"Y/N!" Donghyuck had yelled out in the quiet library, startling everybody in the vicinity.
You had hoped that by coming in a little late to your study period, everybody would be studying, and you could avoid being questioned about not sitting with your swim team for the third week in a row. At first, they had accepted your reasoning of tests in your AP classes, but once all of your unit tests had passed and it was a relatively quiet time in terms of schoolwork, they started to get suspicious. You just weren't ready to introduce Chenle to them yet.
Pretending that you hadn't heard him, you steeled your nerves and continued on your way to the back corner where Chenle was waiting as always. Your lonely friend watched you with intrigue as you took the seat beside him, your backs to the librarian's desk as per usual. That was how you two could get away with watching videos together and showing each other things on your phones, as long as you didn't giggle too loud.
Chenle didn't take his phone out when you sat down, instead turning sideways in his chair to fully face you. No way you could get up to your usual study hall shenanigans now. He must want to talk.
"What's up?" You titled your head questioningly, resting your cheek on your hand.
His anxiety with being around you had generally faded, but now he was fidgeting again, unable to look you in the eye. After taking a deep breath, he started quietly, "Do you want to maybe... come over to, uhm, my house, for dinner tonight?"
Relief washed over you, so happy that it wasn't anything serious or bad or weird. Letting out a short burst of air that was nearly a laugh, you nodded, "Sure, yeah. Does that mean I'm going to meet your parents?"
"Actually no, they're on a business trip. Dinner will most likely be delivery, if that's okay with you. If not, we have our private chef that could—"
"Delivery is just fine, Chenle."
You were even more relieved that you wouldn't have to see his parents again. As far as you were concerned with, they had paid for your first semester and bought you new swim equipment, so you had no desire to interact with them. You were both holding up your ends of the deal, there was no reason to even be in the same room as them.
"You could come over right after school, if you want. We could hang out a bit before eating. I have a lot of video games, or we could watch a movie, or there's some swings in my backyard, or—"
You cut him off with a gentle hand on his forearm, "Wish I could, but I have swim practice tonight. I'll come right after then, okay?"
"Okay." He smiled, accepting the slight change of plans.
☆
After showering to rinse off as much of the chlorine off your body as possible and returning to real clothes, you caught up to Mark in the parking lot. As soon as you had joined him, you started the short trek out to where he had parked.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," You apologized, still messing with your wet hair. "I had to shower, dry off again, and figure out what the hell this is doing."
In reality, you had dawdled around wasting as much time as possible, not wanting your teammates to see you leaving with Mark. It wasn't that you didn't like your co-captain, but there would be a million questions to deal with since you normally walked to the closest bus stop to take public transportation home. You didn't want to tell any of your other friends what you were doing, only trusting Mark not to blab about it. You had accosted him as soon as you'd gotten onto the pool deck, quietly asking if he'd drive you to your friend's house after practice.
"It's fine, Y/N." Mark reassured you, clicking his remote to unlock his car.
Opening the passenger side door, you tossed your stuff into the backseat before getting in yourself. You both buckled up, and Mark started his car, hand resting on the stick to reverse out of the parking spot.
"So where is this friend's house?"
"Uh," You looked back at the text Chenle had sent you. "It's in Aura Manors, do you know that neighborhood? It's off of—"
"June Parkway," he finished your sentence, sounding incredulous. "Yeah, I know it. It's only the most expensive neighborhood to live in in Seoul. Holy shit, does this person go to Brenton? I knew it was a rich person school, but I didn't realize we had someone that rich."
"...How rich?"
"Only multi-billionaires can afford that."
Your eyes widened to the size of the moon as you felt your mouth dry. All of your friends were rich, especially compared to you, but none of them were even close to being that rich.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." He scoffed, making a turn away from the aquatic complex. "Who is this friend, Y/N?"
At his question, you shifted awkwardly in your seat, unsure of if you actually wanted to tell him exactly who it was. But you figured there was no harm in telling Mark, he was pretty chill about everything, and was surprisingly good at keeping secrets.
"Zhong Chenle."
You could tell that you had caught him off-guard as he almost missed a turn, sharply jerking the steering wheel as to stay on the right path. At least he knew who he was, you were pretty sure nobody else on your swim team knew Chenle, despite having gone to school with him for longer than you, probably since diapers. All the rich kids around here went to the same preschool, primary, middle, and high school.
Mark finally said, "He's a cool dude, I'm glad you're friends with him."
Now it was your turn to be caught off-guard. You hadn't expected Mark to be harsh or judgmental, but maybe make some kind of neutral comment. Not a genuinely pleased and supportive one.
