickly shook his head in denial. Even if Minho was hiding something it probably wasn't anything important. Minho never seemed bothered or stressed out about anything so he assumed that maybe his mom just wanted him to get home early some days.
But what if something is wrong? He wondered to himself but couldn't think of anything. Even if Minho had been secretly dating someone which was the only thing he could think of being a possibility it wouldn't make sense because there would be no reason for Minho to keep something like that from him since the day they met.
I doubt it's anything important.
But I should start paying more attention just in case.
The next few days Jisung would sit with Minho most of the time again at lunch but still made sure to sit with Felix some days and spend time with him outside of school since Felix seemed to be scared that he was going to stop hanging out with him just because he had forgiven Minho. Jisung didn't mind Felix being clingy, he just didn't understand why he seemed so paranoid about it.
Nothing strange seemed to be going on with Minho from what Jisung could see. He never really saw Minho eat anything but that was normal for him at this point, still seemed strange but Jisung couldn't see how that would connect to anything.
It was about a week later and Jisung had decided to sit with Minho and his friends at lunch which he hadn't done since they had started talking to each other again.
Because of that, it was a bit awkward between all of them at first since Chan, Hyunjin, and Seungmin still had no idea why Minho hadn't spoken to Jisung for over a month but soon they all began joking with each other and it was slightly less awkward.
Minho grabbed Jisung's hand under the table, knowing that Jisung still felt anxious around his friends since this was only his second or third time talking to them.
Minho noticed that Jisung had self-harmed the day prior and was reminded that he still needed to try to have a conversation with Jisung about it but now he wasn't sure how to bring it up.
He didn't want to upset Jisung by bringing it up but Jisung was still hurting himself and he hated it.
He could also tell that Chan and Hyunjin had both noticed the smell whenever Jisung was around and was dreading them bringing it up in conversation.
Minho was about to yell at Seungmin to stop telling Jisung embarrassing stories about him when they suddenly got interrupted by a boy with black hair.
"Hello! I'm new here, do you mind if I sit with you guys?" He asked with a sweet smile as Minho and Jisung immediately looked over to Chan who was staring at the boy with his mouth slightly hung open.
"Sure, what's your name?" Seungmin asked as the boy sat down in the free spot next to Jisung and right in front of Chan.
"I'm Jeongin! I don't really know anyone here yet but I recognized you two," he said pointing at Jisung and Minho, "from the party a while ago...and you too." Jeongin giggled a bit as he pointed at Chan who blushed before finally snapping out of it but still not being able to comprehend that the boy he knew absolutely nothing about yet couldn't get off his mind for the past month was now sitting right in front of him.
"You guys went to a party?!" Seungmin questioned, "a month ago? That's when you started to seem sad every day." Seungmin pointed out, reffering to Minho.
"Shut up, it's not important," Minho said with a guilty frown.
They all introduced themselves to Jeongin up until it was finally Chan's turn and Jeongin looked at him only to notice that Chan hadn't looked away from him since he sat down.
"I'm Chan." He said as the younger smiled, causing him to immediately smile back.
"Nice to meet you again." He said and held out his hand for Chan to shake.
Once they shook hands, Jeongin reached over to grab Chan's water bottle causing everyone else at the table, except for Jisung, to widen their eyes in concern.
"I forgot to bring something to drink today, do you mind if I have a sip?" He asked, already opening the bottle before Chan could respond.
"Jeongin wait!" Chan tried to stop him but he had already taken a sip and handed it back to Chan, causing everyone to look even more shocked.
"Thanks, Hyung!" Jeongin giggled before standing up from the table "it was nice meeting you all, thank you for letting me sit with you. I'm gonna go try to find where my next class is now."
Jeongin tried not to laugh at all of their facial expressions and stopped himself before he walked away and leaned in closer to Jisung's ear, "by the way Jisung, not to be weird or anything but you smell really nice."
Minho was about to say something to him but stopped before he said something he shouldn't say in front of Jisung as Jeongin finally walked away.
Jisung tilted his head in confusion as he remembered Minho also saying the same thing and asking him what cologne he used within the first week of school which he never thought into too much but now it seemed sort of strange.
this chapter was exactly the length it needed to be but then i felt the need to bring Jeongin back so here's a long(ish) chapter <3