"Do you know him?"
"We were really good friends when we were little... we used to be neighbors, actually. And then I joined swim, he started learning three new languages, and his parents got a million times richer and moved them to Aura Manors."
"Ah," You coughed awkwardly, unsure of what to do with this information. "Do you want to say hi to him, then?"
"Not today, I wouldn't want to ruin your little date."
At your immediate indignant reply, Mark snickered, reaching over to tousle your hair teasingly, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You're such an easy target, Y/N."
"And you're an asshole, Mark."
"Hey, I'm the one giving you a ride."
"I'm starting to think it was an excuse just to be able to make fun of me for longer."
You soon saw the entrance to Aura Manors, and Mark slowed his car down to a stop as he approached a gate with a guardhouse in front of it. He rolled his window down as one guard came out to scribble down his license plate and another addressed him, "Name and who you're here to see."
"Mark Lee, here for Zhong Chenle." He answered clearly, waiting as the guard went back into the small building to make a call.
The guard opened the glass door once again, hand over the receiver as he said, "Mr. Zhong said that he isn't expecting a Mark Lee."
"Y/N!" You leaned over Mark's lap to cry out. "Tell him it's Y/L/N Y/N."
You were given a strange look, but nonetheless the guard relayed the message to the person on the other end of the line. She nodded, and hung the phone back up, "You're good to go."
With that, she pressed a button, starting the slow opening of the gate, and Mark gave her a final thank you before rolling his window up and approaching the half-open gate. You scanned the numbers of the well-spaced out mansions, each one you were sure had at least a dozen acres attached to it, a nearly impossible commodity to have in the packed urban center of Seoul.
"Oh, there it is!" You called out, finally finding the correct numbers.
Chenle's house was big. Very big. Very, very big. Very, very, very big.
You weren't sure what a family of three exactly did with all those rooms, but they had them. Mark had to stop at yet another gate, this time with just a call box, and just for access to the Zhong's property. He had just come to a stop when there was a loud beep and the gate slowly swung open, allowing the car to pass through. Mark finally pulled all the way up the driveway to where the entrance was, putting the car in park for you to gather your swim bag and school bag from the backseat.
"Thank you so much, Mark." You thanked him through the open passenger side window.
"No problem, Y/N." He smiled back, taking his car out of park. "I'll see you tomorrow at the meet."
"See you!" You waved to him as he motored off back down the driveway and out of sight.
Approaching the front door, you had just rung when it swung open, revealing a very embarrassed Chenle.
"Hey," He opened it wider for you, "Sorry about all the security stuff, the people around here are pretty paranoid."
"Well if my house looked this nice, I'd be worried too." You commented, taking a look around the grandiose foyer you had entered into.
Your friend coughed awkwardly as he continued walking further into the house, leading you towards the kitchen area, "You can put your bags down here, if you want."
You obliged, watching him with interest as he deftly navigated the endless halls to lead you even further into the house, and your hands continued fidgeting with your still-damp hair.
"Uhm, it's still kind of early for dinner, we could watch a movie, or I have some video games, or we have a pool out back—"
"I just got out of a pool not even twenty minutes ago," You reminded him, seeming to fluster him again. "What is up with you? You're being... really nervous again."
Chenle gave you a strange look before almost completely changing the subject, "So Mark Lee dropped you off?"
"Yeah, he's the boy's captain. I don't have my own car, so I asked him to give me a ride."
"Ah."
"Didn't you say something about a swing set earlier?"
His face lit up at your reminder, already starting towards the sliding glass door on the other side of the huge living room, "Yeah, yeah! It's out back."
You lightly pushed his shoulders in an attempt to hurry him along, "Well then let's go, LeLe!"
"LeLe?" He stopped in his tracks, looking at you in absolute wonder at the nickname that had just slipped out of your mouth.
"What? You don't like it?"
Chenle shook his head fervently, "I've just, never really had a nickname that you know, wasn't given to me by my family."
"Oh, well—"
"I love it, Y/N. Thanks."
The genuine, soft smile on his face as he looked at you made your stomach feel funny, and you shook your head, taking on your boisterous persona from before, "Sappy time over, let's go, LeLe!"
As soon as he had opened the door, you burst outside, making a sprint for the huge playset in the corner of the equally huge backyard. Chenle yelled out indignantly from behind you, claiming that you had gotten an unfair head start as he still had to close the door.
You turned around, jogging backwards as you replied, "I didn't realize we were racing, LeLe!"
"Uh, we're not!" He said, despite still chasing you.
"No takebacks!"
With that, you turned back around and put on another burst of speed. Your foot wobbled a little bit as you did that, and as a precaution, you slowed down just a tad. Swimmers weren't too terribly coordinated on land, and you didn't need to be breaking your ankle at the very beginning of the season. Finally, you launched yourself onto a swing, letting out a victorious yell.
Chenle slowed down as he soon met you there, shaking his head at your ear-to-ear grin, "You're mean."
"And you're slow." You teased back, swinging yourself forwards and backwards.
One of your friend's hands darted out, latching around your ankle and making your swing stop and jerk around precariously. You yelped, trying to yank it back, but only succeeded in making your position even more unstable. Your knuckles turned white around the chain as you tried to beg for your foot back, and Chenle giggled manically, pulling on it to give you another minute scare. Both of you were still laughing as he relented and gave up your foot, instead taking the swing beside you.
"So you call me LeLe now," He stated as held onto the chains, putting one foot on the seat before stepping the other up, swinging lightly. "But I don't have a nickname for you."
"Give me something cute, LeLe."
"Hm," the boy took a moment to ponder this before mischievously declaring, "Bean Sprout."
You wanted to roll your eyes, but instead you merely found yourself smiling down bashfully, involuntarily muted by the light and airy feeling in your chest when he had called you that. Chenle's demeanor changed as you still hadn't said anything, face changing to worried, as if he'd mortally offended you.
Before he could open his mouth and apologize, you blurted out, "I like it."
The two of you talked as you swung, and you reveled in the simplicity and ease of it. At one point, Chenle had hopped off and came behind you, gently pushing you forwards. You kept chatting, watching the sun start to lower in the sky.
"Hey, maybe we should order the food, soon, LeLe." You suggested, digging your toes into the ground below you to slow down, and tilted your head back to look at Chenle.
Looking back down at you, he stopped for a moment, mouth slightly parted before he seemed to regain his wits, "What do you want?"
"Pizza sounds good to me."
"Bean sprout pizza?"
"If I die, I'm going to haunt your bitch ass forever."
Chenle grinned, "Noted."
☆
After you had both pigged out on the two large pizzas he'd ordered, and binged a couple superhero movies, you determined that you'd have to be going home. Removing the blanket you had spread across your lap, you folded it before placing it gently back on the couch. Chenle followed you to the kitchen, rubbing his eyes as his socks shuffled along the tile floors.
"I'll take the bus home, my stop's only like, a twenty-minute ride away." You explained, slipping your shoes back on and retrieving your transportation card from your backpack.
"At this hour?" Your friend asked, a small frown across his face.
"Yeah. Chenle, I've been riding public transportation alone for most of my secondary educational career, I'll be fine."
"Nope," He said firmly, securing a set of keys from the kitchen counter. "Tonight I'm taking you home, and I'm going to give you the number of my driver, for future use."
"I'm never going to use it," You informed him, nonetheless giving him your phone to punch in the number.
He sighed, handing you the device back, "I know, Bean Sprout. It makes me feel better knowing that you have the option, though."
You nodded with a small chuckle, but the seriousness on his face made you quiet.
"I'm serious, Y/N. You're my only friend, I don't want anything to happen to you."
"How about I introduce you to some other people tomorrow, so you have other friends, too." You tried to lighten the conversation, uncomfortable at how sincere and meaningful he was about your well-being.
The concern on his face never left his features, even as you waved to him from your front porch later, having arrived safely at your front door.
☆
You determined that the first person you could introduce Chenle to was Mark, since they already sort of knew each other, and Mark would definitely make him the least uncomfortable out of all your friends. Hopefully.
So you had invited Mark to eat at your lunch table that Wednesday, disguising it to your other teammates as last-minute team captain stuff for your meet that night. You had Chenle go to lunch ahead of you, so that you could meet Mark by his locker and bring him to the table yourself. With bated breath, you approached the table under the tree, where Chenle was waiting patiently with his food out.
Mark sat down beside you, offering your friend a bright smile, "Hey, Chenle."
"Hi, Mark." Chenle replied awkwardly, and you offered him a discrete thumbs-up.
You could see that he was already turning in on himself again, and spoke up, "Mark told me that you guys used to be neighbors, right?"
"Yeah, when we were like, five. You remember that?" Chenle again seemed baffled that someone would remember him, a notion that pained your heart. Who had forgotten him so much that he expected it from everyone?
The two old childhood friends immediately hit it off again, and you marveled at the fact that you'd never seen Mark so enthusiastic and animated when talking to anyone. Maybe you were helping more than just Chenle by reintroducing them.
When the bell rang and the three of you stood up again, Mark suddenly offered, "Dude, you should come to our swim meet tonight! It's against Lakewood, the cross-town rivals meet! Y/N is facing off against her mortal enemy, Kim Eunjin, in the 200-meter backstroke, it's going to be insane!"
"Eunjin and I aren't mortal enemies, Mark." You scoffed, bumping his shoulder with yours. "That would insinuate that she's as fast as I am, which she's not."
Chenle seemed to appreciate your confident retort, chuckling a little bit as he rubbed at the back of his head, "I'd love to, but my parents are dragging me to a business dinner with them. Maybe next time?"
"Oh, our next meet is against Inverness." Mark complained, reaching over you to push on your friend's arm. "They only have like, eleven people on their team, it'll be such a boring one. You've gotta come tonight!"
"This is not the kind of peer pressure that all those teen movies warned me about."
You snorted at his comment as the boys' captain let out another disappointed groan. Reaching the point where you knew Mark would have to split off to go to gym, he was sent off with a flick on the head from yourself and a cheerful goodbye from Chenle. At your own classroom, you said goodbye to Chenle as usual, giving him a short hair ruffle before ducking inside the room to avoid his own mischievous hands.
☆
You walked into school the next morning with only a slight limp, and half of your team cackling behind you.
"Fuck off, I'm in pain." You scolded them as you approached your locker, actually not hurting that bad but really just wanting them to leave you alone.
"Fine, fine. See you later, Y/N!" Most of them said goodbye to you brightly, still giggling amongst themselves.
Mark hung around, as you had already told him that Chenle typically met you at your locker before first period. As if on cue, the brunette boy entered your field of vision, face lighting up when he saw you.
"Hey, how was the meet last night? I'm really sorry I couldn't come."
"Y/N broke her ass." Mark blurted out, earning snickers from the both of you. Honestly, it was pretty funny, when all of your teammates weren't teasing you about it.
Chenle was confused and concerned, "What? What happened?"
"I slipped on deck and fell onto a lane line," You explained, reaching into your pocket for your phone. "Do you want to see pictures of it? It's bruising like hell already."
"No! No! No!"
You rolled your eyes as he went to cover his own, "Calm down, LeLe, it's not like they're actual booty pics. You can barely tell what you're looking at, it's really more my thigh than my ass."
He hesitantly brought his hands down from his face as you clicked on a picture, putting the red and blue marks going down your cheek and thigh on full display on your phone screen. You swiped to a more close-up one, more fascinated than horrified at the painful sight of the exploded veins and scraped skin.
Chenle, on the other hand, seemed even more distressed than before, "Oh my god, Y/N!"
"Yeah, I fell on the harder plastic part where you adjust it, and like, the metal hook and everything." You shrugged, tucking your phone back away. "But I still beat Kim Eunjin, even with a busted ass."
"You swam like that?"
"Still kicked ass with a broken ass," Mark answered proudly, patting your head.
You shrugged, "What can I say?"
"Anyway, I need to get going, Hyuck and Yuk said they wanted to run something asshole-ish by me before they do it."
"Go, control your imbecile boys."
At your shooing, Mark took off down the hall, leaving just you and Chenle alone now. Retrieving a binder and replacing it with a couple notebooks, you shut your locker to turn to your friend with a bright smile, "So how was the business dinner, LeLe?"
"Boring, boring, boring, and did I mention boring?" Chenle declared with a sigh, starting to lead the way to his own locker on the other side of the building, with you limping along beside him.
"Bring me next time, I can make it a little less boring, I bet."
"By showing kajillionaire CEOs pictures of your bruised ass? I don't think so."
You slapped a hand across his chest, eliciting a small yelp from him as you replied indignantly, "I wouldn't do that!"
"But you would break my sternum," He rubbed at his chest where you had hit him, earning an eye roll from you.
"And I'll do it again." You retorted, linking your arm with his as you continued through the halls.
Chenle sighed, affectionately resting his head against yours for a moment, "I don't doubt it, Bean Sprout."
As you watched him switch out his own binders and folders and notebooks, you hummed lightly to yourself. You were in a good mood this morning, the unfortunate accident with your butt from last night unable to deter your happiness from winning, and just from seeing Chenle.
"Are you busy later?"
His eyebrows shot up as he went to put a binder in his bag, "I'll have some AP Calc homework, but other than that, no. Why?"
"We should go get some ice cream."
"Uh, sure. Sounds good to me."
"Cool! I'm done with swim practice at four-thirty, you can meet me at the pool then."